The Tyrant Couldn’t Fall Asleep

PrologueTill Death Do Us Part 

Clank!

 

A bursting sound echoed in the drawing room of the Imperial Palace.

 

Fragments of broken teacup and blackened silver spoons were scattered on the floor.

 

“Isn’t this the poison that I gave the emperor?”

 

Surrounded by betrayal, Duke Lauchen grabbed his daughter’s neck with one hand.

 

“How dare you give me back the poison I gave you! You ungrateful thing!”

 

He thought she would beg for doing something wrong, but Izaya smiled.

 

“If I poisoned the emperor, you were going to throw me away. So I betrayed you, is it wrong?”

 

Duke Lauchen stared at his daughter as if he were dumbfounded.

 

“If only you had given birth to a child, I would have respected you as the empress. Weren’t you the one who failed?”

 

It has been more than six years since the emperor became an adult. However, there was no successor, and public opinion rose that he should have a new empress.

 

In addition, rumors circulated that the emperor was secretly meeting with the sister of Grand Duke Tares, boosting the theory of the empress’ dethronement.

 

At this rate, he would lose everything, so Duke Lauchen decided to poison the emperor.

 

“So I gave you a chance to make up for your failure … you betrayed me. Did you think the emperor would spare you, who has tormented him all this time?”

 

‘I don’t think so.’

 

Izaya despised the emperor in front of her father, treating him as a foolish child.

 

That wasn’t enough, she monitored him and reported his actions to her father.

 

However, even if her whole body was torn to death, she didn’t regret her actions.

 

‘If I didn’t, you would have ruined him.’

 

A good craftsman of an upright and virtuous emperor.

 

At first, Duke Lauchen gathered public sentiment with such hypocrisy.

 

When he got his hands on wealth, power, and military power, Duke Lauchen began to pressure the emperor.

 

Duke Lauchen’s ultimate goal was for his daughter, Empress Izaya to carry the successor, then become a regent and put the empire in his grasp.

 

As the emperor grew up, his rebellion grew stronger.

 

After removing the emperor’s aides, the resentful Duke tried to drug the emperor, who was only 16, to make him an idiot.

 

When Izaya learned about it, she persuaded her father.

  

“Something may go wrong and there may be no successor. So please wait until we have a successor.”

  

Persuaded by his daughter’s words, the Duke waited for a successor.

 

However, there was no successor until the emperor turned 25.

 

Of course, she has been sharing the same room for a long time, but the emperor has never touched Izaya.

 

While his father had been patient and deceived for nine years, Izaya completed the trap to bring him down.

 

‘You must have found it by now, right?’

 

Her husband would have seized the rise for treason through the handover from his close aide, Grand Duke Tares. It also has his father’s seal intact.

 

All of these were traps created by Izaya.

 

However, even in all these situations, there was something that she didn’t understand at all.

 

“Why did you revolt? You know. You know that you can’t be an emperor unless you’re a royal.”

  

The imperial family lineage that inherited the blood of the hero was like a faith in the empire.

 

All children, regardless of their status, grew up listening to the story of the founding emperor, and once every 10 years the whole empire held a founding festival.

 

In such an empire, only a direct blood relative of the emperor, who has been recognized by the Holy Spirit that has been passed down since the founding emperor, could be crowned as the next emperor.

 

Even if the Duke, who became a son-in-law taken into the Duke family, instigated a rebellion, no one in this pedigree society would admit it.

 

And the Duke of Lauchen was also well aware of that.

 

So, with that enormous power, why didn’t you wait for a child to be born?

 

“Give up even now. Who wouldn’t know? Whether the emperor will spare my father ….”

 

Slap!

 

The Duke’s large hand struck her white cheeks without mercy.

 

He stared at his daughter as if he were going to kill her, and soon he held the arsenic.

 

“It’s as you said. Anyone who isn’t a royal lineage cannot be an emperor in this empire. So I found someone to serve as a new emperor, more legitimate than Ernfried.”

 

Upon hearing that, Izaya frowned.

 

‘That can’t be true. Obviously all the royals except him ….’

 

The holy relics that have been passed down since the founding emperor recognized only the emperor’s “direct line” as the emperor.

 

Originally, there were two princes from the empress, so as a son from a mistress, Ernfried would never have ascended to the throne.

 

However, all immediate royals except Ern had an accident ‘that day’.

 

Nevertheless, Izaya couldn’t dismiss the Duke’s words as nonsense.

 

‘The holy relics, the Kaotic Orb, only respond to the emperor’s direct lineage. If they were fake, they wouldn’t be able to even touch the holy relics, so father can’t be that confident ….’

 

At that moment, the Duke grabbed Izaya’s neck violently.

 

“Now that you know your father’s future, don’t worry and die now. Your death will give a justification for establishing a new emperor.”

 

Soon after, Izaya’s lips parted due to pain, then he poured the poisoned tea.

 

She struggled, but half of the tea went over her esophagus.

 

Izaya felt that her body was gradually losing strength.

 

‘I can’t die a useless death like this.’

 

Even if she died, she should take her father as a companion.

 

Izaya glared at his father with her life and struggled to grab the shards of pottery.

 

And the moment she was about to put it on my father’s neck–

 

“Izaya!”

 

She heard a voice that she had been drawing the whole time like a lie.

