I’m a Villain, but I Want to Live a Long Life - Chapter 160

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“Keuuuu—! Uaaaak—!!”

Screams filled with agony echoed loudly throughout the bedroom of the Imperial Palace.

“Your Majesty, no, please come to your senses…!”

The Head Chamberlain poured herbal medicine into the Emperor’s mouth while tears streamed down his face.

“Keurreuk— Uuuk, keuuuk…”

But Simon Albertine couldn’t swallow even half of the medicine.

Dark liquid dripped from his rigid lips. One of the priests watching this scene suddenly shouted.

“What are you all doing! Go prepare a new antidote immediately—!!”

It was Cardinal Paul. One of the servants rushed out of the bedroom.

The Head Chamberlain stepped back half a pace from the Emperor and wept pitifully. The bowl in his hands trembled violently.

Then commotion arose outside the tightly closed door.

“Y-Your Majesty the Empress!”

The Head Chamberlain looked toward the door with a flustered expression. Paul did the same.

Creak—

At that moment, the door opened.

Hair disheveled over her forehead. A face pale as death. Eyes unfocused and trembling.

Grace staggered inside, taking one step, then another.

“Your Majesty, Your Majesty… what on earth… what is…”

Grace reached the bed and looked down at Simon’s face with a shocked expression.

“This can’t… this can’t be happening.”

She collapsed to the floor with a thud.

The startled Head Chamberlain rushed to support her, but she could barely maintain her composure.

“Your Majesty, Your Majesty—!!!”

Tears began streaming down the Empress’s pale cheeks.

The Head Chamberlain forgot to breathe as he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the tragic scene.

“Your Majesty, please come to your senses! What is this, what on earth has happened…!”

Grace gripped the blanket covering Simon tightly and cried out desperately.

The Head Chamberlain had been serving the Empress for nearly ten years. Even to him, seeing the Empress like this was a first.

The Head Chamberlain barely held back his tears as he stepped back. Then someone tapped his shoulder.

When he turned his head, Cardinal Paul was looking down at him with a serious expression.

He gestured toward the Empress and whispered quietly.

“…I’d appreciate it if you could step outside for a moment. Her Majesty the Empress seems to be… somewhat distressed.”

The Head Chamberlain hesitated for a moment, but then nodded as he looked at the Empress’s disheveled figure crying behind him.

“Let me know when the medicine arrives.”

“I will do so.”

The Head Chamberlain replied, took the bowl, and went outside.

The Emperor on the bed had his eyes closed as if dead.

His entire face, including his forehead, cheeks, and lips, was pale as a corpse.

Grace continued to sob while caressing the Emperor’s hand. It was sobbing that conveyed indescribably deep sorrow.

But as time passed, those heartbreaking cries gradually subsided.

And finally, when the bedroom was completely enveloped in silence.

The quiet sobbing suddenly stopped.

The Empress slowly rose from her position.

Paul silently watched her back.

The Empress, having fully risen, slowly raised one hand and placed it under the Emperor’s nose.

And she muttered.

“…He’s unconscious.”

It was a completely dry, emotionless voice that didn’t sound at all like someone who had been crying moments before.

But Paul stepped forward as if he had expected this.

“Why did you get rid of the servant? You could have kept him and used him for future purposes.”

The Empress slowly turned around.

Her hair was still disheveled, and her complexion was still pale. But her expression was different from when she entered.

She looked directly at Paul and smirked.

“Bullshit.”

Paul flinched and stiffened.

“Are Frater’s dogs originally this stupid? If we had kept the servant alive and it was revealed that I was behind this, what would we do then?”

“…”

“If you’re going to spout nonsense, get out. You’re in the way.”

A vein suddenly bulged on Paul’s forehead. But he suppressed his anger and faced the Empress.

“…You seem to have completely forgotten who got you to that position, Grace Belmart.”

Grace’s eyes widened slightly. But they soon calmed again.

“Ha.”

A short breath-like, yet clearly mocking laugh escaped from between Grace’s lips.

“How amusing.”

Grace stared directly at Paul.

Soon, her usual benevolent smile slowly spread across her lips.

“Listen, Cardinal.”

At her gentle voice, Paul froze in place.

He had almost unconsciously replied “Yes, Your Majesty the Empress” and barely swallowed the words.

“If I had forgotten our old ties, would there be any reason for me to be helping you with this unpleasant business?”

“…”

“Then and now, the Temple doesn’t keep its promises. Quite despicably so.”

Grace’s expression turned cold for a moment.

