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ORIGINAL AUTHOR/S: **한소베**

The night was so dark that she couldn’t even see ahead of her if it weren’t for the small lit candle next to the bedside table. She quietly rose from where she had been lying alongside Emperor Carmun.

Perhaps it was luck that brought her here. She even slept with the emperor of the Idelberg Empire, whom she had never met in her life.

But would he ever know that it was the biggest mistake of his life?

After becoming the Emperor’s 27th concubine, she had no intention of sleeping with him. But somehow, the Emperor kept coming to her,  and now he even abandoned the Empress to seek only her.

She checked to confirm if the Emperor had fallen asleep.

“Your Majesty…” She said quietly.

The Emperor did not move as he exhaled steady breaths. After seeing that he was sleeping peacefully, she grabbed the dagger she had hidden under her pillow. The hand that held the dagger was already trembling with fear.

‘Why did you choose me out of all the women in your entourage?’

She had to kill him. He was her father’s sworn enemy. She wanted to kill him and fulfill her father’s wish, but her body was shaking more than she thought and she felt like she was going to miss the blade…

The Emperor was lying on the bed asleep with an unconcerned look on his face, not knowing what she was up to.

Her hands shook, and suddenly, she did not want to kill him. When she looked closer at the emperor, who was called the devil, he did not  look like a bad man, let alone a devil.

He was a good emperor who cared about his people. And he was a scarred man with a painful secret.

She couldn’t hurt such a person just because he was her father’s enemy, even though he was better to her than anyone else in the world.

“Huff…huff.” (Crying sound)

Carmun didn’t open his eyes, despite the sound of her quiet cry. It was as if he was dead. She held the dagger in her hands. But she froze in place, she couldn’t stab him or stop crying when she saw him sleeping peacefully in front of her. Her father’s urging had already gone too far. If she didn’t kill him, her father would be disappointed. Then she would be a useless daughter again.

“I’m sorry.”

She whispered quietly as she lifted the knife high in the air and quickly strained it so that she could plunge it into his heart. But she couldn’t bring herself to do it because the thoughts suddenly came to mind.

“Edith, look at this. I can’t believe you’re smiling. That’s why the flowers bloomed. It’s because of your smile.”

The cherry blossoms that bloomed in the early summer.

“From now on, don’t smile so sweetly. It makes me angry when other people see you smiling.”

He was good at being jealous, and he was the hydrangea that she said she liked.

“You must be the only person whose wish for the emperor is a hydrangea.”

He was a man who would give her anything, even if she didn’t have anything to wish for. She had even entertained the thought of driving a knife into his heart! It was only then that it dawned on her. It was then that she realized what she had been pretending not to know. She had him in her heart.

She let go of the dagger in her hands in surprise.  Then, just  as she was about to hastily grab it, she heard a loud popping sound, and  immediately, a hand bigger than hers seemed to anticipate it and grabbed it calmly.

“…!”

She let out a silent scream.

Carmun Idelberg, the Emperor of the Empire, opened his eyes.

The weapon in his hand clearly said that she was the murderer.

“Your Majesty!”

She was too surprised to speak. She stammered and called him, but he just looked at her with a cold face. It has been a long time since I lost my usual gentle smile. His cold, red eyes looked down at her and she couldn’t move as if her whole body had frozen. She realized the seriousness of the situation as if a red warning light was flashing in her head.

“I’m guilty of death…!”

“Shh…”

He covered her mouth with his other hand. It was a cautious move, as if he didn’t want to be found.

‘What are you doing? Isn’t this the time to question me? Or calling the guards to capture me?’

Yes. It was for the best. She knew from the start that this was going to happen. There was no way she was going to succeed in killing him. He didn’t know who she really was. She couldn’t reveal that she was not Edith, her father’s beloved eldest daughter, but Helen, the abandoned one, who couldn’t take the bullying. She couldn’t say that she wasn’t the Edith he loved, she just chose to be killed by his hands.

