Translator: Nox

1 - The Crown I Will Steal from You

Episode 1

Prologue.

A drizzling rain fell on the night.

The Emperor stepped into the damp prison, filled with moisture.

Medeia, who had been looking up at the black sky through a small window, turned around.

Her skeletal body was visible through the tattered dress.

A gaunt complexion, sunken eyes. She was like a corpse barely breathing.

The Emperor frowned. Still, she was a woman he had spent half his life with.

To think that the woman who had been so composed even during the arduous expeditions was in such a miserable state.

“Iason.”

A hollow echo spread. The knight behind the Emperor bristled.

“How dare a prisoner address His Majesty by name-!”

“Leave it be. Before she dies, can’t I at least grant her that much?”

Medeia, as if she didn't hear their conversation, turned her hazy gaze.

“I did everything for you.”

She looked at the Emperor.

“Princess of Baldina, please call me Iason.”

His tender greeting was still vivid in her mind.

He was the man Medeia had loved her whole life.

She wanted to have him at any cost, and she did.

She stole the treasure of her country and offered it to him.

She sacrificed her youth to slay the Evil Dragon.

She gave him the soldiers of her homeland and gave him the throne.

But the result was a bitter betrayal.

Her brother died, and her homeland was destroyed.

Her husband married another woman.

“You abandoned me, and Your Highness took the Saintess as your Empress.”

Holding her swollen belly with her second child, she heard the news of her husband's marriage.

“It was all because of the Divine Revelation. That's why I made your son Rian the Crown Prince instead.”

And Rian died.

Only half a year after she sent him alone to the Imperial Palace to have his legitimacy recognized.

“I knew then. That the next would be Leia and me.”

After the hunt is over, the hunting dogs are boiled, they said.

She realized this truth too late.

“Didn’t another Divine Revelation come out? A Revelation that you and your daughter would bring the country to ruin!”

The Emperor rebuked her instead.

“Medeia. Instead of burning you at the stake as the Divine Revelation dictated, I showed you the grace of letting you die comfortably, out of old affection. But you are still full of resentment.”

The man's audacity to push her to death and demand gratitude was no longer surprising.

“Whether it's the Divine Revelation or any other reason, it doesn't matter.”

Medeia spat out a sneer.

“Your Majesty always stood by and watched. When I stole the national treasure, when I beheaded the Evil Dragon and ousted the former Emperor, when our child died, it was never your fault.”

The man with the bright, tender smile was gone.

Only a vile man remained, blinded by ambition, who betrayed her and drove her into the mire.

“Just end it quickly. I don't want to see any more of this sordid sight.”

She raised her chin proudly. The knight opened the stopper of the black bottle hanging from his waist.

‘Leia will survive. I’m so glad.’

Three days ago, Medeia, avoiding the Emperor's eyes, asked her cousin, with whom she was particularly close, to help her young daughter escape.

She sold all her assets and turned them into jewels. At least until Leia came of age, there would be no problem.

Because she had exhausted all her funds and power to secure a refuge, Medeia herself was caught here, but she had no regrets.

“……I regret the children’s fate. But at least you won’t be lonely. That’s a relief.”

Children?

Medeia's face froze like ice for a moment.

It was like a mother's instinct to sense her child's safety.

“Leia……. Leia, no way.”

Then, pink hair fluttered behind the knights. Medeia froze.

“I’m sorry, Medeia.”

“Birna, why are you here……!”

Why was her cousin, who should be crossing the border by now, here?

Medeia's body began to tremble with shock.

“I couldn't betray His Majesty. I’m sorry, Medeia. But this is not right. It’s not right.”

Birna leaned her frail body against the Emperor's shoulder. Her white hand gently stroked the Emperor's arm.

Thud.

Birna handed a small bundle to Medeia, who staggered and sat down.

It was the pouch she had given Leia, who was clinging to her, as she was being separated. The pouch with the small flower pattern was soaked with blood and dark red.

“Aaaaaah!”

Medeia screamed, unable to even hold the blood-soaked pouch, her fingers trembling.

