I’ll Quit as The Empress

There was a howling gust of wind, and Evelyn had fallen into the ground unconsciously.

The view of her eyes became tainted with red blood when Fabian’s army advanced ahead without reluctance. Regardless of whether they were parents or children, the civilians who ran to cross the frontier were confronted with swords and spears from the military forces.

‘Don’t stop!’

It wasn’t even close to becoming a war. It was a savagely one-sided massacre.

‘I will kill those of you who stop.’

Fabian’s hands were soaking damp with blood. Nobody knew how long he had been slaughtering his people, but his face was devoid of life. Just his eyes shone brightly on a face that brushed by a suffocating breeze that smelled of blood.

‘Kill them! All, kill all of them!’

The fiery embers in his dark eyes grew more vivid every time he saw blood. The brutality and madness that unfolded in front of her eyes were well beyond Evelyn’s imagination, who had never experienced war.

The carnage she saw now was nothing like the battlefield story she had always heard. The body of a young boy was mercilessly stabbed by the lance of Fabian’s soldier. And hundreds of spear throws swooped down like rain over the open field.

‘This isn’t a war! This isn’t the way the world should be. It’s me, the Emperor, who would put an end to it all!’

“Stop! Stop it!”

Evelyn couldn’t stand looking at it any longer, but her voice was unable to reach him. Fabian mounted his majestic steed and galloped off. The bodies of those who had been killed piled up along the way he had passed, forming a mountain. A few stray flares of fire that lit up the battlefield also scattered everywhere.

“Stop!!!…… I don’t want to see it anymore!”

Through the pleas, the horrifying scenario persisted. Fabian scorched everything in front of him into ashes in flames.

Evelyn gobbled up and lost her mind as if a dagger had stabbed her chest when Fabian sliced the throat of a mother escaping with her toddler, who was the same age as Adrian.

“Will you still have sympathy for him…..after the death of people like this?” David looked at Evelyn once again. “He’s an insane emperor; he has never changed since the beginning, and he has tried for several years to curb his murderous hunger.”

Evelyn’s eyes were drawn to the last memory bead that floated in front of her.

“Are you keen to continue watching? This is the end of his despair.”

Without the chance to shake her head, Evelyn was swept further into another landscape. She closed her eyes, hoping she didn’t see another terrifying scene. But unlike the previous two, now she sensed nothing, only a silence, with no sound.

“….. It’s over …?”

Evelyn flinched and opened her eyes in fear. In front of her eyes, she saw an endless landmass of the forest.

The massacre seemed to have ended. Because there was not a single Fabian army in that place as far as the eye could see. Only one ramshackle tower surrounded by trees and riddled in roots could be found in the middle of it.

“This is the end?”

Only then she realized the Emperor’s gruesome slaughter had been all she could think of during this time. Even so, she never thought about what might happen after that.

Evelyn’s heart began to pound at an unpleasantly quick rhythm. As in the distance, she saw a man with an exhausted and messy look dragging his heavy body forcibly closer to the tower in the wilderness.

“That’s…..”

Evelyn’s eyes welled up with tears, and she broke down crying at once. The dying person returning from the underworld seemed to be in a far better condition than he was. As she saw him, her tears were falling apart, pouring the seams of indescribable emotions.

It was Fabian.

That noble and beautiful man now had the look of a demon. He shrouded with blood and dust all over his body, from head to toes.

“Fabian…why did you have to go this far…?”

Evelyn continued to speak to him in a voice that he couldn’t hear. Fabian barely stood up when he reached the front of the tower after dragging his exhausted body too far. He staggered down and knelt on the ground.

Evelyn just realized after that, what she saw the whole time was the scene from someone else’s perspective.

David….

‘This world ….will end in this place.’

Fabian said in a poignant voice.

‘Are you the guardian of the tower?’

After the countless killings he did, nothing had left in him—only a realm of darkness and unending torment that devoured his soul.

‘I’m an Emperor who rules the people. But….. I’m really tired right now…..My ancestors supposedly did the same thing. It wasn’t a rumor; it was a proven fact. I think I know now… Though my body is already drained, the rage and madness inside me kept welling up because I could no longer kill people. I can’t resist murdering people, but I can’t put an end to my own life either. I can’t stand this pain anymore.’

As the scene shown by the second light bead, Fabian couldn’t count how many times he replicated his genocide until his appearance was no longer looked like a human being. He then placed his gaze on his empty hand. Even if he were reborn, the bloodstains on his palm would linger forever.

‘Guardian of the Tower, just like you promised to my ancestors…….Please save me now. Please put an end to this raging madness and the curse that’s coursing through my veins.’

Fabian dipped down to his knees and begged for help. The man who had once been above all else had now easily relinquished his dignity.

‘No matter how many people I kill … this hole in my heart can never be sealed and tightly closed.’

It was the death of his wife.

A chain in a motion of many deaths and terrifying screams, everything began with Evelyn’s death.

‘I can’t stand the thought of her passing away. I can’t accept her death for the rest of my life…..So please help me…..If the tower’s magic really exists, please save this world from an insane Emperor like me. …….Please erase my horrific existence off the face of this world….’

Fabian’s wish for the end of the world wasn’t as one would expect. Evelyn shut her eyes tight, so she couldn’t look any further. Fortunately, the last bead only lasted a short time. So when she reopened her eyes, Evelyn was transported back to the time when things stopped after she passed away on her bed.

“Then …… this will happen to the other time axis too?”

“No, the three visions you’ve just witnessed are the beads of prophecy. It hasn’t happened yet, but if you leave it like this, it’ll be a scene of what the future will bring.”

Evelyn’s tears flowed again as she turned her gaze to Fabian’s face, which had been frozen by the side of her dead body. She still couldn’t believe that such a gentle and kind man would be so devastated.

