Chapter 2: Tears on Cold Stone.

When he saw the Emperor, who had rushed over with bloodshot eyes in less than half an hour, his mouth felt incredibly bitter.

And seeing that cold, blue glare, Haeryeong felt as if his heart were crumbling to pieces.

Haeryeong was in the middle of receiving the Emperor on the stone path that crossed the courtyard of the Empress’s Palace.

The Emperor ignored Haeryeong’s polite greeting and demanded out of nowhere if he had known the Consort was pregnant.

No matter how little affection existed between them, the Emperor showed not even a shred of consideration or courtesy toward his one and only legal spouse.

How could a human being be so foolish?

Seeing the Emperor’s cold-hearted nature, a wave of disappointment swept through his entire body, making his earlier resolution not to have expectations feel utterly futile.

Haeryeong’s fists, clenched tightly inside his long sleeves, trembled violently.

He asked the Emperor in a voice that had hardened from trying to suppress emotions that were either rage or sorrow.

“Is Your Majesty… suggesting that I harbored wicked intentions and harmed the Consort who was carrying the Imperial seed?”

For the first time since their marriage, Haeryeong looked the Emperor directly in the eye as he asked.

The Emperor had dismissed all the servants of the Empress’s Palace and now surrounded Haeryeong with the Imperial Guards and his personal protectors, the Black Shadow Unit.

Haeryeong’s body shook instinctively, crushed by the oppressive aura emitted by the Black Shadow members, who were draped in black with only their eyes visible.

Sa Gangcheon.

The year the Emperor of Yeoran turned twenty-two, Haeryeong had pledged his life to him at the age of seventeen.

It was a political marriage arranged to ensure peace between the Kingdom of Yeoran and its vassal state, Haeryeong’s homeland of Yeonseo.

Though there was no reason to feel love for a man he had never even seen before their wedding, Haeryeong’s heart had fluttered the moment he first laid eyes on him.

Looking back now, perhaps he had simply been terrified of the man’s great height and his face that looked as though it were carved from solid rock.

However, the young Haeryeong of that time had been too immature to distinguish between fear and excitement.

It was a time when he didn’t even have the luxury to consider what it meant for his heart to race and his face to flush.

Still, in the middle of a vast Imperial Palace in a foreign land where he knew no one, he had finally met the person he was to grow old with.

In a way, it was only natural for Haeryeong to have expectations of him.

Even when the man who was supposed to remove his ceremonial crown never came, leaving him to spend his wedding night alone, Haeryeong simply thought it was because he was still too young.

He had no idea it would eventually come to this.

In his young heart, he had believed that since he was the legal spouse, the Emperor would eventually look his way.

He had been so incredibly naive.

“Are you saying that I, an Empress who is treated as less than a ghost in the back rooms, somehow discovered the Consort’s secret pregnancy before it was even announced and took action?”

Haeryeong bit his lip before the Emperor could answer.

The Emperor’s rage was visible in the slight tremor of his cold, thin lips.

Before the Emperor could speak, Haeryeong let out a hollow laugh.

Seven years.

Even if they were a couple in name only, had seven years not already passed?

It had been over four years since Haeryeong reached adulthood and they began occasionally sharing their bodies during his heat cycles.

Where exactly had that time gone?

Haeryeong searched the Emperor’s face, desperate to find even a small fragment of their shared history.

However, in neither the man’s posture nor his expression could Haeryeong find a trace of affection.

He couldn’t even find a moment of hesitation that might suggest the Emperor thought he could be innocent.

‘So that is how it was.’

‘This is who you truly are.’

Haeryeong did not let the smile fade as he held his head high toward the Emperor.

“You are right.”

“I did it.”

“Blinded by jealousy, I dared to push the one who was carrying the Imperial seed.”

“Now that you have heard the answer you wanted, is your heart at peace?”

The Emperor’s eyes flared as if they would spit fire as he stepped toward Haeryeong.

The sweet scent of peach blossoms wafted from him as their faces drew close.

In contrast to that sweet fragrance, the voice that spilled from his lips was colder than the morning frost.

“Empress, I had always thought of you as someone wise and virtuous, befitting the Mother of the Nation.”

His speech, stripped even of hypocritical honorifics, pierced Haeryeong’s heart like a needle.

A cold wind seemed to leak into the hollow space left in his chest.

‘Is that why my body is shaking so much?’

Haeryeong looked at the Emperor with calm eyes.

He watched the thick eyebrows twitch and the eyes beneath them wrinkle in a scowl before finally parting his bloodless lips.

“You saw me incorrectly, Your Majesty.”

“You have always lacked an eye for judging people.”

‘Is that not why you protect that Consort so blindly?’

The Emperor’s handsome face distorted as if he had understood the hidden barb in those words.

In contrast, Haeryeong maintained a soft smile, just as he had always done before the Emperor and before others.

Was the Consort truly as fragile and kind as the Emperor believed?

Haeryeong did not think so.

Every time those kind lips moved, the Emperor grew further away.

Haeryeong did not know exactly what schemes had flowed from the Consort’s mouth.

But was the current situation not evidence enough?

The Consort was likely a hundred times more clever than a foolish Empress who did nothing but look at the Emperor’s back.

Even in this moment, a part of him wondered if it was his own fault for not acting like the Consort.

If he had been a little more affectionate, would things have ended differently?

If he had whispered sweet words in the Emperor’s ear during their nights together, would the man have given him even a little bit of his heart?

