The Obsessive Male Lead Is Obsessed With Me! - 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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Episode 160

The Former Empress looked at Lionel with such a shocked expression, her lips trembling, not even realizing what kind of face she was making.

“You, you just now… you told me to…”

“I shall repay the grace of giving birth to me with this.”

As if the choices that followed were none of his concern, Lionel gave the Former Empress a brief bow.

For a farewell that would never come again, it was remarkably light and without any lingering attachment.

It was only natural. Despite sharing blood, the two of them were only that much to each other.

And so Lionel left without looking back.

The door closed again, and the Former Empress, left alone, looked at the medicine bottle on the floor and burst into laughter.

“Ha, haha! Hahahaha!”

Hot tears streamed down her cheeks.

“From now on, you need not call me mother. I won’t treat you as my son either.”

Those were words she herself had once spoken. So these shouldn’t be tears of regret. …They shouldn’t have been.

‘If only I had properly embraced and raised that child…’

Would something have been different then?

…It would have been different. More than different enough.

Come to think of it, when was the last time she heard that child call her mother?

No matter how much she rewound time, she couldn’t quite remember. The Former Empress shed tears steadily.

‘If only I had raised Lionel more properly…’

Then he might not have grown into a cold-blooded person who would point a sword at his own brother.

In the end, even in the moment before death, her regret settled on her eldest son, who had been a source of pain from the moment he was born.

‘Cayen, at least you…’

The Former Empress, having made her resolution, bit her finger and left a brief will on the floor with her blood.

[I will take all the sins with me as I leave.]

Then she brought the medicine bottle Lionel had given her to her lips.

“Cough… Cough!”

Though she didn’t doubt for a moment that she could die without pain, the moment she swallowed the liquid, she felt a burning pain starting from her throat and spreading inside her stomach.

“Cough, cough…!”

She couldn’t even scream. Rolling on the floor from unbearable pain, the Former Empress crawled to a corner so that the will she had left wouldn’t be erased.

“Urgh…! Urgh, urgh…!”

Through the long night, not even knowing who truly wanted revenge on her, the Former Empress died after a long time of resenting and cursing Lionel.

Lionel didn’t know this fact, but even if he had known, it wouldn’t have mattered much to him.

Whether the birth mother who bore him died resenting him or not made no difference to him whatsoever.

* * *

Two days later.

It was announced that the Former Empress had admitted to all crimes and committed suicide.

In a trial without a defendant, the Former Empress was found guilty of all charges against her and her deposition was decided.

No death sentence was handed down. She was already dead.

Immediately after, the Minister of Justice, who served as judge, continued with a heavy voice.

“Now then, we shall also render judgment on the crimes of His Imperial Majesty the Emperor.”

Like the Former Empress, the Emperor also did not come to the courtroom. Nevertheless, the Minister of Justice raised his gavel, saying he would render judgment on the Emperor.

“Emperor Cayen von Altehaide ascended to the throne based on the Former Emperor’s will and oracle, but since it has been confirmed that all such evidence was fabricated, his enthronement is declared invalid.”

Bang, bang, bang.

The gavel struck three times and the judgment was complete.

In fact, there were many crimes the Emperor had committed that could be examined if one wished to…

“My, this leaves a bitter taste.”

“That’s exactly what I mean. The Former Empress… no, the Deposed Empress is one thing, but who would have known that the Deposed Emperor would die so futilely?”

Long sighs could be heard from various parts of the courtroom.

“But about that death… was it really suicide?”

When someone raised a question in a small voice, a noble who had been whispering together clicked his tongue briefly and answered.

“It must be. The stone tablet didn’t break, did it?”

So, the Former Empress never knew until the moment of her death.

That the ‘grace of giving birth’ Lionel mentioned was repaid by not telling her that Cayen was already dead.

* * *

The antidote Nicole made helped restore Cayen’s body to some extent.

However, proportionally, the hallucinations he saw became clearer, and the voices he heard also became more distinct.

