I Married the Mad Duke Who Killed My Husband - Chapter 96

“Asil, are you alright?!”

Though I was the one who pushed Cassion, when I reflexively closed and opened my eyes, our positions had somehow reversed, and I was in his arms. No wonder I didn’t feel the impact with the floor.

“Well, since no one seems to know how the Empress left the tower, perhaps you could explain it yourself?”

“…Empress…!”

At the Emperor’s words, who paid no attention to us who had thrown ourselves into the corner thinking we were being attacked, nor to the Second Prince who had stumbled on the platform in shock, I quickly raised my head.

Indeed, the one who suddenly appeared from behind the throne with a sword was the Empress, looking somewhat disheveled.

“Your Majesty, the Empress! Please stop!”

The Emperor blocked the Empress’s attack with disappointing ease. The Empress shook off the Emperor and attempted another attack with a slightly furrowed brow on her otherwise expressionless face, but the Emperor blocked it with a smirk.

He likely expected the Second Prince would protect him in time this time.

“…Let go, Prince. I’d like to see that smile freeze on his face at least once.”

Even the cold Empress seemed thoroughly provoked by the Emperor’s attitude that stripped away any remaining dignity.

I moved toward the platform with the throne in a daze, wondering if I should intervene in this shocking situation, but Cassion caught me and pulled me back into his embrace.

“My, my wife rarely makes wishes, so I should grant this one. It might be her last wish, after all. Let her go.”

“Father!”

“Let her go, Shurdin.”

Insane.

That was truly the only thought I had. Insane. I was filled with shock at this royal family’s situation, which was worse than a complete mess. The moment the Second Prince loosened his grip on the Empress due to the Emperor’s half-commanding tone that seemed serious, she lunged forward without hesitation.

“Ugh…!”

Crash!!!

“I thought she might have talent for swordsmanship since she escaped so well, but I guess not.”

But there was no way that simple and slow attack could have reached the Emperor who had unified the empire. The Emperor grabbed the arm of the Empress as she rushed at him, twisted it coldly, almost excessively so, and threw her down from the platform. Cassion pulled me closer and moved back.

He seemed to just want to avoid getting entangled in this insane situation.

Thud-

“Ah, that’s…!”

I didn’t want to get involved either, but this time I cried out without realizing. The stumbling Empress tried to steady herself by grabbing onto something nearby, which happened to be the shabby coffin of the First Prince that we had carried here.

Because it hadn’t been sealed, the lid shifted just from the Empress supporting her weight, and the First Prince’s corpse, which I hadn’t seen before, was revealed.

“…!”

“Asil.”

The corpse was, how should I put it… Not exactly gruesome, but shockingly humble inside, even more so than the wooden coffin.

Wearing a shabby outfit, unlike the usual imperial attire, perhaps hastily put on him, with armor covering only the minimal areas, and in a dirty state. But the only wound was a sword wound on his abdomen that he had inflicted himself.

Considering how much the First Prince usually maintained and valued his noble demeanor, it was truly a pathetic and worthless end, evoking mixed emotions.

But Cassion, thinking my hesitation was due to seeing the corpse, gently turned my head away.

“No, wait a moment.”

“Don’t look, Asil.”

Has this person forgotten our first meeting? On the day I first met him, I had been screaming for hours under the corpse of a marquis. How can he cover my eyes at such a crucial moment?

“Indeed. The way you sneak out is exactly like your son. It seems your talent for swordsmanship takes after him as well.”

“……”

But it seemed I was the only one concerned about the First Prince’s corpse here.

As I forcefully lowered the firm hand, what I saw was the Empress, who had only glanced at her son’s suicide corpse without concern, and the Emperor mocking the mother and son.

“Now what will you do? Your escape was amusing, but it seems that was just luck. Using the royal family’s secret passage to get in was too obvious a move.”

“…Then how about this.”

