There's a Snake in the Empress' Bedroom (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 2
‘How pitiful.’
Renisha muttered.
Rexus’s revolting pretense of affection—grinning while holding her hand as if they were a loving couple—made her sick.
Equally repulsive was her own position: unable to shake free of his grip, dragged around like a lifeless doll.
“Empress, greet him. This is the envoy from Irev, the desert kingdom, visiting after a long while. He’s presented you with beautiful silk for your birthday.”
“I humbly greet Your Imperial Majesty. Given Your Majesty’s extraordinary beauty, an outfit made from the silk we’ve offered would surely make you shine even more brightly.”
“Ah. So you’re implying that if I don’t wear an outfit made from your silk, I’d appear less radiant?”
Rexus asked, twisting his lips.
His tone was languid and leisurely.
On the emperor’s left pinky finger, the signet ring glowed green as he tilted his wine cup.
“N-no! How could that possibly be!”
Despite the emperor’s absurd provocation, the envoy forced a smile and denied it earnestly.
The envoy bowed deeply, lowering his head.
“Your Imperial Majesty! If I’ve offended you in any way, I sincerely apologize. I trust you understand I never meant such a thing…!”
Renisha gave a dry, brittle laugh.
“It’s fine.”
“Since the Empress says it’s fine, let it go. Bring the silk here—right here.”
At the emperor’s gesture, the attendants moved swiftly.
Soon enough, the silk presented by Irev’s envoy was placed in the emperor’s hands.
The emperor rolled it across the floor, unfurling it.
The crowd watched, swallowing hard, as the expensive silk tumbled along the ground.
No one could even guess what the emperor might do next.
After having the Duke and Duchess of Rotera killed and forcing the Empress to denounce them, he now paraded around the banquet hall holding her hand as though they were a devoted couple.
Though it was the Empress’s birthday celebration, he acted as if he were the main attraction.
He hadn’t even allowed Canaria—whom he supposedly cherished so dearly—to attend.
‘What on earth is the emperor thinking?’
‘Shh! He’ll hear you. Be quiet.’
Ignoring everything, the emperor wrapped Renisha tightly in the unfurled silk.
Renisha stared blankly at the emperor, who indulged in his outrageous antics.
Inside, she seethed—but hiding it was agony. Blood pooled between her clenched teeth.
The emperor burst into laughter at the sight of his Empress looking utterly ridiculous.
“Well, look at this! What do you think? Does it suit her? Does the Empress look more beautiful?”
“Yes, yes! Absolutely!!”
Led by Irev’s envoy, the crowd knelt and affirmed enthusiastically.
The emperor chuckled coarsely.
Placing the fallen bolt of silk into Renisha’s arms, the emperor said,
“So it’s settled. Since it’s your birthday, you must remain in your most beautiful state, after all?”
In other words, he expected her to wander around like this.
Renisha bowed her head slightly and gave a quiet, bitter laugh.
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
This place was nothing more than a circus for the emperor.
She’d realized that the moment he announced he’d hold a birthday banquet for her.
It was all just for the emperor’s amusement.
The emperor seized Renisha’s arm—still clutching the silk—and began dragging her around.
People scurried to fetch each item they’d presented and draped them onto Renisha.
A shawl, a tiara, earrings, a necklace, rings.
Just as Renisha was mocking herself for looking even more absurd than a clown—
“Your Imperial Majesty! Cassius requests an audience!”
“Cassius?”
The emperor stroked his chin.
“Now that you mention it, he does exist.”
Only the emperor could treat the hero Cassius with such disdain.
Cassius had risked his life to save the empire.
He’d returned victorious from war.
In that very war, the two masters of Rotera had perished.
It was there that Cassius had become a hero.
Their fates were tragically divergent.
“Let him in!”
She couldn’t fathom why the emperor, instead of honoring the hero who saved the empire, insisted on dragging him into this farce.
Renisha fixed the emperor with a heavy, sinking gaze.
She’d decided: once she secured her family’s safety, she’d make her choice.
