2 Chapters left for Volume 2~
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Dense and abundant silver eyelashes fluttered. The light that tried to pierce through them couldn’t penetrate, instead scattering around. Every time his eyelashes moved up and down, the fifteen-member investigation team clasped their hands as if holding on to their lifeline. A small, golden pond, more radiant and mesmerizing than starlight in the sky, stretched to the end of the scroll. The scroll was much longer than any usual memorial, and the Emperor read every single word without missing a detail.
“Hmph…” The Emperor let out an ambiguous sound, whether it was a sigh or a laugh, and then folded the scroll. He detached himself from the throne he had been lounging on and sat up straight. The Emperor slowly observed the investigators bowing down submissively below the podium. His red lips parted once more.
“There must be no lies in this.”
The Emperor sought assurance. The head of the investigation team, Yeo Ha-young, raised her head. She met the Emperor’s refined gaze without fear. Her eyes, full of conviction, reflected her firm belief as she spoke decisively.
“Your Majesty, I have always brought you direct evidence and captured the culprits myself.”
“The Heavens know of your abilities. However, as an emperor….”
The Emperor closed his eyes and sighed, expressing his sorrow through the delicate movements of his facial muscles. Bowing his head, he murmured quietly.
“It is truly heartbreaking to have to punish one’s own child as a father.”
“Your Majesty, attempting to harm a sibling for power without divine decree must be punished accordingly.”
“I understand.”
The Emperor gave a self-deprecating smile as he looked at her and then rolled up the scroll with his slender, jade-like hands. After perfectly securing the scroll with a silk ribbon, the Emperor glanced at the investigation team. He then toyed with the hilt of the massive sword hanging at his waist. With a chilling sound, the sword was drawn and then sheathed again as the Emperor silently beckoned to the soldiers from the Ministry of Justice. They entered in perfect order. More than a few dozen soldiers knelt behind the investigation team.
“This is the imperial command.”
“We receive the imperial command, Your Majesty!”
In unison, they responded with loud voices of obedience. The Emperor looked down at them with an indifferent expression and slowly opened his mouth to declare the decree.
“Arrest King Sohyeon, his wife, the Assistant Magistrate, and all their families and servants without exception.”
The Emperor briefly displayed a melancholic expression before letting out a cold laugh. As if he had never been sad, a light smile settled on his lips.
“Attempting to seize the throne and assassinate his own brother without the mandate of heaven is akin to targeting the Emperor himself! Even though the Emperor has not yet appointed a Crown Prince, he dared to send his brothers to heaven to become the Crown Prince himself! Not even death is enough to atone for such a crime!”
The Emperor’s voice grew louder as he shouted, then gradually lowered to a murmur.
“Even pregnant women do not matter. Arrest them all.”
The Emperor drew his large sword, which seemed to thirst for blood as it absorbed the light.
No sooner had the sacred wedding ceremony concluded than the royal palace was thrown into turmoil. It was revealed that the Assistant Magistrate and the consort were behind the attack that severed King Gyeonghye's arm and the assassination attempts on King Jinyeong and King Yeonghyeon. According to the principle of collective punishment, King Sohyeon, his wife, and all their hired servants were arrested and brought to the palace. King Sohyeon, who had been sleeping peacefully and spending time with his wife, couldn't stop crying upon seeing the Emperor's murderous gaze. He was so terrified that he wet his pants. He couldn’t help it. The Assistant Magistrate, with his eyes gouged out, was impaled on a spear, left to rot like market food. This was the punishment for attempting to kill one's own family. His body was pierced by six spears and left in an open field to be devoured by beasts.
Seeing the body of his grandfather, whose fresh flesh would soon be eaten by animals, King Sohyeon, still bound, bowed his head to the ground.
“P-please… please spare me… Your Majesty!”
All evidence pointed to the Assistant Magistrate’s actions. There was no way to refute it. However, King Sohyeon truly knew nothing of it. He hadn’t even imagined that his mother and grandfather had conspired to make him Crown Prince.
The Assistant Magistrate, frustrated by the Emperor’s delay in appointing a Crown Prince, had chosen the simplest method. He first tried to send King Jinyeong to the battlefield to die. When that failed and only resulted in Jinyeong losing a finger, he stepped back momentarily. He then attempted to assassinate King Gyeonghye but failed again. After capturing the fleeing assassin, who confessed under torture, the investigation team moved in. Evidence revealed the employment of an assassin group made up of barbarians and the provision of a house and substantial funds for them. Hearing this steadily unraveling evidence from the Emperor’s mouth, King Sohyeon wept and pleaded continuously with the Emperor. Though he knew it only intensified the Emperor’s grief and anger, he couldn’t stop. King Sohyeon truly knew nothing. He had to save his pregnant wife and his mother at any cost.
He couldn’t abandon even the slightest hope. Swallowing his tears and snot, King Sohyeon raised his head. He was startled to see the Emperor’s shoes right in front of him. The Emperor had come down from the execution platform and was standing on the blood-stained ground. Seeing his weeping son, the Emperor let out a chuckle. King Sohyeon, noticing the mixture of incredulity and slight affection in that laugh, smiled servilely. He didn’t mind being servile.
If it meant saving his wife and the child in her womb.
“You want to live, don’t you?”
