I Planned a Su*cide Mission and Got Kicked Out of the Party

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On the day of the funeral and the Emperor’s abdication ceremony, Jenis Harker, who had been summoned to the Imperial Palace by the new Emperor, Rose Caprice, arrived with immense tension. There was no other choice. After the blatant confession that she had assisted in Walter’s death, their relationship had completely frozen over. While it was unclear what purpose Rose had in calling Jenis, it was evident that it wasn’t for friendly reasons.

In the reception room, Rose approached Jenis slowly, standing up from her throne.

“Is it alright if we speak while standing? I won’t hold you for long.”

“That’s fine, Your Majesty. Please proceed as you wish.”

Jenis bowed her head deeply in response. Rose, holding a large decorative rapier and wearing glasses, was looking down at Jenis Harker, who was slightly shorter than her.

After finishing their greetings, Jenis lifted her head and noticed that Rose’s appearance matched the one she had seen through her staff, sending a chill down her spine. The most chilling part was that Rose Caprice looked just as precarious as the person she had seen in her future vision.

The Emperor was holding on. Knowing that the nation would collapse if she did not endure, she was using every ounce of strength to hold on, but the suppressed anger and sadness were gnawing away at her shield.

“May I ask what your choice was? I called you today solely to ask that. I am not curious about anything else.”

“That is…”

Jenis hesitated to answer. With a single question, Rose touched upon her most painful point—a heavy burden on her heart for having sacrificed someone else’s lover, no, husband, to protect her beloved.

Jenis had already promised herself that she wouldn’t run away. She answered without adding any lies.

“It was about whether I would save the person I wanted to save or that person.”

“I see. I suspected it might be something like that.”

Jenis remained silent. Rose’s voice began to tremble slowly. The Emperor spoke.

“I know I have no right to blame the choice you made, but… but…”

Tears fell from the Emperor’s bloodshot eyes. In the completely empty audience chamber, with only her most formidable rival in front of her, Rose Caprice finally began to show the tears she had been suppressing.

“Would it be alright if I slapped you just once? If I had made the same choice you did for a hero, wouldn’t you have asked me the same?”

Jenis nodded silently and leaned her head towards Rose.

“Go ahead. If it eases Your Majesty’s heart even a little, then use all your strength.”

“Do you know what it means to be hit by me?”

“I have seen Your Majesty fight. I have even been struck by you before. I won’t stop you. Strike me. The demon blood flowing through my body will keep me alive.”

The two were in a rare relationship capable of inflicting proper wounds on each other with one strike. Seeing Jenis, who had removed her robe and leaned in with her head, Rose raised her rapier as if she would truly strike her.

However, the Emperor’s hand was trembling. She couldn’t swing the sword. With a clang, the sword fell to the floor.

Rose Caprice collapsed onto the floor and wept aloud.

“Your Majesty!”

“Just take your anger out on me!”

Rose shouted.

“Protest and argue. Claim that it was a choice beyond your control. Argue that because he was someone too important to you, you had no other options! How can I blame you? On what grounds can I pass the responsibility to you? Even if I need someone to bear the blame, my rage without a direction cannot uproot you…”

And for the first time since the day she was born, Rose cried out bitterly. Jenis was greatly astonished by Rose’s wailing but even more shocked to notice that her protection was starting to falter.

Iron Wall’s Protection also influenced one’s mental strength. This protection had played a significant role in ensuring that the lord of the Audrich family did not crumble during his family’s direst moments and built a foundation for a comeback.

The innate protection that Rose possessed was far more powerful than that received by any of her ancestors combined. Yet it was now deteriorating. The iron shield meant to protect her mental state was being consumed by her own pain.

“I knew nothing. I couldn’t do anything. But I must stand firm, remain composed, and my body must not be harmed. Inside me, there remains the legacy of the one I must protect at all costs. Why has it come to this! Why!”

Even after that, Rose continued to sob on the floor for quite some time, shedding more tears than she did on the day she was born. Her mother, father, and siblings probably had never seen her cry this much. Jenis, witnessing the Crown Princess, who had only learned to swallow her sorrow, spewing it out, couldn’t hide her astonishment.

“Your Majesty… you are… hurting. Please get up. Don’t collapse here… not at such a time. Your… Your Majesty…”

Jenis knelt before Rose, aligning her gaze with the Emperor.

“The protection is faltering.”

Rose widened her eyes in surprise upon hearing Jenis’s words and looked at the Great Sage. After wiping her tears with her sleeve, she said to Jenis,

“Speak of this to no one.”

