The Empress' Scandalous Paramour (5 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 14
After the duke left, my legs gave out and I collapsed onto the sofa.
“Haa.”
Now, the preparations to raise the curtain on this stage were complete.
‘To drive out Enrique and become emperor myself, I need a pretext.’
And that pretext… Helene. I’ll have to take what you possess.
Wouldn’t it be better for the Holy Empire’s emperor to be a saint who receives divine revelation directly, rather than merely a paladin?
If I pretend to be chosen by the gods, I could shape public opinion to believe that the deity, unable to bear the sight of a dissolute holy maiden, has raised up a new saint.
‘If my sisters sent a revelation to the Desert Kingdom, what matters is what that revelation was—and why it brought them all the way here.’
It’s probably a message meant for me.
That, even I couldn’t predict.
What would my sisters truly say?
Would they scoff? Feel pity? Or scold me?
Still, if they showed me kindness simply because I’m the youngest, I’d honestly be grateful.
Even if this were merely their final farewell… just sensing their presence would make me happy.
Ah, though of course it might be nothing more than my own wishful thinking.
‘…Could I become a demon once more?’
Even if I complete this vengeance, I might never return to my sisters’ side. Perhaps another youngest sibling has already been born, ready to claim the domain I once ruled as their own.
Just thinking that made everything go dark before my eyes.
A future once always clear now showed me nothing at all.
‘I want to go back.’
When no one was watching, I hunched my shoulders alone.
There was no mortal who could understand this loneliness.
How could any mortal empathize with the eternity I’ve lost?
‘If I go back… I’ll never love anyone again.’
Never again.
After sitting like that for a long while, I dozed off.
I woke up around evening.
It was because Mrs. Bertolt rushed in, her face deathly pale.
“Your Majesty! The holy maiden… the holy maiden collapsed right after leaving the empress’s palace!”
[This is the timeline separator]Helene, by rights, should have remained quietly in the temple like a proper holy maiden.
However, given her special status as the emperor’s childhood friend and his moral compass—and above all, because the emperor simply couldn’t bear her out of his sight—
Helene was currently residing in a small, cozy palace closest to the imperial quarters.
This place, the Chrysanthemum Palace, had originally been built several generations ago by an emperor who doted so excessively on his daughter that he wished to keep her always near. Now, however, it was filled with lilies planted just for Helene and called the Lily Palace.
Today, the mood here was terribly grim.
The holy maiden had been found outside the empress’s palace, barely able to breathe.
Symptoms like rashes around the mouth and swollen airways typically appeared after ingesting something forbidden.
Fortunately, a priest permanently stationed in the palace’s prayer chamber was present—had they discovered it any later, the consequences could have been dire.
“They said she drank tea with dried peaches and also ate fresh peaches.”
“Mm.”
“She’ll likely need to avoid peaches from now on. Sometimes even foods that were previously fine suddenly cause trouble—often due to severe shock or stress.”
At the elderly priest’s instruction, Helene’s maids dramatically dabbed at their tears.
“If only Her Majesty the Empress had shown just a bit more care, this wouldn’t have happened!”
“Exactly! A life was at stake! The holy maiden must protest!”
At that, Helene gave a fragile, exhausted smile, as if she might shatter at any moment.
“No. Her Majesty didn’t do it on purpose. How can I help it if I suddenly developed an allergy?”
“But still! How can you be so kind? Honestly!”
Satisfied inwardly at the maids’ fuss, Helene secretly smiled.
But outwardly, she remained the picture of quiet sorrow.
After lowering her head briefly and taking a deep breath, Helene finally let a single tear roll down her cheek.
“Goodness, why are you crying? Did Her Majesty say something to you?”
“Don’t cry! Those lovely eyes will swell!”
The maids clustered around Helene, fetching cool water and fanning her. After a long silence, Helene slowly opened her mouth.
“The thing is… I offered to help, you know? I swallowed all my hurt and disappointment and said it just like that. But… but she told me to know my place.”
“What?!”
“You know how hard I prepared. How much I was hoping….”
“Even Her Majesty shouldn’t say such cruel things!”
These maids belonged not to the temple but to the imperial palace.
The handmaidens kept their mouths shut, but maids? Who knew.
They might well spread what they heard here far and wide.
Helene had never once demanded secrecy from them.
“I’ve never once coveted the empress’s seat. Yet she misunderstood me like that. I tried to clear it up… but now I’m too scared to ever go back to the empress’s palace.”
Transparent tears dripped steadily onto her bedding.
Her frail shoulders trembling as she spoke, she looked pitifully like a tiny bird drenched in rain.
The maids, as if personally insulted, began weeping alongside her.
Just then—
“Everyone, leave.”
A quiet voice cut sharply through the room.
The startled maids didn’t dare lift their heads and hurriedly fled the chamber.
Only Helene and Enrique remained.
“Enri!”
