I Possessed The Immoral Empress - Chapter 32

She felt like her heart was going to explode.

For the first time today, Ermedeline realized that when you’re too happy, you can’t react at all.

“Th-thank you.”

She barely managed to open her lips, her voice trembling with gratitude.

Rooney, watching the scene from the sidelines, jumped up and down, tears streaming down his face as if he had been exonerated of murder.

So many emotions came and went in such a short time in Ermedeline’s mind.

Overwhelmed by a wave of emotions that could not be defined by a single word, Ermedeline was completely exhausted.

After the couple left, she smiled brightly at Felio and nodded slightly.

Afterward, she approached Henry and bowed deeply with a respectful demeanor.

“Thank you for keeping your promise.”

As Ermedeline quietly left the courtroom, leaning on Rooney, the two men were captivated by different impressions.

The bright smile that emerged on her face, completely soaked with tears, seemed like a pure moonflower casting a gentle light on a dark moonlit night.

Félio, who had been suppressing his emotions throughout the trial, not wanting to feel anything towards Ermedeline, completely crumbled the moment he saw that smile.

There was no way to prevent one’s gaze from being drawn to the tears at the corner of her tightly curved eyes and the slender shoulders trembling with joy.

Félio, facing that sight, suddenly found Ermedeline adorable.

If the frail thread of his last strand of reason hadn’t held him back, he might have unconsciously reached out to wipe the tears from Ermedeline’s wet eyes.

He couldn’t react in his confusion, but Ermedeline had already turned and approached Henry.

Knowing that they were like enemies as a couple made him feel uncomfortable.

Ermedeline, in the blink of an eye, erased her smile completely from her face and bowed deeply to Henry with an expressionless face.

The perfectly polite attitude contrasting with what she had shown to him was oddly unsettling, and, strangely enough, Félio’s lips began to twitch at the sight.

The distance between the two couples swiftly restored Félio’s mood.

On the other hand, Henry felt displeased as he received Ermedeline’s greeting.

Just a moment ago, she had smiled brightly at Félio and now she greeted him so politely. What a contrast.

Sure, that lawyer was just the son of the Batistian family, a mere house of justice, but wasn’t he her husband, her family?

Moreover, even if that lawyer defended the boy, it was ultimately his decision that had led to leniency for the boy.

The more he thought about it, the worse he felt, but he couldn’t express his anger with a polite thank you. It was quite an uncomfortable situation.

‘Why do I feel uncomfortable? Is it because that devilish woman smiled at him and not at me?’

Even as he thought to himself, he found his own emotions ridiculous.

‘She may be good at acting, but that woman is a witch, a witch. She killed my half-brothers without hesitation to become empress.’

As Henry was gathering his thoughts to leave the courtroom, he locked eyes with Valliere.

He quickly averted his gaze, but this time he realized he couldn’t just escape the situation.

“Your Highness! Look at me for a moment! Lately, you’ve been avoiding me too much!”

Even though the trial had ended, there were still quite a few people left in the courtroom.

Henry couldn’t understand why she was making their discord so public when acting smartly wasn’t enough.

Unconsciously, Henry gave Valliere an annoyed look.

“Lower your voice.”

“Yes?”

“Do you want to make it public to everyone here that I’ve been avoiding you?”

Henry bowed deeply and whispered into Valliere’s ear.

“Oh, sorry. Do you not like me touching you? But I felt like I should speak quietly.”

Henry’s gaze and voice were icy cold, enough to freeze Valliere with just his breath.

Originally, she had planned to ask for titles and fiefdom by force, but Valliere quickly changed her mind.

Even though she wasn’t particularly perceptive, she wasn’t a fool either. She could sense that Henry, who had been avoiding her, was slowly changing his attitude towards her.

“It’s not that I dislike being touched. It’s just that Your Highness doesn’t seem the same as before, so I find myself behaving likewise.”

Now, she thought, it’s not like she can say, “I’m not your first love, and I can’t stand seeing you, a married man, having affairs with a mistress.” So Valliere decided to attribute her change to Henri.

“Me? Not the same as before?”

He furrowed his brow and whispered as if growling, but Henry, with a hidden sting, decided to listen to Valliere’s words for the time being.

“Yes. Just today, didn’t you secretly work with Empress Your Highness? You paved the way for that woman to pull off an unbelievable act.”

“…”

“Could it be that you now value the Empress more than me?”

Good heavens, Henry felt like he wanted to scream if he could, but he lowered his voice even more, considering the eyes watching and the ears listening.

“So, are you saying that I’ve become closer to the Empress, as you put it?”

Henry hadn’t even considered this possibility. While he might have thought that Valliere felt his heart wavering due to her recent drastic change, connecting it out of nowhere to Ermedeline?

It was true that Henry had been confused lately due to Ermedeline, who was also undergoing a drastic change, but that didn’t mean he had any romantic feelings to entertain about another person while in a relationship.

“Yes, that’s how it appears to me.”

So that’s it. That’s why he had been avoiding Valliere all this time.

Because the more they mixed words, the more they seemed to drift apart.

He couldn’t believe it. She was asking him why he was avoiding her, why he didn’t love her like before, and now she was mentioning Ermedeline. Henry couldn’t comprehend it.

In reality, there was nothing between him and Ermedeline, not even the slightest personal connection.

She might have smiled at Félio, the one handling the defense, but towards himself, it was nothing more than a polite greeting.

Regardless of Valliere’s dislike, Henry had treated Ermedeline just the same as always.

