To the One Who's Only Cold to Me - Chapter 81

The Central Palace, where the most noble couple of the empire the Emperor and Empress resided, was filled with shouting early in the morning.

“Why are you interfering?”

“Do you even hear yourself right now?”

No matter how high their status, even if they were princes or princesses, they couldn’t raise their voices freely in the Central Palace. But the ones yelling now were the very owners of the palace. So, the palace servants could only tremble quietly, holding their breath.

“I’m just calling for my daughter why is that your business?”

“You think I don’t know you’ve been protecting that illegitimate child all this time? You think I’ve kept quiet because I didn’t know?”

“I said what does it matter to you! She’s my daughter I can take care of her if I want!”

Compared to the somewhat calm Empress, the Emperor seemed much more agitated. His face was red with anger, and he stomped his foot every time the Empress spoke.

“I let it go when you gave her money. I said nothing when you helped her secretly enter high society using nobles. I even stayed silent when she showed up at the Founding Day banquet. But now you want to bring her into the palace? I won’t allow that.”

Unlike the shouting Emperor, the Empress stared at her husband with a straight posture. As she pointed out each matter one by one, the Emperor shouted again.

“Will you stop it! I’m the Emperor I said I’m doing it!”

When he brought up his position as Emperor, the Empress finally closed her mouth. But not out of fear. Her face turned even colder, full of contempt. With a deep sigh, she responded in a sharp voice.

“If she’s so precious to you, why didn’t you keep her close from the start? You threw that baby and her mother out back then so why are you acting like this now?”

The name of Helen’s mother, Celine, came up. The Emperor scowled as he remembered the mistress he had been with for about a year. He was about to shout again but suddenly paused, his lips twitching. Then he stared outside at the green-roofed guest palace, where foreign envoys were staying, and sneered.

“You’re asking why? Because back then, I liked you more.”

“What did you just say?”

“Karna, you were young and beautiful then. Plus, your brother was the King of the Saint Kingdom at the time.”

At the mention of her homeland, the Empress’s brows furrowed. The Saint Kingdom, located just beyond the Caesar Empire, was now a painful memory for her.

“But that’s not the case anymore. You’re no longer young or beautiful. And the current king of the Saint Kingdom is your half-brother, who hates you. So we don’t get as many benefits from them as we used to. In fact, it’s a loss now. So why should I care what you think anymore?”

When Karna got married, the king of the Saint Kingdom was her full brother, and they had a good relationship. But after he died suddenly, leaving only a young daughter, the throne passed to her estranged half-brother.

‘Didn’t he take the throne with the condition that he’d give it to the princess, his niece, in the future? He wouldn’t break that promise, right?’

But the current king had no intention of keeping that promise. Since he wasn’t the legitimate heir, he had taken the throne only by promising to pass it to his niece when she was older. Still, once he had the crown, he became greedy. He tried to get rid of the little princess, but loyal supporters of the rightful heir, and others who opposed him due to his weak background, stood in his way. Above all, the most powerful force protecting the princess was Empress Karna herself.

As the Empress of the mighty Caesar Empire, Karna quietly influenced the noble powers in her homeland with the Emperor’s silent approval. Thanks to her, her niece was able to keep her title and life as the crown princess.

The Emperor knew all this so he brought up the Saint Kingdom on purpose. As expected, the moment it was mentioned, Karna’s lips pressed into a thin line. Seeing this, the Emperor lifted his chin proudly and continued.

“Karna, I’m the Emperor of the Caesar Empire. My word is the law here.”

“You’re not an exception just because you’re the Empress. If you want to keep living comfortably under my protection, stay quiet.”

The Empress seemed to be listening silently, but her eyes flashed with anger. She glared straight at the Emperor and replied, biting her words.

“No.”

“What?”

“I said no, Roiger.”

The Emperor faltered for a moment at her force. In all their years together, he could count on one hand the times she had looked at him like that.