“Seriously, I don’t understand you. Do you still feel sad for him?”

“I can’t blame him….. It’s not his fault that he has cursed-blood.”

“That’s right. But still…..It doesn’t change the fact ….” David claimed flatly. “Originally, the Emperor’s ancestors were a little different from ordinary humans. The insanity of the Emperor’s descendants had been successfully sealed. It’s just that when the man named Fabian rose to power, the seal in his blood began to loose gradually as the tower’s magic started to weaken.”

“Then you just have to lend your power just like the tower did to his ancestors.”

“The cursed seal of the Emperor’s blood wouldn’t be broken if I have the power to do so… Even if I use all of my power, I’m still unable to stop it. Furthermore, it seems that this world no longer needs a guardian.”

“So you want a massacre to occur? Isn’t it something that can be avoided?”

With a shake of his head, David expressed his irritation, as it’s difficult for humans like Evelyn to understand the current situation in the first place.

“I did forbidden things and used time sorcery because of that prophecy. Now, if you unleash this stopped time, everything you saw will become a reality.”

Evelyn frowned. For a long time, she seemed to have been mistaken. She was too conceited to believe she could alter the outcome. This wasn’t a catastrophe that could have been avoided with human intervention, and she made a decision without realizing it.

“So, you were after my child’s life……because you saw that.”

His violet eyes were filled with unfamiliar emotions as he stared at Evelyn. “There’s one more thing…… don’t you already know?”

Evelyn’s blue eyes glowed with sadness for a brief moment.

“Your soul …. you’ve felt it. From the very beginning …… since the time in this place has ground to a stop.”

“….. I’m dead….”

David was deafeningly silent before he opened his mouth.

“No matter how many times you turn back the time and repeat it…..You will die….”

Sometimes, Evelyn was afraid of her own feelings. Why did David have to be so persistent? Why was he so adamant about keeping her away from Fabian? Even if the time were flipped back and all was different, her fear of dying at thirty would remain in Evelyn’s mind.

“Do you mean that… my lifespan doesn’t change no matter how many times I turn back the time?”

“It will remain the same,” David answered without hesitation.

“Is that the fate you’ve been talking about?”

“I don’t know. But the lifespan of a woman named Evelyn won’t change. The allotted time to live your life is only 30 years.”

That’s when a puzzle piece Evelyn never wanted to insert finally appeared connected one piece to the other. She had to leave Fabian. No, to be more precise, it was Fabian who had to erase his love for her before she left him forever.

“Even if I borrow the power of the tower …… I still can’t change it. I’m sorry that your life is so short.”

Evelyn nodded her head slowly.

“I … won’t regret it.”

Even though the truth was heart was now packed with a slew of regrets. She came here for Adrian, but she also couldn’t leave Fabian like that. Even more so if she looked at the countless innocent lives that would die in his hands.

“Are you sure you would do well if you go back in time?”

” That heinous disaster must never be allowed to happen.”

“We think the same.” He said, with violet-colored pupils overflowing with rare emotion.

“Promise me….. that you will let my child live.”

“….Hah….I don’t know why I’m doing this now…I will.”

David no longer resembled the bad guy, an image that had once been associated with him. So Evelyn wanted to uphold her promise as well since David had vowed to save Adrian’s life.

“Would you like to go now?”

“……Yes.”

David swung his arm as if he were dispelling the view. The Empress’s room disappeared, and the landscape surrounding them changed into a small attic.

“I’d love to be here…… I think I know why I came back through this attic.”

It was the attic above the Empress’s bedroom, where Evelyn had been for the first time a while ago.

“Did you come through this place? Then, I have to open the time-gap here.”

Evelyn just nodded slightly, even though she didn’t know how the time axis overlapped with one another.

“There’s definitely a small gap over there too. It looks like it’s still connected.”

David muttered, but Evelyn couldn’t hear his self-talk very well. Because the terrifying scene she had seen before still loomed over her mind.

” David, since I will go back with my memories, I’ll probably see you there.”

“Well…… I guess so. I’m still a guardian. Another me will always help you for the same purpose.”

“Don’t you have feelings?”

“The guardian only has one purpose in his life.”

“To follow fate and keep the balance?”

David had a strange expression on his face, but it appeared to be more of a faint smile. “You must have heard it from another me….Yeah, that’s it.”

“Aren’t you human too?”

“It’s a little different. Just like the Emperor’s bloodline.”

“I envy you for being able to live your life with just one purpose in mind. Always… your purpose and beliefs are never shaken.” Evelyn’s blue eyes loaded with grief again when she remembered Fabian.

She knew the massacre wasn’t right, and she also knew that each of the countless lost lives was just as precious as Adrian’s. There was no room for Fabian to be forgiven. If God existed, heaven wouldn’t open its door for his soul forever.

“You can always think rationally, and I envy that.”

Evelyn’s heart had been shattered, and transparent tears kept flowing down her cheeks. At the end of the world, even though he had become an unforgivable sinner, she desperately wished to hug Fabian-who was kneeling in the wilderness before everything began to crumble into pieces.

“You’re still crying for that person, even after seeing him turn into a demon?”

“Yes….”

David was confronted with a pair of blue eyes that were fixed on him.

“The Emperor’s bloodline is the sin itself.”

“No matter how great his sin … … no matter how grave his crime … … he’s the only husband I have who has made the marriage vows to me.”

David’s brows were furrowed, and he had a weird expression on his face.

“But the Emperor is a very sinful person.”

Evelyn didn’t answer, and David took her silence as an answer and stepped closer to her with a large bead of light that glistened so brightly.

He placed the bead between them, and it grew bigger along with the sound of his low murmurs of spells.

The portal-door to the dimension of time for Evelyn to return to the past would open soon, and she couldn’t come back again forever.