CH 11

The Emperor’s question was premised on the fact that if he answered incorrectly, his future would be shattered. It’s not like he could refuse in the first place. Instead of it being a question, it was more of a threat.

“-I’m asking just in case, but is this related to the fact that the Duke of Fernand’s partner was my wife?” 

What should I do? Eugène was deeply troubled and revealed the question that suddenly appeared in his mind to the Emperor. The Emperor’s amber eyes narrowed with a faint smile. As if it was amusing, he raised the corners of his lips and answered Eugène’s question.

“I can’t say that it’s not connected to the matter at all. Wouldn’t it be better to kill two birds with one stone if it’s something you must take an action for? As you know, the Duke of Fernand has many lovers. Thanks to that, there were plenty of choices.”

“……”

“This is the only contribution he made to the empire. He hasn’t helped in anything all his life, but he made himself useful this once.” 

Only after hearing that far did Eugène realize. The truth was that no matter how much he thought about it, his answer was meaningless. He was already a divorced man, and the whole world knew that the Emperor had decided to find a new wife for him. Unbeknownst to him, the Emperor’s plan was already underway. The Emperor made the choice first, and Eugène had no idea how to escape from his choice.

“You’re Majesty’s method is quite unusual for someone who desires loyalty. Even my wife was taken away.”

Eugène muttered lowly as he belatedly realize that the one who had fallen into a trap was not his wife, but him. Upon hearing this, the Emperor smiled deeply. Since, by spotting the nuances, he understood what he said meant that he was now surrendering himself.

“We are a person with a strong desire for monopoly. It would’ve been hard to trust you to the fullest if the fleet admiral’s niece were to remain to be your wife. What could be more futile than making you my man and then doubting your loyalty? In that case, one should simply clear away the bone of contention in advance.”

The Emperor replied with a soft smile. In an elegant and carefree tone, as if he were gently advising on the floral ornaments on his collar. He quite figuratively said that it was better for him to change his wife because she didn’t suit him anyway.

He will never make a good Emperor.

Eugène thought as he looked at such an Emperor. This Emperor was the kind of man who could never be a good monarch, a good father, or a good friend. He would not be a man who makes people happy. Speaking of him as an individual, not a sovereign, he was the kind of person who could not live with mere human happiness.

However, he had a premonition as strong as what he just conjectured. That Emperor, this ruthless, cold-blooded young Emperor, would become the greatest Emperor in imperial history. He was a genius who would make a strong and great country, but not one where the subjects would be happy. 

An Emperor who will remain a legend in history. A man whose name will be remembered and always be feared by all. That’s exactly what the Emperor looked like in Eugène’s eyes.

Aside from the human feeling of contempt for what he had done, a powerful attraction drew him in. Although he was scared and horrified, there was a strong curiosity regarding the future he would create. Eugène bit his lip at the unfamiliar feeling that provoked him. The ambition that he didn’t even know existed within him was making way due to the stimulus given by the Emperor.

“There will be a ball tomorrow evening, Baron. It’s a banquet held by one of my concubines, Marquise Lamott. You will also receive an invitation, so be prepared.”

The Emperor leaned his head back on the backrest and gave a languid command. Eugène raised his head and looked at the young Emperor. Golden hair glistened in the light. A straight, well-shaped nose. An elegant mouth and a sharp jawline. A young and beautiful body of only thirty-two years old. 

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The Emperor was a man like a living young god. He was a person who could only be said to be standing at the pinnacle of humanity in every way.

But Eugène didn’t know that the Emperor was such an attractive man until he saw him in person. While traveling around the west coast, he had never heard of the Emperor’s beauty. Though he heard many rumors about a strong and terrifying Emperor or a rational and extraordinary young Emperor, none of the many rumors mentioned his youthful body and beautiful appearance.

It was only at this moment that Eugène realized the reason. The reason why the Emperor was merely called an Emperor despite his striking appearance. He knew why there were hardly any mentions of beauty in the words to describe the Emperor. 

The Emperor was simply an Emperor.

He was a being who no one dared to describe in any other manner.

***

It was a beautiful hand. 

If it wasn’t for the size, his hands were so beautiful that one could have mistaken them for the hands of a lady. The fingers without a single joint were delicately thin, and the fingertips, with carefully trimmed nails, were neat like a painting.

