Chapter 37

Episode 37

Melpomene and Kratos

“He said he didn’t need it. Believed that no one would call him. I said that having a name doesn’t mean anything. But you know, there’s no such thing as something meaningless in this world. My brother… he didn’t want to put meaning into a name. It becomes just another loss if you get attached to it somewhere in the back alley.”

Kynthia paused for a moment when he heard a sound, from outside. Anakin’s feet were very fast. He did, everything quickly and came back.

“… Thank you for making it meaningful to him.”

Kynthia smiled thinly. Although the two were not blood brothers, somehow his appearance resembled Anakin.

There were times when she whispered love. And the days when she believed in the end of a fairytale where she would be happy forever.

Melpomene sometimes thinks about what it would have been like if she had a different future. And when the idea came into shape, Kratos appeared.

A man who was destined to marry her even before she was born and the man who will be buried with her even if she died right now.

“Come here, Melpomene.”

Melpomene refused his orders today. As she stubbornly fixed her gaze out of her window, Kratos strode up to her and pulled her close by the waist. He buried his face in Melpomene’s neck and whispered softly.

“Don’t make me scared. You’ve made my hair white,

too.”

“You’re the one who’s scared.”

Melpomene looked straight at Kratos. A terrible man. Melpomene didn’t want this man to die. Instead she wanted him to feel so much pain that he wanted to die.

However, she didn’t want Kratos to actually die. This is because she knew the sadness of losing him would be more powerful than anything else.

How did this happen? Melpomene started recalling the past.

The first time they met. It was early winter.

It was a cold day where you could see white puffs as you exhaled. The cheeky young Melpomene was walking away from the imperial palace, from the bonds of adulthood. Although there were no flowers because it was winter, the snow-covered garden had its own charm and was beautiful.

Melpomene, who was walking alone in the large garden, suddenly thought. Are you going to run away like this?

After today, if she enters the imperial palace, and marries a man she does not know, she will never come out again.

Melpomene had a lot of things that she had not done yet. She wouldn’t be able to see her mother and father often anymore. When she realized this, her heart sank.

She would have to beg and plead her case. Once she gets out of this place and goes back to her home, she’d have to beg and pray that she doesn’t have to come back. With that in mind, Melpomene grabbed her thick skirt and was about to depart.

Someone grabbed Melpomene’s wrist.

Her staggering body suddenly twisted into the arms of the person holding her.

– Don’t go.

A beautiful boy with blond hair and blue eyes said so, She had met him for the first time that day. With a sad face, he held Melpomene and whispered gently,

– Stay here. Please

Melpomene recognized the boy who held her. Dressed in regal clothing, only few in the palace could come close or even touch his body.

He was her age and he was her fiancé, the crown prince.

– I can’t stand this place.

His desperate voice penetrated Melpomene. She understood. No one stays here because they’re happy.

Melpomene realized. Even those born and raised as princes hate this desolate place, but can’t get out of it. That’s what duties and responsibilities are like.

Pity is often a feeling that can be confused with love. But Melpomene definitely fell in love with that wretched face while in his warm arms, unlike his cold hands.

She was so happy when she had their first child, Laetatio, and when she was pregnant with her second child, Alecto, she had nothing more to wish for.

During the day, when she confessed before Alecto had been born to the two people she loved the most in the world, even the sky cleared up like a blessing to them.

Her best friend, who was introduced by Melpomene and married Count Antebellum, heard the news and sent her hand-knitted children socks. Count Antebellum also sent a congratulatory letter. The two became her treasures.

If her life was a book, she thought it would end with sentences like ‘And they lived happily ever after’. Though it wasn’t an exciting story filled with ups and downs, the soft and happy ending would still make anyone smile.

But then everything changed so drastically.

He allowed Laetatio to die in vain. When she held onto her dying son’s body she couldn’t even cry as her stomach contracted painfully as if it was tearing apart.

Her amniotic water burst early, signaling a premature birth.

“No, my baby….

She couldn’t lose both children in a day. In order not to lose consciousness, she grabbed the blade that Letatio used to stab himself.

The servants screamed and carried Melpomene in their arms.

The memory behind it flickered. But when she opened her eyes again, she could breathe a sign of relief when she saw her little child lying next to her.

There was one more person in the room besides her. It was a white-haired kratos.

– Why did you come in here?

– You gave birth to a son. That’s a great job.

– You killed my son, and you dare come face to face with me?!

Even in her fury when Melphomene threw random objects around, Kratos did not avoid it. Kratos stared at the child next to Melpomene with numb eyes. Rather than looking at his child, it was more like he was looking at non-living things like stones.

– Now that you have this child, you don’t have to worry about the successor.

-…… You knew that, right? You knew it! I knew he wasn’t at fault, but you killed him without doing a proper investigation!

Kratos approached Melpomene, who was still screaming. He knelt down and hugged her. As she struggled and rebelled, he had to lock her into his arms before answering grimly.

– Empress, I wasn’t interested in children from the beginning. You gave birth to him because you needed him, and I was glad that you were happy.

– What? Now…… Now that is…….

-I don’t care if this child, just born to the Empress, dies. If I need descendants, wouldn’t it be enough to sow the seeds of other concubines and then harvest them?

