I Possessed The Immoral Empress - Chapter 39

Of course, she had expected some form of justification, but this unpleasant response took her by surprise. Valliere’s emotions began to surge not just with irritation but with anger.

As her head spun and dizziness crept in, maids rushed over, their support palpable.

Seated and supported in her chair, Valliere studied Henry’s complexion. While he did look at her with a concerned gaze, there was no sign of the terrified face he had shown before.

‘Is this method no longer effective?’

Valliere felt a sense of regret for the disappearance of one convenient option. Just then, Henry extended a splendid box with an expressionless face.

“Open it.”

Valliere weakly raised her hand to open the box, and inside, there was a magnificent mask beyond description.

“What is this?”

“It’s the mask we’ll wear at the Foundation Day.”

“Didn’t I clearly tell you I won’t wear it?”

Growing irritated at Henry’s repeated disregard for her words, Valliere, without realizing it herself, lightly tossed the mask onto the table right next to her.

“You truly know how to throw my heart away like that.”

At Henry’s resigned voice, Valliere suddenly snapped back to her senses and picked up the mask.

“That’s not it! I simply thought there’s no need for me to wear one when the common people are wearing masks.”

“Foundation Day should be joyful. It should be a festival where the people can forget all their hardships. Wasn’t that what you said?”

It seemed like something Valliere might have said in the past.

“Are you suggesting we forcibly put masks on the people who come here to forget the hardships of reality? What do you think the people, who have been treated like they’re diseased and had their faces forcibly covered, will think when they see you not wearing a mask?”

“Treated like they’re diseased? When have I…”

“Masks should be worn as an extension of amusement, nothing more. How many do you think will willingly obey if we force them to wear them? The emperor and the nobles should set an example by wearing them first, and then the people will gladly wear masks voluntarily. Can’t you see that much?”

Henry wiped his forehead in genuine disappointment and sank into a nearby chair.

Watching him, Valier felt a tremendous sense of crisis for the first time since he’d been possessed.

‘What’s that sigh? You love her, you’re in love with her, you’re inseparable, you don’t care if she’s wrong.’

Suddenly, a scene from the past flashed through her mind.

The method she used whenever her parents wouldn’t give in to her demands.

Self-harm.

The double eyelid surgery they said no to, but they gave her permission for it as soon as she slit her wrists at the kitchen table.

A quick glance around caught her eye, and a glass vase caught her eye.

*Crash!*

Without hesitation, Valier threw down the vase and grabbed the sharpest of the shards.

“What are you doing…….”

A blood vessel burst at her touch and blood began to pour out.

The kind of blood that wouldn’t matter if she treated it right away.

Valliere knew all too well from previous experience that a shard of glass like this wouldn’t even reach a vein anyway.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

It was only then that Henry widened his eyes and rushed over to start applying pressure to Valliere’s wrist.

“Priestess! Call the priestess! Call her immediately!”

His normally dignified voice, which cracked, showed just how desperate he was.

“It seems like Your Majesty’s affection has left me lately. Of course, it’s probably because I’m not to your liking. If I can’t be of any help to Your Majesty, then there’s no need for me to live any longer.”

Valliere, nestled in Henry’s arms, gazed with a distant look and pleaded in a thin voice that seemed about to break.

“This method always works. Why don’t you give it a try? I hold the thread of your lover’s life.”

Of course, Vallière’s feelings were far different from her pathetic exterior.

She acted confidently.

Soon Louise, the priest, came running, and the wound on her wrist was healed.

As the maids wiped the blood from the floor and began to undress Vallière, Henry left the parlor with a brief bow.

“Rest.”

As Henry walked down the long corridors of the palace, he was gripped by an inexplicable feeling of unease and nervousness.

Of course, it’s natural to feel uneasy when he has just witnessed the self-mutilation of the woman he love right before his eyes.

However, Henry felt as though there was a separate reason for the unsettling palpitations he was experiencing.

‘This is strange. Really strange.’

Valliere, after tending to her wrist, nestled in Henry’s embrace, sending him a distant gaze. It was a scene of profound desolation, clear to anyone who witnessed it.

But in that moment, something peculiar caught Henry’s eye.

Valliere’s normally amber-colored irises, which should have radiated a certain warmth, were emitting an eerily sinister glow.

‘What on earth was that?’

That gaze certainly did not belong to someone who was willing to give up on life due to emotional wounds from their lover.

After much contemplation and a long walk through the corridors, Henry returned to his office, only to receive unexpected news from his steward.

“Her Majesty the Empress has requested an audience with Ferdant.”

“Ferdant?”

“Yes. She requested to see him, just once, from a close distance.”

“Alright. It’s about time they meet.”

At that moment, as he pondered the truly useful card he held in his hand, a thought flashed through Henry’s mind.

‘Hostage! Yes, it was like a hostage. It was as if she were holding a hostage and making threats with her eyes.’

***

Before Valliere’s self-harm incident, on an early afternoon, Ermedeline had gone out into the city with Rooney and Félio to inspect an orphanage site and visit a few mask workshops.

While they were sitting in the carriage, engaged in casual conversation, they suddenly heard a commotion from outside.

“What’s happening?”

Seizing the opportunity as the carriage slowed down, Ermedeline opened the curtains and looked outside. She saw a woman shouting loudly, her wrist bleeding profusely, as she cried out for help.