 

Whack!

 

Then she heard a rough hitting sound.

 

Soon, the hand that was strangling her neck fell. Izaya stared at him with trembling eyes as he wrapped his arms around her shoulder.

 

Tall stature, broad shoulders, and a strong body that looked like a trained knight.

 

And a beautiful young man with brilliant silver hair and purple eyes.

 

It was her husband, Ernfried.

 

‘How did you come back so quickly?’

 

The place where Ern left was in the north, it should have taken a week to return from that distance. And now he’s here?

 

Furthermore ….

 

‘How come there’s no one around him?’

 

When he left, Ern was definitely with Grand Duke Tares. However, there was no one around him.

 

Izaya was staring at Ern with an ominous feeling.

 

Ring ring!

 

The call bell rang loudly indicating that it was an emergency. It was the Duke Lauchen doing, who was pretending to faint.

 

“You’re urging me.”

 

Ern, who suddenly drew his sword, tried to chase the fleeing Duke Lauchen.

 

However, there was a hand that grabbed Ern’s wrist.

 

It was Izaya.

 

“The knights will be arriving soon. You have to get out of here!”

 

Moreover, as the head of the imperial family, it wasn’t a checkmate to kill the Duke.

 

‘Rather it could be counterattacked. First, you have to hide and join forces.’

 

However, Ern just stared at Izaya with his face crumpled in displeasure.

 

‘As expected, you don’t believe me. Because of what I did so far.’

 

It was then, Izaya’s hand was held.

 

At the same time, Ern’s answer, which was completely insensitive, could be heard.

 

“Follow me.”

 

***

 

Ern led Izaya to a secret passage.

 

‘That’s a relief. It will be difficult to find Ern here for a while.’

 

At that moment of relief, Ern suddenly spoke to me.

 

“You, you seem to be out of breath ….”

 

Then Izaya shook off his hand in surprise.

 

“Let me go. I can walk alone.”

 

However, Ern’s strong hands didn’t let Izaya go.

 

‘I’m going to be a burden at this rate.’

 

Slap!

 

Izaya slapped Ernn’s hand roughly.

 

Then a venomous voice came out.

 

“You’d better leave me and run away. Unless you want to be killed here.”

 

Ern still didn’t answer

 

Izaya felt nervous, she swallowed dry saliva and continued.

 

“There’s a royal in the rebel group.”

 

Then Ernne stared fiercely at Izaya.

 

“What does that matter?”

 

Izaya continued without hesitation.

 

“Don’t you know? That you were neglected in the state affairs.”

 

The only reason why the current emperor could be safe was because he was the only royal.

 

However, now that a new royal family has emerged, his safety couldn’t be guaranteed.

 

“Grand Duke Tares and some aristocrats have taken your side in protest against my father’s reign. But if you go with me, Grand Duke Tares and your subordinates might turn their backs on you. Since there’s a substitute.”

 

‘At this point, he would understand, right? That I’m just a burden.’

 

Now Ern would forsake her and go to his allies.

 

But his answer was different from Izaya’s expectation.

 

“I’m not going.”

 

“Did you not hear me? Soon the enemies will ….”

 

“It doesn’t matter.”

 

Upon answering, his eyes lit up fiercely and he grabbed Izaya’s hand.

 

“So you’d better not think about running away.”

 

Izaya laughed helplessly.

 

‘Run away? Rather, I want to be by your side. But the time is ….’

 

At that moment, Izaya felt a burning pain in her lungs.

 

Cough!

 

When Izaya’s slender body collapsed with the blood, Ern quickly supported Izaya and hugged her.

 

“You … What the hell did you do?”

 Izaya smiled weakly when Ern interrogated her with a firm voice. 

‘I wanted to bring you happiness. You became unhappy because of your marriage with me.’

 

A four years younger husband, he was the only warmth Izaya experienced and the only family she considered.

 

However, her father, Duke Lauchen, meticulously deprived the power of the young emperor who had no support, and removed his people one by one.

 

On the outside, he was wearing a mask of a father for the empress.

 

When she learned that her father’s greed was directed to the throne, Izaya decided to attack his father to protect his husband.

 

Pretending it was a mistake, she leaked a map with a place where her father’s confidential documents were hidden, and fabricated a false circumstance.

  

<Duke Lauchen killed his daughter, the Empress, and tried to rebel by blaming the charges to the emperor’s aide, Grand Duke Tares.>

  

To make the false story real.

 

Originally, Izaya thought that the end was her to die at the hands of his father, and his father would receive the punishment he deserved as a sinner.

 

‘I failed in the end …. There’s still something I can do for Ern.’

 

She must get Ern out of here safely.

 

For that reason, Izaya could endure being hated.

 

“I don’t want to die looking at your face. So get lost.”

 

Then Ern’s stiff face was severely distorted.

 

‘Yeah, I must be abominable and disgusting.’

 

He will never know for the rest of his life.

 

The fact that it was more painful to see his expression than the pain of poison.

 

‘I’m sorry for all this time. I’m going to disappear from your sight forever, so be happy ….’

 

The moment she prayed for her husband’s happiness, the secret passage’s door was broken.

 

“This way!”

 

Ern just stared at her without responding to the oncoming rebels.

 

“Kill the Emperor!”

 

That was the last sight Izaya saw.