I Will Live for Your Death - Chapter 63

It didn’t necessarily have to be black clothes.

But as always, Ilarid insisted on dark clothing. Knowing where she was going, Lynette refrained from saying anything further.

After walking for a while, Ilarid’s steps came to a halt at the child’s grave.

She had not forgotten her promise to visit often. At least once a week, she would come here to clean up around the messy grave and personally remove the weeds.

The words uttered in front of a grave were stronger than any language. It was a promise made in the face of another’s death. It had to be kept.

“Strange……”

Ilarid murmured quietly as she looked at the child’s grave.

As if someone had been taking special care, the area around the grave appeared better maintained than before.

Although it didn’t even have a name, it was still the grave of an imperial descendant. Unbecoming of its status, the area around the grave was always in disarray with mud splashes from rain and quickly growing weeds.

But recently, it had become relatively neat. As if someone was coming to inspect the grave once a day.

Who could it be? The imperial gravedigger? But he was elderly, and not the type to meticulously tend to every corner of a small grave with his dim eyesight.

Small flowers surrounding the gravestone also caught her eye. The soil around the flowers was still dark and moist, as if they had been deliberately transplanted.

Ilarid’s stern face gradually softened at the sight of such careful, attentive handiwork.

‘Did Lynette give separate instructions?’

She must have given the gravedigger a few coins and asked him to take care. Was it because I looked so heartbroken last time?

Ilarid gently stroked the clean area around the gravestone.

On the small altar, she saw a white bouquet left by someone. A bouquet of white flowers commonly seen in the imperial garden, tied with twine. Though it looked rough at first glance, the maker’s sincerity was evident in various places.

“……Thank you.”

Though there was no one to hear, Ilarid offered a small word of thanks inwardly. Then, like last time, she placed a small toy.

“My skills are quite poor, aren’t they? I’ll make you a prettier one next time.”

Although she spoke brightly and forced a smile, she couldn’t help the ache in a corner of her heart. Ilarid raised her head, trying not to let the tears welling up inside her eyelids fall. Her eyes squeezed shut involuntarily due to the bright sky.

When would she be able to cry freely in front of this grave? Would she only be able to burst into tears, as if exhaling, after everything was over and her hands were thoroughly stained with blood?

Ilarid gently caressed the gravestone, as if soothing a child in a cradle. And she recalled, one by one, the faces of those she would never forgive. The tears naturally receded, leaving only cold anger.

To show such emotions to a dead child. When it should be a time to see only beautiful and good things. In many ways, she wasn’t a good mother. She self-deprecatingly rose to her feet.

The white bouquet on the small altar and the little toy. It was a modest and lonely scene. Ilarid kept turning back unnecessarily throughout her return journey. Wondering if there might be someone else.

But the graveyard was quiet. As if no one had ever visited, it simply held the dead, feigning indifference.

**

It was a turbulent and noisy era. Large and small protests continued to occur in the city center.

Most were quickly quelled by the patrol’s dispersal measures, but recently, as their scale grew, they appeared sporadically in various parts of the city.

The reasons were almost always similar. Tax cuts and complaints about the hardships of the common people’s lives.

To this extent, they could be somewhat subdued just by hearing the sound of the patrol’s whistle. The biggest problem was elsewhere.

The nouveau riche, who had accumulated wealth through professional occupations, trade, and usury, stepped to the forefront. What they desired was the right to speak in the parliament, which the nobility possessed.

Those wanting to gain power and raise their voices began to increase.

In fact, the current imperial parliament was practically a useless entity. No wonder people described it as “a divine job where you get paid regularly just for sitting still.”

Naturally, the nobility occupied two-thirds of the parliament. The commoners did have seats, but even that was a miracle.

Although seats were secured with the help of the Melpiram Count family in the past, as the majority of the nobility overwhelmed with voting numbers, the opinions of the common people were consistently ignored. It was a structure where commoners couldn’t even properly express their intentions.

Above all, the emperor’s power was still mighty.

The parliament was merely an advisory body to the emperor, unable to put any significant brake on his policies. The emperor still had his military forces, and the private armies of the nobles supported the imperial family.

Cledius listened silently to the report. The instigator of this protest had been caught, they said.

“Who is the instigator of this disturbance?”

“He has just been transported and confined in the prison tower, Your Majesty.”

“The flow was different from usual. It became much more violent.”

“Yes, Your Imperial Majesty. We suspect that the republican bastards participated. Detailed information can be obtained by interrogating the protest instigator.”

The emperor’s expression immediately turned displeased. He thought he had thoroughly crushed them last time, but the republicans persistently swayed at Cledius’s feet like weeds that grow back as soon as you turn around.

Those who chanted slogans of dissatisfaction with the imperial family and the overthrow of all nobility and royalty. It was only natural for those with many grievances to sympathize with them and develop a positive perception.

Cledius slowly folded his arms and looked at each of the surrounding ministers one by one. As if it were a warning to all of them.

“……We’ve been too soft lately. Send all the instigators of the disturbance to Tamil.”

A brief tension flashed even among the gathered officials. Tamil. His name added another force of terror to Cledius’s power.

