I Possessed The Immoral Empress - Chapter 40

After some time had passed, the woman’s cries lessened.

“Thank you.”

It seemed she had finally regained her composure, as the woman, still with tears in her eyes, lowered her head and offered her thanks.

“There’s no need for thanks. I didn’t do much.”

“As for the medical expenses, I’ll find a way to cover them, no matter what…”

Medical expenses involving the use of divine power were quite costly. After all, priests who could utilize divine power were rare.

“It’s settled. Don’t worry about the medical expenses.”

“….”

A brief silence passed between the two of them.

What should she say?

Even she recently realized wounds were oozing fresh, red blood.

She couldn’t make promises of a swift recovery or that this would eventually become a thing of the past.

All she could say was to endure.

“Hold on.”

After hesitating for a moment, Ermedeline’s voice came out resolute.

“Today is not the end of life, so endure. Endure it. If you endure day by day, time will pass,”

It sounded more like words meant for herself than for the woman sitting across from her.

In Ermedeline’s mind, there was no other way but to endure.

“But what about me? What’s the point of enduring? He’s not going to come back.”

Indeed, the woman struck the heart of the matter.

No matter how much they endured, no matter how they gritted their teeth and waited, he wouldn’t return.

“Yeah, what’s the point? I don’t know either.”

And so, Ermedeline honestly poured out her heart.

“You don’t know?”

“Yeah, I don’t know. To be honest, I’m just ignorantly enduring, so I don’t have an answer. I’m sorry for not knowing.”

Her own situation felt absurd, and Ermedeline let out a bitter laugh.

The woman, who had been silently observing Ermedeline as if lost in thought for a moment, nodded gently.

“I see. You don’t know. Yet, you endure.”

“That’s right. Both I and you. Perhaps most people don’t know what will happen next, but we just keep enduring and living on.”

The woman scrunched up her nose and re-tied her disheveled hair.

“May I ask your name, perhaps? I want to remember something about you.”

“Uh… well, that’s…”

Suddenly, Ermedeline’s sense of reality jolted back to life, and she felt an overwhelming number of eyes and ears focused on her.

“Oh, I hate being in the spotlight…”

While she was pondering how to gracefully exit this situation, an uninvited guest appeared.

“Your Majesty, the Empress!”

At that moment, as Ermedeline was responding to Valliere’s call and heading toward the palace, Countess Elion appeared.

‘Oh, darn. Of all places…’

Stepping down from an obviously grand carriage that screamed high nobility, the glamorous woman pointed at Ermedeline and exclaimed, “Your Majesty, the Empress!” Instantly, the sympathetic expressions on the faces of the onlookers vanished.

In their place, stern and rigid expressions took over.

“So, this is where you’ve been.”

Ermedeline, feeling the sudden shift in the atmosphere, looked up at Countess Elion’s wife with a sense of embarrassment.

“What are you doing here? Sitting on the ground. You’re covered in dirt,” Countess Elion said as if questioning why Ermedeline hadn’t hurriedly gotten up, and she cast a disdainful glance at Rooney. However, Ermedeline extended her hand to stop her.

“There’s nothing to be concerned about, just passing through.”

“Hmm?”

Countess Elion’s wife quickly assessed the situation around her.

“Did this woman perhaps show disrespect to Her Majesty the Empress? If so, I shall immediately…”

“No, it’s not like that! There really is no issue here, so please just go back,” Ermedeline desperately wanted to avoid this situation.

While she was gradually improving her reputation, she was still seen as the empire’s top villain and an immoral empress. She didn’t like the discomfort that came from the people’s gaze, nor did she want to become more uncomfortable under their scrutiny.

“I’ll be going now.”

Ermedeline bid an awkward farewell to the woman who was now looking at her with completely different eyes than before.

‘Am I really that frightening now that I know I’m the Empress?’

“Your Majesty, the Empress!”

“?”

Suddenly, the woman who had been on the ground jumped up and rushed toward Ermedeline, grabbing both of her hands.

“Thank you. If I had known sooner, I would have shown more respect.”

“Uh…”

It seemed that the woman’s stern expression wasn’t because she was frightened of Ermedeline after all.

Ermedeline let out a silent sigh of relief and offered a faint smile outwardly.

“No, you’ve shown enough respect.”

“Well… and…”

The woman’s voice, which had been loud while greeting, now grew soft as if hesitating to say something.

“Speak freely.”

“Your son… You’ll be able to live together soon.”

Thud.

Ermedeline felt as if she had been struck hard on the head with a hammer upon hearing the woman’s words.

‘Right. People here don’t know a thing about Park Kyungsoo.’

Due to the public trial, the fact that the Empress had a hidden child was no longer much of a secret among the commoners. Therefore, this woman seemed to interpret Ermedeline’s talk of enduring as a reference to Ferdant’s affairs. It might have been a bizarre comfort, but Ermedeline didn’t feel bad about it.

Knowing that people didn’t just see her as a witch or a demon but as a mother longing for her child was somewhat reassuring.

“Yeah. I hope that day comes soon.”

As Ermedeline was about to make her exit, a small voice could be heard from the crowd.

“Stay strong!”

“I’m sure our Lord is doing well!”

“We endure day by day, so Your Majesty can endure too!”

I’m not sure what moved the hearts of the people, but at that moment, in that place, the people there began to perceive Ermedeline not as an unknown object of fear but as a human being with emotions.

