Chapter 80
Chapter 80
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 80
Chapter Title: Sleeping Corpse
-----------------------------------------------------------------
‘What on earth is this woman scheming?’
Calista glared at Daphne. Daphne followed her around with a smile, persistently trailing after her. It was utterly infuriating, but she couldn’t brush her off.
The Imperial Palace had ears belonging to Asherad. If he returned and heard even a whisper that she’d mistreated Daphne, what then? At that moment, Daphne spoke up.
“Empress Dowager, I don’t wish to be your enemy. I only want to live under Your Majesty’s mercy.”
Ah, then Calista understood. This foolish woman had no idea of her true position.
She simply thought that since Calista was the Empress, the highest-ranking woman, she had to submit to her.
That stupidity was loathsome, yet watching it unfold was amusing. In any case, Calista couldn’t kill Daphne. If she did, Asherad wouldn’t let it slide. On the contrary, she had to protect her.
Moreover, this woman’s foolishness would prove advantageous in the long run. If Daphne gained the Emperor’s favor, Calista ought to be overshadowed by her, but what if the woman served her well?
It was a delightful turn that Daphne had bowed first. Calista decided to play along with her clumsy scheme.
Daphne’s kindness was like honey. True to her origins as a maidservant, she personally attended to Calista and gazed at the nobly born woman with apparent admiration.
“You’re incredible.”
That was the phrase that most often slipped from Daphne’s lips.
Thanks to her, Calista felt worshipped just for breathing. It was like rain on parched earth for someone whose self-esteem had plummeted as low as it could go.
In a situation where the power dynamic had reversed, having the superior Daphne grovel wasn’t bad at all.
Rumors even spread that Daphne must have some leverage over Calista, and people began gathering around her again.
Most wanted just a word with Daphne, but Calista was satisfied nonetheless. Then one day, Daphne revealed the “truth” to her.
“Empress Dowager, I have something to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“I hesitated to speak of it, but as a woman of the imperial family, I feel I must reveal the truth.”
“......”
“His Majesty doesn’t love the likes of me. He harbors a twisted affection.”
“......What?”
“The one His Majesty truly loves is you, Empress Dowager.”
Nonsense. That’s not true. Daphne sighed at Calista’s skeptical gaze.
“The glances he sent my way, the affection he showed me—all of it had another master.”
“......”
“Because it’s a forbidden bond, he couldn’t dare show it, suffering in silence and unleashing it on a lowly thing like me as a substitute. To be frank, Empress Dowager, when you once told me that His Imperial Majesty’s love belonged to you, I was secretly astonished at how perfectly your hearts aligned.”
Calista stared at Daphne, who had delivered this absurd truth. She wore an expression of heartache. Yet the truth from Daphne’s own mouth fit perfectly with Calista’s vain delusions.
My God.
So that’s why this woman has been kind to me.
Because I’m the true love! Tears welled up in Calista’s eyes.
How deeply that man must have agonized in torment. Calista wanted to rush to Asherad right then and embrace the man who loved her.
“So I won’t hide the truth any longer, Empress Dowager.”
Daphne knelt before Calista, smiling radiantly. It conveyed sincerity and solemnity.
A chill smile crept across Daphne’s face at Calista’s tears. This naive woman had believed her words all too easily.
Keeping Daphne close wasn’t a bad long-term move for Calista. Besides, Daphne didn’t overstep by coveting her position.
There was no reason not to keep her near. Daphne, not even at arm’s length for suspicion, was an easy woman to handle for Calista.
Thus, Calista grew exceedingly generous.
When Daphne mentioned wanting to go out for a change of air, she graciously allowed it as a favor. After several such outings, Daphne didn’t return.
“Don’t look for her!”
This was Calista’s fatal mistake.
If she’d pursued Daphne immediately, Calista might still be alive. But to become Asherad’s one and only, she sincerely hoped Daphne would vanish.
So when she was reported missing, she deliberately delayed the search.
Unaware that it would seal her own death. She had made the most foolish choice of her life.
* * *
‘To avoid detection, I need to win the Empress Dowager to my side.’
Even if she escaped, the clever Asherad might trace it back to Count Rocania.
She needed another way to shift the blame.
Daphne’s choice was Calista. Ironically, she’d observed Calista the longest and knew through the maids what delusions gripped her.
Calista was a typical spoiled brat. She saw her own ordeals as the world’s greatest tragedy and clung stubbornly to her version of the truth.
