Tersia Eloa Herbet is the only honorable empress of the empire.
She was the only child of the Duke of Eloa and was raised from birth to become empress.
And as if not to be against everyone’s expectations, she married the then Crown Prince Barmun Orbe Herbet.
A few years later, upon the abdication of the emperor, Barmun ascended to the throne, and Tersia also became empress.
It was a loveless political marriage, but she had no complaints.
There was no woman more suited for the empress position than herself anyway.
Tersia was faithful to her duty.
As the hostess of the palace, she was in charge of household management and administered discipline.
But she, who thought all was perfect, also had one problem.
It was that there were no children.
Tersia didn’t want to stain the name of the perfect empress.
She needed to do whatever she wanted in order to release her temper.
After three years of sincere prayers through the empire’s temple, she finally got a baby boy.
Tersia had fulfilled her mission as the emperor’s wife.
All that was left was the mission as a mother.
Her final goal was for her son to ascend the throne.
But by the time everything was perfect, Tersia had heard some news.
It was that a person with imperial blood appeared in a small village.
It was the emperor’s illegitimate child.
Tersia secretly sent assassins behind the emperor’s back and ordered the child to be killed.
But instead of hearing words of success, it was the bodies of the assassins that came back.
Tersia, who was on the edge, poured everything generously to kill the illegitimate child.
But the illegitimate child survived until the end, and eventually reached the Imperial Palace.
Emperor Barmun declared the illegitimate child as his son.
Tersia, who was not a person who liked to wait and see, asked for a private meeting with Barmun.
Barmun talked leisurely, as if he knew she would come.
– We made a deal.
– What do you mean by a deal?
– He said he’d travel around the empire to defeat the monsters.
Tersia swallowed briefly at what Barmun was trying to say.
Monsters are now the biggest problem for the empire.
Ten years ago, the number was not large, but it has increased noticeably in recent years, causing a lot of damage to the empire.
The Crown Prince, Zigrid, set up an expedition to defeat the monsters, but it did not produce much results.
Furthermore, not long ago, he was immediately called back to the Imperial Palace when they were told that he had been injured by a monster.
– You can give all the credit to the crown prince.
Barmun spoke in a relaxed manner.
But his eyes flashed with greed.
Tersia fought with herself. To protect her pride without acknowledging illegitimate children or to strengthen the Crown Prince’s power?
The agony didn’t last long.
Eventually, Tersia accepted Barmun’s offer.
7 years had passed like that.
Tersia always had people to keep an eye on Yerhan.
It was because she was worried that he might have a different mind.
But Yerhan had so far faithfully fulfilled only Barmun’s orders without any problems.
While Yerhan wandered through the empire to defeat the monsters, numerous rumors spread.
There were malicious rumors such as the mad prince and the ugly prince.
The rumor didn’t go away and gained more and more strength.
It was because the person in the rumors had never officially appeared.
“I can’t believe he returned to the Imperial Palace…”
Tersia, who usually sat in the background and had graceful tea times, frowned at the thought of Yerhan, who was like an eyesore to her.
“I wish he’ll die while hunting monsters.”
Thorny words popped out of her smooth lips.
Tersia lifted the teacup as she said so.
After a sip of tea, she glanced at the letter on the table.
It was a letter brought from the servant earlier. A letter from the former Imperial Palace doctor who she kicked out in the past.
He was the one who treated Yerhan’s incurable disease without knowing his place.
He should have died at that time.
Yerhan’s lifeline, which was repeatedly revived, was very persistent.
There was nothing urgent about the letter, so she was going to read it after drinking all the tea.
That was when she was enjoying tea time.
There was a busy sound of someone running in the quiet backyard.
“Your Majesty, Empress…. we’ve got a problem!”
The servant, who ran without all formalities, urgently stood in front of her.
After slowly lowering the teacup, Tersia looked sideways as if to allow him to speak.
The servant took a short breath and opened his mouth.
“That’s… A carriage came through the main entrance of the Imperial Palace fortress. It’s the third prince’s carriage.”
“…What?”
Tersia placed the teacup down vigorously enough to make a clatter.
Tea splattered on the table, but no one cared about it.
Tersia recounted what her servant had said.
Until now, Yerhan had never entered through the main gate of the palace.
It was Yerhan who always walked in and out of the back door like a rat.
The servant was restless and it caught her eyes.
Realizing that the words were not over, Tersia nodded.
“Keep going.”
“That’s not all… He brought a young woman and a boy with him.”
Tersia, who had struggled to remain calm at those words, sprang up from her seat.
