Emperor's Alternate - Chapter 20
I finally lifted my immobilized feet. The librarian remaining behind Lecan sighed in bewilderment.
‘I have to get out of here.’
My pace quickened.
But I never made it out of that corridor. As soon as I reached the bend in the corridor, I came face to face with Lecan. The ‘Potion of Disguise’ had already worn off, reverting me to my original appearance.
Someone would remember me as the last maid to serve tea to the soon-to-be-screaming Teiles I, so I had calculated enough time to allow myself to get away before immediately shedding my disguise.
‘He won’t recognize me.’
When I spoke to Lecan earlier, I was an ordinary maid with brown hair and dark eyes. The last time he saw me as a court lady was when I was five years old. It would be far-fetched to identify me as the ‘missing court lady from the Rotea Ducal House’ just because of my blonde hair and blue eyes.
Standing uncomfortably close, the man who stood several inches taller than me felt even larger than life. His muscular body, which was not concealed by his clothes, was overwhelming. His hard body, coupled with the longsword at his waist, gave him an air of authority.
Lecan, who was supposed to be heading to his residence, strode directly toward me, staring straight into my face and no one else’s.
Despite his role as the Empire’s Knight Commander, he was once my fiancé. The boyish softness from our youth had evaporated entirely, replaced by an unmistakably intense masculinity. His thick black hair and blood-red eyes seemed utterly surreal.
I couldn’t even step back. I stood frozen in place before some unknown instinct.
“It’s you.”
His voice, full of conviction, rang out so close.
I had been caught.
How on earth?
Suddenly blurting out Ancient Tongue to him, my lie, though delivered with a deliberately slow pace, was immediately deciphered by Lecan. I hadn’t even hoped to deceive him completely, but I hadn’t expected it to be this quick, especially with a different face from when I spoke to him.
‘Lecan knows I can pretend to be someone else.’
How much did he figure out?
“It was you.” I saw myself reflected in his confident gaze.
My heart raced excessively, heightening my senses to the point where time seemed to slow down. The golden strands of hair cascading with a lustrous sheen, the twinkle in the blue eyes looking up at him, and the appearance resembling the deceased Duchess. It all felt so unearthly youthful.
He smiled with the exhilaration of a successful predator capturing its prey.
“…”
Whether it was the moment Lecan grabbed my wrist or the moment the Emperor screamed in the bedroom, I couldn’t tell what happened first. I was inadvertently relieved about the timing of everything. Before Lecan entered the bedroom, it had become apparent to everyone that the Emperor had already fallen victim to poison.
“…!”
Regardless of revealing my identity, Lecan had now, at the very least, distanced himself slightly from the accusation of regicide.
The dying man’s scream pierced the heavens. The resounding, thunderous sound echoing through the palace was a cry that seemed to encompass all the pain in the world. It was a sound nearly impossible to describe as a human scream—it was the sound of a corpse.
The horrific and desperate demise had been knotted by my own hands, a fact that didn’t sit well with me. Revenge may not be glorious, but it was the only way to repay what’s been done.
“You, deliberately…!”
Your Majesty! Your Majesty has fallen!
Bring me an assistant!
AAAAAARGH!
The following eerie screams, endless cries, and sounds of agony echoed throughout. I twisted my wrist out of Lecan’s grasp, and he released me rather effortlessly, to my surprise.
My wrists felt hot from the marks of his unnatural strength. Despite the Emperor’s screams and the chaotic clamor of people around, I maintained a calm expression. What did Lecan suspect?
‘This is your chance, Lecan.’
Not only had the faithful attendant of the Sixth Prince undergone the proxy test, but now it could also be speculated that she had poisoned the Emperor. Lecan could have pointed me out as the perpetrator to the knights rushing into the scene.
But this time he did something unexpected. He pushed me away, signaling not to get caught up, not to get involved. We parted ways in the midst of the chaos, as if it were a mutual tacit belief that this was all fair game.
***
“My Lord, no matter how you look at it, the Emperor’s death is riddled with oddities. It’s only right that he be autopsied, not buried as he is,” the librarian whispered, but Lecan’s expression remained unwavering.
The Sixth Prince’s coronation ceremony was in full swing.
The sudden demise of the Emperor was undeniably horrific. Despite being veiled for the dignity of the royal family, everyone knew how terribly Teiles I had suffered before his passing.
With no Crown Prince, it was only fitting that the Sixth Prince should be crowned as Emperor Teiles II. His mother wore the face of the happiest woman in the world, along with the Empress’s ceremonial attire and smiled brightly like the sun.
As if it had been long awaited, all procedures were promptly carried out immediately after the Emperor’s passing. It was concluded that his death resulted from a sudden worsening of a pre-existing illness. Lecan, of course, did not believe it.
“It was you.”
A woman far too beautiful to be serving as a maid. A woman with a surprisingly delicate wrist.
It’s all a plan hatched by that woman’s mind. When did she start planning this? Perhaps from the moment when the Sixth Prince, a mere bastard child, was officially recognized as a prince.
The Sixth Prince’s coronation was more magnificent than ever, thanks to the envoys and congratulatory gifts sent by the Abel Empire. Behind the Sixth Prince wearing the crown, he caught a brief glimpse of a woman with blonde hair.
‘Is this your true face?’
Once again, she was dressed as a maid.
“…Not yet, this is not the time.”
The success rate of hunting a beast is little more than twenty percent. However, persevere and even the most skilled fugitive can become complacent and be caught off guard.
Despite the librarian’s pointing out that something was amiss, Lecan showed no intention of raising any concerns. He simply pursued the traces of the disappeared woman, hiding in silence. In a different sense, this burgeoning interest was quite an unfamiliar sensation.
