Long Live the Emperor, Minus Me (Completed Main Story) - Side Story 1

That day was unusually clear and the air refreshingly cool. For some reason, the clear weather made even the air around the house feel pure, and Lee Yoo Hyun, daughter of Lee Baekryeon, took a deep breath of the crisp air.

Of course, she knew full well that the oppressive atmosphere enveloping the household had nothing to do with the weather—it stemmed entirely from the recent purges sweeping through the court. But still, wasn’t that just how the human heart worked? When the sky was bright and the sun shone brilliantly, one’s mood inevitably lifted, even if just a little.

So perhaps today, Mother might actually accept some food. If not, she’d just have to cling to her knees like a child.

Mother was stern, yet surprisingly soft toward her late-born daughter’s coquettish pleas—if she acted childish enough, Mother might sigh deeply and finally relent.

Lee Yoo Hyun deliberately tried to think positively. Without such thoughts, she simply couldn’t endure.

It had already been nearly four months since Yoo Hyun’s mother, Baekryeon, was dismissed from office and confined to the house.

True to her half-lifetime spent on battlefields, Baekryeon had held firm with remarkable resilience at first. But as the days passed a hundred and imperial rebuke letters arrived one after another, her spirit seemed to gradually weaken.

For fifteen days, she had barely managed to swallow thin gruel, and for the past three days, she hadn’t even touched that, repeatedly refusing meals altogether.

“Your body must hold on…”

Some around the household whispered that Lee Baekryeon’s long-standing influence had finally come to an end. But Yoo Hyun thought differently.

Mother wasn’t someone who would simply fade away like this. Eventually, His Majesty the Emperor would recognize Mother’s sincerity and restore her position. But until that summons came, Mother had to survive—didn’t she?

Perhaps because she’d lived so long as a warrior, or perhaps because of her steadfast nature, Baekryeon remained unusually vigorous for her age—even after fifteen days of only sipping gruel, her eyes still burned with sharp intensity.

But that was only when Baekryeon actually ate something. At this rate, refusing all food, she wouldn’t last even a week. How could she possibly endure until this storm passed?

Right. She’d say those words and persuade Mother—appeal to His Majesty’s name, or even to her own face, and beg her to take just a few spoonfuls. She didn’t need to fill her stomach with delicacies; just enough to keep her body going.

After all… as long as she stayed alive, wouldn’t better days eventually return? Even if people’s whispers proved true and His Majesty truly abandoned Mother, wouldn’t it still be fine? Just the two of them, mother and daughter, living quietly together?

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