Empress of Another World

Thirty Four

There once was a girl. Her mother called her Bea. She was the daughter of a noble family that protected the southern border of Cransia. The northern border was often attacked by pirates.

It was an old, powerful family, but unfortunately, Bea didn’t lead a privileged life. It was because her mother was an unmarried lowly maid who got pregnant by the count.

Her beauty was legendary, but it didn’t help her. Her father’s legal wife, the Countess, was angry at how Bea was more beautiful than her own daughter. The Countess was cruel to her. The count, her own father, ignored her.

She didn’t lead an easy life. It got even worse when she turned 16.

The former emperor, Levencius, was over 40 years old at the time and still without an heir. An order was made to every noble family in the kingdom to send in their daughters. The emperor would choose some of these girls to become his concubines and bear him a son.

The former emperor’s cruelty and deviant taste were well-known to everyone. Any girls sent to him were bound to be abused by him.

The Countess had no intention of sending her own daughter to such a pervert. She nagged her husband and finally, when Bea became 16, she was legally acknowledged by the Count as his daughter. Within six months, she was sent to the former emperor.

The emperor did not select all the girls sent. If she wasn’t chosen, or she didn’t keep the emperor’s interest, she could have had a quiet peaceful life.

However, her beauty worked against her. She was one of the three most beautiful women in the castle. The former emperor didn’t favor her the most, but she still held the emperor’s interest.

This made many to hate her. The one who was most jealous was Katleyanira, who, at the time, was the second wife to the emperor.

The following year, Bea gave birth to a son. It was Lucretius. The former emperor was so thrilled that he gave her the position of the fourth wife. He demoted the existing fourth wife to become a mere concubine, which made her hate Bea.

When Lucretius was three years old, the former emperor anointed him as his heir to the throne. He was the only living son to Levencius. The former emperor divorced his empress at the time and placed Lucretius’ mother in the position. This made the divorced empress and his powerful family Bea’s enemy.

She collected so many enemies over time. On top of it, Bea didn’t have a good personality for an empress. She was neither sneaky nor diplomatic.

If she married an average nobleman and lived a normal life, perhaps she would have become a good wife and a mother with her gentle, naïve personality.

However, as an empress, it made her weak. Katleyanira, who was the second wife at the time, pretended to be her friend. When the position of the first wife became available, it was Empress Beatrice who begged the emperor to place Katleyanira in that place. She placed her in a place of huge power.

After a while, Katleyanira finally gave birth to a son and became the emperor’s favorite. He lost interest in Empress Beatrice and didn’t sleep with her for a long time. Then one night, he became terribly drunk and visited Bea. From this night, Empress Beatrice became pregnant and her belly started to get bigger. The problem was, the emperor was so drunk that night he didn’t remember visiting Empress Beatrice.

He became angry and suspicious as the empress got bigger. A record was kept of which wife the emperor visits every night. This should have cleared Bea’s name, but Katleyanira bribed the record keepers to delete the entry. She then paid off a few witnesses to swear the emperor was with her that night.