“Seeing as I failed to realize you were such a wicked person, you might be right.”

Haeryeong let out a dry laugh.

‘Of course not.’

Even during the heat cycles, the Emperor was a man who stubbornly refused to leave his seed within Haeryeong.

What part of such an Emperor had he trusted enough to spend his life pining?

Only now, at this end, did a wave of sincere regret wash over him.

Haeryeong shut his eyes tight, no longer wishing to see the Emperor’s face.

The man’s warm breath washed over him.

The breath of a husband he had never even properly kissed smelled sweet, making his closed eyelids burn hot.

“I am going to depose you.”

“I will make you live the rest of your life in the corner of a cold palace without ever seeing the sunlight.”

“Is that all? According to our strict laws, the murder of a member of the Imperial family is punished by the extermination of nine generations.”

“I wonder how it will be for an Empress from another land? Since Yeonseo broke the peace treaty first and tried to harm the Imperial seed, it wouldn’t be unfair even if your country were to vanish, would it?”

At the Emperor’s quiet whisper, Haeryeong’s eyes flew open.

The Emperor stared into Haeryeong’s trembling pupils with a predatory gaze and continued to murmur.

“The people of the homeland you left behind will become slaves of Yeoran.”

“And what shall I do with your parents and siblings? Should I behead them all and hang their heads in the garden of the Cold Palace before that stiff neck of yours finally bows?”

Haeryeong’s breath caught.

The sensation of being strangled prevented his voice from escaping even as he opened his mouth.

The Emperor leaned in closer, staring into Haeryeong’s eyes as they filled with tears.

Even the peach blossom scent he had thought was sweet now constricted Haeryeong’s throat.

“How… how… can you go that far… ugh.”

The peach blossom scent grew even stronger.

It was not a temptation for intimacy, but the aura of a Yangin released to subjugate an opponent.

Haeryeong gasped for air, barely supporting his trembling knees.

The Emperor followed him down as he hunched over, his voice dropping to a sinister, low tone near Haeryeong’s ear.

“To think you acted so arrogantly, not knowing your place.”

“I have no choice but to be enraged. Is that not so, Empress?”

“I pitied you all this time for your lonely nights in an empty room. I see now that my pity was wasted.”

“If I had known you would be this insolent, I would have crushed you before the sprout could even grow.”

Large teardrops fell from Haeryeong’s shivering eyes.

They left dark stains on the red dragon robe that was close enough to touch.

The dragon embroidered in gold thread on the shoulder seemed to glare back at Haeryeong’s wide eyes.

Closing his eyes tightly, Haeryeong begged for mercy in a trembling voice.

“Your… Your Majesty. I… hic… have been disconnected from my homeland for so long… must you… sob… truly do that?”

“Please, have mercy… on the innocent people…. Ugh!”

The Emperor pressed down on Haeryeong’s shoulder.

Forced by the overwhelming strength, Haeryeong’s knees hit the cold stone floor with a thud.

The Emperor kept the pressure on his shoulder until Haeryeong’s forehead was pressed against the ground.

“Such words should not be spoken with your head held so high, should they?”

Only after forcing the Empress—who had not yet been deposed—to kowtow in front of the Imperial Guards did the Emperor pull his hand away.

Prostrate on the ground, Haeryeong shook with overwhelming shame and sorrow.

“I am… still Your Majesty’s legal spouse. How… how can you be so… cruel to me?”

The tears Haeryeong shed pooled on the flat, grey paving stones.

The Emperor’s voice sounded a bit more distant now, as if he had straightened his posture.

“I simply wished for you to truly reflect on your actions.”

“If you sincerely apologize and repent, I promise not to touch your homeland.”

‘How can I apologize for a crime I did not commit?’

Haeryeong bit his lip, sobbing.

The Emperor didn’t have even a grain of sand’s worth of intention to listen to his words.

Should he protest his innocence, or should he admit to the crime and beg for mercy?

The answer came quickly.

The Emperor had not even doubted Haeryeong’s earlier words, which had been spoken out of sheer resentment.

In any case, even if it weren’t for this incident, the Emperor would have eventually found some other excuse to depose him.

If that was what he wanted so badly, it might be better to simply give up the title of Empress and live in a quiet, cold palace.

If the safety of his homeland could be guaranteed, how hard could it be to take the blame?

It would just mean his own heart would rot a little further.

Haeryeong made up his mind and prostrated himself even flatter before the Emperor.

Though his body heaved with sorrow, he ignored it and bowed his head low.

“I beg for Your Majesty’s ocean-like mercy. Please spare—”

The Emperor’s foot nudged Haeryeong’s head.

As he froze in shock, a cold voice drifted down onto his back.

“Forgiveness is not something you should be seeking from me.”

“The one who was harmed is my Consort.”

Instead of a sob, a miserable groan escaped him.

‘Was he telling me to kowtow and beg for forgiveness before the Consort?’

Haeryeong pushed himself up with his arms and slowly raised his gaze to look up at the Emperor.

Through the blurred vision of his tear-filled eyes, he saw the man smiling and let out a hollow smile of his own.

‘You were so foolish, Haeryeong.’

‘To have lived believing in such a man as a husband… those years are truly tragic.’

A large teardrop that had soaked his entire face hung for a moment at the tip of his upturned chin before falling to the stone floor with a tiny, silent scream.

Like Haeryeong’s heart, the drop fell into a small puddle and shattered piteously into a thousand pieces.

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