My Child's Father is The Emperor - Chapter 2.1
[TW: Mentions of self-harm and su*cide]
Four years ago.
Adele, having left her home, wandered aimlessly.
“I’d rather die than marry that old man!”
Her situation was too miserable.
“Quiet? Modest? It’s ridiculous.”
Who wouldn’t dream of a happily married life, loved by someone?
Her father, lying on a sickbed.
Her mother, squandering money with loans.
A father unable to stop such a mother.
Finally, a mother rejoices in selling her daughter to an elderly marquis.
Everything was dreadful.
Before she knew it, Adele found herself at the Novusvita Bridge on the Prova River.
Novusvita, a new life.
Prova means to be tested.
Ironically, this place was a suicide spot, a name devoid of color.
“Would it be easier to just die?”
She had been wandering, but found herself in this spot.
“Would it be more comfortable if I died?”
Adele began to climb the stairs slowly.
As the sun began to set, the surroundings dimmed, and light drizzle fell, but there was no one on the path.
When she almost reached the top of the arched bridge, Adele widened her eyes.
When she reached the top of the archway, her eyes widened.
At the top of the bridge, at the highest point, where it jutted out like a small terrace, there was someone who had arrived before me.
A robust man in a black hood was looking down at the river below the bridge.
It seemed as if he had found a place to let go of life.
“Oh, that person…”
The moment the man leaned forward as if to jump, Adele threw herself to catch him.
“Ah! Don’t die!”
Adele forcefully embraced the man’s waist.
“Hey, help here!”
The man was much taller and more muscular than Adele.
If just one more person lent a hand, they could pull him back.
Adele’s heart raced as she almost witnessed someone’s death.
“Let go of me.”
“Yes?”
Our gazes locked.
Beneath the hood, he was stunningly handsome.
His skin was almost pale, his eyes were gray, and his hair was almost as black as the hood.
Adele could feel, through the touch on her body, the firmness of the man’s body embraced in her arms.
The handsome man’s face wrinkled.
“How long are you going to keep doing this?”
“Oh, sorry!”
Adele hastily distanced herself from the man.
“Huh?”
Adele’s body, making a futile step, leaned outward in an instant.
There was a reason why this bridge became the ultimate suicide spot.
First, the railing height of the bridge was very low, only about thigh height, making it easy to cross.
Second, the stones were worn smooth by the sheer number of people who had been there.
Everyone hesitates at the last moment.
But here, if you set your mind to jump, the floor stones are as slippery as glass, and the railing is low, almost pushing you off like saying goodbye.
“Ah!”
Adele looked down.
The eyes of the man, who was surprised to see her falling, shook intensely.
“Not even trying to catch me, traitor.”
Adele fell into the river with a sense of resentment.
Splash.
The river was deep, and Adele, who didn’t know how to swim, floundered.
Adele, with her skirt soaked in water, clung to her legs and slid down, down, dragged Adele’s body.
Splash.
The nearby water surged greatly.
Adele’s consciousness gradually became hazy.
‘It’s a good thing.’
At least she wouldn’t have to enter the wedding hall with the marquis.
* * *
“Uhh.”
Adele opened her eyes.
“Cough. Cough.”
Her throat and nose were uncomfortable, perhaps because of the water she had swallowed.
Adele sat up on the bed.
“Where am I?”
It was a room with old, shabby, and cheap furniture. Outside the window, the inn sign was visible.
Adele sighed.
“… I’m alive.”
Her wet clothes were stripped off, and she was in thin pajamas. Adele, feeling a sense of emptiness, pulled the sheet over herself like a shawl.
Creak.
The door opened, and the man entered. It was the person she had encountered on the bridge.
He was also wearing a thin shirt, as if he had obtained clothes from the inn.
‘Woah.’
With the hood removed, his exposed body lines were like a legendary deity. He looked so dignified that even the god of war wouldn’t look so disheveled. He was so handsome that I sighed in embarrassment at my disheveled state.
‘He saved me?’
She retracted the thought of him as a traitor.
Seeing Adele awake, the man silently offered her a cup.
“Thank you for saving me….”
Adele drank the hot honey tea. The rich and warm liquid made her body tremble as it went down her throat.
“My name is Adele. And you?”
The man looked at her as if he didn’t know why she was asking for her name.
“Even if I saved your life, is it necessary to know my name?”
“I’m Van.”
It was a name that suited his handsome face.
“Why did you go there?”
“What do you mean?”
“Weren’t you trying to die?”
Adele looked at the man. With that face and body, he was so handsome that it was hard to understand why he would want to die.
“No.”
Van was serious.
“Phew.”
Breaking the awkward silence, Van sighed.
“Why were you trying to die?”
Adele looked at him, her eyes widening before quickly lowering her eyelids.
“My mother sold me.”
“I see.”
They say life is good, even if you roll in a pile of dog sh*t.
It seems like it doesn’t apply to everyone when you see how frustrating the present life is after narrowly escaping the terror of death.
“I didn’t try to die, but I thought about it.”
Adele turned her head to look at Van.
“Why?”
“Everyone wishes for my death.”
Gray eyes, filled with sadness, gleamed with a mournful light.
“I killed my brothers with my own hands today.”
Adele was astonished, her mouth agape.
“Grandmother, brothers, trusted friends—everyone wished for me to disappear.”
A bitter smile appeared on Van’s lips.
“Chivalry is tainted, and there is not a single person in the world who wants me to live.”
The emptiness and despair he felt was evident to Adele.
‘My God! Grandmother and brothers?’
Do all knightly families…… live so fiercely?
‘Maybe it’s different for these kinds of broken families.’
Well, even the Dreyfus territory, which was not that prestigious, was engaged in a ruthless battle for the position of the next heir.
Adele wanted to comfort Van, reaching out to hold his hand, which rested neatly on his knee.
“Van, I hope you live.”
