The Villainess Lives Twice - Chapter 285

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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 285

“What?”

The Emperor didn’t immediately understand those words and asked back.

The Chamberlain placed a cushion behind the Emperor’s back so he could sit up. Then he offered him lukewarm water.

The Emperor did not accept it.

The Chamberlain spoke with an unchangingly calm expression.

“Your Majesty saved my life. You may have forgotten.”

“Theodore…”

The Emperor started to speak but then closed his mouth.

That was when he was twenty years old.

Though he had received the Empress Dowager’s favor, he had not gained his father’s recognition, and the high nobles scorned him as a lowborn bastard during that time.

Theodore was the legitimate heir of Duke Orca’s family, the Empress Dowager’s maternal relatives. At that time, he was not someone to be confronted lightly.

The Chamberlain said.

“When Duke Orca’s heir tried to kill me, you saved me. Do you remember what you said to me then?”

The Emperor did not remember exactly. What had been important to him then was the very fact that he had confronted Theodore.

And how that incident would appear to Duke Orca and the Empress Dowager.

Later, he thought it was truly fortunate coincidence that he had taken in the Chamberlain because of that incident.

The Chamberlain spoke with a voice that seemed choked with emotion.

“The lives of Imperial citizens are governed by Imperial law, so no matter how high one’s authority, how could it be proper to beat someone to death with fists on the spot?”

“…”

“At that moment, I thought I should serve this person for life.”

Most palace servants lived miserable lives.

Since they served the Imperial family, their status could not be too low. However, unlike close advisors who assisted from nearby, they had no power and always had to bow their bodies.

Physical hardship was a secondary problem. Proper nobles would not want to work as servants.

Therefore, it was most common for fallen nobles to sell their children to become servants.

Or it was work often chosen by those who were completely pushed out of family inheritance and had no inherited wealth, making their livelihood difficult.

If not that, it was only cases where they lacked the ability to send their children as close advisors, but sent them hoping for Imperial favor.

Even in such cases, they were reluctant to send legitimate sons, so they would adopt bastards and send them instead.

Sometimes they would gain favor and obtain power. Some became close advisors from servants, then gained recognition for their abilities and became powerful ministers.

However, most were treated worse than palace furniture.

Furniture that had been passed down for over a hundred years was treated as precious and handled carefully, but slapping a servant’s cheek was nothing at all.

The Chamberlain had heard for the first time then that such things should not be done.

“What would someone like me know about politics? The only thing I could do in my lifetime was to watch over whether there was poison in Your Majesty’s food, whether your sleeping quarters were comfortable, and whether there were any trivial interruptions when you wished to do important work.”

“Willi.”

“However, there was a reason why such a person served Your Majesty.”

Loyalty is not based solely on personal affection.

The Chamberlain owed the Emperor a debt for saving his life. However, he had not devoted his entire life solely to repay that debt.

“When Your Majesty was angry, you sometimes threw objects. You scolded servants, and more often used them as scapegoats in conspiracies.”

The Chamberlain spoke slowly.

“But you never directly beat or trampled subordinates with your hands and feet, or deliberately humiliated them.”

“…”

“You were cruel, and sometimes you did things that brought tears of sympathy even to the eyes of this servant who served you.”

Having served closest to him for a lifetime, he knew best.

“But everything was done with purpose.”

Until his ascension, assassinations and poisoning attempts continued. Political retaliation was also carried out without rest.

There were times when purges occurred every other year.

Whenever the word treason was mentioned, the cries of those who died by association tore through the night sky. The blood of those who died under false accusations flowed like rivers.

Still, the Chamberlain never had a heart that blamed the Emperor.

He believed the world beyond would become better.

The lives of Imperial citizens are governed only by Imperial law. He thought such a world would be created.

Even if it was to elevate Imperial authority.

The Chamberlain was not foolish either. He knew that the Emperor’s confrontation with Duke Orca’s heir was not simply because he pitied someone who was nearly beaten to death.

Including all of that, he still believed there was a divine mandate given to the Emperor.

“Even someone like me had a world I looked toward through Your Majesty. Even if it might not be achieved immediately in Your Majesty’s reign, even if it might never be achieved, I had a world I hoped for, Your Majesty.”

There was someone who believed that massaging and wiping your hands and feet was the path to approaching my dreams.

The Chamberlain looked down at the Emperor.

“Lord Lawrence first hit a servant when he was nine years old.”

The Emperor probably wouldn’t remember, so the Chamberlain didn’t even ask.

“That servant was a thirteen-year-old child. He had just entered the palace, but because he was a clever boy, I deliberately selected him and assigned him to Lord Lawrence.”

It was because he knew the Emperor’s heart was with Lawrence.

He hoped that by forming connections from childhood, Lawrence would also have such a servant, just as he served the Emperor.

Lawrence beat that servant every day. He found trivial faults just to beat him. Whether he tied shoelaces wrong, or book corners were bent.