She glanced back at the Emperor lying unconscious like the dead.

“Simon is a kind person. Though he was foolish.”

“…”

“Perhaps he’s someone far more worthy of living than hypocrites like you. And yet I made him like this.”

Grace glared coldly at Paul.

“Because of your endless, damned greed.”

Paul deliberately coughed. And he straightened his back.

He had no intention of bowing to Grace anyway.

Though she held the position of Empress, she was nothing more than the Temple’s puppet.

Even this matter—when she adamantly refused to do it, didn’t she comply obediently when they threatened her with the Prince?

A puppet was just a puppet. He was the one in the superior position.

“Your words are too frivolous regarding the sacred Order, Empress.”

“And you’re still disrespecting me as always.”

The two people’s gazes clashed in the air.

Paul was the first to look away. He coughed again to hide his embarrassment and then spoke.

“Ahem, let’s stop with the personal talk. The work isn’t even finished yet.”

Grace burst into mocking laughter.

“The poison Simon drank is a product of curses. Unless the god you serve appears and bestows a miracle, there’s no way he can survive.”

“Still, he’s royalty. He won’t die easily. Besides, wasn’t Simon’s ability to use magic power like life force?”

Grace raised one eyebrow.

“Then what are you suggesting? That I should have stabbed his heart with a sword myself?”

“What, I’m just saying to watch carefully.”

Paul glanced at Simon sleeping with a deathly pale complexion and continued.

“You’ve summoned all the nobles to the Imperial Palace as instructed, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well done. When the Emperor dies, immediately convene a general assembly. Once you declare Erbia a sacred nation, your role will truly be over.”

Grace lowered her gaze. Paul looked at her and spoke as if doing her a favor.

“If that happens, then as I mentioned before, the sins of you and your son will be completely forgiven.”

At those words, Grace raised her head. Her coldly sunken eyes flickered with a dangerous light.

“My son’s sins?”

“Yes. Your son’s….”

“Zenon has no sins. What exactly has that child done?”

Grace muttered coldly and clenched her teeth.

“Don’t even think about using Zenon as a bargaining chip. If you spout such nonsense one more time….”

Just then, the sound of another door opening came from outside.

“Your Highness, I have brought the antidote.”

Grace, who had been glaring fiercely at Paul, erased the anger from her face the moment the door opened.

And once again wore that terribly sorrowful expression.

Several maids following behind the Head Chamberlain approached the Empress.

“Your Majesty the Empress, we have prepared a place for you to rest in a nearby room. Please leave for now. At this rate, your health will suffer…!”

The Empress pretended to be overwhelmed and entrusted her body to the maids’ hands.

“Ugh… Ngh….”

From behind, Simon’s groaning could be heard again. It seemed to be because they were administering medicine with awakening effects.

Grace left the bedroom, leaving that sound behind.

Tears continued to flow from her eyes, whether they were false or genuine was unclear.

The poison she had used was a product of forbidden curses.

The moment it entered the body, sight and hearing would be lost, and only pain would dominate the entire body.

An ordinary person would have died within an hour of ingesting the poison. But Simon was royalty.

His ability was overflowing vitality. He could also freely convert magical power and life force.

‘One week from now.’

She estimated that Simon had one week left.

Having such thoughts made her chest ache heavily once more.

Self-deprecating laughter bubbled up from within.

‘I’m committing so many sins.’

Perhaps the very beginning, the starting point of all these events.

Was that the problem?

She staggered and raised her head.

In her wavering vision, the luxurious interior of the Imperial Palace blurred endlessly.

The sins she remembered had existed from the moment she was born.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry….”

Grace Belmart’s life began with the scene of her mother crying.

Dried hair soaked with cold sweat clung to her pale face, and Grace looked up at her mother’s face while being held in her arms.

“Mother has done this to you, to you….”

I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I’m truly sorry.

The inexplicable apologies continued endlessly. The next day, the day after that, and even the day after that.

Naturally, at that time she couldn’t understand what her mother’s words meant.

But later, after growing up, when she became able to understand words. When she came to understand the world to some extent.

Only then did Grace realize.

That all the words her mother had said to her newborn self were apologies.

It was around that time. When her life began to become unhappy.

Ordinary children forgot their childhood memories as they grew up.

This was especially true for events from when they were infants.

In society, this was called infantile amnesia and was considered perfectly natural.

But not for Grace Belmart.

Her ability was Imprinting.

All memories from the moment she came into the world were carved into her mind as indelible imprints that could never be erased.

An ability that was both a divine blessing and, for Grace, a curse.

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