Until the moment she died, she was a coward. Helen closed her tearful eyes, foreseeing her death. At that moment, every thought came to her mind.

‘He will blame me. He will hate me.’

But it was harder for her to reveal that she was Helen than it was for him to hate her. ‘Why in the world am I in this state?’

“Edith, open your eyes,” he said, his voice sounding like a growing beast in a cave.

She was very scared, but she knew that he was completely out of control when he got angry. So Helen secretly opened her eyes and looked at him, his eyes were shining dangerously.

“Why didn’t you kill me?”

The words that came out of his mouth were something else entirely. He sounded like he was disappointed that Helen didn’t kill him.

She looked straight at Carmun, not hiding her panicked eyes, and this time he grabbed her shoulders. With an obvious urging look in his eyes.

“What are you talking about?”

“Did you think I didn’t know?”

Carmun smiled knowingly. A sense of unease came over her seeing that smile. For there was something between him and her that she did not know.

“Wasn’t it a fact that everyone knew that your father and I didn’t get along? If you look a little further back, you will find that there are countless stories of suspicion. So please tell me. Why didn’t you kill me? Why didn’t you obey your father’s orders?”

His eyes shone brightly. He grabbed Helen by the shoulders, his hands tightened as if not letting her escape.

What could she say to him? Does he want to know that it was her father who sent her here to kill him, the Emperor, in his own room? Or now she was attempting to kill him?

She kept looking at him with a panicked look in her eyes. She couldn’t speak to him about any of these thoughts. If it becomes a problem between countries, there will be a huge bloodstorm in Cordelia, a small country.

As a princess of Cordelia, she couldn’t open my mouth and bit her lip as if to strike. She was a little numbed by the look in his eyes, as if he was a wolf on the hunt, watching his prey. His red eyes shone in the moonlight.

Carmun, still locked Helen in his arms, stared down and spoke in a distinctive low voice.

“If killing me makes you feel better, then kill me.”

‘What does he mean?’

He put the dagger directly in her shaking hands. Then he placed her hands holding the dagger in front of his heart.

Has he really lost his mind?

”What, what are you doing!”

Helen shook off his hand with all her might.

Clank!

The dagger fell to the floor and made a clunk sound. Even in the midst of it all, Carmun’s gaze never left  her. He didn’t seem the least bit upset or panicked. The one who panicked was her, the one who was going to kill him. The plan wasn’t supposed to be like this… Helen was going to let him kill her. The situation just drifted out of control and he wanted her to kill him!

He grabbed her by the chin and lifted it. His gaze met hers once more, and Helen had the illusion of being eaten by it.

“…if you choose to stay with me instead of just being…”

He stared at her. For a while he went silent. When he opened his mouth again, he looked as if he had made some great decision.

“Be my Empress.”

‘Empress? I tried to kill him, but instead of executing me, he wants me to be his Empress? Is he crazy?’

“I’ll protect you no matter what you do,” he said, smiling with satisfaction as my eyes widened in surprise.

“If you refuse, I will let the world know your crime. Your father, who sent his daughter to assassinate the emperor, will not be safe.”

It was a proposal Helen couldn’t refuse. No, it was a threat. It was a condition that he set knowing that she could not refuse. ‘What on earth did I do to deserve this?’ There was not a single good thing about her that fit the position of Empress.

She was a princess from a weak country in the middle of nowhere, she wasn’t good at dealing with things, and she wasn’t smart enough to compete with the Empress.

He said, looking at the prey he had picked up by chance with his eyes full of satiety.

“Become my Empress, Edith.”

His gentle voice sent a shiver down her spine as she recoiled. His proposal made Helen very happy, but there was one more secret he did not yet know.

‘I am not Edith. I am Helen Cordelia.’

It was the fact that she was not the Crown Princess of the Cordelia Empire, but the troubled second princess.

Ten years after Emperor Carmun de Idelberg ascended the throne, he declared an end to the war with the neighboring countries.

