“It does feel familiar.”

Leticia said softly, “So, what are you trying to say?”

There has to be some hidden purpose behind telling me this story, right?

But Leticia wasn’t crazy. She had no way of guessing how a crazy person thought.

“Heh-heh, heh heh heh...”

The Black-Clad Lady laughed loudly. “What if I told you it was you, back then? Would you believe me?”

“Do you really think I’d believe you?”

Leticia gave her a firm, contemptuous eye-roll. What a joke. Surely she knew who she used to be.

A classic, completely useless male student, falling in love with a young, wise king from another world and helping him get revenge. Oh my god...

Just thinking about it made it sound ridiculous...

“Ah, it’d be a lot more interesting if you believed me...”

The Black-Clad Lady sighed with some regret, then continued. “Well, this story doesn’t really have anything to do with you. But once you’ve heard the whole thing, you’ll understand what I’m trying to say. Heh heh.”

The kingdom fell, and the empire got its wish, successfully swallowing the sweet fruit that had hung before its eyes for years—and that it had coveted for just as long.

The people put up a brave resistance, but how many could hold fast to their hearts under a mix of iron-fisted rule and conciliatory policies?

Besides, they still had to live. The only difference was that the master over their heads had changed—one relatively familiar ruler had been replaced by a whole group of strangers.

It might take a long time to absorb all these new resources and stamp them with the empire’s mark.

One generation, then two. By the third, the kingdom would be completely extinguished—not just as a state, but in spirit as well.

That would be the empire’s total victory.

The empire’s leaders eagerly looked forward to it, all waiting. The emperor, who stood at the very pinnacle of the empire, was so pleased that he specifically ordered three consorts to be chosen from across the country, “to share in the people’s joy.”

“Heh.”

Hearing this, Leticia couldn’t help giving a mocking little laugh. Then pain made her grimace, and she swallowed the amusement right back down.

It hurts so much...

“You’ve got a good eye.”

Whatever the Black-Clad Lady read into Leticia’s instinctive “Heh,” she nodded and went on. “The three chosen women lived up to their looks. Each had breathtaking beauty and a different, yet equally captivating, air about her. One was the daughter of an imperial duke, one was the daughter of a wealthy merchant’s lover, and the last was a farmer’s child.”

His Majesty the Emperor was very taken with the three women.

“Hiss...”

Leticia drew a quiet breath through her teeth and asked, “Are you saying that the woman who shared an extraordinary bond with the king was one of those three?”

“You could say that. And you could also say you couldn’t.”

The Black-Clad Lady smiled. “I don’t know how the emperor enjoyed himself with them, or what the empress thought of the three. After all, this is only a story, and I wasn’t there to witness it myself.”

But three months after the incident ended, the emperor personally executed his lawful wife—the woman who had devoted herself to her man, her children, and their country.

“Huh?”

Hearing Leticia’s disbelieving gasp, the Black-Clad Lady continued telling her the story of that empire.

The empress’s death sent shockwaves throughout the empire. Her family had given a great deal of strength and made many sacrifices to help the emperor seize the throne.

After that, the emperor stubbornly decided to move the capital, relocating it to another place.

“That’s a blow to the very foundations...”

It actually made Leticia feel as if she were reading a heavily altered version of the story of King Zhou of Shang...

As she listened to the Black-Clad Lady, Leticia gradually pieced together the final history of that empire in her mind.

The emperor moved the capital. The emperor accidentally offended the Church. The emperor didn’t apologize. The emperor wanted to expand his territory again. The emperor’s health failed. And the emperor’s descendants—the children born to those three consorts—died one after another before they could even grow up.

“That old flame must’ve been behind all of it.”

Leticia felt that her neck was a little better. It seemed she was finally starting to get used to the pain.

“Mm-hm.”

The Black-Clad Lady made a nasal sound. “More or less. There’s just the ending left. Want to hear it?”

“Of course.”

Leticia nodded. “A story needs a beginning and an end to be called a story.”

“Heh heh. You already know how it ends, really. The empire fell.”

The Black-Clad Lady’s voice was as hoarse and grating as ever. “The emperor was eventually called a madman. They bound him to the gallows and hanged him. As for his three beloved consorts, the duke’s daughter died with him after his death. The merchant’s daughter fled after the emperor died, but she was captured and executed as a Witch. The farmer’s daughter survived, but she had gone mad. In the end, the Church imprisoned her, and she died of old age in her cell.”

“That’s not exactly a happy ending.”

Leticia said, “So which one was his beloved? The merchant’s daughter?”

“Heh heh. It was the duke’s daughter.”

The Black-Clad Lady’s laughter turned sharper than ever. “And she hadn’t been the duke’s daughter for a long time. She was that young king—the one who had once been full of ambition, but whose heart was ultimately blinded by revenge.”

“Huh? What?”

Leticia was startled. “Then why did that king die with the emperor?”

“‘Died with him’ is just a manner of speaking.”

The Black-Clad Lady laughed and waved a hand. “A living corpse, barely clinging to life, will always choose to leave once it’s fulfilled its long-held wish, won’t it?”

“The reason I’m telling you this story is you.”

The Black-Clad Lady reached out and poked Leticia with one finger, knocking her back onto the bed. “Your power is almost exactly the same as the duke’s daughter’s.”

That woman had once been gentle and dignified, graceful and well-mannered. Though she possessed an unbelievable power, she never let it tempt her into corruption. She hoped instead that, with this “gift from God,” she could find a lifetime of happiness.

But it wasn’t a gift from God. It was a demon’s curse.

For the sake of her beloved, to soothe his utterly shattered heart, the duke’s daughter agreed without hesitation to give up her knowledge, her body, even her soul.

The duke’s daughter died. In her place lived a king bent on revenge.

He, wearing her identity, became her. He gave up everything that was his and burned away everything that was hers. In dreams, he bitterly savored the sweetness of the past. In reality, he drifted in sensual abandon beneath the emperor’s bed curtains, singing and dancing like a songbird. With an enchanting face and a beautiful body, he pleased the man who had destroyed everything he had. Through his own corruption, he dragged his enemy, step by step, down to the bottom of the Abyss.

“That’s the fate Demon Maids who serve as a [Bridal Garment] are supposed to have.”

The Black-Clad Lady smiled meaningfully. “But you don’t seem very willing to become that Bridal Garment, little girl.”