Chapter 136
***
Karzen lifted Raha’s chin.
"Did you poison me?"
"No, Karzen."
Raha's face didn’t show any sign of a smile.
"You licked the poison because you were stupid."
"You've got poison all over you."
"Yes."
"Is that why you can't feel anything?"
"Actually, I wanted to apply venom......."
Raha whispered.
"But then I’d be dead before you could even touch me."
Karzen glared at Raha as if he were going to kill her.
"That's quite the way to go, Raha, and you'll be just fine."
"All I have is my own body. You know that, Karzen."
"...."
"I want to kill you and chew you up, but this is all I have."
"....."
Karzen was conscious of his body slowly but surely hardening. He could barely contain his murderous intent. After somehow managing to hold her down, Karzen gritted his teeth and slapped Raha's face.
Raha's face turned sideways with the sound of flesh meeting flesh. She had an impassive expression on her face. She casually wiped the blood from her burst lip with the back of her hand. It wasn't even funny.
Karzen had often slapped her face when they were children.
Perhaps that was why she didn’t dress warmly in the winter, because the sensation of being slapped so many times was similar to that of frozen skin in the dead of winter.
"When I was a kid, I was so scared when you hit me."
Even though it had been over a year since Raha had thought about it.
"You should have killed me then."
"Why would I kill you?"
Karzen smiled a smile so sweet it made her shudder.
“I love you so much, and no matter how much you beg me, I will not kill you, Raha delharsa."
It took him dozens of times as much strength to lift his hand. Karzen gave up tugging at Raha's waist.
The iron-blooded tyrant who ruled this vast empire.
Half his life had been spent on the battlefield, spilling blood.
The twin who fed him the poison that hardened his body, but he couldn't kill hers right away.
After all, Raha was royalty in the emperor's bedchamber.
A body that could not carry anything sharp. And there was nothing near this bed that she could lift and bring down on Karzen's head.
If she had to poison herself to get to him, she would have done it.......
There could be only one reason.
Karzen moved his slowly stiffening legs and got out of bed. He tried to tug at the ropes, but of course they didn't respond.
There were always new servants popping up before he could blink.
It was a sign of things to come.
"Raha delharsa. You've bitten me too hard for me to back down."
Despite his calm words, his head begins to spin.
"You must have begun your treason while I was distracted."
He had to move. The main palace had the Emperor's guards, including Duke Blake, so he wouldn’t be overrun immediately. He didn’t know what size or how many Raha had mobilized, but....... Staying in the bedroom was a very stupid thing to do.
Pulling the dark robe over his body, Karzen's every movement was slower than usual.
Raha barely managed to get out of bed, but before she could take more than a few steps, Karzen grabbed her wrist.
Her blue eyes were filled with worry. Should he drag her away now, or a little later?
Raha hadn't planned to be here long. To ease her dear twin's troubles, Rahar willingly extended her hand.
White hands snaked around Karzen's neck. He said with a mocking expression.
"You want to strangle me, try it, Raha Delharsa."
Raha was also poisoned. She didn't get hardened as quickly as Karzen, but with less than half the power in her slender hands, what was there to fear from Raha? Her twin couldn't kill her by any means.
"Because the more you act like this, the more I want to chew you up and swallow you."
The face that whispered such clear hatred, it was like looking into a mirror. Raha understood why Blake Duke was secretly uncomfortable with her.
"You look like this. You should have been masturbating in front of the mirror. Karzen."
"Why would I masturbate over you, Raha Delharsa?"
Karzen pulled at the corners of his mouth and laughed. The stiff young emperor was neither worn down nor broken by the poison. He even grabbed Raha by the back of her head and kissed her. Normally, the taste of blood should have been repulsive, but Karzen's senses were slowly going numb.
"You dared to betray me first. Raha delharsa, why do you betray my love?"
He whispered to Raha, his eyes beginning to bleed.
"I'm coming to take you back after I kill those damned rebels. And I'll show the royal lord how to love you."
He could feel his limbs slowly hardening.
"Do as you please. Karzen Delharsa."
