192. He Shall Pay the Price
2024.04.09.
Clade found it exhausting just to keep watching Yuan confronting Igor, and finally stepped between them.
But Yuan shoved him aside again, pressing her face even closer to the bars.
“Serve others, thinking their suffering is your own suffering.”
Yuan’s voice was unnaturally firm.
The Emperor, who had been furiously shaking the bars and demanding the sword, frowned at her emotionless whisper.
“What did you say?”
“If you harm others with insolent intent, you shall surely pay the price.”
A gleam of sudden understanding brightened Yuan’s dark eyes as she murmured.
‘Act.’
It was as if her voice moved her tongue and lips on its own, controlling her.
“Those who willingly embrace the suffering of others shall find peace.”
Hire, who understood her words, stiffened behind her and whispered along.
“…And those who stand upon the suffering of others shall ultimately wander in eternal suffering.”
A faint excitement flickered across Yuan’s face.
She reached out and clasped Emperor Igor’s hand, the one threatening to take back the treasure.
As if seizing an opportunity, she tightly gripped his hand and repeated with a smile, facing the Emperor who roared in pain.
“In eternal suffering shall you wander.”
Offended by the eerie atmosphere, the Emperor abruptly flung Yuan’s hand away, then received the sword she offered and laughed uproariously, shaking the underground chamber.
He cradled the now-discolored black blade like a newborn infant, rubbing his cheek against it, then suddenly drew the sword with supreme confidence and warned those standing outside.
“I’ll kill every last one of you fools.”
Clade stepped forward, drawing his sword and pulling Yuan behind him. But Yuan continued murmuring, as if entranced.
She simply stared intently at the Emperor, her lips still curled in a faint smile.
“You fool! Now I am—”
“In eternal suffering shall you wander.”
The first line of the Pelliese Medical Ethics.
Hire’s eyes widened as he repeated the phrase—once a warning, perhaps even a curse, to countless physicians.
The Emperor, swinging his sword as if to slice through the bars, froze completely just before the blade struck, as though turned to stone.
His face instantly flushed dark, as if someone had clamped down on his throat.
The Emperor gasped violently, then stood motionless like a corpse—only to suddenly twist and writhe as if being beaten by dozens or even hundreds of invisible assailants.
Everyone stared wide-eyed at the torch-lit dungeon floor, stunned by the sudden seizure.
The Emperor collapsed onto the ground, flailing like a freshly caught fish.
“Ugh, ah, ah, ah, agh…”
Igor’s face melted and reformed repeatedly, as if made of lava, while his entire skin blackened as if burned, then returned to normal, over and over.
An unnatural sight—limbs, facial features, even the tips of his hair—seemed to collapse and destroy themselves by separate wills and methods.
Unable to even scream, the Emperor barely breathed between waves of agony, writhing and crawling across the floor.
His appearance resembled an insect drenched in pesticide, and the onlookers’ expressions turned subtly uneasy.
Clade was the most shocked.
He stood frozen, watching the Emperor squirming like vermin beneath contempt.
His deep purple eyes swirled with echoes of past suffering merging with the present.
“Your Highness.”
Clade immediately turned to Yuan. Seeing her searching gaze, Yuan asked.
“Should I kill the Emperor right now?”
“!”
“What if we simply take good care of him—for exactly ten years, no more?”
In the profound silence, the only sound was the scraping of fingernails tearing against the floor.
Igor, stripped of any power—Pelliese or otherwise—and burdened with all the pain of those he had killed with the black sword, including the core of Clade’s own suffering, lost all vitality, reduced to rags, muttering occasionally.
Just let me die. Please, kill me.
“Just as His Majesty took care of Your Highness for over ten years.”
Later, those who witnessed this scene in the underground prison recounted the day decades afterward.
They said there had long been a legend in the Imperial family: the one who possessed the Pelliese treasure would become Emperor. When Emperor Igor, having lost and then reclaimed the treasure, seized it, he incurred the wrath of the gods and was cursed to live in suffering for the rest of his life.
And his beloved nephew, Clade Euphris, would later tenderly care for him until his final moments—when Igor was murdered by a mysterious assassin, abandoned by all.
***
The hunting festival champion remained vacant for the first time in Euphris history.
Yet a position far surpassing any estate or title fell into the hands of Clade Euphris.
The Emperor’s horrific end left a far stronger impression on the participants than any bloodshed ever could.
When Clade Euphris picked up the imperial treasure the Emperor had so desperately sought, it remained perfectly calm.
To their eyes, it seemed the unworthy tyrant had seized the imperial treasure by force and suffered a curse, while nothing happened when the rightful Clade touched it.
Thanks to Emperor Igor being imprisoned rather than beheaded, those who had trembled in fear finally understood where their loyalties should lie—especially as Empress Marilyn maintained absolute silence.
Empress Marilyn, who had only ever seen the liberated Clade running wild like a reckless delinquent, was stunned to see him handling the aftermath with solemn seriousness.
She also hesitated to act rashly, fearing repercussions might fall upon Noel.
Moreover, many people supported Clade.
“To think those women were all alive…”
When Emperor Igor had taken daughters from troublesome noble houses as hostages and sent them to be Clade’s brides.
It was later revealed that, except for a few tragically deceased, Clade had secretly rescued them under the guise of their escape.
Empress Marilyn nearly fainted upon learning that among those escaped brides was her own niece, Lily Companni.
Lily had changed her name and was living as a noblewoman in the Torca Islands, even formally sending letters to the Imperial court and press, announcing the end of the Euphris tyranny and improved relations between the Torca Islands and the Empire.
Taking this as a signal, not only the families of the escaped brides who had safely hidden away, but also noble houses that had long lived in fear of the Emperor’s gaze, flocked en masse to the capital, clamoring to meet Clade.
