Emperor's Alternate - Chapter 5
I had never been happy about being betrothed in the womb against my will. My father and his friend had made a pact to marry us off if they had children, and I was the only daughter of the Rotea Ducal House. That was the reason I ended up engaged to Lecan, who was seven years my senior.
But in this moment, I was glad of it. I needed a protector.
‘Can I walk all the way to the northern region where Lecan lives?’
Even at this very moment, I was certain that soldiers were tracking my brother and me. No matter how much I wanted to get to the north, it wasn’t a distance I could walk, and I had already exhausted my resources for escaping through the secret passage. Even if I wanted to use the mana train, I had no valuable possessions to pay with.
‘What should I do?’
Although Lecan’s family was of lower nobility, they were still a well-respected lineage, otherwise he would not have been my betrothed.
‘If the House of Rotea is in ruins, there’s a high likelihood that Lecan won’t be safe either.’
I carefully began to unfold my thoughts. The royal family had long kept Lecan’s lineage in check, considering their abilities and their relatively low status, far from the center of the system, out in the outskirts. This fact was evidence enough.
‘Realistically, I can’t make it there on my own right now. I need the help of someone living within the system.’
I had to think rationally. I shifted my thoughts in a new direction. Someone among the nobility residing within the system who could hide and protect my brother and me. Did such a person exist?
‘That woman who was recently recognized as the Emperor’s mistress…’
What suddenly came to mind was the viscountess, who was known in high society for being the Emperor’s mistress, a role often whispered about in social circles. She was the viscount’s wife, even though that title held the lowest rank among nobility. I remembered that during her time as a viscountess, there had been plenty of gossip.
I don’t know how strong her desire to rise in status was, but somehow she became a favorite of the emperor, who was decades older than her. I used to sit on the corner sofa and read a book alone when my mother attended tea time, allowing me to overhear the conversations of noble ladies.
Recently, the name that had been most frequently on everyone’s lips was that of the mistress. She had been the subject of numerous rumors as of late. Externally, she was undeniably beautiful, a fact everyone could acknowledge. She had one son with her viscount husband, but everyone knew that the child was the Emperor’s illegitimate offspring.
‘They say the child hasn’t even received his official title as a prince yet. He’s three years old this year, the same age as Lucian.’
She was known to possess strong maternal instincts. I turned my head to look at my crying younger brother.
‘Could I somehow trigger her maternal instincts?’
I thought coldly, stifling my breath.
The consort’s son, who had blonde hair and blue eyes, matched the color of my hair and eyes. I believed that there was a chance she might feel some instinctual fondness for us. Furthermore, if the Emperor’s mistress, driven by a strong desire for social advancement, was anything like that, her intentions would likely be crystal clear.
“Perhaps she wants to make her own child an Emperor.”
Maybe she even had aspirations for the throne itself…
However, she had no significant power. While it was certain that her son was the Emperor’s child, he was only the sixth in line to the throne. Even if he were to gain the official title of the sixth prince in the future, he would remain just that – the sixth prince. In a royal hierarchy with a well-established crown prince, it was rare for her to have any influence.
She was rumored to be extravagant and ill-tempered, and people whispered behind her back that she was a wicked woman. But I beg to differ. If she were as stupid as they say, she would never have become a consort.
Furthermore, though the Rotea Grand Duchy had fallen from grace, I was still a lady of the ducal family. If her desire for social advancement was as strong as I thought, there was a significant possibility that she would feel subconscious affection and a sense of inferiority toward me.
‘Using that sense of inferiority to our advantage is the key. The Emperor’s mistress could fulfill her need for superiority by picking up fallen high-ranking aristocrats. If I’m not mistaken, the book says inferiority and superiority grow from the same root…’
I rummaged through the trash and found a tattered black robe. I put on the robe, and then carefully wrapped my younger brother in a tightly coiled bundle inside a wicker basket. He had grown quiet, likely exhausted from crying.
I knew where the consort would likely go. Like someone who had prepared for survival countless times, my actions proceeded without delay, as naturally as waking up in the morning and taking a drink of water.
The decision-making process was continuous, and during it, there were hardly any emotions involved. Looking back on that day in the distant future, it was surprising even to myself how excessively adult I had been, handling everything with a remarkably calm attitude that was far from childlike.
How could this be possible? I was merely a young child accustomed to wealth and comfort. No, perhaps it was precisely because I had already experienced numerous cases through books that I was able to do what I did.
