I Possessed The Immoral Empress

It felt like being flung out over a cliff with no end in sight.

No matter how much she fell and fell again, it seemed like she would never reach the bottom of the abyssal cliff.

She needed something to grasp onto.

Even a frail tree branch would do, anything that her hand could hold onto, and with that, she felt she might be able to stop this fall.

That was why.

The girl, endlessly falling deeper and deeper, was desperately in need of something to hold onto.

Even if it was a fragile branch that could stop this endless fall.

“This place will do.”

Valliere had chosen her residence to be very close to the palace, as well as near Leopold’s grand mansion.

It wasn’t very large, but located among the luxurious mansions near the imperial palace, and with a three-story structure that even had a hall for balls, the price was quite high.

But to Valliere, price was not an issue.

After all, wasn’t Henry going to pay for it?

However, the problem was the furniture to fill it with.

Henry had mentioned sending living expenses, but that didn’t mean he intended to provide the funds to lavishly decorate the mansion.

Valliere currently had no way of getting money.

The Louises, a wealthy family of newly rich status, were affluent but not generous to Valliere, a bastard child.

Until now, she had been somewhat tolerated because she was the emperor’s mistress, but now she had even lost that connection to the emperor.

“Why not borrow from Prince Leopold?”

“?”

As Valliere hesitated over an expensive carpet that caught her eye, Countess Brienta made a tempting suggestion.

“Don’t you have many jewels left from the gifts you received during the audience ceremony? Use those as collateral to borrow money. Of course, the prince may not really intend to take them as collateral.”

“Huh?”

Countess Brienta’s suggestion was indeed plausible.

Going with collateral would certainly look more convincing than going empty-handed.

Even if that collateral had been a gift from the very person she intended to borrow money from.

“A good idea. I shall do as you suggest.”

***

At the time when Ermedeline awoke, Felio was at the mansion trying to exploit his father’s weakness and thus had not heard about her immediately.

So, when he sat in the drawing-room with Marchioness Grania, reviewing documents related to the orphanage, and saw the pale figure of Ermedeline engrossed in the papers before her, he froze.

“!”

Though an unfortunate incident had occurred at the completion ceremony, Ermedeline was hastily receiving orphans, giving her no time to care for her own condition as she concentrated on the documents in front of her.

She noticed Felio, frozen like ice at the door, only after Rooney, who was standing beside her, gently nudged her to alert her.

“Your Highness?”

Despite Ermedeline’s call, Felio showed no response.

“Your Grace, are you alright? I heard you were quite injured as well. Are you still not feeling well?”

Despite looking as if she were on the brink of death, Ermedeline rose from her seat, concerned for Felio.

Staggering, but because she rose too abruptly, Ermedeline swayed, and though Felio reached out to catch her, Rooney and Margo were quicker.

Felio retracted his arm and sighed with relief inwardly.

If he were to touch her now, or even if a single strand of her long, soft, ebony hair were to brush against him, he felt he might imprison her somewhere no one could see or find, such was his feeling.

“Sir Felio is fine. It’s the Empress who we’re more worried about. She hasn’t fully recovered yet, and here she is working…”

Rooney looked sadly at the empty seats.

The seats of Bellest, Viella, and Liena.

It seemed the Ilyenian Duke was now openly cutting ties with the imperial family, going so far as to ban Viella, who hadn’t even organized the interview, from entering the palace and confining her to their mansion.

“We have no choice. We’re already selecting children throughout the capital; we must finish preparations quickly.”

A tightening sensation in his heart.

Felio felt guilty upon hearing Ermedeline’s somewhat weak voice.

His incompetence had almost killed her, and now he had made her unable to rest to her heart’s content.

“I’m sorry.”

Felio forced the words out through his cracked lips.

“?

“I’m truly sorry. It’s all because of me… All because of me… The Empress is going through this because of…”

“How is this Your Grace’s fault! There are countless who wish me dead… The Emperor is still investigating the perpetrator, why would Your Highness feel sorry?”

“It’s all my fault… All my fault…”

Ermedeline was unaware of Felio and Arvian’s secret plans.

But Felio knew that his plan had failed and that the assassins were nobles of the Emperor’s faction, including his father.

“Because of me… I couldn’t protect… her…”

Overwhelmed by sudden guilt, Felio collapsed right there, bursting into tears.

The maids looked on with pity, but he was beyond noticing.

Ermedeline carefully stood up from her chair as Felio kneeled, staining the white marble floor with his tears. Rooney and Margo tried to support her, but Ermedeline brushed off their hands and quietly sat down in front of Felio.

“It’s not your fault. Your Grace has done everything you could. It’s all my fault, so don’t blame yourself.”

Indeed, had it been him from a few months ago, he might have scoffed at Ermedeline’s words, sneering that she was far from repaying for her sins.

But how had such sentiments emerged in just a few months?

Where had the world he had built over twenty-six years gone, and how had he come to live in this strange world where she was the only truth?

‘To pay for one’s sins.’

Yes. She was the mastermind behind creating the curse intended to murder Duke Batistian with a curse.

