What Became of the Tyrant After the Pregnant Empress Left - Chapter 221

“…….”

Tragedy was approaching. She couldn’t breathe.

Ysaris Tennilath wanted to clamp her hands over her mouth with all her strength, but as a mere spectator, she could do nothing. Instead, her past self—Ysaris Chernian—faithfully reenacted the events of that day.

This was the best retort she could muster to the uninvited man’s cryptic words. I do not know you, and thus, I have never betrayed you.

Unfortunately, it aligned perfectly with the price of breaking the covenant. The Ysaris who had forgotten Kazhan became the very vessel of his madness.

Could such a thing truly be encapsulated by the single word “madness”?

Ysaris Tennilath watched, helplessly and in excruciating detail, as her lover fell. The restrained lethality of a man who had spent years sweeping through battlefields erupted in an instant. The thick muscles of his neck tensed violently, and blood dripped from his clenched fists.

He said nothing, but his bloodshot eyes churned with a storm of emotions—betrayal, grief, love, rage, scorn, resignation, bloodlust…

…and loss.

The light vanished from his crimson eyes. In that moment, Cain Jenut, Ysaris’s tender lover, died. All that remained was the man known as the Tyrant, Kazhan Tennilath.

Thud.

Blood splattered.

“Ghk—”

As Bariteon clutched his pierced chest and collapsed, screams erupted from all directions.

Schlick.

Kazhan decapitated Bariteon right before Ysaris’ eyes, as if to make sure she saw. He declared war on the Kingdom of Pyrein, plundered Ysaris, and—mocking her resistance—dragged her to Uzephia to force a marriage.

No words could describe the horror of being forced into the arms of her enemy. After their first night, Ysaris scrubbed her body raw and retched. Even the thought of Kazhan made her shudder, her skin breaking into hives. Never in her life had she despised someone so utterly.

Those emotions bled into the future Ysaris as well. Violated by the man she loved, she spiraled into shock.

‘This Kazhan is nothing like the Cain I knew. Nor is he the gentle husband from the future.’

‘Who are you?’

Ysaris Tennilath wandered, nauseated by the flood of emotions from her past self’s clashes with Kazhan. His occasional contradictory actions only deepened her turmoil.

She understood his misunderstanding. Knew the circumstances justified it.

‘But—how could you do this to me?’

‘After how much I… loved you. How this body still yearns for Cain.’

Was it just to torment her over a misunderstanding that could have been resolved with a single honest conversation? Did he have the right to isolate her in a world without allies, to abuse and humiliate her day after day?

In the end, Ysaris assimilated into the ceaseless tide of hatred and fury—mirroring the betrayal Kazhan had shown her.

……

As time passed, the past Ysaris stopped resisting Kazhan. Instead of wasting energy on futile emotions, she lived in resignation, neither dead nor alive.

Then Runellia Logiten entered as Imperial Consort.

Ysaris was with child.

What followed was a rapid unraveling. Convinced Kazhan would kill her and the baby, she planned her escape.

The journey to the Herti Kingdom. The ambush. The shipwreck. The nursing. The fleeing… And finally, meeting Lena.

Childbirth. Motherhood. The truth of Tennilath.

Until, at last, her reunion with Kazhan.

Now, with all her memories restored, Ysaris realized.

Every word her husband had whispered to her all this time was a lie.

“Y-Your Imperial Majesty? Are you awake?”

“…….”