CHAPTER 046
Emperor Maxwell was unusually lost in thought for a moment.
Typically, he would have mercilessly ended the lives of the four or five rats lying on the ground.
Instead of the long sword at his waist, the Emperor held a black leather whip taut in both hands as he stopped the foot that had been crushing the man’s gaze who had ogled Arabelle. He cast a sidelong glance at Arabelle.
There was 20% gratitude in her eyes for rescuing her from being dragged away like an animal, and 20% awe for the Emperor who had struck down the men with a single lash of his whip.
And 60% fear and shock for the Emperor who had crushed the eyes and mouths of the men under his bootheels.
At that moment, the Emperor realized that Arabelle had never directly witnessed him dealing with scum. Even yesterday evening when he swung his sword at the traffickers in the flower shop, she had closed her eyes at his command.
He knew there was a stark difference between seeing bodies already on the ground and witnessing the Emperor’s retribution with one’s own eyes.
When he seized the palace of the rebellious vassal state Kiran, the sight of Emperor Maxwell punishing the traitors had given the king a heart attack.
Watching Arabelle, the Emperor lowered the boot that had been in the man’s eyes.
But in doing so, the mangled face beneath was revealed. Trying to push the face to the side with the toe of his boot only made it worse as blood spread across the ground.
The Emperor, as if in deep thought, cast his eyes coolly towards the sky. After a moment, he turned his gaze slowly back to Arabelle.
He crafted the most gentle and tender smile he could muster towards her wide, clear eyes.
Regrettably, reflected in her honest eyes, his smile was nothing more than a fiercely unsettling sight, tinged with madness.
“Your Majesty…!”
“Emperor Your Majesty!”
Voices calling for the Emperor approached from both ends of the alley. On the right, the Imperial Guard, and on the left, Baron Berron with his escort soldiers came running.
“Your… Your Majesty…”
Baron Berron quickly knelt on one knee before the Emperor, respectfully greeting him. His eyes took in his loyal servants lying lifelessly on the ground.
“It seems my servants have been rude. Please forgive them.”
The Baron swallowed hard and bowed his head. Though he didn’t fully understand the situation, he knew well enough to prostrate himself before the expressionless Emperor.
On the day Regent Gustav was overthrown by Emperor Maxwell, the Baron had been present. Having attended a few similar events with the Emperor since, just seeing the sword at the Emperor’s waist made his knees weak.
With his wife visiting their daughter in another province today, he had seized the chance. He had planned to take Adelle, but the wretched girl had escaped.
Knowing she couldn’t really get away, he had sent his servants to capture her while he leisurely bathed, only to have his head servant crawl back half-dead.
In his hand was a golden glove marked with the Emperor’s red lion seal. He had run over without even drying himself.
Unable to bear the silence, Baron Berron looked up to see the Emperor’s coldly sneering red eyes fixed on him.
Sensing something terribly wrong, the Baron stammered,
“P-please, allow me to behead these wretches who dared to offend Your Majesty’s sensibilities. Please… grant me permission.”
Kneeling and pleading, his servants’ sobs echoed around him.
“My sensibilities…”
The Emperor spoke slowly, lifting the Baron’s head with the toe of his boot.
Thinking of how Arabelle might now see him as a cruel man made the Emperor truly displeased.
Fearful that she would no longer call him the “kindest and most benevolent Emperor in the world,” his mind raced.
To restore his image in Arabelle’s eyes, he realized he needed to help the emaciated girl she was holding.
Though he disliked wasting time on such matters, he saw no other choice. The Emperor sighed irritably and finished speaking.
“Because of you, I am very displeased.”
The Baron’s murky eyes, like dead fish, rolled in terror as his greed-stained, bluish lips parted in fear.
***
A slum on the outskirts of the capital.
“H-here it is.”
Adelle pointed to a corner of the slum where warehouses were crammed together.
The stench of garbage and sewage assaulted their noses. The impoverished areas of Atineran, the brilliant capital symbolizing the wealth and power of the Helterde Empire, were a stark contrast.
Adelle, standing before the dilapidated warehouse where Arabelle had just rescued her, opened the door.
“Cough, cough… second sister…?”
A weak voice came from the moldy, dark warehouse, filled with disbelief.
“Yes, it’s me…”
At the warehouse door, Adelle nodded, holding back tears.
She had prayed every night, but miracles had never come. Living under the lecherous gaze of the old Baron, she felt like she was walking on thin ice. Today, when the Baron’s wife left on a journey, she had been summoned to his bedroom.
Almost sold off to pay her father’s gambling debts and her youngest brother’s medical bills, Adelle had no one to save her.
Even knowing she would be caught if she ran, she had fled. It was too humiliating and painful to simply submit, so she wanted to fight back at least once, even if it meant her death.
She wanted to prove she was human.
