BTEE 08

BTEE

Posted by Fahad, Released on October 25, 2025

Chapter 08

Cassielope had never once in her life tried to win anyone’s favor.

Born of noble blood, she was instead the one others sought to please.
So she had never needed to curry favor herself.

Even when she pressed forward with her arguments against the objections of the other nobles, it was no different.

She hadn’t wanted to, but neither was she the sort to turn her back on her convictions—or her loyalty to the Emperor.

There had only been one moment when the nobles’ hatred toward Cassielope began to crack.

The cause was the Marquis of Hessen’s family — who had trafficked drugs and abducted commoners to sell them as slaves to foreign lands.

Upon learning this, Cassielope killed the Marquis without hesitation and annihilated his entire family.

Because he was a noble, she had given him a chance to confess. But the Marquis denied everything until the end.

Ordinarily, the punishment of a noble should have been decided through a trial, but Cassielope, overcome with fury, beheaded him on the spot.

Thus began the scandal.

In the hearts of the nobles—who had always assumed that breaking a few minor laws was no great sin—unease began to sprout.

What if our family gets caught too?

It hadn’t been some lowly viscount or baron’s family—it was a marquisate.

If a high-ranking noble house could be destroyed so easily, what assurance did they have that they wouldn’t meet the same fate if their wrongdoings were discovered?

The unease grew. And for people who had lived their whole lives in luxury, fear was a feeling they had never been forced to confront.

So they turned their unease into criticism of Cassielope. And that criticism became their justification for their own sins.

We’re nobles—shouldn’t even the Emperor hear us out?
If the Emperor keeps opposing us at every turn, what choice do we have? This is all Cassielope Clemens’s fault.

From then on, the nobles began to nitpick and oppose every proposal Cassielope made. To cover their own misdeeds, they magnified hers.

When they obstructed her with ridiculous excuses, Cassielope began to expose their hidden wrongdoings one by one.

If you don’t wish to take responsibility for the problems you’ve caused, then do not stand in my way, she said.

The tiny cracks that had once been invisible began to spread wider and wider.

What had begun as an investigation to protect herself from interference soon revealed that the nobles’ corruption went far beyond what she had imagined.

There were those who embezzled public funds meant to support the citizens.
Those who leaked imperial secrets to foreign powers.
Those who paid their gambling debts through forced organ trafficking.

Cassielope had always believed she governed the Clemens Empire well.

A stable yet progressive nation—a powerful empire that need bow to none.

But when the hidden truth came to light, she realized that all of it had been a façade.

What she had thought a ripe, perfect fruit was, in fact, rotten inside and crawling with worms.

And those worms were the very same ministers who had governed alongside the late Emperor and his predecessors—those who had built the empire’s so-called “glory.”

Though her words were cold and cutting, Cassielope had still trusted them.

She was shocked by what they had done, but she did not see it as an irreparable problem. So long as they admitted their crimes and paid the price, it could be solved.

For in the Clemens Empire that Cassielope dreamed of, not only commoners but nobles, too, were meant to be part of that dream.

So she ensured that they would atone and become better people, better leaders of the Empire.

She raised taxes on the nobility to make amends for the harm they had caused.

She reduced the extravagant banquets held in the palace, forcing them to display their repentance before those they had wronged.

She abolished their legal immunity and their right to priority in trials, ensuring such corruption would never happen again.

It was a flawless, impeccable solution.

But the more she strove to set things right, the greater the nobles’ sense of pressure grew.

And so, her one and only mistake as a perfect sovereign was this:
She had set a precedent that a noble could be executed on the spot.

The nobles trampled upon her sincerity and declared as they pleased —
Cassielope Clemens would destroy them all.

The scandal that had begun as a ripple now swelled into a raging whirlpool.
And amid their growing fear, someone made a suggestion:

“Why don’t we depose her?”

Everyone agreed.

And the one who had spoken those words was none other than Regis Euriel — the man Cassielope trusted most, her unconditional ally.

With Regis on their side, the nobles had nothing to fear.
For they had stripped from her the greatest source of her power.

“I shall take the throne,” he declared.

There were faint murmurs of resistance, but they quickly subsided.
Without him, they could never have dreamed of bringing Cassielope down.

Because he himself had spoken of her deposition, the nobles became certain there had been a falling-out between the two.

And the most formidable enemy one can face — is the ally of yesterday.

Regis Euriel, with both the legitimacy and the ability to stand against Cassielope, was the perfect adversary.

Thus, he became the vanguard of the nobles’ rebellion.

He declared that he would choose his own empress — a statement that sounded to the nobles like a promise:
that whichever house helped him most would see their daughter crowned.

Throughout the preparations for the coup, Regis showed no emotion.
He was utterly indifferent, cold.

Even before Cassielope, it was the same.

His complete transformation convinced the nobles even further.

He was no longer the Regis Euriel they had known — Cassielope’s devoted lover.

“How about forming a life oath?” one noble proposed.

A pact, pledging their lives, to accept whoever Regis chose as his Empress, no matter her family.

All the patriarchs agreed.
Each was convinced that their own daughter would become Empress.

Thus they sealed the Life Oath — never realizing it would become their own shackle.

“I shall take Cassielope Clemens as my Empress,” Regis announced.

The nobles were outraged — but powerless.

The Life Oath bound them.
It had not been forced upon them; they had entered it of their own will.
So they could blame no one but themselves.

And so, they had no choice but to watch in silence as the very woman they had dethroned took her seat as Empress.

Even when the former Empress — now Empress once more — declared that she would select royal concubines, they could do nothing.

To the nobles, the position of concubine — not even a legitimate marriage, merely the Emperor’s mistress — was an unbearable humiliation.
Yet they rushed to offer their daughters.

Better disgrace than to see another family seize that place.

They couldn’t even urge her to appoint a proper Consort instead.

For the only duty Cassielope refused to perform as Empress was bearing an heir.

The nobles thought that by dethroning her, they had regained control — but they soon realized they had never held power at all.

Only when she spoke of “selecting concubines” did they begin to understand that they had played perfectly into her hands.

By then, it was far too late.

Discord was already spreading among them — just as Cassielope had planned.

“Here is the list of candidates for the concubines, Your Majesty,” Cassielope said with a light smile as she placed a thick bundle of papers before Regis.
“Since they may become your women, I thought you should look them over yourself.”

“……Lope.”

“It’s far too late for pet names, Your Majesty. You are the Emperor now.”

“……Do as you wish, Empress. I don’t care who it is.”

Cassielope forced her stiff lips into a gentle smile and gazed at him.

He was different from yesterday.
When she had first uttered the word “concubine,” he had looked as if he might break down in tears.

Now, the corners of his mouth lifted as though nothing mattered anymore.
But Cassielope knew better — she knew that when he was angry or hurt, he always forced a smile.

So she saw through him instantly.