The Villainess Lives Twice - Chapter 272

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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 272

43.

It was ten days later when the Emperor regained consciousness.

He opened his eyes, but his mind wasn’t immediately clear. His vision was hazy and whitish.

The doctor, who had been anxiously staying by his side day and night, was startled and rushed to him.

“Your Majesty, are you conscious? Can you see me?”

The Emperor, who was about to close his eyes again from fatigue, was awakened by that call.

But his vision was still blurry.

His limbs felt stiff and wouldn’t obey him well. The numbness in his legs and fingers upon waking had been going on for years.

The fatigue accumulated over the past few months had also reached its limit.

But this was the first time his entire body ached this much.

It wasn’t the places where he had been injured or overworked in his youth, but his whole body hurt. He realized anew that there were pain receptors throughout his skin.

The Emperor tried to speak, but it didn’t come easily.

The doctor quickly dripped a little water into his mouth through a tube. Then he moistened his lips with a damp cloth.

The Emperor spoke with difficulty in a cracked voice.

“What… happened to me?”

“You collapsed.”

The doctor said with a tearful expression.

No one had blamed him. However, no one had trembled with fear more than the doctor during the past ten days.

He had been anxious to the point of madness, wondering if the prescriptions he had given were wrong, or if his diagnosis of the chronic illness was incorrect.

At least it seemed his emergency treatment hadn’t been wrong.

The Emperor blinked several more times. His vision returned a little.

‘Collapsed…’

His memory of when that happened wasn’t clear.

The Emperor asked in a low voice.

“Will I be able to get up?”

“Your Majesty…”

“There’s no need to lie. Don’t speak nonsense to give me hope and mislead my judgment.”

The doctor spoke hesitantly and carefully.

“The condition of your urine is very poor.”

The Emperor had been warned about that problem for several years already. That’s why he didn’t press the doctor.

“I thought I had been quite careful.”

“I’m sorry.”

The doctor prostrated himself flat and trembled as he spoke.

The Emperor didn’t scold him. Instead, he spoke slowly.

“So, what should be done now?”

The doctor swallowed dryly.

He had barely overcome the crisis. However, this incident would accelerate the rate at which his body deteriorated.

“You must restrict your diet more thoroughly than before. In a place with good climate and tranquility… you must recuperate.”

“Is that all?”

At the Emperor’s question, the doctor carefully replied.

“Most foods that give you energy will be forbidden. You must thoroughly manage even the amount of water you drink per day.”

“…”

“So you cannot continue as before. You must rest. If you collapse even once more, then even if the god of death and Saint Olga came back to life, they couldn’t save Your Majesty.”

Those words suddenly made something flash through the Emperor’s mind.

“What about the Crown Princess?”

“Pardon?”

“Never mind.”

The doctor asked back, unable to understand the Emperor’s question.

“Never mind.”

The Emperor muttered. He thought he had spoken nonsense.

The chamberlain answered instead.

“We haven’t heard any news of her returning. Shall I call an investigator?”

That was referring to a secret investigator, not Ferguson, of course.

Since the Emperor valued the Crown Princess, they would have continued tracking her whereabouts even after she left the capital.

But the Emperor muttered in a tired voice.

“It’s fine.”

He was already too exhausted.

It was hard to accept the fact that he was bedridden. He was someone who had lived energetically all his life, both publicly and privately.

But even after just saying a few words like this, he had no strength. That fact made him even more tired.

“You should have at least a little soup before sleeping again.”

The chamberlain said gently.

The Emperor nodded.

The guard knight standing at the foot of the bed was restless. The ministers had been desperately waiting for the Emperor to wake up.

A servant had already gone out to spread the news. The sensitive knight’s ears could hear anxious footsteps pacing outside the door.

But the chamberlain put his finger to his lips to restrain him from speaking.

The Emperor drank about half a bowl of soup. Then he sat waiting for it to settle, and suddenly muttered.

“I miss Milaire.”

No one responded to those words.

Cedric was summoned after the Emperor had slept once more and awakened again.

The Emperor had eaten once more and had a servant apply makeup to his face.

It was to look even a little healthier.

“Aside from the tasks I had already assigned, you decided nothing?”

“When Your Majesty is well, how could I arbitrarily handle state affairs?”

“If I am absent, the Crown Prince should naturally handle government affairs in my place.”