***
The carriage, which was running recklessly, passed through the main gate of the Imperial Palace fortress and rapidly decreased its speed.
Rosena’s complexion clouded as the fast-paced landscape began to catch her eye.
She never dreamed that she would enter the Imperial Palace on her own.
Rosena looked out and found people staring blankly at the carriage.
They looked appalled or distraught as if they were seeing a ghost.
Everyone dressed like aristocrats and those who appeared to be servants all had the same look on their faces.
The carriage was not noticeably fancy, but she couldn’t understand why everyone was like that.
The steadily moving carriage ran for a long time and entered a remote path.
The Imperial Palace was so big that it took quite a while to find Yerhan’s palace.
By the time the silence that was hovering in the carriage became overwhelming, the wheels finally stopped.
Yerhan first got off the carriage and reached his hand out to Rosena.
It was to escort her, but Rosena refused to accept the hand.
“I’ll hold the child.”
“It’s okay.”
At the firm rejection, Yerhan stared at Rosena’s arm.
In his eyes, Rosena’s arms looked as thin as a branch.
So far, he had accepted Rosena’s rejections, but this time he would not back down.
“The child looks uncomfortable.”
On the pretext of a child, the hesitant Rosena eventually handed Illian over to him.
The place where the two headed towards was a small palace hidden by the grass.
Rosena looked around.
This place, which looked like a garden, was poorly maintained, and the fallen leaves were sprawled everywhere.
The wild roses blooming through the bushes did not match the image of the noble and elegant imperial family at all.
The building was old and the paint was peeling off.
There was a clear difference between the large and colorful palaces she saw on the way back then and the palace in front of her right now.
Rosena looked at Yerhan’s back for a moment.
This place seemed more suitable as a maid’s quarters than for an imperial family member.
“This is…?”
“It’s my private palace.”
Yerhan entered the humble palace without hesitation.
But no one came to greet him.
Yerhan stopped after a long walk down the pitiful hallway.
Rosena, who stopped walking in unison, looked up.
“We’re here.”
When he opened the door, a cozy little room appeared.
There was not much furniture, just a big bed, desk, and chair in the room.
After laying Illian down on the bed, Yerhan pulled out the only chair and placed it in front of Rosena.
He didn’t say anything, but she understood what he meant.
But instead of sitting in a chair, Rosena looked around and asked.
“When is the doctor coming?”
“There’s no doctor.”
“What do you…”
Rosena looked up at Yerhan, puzzled.
Then Yerhan pulled something out of his robe. It was a small transparent glass bottle.
The glass bottle, which glowed in light blue, contained a bubbly liquid.
Yerhan held the glass bottle and approached Illian.
He reached out, opened Illian’s mouth, and fed him liquid in the glass jar.
Illian, who was asleep like death, moved for the first time and swallowed it.
Rosena managed to breathe after watching it motionlessly.
“Illian…”
Rosena crouched in front of the bed, sweeping Illian’s cheek.
Redness slowly began to rise on his pale, bloodless cheeks.
When she saw Illian’s condition improve, Rosena raised the corner of her mouth with relief.
It was her first smile since Illian collapsed.
“……”
Yerhan’s eyes narrowed, staring at Rosena.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her smiling face.
He hesitated to reach out for Rosena without realizing it.
“Thank you very much….”
Rosena, who was holding Illian’s hand tightly, slowly lifted her head up and thanked Yerhan.
Yerhan shook his head.
“He hasn’t fully recovered yet. We need to see his condition.”
“But what did Illian just drink?”
Rosena looked at the glass bottle and asked.
Yerhan whispered as he unfolded the glass bottle in his hand.
“It’s the cure I drank.”
What did he mean, the cure he drank?
Realized that Rosena was looking at him with a face demanding an answer, Yerhan slowly opened his mouth.
“The child’s illness is a rare disease that started with my mother.”
Rosena opened her lips, saying, “Oh, my God.”
Only then could she know why the doctors shook their heads.
It was because it is a disease that no one had ever suffered.
“It’s genetic, so I had it too, but… fortunately, the royal physician made this cure.”
He showed her an empty glass bottle. The glass bottle, which was neatly emptied, was still blue.
Yerhan put the glass bottle on the bedside table so loudly.
Then he took one step closer to Rosena.
A quiet voice sounded as if it were right in her ears.
“And I’ve never seen anyone suffer from this disease before.”
As Rosena’s face dimmed black, Yerhan leaned toward her.
The distance between the two rapidly narrowed and a cool scent enveloped Rosena.
He whispered at a close distance.
“Are you still gonna say that he’s not my son after all of this?”
