I Possessed The Immoral Empress - Chapter 27

She walked through the dense fog.

Within the thick fog, where she couldn’t even discern the path.

To be honest, she couldn’t tell whether she was lost or just wandering, searching for something.

She simply kept on walking, aimlessly.

Ermedeline, or rather, the late Hyeyoung, had no memories of her parents.

She had been abandoned as a very young baby.

In the orphanage, children who had been separated from their parents for even one side longed for their moms and dads every day.

Although she didn’t understand why they were searching for parents who never came, the sight of these crying children was enough to capture young Ermedeline’s attention.

“Why are you crying?”

“I miss my mom. She said she’d come if I slept for ten nights, but it’s been over twenty nights already.”

“Would it be nice to have your mom here?”

“Of course. Moms are amazing. Do you not have a mom?”

The child asked the question innocently, but it left a deep scar in Ermedeline’s soul.

“Yeah, I don’t have one.”

As she grew older, Hyeyoung thought it was better not to have memories of her parents at all.

Without a specific object of longing, Hyeyoung wasn’t sure exactly what part of her life she should feel sad about.

Of course, she envied the children who held their mother’s hand on picnics, but that was about it.

Once those moments passed, she didn’t really pay them much attention.

As time went on, she reached adulthood. At the threshold of standing alone in the world, she couldn’t help but feel a little regretful about the presence of her parents.

Whenever she saw friends discussing college choices and talking about their future hopes, she couldn’t help but think how nice it would have been if there had been someone who would give her money without any conditions.

Most of the children in the orphanage longed for the very concept of having a family.

And so, these children thrust into the world often created families of their own at a young age.

And so, makeshift families formed purely out of necessity often didn’t have happy endings.

Of course, there were those who created happy families, but for the most part, they either ended in divorce or found it challenging to live the picture-perfect family life they had dreamed of, even if they stayed together.

In the face of economic challenges, their long-standing desires didn’t offer any help.

Therefore, Hyeyoung agreed with her boyfriend’s suggestion to postpone marriage.

She wanted to establish a stable foundation and be ready to raise a child just like everyone else when the time was right.

‘Family.’

It was a word that made her heart flutter just by thinking about it, but she had consciously avoided dwelling on it.

Suddenly, a cool breeze brushed across her forehead, sending a shiver down her spine.

‘Didn’t I feel this way not too long ago?’

Ermedeline couldn’t recall the exact circumstances, but still half-asleep, she forced herself not to remember.

She was afraid of losing this pleasant coolness, so she closed her eyes and pretended to keep sleeping.

However, closing her eyes couldn’t prevent her from waking up completely.

Suddenly, the hazy fog in front of her dissipated, and everything became clear.

‘Family.’

A word she had avoided and pushed aside but had longed for desperately all along.

As Ermedeline slowly opened her eyes, she saw Priestess Louise, who was touching her forehead with a worried expression.

‘Right. Someone tried to kill me before.’

Back then, it had been a complete stranger, but this time, it was family.

Tears welled up in Ermedeline’s eyes as she struggled to open them.

“Your Majesty! Please come to your senses!”

Rooney, who had been watching her closely, leaped forward and grabbed Ermedeline’s hand.

It felt warm.

It was a different temperature from the coolness on her forehead, but it brought the same pleasant feeling.

“Why are you crying? Does something hurt?”

Rooney looked at Louise with widened eyes, but Louise only shook her head, not indicating any physical discomfort.

“There doesn’t seem to be any physical issues. The curse has been successfully reflected.”

‘Family.’

While others might have said something, in Ermedeline’s mind, this sorrowful word continued to circle.

Even when her first father had swung a sword, or when the relatives in the courtroom had glared at her with resentful eyes, she hadn’t felt this kind of pain.

Suddenly, a wave of sorrow washed over her.

‘My family hates me. My family wants to kill me.’

“Uuhuhuhuhuu… Huuuhuu… Huuu…”

As soon as she opened her eyes, Ermedeline burst into tears like a young child. Louise, Rooney, and even Henry and Félio, who were nearby, were startled.

“Uuhuh! Your Majesty, please calm down!”

An alarmed Rooney tried to soothe Ermedeline by bouncing around, but her crying didn’t stop for a while.

How much time had passed?

Tears dried from Ermedeline’s eyes, and the trembling in her shoulders gradually disappeared.

Rooney and Margo supported Ermedeline as she attempted to sit up.

With great effort, Ermedeline’s gaze slowly, very slowly turned towards Henry.

“Where is Ferdant?”

This was truly an unexpected turn of events.

As the ruler of the empire, Henry had developed a habit of considering all possible situations that could arise. However, he had never predicted such a situation.

A witch crying, and crying like a child at that.

What was even more bewildering was that her crying wasn’t for herself.

There were still uncertainties, but the situation that Félio and Louise were witnessing.

At least outwardly, Henry had agreed to allow the meeting between Ermedeline and Ferdant once the empress had calmed down.

“Once the empress has settled down a bit, let’s go see him together. He is staying in the mansion near the palace.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Ermedeline, with her tears and runny nose, lowered her head while managing a faint smile. Her appearance, with her disheveled hair, looked strange yet familiar to Henry.

Involuntarily, Henry was about to reach out and tidy up Ermedeline’s messy hair, but fortunately, Rooney was quicker.