After many wars, Idelberg had become the largest empire among its neighbors, and the neighboring countries agreed to his proposal because they were no longer willing to shed their blood in a battle that they could not win.

The war that started with the last emperor was finally coming to an end.

However, despite the end of the war, many countries were still in turmoil, the biggest complacency of which was Emperor Idelberg’s secret intentions.

Many words were spoken in the Idelberg Empire when the young Emperor did not embrace any woman.

After the war, the emperor decided to take concubines from various countries for the sake of peace.

Therefore, the neighboring countries appointed their eldest daughters, and where there were no daughters, the highest ranking noblewomen were appointed, and concubines were sent to each country, numbering as many as 27.

***

Her lips were torn and a scab was formed around her mouth. She couldn’t make more of an expression than usual due to the pain caused by even the slightest movement.

Not one of the maids came to see Helen despite her injuries.

She was the useless Helen.

Her father always told her she was defective.

Helen’s position in the Cordelia Empire was poor.

Helen? Who is she? Oh, that princess…?

This was the reaction of everyone. According to her father, everything about her was defective, except for her sister Edith. Cordelia was a country made up of the blood of the grandchildren of those who failed to become emperors. They were all killed when they failed to emperors.

Her father wanted to make Edith emperor, not Helen, so he trampled on Helen.

‘It can’t be helped, I’m not the best.’

She touched her chapped lips and opened the small window of het room.

In that room, no bigger than a servant’s room, Helen prayed fervently.

Just once before she died, she wished to get out of this wild castle, so she could die comfortably.

As she opened the window to pray, she saw her father walking towards her angrily.

‘He’s gonna hit me again!’

Her lips still haven’t healed. He hit her often…

Her hands trembled with fear.

“If my hands shake, father won’t like it.”

He didn’t like it when Helen’s hands or her body shook, saying she looked like a bug. If she did this in front of others, he would punish her.

So she had to stop.

But Helen couldn’t stop shaking no matter how much she wanted to. Rather, her body trembled as her father approached.

Please…

“Helen!”

She heard my father’s angry voice, and her hands stopped shaking.

More accurately, her breathing stopped.

“What are you doing? I thought I told you not to do anything useless.”

“Um, I, uh, didn’t do anything ….”

At that moment, Helen choked up as if someone was strangling her.

She crawled across the floor, making a rattling sound.

She crawled to her father’s feet, begging him.

“Oh, oh, father. Please …spare me.”

Helen stammered, forgetting the words. In addition, bruises could be seen here and there on her face and body, which had been crumpled by the Emperor’s violence.

“This useless thing…!”

Terribly angry, the Emperor kicked Helen with his foot as she grabbed his leg and left the room without further ado.

The Emperor hadn’t been feeling too good lately. The Emperor of Idelberg, who was still invincible, was winning the war over and over again.

Her father wouldn’t have been so angry if Idelberg Emperor had lost the war even once.

The man did not appear to be a human being. There were even rumors that he had even caught the legendary Hotch.

Her father came to relieve his bad feelings, but Helen was not doing too well.

She was on the verge of dying. She was suffocating.

But her father had no intention of calling a physician or a priest to help Helen.

If others saw Helen’s wounds, they would be suspicious. Externally, he was the perfect father for his daughters.

“You’re going to die.”

The Emperor could see Helen’s blood on his shoes.

He scrubbed his shoes off the grass as if they were covered in dirt.

That was it.

***

Helen, who was left alone, felt a pain that seemed to stop her breathing. She was rather glad that she was going to die like this.

She hated God for not listening to her wishes, but she would rather die than live like this.

She was going to die soon anyway. When her sister reached twenty and ascended to the throne, she would kill her first, the thorn in her eyes.

It would be better to die of a heart attack than to be decapitated and hanged on the city walls.

‘At least I wouldn’t be a laughing stock.”

Suffocating, Helen gulped and felt happy. She wished her breathing would stop.

She wished with all her heart, and wished again.

But, as always, God was not on her side.