Either kill him and flee—or die.
She couldn’t possibly live under the same sky as Rexus.
Without killing that repulsive man, she felt she couldn’t survive.
Renisha bit down hard on her teeth.
This rage, gnawing at her heart with no outlet, was slowly consuming her instead.
At that moment, the banquet hall doors opened.
Outside should have been darker than the hall… yet it felt brighter somehow.
Perhaps it was because Renisha, trapped like a bird in a cage, couldn’t do a thing as she pleased.
Renisha blinked.
‘A torch…?’
That was her first impression of Cassius.
Cassius gritted his teeth and stormed into the banquet hall.
He’d risked his life and won the war.
They’d told him heroes received titles and lands—so he’d charged forward like a madman.
Yet this was the treatment he got.
He’d requested an audience with the emperor, but received no reply.
That was why he’d finally barged into the Empress’s birthday banquet.
‘So this is how they feast and revel in the empire I protected!’
Cassius strode boldly into the hall.
All eyes turned toward him.
His behavior was brazen, utterly devoid of decorum.
Cassius gave a crooked bow before the emperor and spoke.
“Cassius, who fought for Hientry under Your Imperial Majesty’s command, has returned bearing the glory of victory. I offer this glory to Your Imperial Majesty.”
His sole aide had drilled these words into him on the way here.
He must have repeated that single sentence at least twenty times.
Thanks to that, though stiff and mechanical, the polished phrase spilled from Cassius’s lips.
“Yes, so you were here after all.”
The emperor muttered.
Cassius abruptly lifted his head.
Raising one’s head before the emperor granted permission violated protocol—but no one pointed it out.
Because the emperor said nothing.
The emperor stared at Cassius with a look of utter disgust, his thoughts unreadable.
But what caught Cassius’s eye more was someone else.
A woman wrapped head to toe in pink silk, adorned with so many ornaments she resembled a mummy.
She had long, lustrous platinum hair and eyes the color of blooming pink flowers.
Her face was as pale and stiff as wax.
She radiated no vitality whatsoever.
Cassius’s attention was instantly stolen by her overwhelming presence—the surging fragrance that stirred him and the dazzling brilliance that hurt his eyes.
Given how everyone stood silent and breathless, it seemed clear the emperor had made her look this way.
“Ah, just as everyone says—the Empress is truly beautiful and captivating. What do you think, Cassius?”
The emperor roughly yanked the Empress’s wrist and shoved her before Cassius.
The jewelry coiled around her clattered to the floor with a soft thud.
Light scattered across the ground.
Cassius thought the Empress might burst into tears from humiliation.
Wouldn’t anyone, in her place?
But the Empress only stared at him with a face frozen cold.
There was nothing there—only barren emptiness.
Then, the Empress silently moved her lips.
‘You are beautiful.’
“You are beautiful…?”
Cassius unknowingly echoed her words.
‘Your radiance blinds me—I can hardly see properly.’
“Your radiance blinds me—I can hardly see properly…?”
“Ah-ha! Exactly!”
Cassius frowned, annoyed at himself for parroting her like a fool.
This time, the emperor pulled the Empress behind him and stepped closer to Cassius.
“So even to your eyes, the Empress is beautiful? Blindingly so?”
“…Yes, Your Majesty.”
He wasn’t sure about beautiful—but blinding, certainly.
Every ornament she wore reflected light brilliantly.
“Good, good. I’ll consider what reward to grant you! I’ve clearly been neglectful toward the hero who saved our nation.”
It really did seem true—the emperor had gone mad.
‘How can those be the eyes of a sane man?’
Cassius ground his teeth. He doubted Hientry had any future left.
“Leave now. Go wait until I summon you.”
For a fleeting moment, Cassius turned to look toward the Empress.
He didn’t know why.
At that instant, he simply felt he must.
The Empress gave a small nod. Cassius ground his teeth again.
The emperor was insane.
One wrong move here, and losing his head would be the least of it.
