Shock

"The princess must be in the palace by now."

Entering Lillian Graz, the Western Empire, or rather the Merith Empire, was not an easy matter, and more than that, she watched the residents of the capital wander around with all the comfort of meaning, and what brought distress to her chest most was the scenery.

that i watched..

When all the inhabitants of the empire were preparing to celebrate the victory of the Emperor and his conquest of the Kingdom of Mirajana

This is how they used to, and despite everyone knowing that the fall of Mirajana at the hands of their Emperor Julian would only be a matter of time, no more, but he did not decide to hold the ceremony himself as a consolation for the loss of Miroslav, the woman who accompanied him in his life from the beginning.

The laughing eyes Lillian saw made her want to cry but she couldn't, and the children running around everywhere, and the old women as well as the young men who decorated the town with flowers, all made her want to cry as well as to burn all those who laughed at their pain.

"I heard that the Emperor's convoy, led by General Emmanuel Small, will arrive in the Empire in a few days, is that true, Grandmother?"

These words echoed before her eyes, especially when she approached to ask

"I am a visitor to this empire after hearing about its greatness, so may I ask you some questions because I have heard about it, but I do not know if it is true or not, but of course the people of the imperial capital will know about these matters, right?"

The old woman, who was standing with her back bent, smiled, talking to the one who was at least fifty years younger than her, and the little one who arranged the stones on the ground to play with.

"Welcome beautiful, yes of course you can ask anything you want"

Lillian hesitated in her questions and used caution as her first weapon so as not to get into trouble again with Julian and his other men.

"Uh.. well I just want to know why they call the emperor the savior and advocate? There must be a story behind this. If it's normal, can I know the story?"

The old woman giggled and veiled her wrinkled lips behind her fingers, on which the world left its lines, in which each line testifies to a specific event in this life she spent.

"The story is not a secret matter or a serious matter, everyone knows what happened and how Emperor Julian was able to sit on the throne."

"I'm sorry, but I don't know this because I'm from a foreign country."

Lillian tried to avoid suspicion as much as possible, other than that she wanted to know the power that Julian and his generals possessed.

"What everyone says about Emperor Julian is that he is not a good man but in fact everyone lives in peace, and I know very well that our Emperor Julian has built the empire of Merith on top of the ruins of the rest of the kingdoms, but none of the people cares though they know this, as long as everyone lives." They are happy here, that's all they care about."

"This means that everyone in his empire… I mean, here they know everything about the emperor?"

The old woman nodded her head affirmatively, but those looks in her eyes were speaking differently from what she was saying.

"This means that the Emperor has a bad past?"

The old woman sighed before speaking

"Emperor Julian was the first son of King Jade. He was the son who abandoned him because of the color of his red eyes, which he said would bring them destruction, fear and terror on the kingdom, so he left him in the wilderness to be eaten by wolves, but no one knows how the owner of the red eyes returned after the emperor married the woodcutter's woman who She earned everything for the benefit of her children, and what I mean is the children of the woodcutter who died of mysterious circumstances.

Every word Lillian was recording in her mind well to memorize

"I can't believe that the Emperor has gone through so many bad things, and also from this curve, it seems that the Emperor is not an easy person at all."

Lillian quietly focused her eyes on the old man's cold gaze and said cold words

"He killed his brothers and the woodcutter's stepchildren, who all got the title of princes except him?"

The old woman replied

"He killed the entire family... the royal family when Merith was just a kingdom before Julian expanded it to occupy the rest of the neighboring regions and became an empire, and took control after seven years of occupation and three years of permanent rest for all the inhabitants of the empire, especially the residents of the capital, it has passed Ten years have passed since then, and we are about to enter our eleventh year."

Lillian sighed, closing her eyes softly

"This means that Emperor Julian is over thirty years old?"

The old woman sighed after realizing that Lillian was not just an ordinary woman

"I don't know, my daughter, but he was young when he occupied the kingdom. I can give him an age close to the end of the twenties and the beginning of the thirties."

None of them knew Julian's real age

That is, if he even remembers it

"I think I tired you with words, madam, I apologize for wasting your time with me."

She walked away from the old woman, who smiled at her in turn, but Lillian changed that smile and snatched it from her lips after it was far from my sight of the old woman and the little girl who was beside her.

"This means that Julien is only a few years older than me and Eva, and I expected him to be more than forty years old, despite his appearance being somewhat handsome... But this does not change the fact that he is a man looking for evil only."

"In addition to the fact that he controls everyone, it does not mean that there is nothing he can control, and this is what we must do. We will not interfere. Eva and I will try to bring him down so that all those who hold grudges against him begin to eat his flesh and his assistants..."

"I guess what I should do now is rest... I feel sudden fatigue in my body, I don't know why but I'm very tired."

She felt dizzy from time to time and leaned on the walls until she reached a small hotel to book a room there and entered it to close all the windows, unwilling to do anything but sleep.

And she did this after she took off the clothes that she had to take off to put herself on the bed in a position that made her comfortable for her, and she fell asleep as if she had not slept for several years, despite the fact that the hour did not exceed nineteen at night until

"What if I had the chance to kill Emmanuel… would I really do it and would I be able to do it at all?"

