Come and Cry at My Funeral - Chapter 234
The palace attendant urging him again and again was sweating coldly.
How many times had he barely managed to rein in his voice from sinking into his throat?
The attendant glanced nervously at the unmoving duke with his arms crossed.
‘Was the duke… always this terrifying?’
Even during the time he had spent with the imperial descendant, he had been difficult to approach, but at least back then, the duke had some vitality.
Dissatisfaction toward the imperial family, the fierce energy that drove him forward for the honor of his house.
That vitality was what had allowed people to call him with awe-filled titles like ‘comet’ or ‘hero’.
Even now, there was likely no other hero in the empire like this man.
But no matter how thankful one was for his strength, it was no longer possible to attach such beautiful titles to him. To do so for a man who walked beneath the shadow of death would be sheer hypocrisy.
At the very least, for the flustered attendant, it was a relief when the final flower petal fell.
Izar, who had watched the sight to the end, finally turned to leave. Even his nerves, worn down as they were, had been frayed by the Emperor’s increasingly frequent messages as of late.
Their relationship hadn’t been amicable even back when she had been alive.
So even though he was led to the Emperor’s bedchamber, the Emperor, who had summoned him, only glared at Izar as though he might stab him with an awl.
“Ha, so you’ve come…”
“I answer Your Majesty’s summons.”
“Answer, you say. Hah, as if. That wretched face of yours, cough, is so rarely seen.”
The Emperor’s face, now riddled with liver spots, contorted as he scolded him.
The time to pass the throne on to Riegel was approaching, but unrest still gripped the empire.
So as much as he despised him, how ideal would it have been for Duke Arcturus to properly support the imperial crown prince?
And yet this cursed grandson-in-law of his was constantly absent. Even when summoned by the imperial household, he was nowhere to be found, and he rarely showed his face during the social season in the capital.
‘After turning that child’s funeral into a disaster…!’
The more he dwelled on it, the more rage boiled up, and the emotions he had barely suppressed began to rear their head again.
“Truly, ha, there’s no end to your shamelessness. After you lost my granddaughter…!”
For the past three years, the Emperor had flown into a rage the moment he heard that his granddaughter had disappeared from the duchy. Naturally, his fury had been unleashed upon everyone who had failed to protect her.
Those who witnessed it whispered in secret that being executed by the duke himself would have been the more merciful fate.
After a storm of rage came a madness-like distrust.
〈That child cannot possibly be dead! She must still be alive!〉
The Emperor dispatched manpower to scour every corner of the realm.
He promised rich rewards to anyone who claimed to have seen a woman who resembled his granddaughter, and he personally verified every woman who insisted she had lost her memory.
But all of it came to nothing.
Izar stared expressionlessly at the old man, who poured out his rage in a frenzy.
In the past, he might have met this damned man’s fury with an equal fury of his own. But now, he was simply tired of looking at that wrinkled face.
He was sick of it. Sick to death.
And because he was tired, he no longer had the patience to hold back the words he had kept inside for the sake of propriety.
“Who was it that threw his granddaughter to this shameless bastard as if for ridicule, Your Majesty?”
“W-What did you say…!”
“If you hadn’t known her identity, you would’ve gladly handed her over to a monster. I don’t understand why you act like you miss her now.”
Izar slowly raised his head and looked up at the portrait above the Emperor’s bedside.
“……Wasn’t it just because she resembled the late Empress, whom you favored? I’m sure she knew everything, too.”
Perhaps because his own death drew near, the Emperor had brought in the Empress’s portrait from the special room where he had kept it alone.
Thanks to that, Izar was finally able to see the face of the Empress, who had died in childbirth.
And yet, not a single portrait of her had been left to him.
“So it’s no wonder the imperial descendant never cared for Your Majesty. Not even enough to write a proper letter.”
“DUKE……!”
The Emperor cried out in fury, but the words struck too painful a nerve, and a fit of dry coughing erupted from his mouth.
In truth, hadn’t he known all along?
That the granddaughter who so resembled his beloved wife had not loved him at all.
It hurt too much to confront that fact, so he had turned his face away.
Izar watched the old man suffer with a numb gaze.
Disgusting. Disgusting. It was all so revolting.
But before he left, he had one last bothersome loose end to sever.
“When His Highness ascends the throne, I will see to it that he is properly supported. So you needn’t push any further.”
“Cough… haa…”
“Then, I shall take my leave now, Your Majesty.”
Leaving behind the Emperor with bloodshot eyes, Izar turned and walked away.
Leaving the room without an official dismissal from the Emperor was unthinkable, but at this point, he no longer had the strength to care.
As he stepped back out into the corridor, his newly appointed aide rushed toward him.
“Milord!”
This was the retainer he had brought in to replace Charles after executing him.
The man had been working with great enthusiasm to fill the place of the former aide, but not a single impression of him had taken root in Izar’s mind.
In fact, it wasn’t just the new aide.
Over the past three years, every person who passed before his eyes had looked like a smudged blot of black and white.
“Where shall we go first today?”
But to that question, Izar gave an answer.
“……Today, we go to the outer orphanage.”
For the past three years, the places he visited had always been the same.
