“Congratulations!”

“Congratulations, Your Majesty!”

“You will certainly be a great First Lady.”

“Of course. Where can the emperor find another woman like Lady Monique? I think he has a discerning judgement of women.”

“Please stop there.” I was so embarrassed when they praised me endlessly. I tried to stop them but they kept thinking the world of me, saying the position of the empress fit me well, they already sized me up when the late emperor picked me as the crown prince’s finance, and the emperor must have been head over heels for me, given his extraordinary treatment of me.

The more I heard them, the more I blushed.

As I could not bear it any more, I looked at my father earnestly. But he just looked at me with a warm smile, as if I was cute. As I felt I couldn’t stay there any more, I stood up, making some plausible excuses. I heard them laughing merrily behind me.

***

“Death to the criminals!”

“Curse to the traitors!”

On the fifth day of the eleventh month in 964 by the imperial calendar, the sky was unusually blue unlike the typical sky in the winter as if it knew what would happen today. Unlike the chilly atmosphere in the air, the atmosphere of the largest square in the capital’s noble district was heated up by the shouting crowds packing it. The sound of their stomping feet and shouting after the person who led the chant resonated throughout the vast plaza.

“Death to the traitors!”

“Vita’s curse to those who tried to harm the child of God’s prophecy!”

Rubbing my ears because of their deafening noise, I frowned at the bloody madness, and the smell of death that filled the plaza.

Suddenly, I was in a subdued mood. I felt the same way on the day I was beheaded.

The crowds’ voices full of hatred, their curses hurled at me, calling me an unprecedented evil woman, all sorts of insults and stoning, and the emperor who looked at them indifferently.

Suddenly, I recalled Jiun who turned her head at the last moment of my life as the emperor who hugged her.

”What happened to Jiun?’

I swallowed a sigh. Since there was no news yet that she committed suiside, she might be among the criminals who were coming to the execution place.

“Tia?”

“… Pardon?”

“Are you okay? I told you not to come here.”

The emperor sitting next to me asked cautiously, wrapping my hands that turned white.

I took a big breath, looking at his worried eyes. I felt much better than before.

“I’m fine. The traitors are to be executed, as you know. Besides, as the date of our wedding ceremony has been announced, I should come to this place.”

“But you look so pale now.”

I smiled at him slightly, who looked at me with sympathy. As I wiggled my hand held by him tightly, his warmth melted my frozen heart. As I felt good, I smiled at him gently.

Wow!

Suddenly their shouting, which was now twice as loud as before, rang through the plaza.

I immediately turned my head and looked down the platform. The noise was coming from one particular place in the plaza. It seemed that the wagons carrying the criminals arrived.

“Death to the criminals!”

“Death to the traitors!”

The criminals who had their arms bound as if to fold their arms behind their back showed up one by one. I put my hands on my thumping chest and quickly looked at each of their faces. However, I did not see Jiun’s face until the last man got off the wagon and its door was closed.

“Whew…” When I let out a sigh, he asked, looking back as if he was puzzled.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Well, I don’t see Lady Jena.”

“Oh, I heard about her last night.”

“Woooo~”

His voice was buried by the shouting of the excited crowds. The capital defense guards were desperately trying to maintain the ranks, and the royal knights surrounding the platform were on alert.

While the big fuss over the criminals was going on, they barely got through the shouting crowds and moved on to the execution stand. Dozens of stones thrown by the crowds barely missed the criminals.

Their disturbing noise was silenced when they heard someone blowing a horn. They turned their eyes at the execution stand all at once.

A protocol officer, who had been waiting for a long time, straightened up and stepped forward.

After opening a long scroll, the officer in a long robe began to read it in a solemn voice.

“Glory to the great empire! As the empire is under the splendor of the Sun…”

While the officer was reading, the emperor was holding my hand tightly.

Was it because of that? Or was it because I didn’t have to see Jiun dying in front of my eyes?

I felt much more comfortable than before.

With a calm expression, I looked down at the criminals.

Some were bowing their heads, some were endlessly murmuring something, and others were looking at the head table with hatred.

After he met the purple eyes of Duke Jena burning with hatred, the emperor strained his grip on my hand before releasing it, then stood up.

“Glory to the empire! My beloved people of the empire, I cannot help but express sadness today. It was only six months after Emperor Mirkan lu Shana Castina died in Vita’s arms. Even now, we all can feel the brilliance of the late emperor’s presence, but this wicked gang of traitors committed the crime of rebelling against the empire and the imperial family even before the warmth of his body faded. Besides, they tried to harm my fiance, the child of God’s prophecy that God has predetermined for me, as well as the First Lady of the empire, several times. Accordingly, I want to show them the strictness and fairness of the imperial law.”

“Death to the criminals!”

“Curse to the traitors!”

The ground reverberated with the sound of the crowds stomping their feet all at once.

After looking around with a solemn face, the emperor raised his right hand. The red flag announcing the start of the execution fluttered up and down. Executioners who checked the blades of the axes against the sunlight stood behind them.

The moment the sunlight reflecting the blades of the swords was scattered when they raised the axes high in the air, Duke Jena’s angry purple eyes turned towards him and me.

Full of hatred, he shouted coldly, “You wretched slut and bastard! Even in the hell I won’t…!”

At that moment, blood gushed from his head. I felt goosebumps, but instead of turning my head, I fixed my gaze on the execution stand where he was bleeding. Then, I breathed out, looking down at him falling on the stand.

Now it’s really over. That tough bondage of mine with the Jena family was finally at an end.

Although I could understand why the Jena family was so hostile to my family for such a long time, he went too far. Not content with trying to kill the emperor, he tried to end the family lineage of the Monique family by poisoning me, a cousin who shared ancestral blood with him.

Besides, he not only approached the emperor for his greed for the throne, but also used Jiun twice. He succeeded in poisoning the emperor and removing me in the past.

Maybe that’s one of the reasons why God sent me back to save the lives of many innocent people who were sacrificed because of Duke Jena’s greed. Of course, I had no way of knowing the true intention of God who was watching the different situation twice.

After looking at the bodies of the criminals that were being carried away like baggage, I grabbed his hand, who asked me to go back. I climbed the wagon, hearing the crowds repeatedly shouting for the safety of the imperial family and the empire.

As all my past was cleared away, it is time for me to prepare for the future.

After that day, my daily routine was packed with a tight schedule.

It was the same with many ladies who helped me in leading the palace affairs.

Day after day I had to take a nap from the fatigue for a couple of hours then resume work.

I didn’t know how fast time passed everyday because I was so busy with preparing for the wedding. I ended this kind of exhaustive work only one day before the wedding ceremony. Although everybody was still busy, I was having free time as a bride before her wedding. I was refreshed and vibrant after sleeping well.