The very curse that drove his mother to suicide.

But to Felio, none of that mattered anymore.

He simply wanted to keep her safe, the one before him, spilling transparent tears over her sunken cheeks.

If it were possible, he wished to bear the burden of all her sins himself.

If only by doing so, her past could be erased.

Felio didn’t cry for long.

He thought it futile to continue erecting a useless dam against the overflow of his emotions while sitting on the floor. He decided it was more important to address the pile of documents before her.

Marchioness Grania, along with Felio, spent the entire day without sharing even a small joke, immersed in preparations for opening the orphanage.

As the day came to an end, Marchioness Grania extended something to Ermedeline.

“This is the first print of the foreign language textbook that Princess Viella and I created. We wanted to present it to Her Majesty the Empress.”

The textbook, funded out of pocket by the two Ilyenian princesses and the marchioness.

Printing was not a cheap technology in this era.

Not when paper and ink were not items that commoners could easily procure.

Ermedeline gladly accepted the small book, which she couldn’t read a word of.

Not just feeding and clothing them but education.

Education that would be the foundation for the children, so they would not pass on a life like their own to their offspring.

“Lady Bellest and Liena were very worried about Her Majesty.”

A shadow passed over the always silent and calm face of Marchioness Grania.

Had they been here, they surely would have made light of seeing the first edition of the textbook.

“I’m doing well, so please convey my regards to them. You all bear no responsibility, so don’t feel guilty. Tell them to enjoy a long vacation.”

Ermedeline lightened the mood with a joke, forcing a smile.

“Yes, I will convey that.”

Marchioness Grania, understanding Ermedeline’s intention, smiled faintly and nodded gently.

After the maids left, Ermedeline left Felio alone.

“I heard you took on some of the magic meant for me.”

“It was a negligible amount.”

“But I heard it nearly killed you due to excessive bleeding?”

Ermedeline’s face, glaring at Felio with hostility, was clearly filled with blame.

“Compared to the pain Her Majesty has endured, it’s nothing…”

“Your Grace.”

Ermedeline cut off Felio’s words with a tone that suggested she had heard enough.

“Your Highness, I already know your heart. I know that your words of wanting to protect me at any cost are sincere, without a shred of falsehood. But Your Grace, if both of us die, what will become of the orphanage, and the sewer projects?”

“Are the projects really the issue right now…”

“Ferdant?”

Although Ermedeline had already asked Leopold to take care of Ferdant, the overwhelming fear for the future of the child she would leave alone in the world after surviving a brush with death came crashing down on her.

No matter how heartfelt love letters and diaries existed, those were all memories of the original Ermedeline.

To the current Ermedeline, Leopold was still somewhat of a stranger, someone she had only glimpsed memories of from the past.

“Your Grace, I am afraid. I’m afraid of dying and of all the struggles I’ve endured up until now being for naught. The political situation in the capital is getting more complicated by the day because of Prince Leopold, food production has ceased in the Brunnian Region, and the border with Frianton is already in chaos, isn’t it?”

“……”

For the first time, Ermedeline opened up a little about her inner thoughts to Felio, which she had never done before.

“I can no longer make any predictions about my future. I don’t know if I could properly deal with someone trying to kill me amidst this chaos, and the more chaotic the capital becomes, the more people will try to kill me.”

“Your Majesty.”

“Do not deny it. Aren’t you the one who has saved me several times? Even if I didn’t have a family trying to kill me, there are already many who are after my life.”

Watching Ermedeline struggle to hold back her tears, Felio clenched his jaw tightly, knowing well that one of those who had nearly succeeded in killing her was his own father.

“I want to live. Yes, all of this effort, the orphanage, the masquerades, the sewer projects, they were all attempts to change my reputation and survive in this palace. I truly want to live.”

Suddenly, the desperation she felt when she first became possessed returned, and Ermedeline sighed deeply as she sat down.

“But now, I must also consider the possibility that I might not survive.”

“Your Majesty!”

Felio yelled with a raised voice, but Ermedeline continued to speak.

“Your Grace! Listen to me. At this moment, you are the person I trust the most in the world, more than anyone else. So, promise me now that you will not die with me. Promise me you won’t commit such a reckless act and that you will live to protect Ferdant.”

Ermedeline was no longer unaware of his feelings.

She couldn’t be ignorant of the heart of a man who was willing to risk his life for her time and again.

Despite the rejection and the dark, sticky web of bad karma between them, ignoring it didn’t mean she was truly unaware.

Thus, Ermedeline knew how cruel her words were to him.

To command a man who was willing to die for her to live for her sake was an incredibly harsh sentence.

“Answer me. Promise you will live to protect my son.”

Her insistence on saving the child she neither birthed nor raised was sincere.

Her desire to protect the child she loved with all her heart, even if it meant her own death, was genuine without a shred of falsehood.

But as much as she wanted that child to be safe, Ermedeline wished for Felio to live.

Even if she were to die, she hoped Felio would escape this cursed fate and continue his life.

“This is my command. So, answer me now. Promise you will live to protect my son.”