In This Life, I Will Be Your Dog - Chapter 120

Impes, frowning in confusion, shot Caelus a glare.

“Mona. The one you called for every night. The one you slept with—that servant.”

Impes’s face froze. Yet his bright red eyes quivered minutely in disbelief.

“That servant fed you poison every night and pretended to be the Grand Duchess. Still can’t figure it out?”

“……!”

“Also, before Bellona became the Grand Duchess—on the night you tried to feed her this same poison and do something vile—the woman you held wasn’t Bellona, but Mona.”

“Lies… I was with Bellona, I’m sure of it!”

Startled by the vicious gleam in Caelus’s eyes, Impes continued in a strained voice, “I-It was… It was the Grand Duchess who came to my room—”

“Think carefully. Would someone like her ever go so far as to deceive me by telling you a servant’s name? Was the Bellona Riknis you knew that kind of woman?”

“……!”

“The Bellona I know—if she truly had feelings for you—she would’ve proudly told me you were her choice.”

It was only an example, but just imagining it made Caelus grind his teeth in fury.

As if something clicked, Impes’s gaze grew cold. He suddenly recalled the day she took the vice captain’s exam.

Hadn’t she said, in front of all those knights, that she would choose her own master?

Arrogant as it was, he liked her boldness. And with her unusually charming looks for a knight, and skill surpassing gender, he’d wanted her even more.

Having her by his side would’ve felt like possessing a unique jewel no one else could have.

So he desired her even more.

But she always slipped through his fingers. She stirred his heart with sweet words, yet whenever he reached out to claim her, she flew off like a bird.

Maybe that’s when it began.

He did everything he could to trap that lowly knight. But the more elusive she became, the more obsessed he grew.

In the end, the man she chose wasn’t him—it was Caelus.

She had staked her future not on the soon-to-be Emperor, but on the cast-aside prince.

As if she had known all along it would come to this.

Yes, Bellona Riknis was that kind of woman. Arrogant for a knight of her status, shrewd, and bolder than anyone.

A hollow laugh slipped through Impes’s clenched teeth.

“Looks like the truth finally hit you. Now that you know, go figure out whether the seed you planted actually took root in that servant.”

Though still stunned, Impes’s expression slowly crumpled.

But before he could even process his anger, Caelus threw another burden onto him.

“A trial will soon be held for the Empress and Marquis Graeme. The hunting festival incident will come to light too.”

“……”

“The Empress is finished. If you want to live, you’d better find a way out. If the truth of your birth comes out in court—”

“His Majesty… His Majesty must already know,” Impes asked in a defeated tone.

Seeing the look of total surrender on his face, Caelus answered without hesitation, “He knows everything. The Empress’s affair, your real father, and even that you and your mother fed him poison all this time.”

“That wasn’t… I wasn’t involved in that—”

Just as he tried to defend himself, Impes abruptly fell silent. He hung his head and was quiet for a moment before speaking again.

“I have… a request.”

“What is it.”

“Let me see my mother… just once.”

He had been so ruthless just a moment ago, and now he was begging to see his mother.

It was laughable.

Though Caelus thought it typical of him, seeing the man unchanged after all this time made him feel more disgusted with himself than anything.

‘To think… I lost everything to a guy like that.’

Suppressing his rage, Caelus calmly reeled him into the trap.

“Fine. I’ll arrange it tonight. Keep it short, and then go straight to Count Louvre’s estate.”

“What…?”

Caught off guard, Impes looked up in surprise.

Caelus gave him his first gentle smile.

“That’s your only chance at survival. So run, Impes.”

***

Impes’s footsteps halted as he stepped into the Empress’s palace with a grim face.

From within the Empress’s bedchamber came the sound of something shattering, followed by Violentia’s shrill voice echoing through the corridor.

As he hurried toward the room, the maids loitering nervously glanced his way, startled for a moment before bowing their heads.

He lowered his swollen face slightly and was just about to grab the doorknob—

“What has Your Majesty ever done for me?! You couldn’t forget some wench from another country who tricked you, and you neglected me for all those years!”

At the Empress’s voice, filled with fury, he could tell who was inside. As his trembling hand reached for the door again, another resentful cry rang out.

“You knew the truth all along, didn’t you? That Impes wasn’t your child! And yet, because you needed the power of my family, you pretended not to know! And now you’re going to pin everything on me?!”

Impes’s hand on the doorknob trembled violently. As if begging through tears would barely be enough, even his mother was now blocking his way forward.

His crimson eyes flared with rage.

“Then kill me with your own hands! Kill me yourself, Your Majesty!”

Another loud crash rang out from inside. Just as he reached to open the door, a hand suddenly yanked him back.

Startled, Impes turned and saw the Emperor standing at the doorway, his golden eyes glaring down with contempt.

Their gazes locked for a brief moment, and it made Impes’s chest tighten with dread.

At that moment, he understood. Why the Emperor had always made him feel so small.

Not once had the Emperor treated him like a son. He had never allowed him close, always regarding him with that same cold stare, never offering even the simplest greeting.

A hollow laugh slipped from Impes’s lips, twisting his face grotesquely. His bloodshot red eyes, filled with resentment and hatred, glared back at the Emperor’s frigid golden gaze.

Then the knights approached and dragged him away from the Emperor.

The Emperor, silent to the end, walked off indifferently—as if even a single word was too much to waste on the likes of him.

The wound left by the Emperor turned to madness again, and once more it turned against his mother.

As he entered the room, he found it a disaster—Violentia’s tantrum had left it nearly impassable.

Sitting in the wreckage, Violentia rushed toward him the moment she saw him and grabbed hold of him.

“Impes, why did you come here?! You should be begging His Majesty to spare your mother’s life!”

“……”

“If something happens to me, you’re finished too! Hurry—”

“Why should I?”

She didn’t even seem to notice her son’s battered face. The moment they met, she had only worried about her own safety. Impes couldn’t even believe this was truly his mother.

At his cold voice, something unfamiliar, Violentia’s eyes flinched.

Looking down at her with an icy gaze, he suddenly curled his lips into a crooked smile.

“Why should I, huh? How much more do I have to sacrifice for the woman who ruined my life?!”

“Ah!”

With a rough shove, her frail body fell helplessly onto a floor littered with broken glass.

She looked at her bloodied hand in shock. Impes approached and crouched before her.

“I-Impes…?”

“If you were going to sleep around, couldn’t you have chosen someone decent? You bedded some lowborn knight and gave birth to me, made my life a living hell—and when I made even one mistake, you called me lowly and vulgar, fed me poison? Was it my fault your precious man was beneath you, so you took it out on me?!”

Seeing his mother trembling before him—a woman who had always berated and scolded him—filled him with a strange thrill.

As if a weight had finally lifted from his chest, Impes began spewing filth without hesitation.

“And now you still want to live? If it were me, I’d die from the shame.”

“I-Impes. How could you say such things to your own mother—”

“If you’re truly a mother, you should be willing to sacrifice for your child. So this time, why don’t you sacrifice for me?”

His earlier cruelty faded, and now, gently brushing back her disheveled silver hair, he grinned and whispered, “Die for me. Make it pathetic. That way, maybe the nobles will pity me a little. Don’t make me stain my hands with your blood too. Die on your own.”

The hand caressing her hair slowly slid down and brushed against her slender neck.

His bulging red eyes glinted wildly, and an eerily bright smile bloomed across his face.