Transparent tears soaked the woman's face.
He looked down at her with a numb gaze and then knelt down on one knee in front of her.
"As you said, I don't understand Your Majesty's pain at all. But I remember the despair of a child who has nowhere to turn."
Light slowly returned to her eyes, which had been empty like black holes.
He reached into his coat, pulled out a handkerchief, and wiped the tears from her damp cheeks, just as she had once wiped his.
"Please be strong for the sake of His Highness the Crown Prince and Her Highness the Princess."
The Empress's face was stained with guilt and shame.
The woman lowered her head weakly as her thin shoulders trembled slightly.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that to you."
He gently patted the Empress's shoulder as she sobbed like a little girl.
A moment later, he carefully lifted the unconscious Empress, who seemed to have fainted, and laid her on the bed. He quietly walked outside, only to find Gareth standing with his back against the wall in the hallway.
“Follow me.”
A boy with bloodshot eyes shining menacingly, suddenly grabbed him and dragged him away.
Barcas followed the Crown Prince silently.
“Look over there.”
Gareth dragged him up to the watchtower connected to the main palace, leaned against the railing, and pointed outside.
He went and stood next to the boy.
A couple was having a secret meeting in the garden of the palace where the Emperor used to relax.
He could easily recognize the Emperor's sallow, wavy hair and bold face. A man, his hair flowing loose over his muscular, bony shoulders, sat slumped against a chair, his hands clasped around a woman's waist.
He studied the slender woman leaning against the Emperor. Aside from her long, light-colored hair and her oddly proportioned physique, he found nothing remarkable about her.
What on earth was it about that woman that made the Emperor of the Empire break his oath to God and betray his honor?
He gave her a suspicious look, and the woman raised her eyes as if she sensed his gaze.
In an instant, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. His skin went cold, as if he were about to witness something terribly dangerous.
The woman, who had been staring intently at him, narrowed her eyes and smiled mockingly. Then, she grabbed the Emperor by the hair and roughly pulled him towards her. She handled him as if he were some insignificant relic, not the most precious being in the empire.
In that arrogant grip, the ruler who seemed cast from steel crumbled like a sandcastle. The bodies of the man and woman, seemingly bursting with life, overlapped under the bright sunlight, their lips greedily latched onto each other.
"Filthy Beasts."
Gareth muttered like a growling beast.
"A week ago, he brought that woman to the villa and started doing that. Then she came all the way to the garden of the Empress's Palace and insulted my mother."
The boy's bloodshot eyes, glaring at the two entangled men and women, were bloodshot.
He gripped the railing tightly with both hands and spat out the words.
"That's why Mother took poison. Because of that dirty whore."
As his body trembled, Gareth kicked the closet over as if in a fit, then began to trample on all the rubbish that had fallen on the floor.
The flash, which started like an explosion, ended only after everything in the room was shattered.
"I will definitely become Emperor. Then I will make that woman kneel before me and pour the poison my mother drank down her throat."
The boy turned to him with tear-soaked eyes as he gasped for breath amidst the chaos.
"Your role is to bring that prostitute to me and make her kneel. I will become the Emperor of the empire, and you will become the ruler of the east and my closest confidant. Let us avenge the humiliation suffered by Mother.
He turned his head and looked down the railing again. The sight of Bernadette, who was fading away, overlapped with the sight of the two men and women who had been clinging to each other since broad daylight.
She was the one who rescued Barcas from a place that was no different from prison and took care of him like her own child for seven years.
Why can't he feel the same intense anger as Gareth?
All he could feel was compassion for the Empress and a sense of power over the vile acts they were committing.
Gareth grabbed the hem of his clothes and pulled.
"You're going to do that, brother?"
Barcas lowered his gaze again and met Gareth's unsteady eyes.
Although he could not sympathize with his feelings, he was clearly aware that he owed the Empress an unpayable debt.
He reached out and lightly brushed Gareth's disheveled hair. Just as he was about to open his mouth to reply, the young boy's form suddenly disintegrated like sand. The chaotic landscape surrounding him was also enveloped in a dull, dull color.
The next moment, he was standing on the edge of a dark hallway, shrouded in darkness.
A faint sob came from somewhere. He turned his head and saw the maids wiping away tears.
One of them offered a polite greeting to him.
“You’re here.”
The maid's voice was cracking.
"Come inside. Her Majesty has been waiting for you.
He walked straight down the hall and into the Empress's bedroom.
In the room, brightly lit by candlelight, sat the Marquis of Oristain, her relatives, and the high priest. Their dark eyes darted toward him, then back to the bed in the center of the room.
He studied their faces for a moment, then slowly crossed the room.
“Barcas!”
A little girl who had been lying face down on the bed threw herself at him.
He wrapped one arm around the young Princess's body and gently patted her back, just as he had learned from the Empress long ago.
The girl hugged his neck with her slender arms and shed hot, wet tears.
"Barcas, Her Majesty..."
He looked down at the bed, brushing the girl's hair back as he couldn't quite forget what she was saying.
Within a few months, the Empress, now so gaunt that she was unrecognizable, smiled blankly at him. She looked so lifeless that it was hard to believe she was only thirty-one.
She reached out with her bare hand.
“Come here.”
He put Ayla down and knelt on one knee in front of the bed. The girl ran straight to her twin brother and hugged him tightly. Gareth held his sister tightly in his arms, desperately holding back tears.
Barcas glanced at the sight for a moment, then turned his gaze back to the Empress. She caressed his cheek with an icy hand.
"You've grown taller in the past few months. When you grow up, you'll be as tall as your father."
"..."
"Strange, isn't it? You look nothing like the Khans, yet when I see you, I'm reminded of the eastern steppes where I used to ride horses as a child. Perhaps that's why I kept you by my side."
The woman's face, which had been showing a faint smile on her lips, suddenly became expressionless.
The woman, who had been staring at him with eyes so dark they almost looked black, slowly lowered her hand.
"I didn't call you here to rant like this. I asked you to come quickly because I have a favor to ask of you."
“...Please ask.”
The woman couldn't open her mouth easily.
After a long struggle, the woman turned to her children, who were standing beside the bed. Only then, as if she had finally made up her mind, did she speak in a firm voice.
"You protect my children."
Barcas frowned.
He couldn't understand why she was asking for such a favor.
She was a member of Sheerkhan's clan, and the twins were also blood relatives of the family. He had a duty to protect them both.
He held the back of the woman's hand and answered in a calm tone.
"Even if you don't ask me to, I intend to protect you both to the best of my ability. That is also the will of the Grand Duke."
"I demand an oath from you. Barcas Raedgo Sheerkhan."
She grabbed his hand with all her might.
"Can you swear on God's name that you will protect Gareth and Ayla until the day you die?"
He looked down at the Empress quietly.
What she was asking for went beyond the duties that should properly be borne by the next Grand Duke.
A pledge that stakes his entire life.
He was reluctant to answer hastily because he knew the weight of it well.
But that hesitation was somewhat puzzling. Wasn't it simply a life lived because it was still breathing?
For the past seven years, he hasn't felt joy, not even sadness or anger. What value does a life of mechanical eating and self-fulfillment hold? Why hesitate to answer?
He turned his head and looked at Ayla and Gareth.
The twins stared at him with terrified eyes. Protecting them didn't seem like such a difficult task. After all, it was something he had to do.
He made up his mind and calmly spat out his words to the woman who had rescued him from the abyss and was trying to ensnare him again.
"In the name of God, I swear to protect you both until the end of my life."
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