Isekai Tyrant

Prologue

The hot breath of Cadmael mingled with the cold air of winter as it fanned against the delicate neck of Roselle. Her red hair spread above the snow as she was pinned down by the ex-emperor. She stared wide-eyed to the hazy sky. Her eyes and body trembled from both fear and the cold. The only warmth she could feel was the body heat he and she shared. But as his calloused hands pressed her own soft ones to the ground, she could tell that even this last bit of comfort they both have will soon be gone.

Her trance was snapped from the familiar melodic chuckle from the man. She looked up at Cadmael who lovingly pressed his face against her shoulder. Sensing her shift in position, he met her fearful and bewildered gaze.

The familiar ruby eyes met with her green ones. It was the same shade of rubies that looked at her with such indifference that became irritation, conviction, and worry. It was the same red that looked at her so lovingly. But no matter how they may be the same, these eyes cannot be the same as Alastair's. Because these particular ruby eyes had always held one type of emotion only- their owner's deranged obsession.

It's been long since she saw him at the prison. He has changed. He's lost weight. Bruises and half-dry wounds covered his entire body. His eyes have also sunk from the lack of sleep for weeks. The prison's torture clearly did a toll on him. Still, the abuse could not hide his natural radiance.

"How've you been?" Cadmael smiled his signature smile of subtle mockery. He let his hand gather a few strands of her hair and lift it for a smell. As expected, it still smelled the faint smell of fragrant Briar roses. Roselle did not reply.

"I've been well," he continued. Cadmael closed his eyes. Roselle looked at his thinned face. "The servants were rude these days, but at the very least they still did their job."

'Does he still think that he's the emperor? To designate prison guards and torturers as servants of the imperial palace...' Roselle wondered. Until this point, he's trying to put up a false pretense. Does he want her to humor him just as she's always had?

"You seem irritated." Cadmael fluttered his eyes open. Roselle glared at him. He chuckled again.

"Listen, Roselle. As your emperor, I have one final imperial command of you."

"You..."

"Hmm?" Cadmael stroked her hair against his cheek.

"You are not the emperor." She looked at his eyes with resolute. 'Not anymore.'

Cadmael arched his eyes as if he heard something amusing. "If I am not the emperor, then who is?"

"Alastair." Roselle gasped as the hand that held her hair suddenly grasped her chin strongly.

The teasing face of Cadmael had changed to invoke horror as his smile disappeared. Tears of fear dripped down Roselle's cheeks as she looked at it. She's seen Cadmael so much, but she has never seen him frown. For every single day she's seen him, he'd always put up that damned smile of his. The surprise the expression gave made it uncanny.

The frown slowly turned back to a smile. "Right... Pardon me. I forgot that I am no longer the emperor. Would you forgive me, Princess Briar? No, perhaps I should call you Empress now?"

Cadmael gave out a small laugh. "I apologize for not being able to attend your wedding yesterday, Your Majesty. You see, this prince has been put to house arrest again. That's why I couldn't go."

Roselle looked at the mad man in concern. Cadmael finally noticed the dripping tears. "Oh. You're crying Your Majesty." He lowered his chapped lips to both eyes to kiss them away. Of whether the loving kiss on her own lips was done to comfort her as well, she does not know.

It tasted both sweet and salty with her tears. Perhaps he did it to comfort himself instead.

He lifted his face and smiled at her again. His ruby eyes wavered. As if he was using the last of his strength to try and grasp himself to what is reality.

"You are Alastair's wife."

Roselle nodded.

"I don't have you. You're his. Not mine."

Roselle looked at him in confusion.

"You're not mine!" Cadmael's lone hand that pinned her to the ground tightened its grip.

She yelped. "Y-yes!"

The deranged smile he's always held became more deranged before flinging his attention from her to the white expanse before him. "He's coming."

Roselle tried to look at the direction Cadmael was facing.

"He's coming to take you back." He gave her a small smile. Roselle looked at him again. His smile became gentler. "I never had you, didn't I?"

Roselle gazed at him straight in the eyes. "No."

Cadmael shifted his eyes away and made a sad smile. "Then had I always been emperor?"

Roselle didn't know how to answer that. She was simply speechless.

Cadmael finally let her hands go. Slowly, she crawled away from him. All the time she crawled, she looked at his sullen face that had its rubies lose all life just as she had seen moments before. The sad smile remained etched to his mouth.

"Leave. This emperor wishes to be alone to take what's left of him."

"...What?" She involuntarily let her question out.

"What he has always only have."

Roselle ran away. Amidst barren trees and the falling snow that fell around her that covered her tracks, she ran to the direction Cadmael faced. To Alastair, the man she has sworn her life to. As she ran away from his sight, Cadmael muttered the last words he had for her.

Sure enough, he was there. On top of his steed, just as when she and him first met on the streets of Barbara. He was looking for her. Immediately, he went down and ran to meet her halfway. A passionate kiss of relief and reunion met.

The snow continued to fall around them. At the place where Cadmael was left, his blood drained to dye the icy ground the same color as his ruby eyes. He gazed at the hazy sky and smiled, just as always with the same signature smile of subtle mockery.

Emperor Cadmael had killed so much. And in the end, has made his last kill to be himself. To him, it was the last thing he could do to take something from his half-brother. The bittersweet revenge Alastair would never get. In the end, Cadmael had his last laugh.

"Presenting the mighty sun of the Augustin Empire!" The prime minister shouted to take the attention of everyone in the throne room. Roselle looked at the doors that glittered with carved gold. The dragon split in half as it allowed the person behind through. "His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Cadmael Leonhart Viktor de Sol Augustin!"

The flowers were awestruck as their eyes made contact with the emperor's silhouette. He walked passed them towards his throne. Roselle continued to bow her head but still managed to sneak a little peek to the man who could be her husband as the year ends. Her eyes widened as she recognized the man from the dark alleyway.

Golden hair that seemed to sparkle with every individual strand, a face of an angel with a body that showed proof of the strongest swordsman in the land, and the blue eyes that became a ruby red before her.

'Ruby eyes are the trademark of the imperial family of the Augustin Empire.'

Cadmael caught her discreet gaze and met it head on. He smiled as his first words rang inside her head.

"I want you."