Those welcoming Clade as the rightful heir to the late Emperor Alexei’s lineage were mostly individuals who had been forced into loyalty oaths by Bollonico and had surrendered their personal seals.
As soon as they reclaimed their seals, news poured in, dividing the entire Euphris into jubilation and despair.
In just over a decade of absence, Clade’s support had grown so vast that rebellion began to seem justified.
Meanwhile, those who had fanatically supported Bollonico and prepared for the future suddenly found themselves leaderless, thrown into panic and chaos, holding endless meetings among themselves.
At such a time, if Empress Marilyn’s southern homeland had strongly backed Noel, they might have gathered forces. But between the Lily Companni affair, the late Crown Prince’s achievements, and Federico’s resolve, the south firmly supported Clade—regardless of any personal affection for Noel.
Empress Marilyn struggled to endure each day as fierce change swept through the empire.
Noel, too, was equally bewildered.
Suddenly losing his brother, and now his father trapped in a horrifying curse.
Each time he heard news of Clade suppressing the majority of the Emperor’s faction under the pretext of removing a tyrant incapable of duty, seizing the Imperial Palace, and handling urgent matters, Noel often stayed awake through the night, worrying that innocent lives would be lost in the political struggle.
Having witnessed his father’s madness and desperation up close, resistance felt meaningless.
He could only sincerely pray to the gods that Clade’s sword would not follow in his father’s footsteps.
“Noel.”
On his way from the Empress’s quarters, driven by melancholy to visit the long-empty Second Prince’s Palace.
Noel saw Clade standing motionless before the palace, in a place rarely visited by anyone.
From his earliest childhood, just one glance had left an impression impossible to forget.
Beautiful and strong—the man destined to be the next Emperor of this nation.
Though he had never once doubted since childhood that Clade would become Emperor, now the feeling was different.
Outwardly, Clade looked less like an Emperor and more like a young prince stepping out of the palace for the first time, exploring the capital.
Had tragedy not stolen it all, he might have grown at his own pace, earned merit, and become a young man enjoying picnics with a lover—his cousin, who might have smiled warmly at him.
Overcome by the sense of being the one who had stolen all that time, Noel bowed with utmost courtesy and approached.
Their destination naturally shifted. To the Emperor’s Palace—once forbidden to Noel.
The footsteps of the two men echoed on the stone path, wrapped in an eerie stillness.
Noel wondered if Clade might kill him right here.
After all, aside from Clade, the only remaining heir to the throne was himself.
Clade had no need to bother restoring order among the nobles and ascending the throne.
If Noel simply died, the factions without a figurehead would naturally weaken. Eliminating future threats—
wasn’t that the most important thing for Clade Euphris now?
“Noel.”
“Y-yes, b-big brother.”
“What do you think is the most important quality one who would be Emperor must possess?”
A cold sweat ran down Noel’s back as he froze at the sudden question.
Ex-husband Wants Reconciliation
One-line summary: Chasing the wife to the crematorium (making an effort to attract someone who has become indifferent), the female lead doesn’t look back, the second male lead takes the position.
Intro:
To repay the kindness of the older generation, Su Mu crossed into a female-dominated world and became a live-in daughter-in-law of the Yan family, single-handedly saving the Yan family from fire and water.
But her husband, Yan Jiyue, the eldest son of the Yan family, treated her with sarcasm and never showed her a good face.
It wasn’t until after Su Mu’s death that this pampered and arrogant young master shed a few fake tears and pretended to want to die for love.
This life’s kindness was enough. If there was a next life, she would definitely kick Yan Jiyue away.
Who knew that the heavens would be so kind as to allow her to be reborn, returning to the time when she had just married into the Yan family.
Su Mu glanced at the Yan eldest son, who still spoke coldly to her, and threw a divorce letter in front of him.
“Let’s divorce!”
***
Yan Jiyue never imagined that he would be reborn. He happily went to find Su Mu, wanting to make up for the mistakes he had made in his ignorant youth.
Wasn’t the reason the heavens allowed him to be reborn to let him reconcile with Su Mu?
But when he pushed open the door to Su Mu’s room, the person lying on the bed was another man.
Su Mu’s personal attendant, Xie Yi.
Yan Jiyue hated him so much that his teeth itched. In front of Su Mu, Xie Yi was a gentle and considerate whisperer of sweet nothings, but in reality, he was vicious-hearted and deliberately sabotaged their husband and wife relationship.
In the previous life, it was he who secretly hid in Su Mu’s coffin and committed suicide, stealing a step ahead of him to be buried with Su Mu.
Yan Jiyue’s eyes were filled with hatred as he cursed, “What kind of thing are you? Your background is lowly, what right do you have to occupy Su Mu?”
Xie Yi looked at the sleeping Su Mu and no longer pretended to be a whisperer of sweet nothings.
He proudly stuck out his belly, “I have the right because my belly is capable of giving the Wife-master a daughter.”
***
Yan Jiyue was consumed with jealousy. He spread rumors that Xie Yi had once been branded with the mark of a “harlot” on his chest.
But on the night Xie Yi cut off the flesh bearing that mark, Su Mu suddenly realized something was amiss.
“How did you know the exact moment I was poisoned? And why did you show up a month early?”
Xie Yi remained silent, blood from his wound soaking through his robes. His sapphire eyes brimmed with anguish – or was it just a flawless act?
Between a once-arrogant husband now seeking redemption, and a gentle soul willing to die for her – who truly held the darkest secrets? And could it be that Su Mu and Yan Jiyue weren’t the only ones given a second chance at life…?
[Reading Guide]
1. True divorce, chasing the wife to the crematorium, the female lead doesn’t look back, the male lead is Xie Yi.
2. The ex-husband did not cheat, he just realized too late and didn’t realize that he liked the female lead.
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