Who Stole The Empress

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***

It was light, unshakable footsteps.

It was definitely different from the heavy sounds of prison guards covering their heads with armor.

Graceful and never impatient, the squeaking of every step stopped right in front of Natasha and Gillotti’s prison.

Natasha opened her eyes, which had been tightly closed, and looked at the shadow cast in front of her.

Sunlight coming through a small window enveloped the shadow.

Natasha blankly looked at the shadow.

Even in this dark and dirty prison, there was light.

It was the person who gathered light and illuminated herself even in dark and ugly shades.

Natasha was miserable.

Why was she different from that person?

Even the sunlight coming through the small window in the prison seemed to love this woman.

The whole world seemed to be tolerant of this woman alone.

Was her (Natasha’s) filthiness, her hell, something the woman could overcome?

She didn’t die, she came back alive and crushed her (Natasha).

Natasha stared at Asha, who was standing quietly like a stone statue with her reddish eyes.

She stared at her as if to kill her, but these were the only words that came out of her open mouth.

Natasha sobbed and lifted her head.

“……help me.”

“….”

“Not just a week, not two days, maybe one day.”

Asha looked at Natasha without a word.

“Help me.”

The calm purple eyes stared at the shabby woman in the prison and did not waver.

Natasha crawled on the floor and grabbed the iron bars.

She reached out her hand through the small window and tried to grab Asha’s clean robe.

“Save me. Save me……! Let me see Logan. That’s all I want. Save me just one day. I need to find the child.”

There was only one thing Natasha had regrets about.

Leaving without even holding the bloody body properly. As a mother, she didn’t give her child a tender hug once. For Natasha, it didn’t matter whose child it was, Logan was her child.

Whoever the child’s father was, it was the child that came from her belly.

Asha looked at Natasha for a long time who was sobbing miserably as she scratched the floor.

Even when Asha came down with all her thoughts organized, she couldn’t help but feel strange seeing Natasha like this.

All the unfair deaths because of Natasha’s cruel tricks were vividly felt, but Natasha’s cry for her child could not be easily shaken off.

“…Please do her a favor once.”

Gillotti, who had been scattered around as if he had no strength to get up, joined in.

As if he had not given up the arrogance that he was still the emperor, he, a daring prisoner, urged Asha to show mercy.

“Shut up, Gillotti.”

Asha spoke coldly, scooping up the water she had prepared to wake the prisoners up, and sprinkled it on Gillotti.

“……Ugh!”

The stream wet Gillotti like a slap, but Asha didn’t even look at him.

Natasha was also screaming please, please, still scratching the floor, not caring about Gillotti.

“Tamon.”

As if he had waited for Asha’s words, the door opened again.

Unlike the sound of Asha’s light footsteps, heavier, faster and more powerful footsteps followed.

Waaaa!

When Natasha’s sobbing stopped, it was the moment when a baby’s cries that she should never have heard in prison erupted.

“….!”

Raising her head brightly, she stared blankly at the small child in the arms of the huge man. 

Asha hesitated, then she reached out to Tamon.

It was almost entirely up to Tamon to hold the baby who would cry every time held in other people’s arms.

But for some reason, today, the baby did not cry and gently put his head in Asha’s arms.

“Hey, that baby…… .”

Natasha’s pale lips trembled.

She hurriedly reached out towards her child, and, startled by her filthy fingers, she rubbed her hand against the hem of her skirt.

They were still dirty.

Her body was already dirty, so it couldn’t be helped.

Natasha sobbed and held her baby outside the cell with her trembling hands.

“…Oh, so pretty. You’ve gotten prettier in the meantime, my baby, my Logan.”

The baby looked at her with his eyes open in his mother’s arms, with her gentleness.

Natasha gave the child the most beautiful smile possible with wet eyes. She wanted to show the baby her smile even if he wouldn’t remember it, or even if she was a terrible mother. 

“I don’t have much time.”

Tamon, who had been watching the two of them for a while, muttered softly.

Natasha gave the baby back to Asha without hesitation.

Asha gave the baby to Tamon and it fell asleep in Tamon’s arms.

It was time to go, but Asha was still standing there.

Tamon hesitated for a moment, and then he told Asha that he would be out first.

“Can I see the baby’s face once…?”

Tamon frowned as if displeased with Gillotti’s blatant request, he picked up a nearby water bucket and poured it over him.