Helen’s powerful life brought her back to life, and when her father came to visit the next day, he looked at Helen and said, “I can’t believe you can’t even die properly.”

He only clicked his tongue.

***

It was a series of boring days. Helen was stuck in her room and did nothing but reading books, and every once in a while her father would come in and beat her.

“If you were only half as Edith, or even half as much, I wouldn’t be so angry!”

“I’m sorry.”

Helen couldn’t even speak well in front of her father, and when she answered in a muffled voice, his expression became even more eerie.

That day, too, he hit her to the brink of death.

Blood burst and bruised all over her body. Not having the strength to get up from the floor, she lay down on the cold floor and looked up at the window.

Nothing came out of her eyes because the tears had dried.

‘I’m just going to die in a heap.’

Dying was not easy either. She would rather die than live like this, but she didn’t have the courage to take her own life.

‘I’m stupid. Father is right.’

” … half of your sister Edith.”

‘Which part?’

Her sister, the one people loved and sparkled.

Her face was better too. She was a beautiful princess with fine hair, a beautiful smile, a beautiful atmosphere that made everyone loved her. She was the love of the Empire.

Helen, on the other hand, wore shabby clothes that even the maids did not wear, lived in a small room, could not brush her hair for days, and her hair was always a mess.

Her face was always covered with bruises and bloodstains.

“If I had looked even half as much as Edith, or even as much as an ant, would my father have loved me?”

***

The news of Emperor Idelberg’s continuous victories made Emperor Cordelia’s mood worsen.

Even going to Helen to take it out on her was a dense level of frustration.

How could he not make a single mistake? If only he had made that one mistake, just that one mistake, there was nothing more to wish for.

By that mistake, he would have taken the head of Emperor Idelberg.

As he was thinking this, a letter suddenly flew in from Idelberg.

[Declare an end to war…]

The Emperor’s head has turned quickly. In exchange for the end of the war, Emperor Idelberg wanted the eldest daughter of each country.

“Oh…”

The Emperor smiled, his eyes tearing like a dalmatian’s when he saw an opportunity. The Emperor called the servant outside the door with a happy face.

“Call my daughters right now! Right now!”

The Princesses.

The servant was flabbergasted.

It had been five years since Princess Helen had left the castle, so why was he calling for her?

The servant had such a question.

***

“My father called me?”

“Yes. So hurry up and prepare to go to the main Palace.”

“I think you misunderstood. How could my father have called me there?”

“No, I heard him clearly. He told me to go get the princesses.”

“My father….?”

Helen’s heart tickled for no reason. Princesses?

Her heart was pounding at the title she hadn’t heard in a long time, and for a moment, the servant’s expression touched and fell with Helen’s happiness.

Helen was having trouble entering the main palace looking like this.

However, she didn’t have any extra clothes to change into. The other ones were in a similar condition.

“Let’s go now.”

“Yes.”

Helen followed the servant’s footsteps. The attendant tilted her head curiously as Helen walked with unbalanced steps. Her left foot was hurt because her father had stepped on it last time.

“Oh, I fell yesterday.”

“Oh, I see. I’ll walk slowly. Let me know if I’m going too fast. I’ll adjust my speed.”

“Yes…”

Helen was not used to such favors.

The servant looked at Helen with a pity look as she nodded with a perplexed face. As much as she was trying to hide it in a certain way, she already knew all about Princess Helen’s position.

The poor princess.

Without knowing that the servant was looking at her with pity, Helen was busy hiding her feet.

‘Father called me to the main palace. I’m sure good things will happen today!’

That was what Helen thought.

But It didn’t take long for that illusion to be broken.

***

As the door to the parlor in the main castle opened and she entered, Helen saw her father and her sister Edith waiting for her. Edith was wearing a gorgeous dress, sparkling earrings and necklaces. Her fine blond hair swayed in the air.

She was beautiful.

As Helen hesitated with such a trifling thought, the Emperor looked at her and exclaimed with great joy.

“Helen! My proud daughter!”

Then he approached at once and embraced Helen.

