I Became the Emperor’s Sleeping Pill - Chapter 76

Schedule: Tuesday and Friday

“Do we look like we’re going to lose?! I will take the throne! Do you think I can’t?!”

“If you can, do it. Of course, you can’t.”

“You’ll regret those words. You’ll be begging me on your knees for your life, you know?!”

Venom laced Raz’s tear-filled eyes. He knew he could no longer interact with Edin, who despised him so intensely. Raz resolved to drag the man he once believed to be his destiny down to the very bottom.

“Just you wait. I’ll take your head with my own hands.”

Raz, her voice thick with rage, vanished instantly using black magic.

Edin let out a scoff, which quickly escalated into uproarious laughter. The laughter continued for a long time, and when it finally subsided, tears welled in Edin’s eyes.

“Sei….”

He hadn’t been able to kill the Empress and her knight with his own hands, the ones who had orchestrated the scene of him and Luigia in bed together, deliberately ensuring she witnessed it. The sun of the Empire, yet unable to exact his full revenge; the injustice of it gnawed at him.

Edin covered his face with one hand and sighed deeply. He knew this wouldn’t bring back Lysei, who had left of his own volition, but the inability to even vent his frustration and grief felt pathetic.

The damned black magic, the Marquis of Benneretti, the Empress, her knight—he wanted to tear them all to shreds.

Slowly turning, Edin began to walk back to the Imperial Palace. The single tear that traced a path down his cheek wasn’t for Lysei, lost to a misunderstanding, nor for the Empress and her knight he’d failed to kill. It was for the fact that even now, he couldn’t go searching for Lysei because he had to quell the rebellion that had erupted in the outer territories.

***

The heretics’ rebellion, which had begun in the northern territories, quickly ravaged the entire region. Edin traveled north with Luigia. Hand in hand, they began to neutralize the black magic, but the process was slow because Luigia couldn’t yet fully see the magic.

Eventually, Edin returned to the Imperial Palace with Luigia and ordered Zerga to trigger her omega emergence immediately.

“It’s impossible to individually track down and neutralize all the invisible black magic. You said she’d be able to see it clearly once she emerges as an omega. So, by whatever means necessary, make Nyxna emerge.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Two days. Resolve this within two days.”

“…Yes, Your Majesty.”

At Edin’s command, Zerga hurried to meet Luigia. With the empire at war, there was no time to waste. Zerga presented Luigia with two options for triggering her emergence and asked her to choose.

“The first is to spend time in a room infused with pheromone amplifiers, along with several dominant alphas. The synergy between the amplifiers and the alphas’ pheromones should trigger your omega emergence and bring on a heat cycle. When your heat cycle begins, we’ll have a pre-selected dominant alpha assist you through it.”

“…And the second?” Luigia asked, her expression indifferent.

Zerga hesitated, slightly flustered, before continuing. “The second is to spend 48 hours with me.”

Luigia’s face instantly brightened.

“We’ll still use the amplifiers, as in the first option, but we won’t simply be spending time in a room together.”

“Then…?”

“I’ll intentionally induce a rut cycle in myself.”

“Oh my! So you’re saying you’ll spend 48 hours in rut with me?”

Zerga gave a single nod.

“This might be unpleasant for you, but given the current war situation, I need you to make a choice.”

Luigia immediately exclaimed, “The second option, of course!”

Zerga looked visibly taken aback.

“Even if I chose the first option, I’d seek you out when my heat started.”

“With rut-inducing amplifiers, I might not be able to treat you gently, Miss Luigia.”

“Oh, please, be rough with me! It’s fine!”

Luigia clapped her hands, leaving Zerga staring at her in bewildered silence.

Luigia had entered the palace as the Emperor’s Nyxna, but she hadn’t shared his bed. Zerga knew this would be her first time with a man, and he was being cautious. Even for a Nyxna, a first time could be frightening, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to be gentle with her while in an induced rut.

Furthermore, setting that aside, he had absolutely no romantic interest in Luigia, and he worried that she might be hurt later.

“Very well. I’ll make the necessary preparations.”

However, with the Empress’s faction in open rebellion, the Empire desperately needed Luigia’s ability to see black magic, leaving no time for such concerns.

***

“Are you managing alright?” Theo asked Lysei, having sought her out in the hidden chamber. Still lost in her melancholy, Lysei simply nodded without looking up from the book she was reading.

“What are you reading?”

“A book about the previous Emperors of Atrasia.”

“…Is it interesting?”

“Not particularly. Just passing the time.”

“Are you bored?”

At Theo’s question, Lysei finally closed the book and met his gaze.

“Aside from feeling a little cooped up, I’m alright. It’s more spacious than I expected, so I can even exercise.”

Though running is out of the question. Lysei added the thought as an aside, then continued, “It feels a little absurd to complain about this while in hiding, but the lack of windows is a bit bothersome.”

“…Ah.”