“Ugh! F*CK!”

The quivering Gillotti was hit by the water. He was so weak that he couldn’t even stand this level of attack.

“I know it’s blatant, but please grant me a request.”

“Request?”

“Can you send this child to a country other than this one? To such a distant place that has nothing to do with Tanatos, and where neither the emperor nor the mother can be found.”

Natasha raised her shaky body and knelt down on her knees in front of Asha.

“Please.”

Banging her forehead on the floor, she cried no more.

She just looked desperate.

“Please, please…….”

Asha looked back at Natasha.

“Please!”

There was no reason to listen to her.

Today, she just came to see the miserable misery of those two with her own eyes. Weren’t these two people who pushed her into hell?

Her brother died with disgrace for that woman’s cunning tongue and tactics.

Her family was also destroyed.

Even so, a small corner of her weak heart urged her if she could grant that last request.

Bang Bang, Natasha’s forehead was hitting the floor.

Asha stopped and grabbed the doorknob for a moment, but eventually moved forward.

The cold iron gate that locked the two criminals was completely shut.

***

That night, two bodies were found in the imperial dungeon.

One was a corpse with his tongue cut off, and the other was a corpse that died without finding life while shedding filth from the holes in her body.

They were so miserable that no one could think that these two bodies were those who were at the top of the imperial family.

Hans Helios looked at the two corpses without a single frown and ordered them to be burned so that no bones were left.

In that way, the existence of the two wicked people who led Tanatos to destruction completely disappeared from this world.

***

“…Are you talking about the day after tomorrow?”

Ten days passed as they set up a new political system, gathered opinions from the nobles, and appeased the neighboring countries who ran into the complicated situation of Tanatos.

As the leader of the rebel army and the head of the new regime, Hans Helio was having a hectic day when he heard from Perso Gertium that Asha and Tamon were leaving.

“I also heard about it on the way here.”

“Huh! Then you shouldn’t be like this. Uh, let’s go find them.”

Hans, who had lost weight in ten days because he could not even have time to eat, got up from his seat and hurriedly put on his outer clothes.

Perso, who was watching Hans putting on layers of clothes, glanced outside and stopped him.

“The weather is not as cold as you think. I think it would be better not to wear it.”

 At Perso’s words, Hans looked out the open window.

Come to think of it, he hardly felt the cold these days. Perhaps because he had a lot of work to do, he would sometimes even feel that it was hot. That’s why he often left the windows open when he was working during the day. 

“I see. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like it’s getting warmer.” 

“It’s not just you. A lot of people take their coats off even outside.” 

Hans and Perso heard a glimpse of that day through Asha. It’s a world where the power of God has disappeared.

They were wondering if that was really the case, but they vaguely felt that the atmosphere of the world had changed subtly.

Tanatos was also a place where the land that absorbed the fragments of the gods was blessed with winter.

If the piece that had nestled in the ground disappeared, it was highly likely that the bitter winter cold that symbolized Tanatos would also have disappeared.

“Ha, it seems like it will take a really long time to adjust to such a rapidly changing world. I’m really relieved that the Gertium is still here to give me strength.”

Hans smiled warmly and looked at Perso.

Gertium supported Hans’s will to lead change, so he decided to stay in the capital and help him.

As Hans, who had to change the overall structure of the aristocracy and undergo political reform, Perso’s support was strong.

“If she stays, I won’t ask for anything more… but no. Again, I was getting greedy again. Anyway, I have to hurry.”

Hans squeezed his tired eyes and with Perso, they headed to the mansion where Asha was staying.

The carriage stopped in front of the mansion, and Perso, who got off first, turned his head and suddenly stopped.

Hans, who was following him, smashed his nose on Perso’s shoulder.

His shoulders were so strong that the tip of his nose wrinkled.

“Duke of Gertium?”

Perso was staring intently into the distance with deep eyes as if he had discovered something important.

Soon, Perso turned around without taking his eyes off something he saw in the distance.

“Go in first. I’ll look for you later.”

“Ha, Duke of Gertium!”

Hans was startled and called him, but Perso had already been given the reins by the horseman and got on it in an instant.

“……No, what the hell are you doing this because of what you found?”

Hans looked intently in the direction where Perso had disappeared, but he could not find anything.

As usual, there were only a few wagons passing through the city.

****

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