Helen was puzzled, but then she realized something was wrong with the situation.

It was strange. She couldn’t believe her father was hugging her.

But she liked the feeling of being hugged in her father’s arms, Helen swallowed her doubts and squeezed her hands.

She was afraid she would beg him to hold her more.

‘Then father will beat me again.’

The emperor looked down at Helen, who he was holding in his arms.

‘If you do well…’

The emperor’s head worked agilely.

“Sit here.”

The emperor released his precious daughter Edith and took Helen’s hand in his. He even removed the chair directly from her and gave her a gentle look, something he didn’t usually do.

His look gave her a burden, but she didn’t feel bad.

Helen’s cheeks glowed softly like a baby’s.

“My precious daughter.”

Then he patted Helen’s head.

‘Why…what’s wrong?’

Helen didn’t know why he was doing it. She wondered if he was going to suddenly change and hit her head.

The look in Edith’s eyes at that moment was very unpleasant.

She didn’t know Edith was capable of making that kind of  expression.

It was the first expression she had seen from her older sister, who was always lovely.

Strange.

She felt like this seat didn’t belong to her.

Feeling uncomfortable, Helen looked up and stared at her father.

“Why?”

“Oh, no…”

She stammered again.

Oh!

Helen covered her mouth in surprise.

‘What should I do?’ She couldn’t believe she was showing her ugly behavior in front of her sister. She was sure her father would punish her again.

Helen’s shoulders began to tremble slightly.

When the emperor saw Helen becoming frightened with her mouth covered, he patted her shoulders.

“My daughter Helen, I have called you here because I have something to say to you.”

“…… Yes.”

Such a gentle voice.

This was the moment Helen had hoped for her whole life, so why did it make her feel so sick?

It was as if it was right before a storm blew. The expression of her sister’s dissatisfaction played a big part.

“Emperor Idelberg, who recently won the war against another country, wants a concubine.”

Helen looked at her sister as soon as she heard about the concubine.

If it was a concubine that a powerful Emperor wanted, it couldn’t be her. Her sister Edith also looked at her father with panicked eyes.

“But I…!”

“Don’t worry Edith. It won’t be you who goes to the Idelberg Empire, it will be Helen.”

“!”

Now Helen was perplexed. How could she be the one that the Idelberg Emperor wants?

“Does His Majesty Idelberg want ….me?”

It was only possible for the second daughter to take the place of the concubine, either because the emperor wanted her directly or if there was a serious problem with the first daughter.

The father shook his head and answered.

“No, the Idelberg Empire wanted Edith.”

“But why am I going?”

“Listen carefully, Helen.”

The father said in a stern voice, but his unusual buoyancy was still evident.

“This is our opportunity. An opportunity to deal with my lifelong nemesis.”

“!”

A nemesis? ! And it wasn’t exactly a nemesis, it was the son of a nemesis.

For the previous Emperor had already retired, and the current Emperor was his son.

Helen didn’t know what happened between her father and the previous Emperor of Idelberg, but he hated and disliked the previous Emperor of Idelberg to death.

However, his enemies in other countries knew well, and if her father  killed the Idelberg Emperor now, the arrow would naturally go to Cordelia.

“But father, this is too dangerous!”

Edith shouted. Helen couldn’t believe her sister could speak that loud to their father.

‘If I do that, I’ll die.’

Just thinking about it made her mouth dry.

The Emperor grabbed Helen’s shrinking shoulders firmly.

“So shouldn’t Helen go more? Edith is the future leader of the country. But Helen…”

Her father didn’t finish his sentence.

But Helen’s cold eyes drooped.

‘So this time I’ll still just be used for Edith’s benefit.’

Helen knew that whether she failed or succeeded in killing the Emperor, she would have no life of her own afterwards.

Once the assassination was over, she would have to die, and her father couldn’t have not known that.

Helen realized that her father, who looked at her with a cold stare, was no different from abandoning her at this moment.