Tears, which had been held back with great effort, began to well up again. To prevent the tears, she squeezed her eyes and rolled her eyeballs, but now they had reached her throat.

It was a strange occurrence.

People who had been indifferent, even their comforting words were born out of misunderstandings. Strangely, though, Ermedeline felt her heart tighten.

Throughout her life, she had always faced tragedies alone, without a trace of sympathy. Even to her closest boyfriend, she hadn’t confided and had endured those times entirely by herself. Growing up without experiencing the love of family, she had developed a fundamental belief that others were just strangers.

But now, in a tragedy that had nothing to do with her, someone who had no connection to it was offering comfort and sharing her pain. For Ermedeline, or rather, for the human Yoon Hyeyoung, this moment felt like a miracle.

Tears that had become too difficult to hold back flowed uncontrollably and obscured her vision.

While she had grown adept at not shedding tears over most sad events, Ermedeline, who had little tolerance to joy, cried with a vigor that seemed to drain every drop of moisture from her body. Unaware of the previous situation, Countess Elion furrowed her brow in confusion at the sudden outpouring of comfort from the people and Ermedeline’s tears.

Due to the unexpected turn of events and the delay it caused, Ermedeline couldn’t make it to the mask workshop in the end. She returned to the palace and went to Henry’s office to relay her desire to meet Ferdant, but he wasn’t available.

The reason he had gone to meet Valliere was because he had gone to see her with the mask Henry had custom-made.

Ultimately, she left a message for the court painter and returned to her own bedroom, where Rooney extended her lips and whispered something.

“No! Your Majesty the Empress is always so busy, doing everything by herself because she lacks help, and Countess Elion didn’t even lift a finger, and now she’s gone to see Valliere?”

Upon returning to the palace, Rooney, who had gone off to see Valliere as soon as she arrived, was expressing her disappointment at Countess Elion’s wife.

“Well, in reality, the administrative work is all handled by His Grace…”

Ermedeline glanced at Félio, who was standing silently beside her, and offered an awkward smile.

“That’s right. I’m handling everything. And I don’t need any help. I’ve already told you…”

“Yeah, yeah. There’s no one more capable than His Grace! You don’t even know how grateful I am to you!”

Ermedeline playfully exaggerated Félio’s words and smiled mischievously.

Despite her eyes being swollen from crying, Ermedeline’s face transformed into that of an incorrigible mischievous girl as she smiled.

Crying one moment, then laughing the next. She was truly a fast-recovering woman. A person who was utterly unpredictable.

Félio, who had been a cold person with almost no emotional fluctuations, found Ermedeline’s behavior fascinating, and he was amazed by the changes in himself lately.

‘Ice Prince? Anyone who hears that would laugh.’

Just a while ago, when Ermedeline was struggling to breathe inside the carriage, Félio had genuinely lost his sight. The moment the thought crossed his mind that Ermedeline might die, all the blood in his veins seemed to stop at once.

The feeling that he would die before Ermedeline’s breath could cease.

In the midst of it all, his ability to call for a priest was only possible because the thought of needing to save Ermedeline had forced his lips open.

‘Wait? I wait until someone else kills her instead of me?’

Looking at Ermedeline, who examined the budget with a fresh face, Félio realized that a corner of his soul was slowly dying.

‘Dying? Ermedeline dying? Someone else killing her instead of me?’

If Ermedeline and Rooney weren’t there right now, Félio would have likely indulged in a futile and ridiculous display of despair.

The mere thought that Ermedeline could die was enough to extinguish his soul and stop the blood in his entire body. Félio realized that on the day Ermedeline died and this profound love came to an end, he would also meet his end.

He couldn’t tell how time had passed while reviewing documents and collecting signatures.

During that time, Félio had been tossed about in the whirlwind of emotions, shuttling back and forth between heaven and hell countless times. His heart had become tattered as a result.

Her occasional smiles, light banter, and earnest gaze. With all of that, Félio had experienced heaven.

And behind that heaven always followed a dreadful sense of guilt and fear.

Now, self-loathing had become something he was entirely accustomed to as if it were an added bonus.

Admiring himself for not collapsing from cardiac arrest, Félio was about to leave Ermedeline’s reception room when she quietly called for him.

“Your Grace. Thank you.”

“Huh?”

“I sincerely appreciate everything you’re doing for me.”

“Well, I’m happy to be able to do something for the common good.”

In response to the Empress’s words, Félio gave a proper answer befitting a prominent member of a noble family.

“And Your Grace…”

“Yes, please go on.”

“I’m grateful for you calling the priest to treat that woman today. Like when we talked in front of the orphanage before, and now. It seems Your Grace can look into my heart.”

Looking at Ermedeline’s face, pure and free from any mischief, Félio felt like he was soaring back up to the highest reaches of heaven once again.

He ascended endlessly, and then in a single moment, tumbled back down to hell.

It was a small thing, but the fact that their hearts had connected filled him with joy. If only he could truly look into her heart, how wonderful that would be, he thought.

There are many things he wonders about – how she thinks of him, what meaning he holds within her, but when it comes down to it, he thinks that if he could truly look into her heart, it might be frightening.

Ermedeline is a witch, feared by everyone in this world.

What if this is all an act? What if all her changes are carefully planned performances?

What if, deep inside, she remains an unlit abyss?

The thought alone terrified Félio to the point where he trembled in fear.

Because he knew he would willingly plunge into that unknown abyss.