Calista opened her heart to Daphne, who soothed those delusions, even as she pretended otherwise.
Asherad sent letters laced with sweet words, continually affirming his favor.
Calista, who’d initially pushed Daphne away, at least acknowledged her utility. Daphne kept whispering at her side.
The Emperor loves Calista. Daphne is merely a stand-in. He’s simply clumsy in love and doesn’t know what to do.
Asherad is kind-hearted, feeling pity for a young girl like Daphne.
Calista lapped it up like a fairy tale.
At first, Daphne felt guilty toward Calista. But when Calista slapped Amanda’s cheek one day, that guilt evaporated. Being ignored was tolerable.
Yet Calista was arrogant beyond measure and excessively cruel.
With her last shred of guilt gone, Daphne kept manipulating her.
Calista wanted to show her dominance over Daphne and went out under the pretext of granting the secluded woman some fresh air.
The outings varied: bustling streets, theaters, art galleries, the temple of Lu-Ravda.
Count Rocania and Daphne mapped escape routes. The place she chose was the temple of Lu-Ravda, god of the sun and war. Armed men couldn’t enter, nor could the knights watching her.
Before leaving the temple, Daphne gave Amanda time off and handed Sara a fortune in jewels, signaling her flight.
While offering prayers, she slipped away through a side path. Calista knew of her disappearance but didn’t search, inwardly annoyed at having to mind her.
The plan to cast no suspicion on Count Rocania succeeded.
To avoid burdening the count aiding her escape, Daphne chose to flee alone.
Fortune favored her. She left the temple of Lu-Ravda without catching anyone’s eye. She found the robe prepared by Count Rocania.
Once outside, she deliberately blended into the market crowd. Crucially, she bought nothing there—her appearance was too striking.
Escaping alive would get her caught.
Daphne knew this well. So she slipped into another nearby “temple.”
The temple of Keres, god of death, was always sparsely populated. Those who oversaw funerals sometimes carted bodies whose families couldn’t pay beyond the capital to bury them.
If escaping alive was impossible, she’d escape as a corpse.
Count Rocania’s advice bolstered Daphne’s idea. She’d enter the coffin he specified.
Before she was buried alive in it, the count would intervene and save her.
The drawback: Daphne had to move the corpse inside to another coffin herself and take its place.
Simple, yet a method no one would suspect.
Daphne bit her lip. She could do it. The morgue was filled with identical coffins. One wrong turn, and she’d be lost.
Luckily—thanks to the count’s influence?—no guards watched the morgue. She glimpsed dizzyingly many coffins and their occupants.
‘Ian Kerwin.’
The name the count had mentioned. Relying on faint light seeping in, Daphne searched the chill depths until she found the coffin labeled with it.
She pinched her nose. The stench of death wafted out.
Taking a deep breath, she opened the lid. Lighter than expected—likely due to the poor-quality coffin.
If even the poorest Keres priests handled the burial, these were the destitute lowest class.
Her face blurred upon seeing inside. The coffin held the tiny corpse of a child, perhaps three or four years old. The bluish face betrayed death by illness.
Whispering apologies, Daphne moved the body to another coffin. The small child fit alongside the infant corpse in the adjacent one.
Daphne climbed into the now-empty coffin and closed the lid. It was suffocatingly narrow, reeking of decay. The low ceiling choked her instantly.
Barely room to move an arm. Lying there, she pulled a vial from her pocket—a sleeping draught the count had given in case she panicked and botched it.
‘Swallow this, and it’s over.’
‘......’
‘Even if the coffin opens, you’ll sleep so deeply you’ll pass for a corpse.’
‘......’
‘Good luck.’
The Keres priests would transport it tonight. Everything would end tonight. She swallowed the bitter medicine, thinking.
After this night, a new world awaited.
No longer a life of being toyed with—a free one.
The bitterness turned sweet as honey. Was she closing her eyes? Or keeping them open? The coffin’s darkness made it impossible to tell.
At last, Daphne closed her eyes.
* * *
Daphne felt someone tapping her cheek. Was it time to wake already? Drowsiness lingered. The drug’s effect hadn’t fully worn off; her eyes refused to open.
“Wake up, Daphne.”
The familiar, gentle voice made her blink slowly. Then, recognizing its owner, her eyes flew wide.
“Did you sleep well, Daphne?”
A voice smooth as a serpent’s scales. The green-eyed man smiled down at her, like a devil with a tender grin.