The Emperor Has Returned

Chapter 264 – Side Story 3: To My Shining Emperor (3)

“Is he a eunuch or what?” Elaine muttered casually.

If Harmon were here, he would have freaked out.

Unfortunately, Juan was a man who knew the importance and priorities of work. Juan asked Elaine to go to his room and wait because the documents that Harmon had handed over to him had to be processed the same day.

Of course, everything would be meaningless to Elaine if he couldn’t spend time with her right away. However, she wouldn’t whine like a child. She nodded and calmly stepped out as if it wasn’t a big deal, but she was inwardly cursing Harmon.

Elaine was holding a bottle of wine she managed to procure after nagging at the imperial chef.

The streets of Torra were dark because the moon was obscured by the clouds.

There were a few night patrolmen here and there on the streets, but there was no one stopping Elaine. After all, Elaine had already become familiar enough with them to even greet their parents.

Elaine thought about Juan while taking a sip straight out of the bottle. Juan was a good man. It would have been even better if he wasn’t the emperor, but she knew better than anyone that such a thought was selfish.

Elaine knew that Juan was no ordinary boy even before Aruntal had taken him away.

Before Juan was found, an unprecedented fire broke out in the Gerard Valley. The fire turned the entire valley into an infested crater, and it only stopped when there was nothing more left to burn.

And Elaine found Juan amidst the destruction…

Back then, Juan was just a boy who looked to be about five or six years old. Elaine took the boy with her without hesitation. To be exact, the head of the orphanage who was taking care of Elaine with the donations at the time was the one who picked Juan.

‘He was no different than a wild wolf.’

It wasn’t important that the head of the orphanage sent out the orphans to beg for money and sold them when they were old enough. It also wasn’t important that Elaine wasn’t abused, nor had she lived a poor life because of the donations for her.

Therefore, it also wasn’t important that Elaine had poisoned the head of the orphanage’s meal.

What was important was that donations for Elaine had never decreased even after she had already buried the head of the orphanage in the backyard.

The donations were more than enough to not only take care of the entire orphanage by herself but also take care of Juan.

Elaine was only a child barely taller than the waist of an adult at the time, but she still had the guts to deal with the adults.

Elaine thought that was perhaps all thanks to the mysterious benefactor who was constantly sending donations for her or the mysterious heterogenous blood flowing in her.

Rumors were bound to be exaggerated for simple rural villagers. Of course, such a rumor with no evidence to support it sounded quite plausible to Elaine’s ears for the same reason.

The donation was cut off a few years after Juan left the Gain Village along with Aruntal.

It didn’t take long for Juan to wage war against the gods and heterogenous races. The heterogeneous races that had long gotten accustomed to the gods’ love and blessing were defeated and slaughtered by Juan.

Elaine had to find a different way of life.

Fortunately, she had grown up enough. Elaine did not wonder about the secrets of her parents or the origin of her blood. Knowing that there was no good in finding out, she unhesitantly threw away her lingering feelings.

She imagined herself as a girl who suddenly emerged from the ashes and grew up with a strong fate like Juan. Elaine thought that becoming a leader of the refugees at the time could have been due to being largely influenced by Juan.

She wanted to be Juan...

‘I think I gave birth to you, Juan.’

Elaine blankly looked up at the sky. The stars or even the moon could not be seen.

‘And perhaps you gave birth to me as well.’

Elaine sighed, scattering her breath into the cold night breeze.

She turned her head slightly along with her sigh. Someone was following her into the quietest and least populated alley she would always visit every day for a peaceful walk.

‘I let my guard down. Is it because I have a lot on my mind, or is it because I’m drunk?’

Elaine blamed herself for being too careless and walking into the same alley as usual. The sound of footsteps approaching her started to become rapid. Elaine waited for the opponent at the corner and stuck her foot out as soon as the other party popped out.

Crash!

Elaine took a sip of wine while looking at the opponent on the floor. Afterward, she immediately struck them with the wine bottle in her hand.

“Argh!”

Elaine’s eyebrows bent at the familiar scream.

“Wait a second. Are you the same guy from last night?”

Elaine could still remember that the young man was sent by Barth Baltic.

‘I warned him, but he’s keeping tabs on me again?’

Elaine sighed. She had told Barth Baltic that she would make sure that the knight would return crawling back to him, but she couldn’t actually crush the knight trainee’s legs because he still had a bright future ahead of him.

“You have to learn how to properly hide first. You’re just—”

Elaine abruptly swung the broken wine bottle behind her after sensing the presence of someone else.

The feedback told her that she managed to cut someone with the broken wine bottle, but that was it. A hood covered Elaine’s head, prompting her to swing the broken wine bottle once more.