Leia, my little Leia!

How scared she must have been. How much she must have resented her mother.

“The children will understand me.”

The Emperor's expression was so ruthless that he did not look like a father who had lost his child.

“Iason, you beast!”

Eyes filled with malice glared at the Emperor.

“Even beasts! Do not harm their own children!”

The clattering armor soon blocked her view.

“How dare you speak such nonsense to His Majesty-! Gag the prisoner! Your Majesty, let us go.”

The Emperor smiled softly at his wife, with whom he had shared a lifetime of hardship and adversity, and gave her his last greeting.

“Medeia, farewell. I will deeply remember your contributions.”

He did not forget to leave a tender word to Birna as he turned around.

“The day is chilly, so do not stay too long, Miss Claudio.”

“I am simply overwhelmed that Your Majesty is so kind and considerate.”

As Iason disappeared, Birna's sweet smile vanished. A cold sneer settled on her face as she looked down at Medeia.

“How is the price for giving up everything, Medeia?”

“What?”

“Ahahaha! You pretended to be a Princess, but look at you now. Baldina is destroyed, and your brother was torn to pieces by a Demon Beast. All because of a stupid bitch like you!”

Medeia could not understand.

Birna, her cousin, was her family, so why was she saying such things? Why was she so happy?

Why did she betray her? Why did she hand over her child?

“No, I shouldn't blame you. I was able to get this far thanks to you.”

Why was she……?

“The loyalists of Baldina and your brother were not easy to deal with. If it weren't for you, we would have failed.”

“We……?”

Medeia, panting, slowly turned her head.

Soon, her eyes, realizing everything, sank deeply.

“……It was your family who encouraged me to steal the Sage's Eye for Iason. It was from then?”

“You're wrong. It was much, much longer ago than that. You didn't even realize it, poor Dea.”

Birna cackled, excited.

“Your whole life, your entire life, has been in the hands of our family.”

“…….”

“Thanks to you, my father will become the King of Baldina, and I will become the Empress of this Empire.”

How much she wanted to shout at that innocent face. That you were just a puppet from the beginning.

“…….”

The past flashed by like a panorama.

And she realized.

Rebellion. Destruction. Death.

The uncle's family was everywhere in the tragedies that had happened to Medeia.

“Iason knows too. He has been with us for a long time.”

“…….”

“You were just our chess piece. Do you understand now?”

Green eyes sank deeply.

A heart-wrenching moan flowed silently between her bitten lips.

“……Iason.”

Instead of vomiting blood at the betrayal of her beloved, Medeia held his name.

In order not to forget.

All the lies he had told and all the sacrifices she had made.

A drop of dark red tears flowed down Medeia's cheek.

The knights straightened their backs at the chilling sensation.

However, Birna could not hide her happy face at the sight of her cousin suffering.

“Don't be too sad. You'll be able to see your beloved family soon. Aren't you happy?”

“Birna, you too.”

Her parched lips slowly rose. Red pupils stared straight at Birna.

“I will not forget. You, your family. I will not forget all of Claudio's.”

A sneer hung under the light of her eyes, shedding tears of blood. Only then did Birna flinch and step back.

“Wh, what…….”

Then she became angry.

What more was there to fear from a useless puppet doll now?

“What are you doing? Pour it into her mouth quickly.”

She snapped at the knight.

The knight holding the black bottle grabbed Medeia's chin roughly.

“Hold her! So she can't move!”

The knights grabbed her struggling limbs tightly. And they poured the poison in the vial indiscriminately.

The poison splattered everywhere. Black drops of poison and red drops of blood mixed and flowed unsightly over her white skin.

Even at the moment of closing her eyes, Medeia repeated.

I will repay with death for my foolishness in not recognizing the beasts.

But your original sin.

Even if several lives pass, I will surely return and ask again.

Even if I am born as a mere creature, even if I have to wait for an eternity.

Neither those who follow fate nor those who are loved by God will be able to avoid me.

Until your blood brightly adorns the path I take,

I will not stop.