Tersia Eloa Herbet is the only honorable empress of the empire.
She was the only child of the Duke of Eloa and was raised from birth to become empress.
And as if not to be against everyone’s expectations, she married the then Crown Prince Barmun Orbe Herbet.
A few years later, upon the abdication of the emperor, Barmun ascended to the throne, and Tersia also became empress.
It was a loveless political marriage, but she had no complaints.
There was no woman more suited for the empress position than herself anyway.
Tersia was faithful to her duty.
As the hostess of the palace, she was in charge of household management and administered discipline.
But she, who thought all was perfect, also had one problem.
It was that there were no children.
Tersia didn’t want to stain the name of the perfect empress.
She needed to do whatever she wanted in order to release her temper.
After three years of sincere prayers through the empire’s temple, she finally got a baby boy.
Tersia had fulfilled her mission as the emperor’s wife.
All that was left was the mission as a mother.
Her final goal was for her son to ascend the throne.
But by the time everything was perfect, Tersia had heard some news.
It was that a person with imperial blood appeared in a small village.
It was the emperor’s illegitimate child.
Tersia secretly sent assassins behind the emperor’s back and ordered the child to be killed.
But instead of hearing words of success, it was the bodies of the assassins that came back.
Tersia, who was on the edge, poured everything generously to kill the illegitimate child.
But the illegitimate child survived until the end, and eventually reached the Imperial Palace.
Emperor Barmun declared the illegitimate child as his son.
Tersia, who was not a person who liked to wait and see, asked for a private meeting with Barmun.
Barmun talked leisurely, as if he knew she would come.
– We made a deal.
– What do you mean by a deal?
– He said he’d travel around the empire to defeat the monsters.
Tersia swallowed briefly at what Barmun was trying to say.
Monsters are now the biggest problem for the empire.
Ten years ago, the number was not large, but it has increased noticeably in recent years, causing a lot of damage to the empire.
The Crown Prince, Zigrid, set up an expedition to defeat the monsters, but it did not produce much results.
Furthermore, not long ago, he was immediately called back to the Imperial Palace when they were told that he had been injured by a monster.
– You can give all the credit to the crown prince.
Barmun spoke in a relaxed manner.
But his eyes flashed with greed.
Tersia fought with herself. To protect her pride without acknowledging illegitimate children or to strengthen the Crown Prince’s power?
The agony didn’t last long.
Eventually, Tersia accepted Barmun’s offer.
7 years had passed like that.
Tersia always had people to keep an eye on Yerhan.
It was because she was worried that he might have a different mind.
But Yerhan had so far faithfully fulfilled only Barmun’s orders without any problems.
While Yerhan wandered through the empire to defeat the monsters, numerous rumors spread.
There were malicious rumors such as the mad prince and the ugly prince.
The rumor didn’t go away and gained more and more strength.
It was because the person in the rumors had never officially appeared.
“I can’t believe he returned to the Imperial Palace…”
Tersia, who usually sat in the background and had graceful tea times, frowned at the thought of Yerhan, who was like an eyesore to her.
“I wish he’ll die while hunting monsters.”
Thorny words popped out of her smooth lips.
Tersia lifted the teacup as she said so.
After a sip of tea, she glanced at the letter on the table.
It was a letter brought from the servant earlier. A letter from the former Imperial Palace doctor who she kicked out in the past.
He was the one who treated Yerhan’s incurable disease without knowing his place.
He should have died at that time.
Yerhan’s lifeline, which was repeatedly revived, was very persistent.
There was nothing urgent about the letter, so she was going to read it after drinking all the tea.
That was when she was enjoying tea time.
There was a busy sound of someone running in the quiet backyard.
“Your Majesty, Empress…. we’ve got a problem!”
The servant, who ran without all formalities, urgently stood in front of her.
After slowly lowering the teacup, Tersia looked sideways as if to allow him to speak.
The servant took a short breath and opened his mouth.
“That’s… A carriage came through the main entrance of the Imperial Palace fortress. It’s the third prince’s carriage.”
“…What?”
Tersia placed the teacup down vigorously enough to make a clatter.
Tea splattered on the table, but no one cared about it.
Tersia recounted what her servant had said.
Until now, Yerhan had never entered through the main gate of the palace.
It was Yerhan who always walked in and out of the back door like a rat.
The servant was restless and it caught her eyes.
Realizing that the words were not over, Tersia nodded.
“Keep going.”
“That’s not all… He brought a young woman and a boy with him.”
Tersia, who had struggled to remain calm at those words, sprang up from her seat.
