The Clare dukedom collapsed overnight. Accused of treason, Duke and Duchess Clare were executed in the presence of the Emperor, and the Imperial Knights stormed the duke’s residence at night.
The Imperial Knights ruthlessly killed anyone who resisted and rounded up all the duke’s retainers and servants, confining them in the Imperial prison.
Flames engulfed the duke’s mansion, and the Clare family name vanished just like that.
Locked in the prison, Etienne looked down at her hand in the moonlight. The bandage, wrapped around her hand by the butler after a thorn scratched it, was now dirty and frayed.
Etienne tucked the loose end of the bandage back into place. She had never wrapped a bandage herself, so her attempt was clumsy, but that didn’t matter now.
There was no one left to comment on it. Everyone from her household was scattered and imprisoned, and the butler who had wrapped her hand was beheaded by an Imperial Knight while trying to prevent him from roughly grabbing Etienne’s arm.
“What foolishness,” Etienne muttered to herself in the silence of the prison.
The butler had promised to care for her in Fernando’s stead, but he met such a trivial end. What was she supposed to do now?
Etienne lifted her head, looking through the tiny window at the Imperial Palace. Inside, the Emperor who ordered her parents’ execution resided.
It was all because they opposed the current Emperor’s whims. When he was a prince, the Clare family supported another prince, not him.
After that prince died under mysterious circumstances, the current Emperor ascended to the throne, and the Clare family suddenly found themselves without support. Confused about what to do, the Emperor reached out first, offering to bury the past and start anew. Many families had supported the other prince, including prestigious and powerful ones.
The Emperor seemed to have decided to embrace these families rather than cast them out, perhaps to avoid destabilizing the empire.
The Clare family, particularly close to the powerful Spracher ducal family, expected the Emperor to embrace them too. It made no sense to destabilize the empire by banishing every family.
It was all a grave mistake. The Emperor never intended to embrace them all. He planned to make an example of a few families, and unfortunately, the Clare family was among them.
“Fernando.”
She longed for him, wishing to be comforted in his embrace, escaping this nightmarish reality.
But it was all in vain. Fernando, fearing for the safety of his own family, did not come to see Etienne.
She understood his situation, but it left her feeling bitterly lonely and desolate.
Etienne hugged herself tightly.
On the last night before her death, her thoughts were still consumed by Fernando.
, the heir to the Spracher ducal family, became close to her because of the families’ support
Suddenly, Etienne noticed the bandage wrapped around Hannah’s hand. It was white and clean. Etienne lowered her eyes to her own bandage, fiddling with it.
Her bandage had become a complete mess after falling several times this morning, just like her current situation.
“Do you understand why you are still alive?” the Emperor taunted. Etienne looked at Fernando, who stood next to Hannah.
He was clenching his fists tightly, his eyes filled with pain, as if he felt responsible for Etienne’s current state.
‘What, Fernando. Since when did you start caring about me like that…’
Finding his expression ridiculous, Etienne’s lips twitched into a smile. Just yesterday, while Fernando made a big fuss when Hannah got a thorn prick, he showed no concern for Etienne.
His agony might be because his family was entangled in the Clare family’s affairs.
The Spracher ducal family had asked the Clare family for a favor. When the current Emperor was a prince, they found a clue suggesting the Crown Prince was murdered and asked the Clares to verify its authenticity.
The restoration skill was a secret art passed down in the Clare family, an ability unique to them.
The Duke of Spracher believed that the Clare family could discover the cause behind the Crown Prince’s death, and the Duke of Clare accepted the task. This led to the downfall of the Clare family.
“Speak,” the Emperor urged, hoping to implicate the Spracher family as well. He left Etienne alive to hear her confess the ducal family’s involvement.
“Was the Spracher ducal family involved? Did the duke make any propositions to you?” the Emperor asked kindly. However, this kindness was artificial, stemming from his eagerness to seize the duke.
Etienne bit her lip. She felt unjustly treated. Her parents never questioned the Crown Prince’s death.
Moreover, when the duke suggested investigating it, they advised caution. But the duke insisted, dragging her parents into the matter.
Now, the Clare family bore all the blame while the duke remained uninvolved. Etienne resented them.
‘Should we die together?’
Lost in the Emperor’s tempting offer, Etienne looked at the ducal family members with unfocused eyes.
The thought of dying with them, who once wanted her as a daughter-in-law and treated her kindly, didn’t seem so lonely.
As she carefully observed their faces, Etienne’s lips parted, and a cracked voice emerged.
“The ducal family… has nothing to do with it.”
If only the last person she saw wasn’t Fernando…
Fearing that Fernando might be endangered, Etienne concealed everything. As the Emperor tsked in disappointment, sentencing her to death, she closed her eyes.
This marked the end of her ties with Fernando.
Before ascending the scaffold, Etienne’s eyes slowly moved from the hand gripping her arm to the face above.
‘…Fernando.’
His face, so close, appeared
However, Etienne couldn’t confront Fernando like that. To him, she was neither more nor less than a friend.
If he, who was not her lover, had visited Etienne, it would have been perceived as revealing some secret dealings between the ducal and the count’s families.
“I was going to visit you yesterday. So, to you…”
“Fernando.”
Before Fernando could finish, Hannah suddenly appeared and grabbed his arm. She glanced around and subtly shook her head at Fernando, indicating that he shouldn’t speak here. Hannah then pulled Fernando a step away from Etienne.
Even in this situation, they only seemed to care about each other. Etienne’s lips, swollen and cracked, parted. It was her own way of smiling, but her rough lips twisted oddly.
“It’s not because of you. So, you don’t need to worry.”
Etienne passed by Fernando with her usual cold demeanor.
As she was led to the guillotine, she felt his gaze on her, but she did not look back. There was no longer any hope for her to be with Fernando.
Etienne knelt roughly at the guillotine, a puddle formed by the rain entering her vision. Her disheveled reflection in the puddle seemed to be demanding her to witness her own demise.
‘So, this is how I looked today.’
Naturally, she thought this would be the last, pitiful image Fernando would remember of her.
“Maybe it’s better this way.”
Etienne closed her eyes. Her parents were gone, and her family had fallen. There was nothing left for her.
She still had feelings for Fernando, but it seemed better that her last memory in his mind was like this. He had never found her pretty anyway, so perhaps this disheveled state was more fitting.
‘It’s all over.’
By not implicating the Spracher family, she had put an end to her unrequited love. With nothing left, the moment her life was severed, her feelings for him would end too, bringing a sense of relief.
Etienne closed her eyes, having let go of everything.
The blade fell towards her neck, and all her thoughts ceased.
Male lead says he’s pregnant — and it’s female lead’s child
Something seems a bit off about this world.
Wang Zhao thought as she watched a pregnant man walking towards her…
Intro
Female lead finds herself in a world where the men who possess the ability to bear children.
As she navigates this unfamiliar reality, she is caught off guard by the sudden appearance of her boyfriend, who reveals that he is pregnant.
Is this truly her boyfriend?
Why can’t she recall any details about their time together?
She begins to doubt whether the child her boyfriend is carrying is even hers.
Is there a hidden reason behind her amnesia, or could it be a side effect of her sudden arrival in this strange new world?
Just when it seems the protagonist’s life couldn’t become any more entangled, her ex-boyfriend makes an unexpected appearance, raising questions about the protagonist’s past.
__________
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