The Crown I Will Take From You - Chapter 1

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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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Chapter 1

Prologue.

A night with drizzling rain.

The Emperor stepped foot into the prison filled with damp humidity.

Medeia, who had been looking up at the black sky through a window barely a span wide, turned around.

Her body, thin as tree branches, was visible outside her shabby dress.

Haggard complexion, sunken eyes that had lost their light. She looked like a corpse barely breathing.

The Emperor frowned. Still, she was a woman he had spent half his life with.

The woman who had remained composed even during harsh expeditions was now in such a miserable state.

“Jason.”

A hollow echo spread. The knight behind the Emperor bristled.

“How dare a criminal call His Majesty’s name—!”

“Leave her be. Before death, does not I have at least that much magnanimity.”

Medeia turned her dazed gaze as if she couldn’t hear their conversation.

“I did everything for you.”

She looked at the Emperor.

“Princess of Valdina, please call me Jason.”

That affectionate greeting was still vivid in her eyes.

He was the person Medeia had loved her entire life.

She thought she wanted to have him even if it meant sacrificing everything, and she actually did.

She stole the nation’s treasures and offered them to him.

She devoted her youth to behead the evil dragon.

She gave her homeland’s soldiers to grant him the throne.

But the result that returned was painful betrayal.

Her brother died and her homeland was destroyed.

Her husband married another woman.

“You abandoned me and Your Majesty welcomed the saint as Empress.”

Holding her swollen belly with their second child, she heard news of her husband’s marriage.

“It was all because of the oracle. That’s why I made your son Lian the Crown Prince instead.”

And Lian died.

Just six months after she sent him alone to the Imperial Palace so that at least the child could gain recognition of legitimacy.

“That’s when I knew. Lea and I would be next.”

They say hunting dogs are boiled after the hunt ends.

She realized this truth too late.

“Didn’t another oracle come? A revelation that you mother and daughter would bring this nation’s destruction!”

The Emperor instead blamed her.

“Medeia. Instead of burning you at the stake according to the oracle, I bestowed the grace of letting you die peacefully for old times’ sake. Yet you still harbor only resentment.”

The shamelessness of the man who drove her to death and demanded gratitude was no longer surprising.

“Whether it’s an oracle or any other reason, it doesn’t matter.”

Medeia spat bitterly.

“Your Majesty always watched from one step behind. When I stole the national treasure, when I beheaded the evil dragon to bring down the previous Emperor, when our child died, your fault was never involved.”

The man with the gentle smile and kindness was no longer there.

Only a despicable man remained who had betrayed her, blinded by ambition, and driven her into the mud.

“End it quickly. I don’t want to see any more of this disgusting sight.”

She lifted her chin proudly. The knight opened the cap of a black bottle at his waist.

‘Lea will survive. Thank goodness.’

Three days ago, Medeia had asked her particularly close cousin sister to help her young daughter escape, avoiding the Emperor’s eyes.

She sold all her assets and converted them to jewels to give her. At least there would be no problems until Lea came of age.

Though Medeia herself was caught here because she had exhausted all funds and power to arrange the escape, she had no regrets.

“…The children’s matter is regrettable. But since you’re there, they won’t be lonely. How fortunate.”

Children?

Medeia’s face instantly froze like ice.

It was like a mother’s instinct sensing her child’s safety.

“Lea is… Lea couldn’t possibly.”

Then, pink hair fluttered behind the knights. Medeia froze.

“Sorry, Medeia.”

“Virna, why are you here…!”

Why was her cousin, who should be crossing the border by now, here?

Medeia’s body began trembling with shock.

“I couldn’t betray His Majesty. Sorry, Medeia. But this won’t do. It’s not right.”

Virna leaned her delicate body against the Emperor’s shoulder. Her white hand smoothly caressed the Emperor’s arm.

Thud.

To Medeia, who staggered and collapsed, Virna held out a small bundle.

It was the pouch she had hung around Lea’s neck while pulling away her clinging daughter. The small floral-patterned pouch was soaked dark red with blood.

“Ahhhhh!”

Unable to even grasp the blood-soaked pouch, Medeia wailed with only her fingers trembling.

