The Former Empress Roughly Hides Her Abilities - Chapter 155
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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 155】
The moment of death that came suddenly.
[You are foolish until the very end.]
Yuna’s eyes turned red as she watched the book move away from her sight.
Her throat choked with desperation and regret.
‘How did I come this far…!’
That opportunity that was within arm’s reach, she had let it slip away.
What was more terrible than the Emperor’s betrayal was the fact that there was no next chance.
‘This is my end?’
Is this my finale, ending while losing everything like this?
She didn’t want to believe that death was approaching her. The fading sound of her breathing was so stark that tears came to her eyes.
‘I don’t want this.’
She didn’t want to die.
‘Such a futile ending, it doesn’t make sense…’
Yuna tried to hold onto her fading consciousness, but strength left her fingertips. Her vision darkened.
Eventually, she closed her eyes to the overwhelming drowsiness, thinking that was the end.
‘What, what is this?’
Yuna drew in a breath.
The sensations that should have disappeared with death were continuing. The pulsing of her heart and the sensation of breathing were vivid.
“Am I still alive?”
Yuna touched her head with her blood-colored hand. It was properly attached. Her body that had been pierced by the sword was also intact.
‘I see.’
Her heart suddenly beat hard, and overwhelming breath burst forth.
‘God has given me a second chance.’
That must be it.
‘Because I’m the protagonist…’
Then suddenly, her surroundings came into view.
‘But where is this place?’
The scenery visible outside the window was familiar. The apartment’s flower bed and the parking lines drawn straight on the ground indicated that this was her room.
‘This is definitely my room.’
But the furniture and objects arranged in the room were not Yuna’s.
While Yuna was looking around, the door opened.
“Oh my, what a shock!”
Yuna’s shoulders flinched at the sharp voice.
She naturally looked at the other person.
A strange woman with short-cut hair looked Yuna up and down, then stepped back and asked.
“Who are you? Who are you to be in our house?”
That’s what I should be saying.
Yuna swallowed her breath and responded back.
“Who are you? This is my room.”
“What?”
In the awkward atmosphere.
The two people stood there blankly, not understanding each other.
* * *
“So, you moved away?”
That’s how Yuna learned that her family had sold the house.
“Do you know where the people who lived here before went?”
“How would I know?”
The woman shrugged her shoulders.
“Anyway, this is my house now, so could you please leave?”
When the woman even pulled out property registration documents to assert ownership, Yuna couldn’t hold out any longer.
“…Ha.”
Yuna came out to the street for now.
How much time had passed?
She was walking through a familiar alley, but there wasn’t a single familiar store.
Maybe it was because it was so absurd. She kept letting out hollow laughs.
‘Even if they hate me, still. I’m their daughter, but where did mom and dad go without saying anything?’
Shouldn’t they be waiting for me at home?
“But now where should I go?”
In the anxiety of being left alone in this world, Yuna bit her lips and looked around.
Unconsciously, her hand went into her pocket.
What she had brought from that house was only one original novel book that she had grabbed in confusion. Fortunately, there was a phone and wallet in her pocket.
Yuna pressed the power button on her phone, but the screen didn’t turn on.
Click, click.
The hand pressing the button gradually became rougher.
‘Is it dead?’
Yuna soon gave up and put the phone back in her pocket.
This time she opened her wallet, but.
‘Shit.’
There was no money either.
Yuna kicked a stone that got caught on her toes.
Nothing was going right!
She felt suffocatingly frustrated, but Yuna went into a nearby convenience store for now. She needed to check what the situation was.
“Welcome-,”
She let the part-timer’s greeting flow past her as she reached out her hand.
Yuna, who had let the part-timer’s greeting flow past, approached the counter.
“Sorry, but could I borrow your phone?”
The part-timer didn’t seem pleased, but hesitated and handed over the phone.
As soon as Yuna received the phone, she tried calling her home phone number, then her parents’ numbers, but.
-This number does not exist…
“Shit, why won’t they answer?”
With repeated failures, Yuna stamped her feet.
After swallowing her anxiety and repeating several times.
-Hello.
Finally, there was someone who answered.
It was the first time her younger brother’s blunt voice had been this welcome.
‘He really answered.’
Her hands trembled.
-Hello?
When Yuna couldn’t answer because her throat was choked up, she could faintly hear him muttering ‘what is it’ from the other side.
-I think you have the wrong number, so I’ll hang up now,
“It’s me.”
She barely moved her throat to push out the sound.
After a short silence.
-Sister?
Shin Yuhui’s words poured out.
-Where have you been all this time that you’re only contacting us now?
“Well, there were circumstances-,”
-What kind of great circumstances were there that you didn’t even show your face at our parents’ funeral?
“What?”
The world seemed to spin in a shocking twist as Yuna frantically gripped the counter.
The gum displayed under the counter fell to the floor, but she didn’t even think to clean it up.
“Funeral? They, they passed away?”
She shifted her weight to her soles, barely managing to keep from falling over.
-You didn’t know? They both died in a car accident. 5 years ago.
“That’s, that’s a lie.”