“I swear on my life that I won’t.”

“And leave. I no longer wish to face you, nor can I. Get out of here. And remember this: until I permit you to re-enter the palace, do not set foot in my palace. You may do as you wish outside, but do not step foot in my palace until I can face you again.”

“I will, Your Majesty.”

Jenis stood up and bowed toward Rose. Just as she was about to turn and leave, Rose called her back.

“Wait! I haven’t finished speaking yet.”

Jenis turned back towards Rose. Rose held out the glasses she had thrown away.

“Take it back.”

“But, Your Majesty!”

“No matter how I think about it, it seems Walter didn’t suggest I take these. I had hoped to see something, but aside from clearer letters in this book, I see nothing else. This is not mine. Return it to its rightful owner. Perhaps it belongs to that person you saved.”

At Rose’s words, Jenis respectfully knelt on one knee and received the glasses from her. Jenis asked.

“What will you do from now on, Your Majesty?”

“I will not leave this palace. Just as my father did as Emperor, I will reside in the deepest part of the Imperial Palace and fulfill my duties as the ruler of the Empire. Do not ask anything beyond that. I can no longer wield a sword.”

“I understand. I wish you well.”

“Achieve what you desire. If that is what he wished for.”

Jenis deeply bowed to the Emperor before leaving the reception room.

Even long after Jenis had left the palace, Rose remained sitting on the floor, wiping her tears. After a while, a voice calling for the Emperor could be heard from outside the door.

“Your Majesty. A visitor has arrived. They wish to see you outside the door.”

Naturally, Rose was not prepared to receive guests. Rose quickly wiped her tears and shouted.

“Send them away! Who on earth let them in without my permission?”

“That would… be Princess Margaret of Eramenia.”

At this, Rose paused momentarily. Rose was someone who should never easily show her tears to anyone, but with Margaret, it was different. Rose spoke in a voice that had calmed down.

“Let her in.”

And then Margaret walked into the audience room of the Imperial Palace. Surprised, she seemed taken aback at the sight of the Emperor sitting on the floor, but soon approached Rose silently and knelt down.

“Rose.”

“Margaret?”

“Are you… okay?”

At Margaret’s question, Rose shook her head. Margaret nodded, expressing that she realized her question was silly. The Elf Lord carefully extended her arms and held Rose’s head in comfort. Rose leaned into Margaret’s embrace in silence.

“Just… cry, my sister. Cry until you can no longer cry, and if tears still come afterward, cry again. It’s okay to cry so much it feels like your body is drying out, but just make sure to drink plenty of water. That should be enough, right?”

“Sister, I…”

Margaret trembled as she embraced Rose. It was because Rose had never openly called her ‘sister’ before.

“What should I have done? What could I have done? Ever since that day, I’ve only thought about it, but nothing comes to mind. I can’t see any way I could have saved him. How could I have solved everything before he made that choice? What should I have done…”

“Nothing. What you could do was nothing compared to what I could do.”

Margaret repeated the deep wound that had settled in her heart. Jenis Harker’s sharp criticism left an indelible scar in Margaret’s heart.

Even in the moments leading to Walter’s death, he had avoided mentioning the single variable that could have saved him. He probably wished that no one in the world, including Jenis, would ever find out. The full-scale advance of the Eramenia army. The only way he could survive and win was if the Eramenia army intervened after the dragons’ invasion.

Walter was well aware of the shock the Eramenia people, especially the defeated Margaret, would feel when that fact became known. However, Jenis possessed the ability to work toward her own answers, and in a moment of heightened emotion, she inadvertently spoke a truth she shouldn’t have.

Margaret, realizing through her own intellect that Jenis’s words were true, received another deep wound to her soul. Embracing Rose was meant to comfort both Rose and Margaret herself. Rose said to Margaret,

“We are both losers, sister.”

“Just a group of unmatched losers.”

“I don’t want to do anything. Now… now I just want to rest. Even if only for a moment, I want to pause and take a break. But is it alright for me to do that?”

“Rest.”

Margaret nodded.

“I’ll take action now. So you rest. I have mistakes to make amends for, but you don’t, do you?”

And in that state, the two rulers quietly shared their uncontainable sorrow, patting each other’s backs without a word.

As Rose of the Audrich family stepped back from the front lines, Margaret was preparing to once again grip a sword with trembling hands. Meanwhile, another hero in the Empire prepared to take a step back.