Chapter 227: Chapter 114 (1) – I Am with Your Majesty’s Child

[Side Story: The Sixth Episode]

Rosemond exited from the Empress Palace through a secret passageway that only she knew about. Since it was a passageway implemented to be used in case of emergency, it was impossible to have attached some kind of surveillance to it. Rosemond ran over to the Central Palace on her own without Glara in tow. Time was of the essence.

“Your Majesty the Empress…?” The Chief Maid at the Central Palace was quite surprised to see Rosemond’s disheveled appearance. Her expression was asking Rosemond, How did you get here?

But Rosemond disregarded the Chief Maid’s curious look, and instead asked urgently, “His Majesty, is His Majesty currently inside his room?”

“…Yes, His Majesty is inside.”

“Then why are you standing still without thinking of opening the door for me?”

-You think you are still the Empress, when you will soon be nothing more than a dethroned Empress,- the Chief Maid complained silently, but did not reveal her thoughts as she replied to Rosemond, “…Please go on in.”

As soon as the door was opened, Rosemond rushed through the doorway into the room.

“Your Majesty,” Rosemond called out to Lucio in the sweetest voice she could muster.

He was sitting at his desk looking at some documents with an expressionless face.

She called out to him once again, “Your Majesty.”

“…” Only then did he raise his head up.

Rosemond finally got to meet Lucio’s eyes. She once again tenderly called out to him, “Your Majesty.”

“I am listening, since I have not lost my sense of hearing as of yet.”

“Your Majesty, please save me.”

“…” Lucio stared at Rosemond with a complex expression as he asked her, “Is there anything else you want to say to me before any of that?”

“Anything else I want to say?”

“I mean in regards to the dethroned Empress.”

“I thought Your Majesty would be pleased with that as well,” Rosemond answered confidently, “You pledged to make me the Empress. I steadfastly believed those words you said to me… As I was continuing to get older, how could I not have been anxious?” Rosemond laughed bitterly and then continued, “I thought surely Your Majesty would understand me, and I still believe that is the case now. Are my words wrong?”

“You intentionally poisoned yourself and miscarried a child who did not even exist, and then framed the previous Empress with that fabrication. Rose, I did not want it to be done in that kind of violent way. If the Empress could not give birth to a Crown Prince, and you were the one to do so… That would have been enough justification to take care of everything and figure things out peacefully.”

“…I am sorry, Your Majesty. I am not a patient enough person to have been able to wait for that to play out,” Rosemond acknowledged.

Lucio’s slightly reddened eyes caught Rosemond’s attention. -What is he thinking about right now? Could it be that he is feeling disappointed with me? You would dare feel that way about me?- Rosemond upheld her side by saying, “It is already in the past, anyway.”

“…Sure.” Lucio released a sigh as he added on, “But the current situation is not as simple as you may think it is. It is the natural procedure in the Marvinus Empire to be executed after being dethroned from the position of Empress. Rose, did you not have any idea of how you would face the repercussions of your actions if this was to be discovered?”

“There is no way I thought that. Everything was working out well. Only… it is just that things unexpectedly went wrong,” Rosemond explained.

“But that does not matter,” Rosemond whispered as she drew Lucio into her arms for an embrace. As always, he was not able to reject her touch.

Rosemond blew a breath of air into his ear as she used a tantalizing voice to say, “Please save me, Your Majesty. Your Majesty is the only one who will be able to save me.”

“Even the Emperor cannot do everything he wishes, Rose. You know that very well.”

“It is not something that will negatively affect Your Majesty. Please rest assured,” Rosemond was smiling lightly as she elaborated to Lucio, “A woman who has become pregnant with an Imperial Heir from the Emperor cannot be killed.”

“No way, you…”

“It is exactly what Your Majesty is currently thinking,” Rosemond said to Lucio as she threw off the dress she had been wearing. In no time at all, she was standing naked in front of him, and set in motion her attempt to seduce him without showing any shame, “Help me conceive just one Imperial Heir, Your Majesty.”

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A few days later, Rosemond emptied the Empress Palace completely. There was exactly one month left before Lucio’s birthday celebration banquet. Without any rhyme or reason, she took Glara and moved to Phelps Palace, a place the Emperor had granted to her.

Despite Lucio’s best attempt to keep things as quiet as possible, the general public had somehow heard the whole story and already figured out the whole situation. Rosemond had to listen to all sorts of offensive words while inside the carriage on her way to Phelps Palace.

“This woman is like a witch! Her Majesty, the innocent and dethroned Empress, was murdered because of you!”

“To have carried out this play that you had planned all by yourself. You will be punished a thousand times!”

“Her Majesty the Empress was dethroned and executed, so she will definitely condemn you!”

As she heard the shouts drifting in sparsely, Rosemond was forced to laugh in spite of herself as she sat inside of the carriage. Their stance had turned around this quickly… these people must have spit out those same words to the similarly ill-fated Empress who had been dethroned a few months prior. Based merely on what they heard, they would have acted in this manner, without even thinking about finding out the exact details of what had occurred.

-Those idiots are so foolish!- Rosemond chuckled internally as she placed her hands together neatly on her lap. She put on an expression that showed she was deep in contemplation, ‘To confirm whether or not I have achieved becoming pregnant with an Imperial Heir, I will have to wait for half a month at the very least.’

Until then, she had to save her own hide and protect the baby who may or may not be existing in her womb. Rosemond unconsciously stroked a hand over her stomach. There was no way it could have happened, but she felt as if there was already a baby fully developed inside her.

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“Your Majesty, to have to come to a place such as this. How could something like this be…”

Rosemond had arrived at Phelps Palace with the smallest number possible in her entourage.

Glara kept crying aloud and complaining, her usually calm demeanor having vanished into thin air.

Rosemond could not stand the noise and responded to her in an annoyed tone, “Stop whining so much, Glara. Listening to all of that racket is a fate worse than death! Do you really think I do not want to cry about it as well right now?” After Rosemond shot out her words like that, she unconsciously caressed her stomach as she continued, “No one will be able to kill me if I succeeded in getting pregnant. Imperial Law decrees that any woman bearing an Imperial Heir should keep their lives intact, no matter how severe the crime might be! So we just have to wait around for a little bit, Glara.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. It would be great if everything worked out accordingly like that.”

“If you understand now, go and ask the chef to bring me something to eat. I did not get even a moment’s rest on this rushed journey from the capital to Phelps Palace, so I am starving to death.”

“Yes, Your Majesty…”

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Translated by Haeli

Edited by RED