My Child's Father is The Emperor - Chapter 2.2
“Van, I hope you live.”
The seemingly indifferent gray eyes looked at her questioningly.
“When everyone wishes for you to disappear, I’ll pray that you live, not for your sake but for ours.”
Adele tightly held Van’s hand.
“I’ll be the one who wishes for your survival.”
Van seemed like a wounded and lonely wolf.
Adele forgot her own situation, feeling for him instead.
“Will you do that for me?”
Adele nodded her head.
“Thank you.”
Van gently took Adele’s hand and pressed a kiss on the back of it.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Making eye contact with a handsome man whose lips were on the back of my hand was an experience that was detrimental to my heart.
“Ah…”
Adele blushed shyly and tried to withdraw her hand.
Tap.
A small, white hand held Van’s hand.
In that moment, the air between them changed.
In a low voice, Van called her name.
“Adele.”
It was a voice that seemed to boil up from deep within.
Adele didn’t recognize it.
How a v****n’s innocent gesture can ignite a man’s heart.
It was only on the third kiss that Adele gave herself to Van.
* * *
The ruthless slayer, Vanhelm von Albrecht.
He was the fourth prince of the House of Albrecht.
The previous emperor had no daughters. From the Empresses and concubines, only sons were born, and there were as many as seven princes in the Imperial Family.
Born from a concubine, he took the lives of all six brothers in the fierce struggle for succession, a tragedy of the imperial family.
Even the Empress Dowager, who had supported the first prince, the Empress’s foe, was ruthlessly thrown into a monastery.
As a result, he gained a reputation as a cold-blooded man who would do anything for the throne.
Furthermore, the Empress Dowager died a few months after being confined to the monastery, fuelling the rumors. The young Emperor gradually lost the people’s favor.
Emperor Albrecht, who had been personally wandering the battlefield for nearly three years, earned the title of ‘Ruthless Slayer.’
It was said that when he wielded his sword, no enemy survived.
The Emperor’s absence from the palace for such a long time was not without its consequences, for he had purged all the nobles who might pose a threat to internal affairs during his ascension to the throne, and all three after his ascension.
“I’ve come to take my son.”
A ruthless slayer.
Adele was well aware of Emperor Albrecht’s infamous reputation.
‘I never imagined that, as a commoner, I would ever encounter the Emperor in my lifetime.’
She never even thought about facing him within the palace dining hall.
“Leo!”
Adele quickly stood up and blocked Leo’s path.
“No, you can’t.”
At that moment, two knights by the emperor’s side moved in unison.
Instantly, the swords in their hands were aimed at Adele’s throat.
“How dare you!”
“Do you dare to defy the Emperor’s command!”
Adele gasped, her face turning pale as she stared at the blade inches from her throat.
Her body trembled uncontrollably.
Van. I wish for you to live.
Adele was perplexed.
Was this Emperor really the person she had pitied that night?
Upon learning of her pregnancy, Adele had searched for Van.
She had written requests to the nearby knight order and even visited the wandering knights’ guild, asking multiple times.
Van? There’s no one like that here.
Hmm. Black hair and gray eyes. You won’t find anyone with such details, miss.
We don’t have anyone named Van in our guild.
Adele was frustrated, her stomach churning.
But Leo’s existence kept her alive in those days.
She had survived the disappointment of her mother, who had left to remarry soon after my father’s death, the debt she had left in my wake, and the disapproval of the world for carrying a child in a v****n’s body. Adele had overcome it all alone.
But now, the sword pointed at her throat was too terrifying.
‘If I withdraw here, Leo will be taken away.’
She couldn’t back down.
‘But if I resist, he will… He will kill me.’
The Emperor was that kind of man. If you stand in his way, you die.
Adele stood frozen, her arms outstretched, trembling uncontrollably.
“Enough.”
At the Emperor’s signal, the knights sheathed their swords.
He approached.
Clank. Clank. Clank.
The chilling sound of footsteps echoed from his armor.
“Leopold.”
The emperor called out the child’s name.
“I am your father.”
Only then did Adele finally look at Leo.
Leo, with expectant eyes, tightly grasped Adele’s skirt and peeked from behind, looking up at the Emperor.
Adele was taken aback by the curiosity in her young son’s eyes.
“I thought he was dead.”
Raising Leo, Adele had tried to casually dismiss it whenever Leo asked about his father.
She believed he might not be alive, considering how many people wished for his death.
“Will you come with me?”
The Emperor’s words carried authority with each syllable.
Leo, as if enchanted, released Adele’s skirt and reached toward the Emperor.
When he took the child’s delicate hand, anger erupted inside Adele.
“He’s my child! I carried him in my womb for ten months! What were you doing all this time?”
For a moment, the Emperor’s cold gray eyes flickered.