The skin was also fair and lovely. Although the disease made it lose its former shine, the palms, which had never been subjected to rough work in their entire life, were as soft and fragile as baby skin. Maybe that’s why, but when he looked at his hand, he thought of a lily made of silk. They were well-crafted artificial flowers that did not have the unique characteristic of living flowers, but their unnatural aesthetic value attracted people’s attention.

‘You must remember…’

The man, who reached out his elegant hand and grabbed Eugène’s hand, whispered as if moaning. Eugène looked down at the man who was holding him with desperate force with a calm gaze. 

‘Remember Eugène. You must remember… You are not a Baron. Our family has held the title of venerable Count from the time of Cèsar II. Whatever the lascivious Empress may say, whatever the foolish nobles denigrate, you must not forget your roots. Remember the glory of your ancestors. Never forget the honor of our family that you and I have been robbed of.’

Words that he had heard countless times. The honor you and I have been robbed of. The glory of our ancestors. The man’s eyes gleamed with familiar madness.

Madness was the driving force of the man’s life and also, the ultimate cause of his ruin.

The man’s health and spirit were corrupted and ruined by his own ego. His stubborn obsession with what was lost caused even his few friends to shake their heads and leave, and all he had left were the sick people infected with the same madness. 

The world thought of them as a joke.

‘Eugène.’

The man gasped for breath and called for Eugène. For him, who now had no one left to lament, Eugène was the only one he could share his feelings with.

Unfortunately for Eugène, a man who left a young child unattended, and didn’t care how he survived but talked as if everything he had done was for him, was still his father. A ruthless and selfish father who didn’t even notice that the hand of his son, which held his pretty hand, was rough and full of wounds. 

‘The Chastan family is the family of Count- Cough. It was also a proud family of Margraves. In the past, even the Marquis of the capital could not treat our family rudely. You must make them pay for their sins. We will seek our place again. You must now carry on with all the great work that I was unable to accomplish.’

The grief-stricken father, with a voice full of boiling blood, tried to get assurance from him. Yes, that’s right. We were a family of Margraves. But we were also the ones who failed to fulfill our role and ran away. They left their estate and vassals, as well as the people of that territory to fend for themselves. Is that the glory you speak of?

A cynical thought came to mind for a moment. But, as always, that thought lingered in his mind and then faded away.

No matter if it didn’t, he was still a dying person. Despite being a man who didn’t even hold rational compassion within him, he was still his father. Even though he was a person who cared more about entering the capital than the cost of his dying mother’s medicine, even though he was a person who always blamed others without ever realizing what he has done wrong… He was the only blood relative of Eugène left in this world. 

‘… Father, please stop and rest.’

Eugène pulled his hand out of the man’s grasp. The father reached out again to grab Eugène, but the weak strength of a patient suffering from a lung disease could not hold his young son. Eugène pulled up an old blanket, covered his father’s body, and took the bowl of soup.

From his father’s throat came the wheezy sound of sputum along with the sound of his metal-like breathing. The skin, which had become pale due to the disease, was like a blank sheet of paper, and the blue blood vessels flowing under the thin skin were clearly visible.

‘Don’t forget, Son. Never… You must never…’ 

The dying voice was slowly losing strength. The light faded from his eyes, and his white, fine hands slid off the old blanket. The man fell asleep again.

Rattle-Rattle. The cold wind of midwinter shook the window sill. There was no longer any warmth in the hearth where the embers had almost extinguished. The attic of a dirty and shabby boarding house. In the middle of a room that Eugène barely managed to obtain by earning his wages, a man, who was one of the most prominent noblemen in the east, laid ill.

The man, who lost all of his many friends and lovers, had dried up like the dead branches in late autumn and was slowly dying as he recounted the splendid old glory that existed only in his heart.

What a wretched end of the one who desired the irreversible. Eugène knew it wasn’t just the disease that was killing his father. The trap of despair and loneliness set by himself. The father was actually dying from all of it. All his resolutions to Eugène were nothing but stubbornness that he endured until the very end. 

It was because of the war thirteen years ago that Count Amieux, who was a Margrave in the Amieux region, was demoted to Baron, two ranks lower than his original rank. The Second Landrienne Revolution, which was later referred to as the ‘Landrienne’s Disgrace’ by imperial historians, was the biggest defeat they had to face since the founding of the empire in the war of conquest waged by the Eastern Empire, Shaak. In that humiliating war, the Estina Empire lost its Emperor and suffered the loss of the entire eastern plains, as well as the eastern part of the Bern River.