Henry felt a sense of relief as he watched Rooney efficiently straightening out Ermedeline’s hair.

“It’s late today, so rest for now. I will arrange for your son to meet you whenever the empress desires.”

Looking at the woman crying her heart out, Henry’s voice was unusually gentle, perhaps due to his weakened resolve.

Ermedeline stared at Henri’s departing figure with a complex gaze.

‘That’s my husband, too. Another family member who will use me and burn me at the stake.

His affection and consideration were not directed at her, the wife, in any way.

They were aimed solely at the empress, a political ally to prevent damage to the dignity of the royal family.

In this world, Ermedeline had families connected by blood and marriage, but she was completely alone.

Ermedeline’s misdeeds had clearly exceeded any level of forgiveness, but the situation of her only family, her son, being held hostage, made one wonder just how desperate she must have been.

Of course, it was rare for someone to use the fact that their family was held hostage to cruelly and relentlessly harm others.

In that regard, there was no excuse for Ermedeline’s misdeeds in the novel.

She was indeed a witch, a ruthless demon with a heart made of stone.

But that demon was an abused daughter, an ignored wife, and someone’s mother.

“There’s still some discussion to be had, but I collapsed, so Your Excellency has to come all the way here.”

After taking a moment to compose herself, Ermedeline forced a smile and raised her voice as she looked towards Félio, who stood a bit further back.

“Oh, yes, well…”

In truth, he had come more out of concern for Ermedeline’s condition than for any discussion, but she remained unaware of this fact.

Henry had left only a few minutes ago.

After crying so heavily, even though her recovery was swift, Félio couldn’t easily adjust to the unexpectedly fast change in Ermedeline’s demeanor.

“Your Majesty, it’s almost dinner time. Would you like to have a meal and talk with His Excellency?”

But the efficient Rooney quickly understood the situation and tried to lighten the mood.

When real-world problems piled up, it wasn’t difficult to ignore emotional wounds.

Ermedeline had been training to return to the harsh realities of the world since a very young age, so it was natural for her to quickly transition from the emotional outburst to the practical issues at hand.

Of course, Rooney, who hadn’t exactly grown up delicately, also possessed this ability.

As a result, while Henry and Louise had left the situation behind, only Félio remained somewhat stuck in the atmosphere from earlier.

The woman had cried.

Félio believed she was a demon, someone who wouldn’t bleed even if you pricked her, or if she did, the blood would be a deadly poison that could kill a person instantly.

But the tears flowing from the woman’s eyes were not poison.

It was just a clear liquid, endlessly flowing down the pale cheeks, and when it reached the slender jaw, it fell silently, weakly downward.

Inert, truly inert.

Félio stood there as if he had turned into a pillar of stone, but in reality, chaos was swirling within him.

It had been seven years since his mother passed away.

Before that, Félio had not been particularly adept at socializing, but after his mother’s passing, his aversion to women had rapidly worsened.

He had been forced into various social gatherings, but even speaking to women, or even exchanging light greetings, had become difficult for him.

And Ermedeline wasn’t just crying; she had been wailing loudly. But now, she was looking at Rooney and offering a faint smile.

Félio had no idea how he should react in such a situation.

“Sir. How about we have dinner together and discuss what needs to be said?”

Félio’s confused mind was soothed by Ermedeline’s calm voice.

It was like a solitary lighthouse shining in the pitch-black night sea with no stars.

“I’m sure your son misses you too.”

“?”

It was a somewhat unrelated response to the question, but Ermedeline quickly grasped his meaning.

In his own way, Félio had offered words of comfort.

“So, are you going to eat dinner? Not going to eat? Is this a secret, by any chance?”

Félio continued to chew his lips, not eating the food prepared for him.

‘A secret? A secret?? A secret???’

Ermedeline’s mischievous voice grew louder in his head.

Of course, Félio knew that Ermedeline was just making a light-hearted remark.

And he should have just laughed off that remark.

 

However, the moment he heard those words, vivid memories from the past came rushing back, and Félio involuntarily made a strange noise.

“Well… of co…cough.”

He had intended to reply with something like, “Of course not,” but his tongue got tangled up midway.

Félio felt like he wanted to disappear into a mouse hole, but Rooney grabbed his belly and started rolling on the floor, laughing uncontrollably.

“Hu…ahahahahaha! Hahahahaha! Hahahaha!”

It seemed like the witch wasn’t Ermedeline but her maid, Rooney.

Ermedeline, with a round expression, scolded Rooney for the sake of Félio, who stood there looking bewildered.

“Your Excellency seems to have had a little trouble with his tongue. It must be embarrassing for him, so stop laughing.”

However, even Ermedeline, who was trying to restrain Rooney, seemed to find it difficult to hold back her laughter, as she was shaking her shoulders while keeping her lips tightly sealed.

“Uh, uh… uh, uh, uh…”

Ermedeline, on the verge of suffocation from holding back her laughter, finally gave in.

“Just laugh it off, okay? Don’t try to hold it in and collapse because of me.”

In their own way, they were teasing him, but as soon as the words were out, Ermedeline started laughing hysterically.

Ermedeline and Rooney held onto each other, nearly wailing as they shed tears, and then finally, the laughter subsided.