My Child's Father is The Emperor - Chapter 7.1
“Let Leo and me out of the palace.”
Adele clasped her trembling hands together.
“Adele!”
Adele hunched her shoulders and squeezed her eyes shut.
“I will live as if I never existed. If you will let me leave this country, I will leave.”
Tears streamed down her closed eyes.
“Please show mercy.”
“I cannot allow it.”
At the Emperor’s resolute words, Adele opened her eyes and looked up at him.
“…You’re truly heartless.”
“What did you just say?”
“I am a person. A living person. Your subject.”
Adele accepted Van’s gaze without avoiding it.
“Do you have no regard or emotions for commoners?”
Adele felt sad.
Nobles killing commoners was not considered a crime.
Being killed by the Emperor’s hands at this moment was not an issue.
‘If sending Leo away means I have to die, what’s the point of staying alive?’
Now that she was in this situation, she realized that there was only one way to go.
To lose Leo and die.
No matter how many times I tried to avoid it, it was inevitable, and it was in the Emperor’s hands.
“Are you throwing a tantrum like a child?”
“A tantrum?”
“Think about Leo’s future.”
“Leo’s future?”
Adele was furious.
From someone who had neither raised nor seen the child, hearing talk about his future was infuriating.
“That child was growing up happily.”
The Emperor spoke as if mocking her.
“As a commoner.”
Adele’s pride was hurt. She stiffened her face.
“I cannot accept it. Leo is my son.”
“Adele!”
Adele looked straight into the Emperor’s eyes.
“If you cannot allow it, I will starve to death. Once I die, take that child and raise him as your heir.”
“Do as you please!”
The Emperor, seeming unable to contain his anger, forcefully closed the door and left.
“Ugh.”
Adele was filled with resentment.
She never thought it regrettable to be born a commoner under the caste system.
Before lying on the sickbed, her father was a commoner-born administrative officer.
Being recognized and holding a prestigious position, there was no one higher than an administrative officer in the territory, even higher than a lord. An administrator is someone who works for the lord, so it was an enviable job for the people of the manor.
So Adele studied hard. She wanted to be a good administrator like her father.
So, she had no reason to feel unhappy about being a commoner.
But now, she was saddened by her own insignificance.
* * *
Van stayed in the office until late at night.
Adele’s heart seemed deeply wounded.
‘I was mistaken.’
He thought that for the first time.
The fourth prince, Van, was royalty by birth.
The Albrecht Empire strictly adhered to the caste system.
His mother, Empress Sonare, was a princess from a neighboring duchy. The fifth empress by arranged marriage. Because of his youth, the child rose quickly.
However, the loneliness and strangeness of living in another country caused her health to deteriorate after her pregnancy.
Eventually, she gave birth to a stillborn child and died.
Van was then raised by the handmaidens and nannies who served the Empress Sonare.
Van had no political background in the empire.
His mother was a noblewoman from a neighboring country, and after her early death, he only received occasional greetings from the ambassadors of that country.
Thus, he had no one to look up to.
Van had no political backing or faction since childhood. While siblings with political connections and backgrounds restrained each other, Van could not join that axis.
Even his siblings, his mother the empress, and the consorts viewed Van as someone who couldn’t participate in the succession struggle.
Van remembered that day.
Among the seven imperial princes, Van, with the weakest and most unassuming background, became the first target.
Van severed the throat of his brother, the third prince, who had attacked him.
The act of killing felt horribly gruesome. The fact that his brother had aimed for his life was shocking enough, but Van had taken away his breath with his own hands.
His life had been unwelcome from an early age.
Being of noble birth, he felt like he was just surviving in the palace.
“Van. I wish for you to live.“
That was before hearing those words.
“When everyone wishes for you to disappear, I’ll pray that you stay here with me.”
Anyone would live with such prayers from family or a loved one, right?
“I’ll be the one person who wishes for you to live.”
Such prayers usually come from a mother, but for Van, who grew up without a mother, it was an unfamiliar emotion.
From a young age, Van’s different appearance attracted many women to him. Because of his mother’s early death, Van was uncomfortable with women, but Adele, who spoke to him, was beautiful like a fairy.
Beautiful things dazzle the eye and draw the heart.
He wanted her.
He wanted to live by Adele’s side.
To do that, Ban had to live.
To live, he had to spill blood until he was sick of it. The daily hell unfolding before him was like a mountainous abyss.
With the hope that somewhere beyond the land flowing with blood and entrails, Adele wished for his return, Van endured.
“Let Leo and me out of the palace.”
When Adele said those words, Van did not show any emotion, but he felt a stifling shock, like the floor was being pulled out from under her feet.
He didn’t know how to react.
