Claudia's eyes narrowed slightly as she looked at Emperor Aubrey.
Her body leaned back a little, trying to escape.
But…
At the instant her body moved even slightly, a force that tore through the air ripped open space itself. The sharp thrust made the air howl with a piercing sound.
Even though she was wearing a mask, she could still feel the fierce wind rushing straight at her face.
Claudia quickly turned her head back.
On the ground, an extremely ordinary spear had already been completely driven into the earth.
Half of the spear's shaft was embedded deep into the ground. Dozens of cracks burst open around it, spreading outward in all directions, as if a giant fang had bitten straight into the land.
The largest cracks even sank several meters down into the earth.
The biggest of them twisted crookedly, extending from the spear shaft all the way toward Aubrey's feet.
This… how far away was it?
She hadn't even seen it clearly.
Did Aubrey even move?
The emperor slowly stepped forward, walking to the palace wall. Once again, he picked up a spear.
He casually placed his hands behind his back, resting the spear against him.
Those murky eyes quietly stared at Claudia, yet the gaze that seemed to lock onto prey burst forth with terrifying pressure, making Claudia feel an even more dreadful sense of oppression.
She was clearly one of the very top demon hunters, yet under the imperial emperor's gaze, the hairs all over her body stood on end, and even beads of sweat appeared on the back of her neck.
"Don't move."
A sense of powerlessness, as if she were being pinned beneath the claws of a gigantic beast, washed over her. Her limbs began to tremble slightly, and the fear in her eyes rapidly magnified.
"I don't want to see that filthy demon hunter blood of yours spilling all over the ground."
"So don't move."
Claudia looked at Aubrey with a pale face, completely silent.
In the end, as if she had come to terms with reality, she suddenly burst out laughing.
"Heh… hahahahaha."
The pressure that had been weighing down on her body seemed to be forcefully shoved away by her.
With a completely indifferent attitude, she spoke to Aubrey, "Aubrey, if my blood is filthy, then… what are you?"
"Do you think you're noble?"
As she said this, Claudia raised a hand to the mask on her face and suddenly tore it off, revealing a young and beautiful face.
But on the other half of that delicate face was a black-red, mysterious pattern that spread all the way to behind her ear.
One of her eyes had turned an intense crimson, as if blood were flowing beneath it, the veins around the eyeball gradually converging toward the center.
Claudia smiled and pointed at the half of her face covered in markings.
"Don't forget this place."
"It's thanks to you."
She put the mask back on, turned her head, and spoke to Viktor in a calm, gentle voice, "Sorry. I scared you."
"It's fine." Viktor shrugged, hands in his pockets.
Leaning against the wall, he showed that he didn't mind at all.
Claudia Stock.
In the background lore, she was the only surviving woman of the Stock family of the Empire.
After Claudia became empress, the entire family should have risen to great power and prosperity because of her.
Yet this family was completely wiped out in an unexpected way.
Only Claudia herself remained, the sole surviving bloodline.
The reason for this was precisely this empress.
After becoming empress, Claudia spent more than ten years gathering evidence, then turned around and sold out her own family.
Colluding with foreign forces, amassing wealth illegally within the Empire, and a long list of other crimes.
In the end, with Empress Claudia's help, Aubrey completely swallowed up the Stock family.
Many players guessed that Claudia did this because she loved Aubrey so deeply that she was willing to betray her own family.
But in reality, the game never portrayed any emotional interaction between this empress in name only and Aubrey.
Because until Aubrey's death, this empress never appeared.
When players finally saw her, it was at the demon hunters' headquarters.
She was one of the seven top executives of the demon hunter organization.
If the later story hadn't mentioned her identity as the imperial empress Claudia, no one would have even known about it.
And now, Viktor just happened to witness this scene that could be called a royal secret.
Naturally, he intended to savor it properly.
He even had to thank Kevra for providing him with such a clue.
So he could enjoy a good show.
After Claudia put her mask back on, her emotions calmed down a little.
"Alright, Aubrey. What choice are you going to make next?"
"Kill me directly? Or, like before, continue imprisoning me?"
The violent aura around Aubrey gradually cooled, becoming cold and distant, like a bottomless abyss.
Yet the terrifying pressure remained, carrying bone-chilling cold, as if it could freeze a person's soul completely. His voice was icy, "Claudia, you should know why."
"Of course I know. For that woman."
Claudia shrugged. Under this cold, it was as if she had already come to terms with death, showing no fear at all.
"What's laughable is how infatuated you were, only to end up with nothing in the end, Aubrey."
Whoosh!
The spear turned into a streak of white light, tearing through space as the sharp impact struck again.
It slammed heavily into the ground nearby.
The terrifying force caused even more severe cracking. The surrounding earth caved in, and the massive palace trembled along with it.