In that war, Count Amieux, who was located in the northern part of the Landrienne region, was also deprived of his territory. Not only was the fief taken away, but only the lord’s family narrowly escaped, leaving behind his vassals and the people living in that land.

Surprisingly, Count Amieux was not the only one who made such a choice. Almost all of the eastern nobles who had been deprived of their territory made the same choice. Only one person, Margrave Renault, was imprisoned as he struggled to protect the people of his territory.

According to the imperial law, nobles who lost their territories to the enemy would have to face rank demotion. Furthermore, if one had failed to fulfill their duty as a Margrave, not only would they have to face the demotion of their peerage title, but the sentence of beheading must also be borne. Originally, Eugène’s father, Count Amieux, would not have been able to escape from such a situation. If Empress Éloïse, who became the Empress after the demise of the late Emperor, had not shown mercy. 

Fortunately, for the eastern nobles who had lost their lands, Empress Éloïse, or now Empress Mother, was also from the eastern nobility. She was the only daughter of Margrave Renault, who was the only one who died while defending his position in the Second Landrienne Revolution, and she was also a woman so religious that rumors circulated that she would have become a nun if she hadn’t caught the eyes of the Crown Prince.

She had already been deeply involved in political affairs since the accession of her husband, Armand IV. Being the devout woman she was, she showed mercy by saving the lives of the eastern nobles who were supposed to be beheaded and replaced the punishment by demoting their peerage titles down to two ranks, instead of only one.

However, some eastern nobles deeply resented the Empress Mother for making such a decision. The main reason they hated the Empress Mother was that she did not pity the situation of the eastern nobles, who were from the same faction and lost everything, but even punished them. They wanted to receive a different form of punishment than the Empress Mother’s, and what they insisted on was the so-called ‘responsibility theory’.

Their so-called ‘responsibility theory’ was based on the idea that the eastern nobles should be given a chance to make up for their mistakes. In other words, their main argument was that they should not demote their titles on the pretext of the previous day’s matter, but on the contrary, give them military status worthy of their titles to offset their responsibility for their crimes by reclaiming their lost lands. 

Eugène’s father was one of the key advocates of the responsibility theory. In order to make his claim a national policy, he poured out all of his scarce fortunes and devoted his entire life and passion to it. Thanks to that, he became a laughing stock. Once regarded as one of the most respectable nobles in the east, he was now called a pathetic complainer who made excessive demands and couldn’t get out of it of his delusions and was treated as a blockhead who didn’t know how to give up.

The public treatment of the fallen noble was harsh. However, Eugène thought that such a worldly sentiment was rather natural. The arguments of his father and his sympathizers were overly shameless. Even if they were powerful people, it was not unreasonable that the world did not deal with them when they were making such claims in a situation where they had already lost their foundation and collapsed.

If you don’t give, you get nothing. No, society’s logic was that it was difficult to receive as much as you give. Yet they did nothing but wish. That is why the actions of the eastern nobles, who did not know or acknowledge the reality, were pathetic. Their claims were nothing short of foolishness, and the world was not easy enough for such foolishness to prevail.

I don’t think I can follow your will, Father. 

Eugène quietly stared at the man who was ending his life in such a shabby manner and shook his head. It was something he could never say out loud, but his determination was already firm. Whatever his father’s wishes, Eugène had no intention of carrying on his will. Even if his father made it his dying wish, the choice would be the same.

Eugène was extremely realistic, unlike his father, who was blinded by his former glory. He clearly distinguished what he could and could not do, and he had no greed to covet whatever was out of his reach.

There was only one thing Eugène wanted.

He just wanted to survive. 

He wanted to survive and live like a human being. A life without shame and pain. A life where he wouldn’t have to dig through the trash to learn and work to the point his nails break just to eat. He simply wanted a life that would suffice for being human, nothing more.

Sixteen. At a young age, Eugène had already realized how bitter life was. You must neither believe nor wish for anything more than what you have achieved with your own abilities. To sit in one place doing nothing and waiting for others to adjust to you was as futile as expecting the sun to revolve around you.

That realization was the only lesson his father left him. It was also the most valuable legacy of his father.