Chapter 12 (2/2)

He walked towards me and lowered himself to my eye level. His green eyes looked at me intensely.

“It would be best if you stop bringing this subject up.”

“…”

“The more you talk about it, the more you reminded me that you are the only witness to the incident. And then… what you fear the most may actually happen.”

“Is this… a threat?”

He patted my hair gently and whispered, “No, it’s an advice.”

“… I will keep that in mind.”

“I’m glad you’re smart.” He then returned to his seat and smiled. “Now, let’s get back to our original conversation. Can you guess why I killed the emperor when all I had to do was wait a while longer till he died of natural cause? In time, I would have become the emperor anyway.”

“You just told me not to keep talking about this topic.”

“It’s ok when I bring it up.”

“…”

Such an egotistical man.

I thought very hard to come up with an answer.

I learned last night that the dowager empress hated him. She tried to bring up the previous scandal about his legitimacy. She was clearly very pregnant.

“I assume that the dowager empress isn’t your birthmother.”

“True.”

“And she is pregnant.”

“Exactly.”

It was an obvious and common storyline. The stepmother hoped she gave birth to a son. If she could get everyone to question Lucretius’s rightfulness to the throne, there was a chance her son may end up wearing the crown.

Lucretius added, “I know it’s hard to believe, but the former emperor really loved Katleyanira. He loved her so much that he killed his first empress.”

I remembered what the dowager empress said last night. The first empress must have been Lucretius’s real mother.

Lucretius raised his head. His eyes shone with interest.

“You said something interesting last night.”

“Pardon?”

“You told me I should have asked what you wanted as a reward.”

“If I tell you, will you give it to me?”

“Maybe.”

My lips felt dry. I couldn’t help but become hopeful. I knew I couldn’t trust this man, but I blurted out my wish.

“I would like to leave this castle.”

“Oh?”

“I want to give up the name Bonafit as well. I just want to live a normal average life. So please help me get out of here.”

He touched my chin with his fingers as he murmured, “That’s unexpected. Well, I guess it makes sense. You were basically sold to us like a slave.”

I looked up anxiously. “Will you… let me go?”

I couldn’t hide the desperation in my voice.

I wanted to leave this hell. If I could, I wanted to find a way to get back home. My true home.

However, he asked me a question that made me speechless.

“If you leave here, do you have somewhere you can go?”