The last words she parted with her lips were regarding

How do you feel about that guy

And in the imperial palace in the emperor's room specifically

Where that woman got involved in the hands of the Emperor and everyone knows what's what

This means it

As soon as he grabbed her hand, the knife fell with his strong pressure on her hand, to get up quickly, and the situation turned around, and he placed her on the bed, besieging her hands above her head.

"What do you think you are doing? Once you feel fine, you think you can kill me so easily?"

"what do you want me to do?!

I approach her eyes, which she does not see, trapping her body in his arms

wide above his bed

"

I want you to die... Just die, do me this favor and wm. .. only

He moved closer to mingle with each other, his eyes circling over her facial features

"Do you know where you are now to be so brave with these words?"

She said not interested

"I don't care if I'm in hell, I'll drive... for you."

He whispered hotly near her ear

"You are in my empire, in my palace, in my room, on my bed, in my arms and you still manage to feign such courage?"

"Don't you think I can do anything I want now?"

Words came out from between his lips and he sighed before her, after he examined her lips with his other hand and squeezed her lower lip with his two fingers, and her eyes were above hers.

"

Ah... do you know that my sword and your eyes are two sides of the same coin?"

"Your attractive features cannot arouse my desires no matter how hard you try, Emperor."

I approached quietly and felt his breath mixed with hers to turn her face to the other side.

"Don't try to kiss me... The man I've loved all my life hasn't even tried to kiss me, how can you think you can."

Those laughing features changed into sharp ones for an instant.

"You are comparing me to a man who has always been my slave?"

"I have nothing to do with it anymore, but you won't put a single finger on my body."

She said it in a confident and clear tone, not trembling

He tilted his head to the right, gazing at her neck, which flashed before his eyes like a rare piece of paper whose papers had fallen out of time. He approached quietly, trying to control himself, placing his nose close to her neck, and smelling the wind that exhausted his heart, before furrowing his eyebrows with obvious weariness over his red eyes.

He left her hands to surround her waist with one hand, and the other hand placed behind her head, and this behavior made her shocked, and that it was unexpected from someone like him.

"If you wanted to kill me, you would do it now."

He took a small knife at the side table and put it in her hand to place it and fix her hand against his chest with confidence and calmness.

Do it if you don't expect anything new from me.

"You must be really mad!"

He pulled her other hand to kiss the inside of it, then put it on the wound on his face that had been around for ages, the only big scar on his face before the princess hit his chest.

"You didn't want to kill me before, what happened?"

"This wound... Look, the person who gave me this scar, died after I cut his pieces and threw him from the top of the mountain to the foot of it, and the one who caused this scar in my chest, I put him in my hands now and intend to treat him as a special treatment, don't you feel anything towards me?"

She did not speak to him and kept turning her face on the other side so that he got up from above her and left the knife in her hands to make her in a state of astonishment and magnificence, how and why the things that Eva wondered about, is the emperor crazy or stupid? Or did he expect her never to hit him, and was he sure she wouldn't do anything?

"I will make you fall in love with me as I have done with the rest of my courtesans, but first I will assign to you one who will treat your eyes, so that when you see me you may fall in love with me."

He spoke all these words standing in front of the bed with his back to her and she straightened her seat, then he quietly left the room and went to his office to kick the desk and break it with one kick. The guards wanted to enter, but Cecilia, the butler, prevented them from doing so after she was coming to talk to him about something.

"Nobody interferes"

I quietly opened the door and saw him sitting on the wide window sill of the third floor of the palace, stretching his legs out and bending his back.

This scene Cecilia had only seen twice in her life, and this was the second time.

She walked with her low shoes towards him and stood behind him.

"Your Majesty, are you alright?"

"Cecilia… you should have accepted my love for you from the start instead of putting me through tough situations like this."

Cecilia sighed, and it seemed nothing new to her, especially those words she used to hear from him.

"Your Majesty, I think Princess Eva is bothering you, why don't we move her to another room?"

"Yeah... move her, she's up. Go and let me know when you're done, because I want to go to my room as soon as I can and can't bear to see her."

"And what are you planning to do with her?"

I asked after knowing he was planning something.

"Don't you think, Cecilia, that we fall in love with people who cannot be ours even in nightmares?"

Cecilia sighed, knowing that Julien was not being himself.

"You're not going to say those words, Julian, do you think?"

He turned to her and climbed out of the window and stepped towards her to take a lock of her hair, bent towards her, kissing and smelling her, while she exchanged cold looks at him.

"There was nothing between us to end, Julian. You have to remember that. I apologize if this talk offended you, but this is the truth."

He opened his eyes after closing them while smelling her scent.

"Who said I cared? Who said I didn't? Anyway, none of you can know how I think and what path I'm taking, and for your dead husband you still revere the love you had for him even though the man

The person standing in front of you can do and achieve what your husband did not achieve for you.

She lowered his hand and removed it from her hair.

"Don't forget the person you killed, Mister Emperor…"

She turned around and spoke cold words before quietly leaving.

"Love hurts, Julian, and you don't know what true love is, and I don't think you will if you keep acting that way."

I left the office after that, letting him stand smiling softly

Like a madman who wants to control everything in existence

"Maybe Eva..."