The Empress raised her sword high again. Thinking she was going to attack once more, the Second Prince moved to block the Emperor, and Cassion… quickly placed me in a safe position before leaping forward.

Clang-

“…Let go!”

“Truly identical.”

Here’s the English translation, maintaining the original formatting and special characters:

I heard Cassion’s voice murmuring softly. The sword that the Empress had intended for suicide, not attack, was knocked to the floor by him.

“Shurdin, you need more training, too. It would be good to spar with the Duke from now on. Your sword paths are quite similar.”

“…Father.”

“Restrain her, Duke.”

The Second Prince, troubled by the sight of the Empress attempting suicide before her son’s self-inflicted corpse, called out to the Emperor once more, but it was meaningless.

Having already witnessed the First Prince’s suicide, Cassion pinned the Empress to the floor without hesitation and bound her.

“You should have tried this when we shared a bed. It’s too late now.”

After struggling a few times and giving up, the Empress let out a hollow laugh and looked at me. For some reason, I couldn’t avoid that empty gaze.

“You are wise.”

I couldn’t say anything. To those words and that gaze filled with envy, resignation, and sorrow. Since the moment I met Cassion to survive, I had realized it, but this really wasn’t inside a novel. This was reality.

The Empress’s long actual life, which would have been merely glossed over in the novel, left me with feelings I couldn’t express in words.

“Even if you had tried it in bed, I doubt you would have created a different ending.”

And the Emperor remained cruel until the end. If he had shown anger asking if she really meant to kill him, or spoken about their years together, or even shouted – perhaps the Empress wouldn’t have had such empty eyes.

“Can’t you at least let me choose my own death?”

It’s ironic that in her life, predetermined since birth, she only had two moments of self-determination: meeting Lorang and escaping to try to kill the Emperor. Perhaps when someone usually passive makes up their mind, they go big.

“My, how disappointing. If you wanted to live, you should have run away after escaping. I wondered why you came after me, but if you only meant to commit suicide before my eyes – how disappointing. I thought you had been deeply moved by the Duchess and came to see her at least.”

…Please leave me out of this. This couple has been subtly mentioning me, but I’m just uncomfortable. I knew everyone would be suspicious, but are they taking my involvement in the Marquis’s death as fact?

“I knew you wouldn’t let me go even if I ran away. Not because you’re obsessed with me, but because you’re not the kind of Emperor who would leave a traitor who raised arms against the imperial family alone.”

“That’s the first correct thing you’ve said since coming here.”

“I thought if I killed you and the Second Prince inherited the throne, he might spare my life.”

The Second Prince flinched and bit his lip at the Empress’s words. Her words seem accurate. Though quick to grasp situations and popular, sometimes even irritatingly so, the Second Prince fundamentally isn’t as resolute as the Emperor.

If he had ascended to the throne, he might have imprisoned the Empress in the tower again, and she might have had a chance at a second escape.

But her voluntary choice ended in failure, and the Emperor wasn’t as soft as the Second Prince.

“Then you should know what I’m going to say next.”

“……”

“You should know better than anyone, having worked by my side, that attempting to assassinate the Emperor while imprisoned deserves an even greater punishment?”

“…Begging would be useless, wouldn’t it?”

The Emperor smirked once more and descended from the throne platform. Walking slowly toward the Empress being restrained by Cassion, he looked down at her without bending his knee – the woman who was once his wife and the empire’s devoted mother – and commanded.

“Watching you beg wouldn’t be very entertaining. Your eyes don’t look like they want to beg either.”

“……”

“Take her to prison. There will be a public execution in three days.”

Not just execution, but public execution for someone who was the Empress.

“It was amusing once, but I won’t tolerate it twice. Strengthen the security, and make sure to announce the execution date widely so the people know. You’ll need to move quickly.”

The Emperor, now not even sparing a glance at the Empress, kicked the First Prince’s wooden coffin that lay in his path.

“Take care of this too.”