And she didn’t have a choice. To be the concubine and die, or stuck in the house and waiting for her life to end.

“I will obey your orders. I will go to the Idelberg Empire in place of my sister.”

Helen gritted her teeth. Even at this moment when her father had abandoned her, she liked the warmth of his father’s hand rising above her shoulders. Such a tragic outcome….

It was only when she was prepared to die that she could receive a touch from her father.

“Yes. That’s my daughter.”

She was his daughter only if she gave up her life.

Helen felt a bitterness in her mouth.

The emperor hugged Helen with a happy look on his face. Little did he know that this embrace was Helen’s lifelong wish.

“If you finish well and come back, I will protect you for the rest of your life.”

“Yes… Yes…”

Everyone in the room knew that Helen was not coming back.

But Helen didn’t dare to say it out loud. She hoped that the last warmth she felt from her father would last as long as possible.

She looked over her father’s shoulder and saw a faint smile of relief on her sister’s face.

Could that smile be an illusion?

***

God always grants our wishes when we least expect it.

Helen didn’t expect her wish to come true this way, that if she was willing to die, her father would let her out of the castle.

She never thought she’d go outside the castle to kill someone.

Helen didn’t doze for a moment on the carriage ride to Idelberg.

Except for the moment when they stopped to rest, she stayed tightly to the carriage window and looked outside.

She had never seen anything like it. The trees were so tightly planted that she couldn’t see what was ahead of her, and her father, who looked down from the top of a high ridge, was barely more than a thumbnail.

Perhaps that was why Helen was so excited, even though she was going to Idelberg to die.

She felt like a fool, but she spared no time and tried to look at the sight as much as possible.

The people she saw when they passed the market were all radiant. They were full of life, and everyone was laughing in their own way.

The image lingered in her mind, and Helen looked at her reflection

over the ridge by the river where the procession was resting for a while. She could see her figure in the water floating along the channel.

Helen smiled.

She wanted to smile like that innocent little girl she saw at the market.

But what she saw in the water was a skinny woman with a cramp in her mouth.

“Ahhhh!”

Helen vented her anger on the water.

took it out on the water, stirring it quickly with her hand so that she wouldn’t see her image.

‘I’m never going to shine like those girls…’

Helen didn’t even look out the window that day because she felt so depressed.

She was depressed because she felt like everything was sparkling, except her.

***

Helen stood before a High Priest wearing a white veil.

The wedding ceremony that took place upon her arrival in the Idelberg Empire was very simple. It was such a small ceremony that it was embarrassing to even call it a wedding.

The emperor’s chamberlain and the pope read the proclamation in front of the delegation of nations. The emperor was nowhere to be seen, and Helen thus became the Emperor’s twenty-seventh concubine.

They entered the imperial Castle and passed through it in a hurry.

All the maidservants and knights who came with Helen from Cordelia had to leave except for one.

A knight named Paul remained, but even that he was not allowed in the concubine’s annex, so she was effectively cut off from Cordelia.

Helen was standing there in a daze with her small luggage when a girl with red hair with one head smaller than Helen’s, came running toward her.

“You were waiting for me, weren’t you? Sorry! The chief maid’s little speech was too long.”

“Excuse me…”

‘Who is she?’

With her round eyes and red hair, the girl looked like a rabbit Helen  had when she was little. Cute.

While Helen was thinking about this, the red-haired girl chirped like a sparrow.

“My name is Ellie! Is your luggage heavy? I’ll carry it for you!”

The spontaneous Ellie quickly took Helen’s luggage.

Ellie looked rather surprised because the luggage she thought was heavy was infinitely light.

“Huh? It looks like you didn’t bring all your luggage? I guess your country will send your luggage by carriage later!”

“Yes…”

Helen didn’t know how to answer. Many of the princesses from other countries brought more than one carriage, and many of them brought two or three pieces of luggage.

Helen felt embarrassed that she had only one light bag.

“Then let me show you to your room.”

It wasn’t until a few days later that Helen realized that Ellie was her personal maid all along.