***
The carriage, which was running recklessly, passed through the main gate of the Imperial Palace fortress and rapidly decreased its speed.
Rosena’s complexion clouded as the fast-paced landscape began to catch her eye.
She never dreamed that she would enter the Imperial Palace on her own.
Rosena looked out and found people staring blankly at the carriage.
They looked appalled or distraught as if they were seeing a ghost.
Everyone dressed like aristocrats and those who appeared to be servants all had the same look on their faces.
The carriage was not noticeably fancy, but she couldn’t understand why everyone was like that.
The steadily moving carriage ran for a long time and entered a remote path.
The Imperial Palace was so big that it took quite a while to find Yerhan’s palace.
By the time the silence that was hovering in the carriage became overwhelming, the wheels finally stopped.
Yerhan first got off the carriage and reached his hand out to Rosena.
It was to escort her, but Rosena refused to accept the hand.
“I’ll hold the child.”
“It’s okay.”
At the firm rejection, Yerhan stared at Rosena’s arm.
In his eyes, Rosena’s arms looked as thin as a branch.
So far, he had accepted Rosena’s rejections, but this time he would not back down.
“The child looks uncomfortable.”
On the pretext of a child, the hesitant Rosena eventually handed Illian over to him.
The place where the two headed towards was a small palace hidden by the grass.
Rosena looked around.
This place, which looked like a garden, was poorly maintained, and the fallen leaves were sprawled everywhere.
The wild roses blooming through the bushes did not match the image of the noble and elegant imperial family at all.
The building was old and the paint was peeling off.
There was a clear difference between the large and colorful palaces she saw on the way back then and the palace in front of her right now.
Rosena looked at Yerhan’s back for a moment.
This place seemed more suitable as a maid’s quarters than for an imperial family member.
“This is…?”
“It’s my private palace.”
Yerhan entered the humble palace without hesitation.
But no one came to greet him.
Yerhan stopped after a long walk down the pitiful hallway.
Rosena, who stopped walking in unison, looked up.
“We’re here.”
When he opened the door, a cozy little room appeared.
There was not much furniture, just a big bed, desk, and chair in the room.
After laying Illian down on the bed, Yerhan pulled out the only chair and placed it in front of Rosena.
He didn’t say anything, but she understood what he meant.
But instead of sitting in a chair, Rosena looked around and asked.
“When is the doctor coming?”
“There’s no doctor.”
“What do you…”
Rosena looked up at Yerhan, puzzled.
Then Yerhan pulled something out of his robe. It was a small transparent glass bottle.
The glass bottle, which glowed in light blue, contained a bubbly liquid.
Yerhan held the glass bottle and approached Illian.
He reached out, opened Illian’s mouth, and fed him liquid in the glass jar.
Illian, who was asleep like death, moved for the first time and swallowed it.
Rosena managed to breathe after watching it motionlessly.
“Illian…”
Rosena crouched in front of the bed, sweeping Illian’s cheek.
Redness slowly began to rise on his pale, bloodless cheeks.
When she saw Illian’s condition improve, Rosena raised the corner of her mouth with relief.
It was her first smile since Illian collapsed.
“……”
Yerhan’s eyes narrowed, staring at Rosena.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her smiling face.
He hesitated to reach out for Rosena without realizing it.
“Thank you very much….”
Rosena, who was holding Illian’s hand tightly, slowly lifted her head up and thanked Yerhan.
Yerhan shook his head.
“He hasn’t fully recovered yet. We need to see his condition.”
“But what did Illian just drink?”
Rosena looked at the glass bottle and asked.
Yerhan whispered as he unfolded the glass bottle in his hand.
“It’s the cure I drank.”
What did he mean, the cure he drank?
Realized that Rosena was looking at him with a face demanding an answer, Yerhan slowly opened his mouth.
“The child’s illness is a rare disease that started with my mother.”
Rosena opened her lips, saying, “Oh, my God.”
Only then could she know why the doctors shook their heads.
It was because it is a disease that no one had ever suffered.
“It’s genetic, so I had it too, but… fortunately, the royal physician made this cure.”
He showed her an empty glass bottle. The glass bottle, which was neatly emptied, was still blue.
Yerhan put the glass bottle on the bedside table so loudly.
Then he took one step closer to Rosena.
A quiet voice sounded as if it were right in her ears.
“And I’ve never seen anyone suffer from this disease before.”
As Rosena’s face dimmed black, Yerhan leaned toward her.
The distance between the two rapidly narrowed and a cool scent enveloped Rosena.
He whispered at a close distance.
“Are you still gonna say that he’s not my son after all of this?”