“No… Don’t, please… Stop dying. Don’t die in front of me…”

No matter how much he closed his eyes and covered his ears, the sight of Cecilia dying before him and her screams wouldn’t easily disappear.

Despite the antidote having a positive effect on him, he looked more haggard and gaunt than ever.

“Stop, stop it! Stop!”

His voice had long since become hoarse from screaming so much.

Even the guard outside the door had left his post at that croaking sound. This was possible because permission had been given that guarding wasn’t necessary.

After all, the entrance to this tower was firmly locked, and it would be impossible for him, weak in stamina, to come down from the solitary cell on the 10th floor to the 1st floor.

“Why, why… Why do I only see such sights, why…”

Cayen shed tears while covering both eyes with his hands. It was because he felt so wronged.

She showed such a gentle smile to Lionel, so why only to me!

‘It was a political marriage anyway. She just wanted to become Empress. Then she could have been my wife too!’

‘Because you killed me!’

“No! That’s not true! I didn’t know that blue bird was you!”

If he had known, he would have cherished her. He would have put her in a golden cage and adorned her body with splendid jewels. He would have shown her only beautiful things, fed her only precious food, and let her hear only gentle sounds.

All of this was her fault for not revealing her identity and appearing as a blue bird.

If he could turn back time, if he could return to when he first met that blue bird…

“Chirp?”

“…Huh?”

A bird’s cry brushed past his ear. Cayen looked up in surprise and stared ahead.

“Chirp, chirp.”

A blue bird with feathers the exact same color as Cecilia’s hair was before his eyes.

The blue bird, fluttering its tiny wings and floating in the air…

“Chirp!”

“Where, where are you going! Don’t go, come here!”

Cayen hurriedly got up and chased after the blue bird escaping outside.

Chasing after the blue bird fluttering away with his weakened body was harder than expected.

Cayen fell several times while running through the corridor and climbing the stairs.

But he didn’t stop. He didn’t take his eyes off the blue bird flying precariously, as if it might disappear from his sight at any moment.

“Chirp!”

Before he knew it, he was on the rooftop.

The railing only came up to his waist. There was a danger of falling if he made a wrong move.

However, the heartless blue bird flew outside the railing, and Cayen couldn’t catch it before reaching the railing.

“Chirp!”

“No… No, don’t go! Come back to me!”

Though he shouted loudly enough to taste blood in his throat, the blue bird didn’t look back.

The sight of it getting farther away seemed like it would disappear at any moment. Watching this, Cayen gritted his teeth.

‘Am I going to lose it again?’

He would chase it wherever it went.

Even if what awaited at the end was death!

“I will never let you go! Never!”

The waist-high railing couldn’t stop Cayen. It couldn’t protect him.

And so, the next moment…

“Your, Your Holiness! Your Holiness!”

The Pope, who had been sitting alone in the prayer room offering prayers, was startled by the urgent pounding on the door and rose from his seat.

“What is the matter?”

“The, the stone tablet has broken!”

“What?”

“The stone tablet, the, the Emperor’s stone tablet…!”

The breaking of the stone tablet meant that the fate arranged by God had been fulfilled.

[He shall take his own life by his own will]

“So it has come to pass after all…”

“Pardon?”

“It’s nothing.”

The Pope, who let out a small sigh, looked at the priest with a rather calm expression for someone who had just heard shocking news.

“Since the stone tablet has been destroyed, we must announce this news to the world. We should ring the bell nine times.”

Since the trial had not yet been held, Cayen was still the Emperor for now.

When an Emperor passed away, it was customary to ring the bell nine times to announce his death. For the Temple, it was necessary to ring the bell to announce that the Emperor had met the fate arranged by God.

“May he find peace in God’s embrace…”

From the Pope’s perspective, the Emperor was simply one person who had lived and died according to the fate arranged by God.

Therefore, the Pope resumed the prayer that had been interrupted. Hoping that the soul who had just met death would be guided to God.

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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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