It was the first time she had heard of such a maid.

‘It’s impossible for a princess to be ignorant of such things, isn’t it? Let’s just keep it quiet.’

Helen mainly just nodded at Ellie’s words.

Helen had come here to kill people. That, and the empire, the emperor.

That was why she didn’t dare to get close to Ellie. She was afraid that Ellie might get hurt by spending time with her.

So a few weeks went by. The routine has not changed. Helen was worried about the Emperor coming to visit, but no one came.

When she woke up in the morning, Ellie would wait for her. Then she would take a walk, read a book, and that was the end of the day.

What some might consider a boring day felt like a blessing in disguise to Helen.

‘It’s fun’, Helen thought.

But Ellie was like a sparrow who chattered incessantly. There was no reply, and her heart, which was closed like a castle iron wall. Unbeknownst to Helen, she was opening the door to Ellie little by little.

“Would you like to have a meal, princess?”

“Yes.”

Helen murmured quietly as she watched Ellie take care of her meal.

“What about you…?”

“Huh?”

“You don’t eat?”

“Are you worried about me just now?”

“Yes…”

‘Was I not supposed to say that?’

Ellie looked at Helen in surprise.

‘I said something unnecessary! Other princesses wouldn’t say such things!’

Helen bit her bottom lip.

But Ellie was rather delighted.

A person who had been behaving like an abandoned kitten had finally opened her mouth in a matter of weeks.

And now she was even worried about a maid like herself.

“Oh, how can a princess be so kind!”

Ellie would take Helen in her arms and hug her if she could.

However, she did not forget that she was dealing with a princess.

“Please eat. I will eat when I return, after the princess has finished her meal.”

“Yes.”

Helen’s cheeks reddened involuntarily at Ellie’s friendly words.

Never in her life had she felt such friendliness.

As each day passed with Ellie, Helen was greedy for life.

She wanted to live a little longer.

The freedom she tasted unexpectedly was so sweet that she didn’t have the courage to end this life.

‘Yes, the emperor didn’t come….That’s why I can’t kill him. It’s not that I disobeyed my father’s orders.’

Helen moved her hands, looking for excuses every day.

If she received a letter from her father, she would write the reason she thought.

That the concubines were not allowed to see the Emperor without permission, and it wasn’t easy for the concubines to leave the annex.

‘Will my father forgive me for this…?’

Helen closed the book she had been reading as she thought about the letter.

It was hard to breathe and she couldn’t look at the book.

There was nothing wrong with going on with her life without having to leave the concubine’s residence.

One maidservant was assigned to her by the emperor and one knight brought from the Cordelian Empire, but even that was useless when she was tied to the residence and only read books.

A year of time had passed since she didn’t leave the annex like that.

***

Every day, Helen read only books, and never went out of the annex, but she knew the rumors about Emperor Idelberg.

Because the concubines’ biggest concern was the emperor except Helen in this annex.

The chatter of the courtesans seated at a round table in the side yard could be heard in Helen’s residence.

“Did you hear the rumors? After winning the war, he freed all the prisoners. Maybe he’s not as cruel as the rumors say.”

“But… he fought in the war for ten years.”

“That’s true, but…Rumors of him being an evil spirit, but he doesn’t get out of the palace much. So, how did he commit the evil deed?”

Helen’s ears perked up as she listened to the conversation of the women.

She agreed with the concubines.

Rumors had spread in her home country that the Emperor of Idelberg was a scary demon, but there were many things that didn’t fit the demon’s fame.

For a whole year he had not been seen to be as greedy as the rumors made him out to be.

He was also rumored to be merciful to those of lower status than himself, and even though he was the emperor, Helen heard that he woke up early in the morning every day to take care of the political affairs. Moreover, he was always improving his martial arts skills.

An Emperor who had none of the seven great evils: anger, greed, pride, jealousy, laziness, gluttony, and lust.

He was the perfect emperor.

However, there was one part of him that Helen was curious, and it was the very part of ‘lust.’