“I told you, I’m dying! I told you I am going to die!”

The man standing across from her is so stunned that he can only stand still and stare blankly at her.

“How dare you abandon me like this? I’ve been waiting for four years because you said you’d marry me when you became an official, and now you’re abandoning me like this?”

The woman raises the dagger in her hand high and tries to slash at her arm again, and the onlookers rush to her defense.

“Lady. Calm down!”

“Somebody apply a tourniquet!”

Still, the bystanders were not complete strangers, and they rushed to apply a tourniquet to save the woman’s life.

Meanwhile, the man had disappeared into the crowd, leaving the bleeding woman behind.

“Wow. That man is an asshole. It’s bad enough that he abandoned his lover of four years…….”

Rooney’s voice trailed off as he watched the two men as if he were watching an entertaining performance.

That’s why Ermedeline’s face was as white as a sheet of paper as she stood there, unblinking at the sight.

Felio was surprised by Ernedeline’s sudden condition and turned to Rooney to discuss it, but neither of them could come up with anything.

“Your Majesty, what’s wrong, wake up!”

Rooney shook his shoulder lightly, but Ermedeline’s frozen body refused to thaw.

How much time had passed?

Ermedeline’s lips, which had seemed as though they would never move again, finally moved.

“Kyungsoo… Park Kyungsoo…”

“!!”

The mysterious words Ermedeline had been crying out every night, the words Rooney had been curious about each night, flowed from Ermedeline’s lips.

The moment that name, which had been whispered only in her subconscious, emerged, the suppressed emotions began to overflow.

They had been together for a whole seven years.

The time they had known each other felt almost like a lifetime.

Park Kyungsoo, who had been Hyeyoung’s boyfriend, was more like family than a lover. On the day she was abandoned by him, Hyeyoung didn’t just end a long-term relationship. On that day, she lost her family.

The sadness and sense of loss were so immense that she couldn’t fully grasp her emotions at the time. And when she had finally resolved not to take her own life and comforted herself, death had come knocking at her door.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself in a completely different world.

An ordinary orphaned woman had suddenly become an empress overnight.

In order to go from Yoon Hyeyoung to Ermdeline, and to avoid a predetermined disastrous ending, she pushed her feelings aside.

Or maybe she’d unknowingly shut them out while she scrambled to fit in.

But it wasn’t the kind of thing you could just push aside and make it go away.

It was definitely present in Hyeyoung just unrecognized by the urgency of the situation in front of her.

As she watched the woman bleeding from her wrists, Ermedeline was reminded of herself standing in front of the Han River that day.

Even the cold winds of the Han River hadn’t touched her that day when the late winter blossom chill was in full force.

She felt no other pain as the sorrow, hatred, and emptiness of more than two decades of memories flowed through the gaping hole in her heart.

“Haa…. Haa…. Haa…”

A surge of pent-up emotions erupted all at once, causing Ermedeline to struggle to breathe.

Since Ermedeline had always experienced sorrow from a young age, she didn’t even realize the intensity of these emotions within her.

“Your Majesty!”

Seeing Ermedeline suddenly unable to breathe, Rooney screamed for the carriage to depart.

“Quickly! Call for the priestess!”

Félio also urgently shouted toward his attendants.

“Haa… Haa…”

Ermedeline, now seated on the carriage floor, struggled to breathe, and tears began to flow from her eyes.

Black stains of her tears spread on the purple velvet floor of the carriage.

“Your Majesty! Breathe, please breathe! The priestess will be here soon!”

Rooney wept as she patted Ermedeline’s back, but it didn’t seem like her breath would return easily.

Félio, too, was in contemplation, trembling hands unable to offer anything for her.

Soon, the priestess arrived.

“Quickly! Quickly!”

Félio, who had flung open the carriage door, pushed the priestess inside.

The priestess, who had been observing Ermedeline for a moment, tilted her head in confusion.

“It’s not physical pain. I’ve already infused her with divine energy to calm her mind, but Empress, you must find inner peace yourself.”

“Damn it!”

At that moment, a curse escaped Félio’s typically composed mouth.

“Ou… out…”

And at that moment, Ermedeline seemed to be trying to say something.

“Outside?”

“Out… outside… that…”

Félio immediately recognized that Ermedeline was mentioning the woman bleeding outside the carriage.

While Ermedeline’s intentions remained unclear, a frustrated Rooney furrowed her brows. In the meantime, Félio quickly jumped out and called for the priestess.

“Please, attend to this woman!”

The priestess rushed to the woman, whose wrist was being held by the people, and applied a healing spell along with divine energy to ease her distress.

Ermedeline, who had regained her breath, crawled out of the carriage. Félio, recognizing the desperation in her eyes, faintly smiled and nodded.

“Whew, thankfully.”

Now that Ermedeline had finally calmed down, she slowly made her way towards the woman who had collapsed.

The onlookers around them naturally parted to make way for the lady’s arrival.

Ermedeline finally approached the woman, who was still crying, and knelt down beside her on the ground, wiping away her tears.

The woman didn’t know who the noble-looking person before her was, but she began crying even more freely, feeling a warm sensation from the hand wiping her tears.

Ermedeline didn’t say a word to the woman. 

The onlookers had hoped that Ermedeline would say something or stop crying, but she remained silent throughout. She simply continued to watch over the crying woman.