Later, he didn’t even bother finding faults. The servant child endured and endured with his whole body covered in bruises until his heart broke.

After that, the Chamberlain never assigned young servants to Lawrence.

Lawrence laughed while beating people. That violence had no purpose.

When Lawrence finally beat someone to death with his own hands for the first time, the Chamberlain reported that fact to the Emperor.

He didn’t expect great punishment. But he hoped the Emperor would speak as he had when he saved me again.

“The lives of Imperial citizens must be governed only by Imperial law. You are not qualified until you understand that.”

He too had a world he hoped for, and wished it would be achieved through the Emperor.

Even if he forgave his son out of love, he hoped he would prevent him from touching the precious Empire.

The Emperor did not do so. He was still immature, still full of youthful vigor, there were things to be angry about. He covered it up with such excuses.

「Don’t worry too much. That fellow is excessively arrogant and has cruel aspects, but he’s not foolish. Aren’t Marquess Rosan and the Crown Princess by his side?」

The Chamberlain had nodded at those words.

Perhaps he had been completely wrong in his thinking. Governance might be unrelated to individual character.

The Emperor was also a cruel person, but hadn’t he still made him dream?

Surely that was why Marquess Rosan and the Saintess had chosen Lawrence.

But the Saintess died. Lawrence destroyed the Empire.

He witnessed it all.

And one day when he suddenly opened his eyes, he realized he had returned to the past.

This time, the Emperor covered up Lawrence’s use of a child as prey.

What he cared about then was that Lawrence’s crimes had worsened public opinion.

This time too, he was not angry about violating Imperial law.

“I would not dare say I have rights to Your Majesty’s throne. But the throne Your Majesty sits upon was not the throne I had dreamed of.”

The Emperor was looking up at him with his mouth agape in bewilderment.

“Your Majesty has never failed to achieve what you intended.”

Tears dripped from the Chamberlain’s eyes.

“So I killed Your Majesty. Little by little over the past two years.”

He had served for forty years. In the Chamberlain’s memory, there were twelve more years beyond that.

The Chamberlain had virtually no one who could be called family. His parents were already dead. He had cut off his siblings, fearing they would burden the Emperor.

The Emperor was the pillar he had devoted everything to polish and care for throughout his life, and his roof.

Caring for the Empire’s pillar was his pride. When the Emperor gave him trust, he felt as secure and reassured as someone under a roof even in pouring rain.

But if that was not a proper pillar, what should he do?

Marquess Rosan’s actions had changed from what he knew. The Chamberlain realized she had also returned.

So instead of toppling the pillar, he decided to gradually wear it down. To give her time to erect a new pillar and roof.

He first changed the Emperor’s diet.

He told Countess Unise about the herbs to steep in honey water differently from what the doctor had said.

He added and subtracted some ingredients from the medicines the doctor provided monthly. He also prepared and served food using other medicinal ingredients, claiming they were good for health.

He had cared for the Emperor’s illness for 20 years, and adding the vanished future’s 10 years, for 30 years total.

During the last year before the Emperor’s death, he had desperately clung to the lifeline.

He knew the Emperor’s health condition better than even the doctor. What was good for him and what was bad.

He did things that were both beneficial and harmful to the illness simultaneously.

He made it feel like his condition and stamina were being maintained, while thoroughly controlling the situation. If things suddenly worsened, the doctor might notice and treat him.

The Emperor stared at him in bewilderment.

When they first met, they were both rosy-cheeked young boys. He had watched him for forty years. They had grown old together, and each other’s faces were more familiar than their own.

But now the Chamberlain’s aged face looked like that of a stranger.

“You, Willi, you…”

The Emperor could only say those words.

He felt something like a ball of fire rising from his chest.

“Ugh! Urgh!”

He vomited blood.

“I will stay by your side until the end, Your Majesty.”

The Chamberlain said. He didn’t hesitate to catch the blood the Emperor vomited with his hands.

Just as he had when he was faithful.

* * *

Returning to the Imperial Palace, Cedric headed straight to the Empress’s Palace rather than the Imperial Prince’s Palace. Gayan followed behind him, reporting on the situation within the palace.

“All 34 Imperial Guards except for 6 Guard Knights are currently protecting the Imperial Palace. 124 Imperial Guard soldiers were casualties, but the palace is now stable.”

“Are all 34 of them trustworthy?”

“There are several who need watching, but I’ve positioned them where they can be observed. And the Imperial Prince’s Palace is…”

Cedric stopped walking.

“Later.”

“My apologies.”

Gayan stepped back.

Music was still flowing abundantly from the salon in the Empress’s Palace.

Cedric flung open the door without even thinking to remove his gloves and boots crusted with dried blood. Dark red stains remained on his temples as well.

The startled musicians stopped their hands. Everyone in the salon turned their gaze toward him.

What the Crown Prince had been doing was obvious.

As was the fact that he had won.

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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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