I Became the Wife of the Hero Who Killed Me - Chapter 171

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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# Chapter 171
“What did you say?!”
“Haven’t I controlled all the press?”
Nigel’s close associates were even more startled than he was, their eyes widening in shock.
Since ascending to the throne, he had poured every resource into steering public opinion and sentiment to his side.
It hadn’t been difficult.
Nigel had been skilled in public opinion warfare since his days as a prince—he had managed to brand Rosalind as the flower of the empire that everyone adored, and Elisia as a notorious villainess.
The method was simple: buy them with money or crush them with power.
This time, too, he had suppressed the press with ice-cold authority whenever they tried to wield their pens freely.
But where on earth had it leaked from?
“The Perang Family, Your Majesty!”
“What do you mean—”
“Marquise Perang’s maternal family is the Pavia Royal Family. By blood relation, she is a distant cousin of Caterina’s, so it appears she used personal connections to spread the word.”
Nigel, who had been tapping his desk anxiously, twisted his mouth into a sneer.
The Marquis Perang—that self-righteous moderate faction leader who always held his head high even before him—had long grated on his nerves.
If used well, this could overturn the entire political landscape.
“Perang’s wife conspired with Pavia, so she’s a spy. Send the Imperial Army to the Perang household at once. I’ll have them both tried in court for treason.”
“Your command is heard!”
“And those gutter rats in the plaza are becoming tiresome. Aren’t they in league with the Perang family?”
One of his associates, reading Nigel’s intent, answered quickly.
“Since they were incited by Marquise Perang, a Pavia spy, we should charge them with espionage as well.”
“Quite right.”
“However, to mobilize such large forces, we require Your Majesty’s personal signature on the order.”
Nigel gave a nod of assent.
His associate immediately prepared the documents, and Nigel signed without hesitation, as though exterminating a troublesome pest.
Though countless lives could disappear with a single stroke of his pen, he didn’t bat an eye.
“See it done.”
“We shall obey Your Majesty’s Decree!”
After the associate withdrew with the documents, the commotion outside the windows soon grew louder.
The sweep was beginning.
‘Pests must be eradicated before they proliferate, lest they cause trouble later.’
He should have done this sooner.
Just as Nigel released a satisfied sigh, hurried footsteps echoed from the corridor.
The Chief Chamberlain burst through the door, his face drained of color, and cried out urgently.
“Your Majesty, disaster has struck! You must flee at once!”
“What on earth—”
Nigel’s brow furrowed at the chamberlain’s agitation, but his question would soon be answered.
The roar and footsteps of the masses that had been echoing from beyond the Imperial Capital were now—impossibly—ringing out from within the palace itself.
Nigel and his associates quickly turned their gaze toward the windows.
“The Imperial Palace has been breached!”
“……!”
The great gates of the palace stood wide open, and through them poured an angry flood of citizens.
The Royal Guards who should have been defending the entrance were nowhere to be seen.
Nigel, now equally drained of color, rose swiftly from his seat.
“Summon every soldier in the Imperial Capital at once! Where is Grand Duke Heidelberg?!”
“I—I’m not certain, Your Majesty.”
“Find him now! Find him and have him resolve this crisis!”
Nigel’s rage was terrible, but there was no time to waste.
He seized the Emperor’s Seal, the most precious of all, and rushed with his associates toward the emergency passage.
‘Curse it all—that I, the Emperor, should suffer such humiliation…….’
Nigel’s mind raced through dozens of scenarios as he gnawed his lip.
From Parliament staging a rebellion and raising Joseph to the throne, to fleeing beyond the Imperial Capital and reclaiming it with his loyalist forces—
Of course, in none of his scenarios did he end up dying at the hands of the common people.
But Nigel did not know.
That the order he had given to massacre the masses had passed through Grand Duke Heidelberg, the supreme military commander of the Imperial Capital, into the hands of Parliament, and from there into the public eye.
It was the moment the people’s rage finally crossed the threshold.
* * *
Mariana had been restless all along.
Tragic news had come from the Northern Region.
Her niece Elisia, who had only recently sent her a letter asking after her welfare, had been caught in a landslide, and Duke Lombard had vanished fighting at the Northern Wall.
Even sending reinforcements immediately would have been insufficient, yet Nigel merely watched from across the river like an indifferent spectator.
“My blood runs dry. I can glean no news of Elisia, and I’m desperate enough to ride for Lombard this very moment.”
“Mariana…”
Her ladies-in-waiting urged her not to exhaust herself, but Mariana’s expression remained unmoved.
The moment she learned of the emergency, she had sent an urgent letter to her elder brother, the King of Southern Marsen, pleading for him to aid Lombard.