But now, standing before her was a miracle. Adelle wiped her tears with the back of her hand, looking at the woman about her age who had extended a hand when everyone else ignored her as she was dragged away like an animal.
And then, even greater miracles occurred.
The Emperor discovered that Baron Berron had attempted to take the sixteen-year-old Adelle and spoke.
"One of the greatest crimes in the Empire is forcibly assaulting those who are not yet of age. This is a law I proclaimed myself... tch, this displeases me even more."
Dragged to the Empire’s underground prison, the Baron had to sign a declaration nullifying Adelle's employment contract, which was akin to a slave contract.
The Emperor deployed his men to eradicate the illegal loan shark organization that held Adelle's debts.
In a swift operation, not only Adelle but dozens of other minors suffering under the same cruel exploitation were rescued. It turned out Baron Berron and several nobles in the capital had been jointly operating the illegal loan shark business to amass wealth.
The Emperor, meticulously directing everything in the alley, was relentless. It was as if he were in his office within the palace.
“Why did you come? Cough, cough. I’m fine. You’ll just get in trouble again. Go back quickly.”
Adelle’s younger sister Mary spoke in a worried voice.
Though her sister never said it, Mary knew from the scars she had accidentally seen on her sister’s back how harshly she was treated at the Baron’s residence.
Their eldest sister was also trying to get Adelle out of the Baron’s house, but the Baron and the connected illegal loan sharks had only made their debts snowball.
“Now... I’m not going back. I’ll stay here.”
“What do you mean? Cough, cough.”
“I don’t have to go back. I can stay with you. It’s really over... sob, sob.”
“Really, truly, sister?”
Mary, struggling to lift her head, began to sob uncontrollably upon hearing Adelle say the debt had been paid off. Hugging her sick sister, Adelle whispered through her tears, “Mom sent an angel from heaven.”
Watching Arabelle silently wipe away tears behind Adelle and Mary, the Emperor frowned.
This feeling... was nothing short of an embarrassment.
Emperor Maxwell, who had prided himself on not being ashamed of anything, now felt his face burn with shame.
The slum before his eyes was where the ‘lower commoners abandoned for the beautification and expansion of the capital’ lived.
Due to his city expansion plan, some wicked lords who sold their territories to the Empire for a large compensation had driven out the people who survived on those lands without any compensation.
The abandoned people were tricked by loan sharks connected to the nobles, getting into debt while trying to sustain their livelihoods, only to find themselves with impossibly inflated debts.
To repay these debts, they and their families became serfs to the lords, not as legal serfs but in a similar condition, and in the worst cases, they were sold into brothels or foreign lands.
‘How could I have been unaware of what was happening right in front of me?’
The Emperor thought as he watched Arabelle distribute food with the guards.
No, he hadn’t wanted to know. They were useless to the glory and prosperity of the Empire.
He didn’t care what the capital’s nobles did behind the scenes as long as they paid their taxes and didn’t disturb him. He saw no need to interfere as long as they moved according to his plans.
Seeing the emaciated children eagerly devouring the bread and milk they received from Arabelle’s hands, the Emperor’s jaw clenched tightly.
‘They are trembling like this, and yet they are asking if I can bring it to their siblings?’
Had Arabelle not brought Adelle to the slum with her request, he would never have seen this scene.
The Emperor softly ordered his aide Kyle.
“As soon as we return to the palace, summon the nobles of the capital. Prepare for it.”
***
“You must deliver this.”
“Alright. But in exchange, three rose soaps and vanilla oil, okay?”
The thin woman receiving the yellow envelope winked.
She was a worker at the mill who brought flour into the palace kitchen every other day.
Sticking the unusually thick money envelope into her apron pocket, the woman shook her head.
“I’ve told you before, taking this money to the loan sharks is useless. It’s like pouring water into a bottomless jar. No matter how much you save and send, the debt only keeps growing.”
The woman continued as the stern-looking Millie stood in silence.
“Just find a way to live for yourself. As long as you’re in the palace, even if you don’t pay off the debt, the loan sharks can’t come after you. They can’t storm into the palace demanding money because they’re aware of their own crimes.”
“I can’t do that.”
When Millie shook her head, the woman sighed and patted her shoulder.
“Is it because of your sister in Baron Berron’s house? She has no chance. Everyone in the capital knows how dirty and despicable that Baron is. Your sister can’t leave unless that old bastard lets her go. No, if he tires of her, he might sell her off somewhere else.”
The woman was just voicing her thoughts, but Millie’s face twisted in an instant.
“Don’t speak carelessly. I will bring her back. Definitely.”
With determination in her reddened eyes, Millie clenched her fists. She had long given up on the dream of living happily with Adelle and Mary in this wretched world. But she would save Adelle, even if it meant going through hell.
“Millie, Headmaid Brigitte is looking for you. Go quickly.”
A maid spotted Millie and informed her. Wiping her nose with the back of her hand, Millie hurriedly ran to the Headmaid’s office.
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