However, the wine bottle shattered into pieces, and the glass fragments turned her hand into a pin cushion.

The feedback told Elena that she managed to hit something, but she could only hope that she successfully struck the perpetrator. Unfortunately, her aching fist made it clear that she struck the wall instead.

Elaine inhaled sharply from the pain, and the sweet scent coming from the hood covering her head made her feel out of breath.

Eventually, Elaine dropped to the floor, unconscious.

***

“You fucking bastards. I will kill you all!” Elaine shouted.

The people around her clicked their tongues at her attitude.

“I thought you said she’s the emperor’s mistress? Are you sure we got the right one? She looks more like a mercenary who has spent her entire life running the battlefield.”

“We got the right one for sure. I’m sure I heard everything the Great General said without missing a single word.”

Elaine was blindfolded and was tied to a chair, so she could only listen. There were four voices in total which matched the presence she felt in the alley. In addition, the unique footsteps in the room could only belong to four people—nothing more, nothing less.

“How’s Doug doing? Is he still unconscious?”

“There’s a huge lump on his head. Is he going to die from it?”

It seemed that Elaine did manage to hit someone on the head rather than a wall earlier.

She confirmed that there were a total of five people involved in this operation.

Elaine tried to untie the restraints on her wrists and ankles, but the rope wouldn’t even budge. It seemed that she was either still drowsy due to the drug she was forced to inhale, or she had been tied too tightly.

All of a sudden, someone roughly took off the hood covering Elaine’s head.

She shook her head and looked around. She was inside a dark room with no lights. It was still dark outside, so it seemed that daybreak still hadn’t arrived.

Her presumption was right. There were four people around her while the other one was recovering in another room. It didn’t take long for Elaine to recognize her abductors’ faces because of her good night vision.

The knight who had been following her was one of the four people, and there was a man covered in bandages. It seemed that he was the one who was unfortunate enough to take a hit from Elaine’s wine bottle. Then, there was a female dark elf with scars all over her body and a man with an eye patch.

Elaine memorized their unique features and decided to call them Knight, Bandage, Scar, and One-eyed, respectively.

Before the four people could speak, Elaine spoke first, “You’ve made a mistake.”

“Hmph. Do you really think that we’ll abduct you without knowing who you are? We are no ordinary abductors, you know. We abducted you knowing that you are the emperor’s mistress.”

“That alone is already a mistake, but you made an even bigger mistake than that—showing me your faces.”

The abductors frowned, confused about what Elaine was talking about. However, the cold energy emanating from Elaine startled them.

“Breathe all you can now because you’ll soon drown in your own blood. By then, you will realize the importance of air.”

The group exchanged perplexed glances. In the end, Scar stepped forward.

Smack!

Scar slapped Elaine on the cheek with the hammer in her hand. Elaine’s face was flung to the side from the impact. Elaine spat her broken teeth out and revealed her remaining bloody teeth with a smile.

“I’ll pull out all your teeth and put them back in after shattering them into pieces.”

Scar lifted the hammer again, but One-eyed quickly stopped her.

Scar growled out of anger, but she soon lowered the hammer.

Elaine noticed that One-eyed was the leader of the group. One-eyed brought a bundle of gauze and stuck them into Elaine’s mouth until the bleeding stopped. Then, he brought a chair and sat down in front of her.

“Elaine Elliot. The emperor’s mistress. The only woman the emperor loves.”

“Wrong,” Elaine replied as if she was chewing out her answer. “I’m not the only one he loves. He loves mankind, and I just happen to have a private relationship with him rather than a public one.”

One-eyed tilted his head in wonder and replied, “I don’t see what’s different. As far as I know, love is private.”

“Maybe there’s no difference to bastards like you, but there is a difference for the emperor.”

“Anyway, it’s undeniable that you’re receiving special treatment from him, and that is enough. It doesn’t matter whether the emperor is truly in love with you or not.” One-eyed said indifferently, “We will destroy the emperor. We will make him understand how painful it feels to lose a special someone, and we will ultimately make him understand the meaning of fear. Elaine Elliot. You are the emperor’s lover, so you are the best candidate to kickstart everything.”

Elaine seemed dumbfounded as she stared at One-eyed. Eventually, she said, “I think it’s because you think that I’m the weakest.”

Winoa Weaver and Barth Baltic, not to mention Harmon, who was the weakest of them, wandered around under heavy escort.

It was only natural for the free-spirited Elaine to be the best candidate.

The numbers and prowess of the opponents made it clear that Elaine was the only one who could defeat these people. Those three weren’t strong enough to escape from here if it had been them who got abducted.

One-eyed’s expression distorted, but he soon regained his composure.

