Chapter 362 (1/2)

Jiun, who was squatting down, devastated, for a long time, suddenly stood up and ran out. The startled maids hurriedly followed her.

‘You guys must have heard it all.’

Enraged by the thought that they must have sneered at her from behind, she sharply told them not to follow her, then turned abruptly and left the palace alone.

After taking a long walk, she arrived at the corner of the Imperial Palace garden, sat down, and looked up at the sky. Watching the stars twinkling in the dark sky, she realized once again that this was not the place where she used to live. Suddenly, tears came down her cheek.

“Mom, Dad, Jisu.”

I, Jiun, never wanted to be the empress. On my way back to the house, I stumbled upon a shining coin and picked it up. Then, suddenly I felt dizzy and fell after losing my mind. When I woke up, I was in a completely different world. Foreigners in strange costumes spoke to me, saying this was the Imperial Palace and the empire in a language that I could not understand at all.

I told them not to talk nonsense, asking them to send me back home, but no one listened. I suspected I was dreaming, so I tried to sleep, but I was in the same world after several days passed.

When I was getting more and more nervous, a man who seemed to be in a high position at first glance came to me. He was wearing a luxurious dress without any spots and putting out a sense of pressure from his cold attitude, with his deep blue hair that does not exist on earth. Introducing himself as the crown prince, he said I had better stay here because they said I was the child of God’s prophecy.

A few days later, when I realized that this was not a dream, but a reality, I was in a place completely different from the earth in which I lived and that it was a world similar to the modern Europe that I learned in class, the emperor died and the crown prince succeeded the throne. When I was agonizing over how to go home, thinking what’s happening around me had nothing to do with me, suddenly a man who called himself a duke came to me and told her that I was the child of God’s prophecy and that I was the crown prince’s spouse designated by God. Then he said I would be married to the crown prince, and have a coronation ceremony.

I thought it was ridiculous. I became intimate with him a bit, but how could I get married to this cold-blooded man? He didn’t even shed a single tear even when his father passed away. But the duke repeatedly persuaded me to marry him, saying that the crown prince was warm-hearted, once I got to know him, and that he cared for me very much. The duke even lied to me, saying that the world outside the Imperial Palace was rough and that it would be very difficult for a woman to live alone.

I suddenly got scared when I heard that. In this strange world where they didn’t understand even the concept of human rights, I couldn’t live alone. So, I agreed to marry the crown prince on the condition that he would postpone sleeping with me on the night of the wedding.

I then rationalized it by myself, thinking that maybe the crown prince might love me, as the duke said. Given that he softened his cold attitude toward me, maybe he was alright. As they said, a woman would be better off getting married to a man who loved her rather than a man that she loved.

After becoming the empress, I spent every dayy, reading books all day long. Although I could get to speak to them, I had no background knowledge about this empire and could not read their writing. However, no matter how much I studied, I could not get any tangible progress in understanding the writings of this empire. The so-called imperial etiquette taught by a strict noblewoman stressed me out all the more. The only person who helped me hold out in this hellish world, listening to my complaints, was Rublis.

Then I came to see ‘that woman’ one day.