novelraw Chapter 31 : Chapter 31
Chapter 31 : Chapter 31
Chapter 31. Wedding Dress
“Indeed, very familiar.”
Leticia said softly, “So, what are you trying to express?”
To tell such a story, surely, there must be a hidden purpose in it, right?
But Leticia wasn’t a lunatic; she simply couldn’t guess what a lunatic was thinking.
“Hehehe, hehehehe...”
The lady in black laughed loudly. “If I said that to you in the past, would you believe it?”
“You think I would believe your words?”
Leticia gave a firm and scornful roll of her eyes. What a joke. Who she was before—wouldn’t she herself know?
A classic useless male student, in love with a young wise king from another world, even helping him with revenge. Oh my Lord...
Just thinking about it was unreliable...
“Ah, if you believed, it would be much more interesting...”
With a rather regretful sigh, the lady in black continued, “Mm, this story indeed has nothing to do with you. However, once you finish listening to the whole story, you’ll understand what I want to say, hehe.”
The kingdom perished. The empire got its wish, successfully swallowing that sweet fruit which had hung in front of its eyes for many years, a fruit it had long coveted.
Although the people put up a brave resistance, how many could truly hold to their hearts under iron-blooded methods and policies of appeasement?
What’s more, they still had to live, didn’t they? It was merely that the master above their heads had changed—from someone relatively familiar, to an entirely unfamiliar batch.
Perhaps, to digest all these new resources, to fully brand them with the empire’s own mark, would require a rather long time.
One generation, two generations, by the third generation, it could then be fully declared: a kingdom was completely annihilated, from existence down to spirit.
That would be the empire’s complete victory.
The empire’s high officials all anticipated this, all awaited this. The emperor, standing at the pinnacle of the empire, was pleased by it. He especially ordered that three concubines be chosen from across the nation, “to share joy with the people.”
“Heh.”
At this, Leticia couldn’t help but laugh mockingly, then was struck by such pain that her face twisted, the laughter forced back down.
So painful...
“Your vision is not bad.”
Not knowing what she had imagined from Leticia’s unconscious “heh,” the lady in black nodded and continued, “The three who emerged in the end did not let down their appearances. Each possessed stunning beauty, with different traits yet equally attractive temperaments. One was the daughter of a duke of the empire, one the daughter of a rich merchant’s mistress, and one the child of a farmer.”
His Majesty the Emperor was very fond of those three women.
“Hiss...”
Leticia drew in a soft breath and asked, “You’re saying that the woman who had an extraordinary bond with the king was among those three?”
“You could say so, and not say so.”
The lady in black smiled. “How the emperor sought pleasure with them, and how the empress viewed the three, I don’t quite know. After all, this is just a story, and I was not a direct experience of it.”
But, in the third month after the event ended, the emperor personally executed his wife—the woman who had diligently worked for her man, for her children, for their nation.
“Ah?”
Hearing Leticia’s disbelieving exclamation, the lady in black continued recounting the empire’s story.
The empress’s death shook the entire empire, because her family had paid no small cost and effort to help the emperor ascend.
Afterwards, the emperor stubbornly decided to move the capital, relocating the imperial city to another place.
“Breaking bones and tendons...”
It actually gave Leticia the feeling she was hearing some altered version of the story of King Zhou of Shang...
Listening to the lady in black, Leticia gradually pieced together in her mind the empire’s final history.
The emperor moved the capital. The emperor accidentally offended the Church. The emperor did not apologize. The emperor sought once again to expand his territory. The emperor’s body failed. The emperor’s heirs, the offspring of those three consorts, had not grown up, yet all died young.
“All of that must’ve been done by that confidante of his, right?”
Leticia felt her neck was a little better. It seemed she had finally gotten somewhat used to the pain.
“Mmhm.”
The lady in black made a nasal sound. “Pretty much. There’s still an ending left. Want to hear it?”
“Of course.”
Leticia nodded. “A story needs both head and tail before it can be called a story.”
“Hehe, actually you know the ending already—that empire perished.”
The lady in black’s voice remained hoarse and piercing. “In the end, the emperor was called a madman. He was bound on the gallows and hanged. As for his three beloved concubines: the duke’s daughter followed him in death after the emperor’s execution; the merchant’s daughter fled after his death, but was caught and executed under the name of Witch; and the farmer’s daughter survived, but had already gone mad, and was finally imprisoned by the Church until she died of old age in the dungeon.”
“That really is not such a good ending.”
Leticia said, “So, which one was the confidante? That merchant’s daughter?”
“Hehe, it was the duke’s daughter.”
The lady in black laughed sharper than ever. “And moreover, she was no longer that duke’s daughter at all. She was that young king—the one once full of ambition, yet in the end blinded by revenge.”
“Ah, ah?”
Leticia was shocked. “Then, why would that king die for love?”
“‘Die for love’ was just a way of putting it.”
The lady in black smiled and waved her hand. “A wretched shell of a person, once having fulfilled their vow, will always choose to depart, no?”
“The reason for telling this story is because of you.”
The lady in black stretched out a finger and poked Leticia onto the bed. “Your power is almost identical to that of the duke’s daughter.”
That woman back then was gentle and dignified, well-read and courteous. Though she possessed unimaginable power, she was never tempted to fall because of it. Instead, she hoped to use this so-called ‘gift of God’ to gain lifelong happiness.
But it wasn’t a gift of God. It was a curse of the Demon.
For the sake of her beloved, to soothe his utterly shattered heart, the duke’s daughter did not hesitate to offer up her knowledge, her body, even her soul.
The duke’s daughter died. Taking her place was a king of revenge.
He wore her as her, abandoned all of himself, burned away all of her. In dreams he bitterly chewed on the sweetness of the past. In reality, he twined and turned in the emperor’s bedchamber, with enchanting smiles and songs of seduction. With a bewitching face, with a beautiful body, he pleased the man who had destroyed everything he had. With his own corruption, he dragged his enemy step by step into the abyss.
“This is the destiny that the Demon Maids of [Wedding Dress] should have.”
The lady in black smiled with deep meaning. “But you, it seems, aren’t much willing to become that wedding dress, little girl.”