Chapter 1
Chapter 1
My father is a peculiar man.
He guarded the borders, commanded a massive army, and possessed a wild, arrogant temperament.
His dream was to raise an army, revolt, and march into the capital.
On the fifteenth of every month, without fail, he would write a letter to the Emperor, asking if he was dead yet.
The first time I saw one of those letters, I was stunned.
“Dad, aren’t you afraid he’ll come to kill us?”
My father held his brush, his brows furrowed in deep thought. “Will he?”
Then he changed “Are you dead yet?” to “Why aren’t you dead yet?”
I didn’t dare speak after that.
But what was even stranger was that no matter what outrageous things my father wrote in those letters, the Emperor never replied.
Wait, that’s not right. He did reply once.
It was when my father found me, still in swaddling clothes, by the side of the road.
He was overjoyed and wrote to the Emperor, announcing that he had a daughter.
The Emperor, who had previously acted as if he were dead, replied remarkably fast that time.
The letter stated that his Crown Prince was already a year old, and they could arrange a betrothal between the children.
He even sent along the imperial decree for the marriage.
My father fell silent for a moment. He read the letter over and over again, and right then and there, he resolved to revolt.
He took a rattle and used it to tease me in my cradle.
“What’s so good about a Crown Prince? You are my daughter; in the future, you’ll be a princess.”
After years of preparation, my father revolted the moment he said he would.
I was prepared for the risks-to be the victor or the vanquished.
However, I didn’t expect this rebellion to feel so… off.
Every time we reached a city, the Emperor would send a trusted minister to persuade my father to turn back.
“His Majesty says the General should return.”
My father refused.
Seeing that he wouldn’t turn back, the minister would simply order the local authorities to open the city gates and let us through.
To be fair, I’ve never rebelled before.
But shouldn’t there be sieges, volleys of arrows, and a lot of shouting about killing?
Thirty-six cities and thirty-six ministers failed to persuade my father to turn back.
As a result, we reached the Imperial Palace in just six months.
To be precise, most of those six months were spent just traveling.
Sitting on his horse and gazing at the palace walls, my father remarked with emotion, “This journey… we truly achieved victory without staining our blades with blood.”
Oh, Father, you’re being too modest. It wasn’t just about not staining the blades; we didn’t even use our weapons, okay?
The Imperial Palace was also eerily quiet.
When my father burst into the Imperial Study, the Emperor was still reviewing official memorials. He glanced at my father, and then… nothing.
With my father’s explosive temper, he marched up and swept everything off the desk.
“What are you still reviewing? I’ve surrounded you!”
The Emperor looked up at him, his expression cold.
My father didn’t waste words either. “Give me the Imperial Seal. Abdicate immediately.”
The Emperor placed his vermilion brush on the rack, stood up slowly, and began searching through the curios on the shelves for the Imperial Seal.
His Majesty was unnervingly composed.
Once the Emperor had written the Abdication Edict, my father held the Imperial Seal, hesitating.
The Emperor waited for a long while before turning his head to look at him, his eyes full of confusion.
Then, he pointed with his finger. “Stamp it here.”
My father remained silent, but his composure shattered.
He was fuming. He threw the Imperial Seal to me.
I silently stamped the document and tucked away the Abdication Edict.
Then, I excitedly informed my father, “Imperial Father, you’re the Emperor now!”
My Imperial Father was also excited. “Good daughter, so what do we do first?”
Since neither of us had ever been an emperor before, we instinctively turned our gaze toward the only person in the room who had.
“You should first pick up the memorials you threw on the floor.”
The Deposed Emperor stood tall and elegant, the corners of his lips curving slightly.
…
In the end, of course, the Deposed Emperor knelt down and picked them up himself.
My father said that since he was a rebel, he had to do everything in his power to humiliate the imperial family.
I didn’t understand-was that his excuse for resting his foot on the man’s back while the Deposed Emperor was picking things up?
He certainly knew how to humiliate people.
He told me to go seize the Harem Consorts, only to find out there were no consorts in the Imperial Harem.
That plan fell through.
So, my father told me to go seize the Former Crown Prince so we could humiliate him together.