She had also cast aside all dignity and made the same earnest appeals to the nobles with whom she maintained cordial relations.
Yet there was nothing she could do herself.
Without lands or holdings, subsisting only on a modest stipend from the Imperial Palace, she could not raise any meaningful sum even by liquidating her personal assets.
Isabella’s countenance across from her was equally dark.
“The die is cast. Now we must place our faith in the power of the people.”
“Are you certain of this? Should His Majesty discover that you are behind the pamphlets…”
“I have already resolved to face the consequences. And this is not merely for a friend’s sake—it is also for my own honor and dignity.”
She offered a thin smile and continued.
“I have been granted the undeserved title of the Empire’s greatest intellect. How could I turn away from the truth? Besides, should circumstances demand it, I need only seek exile in Pavia—a far better position than that of other political prisoners, would you not agree?”
“Political prisoner—how can you speak of such a dreadful thing…”
“It is well. I am not afraid in the least.”
With nearly every press organ in the Empire silenced, speaking truth required staking one’s very life.
Yet Isabella had resolved to do so.
She had gathered all the intelligence Caterina had provided, had it printed, and distributed it throughout the Empire.
She wrote in particular detail of the popular uprising that had erupted in Pavia.
Her aim was to awaken the citizens of Imperial Capital Bellenua to the magnitude of power that could be unleashed when the will of the people became one.
Then, Mariana—whose expression had been gloomy all the while—suddenly murmured aloud.
“The outside has grown uncommonly turbulent of late.”
Ruden Castle was a modest secondary palace situated on the outskirts of the Imperial Capital, ordinarily so serene that one could hear the whisper of wind through the leaves.
Yet beyond the dense forest path, a multitude of nobles was converging upon it.
Every last one of them was nobility.
Mariana’s heart sank in that instant.
“Have they already uncovered who distributed the pamphlets? Isabella, it seems they’ve come to arrest you. Flee at once through the back door—I’ve had it left open just in case!”
“No… I believe the reason is quite different.”
Unlike the flustered Mariana, Isabella remained composed.
True to her words, the nobles leading the procession were calling out in unison the names of Joseph and Mariana, shouting their acclaim.
In Mariana’s stead, her ladies-in-waiting opened the windows and stepped onto the balcony.
Ruden Castle was modest in scale; one had only to draw back the curtains to see clearly into its interior from outside.
“Your Majesty the Empress Dowager, I am Duchess Barbara, representative of the Parliament! Allow me to escort you personally. Please proceed to the Imperial Palace alongside His Highness Joseph!”
“What on earth is the meaning of this…”
Caught off guard by the sudden arrival of so prominent a figure, Mariana could only pace nervously about the room.
Then, from outside the reception chamber, came a familiar voice.
“Might I enter, Mariana?”
The Grand Duchess Heidelberg.
She was one of only two outsiders who possessed the authority to move freely in and out of Ruden Castle—the other being Isabella.
Isabella, who had remained sitting with an unwavering composure throughout, now let out a hollow laugh, as if everything had suddenly crystallized in her mind.
“I risked my life, yet the credit falls to another.”
It was easy to suppose that Nigel’s downfall would most benefit Joseph, first in the Imperial Succession Order, and his mother Mariana.
But Joseph was still too young to rule, and Mariana possessed no political foundation within the Empire to conduct the Regency alone.
A regent would be needed to assist the Empress Dowager, and considering bloodline and position, there were realistically only two candidates.
The Grand Duke Heidelberg and Duke Lombard.
As for Isabella, she had anticipated from the start that events would unfold in this manner, so it mattered little to her.
Only Mariana remained standing in bewilderment.
“Please… do come in.”
The elderly woman who entered made a respectful bow.
“Mariana, proceed to the Imperial Palace with Joseph.”
“But His Majesty the Emperor does not seem likely to welcome either myself or Joseph…”
“The Empire has lost its master and fallen into chaos. Surely it is incumbent upon you both to make the journey and restore order?”
At the words “lost its master,” Mariana’s eyes went blank.
Isabella rose from her seat and approached the Grand Duchess, her expression now tinged with regret.
“How unfortunate. I had believed there was genuine friendship between us.”
“There was none to begin with—call it a convenient arrangement, if you will.”
The elderly woman answered with brazen candor.
It was no different with her husband, the Grand Duke Heidelberg. No matter how precious friendship might be, it could not compete with the ascendance of the House Heidelberg.
Great nobles did not stir merely for the sake of personal sentiment.
It was the moment when the seeds Edwin had sown finally began to sprout.
“I shall explain the details on our way to the Imperial Palace. Everyone is waiting for the new Emperor.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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