Being handed over to Tamil meant certain death. Cruel torture under the name of interrogation. He was the most vicious person who killed both body and mind using the most brutal methods that did not treat humans as humans.

In reality, they couldn’t completely root out their stronghold. Cledius knew this fact too.

He just needed a few good examples. It was to announce to the world that humans who try to climb up should quietly shut their mouths and live bowing their heads.

Meanwhile, it was also significant that Tamil was gaining followers. Word even reached that Tamil had asked the emperor for permission to train his own successor in the prison tower.

‘If we’re not careful, we might be next.’

How was the Melpiram Count family cut off? Limless Rowen Melpiram was dragged away by Tamil, and eventually executed with both arms broken. The Count and Countess also could not escape beheading.

Although most of the pro-emperor nobles agreed with the purge of the Melpiram family, they clicked their tongues at Tamil’s cruelty.

Limless testified with his own mouth that the Melpiram family had plotted treason, but no one believed it. There was a high possibility that it came out not from his mouth, but because of Tamil.

Cledius wore a satisfied expression as he looked at the nobles lowering their heads and avoiding eye contact. Tamil was indeed the most powerful weapon he possessed.

Once dragged to Tamil, they would invariably follow instructions and smoothly spout false testimonies, which was perfect.

Limless Rowen Melpiram was the only one who never went along with false testimony after going through him. Eventually, Cledius had to personally visit the prison tower. And in front of Limless, who was a mess from torture, he presented fabricated evidence.

‘Limless Rowen Melpiram. I hope you’ll just confess like this.’

‘You madman… Do you think I would?’

‘Ilarid.’

Limless wavered. Family, the only existence that could shake him, who was willful and reckless, held hostage in the imperial palace. Cledius watched Limless’s silence quietly and smiled slowly.

‘If you just testify like this in court, I can guarantee her life.’

Exchanging human lives was Cledius’s long-standing method of dealing. Limless, caught between a rock and a hard place, eventually exchanged his life for his younger sister’s.

On the day Limless Rowen Melpiram was executed, was he satisfied? Those deep green eyes that always looked at the emperor with contemptuous gazes.

But even after cutting him down, he had forgotten that the same eyes existed right beside him.

‘Ilarid.’

After the swordsmanship competition, she returned to her original self.

As always, she would diligently write, read books, and sometimes take walks in the afternoon with a graceful appearance. She would encourage the maids and menial workers one by one, and even remember their small family events.

She was truly a warm empress. Thanks to her, the image of the imperial family was improving day by day, but not for the nobles. They had already submitted opinions several times to drive out the empress of treasonous bloodline, but to no avail.

Some nobles looked displeased but couldn’t even speak, just pouting their lips. One wrong move and they would be dragged to Tamil, ending up like the annihilated Melpiram family.

They just mechanically recited their reports, hoping that the iron hammer of tragedy would not fall on them.

“……And the leader of Pegeia has newly changed, Your Majesty.”

“Changed again? The Eastern Continent sure maintains an inefficient political system well.”

Cledius grumbled lowly. The Eastern Continent, ‘Pegeia,’ was a federation of five large tribes.

Each tribe elected a leader to govern the entire continent every five years on a rotating basis. It was said to be to prevent power from concentrating in one country.

Therefore, they always sent new envoys whenever the leader changed.

“We’ll have to adjust the schedule to match the arrival of the envoys. The banquet is partly handled by the Empress’s Palace, so give separate instructions there. We also need to use this opportunity to further expand trade with the Eastern Continent.”

The nobles’ eyes began to shine. Luxury goods originating from the Eastern Continent were traded at quite high prices.

From mysterious porcelain to silk, jewels, and even specialty foods. The merchant groups employed by the nobles were desperate to open trade with Pegeia.

But Cledius had something else in mind. All the raw materials related to the poison he produced were poisonous herbs secretly imported from Pegeia.

Strictly speaking, they were medicinal herbs. However, if you slightly modify and adjust the amount of herbs that heal people, they quickly turn into poisonous herbs.

A poison that could make a healthy person suddenly die or waste away after regularly taking medicine.

Poison had always surrounded Cledius since childhood.

‘If you don’t know, you’ll be the first to fall victim. So remove the obstacles in front of you first.’

The Empress Dowager. Always a strong person in the face of adversity. A mother who remained as fear, too strong. Cledius always diligently carried out her teachings.

‘Poison always has many uses.’

Cledius smiled faintly and began to listen to the rest of the report. As the report was almost over and Cledius was just finishing his signature.

The chamberlain, who had briefly left his seat, approached Cledius and whispered softly.

“Your Imperial Majesty. The Minister of Military Affairs requests an audience.”

Military matters from the morning. It didn’t feel good. Cledius’s intuition was spot on. Soon, the Minister of Military Affairs, with a very stiff face, quickly approached the emperor and greeted him with proper etiquette.

“An urgent report from Rosen, Your Majesty.”

As soon as he heard the word Rosen, Cledius’s smooth face instantly wrinkled. The Minister of Military Affairs spoke to the point in a rigid tone.

“It’s a rebellion.”

It was none other than the word Cledius hated most.