~Chapter 101~
Roselia was not locked up in a cold palace, nor was she sent far away to some remote estate as people expected.
Belmore allowed Roselia to keep living in the Emerald Palace.
People gossiped about it. Some said,
“As expected, His Majesty the Emperor is different from the cold-hearted Empress Dowager. He’s a person with compassion who treats people kindly.”
Others pointed out,
“Isn’t the Emperor too weak?”
But Belmore didn’t care about such talk.
Her place to live hadn’t changed, but that was all. Roselia was now watched 24 hours a day by Belmore’s knights. She was not allowed to meet anyone.
That was exactly what Belmore wanted.
He wanted Roselia to feel powerless, unable to do anything.
He wanted her, who was always full of ambition and desire for power, to be eaten away by shame and humiliation.
That was Belmore’s true wish.
And Roselia understood her son’s feelings very well.
After all, she had controlled Belmore that way for a long, long time.
In the bedroom of the Emerald Palace, Roselia sat on the bed with a cold, lifeless face. She looked like someone who had forgotten how to move.
The last few days had been a nightmare for Roselia.
But the worst part was, unless Belmore lost his power, this nightmare would continue for the rest of her life.
‘Belmore…!’
Roselia clenched her fist as she whispered her son’s name inside. Her long nails dug into her palm, and she even bit her lips, unable to hold back her anger. Her body shook.
“Always be grateful to me.”
Roselia kept thinking about Belmore’s face and his words from this morning, as if he had come just to annoy her.
“Anyone else would have thrown you out immediately. By now, you’d be abandoned in the forest and eaten by wild animals. Isn’t that true?”
“Belmore, how dare you!”
“Of course, maybe you think that would be better for you.”
Belmore smiled and said,
“But I don’t want you to die so easily.”
His eyes shined sharply.
“Live long, Roselia. Don’t get sick. Stay healthy. Live here as long as you can—in this hell that suits you best.”
Those were the last words Belmore left her.
If Roselia were an ordinary person, she might have thought it would be better to bite her tongue and die.
But sadly, Roselia…
‘I cannot die like this.’
…decided differently.
‘Belmore still hasn’t built strong support for himself. The nobles are watching, waiting. I have to move as quickly as possible.’
But there was one thing—
The most important thing—that Roselia hadn’t found yet.
“A reason to bring Belmore down… justification…”
That was it—justification.
In politics, nothing is more important than having a reason. With the right justification, hundreds or thousands of people could die, or be saved.
A logical reason becomes a cause, and a convincing cause is the strongest weapon in a political fight.
Roselia knew that very well.
‘…Bloodline.’
Roselia paused as a thought came to her.
“You came into the palace as the Emperor’s mistress and worked with Damian Ellington to become Empress.”
Suddenly, she remembered what Belmore had said to her, smirking as if he knew everything.
“You even had his child. But Damian Ellington, after becoming Emperor, cared about people’s opinions and broke his promise to make you Empress. And the Empress Dowager did what she does best.”
“Killing people.”
That child.
Roselia had told the maid to throw the baby into the river as soon as it was born.
“Then you made my father, Jaden Ellington, Emperor, and finally became Empress. But people are never satisfied. After you became pregnant with me, my father took a concubine, and you even killed him, right?”
“I was foolish. I should have killed you and taken the throne myself. Or I should have put forward the child I had with Damian!”
It was Roselia who had put Jaden Ellington, Belmore’s father, on the throne. Without her, the throne would have gone to someone else.
She was powerful and smart, always using her power at the right time.
Now, if—
If that child were still alive…
‘If I can fake evidence that Jaden Ellington, now dead, had no right to the throne, then Belmore’s claim would be invalid.’
She could destroy Belmore’s foundation and argue that only Damian Ellington’s blood should inherit the throne. Everything would be perfect.
“Now I have a reason to get rid of you. What do you have? It seems you have nothing but your miserable life.”
Yes, that’s the kind of reason Belmore was talking about, so she would have it too.
But—
“If you want, go ahead and look for it. I’ll let you go out every day, but only by the river where you abandoned that child. Search for him. He must be just bones by now, but if you find even a piece, I’ll welcome you with respect.”
‘Is it even possible that the child survived?’
Roselia herself had ordered her newborn baby thrown into the river.
Did the maid obey her order?
But now she couldn’t check—even the maid was dead, killed by Roselia to keep the secret.
‘If only I’d known… I wouldn’t have made such a foolish choice…!’
“This is your end, Roselia.”
Was that really true?
Was Belmore right?
‘No, it can’t be.’
It can’t end like this.
How could I have come all this way, thrown so much away, just to become Empress Dowager?
Roselia’s red eyes flashed with madness.
“It’s time to change shifts.”
A man’s voice came from outside the closed door.
“It’s already that time? Understood.”
“Return to the knights right away. There were no problems, right?”
“No. But… did you come alone?”
…Alone?
Roselia’s face grew curious.
She was always guarded by two people at a time. This rule had never changed since Belmore locked her up.
“The other is reporting to His Majesty. He’ll join us here soon.”
“Then, until I’m joined, I’ll stay and guard here.”
“Do you not trust me?”
“No, of course not! How could a knight like me doubt the captain?”
“That’s enough. Go report to the First Captain at once.”
“Yes, sir.”
She heard their footsteps leaving. Roselia stood and stared at the door, full of suspicion.
Knock, knock.
After a while, there was a knock on the door.
‘Who could it be?’
The Emperor’s knights would never do something strange like this. Was it someone from elsewhere? But why?
Roselia thought for a moment, then finally opened her mouth.
“Come in.”
As soon as she answered, the door opened. Roselia made a very strange face.
She stared at the man who bowed to her, unable to believe what she saw.
“March Gillian…?”
…Alias, Cox Bildon.
It was an unexpected reunion with her former bodyguard, March Gillian.