-They were putting up flyers looking for you and coming home at dawn when a drunk truck hit them… By the way, don’t you remember? 10 years ago you disappeared leaving only a strange note.
“That was 10 years ago?”
It was 10 years ago when Yuna accepted Cardinal Oben’s proposal and crossed over to that world.
Pope Maron had summoned Yuna one year before Ensilen married the Emperor. He wanted her to twist the ending and escape from the predetermined fate.
-I’ll go and come back.
When she left that note and departed, Yuna had been exhausted from repeated job failures.
Exhausted by the fact that there was no place for her anywhere.
But they said there was a place for her there. She had agreed without thinking.
“It’s a lie, right?”
Her breathing trembled.
Unable to grasp the number 10 years, Yuna stood there blankly with her mouth agape for a long time.
‘No, isn’t it standard in dimensional travel stories that when you return to the original world, time goes back to just before you left?’
Where does time honestly flow for 10 years like this?
-The police said they don’t even accept reports for simple runaways, so the two of them searched directly…
Shin Yuhui’s voice, which had grown faint as reality felt distant, became clear again. There was sobbing mixed in.
-Why didn’t you show up then and only come now? If that note was really your handwriting, you weren’t kidnapped but disappeared voluntarily. Then you could have contacted us to say you were alive. Where on earth did you go that you didn’t even appear at the funeral…
“Well…”
-Are you even human after doing that?
She was momentarily speechless.
It was true that she hadn’t thought about her parents while in that other world.
Shin Yuhui seemed to interpret Yuna’s silence in his own way and let out a deep sigh.
-Forget it. What does the past matter? Don’t contact me anymore. I won’t answer even if you call.
“What? Hey, wait a minute.”
Yuna desperately tried to hold onto the call.
“Then where am I supposed to go now?”
-What?
“And you should at least give me my share of the inheritance, right? It looks like you sold our parents’ house too…”
-You didn’t know our parents died but you checked that the house was sold?
Bewilderment turned into scornful laughter.
-Talking about inheritance. What do you think was left after selling a house with 20 years of loan payments remaining?
“But still.”
-If you have any conscience, don’t contact me.
“Hello? Hello…”
Yuna tried calling again, but this time it didn’t even go to the dial tone, as if he had blocked her number.
“Damn.”
Swallowing the curse and glaring at the phone, Yuna’s eyes met with the part-timer’s.
‘Right, this wasn’t mine, was it?’
Yuna scratched the back of her head awkwardly.
“Thanks for letting me use it.”
Yuna returned the phone and came out of the convenience store. Her steps were much heavier and lifeless.
‘Where am I supposed to go now?’
She had no one to contact and no home to go to.
Her eyes reddened with despair and her breathing felt blocked.
Yuna sat down on an empty bench in the park.
Yuna gripped the book as tightly as her anxiety.
That was the only hope she had left.
-Returning to that other world.
‘Right, this isn’t my world.’
It was surely difficult because this wasn’t where she belonged.
‘Let’s go back to the world where I can be the protagonist.’
Fortunately, since the book was in her hands, it wasn’t completely impossible.
‘But what should I do now?’
Just in case, she opened the first page of the book, but nothing happened.
Yuna traced back her memories from 10 years ago.
‘Come to think of it, 10 years ago Cardinal Oben spoke to me first, didn’t he?’
In the world Yuna remembered, the Temple had collapsed and there was no place for Yuna to stay, but Yuna believed that world would have returned to the ‘first page.’
‘That’s a world inside a novel.’
Don’t games return to the starting point when you press the restart button?
Therefore the story would repeat, and Cardinal Oben would summon her again.
‘Let’s wait.’
Yes. That was the only thing she could do.
‘If I just wait, I can become the Saint again.’
Yuna soothed her impatience, then suddenly looked up.
“…I’m hungry.”
An honest signal from her organs. Yuna scraped together her remaining money and barely bought a piece of bread.
“Prices have gone up a lot too…”
She grumbled and bit into the dry bread.
It couldn’t compare to the food the Imperial Palace’s Head Chef used to serve, but she had no other choice.
Yuna was swallowing a chunk of bread when she saw a man holding a girl’s hand.
There were many other people passing by too. The weather was nice so everyone seemed to have come out for a walk.
“Dad, this is…”
“Oh, there’s a book dropped here?”
Yuna was hiding her face wondering if anyone would recognize her, when she whipped her head around with bread still in her mouth.
My book. My last remaining chance was in their hands.
Yuna jumped up without noticing the bread rolling away. She snatched the book like catching prey and hugged it with both arms.
“Don’t touch it carelessly! How dare you put your hands on it?”
“Uh…”
The two people hesitated.
That gaze, that unfamiliar gaze as if witnessing something foreign, was unbearably unpleasant.
Although she was in the park, she wasn’t homeless. She was fundamentally different from them. Because.
“I am the Saint.”
I am the savior of another world.
“I’m the protagonist of that world.”
Yuna panted as she glared at them. Her hands holding the book tightened with desperation, her fingertips turning white.
The man and child couldn’t speak for a moment, then placed the book on the edge of the bench and stepped back.
“It was a book with an owner. We apologize.”