The Emperor murmured softly. His hand movements revealed his contemplation as if he was about to draw the sword hanging from his belt. Instead, he touched and tousled the blood-matted hair of his son. Then, as if he would pull it out, he wrapped his hand around it and yanked. The pain of his neck being jerked back made King Sohyeon grit his teeth.
“Do you truly know nothing?”
“Yes, Your Majesty! I had no knowledge of this! It was all the doing of my mother and the Assistant Magistrate! Neither I nor my wife knew anything about it! Nothing at all!”
The consort, with a gag in her mouth, bowed her head in surrender. Her legs had been shattered by a form of torture, leaving her with no hope of recovery. She was facing either death or life as a cripple. To save himself, King Sohyeon had betrayed his tortured mother and his tortured-to-death grandfather.
“Father, Father…. I am your son too. Please, if you can’t spare me, at least save my wife. She is pregnant with your grandchild!”
“Yes, you are the Emperor’s son, and the child she is carrying is my grandchild.”
But somehow, I feel nothing.
The Emperor’s empty gaze shifted to the daughter-in-law behind King Sohyeon. Her youthful face crumpled into tears as she reflexively begged for her life. The Emperor’s eyes moved to her swollen belly. A child…
The Emperor blinked slowly and then turned his gaze to the sobbing wife of his son. Once a beautiful woman who had shared a bed with him and given him children, she was now a wreck from torture. The Emperor smiled a charming smile at her before looking back at his son, who was banging his head on the ground, pleading for mercy until his forehead bled. His son was on the brink of madness, begging incessantly to save his wife.
The Emperor didn’t listen to his son’s pleas. He lifted his head to the sky, bruised blue and turning darker. Even the sky seemed disapproving. The clouds drifted across the golden sea of sunlight. The Emperor’s eyes gradually narrowed into thin slits, forming a seductive smile.
Yes, there was no need to kill everyone. If he could ensure his son would never become Crown Prince by other means, it would suffice. All he had to do was bury him in a perpetual sense of guilt for killing his own parents.
“Yes, you are the Emperor’s son.”
The Emperor repeated the words, and King Sohyeon looked at him with a mix of hollow anticipation and hope. The Emperor smiled at his son. The smile on his pale face was as gentle as a father's.
The Emperor untied the ropes binding his son. As his numbed arms dangled, King Sohyeon staggered and placed his hands on the ground. Stepping back, the Emperor threw a large sword in front of his son. King Sohyeon looked at the Emperor with questioning eyes and swallowed hard. His Adam's apple moved slowly up and down in tension. The Emperor extended his hand toward his son.
“Take it.”
“Father.”
King Sohyeon murmured, overwhelmed by a mixture of gratitude and fear. He grasped the Emperor’s hand firmly. The Emperor gently pulled him up and positioned him in front of the consort. The consort, groaning, opened her eyes with difficulty to see her son holding the large sword. King Sohyeon’s eyes widened as he looked at the retreating Emperor.
Surely not.
“Father….”
King Sohyeon’s voice trembled with fear as soon as he was overcome with emotion. Holding the sword with both hands, he cried out.
“How can I kill my own mother!”
“Why not?”
The Emperor tilted his head, frowning as if he couldn’t stand the stench of blood, and covered his mouth with his sleeve.
“If you wish to live, you must kill. Didn’t you say you did nothing wrong?”
“Father…!”
“Your mother is a criminal. And you are the Emperor’s son and a subject. So the answer is simple.”
Wiping away King Sohyeon’s tears, the Emperor spoke slowly and clearly with a noble smile.
“Kill the criminal to prove your innocence.”
The most cruel and gentle order descended. King Sohyeon screamed, gripping the sword, his head bowed. His whole body shook, trembling as if he were ill. The Emperor, with his sleeve covering half of his face, walked over to stand before his daughter-in-law, her belly swollen like a mountain. With his hands behind his back, he looked at her and spoke in a tender voice.
“I hope the child is a girl. Then at least her chances of survival will be higher.”
The Emperor was sincere. He genuinely intended to kill his son, daughter-in-law, and mother. Knowing it was all deceit, King Sohyeon still looked up with tears streaming down his face. Even though he knew it was deceit, he still wanted to live. He gripped the sword so tightly that his veins bulged, ready to burst. The consort, seeing her son’s bloodshot eyes, gave up and closed hers. Her body, already beyond saving… She thought it would be far better to die at her son’s hands and let him and his wife live.
Seeing his mother resigned to death, King Sohyeon closed his eyes. With an animalistic cry, he charged to kill his mother. The loyal subjects nearby gritted their teeth and looked away, but the Emperor alone watched with indifferent eyes as his son killed his mother. In the masquerade orchestrated by the Emperor, only he was smiling. His lips hidden by his sleeve smiled, while his eyes remained cold.
Now, the only one left was Jinyeong, whom Kang loved the most. If that child died, and he bore another child to make him Crown Prince, what expression would he have then?
You would hate me. You would ask how I could kill all his brothers and then have another child to make him Crown Prince.
But even that didn’t evoke much feeling.
As long as I could ensure you lived, I didn’t care if I had to go to hell alone and bear all the punishment.
I will become the sinner, so you must live.
For Kang to live, the Crown Prince must become Emperor. This simple fact created the most miserable bloodbath. The Emperor laughed, his shoulders shaking.
“Really… I go to such lengths.”
The Emperor let out a long sigh. Strangely, he felt a bit tired today. Perhaps it was because he had seen too much blood.