Chapter 191
Chapter 191
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 191
Chapter Title: The Illusionary Revolt
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The Empress looked at the door.
The raucous noise from outside grew closer and closer to the door.
Waaaaah!
Cheers.
And roars of acclaim.
The cheers, spreading like wildfire, echoed from beyond the throne room.
It was strange.
The throne room where the Emperor resided had never permitted noise beyond a certain level, out of respect for not disturbing the Emperor's duties.
Why this deafening racket?
Only then did she realize that this place wasn't reality.
"It's an illusion controlled by Max."
It had felt so much like reality that she'd mistaken it for the real thing.
"At the very least, I need to remind him not to break the imperial decorum."
If things strayed too far from reality, the immersion would shatter.
Realizing it was an illusion would halve the emotional impact.
She let out a sigh.
"Should I wake from the illusion and start over?"
But the brief silence she'd just experienced had left a profound impression on her.
It had been less than two minutes of quiet, but to the Empress, who was constantly tormented by noise, even that short time felt like a blessing.
"...It'll probably fade soon enough."
Waaaaah!
The cheers shaking the throne room were better than nonstop wailing sobs.
They even felt like leisurely background music.
The Empress leaned back in her chair, closed her eyes, and savored the sound for a moment.
The noise, evoking the feel of an orchestra hall, grew louder.
Waaaaah!
Closer.
Waaaaah!
And as it drew nearer...
"Kill the Emperor!"
It became clearer.
"What?"
Who dared utter such blasphemy?
The Empress furrowed her brow.
Kill me?
Who?
Her pleasant mood soured in an instant.
It was a phrase she'd never heard in her entire life.
No.
She had heard it once.
When the Demon King descended.
-Human Emperor. Resisting me with that frail body of yours? Pathetic, relying on your hero. Don't worry. The human Emperor will soon die by my hand.
The Demon King, warning her of death via communication magic.
He had already been slain by the hero.
It was the first time since then.
Someone daring to shout that they would kill the Emperor.
"Max, that bastard... He's not plotting to harm me, is he?"
Was he revealing his true intentions under the guise of an illusion?
That was when she thought that.
"Capture the tyrant Emperor alive!"
The voices of the approaching mob.
The fury-filled cheers shook the very earth.
Boom!
With a thunderous crash, the throne room doors flew open.
There were no knights shouting to flee.
As if she'd already escaped.
The Glory Road leading to the throne room had not a single guardian.
Those who had trampled the Glory Road with muddy feet were mostly peasants.
Clutching hoes, sickles, and spears, they glared at the Empress, swept up in inexplicable rage.
With the voices tormenting her mind gone, had they now manifested in reality?
"Interesting. Are you the ones come to kill me?"
She asked the fury-filled crowd.
Her voice brimmed with composure.
Of course it did.
She knew better than anyone that peasants daring to point spears at the Empress was impossible.
Not because they were weak.
Not because the imperial guards were strong.
If it were merely that, she wouldn't have been so certain.
Knights were mighty, mages formidable, and the imperial guards unparalleled, but above all...
'I have never abandoned my people.'
She hadn't committed evils great enough to drive them here with their farming tools.
Her rule had always been for the sake of her subjects.
The current Empress was revered and loved by the imperial citizens.
The Empress pondered.
Whether to end this illusion—her original desire for 'rest'—here.
Or to let it continue a bit longer.
Intrigued, she decided to watch a little more.
"What have I done wrong for all of you to gather like this?"
At the Empress's words, they all shouted.
"Down with the tyranny!"
"We don't want to live in fear of death every day!"
"You're taking half our harvest as taxes—how are we supposed to survive?!"
Countless peasants voiced their grievances in turn.
Some claimed they'd lost their homes, wives, livelihoods—everything—because of the Emperor.
Starving daily was routine; people dying every day was normal.
Of course, none of it was true.
Yet they dared to accuse her.
"You've gathered, all deserving death."
Harsh words slipped out unbidden.
"I commend your resolve to face death."
It was intriguing, but no reason to hold back her anger.
"I didn't want my rest disturbed like this."
The Empress raised her hand.
Ruler of millions.
Guarded by knights, she too wielded power.
The imperial bloodline's power was unique—absolute.
So, she could easily make these fakes before her vanish.
No need to exert extra effort.
Just gazing at them with eyes that pierced truth would make these illusions of falsehood disappear.
She closed her eyes and opened them.
But...
"......"
The world hadn't changed.
The fake peasants, full of lies and illusions that should have vanished, still glared at her with rage-filled eyes.
"What is this?"
It was odd.
She felt no power.
As if someone had severed the source of her strength.
The abruptly severed power didn't return.
"What in the... "
"The Emperor has lost her power!"
"Drag that woman out!"
The peasants surged forward and stopped at the base of the 12 steps.
However...
Not one could climb the steps.
An invisible force repelled them all.
The mob that had charged retreated once more.
But the Empress couldn't watch their farce.