When they were alone, Helene never used formal address with the emperor. When it was just the two of them, Enrique was simply Enrique.
Helene cherished these moments—when the crown encircling him and his gleaming cloak became utterly meaningless before her.
The moment she could call this beautiful man “Enri” without restraint.
“You developed a peach allergy, they said. Let me see.”
“Mm. The divine power has already healed it. I suppose I can never eat peaches again.”
Helene quickly pretended to wipe her tears, carefully making even that motion look endearing.
After all, Enrique adored cute girls.
“What was all that just now?”
“Y-you heard?”
She’d intended for him to hear, of course.
Helene had calculated the exact time it would take for Enrique to hear the news and arrive at the Lily Palace.
He wouldn’t come immediately, but if he handled only the most urgent matters first, he’d arrive right about now.
Helene widened her eyes and feigned flustered panic.
“It’s nothing. Nothing for you to worry about, Enri.”
“Tell me. You’ve always kept things bottled up instead of speaking your mind. That’s surely what made you ill.”
“It’s just… just that maybe she… dislikes me a little because I’m from Quad. Ah, but maybe that’s just how I feel!”
Helene quickly added that last bit.
The empress hadn’t even uttered the word “Quad,” but phrased like this, Enrique would surely grow angry.
It wouldn’t matter later if the empress claimed she’d never said such a thing.
After all, the nobles—the very faction most hostile to her as a Quad-born—were precisely the ones who deemed her lowly.
“I’d brought everything I’d prepared for the banquet. But Her Majesty seemed to have other ideas. She didn’t even look at them properly. I did leave them behind, but….”
Biting her lip slightly and trailing off, Helene leaned closer to Enrique, who had sat down beside her, and murmured,
“Everyone always enjoyed the banquets I hosted. I’d even started feeling confident… but I guess someone like me shouldn’t have dared to feel that way.”
“Someone like you?”
Enrique’s voice grew even colder. Helene immediately hiccupped.
“Oh, sorry…! I guess I, hic, startled myself.”
Hic. Hic!
As the hiccups refused to stop, Helene covered her mouth with both hands and glanced at him sheepishly.
“I forgot how delicate you are. Sorry.”
Enrique sighed softly, apologized at once, and took Helene’s hand. Helene twined her fingers one by one into his large palm and mumbled dejectedly,
“I just wanted to help somehow—even in the tiniest way. But I can’t, so I’ll just have to bear it. If I keep insisting on doing things, it’ll look like I’m fighting the empress—and I don’t want that.”
Helene never stated her desires outright. She always circled around them.
And Enrique always figured out what she wanted—and placed it right in her hands.
“I’ll go see if there’s anything suitable for you to help with.”
“Really? Won’t she hate me even more then?”
“She’ll listen if I speak.”
Watching Enrique’s profile as he replied indifferently, Helene smiled sweetly.
“Right! Of course—you’re the emperor now. Everyone must obey the emperor!”
“I’ll ask, so don’t cry yourself sick. Just wait.”
“Thank you. But don’t overdo it, Enri.”
Truthfully, she wished he’d push himself even harder.
She wanted the emperor to fight the nobles solely for her sake.
‘But if he really did… I might be disappointed. Because I love Enrique precisely as the perfect emperor—and even his slight coldness is part of what I adore.’
Enrique, apparently busy, soon returned to the imperial palace.
Helene dismissed all her maids and sat alone in melancholy—but while her outward appearance remained sorrowful, her mind raced furiously.
‘But just now, Enri didn’t even react to the word “peach,” did he?’
Once, Enrique had loved a woman.
And that woman’s favorite fruit had been none other than peaches.
Unconsciously, Helene bit her nails.
‘Not only must I share absolutely nothing in common with that woman—I must overwrite every memory of her with myself.’
What that woman loved, I must hate; what was safe for her must be dangerous for me.
By now, enough time had passed that Enrique should have nearly forgotten her—so this plan should work.
‘An empress like her isn’t even a threat. The one who truly shook Enrique was that woman.’
Tall enough to stand shoulder to shoulder with male knights. Sturdy, imposing build.
Long, jet-black hair that seemed to absorb light, dressed always in antiquated garments that looked centuries old—
A demon who never even tried to hide her true nature.
Discovering her back then had been Helene’s great fortune.
It was a time when her position within the temple had grown increasingly unstable.
That demon, stumbled upon by chance, became Helene’s perfect prey.
Male lead is a Love-Obsessed Merman
When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
_____
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Leonarda really said “I’m done” and meant it 💀 queen finally clocked in and chose violence. Enrique only interested now?? too late bro.
Meriem down BAD already and bro hasn’t even met her again 😭 meanwhile Leonarda fighting the whole empire solo… yeah this banquet bout to be chaos fr.
She really said “fix yourselves or I will” 😭🔥 empress about to run bootcamp fr, Valkyrie redemption arc loading…