“I handled routine government affairs and investigative activities on my own. However, for matters requiring decisions, it’s proper to obtain Your Majesty’s approval.”

So Cedric said he had only prepared things so the Emperor could decide whenever he woke up.

The Emperor looked at Cedric with a heavy heart.

He felt frustrated and irritated. He couldn’t tell if this faithfulness was sincere, or because he hadn’t yet obtained control of the Central Army.

Or perhaps he was being leisurely because he thought the Emperor was going to die anyway.

The doctor would have reported his health condition to Cedric first.

Cedric would resent him. Just as Artizea had said.

Cedric had buried his resentment for his lost parents in the ground for the sake of his wife and child.

And he had pushed that wife to the western regions to die.

It would be strange if he didn’t harbor resentment. If it had been him, he wouldn’t have missed the opportunity.

One cannot take revenge on the dead. If he was going to do it, now was the time.

“You must have heard from the doctor that I am ill. Even now I don’t have the strength to handle the backlog of state affairs. Knowing this, yet waiting for my approval despite having sufficient authority. Isn’t this rather mocking me?”

“I was only concerned that if I handled things arbitrarily and Your Majesty canceled them, it would be a waste of national resources.”

The Emperor understood Cedric’s meaning.

So Cedric seemed to think that whatever he did, the Emperor would cancel it all when he woke up.

“Huu…”

His chest felt tight and he broke out in cold sweat, so the Emperor tilted his head back and leaned deeply into the cushion.

He still hadn’t fully accepted reality in his heart. But he had no choice but to acknowledge it in the end.

Handling government affairs would be impossible from now on. He had decided to meet people for just today because he couldn’t abandon state affairs.

“Lin.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“You shall assist the Crown Prince and oversee all state affairs.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I will serve with all my life and devotion.”

Lin knelt and answered.

“I will do my best.”

Cedric quietly lowered his eyes and answered only that.

His expression was unreadable. At least he didn’t appear to be rejoicing over the transfer of power.

The Emperor thought that Cedric might now have learned to disguise his emotions beyond merely hiding them.

While thinking this, he suddenly remembered that he had forgotten about Artizea.

Perhaps that was why Cedric looked melancholy.

With his body ailing, his thoughts simply wouldn’t connect and flow coherently.

“Do you resent me over your wife’s matter?”

“…Tia would have gone to the Western Regions even if Your Majesty hadn’t sent her.”

Cedric answered in a subdued voice.

“Are you receiving news?”

“…A maid is sending reports.”

The Emperor looked at Cedric with dark eyes.

“Tell her to return.”

“Your Majesty.”

“I am now ill and lack the strength to harm you and your wife. So tell her to come back.”

Realistically, that was true.

Was there reason enough to eliminate Artizea even at the cost of his own life? There was not.

Even if he wanted to make Leticia his successor, it was already too late given his physical condition.

If he had no choice but to pass the throne to Cedric anyway, it would be better to reconcile with Artizea.

Artizea was a saint.

The Emperor suspected that Artizea’s holy power might be what revived the miracles of sacred relics.

When Mielr recovered, the statue of Saint Olga had been present. There was also information that in the Western Regions, Lisia was traveling with sacred relics as the saint’s representative, healing the plague.

The Council of Bishops held the same view.

“I will entrust my remaining years to you both.”

The Emperor said.

Could he entrust his life to Artizea? He could not. He wouldn’t be able to do so even out of anxiety.

That was the cold judgment.

Cedric would consider how the noise arising from state affairs or the succession process might affect the political situation, but Artizea would not.

Even knowing this, he felt the urge to cling to a thread of hope.

He wanted to pray to the Divine he had never believed in for the first time in decades. Yet doubt and impatience clawed at his heart.

‘Growing old is truly ugly.’

The Emperor thought this of himself.

There had been a time when he would stake his life and charge forward, saying it would be better to die than not obtain what he desired.

Now he was desperate to live, nearly to the point of madness.

“I am deeply grateful.”

Cedric bowed his head. The Emperor gazed at the crown of his head before turning away and closing his eyes.

“Withdraw and fulfill your duties, Crown Prince.”

“Yes.”

Cedric answered and withdrew.

The Emperor let out a light sigh.

The Chamberlain helped him lie down again. The Emperor soon fell back into sleep.

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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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