She was still flustered by her lost power.
"She looks rattled."
Then a familiar voice rang out.
She looked up.
Max stood among the peasants.
Dressed slightly better than them, but still ragged, he glared at her with a grin.
"Max...?"
Why are you here?
The question was fleeting.
"Waaaaah! Hero of the people!"
"Max! Max!"
"The empire's new ruler!"
"Max will bring back peace!"
The peasants chanted Max's name.
"...What the hell is going on here?"
"You seem to know without me saying."
"What?"
"The Emperor has lost her power, and it's all gone to the people. It means it's time for the noble Emperor to step down from the throne."
Max approached the 12 steps.
The 12 steps no one could breach.
They symbolized the empire's class system.
Max climbed the first of the impenetrable 12 steps.
"Stop!"
Even at the Emperor's command, Max ascended.
"That's an imperial order! Stop at once!"
Max's steps up the stairs didn't slow.
10, 9, 8...
The distance between Max and the Empress shrank.
"Damn it... Max! End the illusion now! That's an order!"
The closer Max got, the greater her bewilderment.
Bewilderment.
It was a new emotion.
One she'd never experienced in her life.
As Emperor, she'd never faced such a situation.
She glared at Max, who ignored her commands and kept climbing.
"That's my command! Kneel! Now!"
Even her shout, which made all imperial subjects bow, failed to faze Max as he approached indifferently.
Her power was truly gone.
Without the imperial bloodline's strength, her options were limited.
Flee from the throne.
Or simply watch him approach.
Abandoning the throne to flee was utterly unthinkable.
Max was now just one step away.
"Not running, huh?"
"How dare you mock me..."
"Still think you're the Emperor?"
"...What?"
"To call yourself Emperor, you must rule the empire. What are you now?"
Max pointed to the peasants filling the throne room.
"Who among them follows you?"
"You... how dare you..."
"Calling yourself Emperor without ruling— you're unqualified."
Grinning mockingly from one step below, Max climbed up.
"If you were qualified, I'd already be dead."
Max stood beside her and laughed.
It was the first time.
Someone daring to stand equal to her.
Even her predecessor Emperor had always stood elsewhere.
When he ruled the empire, above her.
When she took the reins, in a coffin below her.
No one in this world could stand where the Emperor stood.
Yet now...
The man before her stood level with her, looking down at the Empress.
"Without your imperial power, what can you do?"
Max lifted the crown from her head and tossed it aside.
Clang!
"Urk..."
Even in this humiliating desecration of her honor, the Empress could do nothing.
"You're just a foul-tempered bitch without the throne."
Max laughed.
His hand, now free of the crown, reached for her body.
"But this body might still be useful."
"What? You bastard!"
Reflexively, she raised her hand to slap him.
But...
Clack!
"Where do you get off resisting?"
Max grabbed her wrist and smirked wickedly.
"An Emperor stripped of power is nothing."
Rip!
He tore her clothes.
Before the eyes of thousands.
Before the rage-filled peasants who came to kill her.
The Empress's pristine white skin was bared to the world.
Her slender waist, voluptuous breasts.
And atop them, pink nipples blooming like flowers.
It was her first taste of powerlessness.
Of being able to do absolutely nothing.
Rage boiled within.
Her chest tightened.
"You... you..."
"Nice tits."
A sleazy grin.
With a thug-like smile, the man loomed over her.
His hand clamped down on her breast.
"Kyaaah!"
A girlish scream she'd never uttered in her life burst from the Empress's lips.
"Even an Empress is just a woman. Squealing from one grab."
With a rough, vulgar grin, Max sucked on her breast.
"Hnng! S-stop. Don't insult me further..."
Her body trembled.
"J-just kill me. Cut off my head and hang it in the square. That would be less humiliating!"
She screamed and resisted desperately.
But...
"What's the point of tarnishing your honor after death? It has to be while you're alive."
"...What?"
"I'll torment you until you've hit rock bottom. Look forward to it."
Her breath caught at those words.
The Empress gritted her teeth.
Her first taste of defeat.
Despair.
The suffocating frustration of utter helplessness.
In this situation, like being bound head to toe.
With no glimmer of hope.
Her head grew hot.
Her body burned.
But closer still was the tickling pleasure creeping in.
A pleasure she'd never known.
This subtle ecstasy, worming between despair and powerlessness, seeped into her body bit by bit.
"Haa, haa."
Max's skilled hand trailed slowly from her breast downward.
When his palm pressed gently on her lower abdomen after circling her navel...
"Hnng!"
The Empress let out a moan and kicked her legs.
Her skirt, not yet fully stripped, fluttered.
Lost and directionless, she glared at Max, who had torn away her entire dress.
"What... what are you, really...?"
"Me?"
Max met her gaze and curled his lip.
"The man who's going to take that seat you're sitting in."
It was a situation she absolutely shouldn't enjoy.
The throne was her everything.
So why...
Thump thump.
Was her heart pounding like this?