Chapter 304 (1/2)

“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.