“And you’re not young or handsome anymore either. No matter how much you try to hide it every day, your aging, flabby belly shows everything. If you want a woman who will flutter around you saying yes to everything, then go fetch that illegitimate child’s mother and sit her next to you. I won’t stop you.”

“W-Why would I? That woman is even worse than you. She was so easy always meeting different men and now that she’s old, she covers up her filthy life with makeup. But Karna! You can’t talk to me like that!”

The Emperor’s voice shrank, but his shame quickly turned to anger again, and he shouted. He pointed at the Empress, veins showing on his neck.

“The reason I have an illegitimate child, the reason I’m dealing with all this mess it’s all your fault!”

“That filthy child why do you think I ended up with her? That woman was your maid. The one you took in out of pity she crawled into my bed behind your back!”

It wasn’t a lie. Helen’s mother, Celine, was a distant cousin of the Empress. She had married into the Empire but was mistreated by her husband.

‘Stay with me. You’ll be safe here.’

The Empress had pitied her bruised cousin and brought her in as a maid. But it turned out to be the worst decision. One night, after a big fight between the Emperor and Empress, a drunken Emperor had Celine sneak into his bedroom.

‘I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it. His Majesty… sob.’

Celine got pregnant from that one night. When she could no longer hide her swollen belly, she cleverly approached the Empress who was celebrating a party with noblewomen and cried while revealing everything. After that, the Emperor and Empress had another huge fight, and Karna, holding her barely showing pregnant belly, left the Central Palace with Prince Jared.

The Emperor blamed the Empress for leaving and made Celine his mistress in anger. Later, when Princess Catherine was born and the Emperor reconciled with the Empress, Celine and Helen were forced to leave the empire under cold orders. But that didn’t erase the fact that an illegitimate child existed.

Perhaps the Emperor felt guilty. For years, he ignored Helen’s existence in front of the Empress. But something changed and suddenly, he insisted on bringing Helen to the palace.

“Roiger. I should never have given in to you. Choosing you was the biggest mistake of my life!”

When the Emperor blamed her for the existence of the illegitimate child, Karna could no longer hold back. She screamed, just like when they had fought long ago over Celine’s pregnancy. The Emperor’s eyes turned cold.

“Then your daughter”

He started to say something about their daughter, but stopped himself. His eyes moved again to the green-roofed guest palace outside.

“Empress.”

As Karna followed his gaze out the window, the Emperor spoke in a firm, final tone.

“Illegitimate or not, I will take care of my blood. So stay out of it.”

Just as Karna opened her mouth, thinking he was trying to crush her with his authority again, the Emperor warned her.

“If you anger me any further about this, I’ll stop protecting your niece in the Saint Kingdom. So stop, Karna. That’s a warning.”

When the Emperor used her niece as a threat, Karna clenched her fists and ground her teeth. Then she turned and walked away across the room.

SLAM.

The loud sound of the door made the palace servants flinch. But Karna didn’t care and tried to steady her breath.

“Mother.”

A shadow fell over her. Normally, it would’ve been a welcome voice, but the moment Karna heard it, her eyes turned sharp. Prince Jared, shocked by the gaze he had never seen from his mother, hesitated. Karna stared at his green eyes, so much like her own, with deep resentment, then walked away.

Left behind, Jared stood still, head hanging, before slowly turning around. But before he could take many steps—

“You bastard!”

THUD!

With a heavy sound, a man’s fist slammed into Jared’s face. Jared stumbled and fell to the floor.

“How could you do that to Mother? Huh? Say something!”

The reason the Emperor gave for inviting Helen to the palace was a heartfelt letter she wrote to her father. And the one who delivered the letter was none other than Jared. No one else had dared to give the letter because of the Empress but her own son had done it. William couldn’t forgive his younger brother.

“Get up, you brat!”

William grabbed Jared by the collar. He raised his fist again but stopped. Jared’s face was twisted with emotions even stronger than William’s.

At last, William lowered his fist and said:

“Talk. What happened?”

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