The boy I remembered, who had been tormented by saying that he could not stand this place, had grown up quickly. Melpomene was terrified of his unfamiliarity. Kratos muttered as he kissed the corner of her eyes.

– I only need the Empress to stay with me. All I need is the power to seize the Empress. To that end, I will even join hands with someone worse than the Marquis.

Melponeme thought she should have protested then that day that she didn’t like the Imperial Palace.

– Don’t even think about dying. Or I’ll cut off the life of the girl you saved and begged for.

Oh, she did. She still had three lives to save. Alecto, her close friend Clotho, and the Antebellum family’s child in Clotho’s body.

Melpomene had to put up with it in order to fulfill the desire to stab this man in front of her with a sharp knife.

Melpomene did her best to love Alecto, her only child left. Because there are only a few things left for her to love in this ugly palace.

But as Alecto grew up day by day, it became even more difficult. Alecto looked so much like Kratos.

Even though she was obsessed with him, when she saw Alecto, she naturally remembered Kratos and her heart was shaken. The more Alecto grew to resemble Kratos, the longer she kept away from him.

Her empty heart was drawn to Helena, the daughter of Clotho, who is now Alecto’s maid.

The child was kind and innocent. Looking at the child’s pure image, she felt like she was getting what she had lost back.

That young self who knew nothing but love…

So Melpomene used to call Helena and talk. Listening to her story, Melpomene tried to forget everything, even Alecto.

Melpomene knows she’s a bad mother. But she couldn’t stand it.

She loved Letatio so much. She missed the days when she was with her eldest child and didn’t know anything. Melpomene still dreamed of Letatio, who died.

Then ‘that child’ entered the palace to become the partner of Alecto. With her father who took Melpomene’s happiness…….

Melpomene looked at Eris, who greeted her shyly, with a cold look.

It was unacceptable that the child of the man who killed her son dreamed of marrying his daughter to her other son.

The harder Eris tried to become the crown princess, the more Melpomene did not like Eris.

Clotho told her gossip whenever they met, saying that Eris was toxic. Coming from her, Eris seemed cunning and vicious, and a woman who was blinded by power, trying to entice the crown prince.

Helena, who is kind-hearted, used to defend Eris, saying she was not such a child, but Melpomene thought that Helena only looked at the world so beautifully.

Melpomene knew a child like Eris well. A vulgar person who doesn’t know the subject and craves the power of men or by-products that fall in love with their own self-worth

Even though Eris now treats her with a smile on her face, she must have inherited the shady side of the Marquis of Misérian, who always looks for the chance to betray her.

Melpomene constantly tested Eris. She intentionally rebuked her, asked for impossible favors, and insulted her by comparing her to Helena, who did not have the same status.

This was one of those days. Pretending to be a benevolent mother-in-law, Alecto lied to Melpomene, saying that he had no interest in Eris and wanted to marry Helena.

Telling Eris, If she keeps going like this, she may lose her position, so Melpomene wanted to advise Eris to dress up like a prostitute on the street and seduce Alecto. If Eris were to become pregnant, wouldn’t Alecto look at her? Melpomene lashed out at Eris with her sharp tongue. Melpomene wanted Eris to cry

But she didn’t cry. Eris just nodded gently and said she would listen to Melfomene’s advice wholeheartedly. She may have been offended, but she did not lose control, like a woman who has already become accustomed to the Imperial Palace.

Melpomene found it disgusting. She held onto her smile until she told Eris to leave.

Kynthia: A boy who lives with Anakin

Meaning of the name “Kynthia” : In Greek Baby Names the meaning of the name is Moon.

Melpomene: the current empress and mother of alecto, hates the Misérian family and the emperor because they killed her first child.

Melpomene’s name was derived from the Greek verb melpô or melpomai meaning “to celebrate with dance and song.

Melpomene, in Greek religion, one of the nine Muses, patron of tragedy and lyre playing. In Greek art her attributes were the tragic mask and the club of Heracles. According to some traditions, the half-bird, half-woman Sirens were born from the union of Melpomene with the river god Achelous.

Krytos: The current Emperor, the father of alecto, has extreme obsession with the empress to the point he will kill his son by joining hands with the marquis.

In Greek mythology, Kratos (or Cratos)(a) is the divine personification of strength. He is the son of Pallas and

Styx.

Kratos is characterized as brutal and merciless, repeatedly mocking both Hephaestus and Prometheus and advocating for the use of unnecessary violence. He defends Zeus’ oppressive rule and predicts that Prometheus will never escape his bonds.

Clotho Antebellum: Mother of Helena, hates Eris and her family because they killed her husband and destroved her family. She is the nanny of the crown prince and best friend of the empress.

Clotho was one of the Three Fates or Moirai in Greek mythology, her sisters being Lachesis and Atropos. She was the one who spun the thread of the lives of all mortals, as well as the one to decide when a person would be born or killed, along with other similarly important decisions.

Laetatio: First child of the royal couple, was killed by his father intentionally) under the scheme of Marquis of Misérian for the power struggle.

Meaning of the name “Laetatio”: rejoicing: joy, exultation

Source: latin-dictionary.org