Everyone around wore blank, indifferent faces—as if this were just another ordinary day.
He felt certain: defying the emperor would mean a dog’s death.
“I shall do as you command.”
“Good. That’s how a dog should obey.”
The emperor smiled, satisfied.
Cassius realized his judgment had been correct.
‘No… what is this madhouse?’
Cassius laughed hollowly.
A dizzying illusion struck him—that all his efforts had been utterly in vain.
Fearing trouble, the attendants pushed Cassius from behind.
Just before the banquet hall doors closed, Cassius turned to look inside.
The woman—still as pale as wax, utterly expressionless—stared straight at him.
With piercing clarity.
Thud.
The doors shut.
Perhaps because of that, her gaze left a vivid, haunting impression on Cassius before vanishing.
“…What was that?”
Cassius murmured blankly, pressing his hand against the door.
He’d thought her utterly lifeless—but in that place, she alone had brimmed with vitality.
Renisha stared at the back of the emperor’s head.
“Yes, so you were here after all.”
There must be meaning behind his repeating the same phrase twice.
What was the emperor thinking?
Renisha’s pondering ended the moment Rexus yanked her toward Cassius.
‘You idiot.’
She’d figured out what Rexus was planning.
After living together for over a decade, she could read his thoughts to some degree.
No matter how madly Rexus behaved.
Right now, Rexus had decided her fate.
‘So that’s why he hasn’t killed me—he can’t do it himself? Ah, because I’m the Empress?’
Renisha had already outlived her worth as a trophy.
The Rotera ducal house was annihilated; its two masters were dead.
There were fugitives still at large—but what could they possibly do?
Not when even Renisha herself had disowned Rotera.
She’d wondered why Rexus hadn’t killed her.
Now, she felt she’d found the answer.
Rexus confirmed her suspicion.
“Good, good. I’ll consider what reward to grant you! I’ve clearly been neglectful toward the hero who saved our nation.”
He’d displayed her openly and spoken those words.
Apparently, he intended to give her to that man.
Cassius. War hero Cassius.
She now understood why she’d mistaken him for a torch.
His red hair and gleaming golden eyes.
His features weren’t delicate—but strikingly bold, arresting anyone’s gaze.
He exuded raw, untamed wildness.
Brimming with the rugged vitality of the wastelands…
A man utterly out of place in this rotting, decadent imperial capital.
Renisha kept her eyes on the vanishing man.
No—she watched him as if entranced.
Cassius, burning like a torch.
Male lead is reincarnated to save his wife
I’ve also read this one twice already. The female lead is kinda soft and gets embarrassed easily—not really my type, but the plot is definitely worth reading. Hurry up and read it, y’all!
Intro
When Shen Yuan encountered Su Jin again in his previous life, she had already become the Prime Minister of the current dynasty. As for him, the former top young master of the capital, he had long since fallen into the abyss, becoming a singer on a pleasure boat.
After a song ended, he was redeemed and sent to the Su Residence.
Su Jin respected and cherished him, gave him a roof over his head, and bestowed him with warmth. Shen Yuan fell deeper and deeper, but before he could express his feelings, Su Jin passed away.
Shen Yuan died to follow her in death, but instead, he returned to when he was fifteen years old.
At that time, he was not yet engaged, and Su Jin was just a poor scholar.
Shen Yuan gritted his teeth, casting aside all his pride, and thought of ways to coax and entice her every day.
The colder and more indifferent Su Jin was towards him, the more proactive Shen Yuan became.
He was not afraid of being mocked by the world, only wanting to marry his Wife-master early, to hold her hand and never let go for a lifetime.
[Note: This story will not specifically point out the male lead’s reincarnation time point; it’s all in the details. Whenever you feel that the male lead is acting strangely, he has most likely been reincarnated.]
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
The king must be thinking he made a smart move. Sorry honey you wrongg
What a tattle,snobbish women. Tha one who doesn’t conceive
Such a twisted, insecure and desirable man. Leave renisha alone