Chapter 2 – Treacherous Ending

The most demanded side story came at midnight the next day and only further aggravated the readers’ feelings of frustration.

“I will never love you. The only person I love is Rael.”

“…Tiana.”

“I hate you, Lucius.”

A pair of eyes, filled with disgust, stared at Tiana. His resolve cracked with those words filled with so much hate.

“I never asked you to kill her. I said that she was in the way. And you messed with her. I didn’t do anything.”

“But you did put a scorpion in her room.”

“Oh please, that was only a prank. How could that possibly kill her? Also, it wasn’t me, but you who released the scorpion.”

“Right, but at your request.”

“That is not true, Lucius and you know it. I did not ask you to do anything of the sort. I told you that a scorpion would be enough to give a little scare. I never asked you to put a scorpion in her room! And the things that happened before. The poison in her tea made her send assassins after you. You did all that, didn’t you?”

“Tiana…”

“Don’t drag me into the things you did single-handedly.” Turning her head away in annoyance, Tiana sips from her cup, repeating that she had nothing to do with it.

Even now, she did not give him attention. When will she ever look in my direction? I wonder if that day will even come. His palms burned from the sting of the venomous scorpion.

*

“What… Why!”

Tiana’s eyes stare at him, filling with him a sense of satisfaction. She had refused Lucius until the very end.

I wanted her to remember me. I waited for her to look at me. All those expectations were nothing more than dreams.

“Ugh…!”

“What… what are you doing?”

Warm blood trickles from their intertwined hands to the hilt of the sword. He thinks himself fortunate to be able to be with her in the end. Lucius, with the little strength left in him, pulls Tiana into his embrace. Having already lost most of her strength, she falls heavily into his arms.

Lucius mutters, “You never loved me until the end. I wanted to see that smile again, and I really thought I would see it. That was my mistake.”

Allowing herself to fall into a forever slumber, she closes her eyes slowly as she listens to Lucius’ fading voice. Lucius too closes his eyes as he feels her become still against him.

“Regardless, I am happy to die with you by my side.” His last words did not reach her.

*

“What? What the heck is this? Lucius loved Tiana, but Tiana loves Rael, not Lucius?”

My god! What can be more shocking than this? Things were beginning to make sense now. Her heart beat violently against her ribs. The site was raving mad with comments.

[I can’t believe this was a misunderstanding all along.]

“A misunderstanding? You have got to be kidding me!”

Readers express their disdain for Tiana and the author. Her fingers move in haste across her keyboard as she expresses her anger along with the thousands of comments already there.

She throws her laptop on her bed in frustration, but hits its edge against the desk and sends a sharp pain through the inside of her palm. She shrugs it, still seething in anger. Her beloved character had been misunderstood! I knew there was more to the story, but I never dreamed of this.

Lucius was never the villain. The real villain was Tiana.

“I can’t believe this.” She reaches out to grab the book again and is overwhelmed by a certain kind of sadness when her eyes fall on Lucius’ face.

Bang!

“Eh? What is that?” She turns her head in the direction of the sound. There was black smoke rising from it. “Nooo! My 1.5 million won!” Her mind darts to the time she threw her laptop. “Oh no, the installments are not completely paid yet!” She still had ten months of installments to pay for the laptop.

The smoke begins to make its way into her airways, making her cough violently. She gasps as she struggles to catch her breath, considering then that she would have to leave the room. A little spark erupts from the laptop and it looked like it was about to explode. Her cell phone begins to ring.

Her legs lose their strength and she collapses to the ground, desperately fighting against the smoke. Her hands frantically pulled at the doorknob. The last thing she sees is her screen coming on with one comment spread across its surface.

[Thank you for loving The Dangerous Situation of The Emperor all the time. We will return quickly with another project soon.]