I Possessed the Wicked Empress (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 9
Hye-young instinctively threw herself toward the child.
But the oncoming carriage was a step faster than Hye-young.
Without even slowing down, the carriage struck both Hye-young and the child and vanished instantly into the darkness.
A common reincarnation story—nothing particularly tragic about it.
‘This time, I saved you!! I really did!’
Ermedilin recalled the moment of her death, but the joy of having saved the baby before her far outweighed the shock.
Even after returning to her bedroom, she sat hunched in the corner, beaming with a bright smile as tears of elation streamed down her face.
To the maids, who knew nothing of the situation, her behavior seemed rather bizarre; all three stood silently in the corner, watching her warily.
Finally, Runi, the eldest among them, could bear it no longer and approached Ermedilin, kneeling beside her.
“Your Majesty. Are you unwell? Has the purification perhaps not been fully completed…?”
“No. It’s nothing like that.”
She was crying, but not sobbing, so her reply came immediately.
“Yes?”
“It’s not that it hurts. It’s just… the baby lived… so I’m just relieved, that’s all.”
“Oh, I heard about that too! They say you breathed into the baby’s mouth despite the risk of catching the plague! The whole palace is buzzing with the story!”
“Really? News travels fast.”
“Of course it does! It’s no ordinary matter! Your Majesty herself risked danger to save a commoner’s child!!”
“A child is just a child, after all…”
Just as she decided to pull herself together, dusted off her hands, and tried to stand, her legs went numb from having crouched for so long.
“Ah!”
Runi, who was beside her, and Helen, who rushed over immediately, caught her swaying body.
The youngest, thinnest, and smallest of them all—the one who barely seemed to exist.
Yet strangely, even as she supported Ermedilin, Helen kept rolling her eyes anxiously, unable to stay still.
“It’s fine. I’m okay. Really, I am. Everyone go back to your duties. I’d like to be alone for a bit.”
Ermedilin dismissed them all and sank back down beside the bed.
Once the whirlwind of emotions had passed and her mind cleared, memories of her death resurfaced once more.
Truthfully, dying so pointlessly wasn’t particularly unjust or regrettable.
After all, she’d only been living day by day because she lacked the courage to die.
Thus, even upon realizing she’d reincarnated into a novel, she felt no lingering attachment to her past life.
Except for that child.
The child she’d wanted to save—but couldn’t.
As blinding headlights met her eyes and she sensed death approaching, she saw the child’s body fly far away from the impact, just out of her reach.
For a few seconds before her life left her body, Hye-young had no choice but to stare at the child’s motionless corpse, blood streaming from its head.
“Haa…”
It pained her more that the image of the child dying right before her eyes kept haunting her than the fact she’d died in a hit-and-run.
‘Did someone take care of the body? It couldn’t have lain long on that cold road, could it?’
‘Did that child get a second chance like I did?’
‘If they did reincarnate, I hope it was into a happier story—not some trashy drama like this.’
Lost in these thoughts, the lawsuit and everything else faded into irrelevance.
While Ermedilin sat clutching her head, overwhelmed by a cascade of sorrowful reflections, Runi announced a visitor.
“Who is it?”
“Countess Elion urgently requests an audience.”
“The countess? With me?”
“Yes. What shall we do?”
A noble’s sudden visit at this hour was rather odd, but she decided to see her anyway.
“Let her in.”
The woman known as Countess Elion was plump, with dark brown hair and deep brown eyes.
Yet, despite her slightly warm appearance, her expression was so vividly venomous that Ermedilin couldn’t immediately gauge how to deal with her.
Thus, Ermedilin deliberately kept her face blank and simply stared mutely at the countess.
Unfazed, as if accustomed to such reactions, Countess Elion didn’t change her expression at all and stated her purpose plainly.
“It’s a big matter.”
‘A big matter?’
“She’s the daughter of a provincial viscount and is about to give birth soon.”
“Giving birth?”
“Yes. But she’s changed her mind about it. It seems her engagement to a marquis has fallen through.”
“The engagement fell through?”
“Well, it’s nothing unusual. An old, sinister, wealthy marquis grew tired of the young viscount’s daughter after using marriage as an excuse to meet her. There also seem to be complicated inheritance issues involved.”
“What?”
“It’s common, isn’t it? If they can’t marry, the child in her womb will be a bastard anyway—better to take some money and get rid of it. The marquis will cover all expenses.”
‘Ah… could it be…’
She remembered something from that revolting grimoire she’d skimmed before giving up on it entirely.
A death curse cast upon unborn children.
Beneath the curse was a tiny, densely written list of numerous noble ladies and young misses.
‘So this woman really went around doing every despicable thing imaginable.’
Misinterpreting Ermedilin’s discomfort, Countess Elion boasted smugly.
“It’s a marquisate that owns mines. The payment won’t disappoint…”
“No. I can’t do it right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“You must have just arrived and haven’t heard yet—I underwent purification by a priest moments ago. So I can’t cast any curses now.”
“Purification? What happened in the palace?”
The countess’s dark brown eyes, which had remained coolly composed until now, gleamed sharply like a predator spotting delicious prey.
“If you’re curious, ask anyone on your way out. For now, I’m exhausted and need to rest.”
Ermedilin turned away coldly, and the countess, sensing it was pointless to press further, quietly left the room.
She looked desperately curious—but at least she had some tact.
“For someone who’s one of Her Majesty’s maids, she always appears like a ghost the moment something happens in the palace! How did she hear the news so quickly this time?”
‘My maid?’
Apparently, the visitor just now had been one of the empress’s maids who hadn’t shown her face for days.