What terrifying power.
And this was merely a casual strike from Aubrey.
That was Claudia's assessment.
But…
"Powerless rage."
"You only need to tilt it slightly to pierce straight through my body."
"But I don't believe that's because you went soft."
Claudia looked at the cold-faced Aubrey and smiled faintly.
"You never loved me. Not ever."
As the words fell, Claudia struggled to pull the spear out of the ground.
Gripping it tightly in her hands, she looked back at Aubrey with a provocative gaze.
Then she flipped the spear in her hands and aimed it at her own body.
Pshhk!
The silver cold iron pierced straight through Claudia's flesh.
Shocking crimson blood burst out violently, completely covering the ground.
Mixed within the blood were faint black patterns, extremely eerie.
Yet Viktor and Aubrey merely watched Claudia's act of self-harm quietly. Neither of them moved to stop her.
They watched, helplessly, as Claudia committed suicide.
In the end, Claudia's body lay on the ground.
Her body and blood gradually began to merge, intertwining as if becoming one.
The bright red blood slowly solidified, flowing along the cracks in the ground, dispersing and disappearing.
"She's gone."
Aubrey looked at the bloodstains that were still fading away and spoke calmly.
But his voice seemed much older than before.
"It seems Your Majesty isn't in a very good mood."
"Would you like to talk?"
Aubrey glanced at Viktor, then turned and walked into the royal corridor.
Viktor followed closely behind him, quietly listening as Aubrey's voice echoed once more, "Claudia Stock, my first wife. That was before I ascended the throne…"
This was a political marriage of necessity. At the time, the Stock family had not yet fallen and was considered a long-established noble house.
The previous emperor arranged this marriage for Aubrey, having him marry Claudia.
Only then could he inherit the throne.
After Aubrey became emperor, Claudia gave birth to two sons for him in succession.
They were the eldest prince, Albany, and the second prince, Owiser.
At first, life after becoming emperor was extremely comfortable for Aubrey.
Eat, sleep, train, confiscate estates.
This stable life continued until the Kingdom of Cant came forward to show goodwill.
The Grand Duke of Cant came to meet Aubrey and wanted to offer his own daughter to Emperor Aubrey in marriage.
The moment Aubrey saw her, he froze.
Because…
"She was my true love."
Although Aubrey was powerful enough to slay a dragon alone at the age of seventeen, at that time, he was not yet powerful enough to cover the sky with one hand.
During a war, he met that girl from a neighboring country.
They fell in love.
He had never liked anyone so deeply before.
But he was the heir of the Empire and could not choose his own marriage.
Let alone marry someone from another country.
So he missed that youthful love.
Until fifteen years later.
Already in his thirties, Aubrey once again met her in his own country.
She was the daughter of the Grand Duke of Cant, never married, waiting for him all her life.
And this time, already emperor, Aubrey had the power to decide for himself.
That year, Aubrey truly tasted what love was like.
Until…
"I saw it with my own eyes, Claudia killed her."
"When I reached out, wanting to hold her, all I could do was pull a child soaked in a sea of blood from her blood-drenched body."
At this moment, Viktor heard it.
Aubrey's voice was filled with long-buried sorrow.
"Aurelian was born in her mother's corpse, in an absurd and tragic way."
———
Claudia left the palace and fled beyond the royal capital.
Her whole body trembled, blood streaming from her chest.
At the last moment, she used a demon hunter blood secret art, escaping by using self-harm as the price.
Aubrey had grown even stronger.
But Claudia was not surprised.
From the moment she first knew Aubrey, he had been like someone without limits, constantly growing stronger.
She collapsed onto the grass, pulled out a pale red potion from her waist, and slowly drank it.
After tossing the bottle aside, she breathed weakly, quietly feeling a warm current wrap around her body.
Life was slowly recovering.
However, the recovery was still too slow.
In a daze, she heard the sound of wings flapping through the air.
Claudia immediately became alert, propping herself up with both hands, trying to stand.
When the sound of wings finally stopped, she could see clearly what stood in the darkness.
She immediately let out a sigh of relief.
"So it's just a crow."
That black figure stood on the grass, carefully preening its feathers, as if completely unafraid of humans.
Claudia didn't pay the crow any mind. She weakly leaned against a rock, raised her head, and looked at the star-filled sky.
'Wait, a crow?'
Zzz!
Suddenly, a noise like electrical interference echoed in Claudia's ears, so sharp it felt like her eardrums were being overclocked.
The starlight was instantly swallowed up, and everything around her turned pitch black.
Claudia's body froze in place.
'What… happened?'
Before she could react, a playful laugh slowly echoed from the darkness.
It carried endless mockery, as if dragging her straight into the abyss.
"Don't rush off just yet."
"Someone asked me to come catch you. How about you cooperate with me a bit?"