Suddenly, as he received this absurd accusation, Henry also began to feel the anger simmering within him.

“I have only met the Empress in the context of discussing matters related to this trial.”

Henry clenched his teeth and asserted his innocence.

“Then why are you avoiding me? If you’re not going to cozy up to that woman, why are you avoiding me?”

The coarse and unbelievable statement that came out of Valliere’s mouth left Henri momentarily dizzy.

He could feel in real time that his feelings for her were growing colder.

It was the last remaining human part of himself, as he had given up on being human and ascended to the throne.

That’s why his first love was even more precious and beloved.

In just a few months, she had become an entirely different person.

Henry and Valliere, at least in Henry’s mind, had never once doubted each other’s feelings.

Recently, Henry had been haunted by the fear that Valliere’s affection might have waned, but even in those moments, he had never considered that her heart might be with someone else.

But now, Valliere was not only doubting her own feelings but also creating a rift between them.

“I haven’t done anything like you think. I may have avoided you for some reason, but that doesn’t mean I’ve been with the Empress. Why on earth would you think that?”

With a last-ditch effort, Henry asked with an earnest voice.

However, Valliere’s response was nothing but icy and composed.

“I may be just a mistress, but she is Your Majesty’s wife.”

***

Smack!

Indeed, the slap from the knight who had once been hailed as the greatest in the empire was fierce.

With a sharp sound, blood began to trickle from Félio’s lips as they moved away.

Crash! Bang! Thud!

The Duke Batistian seemed to be unable to contain his anger even after striking his son, as he was now hurling and smashing everything in sight.

Félio and the servants working in the Batistian estate, all of whom seemed familiar with this scene, stood quietly, hoping for the storm to pass quickly.

“Huff, huff, huff…”

It took a while, but the Duke finally regained his composure and ceased his destructive actions.

Duke Batistian was usually a very kind and fair person, but occasionally, when he lost his temper, he could become this violently aggressive.

Of course, this fact was a secret known only to those who had worked in the family and the estate for a long time.

“Do you think I sent you away to create an opportunity for that woman to escape?”

Félio felt like one side of his heart was being torn apart by his father’s question, which was as sharp as a razor on a sunny day.

“No, Father.”

“Now that the Francoise estate has fallen, shouldn’t it be even easier to handle? But instead of gathering evidence of the crime, are you helping that woman restore her reputation?”

“It’s not like that…”

Smack!!

The Duke’s hand rose once again.

Due to being struck in the same spot as before, Félio’s cheek was now swollen and discolored.

“Find it immediately! Find evidence that she cursed my wife right away! If that’s not possible, bring any other evidence!”

“Yes, Father. I will search harder.”

Félio, who didn’t want to provoke his father any further, knelt before the Duke and bowed his head.

“Huff…”

The Duke, still not entirely calmed, took a few deep breaths towards the empty air before roughly patting his son’s head as he knelt before him.

Then, he sat down in front of his son, and with the same hand that had slapped him earlier, he gently cradled his son’s face, this time with a touch as tender as can be.

“That’s right. What kind of son would you be? How did your mother die? Of course, I believe you’ll do well.”

The Duke rose and gave his son’s shoulder a pat before leaving the room. Even though his father had left, Félio couldn’t get up right away.

Tears welled up in his eyes and fell to the floor as he lowered his head to the ground, as if about to touch it.

‘I’m trash! Not even human. How on earth could I think I could fall for a woman like her?’

Memories of his mother’s horrifying appearance at the time of her death and the days of his father’s anguish after her death came flooding back as Félio, with his forehead against the ground, cried for a long time.

His heart, which had remained unwavering even in the presence of the empire’s most noble beauties, had shaken in front of that witch of all people.

She was the enemy who had killed his mother and the person who had brought immeasurable suffering to his family.

If only he had known her as just the witch, his mother’s enemy, things would have been so much better. He shouldn’t have accepted the mission in the first place. If he had lived in ignorance, without ever knowing her true nature, perhaps his heart wouldn’t have been swayed by her human side. Even if he were to believe that everything she did was just an act, it was not easy to regain the balance of his already tilted heart.

‘What? Seize the opportunity to completely end it?’

Félio found his initial determination from their first meeting laughable now.

Knowing that he could never return to the person he was back then, he felt trapped in a situation from which he could no longer escape.

He couldn’t just drag Ermedeline down as his father wanted, and he couldn’t allow himself to love her either, the woman who was his mother’s enemy. Félio, still sitting on the floor in agony, suddenly remembered Ermedeline’s confident face in the courtroom as she boldly asserted her innocence before the gods.

‘Even if it’s not me, she’ll soon receive divine punishment and die. If not that, someday House de Françoise will succeed in assassinating her.’

Félio resolved to endure until that time came.

As he slowly rose from the floor, his silver eyes, glistening with moisture, sparkled like morning stars. However, his gaze was frigid, enough to freeze anything in its path.

*Thud.*

Perhaps due to his stooped posture, the brooch he had tucked away deep inside his coat fell to the ground.

The brooch he had received from Ermedeline. He briefly considered whether this time he should finally break it, but he already knew he couldn’t. With a conflicted gaze, he looked down at the brooch, then picked it up with trembling hands.

He had never worn it or displayed it, always keeping it hidden deep within his coat. Just for a moment.

Even though he wasn’t the one who wished for her death, countless people did. This feeling he couldn’t reveal to anyone, he decided to keep it stored deep within his soul, just for a little while longer.