Chapter 05
1. When the Family Collapses, Society Collapses, and the Empire Collapses (3)
“Wait. Those trash bags were the better ones?”
Selena was genuinely shocked.
In a world with rigid class systems and slavery, human-shaped garbage existed in abundance, regardless of age or gender.
Still, the kind of trash someone of a count’s daughter’s status could encounter should have been limited. No one would want to incur the wrath of a powerful ducal house and destroy their own family.
At the very least, people would pretend to be decent in front of the Loderfel count’s daughter. They would have upheld courtesy and formality. And yet, people worse than blood relatives asked, Why were you even born? existed?
“If I wasn’t an obedient, good little sister, they didn’t even treat me like a person. So I had no choice but to act the part. And then they started calling me over all the time, treating me like some kind of clown who existed to humor them.”
“Ugh. That must’ve been disgusting.”
“Right?! I thought I’d go insane if I stayed in that house, so I begged to be sent to the academy, using every bit of damn—fucking—cutesy charm I could, and barely got in.”
“The academy? Ah… where you first met the Emperor? In Love of the Century… th—”
Selena instinctively trailed off.
Damn it. I shouldn’t have said that.
She hadn’t wanted to know that such a beautiful face could twist into something that horrifying just by looking at it.
But regardless of Selena’s regret, Geum Gayeon cursed openly.
“Meeting that bastard emperor is my biggest regret in life. I should’ve just stayed locked up in the duke’s house! That fucking asshole! That lunatic!”
Selena understood her perfectly.
Anyone married to a madman who forbade their spouse from speaking more than three words to others would be driven to cursing.
Compared to that, even that awful family really did seem like the lesser evil.
Apparently still bitter and resentful no matter how she thought about it, Gayeon collapsed forward onto the tea table. Her long, glossy pink hair spilled down like silk. She muttered weakly.
“He was a bit clingy at first. But back then, I was wearing rose-colored glasses too, and it was still within what I could chalk up to love…”
“You got tricked.”
Issuing an imperial order limiting speech and giving guards the authority to forcibly silence her with magic was far beyond normal insanity.
“How was I supposed to know that once I became Empress, that crazy bastard would completely lose his mind with obsession…?”
Hearing the deep regret in her voice, Selena could only pat her back.
“Do you know what the most fucked-up part is?”
“That he banned you from talking to people?”
Gayeon let out a hollow laugh. It carried no soul.
“…Unni. Do you know why you were summoned to the palace today?”
Selena was quick on the uptake. If she weren’t, she’d have died a violent death long ago.
As the vague answer surfaced in her mind, Selena’s complexion drained.
“Don’t tell me I was supposed to…”
“That’s right. Originally, you were meant to cast a spell that would prevent me from ever leaving the Emerald Palace. Since you’re a master of barrier magic, creating a barrier that only I couldn’t escape would’ve been easy for you.”
“That’s imprisonment.”
“Exactly. It’s just dressed up because it’s inside the imperial palace.”
“That’s insane. And the other nobles didn’t oppose it? And the Loderfel ducal house just accepted it?”
Dumbfounded, Selena asked—and Gayeon stared straight at her.
“You’ve been stuck in the Mage Tower, so you don’t know the details, do you? That emperor… he’s a full-blown tyrant now.”
“A tyrant? Like the textbook kind?”
“Yes. If someone opposes him? On the surface, he agrees and ends it there. Within a week, they’re all quietly dead. Not politically—literally dead.”
Gayeon emphasized her point by drawing a finger across her throat. Selena was speechless.
“He’s insane. Aren’t the nobles planning a rebellion?”
“There’s no evidence, outwardly, that the Emperor did anything. He even cries at the funerals of the nobles he had assassinated, swears to catch the culprit… and then frames another noble who opposed him and executes them as the ‘criminal.’ The commoners don’t know, but the nobility is terrified and completely frozen.”
After hesitating, Gayeon added—
“More than anything, all his insane behavior is focused solely on me… Aside from that, he actually runs the Empire competently…”
Her gaze darkened.
“So after three years… since he was a capable Emperor except for his obsession with me, everyone just told me to endure it… The Loderfel family was angry at first, but then said I just needed to soothe him…”
Her blue eyes welled up, and tears fell like dew down her cheeks.
Selena quietly took out a handkerchief and gently wiped them away herself.
“Now I understand why you didn’t hesitate to go back to your original world.”
A ruined family.
A spouse who repaid loyalty with betrayal, obsession, control, and attempted imprisonment.
Of course she wanted to return to Earth.
“It’s fucking unfair, unni… Let them try living their whole lives only speaking three words to people! You know this? This is the first normal conversation I’ve had in three months. This is bullshit…”
“Don’t worry. Trust me. We’ll go back to Earth together. No matter what.”
“Promise.”
After finally venting everything she’d been holding in, it seemed some of her stress had lifted.
Her eyes were red from crying, but her complexion looked far better than before.
Still, her arms were painfully thin, her jawline sharp from not eating properly after all that emotional suffering. Even with color back in her face, she didn’t look healthy.
I’ll have to feed her well from now on. At least the biggest source of stress is gone.
“Ah, unni. Can you take this off? The emperor suddenly put it on my wrist, and it won’t come off.”
“He wouldn’t put it on for no reason. What is it?”
“It blocks my mana flow so I can’t summon spirits. He said I shouldn’t overexert myself and slapped this thing on me. Haha. Son of a bitch.”
At how naturally curses spilled from Gayeon whenever the Emperor came up, Selena shrugged.
Keeping it bottled up would only hurt her. If Gayeon wanted, Selena could even make a curse doll for her later.
Selena examined the arm Gayeon held out.
A blue bracelet, clearly crafted with care, encircled her wrist.
Judging by the large diamond set into it, it was worth at least a mansion in the capital.
But its value wasn’t the issue.
“Gayeon. This isn’t just a mana-blocking bracelet.”
“…What?”
“There’s a tracking spell on it too.”
“…What?”
So focused on the joy of meeting another Korean possessor, she’d made the mistake of not thoroughly inspecting her companion’s magical tools.
The tracking magic was cleverly concealed. Even for an archmage, it would’ve been hard to notice without close inspection. Still, that wasn’t an excuse.
Gayeon wasn’t the only one who’d been careless. Selena had been too.
A mage must always keep a cool head. Reflect.
Reflect, reflect. Selena, reflect.
Alright. Reflection done.
“I’ll take it off right away. The sudden release of the blocked mana flow might make you feel nauseous, but it’ll pass quickly.”
“Ah… okay. Wait, that’s not the issue! Tracking magic?! Then—!”
Right on cue—
BOOM!
A sharp explosion echoed.
It was the sound of the unauthorized-entry barrier Selena had set up around the villa being destroyed.
At the same time, the color drained from Gayeon’s face once more. Fear, disgust, and resignation flickered through her blue eyes before she made a decision and spoke quietly.
“…Unni. Go. Later… come back for me.”
“Gayeon.”
“You can’t teleport, can you? If you could, you would’ve already. You’re not doing it because you can’t.”
She was right. After Selena escaped the palace far too easily via teleportation, they’d brought in military-grade mobile anti-teleport magic tools.
Not just interference arrays meant to block teleportation, but an older type that twisted mana flow itself—likely to prevent Selena from analyzing and bypassing it.
Of course, that alone couldn’t stop Selena.
She could simply modify her spell formulas to match the twisted flow.
But it would take time.
“I’ll buy you time. I’ll make a scene, even pull a fake suicide stunt if I have to. All eyes will be on me. While they’re distracted, run.”