“Hmm. I don’t know either.”
“Honestly, sometimes I wonder if Countess Elion took the position of maid just to be the first to hear palace gossip.”
Runi, unaware of Countess Elion’s true motive, scolded her based on a mistaken assumption—but her guess wasn’t entirely wrong.
Though not for gossip’s sake, the countess was indeed working as a maid to broker curse commissions.
“Still, it’s better than hearing nothing at all, isn’t it?”
“I suppose. After all, Marchioness Grania and Princess Biela haven’t even visited.”
‘Grania, Biela.’
While Ermedilin quietly memorized the names she’d just heard, Pelio arrived.
As soon as he entered the reception room, she saw him standing there, radiating an aura so icy it surpassed anything she’d seen before—frigid to the point of being piercing.
He looked exactly like a beautiful ice sculpture, perfectly matching his nickname, the Ice Prince.
“I came about the lawsuit…”
“What’s your real intention?”
“Huh?”
“Did you arrange in advance to ‘recruit’ a plague-stricken child just to appear favorable in the lawsuit?”
“What?!”
Ermedilin was utterly speechless—and breathless.
What an absurd misunderstanding!
She’d saved a child, only to be met with such suspicion. For the first time, she truly felt she was inhabiting the body of a notorious villain.
“Whether I recruited the child or not will be obvious if you investigate. I had no ulterior motive—just reacted on instinct.”
Even after Ermedilin’s explanation, Pelio’s frosty silver eyes showed no sign of thawing.
“The lawsuit preparations are progressing well. Though we were followed anyway, meeting continuously inside the palace might draw unnecessary attention. Next time I have a report, I’ll send a carriage as before.”
“Followed?”
“Didn’t you know? Two carriages trailed us.”
“?”
Seeing Ermedilin’s genuine confusion, Pelio sighed softly, running his long, elegant fingers through his deep navy hair.
“Did you really think no one would follow you? They’re from His Majesty’s side and Valière’s.”
“Ah…”
She hadn’t considered that far.
Then again, if there were spies even among the empress’s closest confidants, surveillance was only to be expected.
“We can’t avoid being followed, but you must keep the lawsuit details from leaking—watch your words carefully.”
“I will.”
She almost confessed she’d already received a threatening letter—but didn’t want to appear any more incompetent, so Ermedilin clamped her mouth shut.
After Pelio left and she returned to her bedroom, she saw Helen standing on tiptoe with a duster, cleaning a high cabinet.
‘She’s going to fall…’
Before Ermedilin could finish the thought, Helen’s overreaching hand brushed against a stone ornament.
In that instant, losing her balance, Helen stretched her duster-holding hand further, jostling the ornament more forcefully.
Just as the stone ornament began toppling toward Helen’s unsteady body, Ermedilin rushed over, catching Helen’s slender waist with one hand and the heavy ornament with the other.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
At Ermedilin’s question, Helen jumped and bent deeply at the waist.
“I-I’m s-sorry! N-no, th-thank you! Thank you so much! And I’m sorry!”
Whether from shame at having been supported by the empress herself, Helen’s deeply bowed back refused to straighten.
“I’m fine. Lift your head. As long as you’re unharmed, that’s enough. Next time, don’t overreach—place a sturdy chair underneath…”
“I-I’m sorry, Your Majesty!! I’ve committed an unforgivable offense!!”
Ermedilin had only meant to gently reprimand her in a low voice, but Helen suddenly cried out and dropped to her knees, leaving Ermedilin utterly flustered.
“No, what’s so wrong about it?! Get up! Oh… no, that’s overdoing it!”
In her panic, she nearly blurted out something inappropriate.
“I’m truly sorry, Your Majesty. Please just kill me.”
“Oh, honestly! Is this really something worth dying over…?”
As she spoke, a certain note suddenly flashed through her mind.
“Could it be… you?”
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty. I was only told to report anything unusual that happened to you… and that as long as I did that, they wouldn’t drag me off to the duke’s estate. That’s why I did it. I’m truly sorry.”
“Haa…”
Her throat felt stiff.
Ermedilin sighed deeply and looked up at the ceiling.
“You were the one who left the note on my bed too?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know what was written in it?”
“No. Duke François only told me to place the note there, so that’s all I did.”
She’d asked casually, hoping Helen might know something about the name Ferdant that had been troubling her—but Helen truly seemed to know nothing.
That nasty man wouldn’t have shared anything important with a mere maid he treated like a tool anyway.
Looking down at Helen, Ermedilin saw her small, thin frame trembling uncontrollably.
She was so emaciated that rainwater might pool in the hollow of her collarbone, briefly visible beneath her shifting shoulders.
Ermedilin felt no desire to scold the young girl.
“If you were going to do it, why not keep it hidden to the end? You know what kind of person I am, don’t you?”
Ermedilin asked deliberately in a cold tone.
Turns Out He’s Been Secretly in Love with Me
One-line summary: He acts like he doesn’t like her but is actually playing hard to get.
Synopsis:
Xu Muzhou like her. He has liked her for a very long time, and through repeated schemes, he finally closed the distance with her.
But this is still far from enough.
He wants to be the one who stands out among her many suitors, to fight for her attention, and to make her take the initiative to pursue him.
_____
Please help me, I want to bring you the best possible things.
If you find any chapter or novel with poor translation and editing quality, let me know by commenting directly under that novel or chapter. I will retranslate it as soon as possible.
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
Wait what the hell. I lowkey hate henri but i feel bad for her to have to suffer with a loser like him omgn