Lea, my little Lea!

How frightened she must have been. How much she must have resented her mother.

“The children will understand me too.”

The Emperor’s expression was so cold that he hardly looked like a father who had lost his children.

“Jason, you beast worse than animals!”

Eyes filled with rage glared at the Emperor.

“Even beasts don’t harm their own offspring!”

Clanking armor soon blocked her view.

“What insolence toward His Majesty—! Silence the criminal! Your Majesty, please leave.”

The Emperor gave a gentle smile and final farewell to the wife who had shared a lifetime of hardships and adversity with him.

“Medeia, farewell. I will deeply remember your contributions.”

He didn’t forget to turn and leave an affectionate word for Virna.

“The night is cold, so Princess Claudia shouldn’t stay too long either.”

“Your Majesty caring for me so tenderly only moves this maiden to tears.”

When Jason disappeared, Virna’s sweet smile faded. She looked down at Medeia with a face filled with cold mockery.

“How do you like the price of sacrificing everything, Medeia?”

“What?”

“Ahaha! Acting so superior as a princess, look at yourself now. Valdina was destroyed, and your brother was torn apart by demons. All because of one stupid woman like you!”

Medeia couldn’t understand.

Virna was her cousin, her family, so why was she saying such things? Why was she so happy?

Why did she betray me? Why did she hand over my child?

“No, I shouldn’t blame you. Thanks to you, I could get this far.”

Why was she…?

“Valdina’s Loyalists and your brother weren’t easy either. Without stupid you, we would have failed.”

“We…?”

Medeia, who had been gasping for breath, slowly turned her head.

Soon, eyes that realized everything sank deeply.

“…It was your family who urged me to steal the Sage’s Eye for Jason. It was from then?”

“Wrong. Much, much longer before that. You couldn’t even guess, poor Deia.”

Virna, thoroughly excited, giggled.

“Your entire life, your whole existence was in our family’s hands.”

“…”

“Thanks to that, my father will become King of Valdina, and I’ll become this Empire’s Imperial Consort.”

How much she had wanted to scream at this innocent face. That someone like you was just a puppet from the beginning.

“….”

The past flashed by like a revolving lantern.

And she realized.

Rebellion. Destruction. Death.

Her uncle’s family had been present at every tragedy that befell Medeia.

“Jason knows too. He’s been with us for a long time.”

“….”

“You were just our chess piece. Do you understand now?”

Her green eyes sank deeply.

A heartbreaking moan flowed silently between her bitten lips.

“…Jason.”

Instead of spitting blood at her beloved’s betrayal, Medeia held his name close.

So she would not forget.

All the lies he had told and all the sacrifices she had made.

A dark red tear rolled down Medeia’s cheek.

The knights straightened their backs at the eerie feeling.

But Virna couldn’t hide her happy expression at seeing her cousin sister in pain.

“Don’t be too sad. You’ll be able to see your beloved family soon. Aren’t you happy?”

“Virna, you too.”

Her parched lips curved upward. Her red pupils stared directly at Virna.

“I will not forget. You, your family, everyone from Claudio—I will not forget.”

A smile hung beneath eyes that shed tears of blood. Only then did Virna flinch and step back.

“Wh-what….”

Then she became angry.

What was there to fear from a useless puppet doll now.

“What are you doing? Hurry up and pour it into her mouth.”

She snapped sharply at the knight.

The knight holding the black bottle roughly grabbed Medeia’s jaw.

“Hold her! Don’t let her move!”

The knights forcefully grabbed her struggling limbs. Then they poured the poison from the vial indiscriminately.

The poison splattered everywhere. Black drops of medicine and red drops of blood mixed together, flowing messily down her white skin.

Even until the moment she closed her eyes, Medeia repeated to herself.

I will repay with death the sin of my foolishness in not recognizing these beasts.

But your original sin.

I will surely return to collect it, even if several lifetimes pass.

Even if I am born as a lowly creature, even if I must wait for an eternity.

Neither those who follow fate nor those loved by gods will be able to escape me.

Until I brightly embroider my path with your blood,

I will not stop.

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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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