The man quickly left while holding the child. She could hear quiet murmuring, “Must be a crazy person.”
Yuna glared at them, then curled up when she was left alone.
‘It’s cold.’
When she was suspicious of the Emperor’s intentions and holed up in the Imperial Palace, she wasn’t cold or hungry. But there was an even lower place below rock bottom.
A place where no one comes. A position where no one looks for me.
Yuna buried her head while hugging her legs with her arms.
The time of just waiting passed unbearably slowly.
“Hah…”
It was miserable.
* * *
“Are you awake?”
Rianel rubbed her stiff eyes and turned her head.
Unlike her, who had just woken up, she heard a clear, alert voice.
He, who had been listening to her heartbeat with his face pressed against Rianel’s chest, clasped both of Rianel’s hands and leaned his weight over them.
Asil’s lips curved up loosely as he lightly kissed near Rianel’s eyes, confirming that she was still by his side.
“You could sleep a little longer.”
His relaxed voice seemed to remember last night’s passion.
“It’s time to get up.”
Rianel covered Asil’s lips with her palm and wrapped the robe that had fallen to the floor around herself.
“How heartless. When I’m tempting you like this, how can you be so resolute?”
Asil pouted.
‘Work always comes before me.’
Knowing this was a childish complaint, Asil only grumbled inwardly.
“Even if you make improper requests, impossible things don’t become possible.”
Rianel began dressing herself in formal attire.
“Please recall today’s schedule. Today is the coronation ceremony of the new Emperor His Majesty.”
After Emperor Torbiyan was deposed. Only a week had passed, but much had changed.
First, Torbiyan’s treatment had been decided.
There were opinions that he should be executed to eliminate future troubles, but ultimately it was concluded that he would be exiled to an island.
[He’s a worthless fool, but let him keep breathing. What that child became is my fault. I raised him wrong. You can take my life, so please, just spare that fool’s life…]
This was possible because of the Empress Dowager’s plea, and because there was no one to support Torbiyan.
The decisive reason for this outcome was that he had claimed Rianel was the Empress and presented the soul identification stone.
‘Now that public opinion toward the Temple has worsened, the credibility of the identification stone is extremely limited.’
Moreover, that item was generally used for identifying illegitimate children. Nobles who knew this didn’t want to admit they had special circumstances, so they pretended not to know.
Rumors spread that Torbiyan had been possessed by the Former Empress’s spirit.
As a result, it was good for Torbiyan.
He could only be kept alive if he remained as the mad deposed emperor.
‘Thanks to that, the rumor that I was the Empress was also dismissed as nonsense.’
It was a good thing.
Those who had come to witness Torbiyan’s state marriage were still staying in the Imperial Capital.
This was because a new emperor’s coronation ceremony was scheduled to follow the emperor’s deposition.
Instead of leaving the throne vacant for long, the Imperial Family decided to hold a simple coronation ceremony and advance Princess Tiren’s ascension to the throne.
So they were staying in the Imperial Capital a little longer, and the Imperial Capital was bustling.
Asil knew everything but grumbled anyway.
“Can’t we just not attend? Since we have a personal relationship with His Majesty, perhaps we could ask for understanding and request a schedule adjustment.”
“Reflecting private relationships in official duties to gain convenience is inappropriate conduct. Above all, it violates civil service behavioral guidelines.”
Even in this situation, Rianel distinguished between public and private matters.
“Then just one more time.”
Asil tried to embrace Rianel, but she turned and avoided him.
“It’s time to leave, so please prepare quickly. If we want to resubmit the marriage proposal letter to His Majesty the Emperor and receive approval, shouldn’t we show a sincere attitude?”
Asil froze stiff.
“Approval, you say.”
“I judge it to be an appropriate time to hold a wedding.”
Rianel spoke matter-of-factly, as if suggesting they have breakfast together. So it took Asil a moment to understand the meaning.
Asil’s mouth gaped open.
‘You and I getting married?’
Really?
He stared intently at Rianel.
He wanted to check if there was anything different in Rianel’s expression.
When he forgot to blink until his eyes became dry.
“If it’s burdensome, we can postpone that plan—”
“I’m up!”
Asil immediately got up and put on his clothes.
He finished dressing at such speed that it was hard to believe he had been lying down just moments before.
“If we leave now, will there be any disruption to the schedule?”
“We are predicted to arrive at an appropriate time.”
Yes, I should marry you.
It was such a satisfying word to think about that Asil’s shoulders straightened with pride.
Asil stared at his face in the mirror.
It was the same face as usual, but thinking that he would become someone’s husband made his heart pound pleasantly.
At the same time, he felt anxious.
He worried that there might be flaws in the marriage proposal process that should be perfect.
Even if he prepared thoroughly, problems could arise elsewhere.
“Should I bring writing instruments?”
“That much should be available in His Majesty’s office.”
“But what if the ink is in poor condition?”
Rianel was exasperated.
“…If you continue to delay, I’ll leave first.”
“No. Let’s go together, yes.”
Asil hurriedly followed and took Rianel’s hand.
Asil’s broadly raised lips showed no sign of coming down for quite some time.
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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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