Chapter 716: No More Miracle
"Remember, my child..."
The old man attempted to say more, but suddenly, his thoughts seemed to break apart. His gaze shifted into the void, his focus lost, and his mouth moved as if he had more to say, yet nothing came out. Despite this, he clung tightly to his son’s hand.
Leo panicked, turning his head toward the door and shouting, "Physicians! Physicians! Where are you!"
The physicians rushed in to attend to the emperor, gently leading Leo out of the room. He sat motionlessly on the steps outside, his mind utterly blank as he stared into the void. He tried to recall his father’s words, replaying them over and over in his head, but his thoughts seemed scattered. In the distance, another carriage arrived at great speed, stirring up a cloud of dust as it stopped at the village gate.
The queen of the empire had arrived. She flung open the carriage door and stepped down swiftly, without waiting for the servants to assist her. Dressed in a simple blue gown with minimal adornments, her presence was commanding. The head steward, who had been standing beside the prince, hurried to greet her with a respectful smile. But Anna, her eyes blazing with anger, brushed him aside and fixed her gaze on her son.
"Where is your father?" she demanded, her voice sharp.
Leo, startled by the abruptness of her question, looked up and stammered, "Mother! You—"
Her anger only grew at the sight of her son’s confusion. "Look at you! You’ve lost your composure, sitting here with a blank stare, unsure of what to do. You are a man! You will be the next emperor, and yet you sit here in a state of panic. There is no room for fear at a moment like this! Stand up!"
Leo struggled to rise, but his legs felt weak, trembling beneath him as he tried again and again to stand upright. His face twitched, revealing the traces of tears shed earlier.
In his younger years, his mother would have comforted him, gently lifting him into her arms and soothing him with soft words. But not today. Without hesitation, she raised her hand and slapped him sharply across the face, the force of it spinning him around. If not for Cerberus standing behind him, Leo would have fallen to the ground. Yet, the shock of the slap seemed to jolt him back to reality. He quickly regained his balance, standing upright once more, his eyes now clearer, more focused.
"Are you clear now?" the queen demanded, her voice sharp as her eyes glared at her son, hands firmly on her hips. "Now, take me to your father!"
The young man, soon to be emperor as his father had proclaimed, quickly pushed open the wooden door. Inside, the physicians hovered over the emperor, still monitoring his condition. The old man lay there with his eyes half-open, his face slack with saliva slipping down, as the physicians dabbed at it with a cloth. They attempted to administer remedies, slowly feeding him in the hopes it would induce sleep. Yet, the emperor could barely move, struggling to swallow each dose. The process was clumsy, with the liquid often spilling or causing him to choke.
Seeing this, Anna stepped forward, her presence commanding the room. "Give me the cloth and the remedy," she instructed, her voice leaving no room for hesitation. The physician quickly obeyed, passing her the wooden bowl.
Sitting by the bed, Anna gazed at the man who had been her companion throughout life. Her emotions were a turbulent mix, but she maintained her composure. Gently, she wiped the corner of his mouth and carefully spooned the herbal medication into his mouth, one slow spoonful at a time. Under her gentle touch, nothing spilled, and the old emperor was able to swallow at a steady pace. As she continued, she dabbed away the saliva from his lips with careful precision.
The emperor seemed to sense something familiar. His hand twitched ever so slightly, and he slowly began to lift his fingers, trying to reach toward his wife. His eyes, which had appeared dull and unfocused, began to regain a faint clarity, searching for hers.
Anna did not stop her tender task, continuing to meet his gaze as she fed him, unflinching.
The emperor, though still unable to speak, blinked back tears. A single hot tear rolled down his cheek, which Anna gently wiped away before it could soak into the bandages covering his wounds.
Eventually, the emperor drifted off again into an exhausted sleep.
With a quiet gesture, Anna signaled the physicians to leave the room. The door closed softly behind them, leaving the emperor and the queen alone together. No one else was permitted to enter—not even Leo or Agatha. They waited just outside the door, taking turns pressing their ears to the wood, desperate for any sound from within.
Inside the room, the silence grew heavy. Anna sat, her gaze fixed on the man she had loved and stood beside all her life. Tears slipped down her cheeks, uncontrolled, as her lips quivered with emotion. She wiped them away with the corner of her cloth, revealing strands of her now completely white hair beneath the scarf she wore. She, too, had aged. The near-loss of her husband in that veteran village had shaken her for the first time, forcing her to confront the fragility of their lives. Now, the specter of that loss loomed over her again, more real than ever. Though she despised the thought, fate seemed determined to make her face it once more.
Anna ordered her son and daughter to remain strong and steady, but everyone knew she was the one enduring the greatest pain. Her husband was the only close family she had left, her companion for the past few decades.
Suddenly, it seems that the emperor has came back to awake, as the old man, shaking, but steadily raised his hands, as he gently swept his right hand across the cheeks of his wife, wiping a bit of her tears off. Anna is taken by surprise, but immediately she grabbed the hand of her husband, and begun weeping, unable to control herself.
"... Do not worry..."
"...I am not dead yet..."
"...I know my own body..."
Anna’s sobs grew louder, for she knew he was only trying to comfort her.
"You lied to me Antonius." She buried herself beside the emperor’s head in the cushions and begun sobbing. "You lied to me again, you have lied to me days ago, and you have lied to me for our entire marriage, for my whole life, how long more will you continue to lie to me?"
The emperor sighed heavily, then suddenly coughed violently, his hoarse breath rattling as blood trickled from his nose.
Anna, panicking, quickly wiped the blood from his lips, her hands trembling. "No, no, no... You’re fine, you’re fine, my love. You’ll be alright."
"I am scaring you Anna." But instead, although suffering from immense pain, Antonius still hugged the wife in his arms, with all of his might, as he continuously patted the back of his wife. "You should not see me like this, of course I am all good, listen here Anna, I love you to the fullest, I kept on thinking about all the things that we have went through together, all the sceneries that we have witnessed, and all the joy in our memories that we have shared together, I have regretted a lot of things in the span of my life, but there is one thing that I have never regretted, that is how much I have loved you..."
Anna’s sobs were muffled as she buried her face deeper into his chest.
"People always called me fortunate, for raising from a poor harbour boy in Genoa, to a pirate, to an admiral, and to what I am today... I know that they are right, I am fortunate, but I know that the the most fortunate thing that was to happen to me, is that I met you, my wife, Anna."
"Then why did you not take good care of yourself, and stay with me for a little longer?"
The voice of Anna came sipping through her hair.
Antonius shivered slightly, managing a weak, bitter smile. "I’m sorry, my dear. It’s my fault, my carelessness. I didn’t listen to you when I should have. I failed you... I’m guilty of that."
"What is the point of saying all of these now?" Anna continued to weep, as she leaned back up, and stared back into the eyes of the emperor. "You are smart, you always had a solution, now, what can you do now, to get yourself up again?"
She waited for an answer, but instead, the emperor responded with silence—a long, still silence.
Even Antonius felt powerless, unable to offer any comfort or solution this time.
Seeing the emptiness in his eyes, Anna’s despair deepened. She wept even louder, her cries filling the room as the emperor slowly sank back into unconsciousness, slipping away from her once again.
Outside the room, Leo sat down heavily on the stairs, burying his face in his hands, his head resting on his knees.