****
12. A night when the heavens overlap
As soon as Raha stepped outside the main palace, Raha took the prepared antidote and swallowed it.
"Princess."
Waiting for her was Duke Esther.
When Duke Esther saw that Raha was wearing only a single gown, he handed her a thin shawl that he had prepared in advance. Raha used her uncoordinated hands to tie the ribbons of the shawl tightly.
"And the guards?"
"They resisted fiercely, as expected. They saw the time and retreated, pretending to struggle."
"Well done."
Raha, who was usually a bit wary of Duke Esther, spoke bluntly, but Duke Esther didn't seem to mind at all.
The pecking order of the treasonous forces was now clear.
Raha Delharsa was at the top.
Duke Esther asked.
"Princess. Did the fake sun move as you expected?"
Fake sun. It was a title that would have made Karzen want to rip Duke Esther's head off alive.
"Yes, he did. But I can't tell you exactly where he went, because I'm not entirely familiar with the hidden passages of the main palace."
Now that Karzen was poisoned and powerless.
If the soldiers Raha had secured had pushed their way into the main bedroom, they could have killed him in a scuffle.
But that was only possible if Raha's enemy was Karzen alone.
For complete treason, she needed one more life.
"The defeated sun is believed to be in the Star Palace. It is currently under strict control."
Those words.......
That's the kind of language that would make her father want to rip Duke Esther's head off alive if he heard it.
She should have called him that.
It was her father who gave Karzen the throne, and it was him who supported him. After all, he (former emperor) had the eyes of the heir, and he was the rightful emperor to reign for a long time.
Raha had no time to waste.
"We should go straight to the Star Palace."
"I've prepared a horse, and you'll have to ride with me, as it will be too much for you to do alone."
"I will."
There was no leisurely carriage ride in the midst of treason, but Raha was in no better shape at the moment. To eliminate the risk of falling off, Duke Esther placed Raha on his own horse.
"We have completely sealed off the three entrances to the palace. An army of paladins from the Holy Land will be with us, and all control has been transferred to me, under the seal of all the High Priests, including High Priest Amar. Princess."
"I see."
Raha stared at her surroundings, which smelled of iron.
"You mean it all fell to me."
"That's right."
Raha gripped the reins of the horse tightly and glanced up into the air.
The beginning of this treason was the hesitation of High Priest Amar.
She noticed that High Priest Amar had begun to hesitate in his original plan to take her eyes, to take her life.
It could have been the conscience of the Holy Land, but in truth.
Shed.......
The man's influence was too great.
What an odd choice of mate.
That was all she recognized. She didn't realize that the reason for High Priest Amar's hesitation included a strong sense of compassion for Raha.
What mattered to her was the promise the Holy Land had made to her.
In exchange for orchestrating Shed’s escape, Raha was promised her life would be taken without question.
Whether High Priest Amar suffered or not was none of Raha's business.
She simply could not allow him to break his pact so casually.
But she was not about to let him take her life..........
She couldn't.
Raha couldn't say the words.
Really.......
What a trouble….
Shed Hildes was such a weak spot for Raha Delharsa.
So she made another offer to High Priest Amar. If he wouldn't honor his word, she'd have to come up with something else.
That was the Paladins.
In doing so, the Holy Land broke nearly a thousand years of upstanding practice and intervened in the history of the Delo Empire. Now they, too, would be tied to the great wheel of imperial treason. If they failed, they would fall together, but if they succeed, they would take nothing with them.
High Priest Amar paled, but eventually returned his answer to Raha.
The answer, worthy of history, came from the hand of one man.
It was Duke Esther.
Raha remembered the salon in the clock tower, which she hadn't visited in a decade.
A beautiful salon under Esther's name. The salon was filled with the scent of tea that the Countess of Borbon drank and died for, as if to taunt Raha, but.......
A different scent was coming from the letter hidden under the table.
The scent of dried flowers that Raha received from Duke Esther every year, every Wednesday in winter.......
In the end, it was a poison that only two people obsessed with the death of one person could recognize.
***
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