“We have the blessing of a goddess—Cali of Seclusion and Whispers—She hides and embraces everything. Invading the Imperial Palace is a piece of cake under her blessing...”

‘Is that so?’

Elaine could still remember that she was unable to detect the presence of others aside from Knight. Perhaps they weren’t lying.

“By the way, did you say Cali? Didn’t that bitch run away beyond the Crack about half a year ago? I heard that the Dark Elves and their Church were devastated back then. I see that you managed to stay alive. You should have just laid low, though.”

Scars raised her hammer once again.

However, One-eyed stopped her once again and muttered, “I’ll let you do whatever you want in a little while, so wait. This woman deserves to know what’s about to happen to her.”

“You all look like stupid pieces of shits. Are you sure you’re even capable of explaining?” Elaine mocked with a smile.

“I don’t understand the attitude that you are taking here. What do you intend to do by provoking us? You are mistaken if you think the emperor will come to your rescue. During the night, our presence is nigh impossible to detect. Even the emperor cannot find us during the night, and let me tell you this—you’re also hidden under the veil of Cali.”

“Yeah, yeah. Most people I have met so far we’re confident of their chances of winning, and I always feel like a pervert whenever I crush their confidence.”

One-eyed raised his hand. Scar finally walked over to Elaine with a big smile.

Then, she grabbed Elaine’s left pinky finger.

Crack!

Elaine bit her lips. Scar had just broken her pinky finger.

“There are still three hours until daybreak. We plan to torture you as much as we can and throw you out on the streets once daybreak arrives. We’ll make sure to leave enough identifying features so that the emperor will recognize you.”

“And what’s the point of that?”

“I told you. The emperor thinks that he’s invincible, but he should have known that the things he loves aren’t invincible. You are the emperor’s weakness, after all.”

Elaine’s expression turned slightly complicated.

However, her lips soon curled up coldly as her eyes shone with killing intent.

One-eyed disliked the change in Elaine’s expression. He gestured at Scar with his chin, and Scar rolled up her sleeves. Knight and Bandage also rose from their seats.

“We’ll let the descendants of Cali have the first dibs.”

Knight and Bandage stepped out. Scar searched through her tools of torture while One-eyed sat behind her and watched without saying anything.

Scar finally approached Elaine with a saw.

Elaine spoke, “By the way, I have a question about that knight trainee who just stepped out. Is Barth Baltic involved in this by chance? The Great General had also split the heads of many dark elves in the past.”

“Is there any reason why I should answer your question?”

“Nope. You don’t actually have to tell me yourself. I’ll find out soon.”

One-eyed’s expression turned strange.

Elaine finally turned to look at Scar.

Scar grinned and brought the saw closer to Elaine’s face. They were so close to each other that they could feel each other’s breath.

Elaine could even see the fine details of the scars that littered Scar’s face.

“You’ll look exactly like me by the time the emperor finds you,” Scar spat coldly.

However, Elaine’s right hand suddenly grabbed Scar’s wrist holding the saw.

Scar panicked, and One-eyed sprang up from his seat.

Elaine spat at Scar’s face. It turned out to be a broken tooth, and it pierced Scar’s eye, eliciting a scream of agony from the latter. Afterward, Elaine snatched the saw out of Scar’s hand and cutting the latter’s neck.

Blood furiously rushed out of the wound on Scar’s neck, creating a fountain of blood.

One-eyed immediately charged at Elaine.

In response, Elaine hurled something toward One-eyed, which struck One-eyed’s eye.

One-eyed finally remembered the bottle of wine that shattered in Elaine’s hand just before she lost consciousness. He thought that Elain was only injured at the time, but it seemed that she buried a shard of glass into the wound on her hand.

Elaine then proceeded to cut through her restraints using the shard of glass.

‘I thought she was just a mistress...’ One-eyed faltered.

Meanwhile, Elaine cut the rope around her ankle using Scar’s saw.

At the sight, One-eyed urgently unsheathed his double daggers.

He had to suppress her while she was busy freeing herself.

However, a dazzling light broke through the window and interrupted him. The light was so dazzling that One-eyed had to cover his eyes. When he could finally open his eyes once more, he was stupefied by the scene in front of him.

The night seemed to have been vanquished. One-eyed could swear that daybreak still hadn’t arrived, but the outside world was already bright as if it were high noon.

“You said that you’re nigh impossible to find during the night?”

One-eyed heard Elaine’s voice coming from the side. She had already freed herself and was in the middle of picking up a hammer from Scar’s toolbox.

“It is unfortunate, but the one looking for me right now is the Sun.”

“Everyone! Come back here!” One-eyed immediately cried out.

Knight and Bandage rushed into the room after hearing One-eyed’s shout.

Despite being surrounded, Elaine seemed calm as she swept her gaze across them.

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