Hey Guys, I read the comments and I found there are split opinions about Lilia's ending.
I will not spoiler her ending, because it will make the story less interesting, but I'll explain a bit of Claus's thought process.
In the end, Claus doesn't care much about Lilia or the emperor's fate. To him, both of them are like two bothersome mosquitoes buzzing near his ear. He only needs to put a bit of effort to kill them, but he doesn't care if the mosquitoes live or die, as long as they stop bothering him.
But Claus does care about Dina, Lena, and his aunt's thoughts. Remember he is planning to make them his women and share his Immortality with them.
But living forever is not easy, and it's even harder if you carry regrets or resentments with you. Imagine if you have to live with the person that killed your parents for thousands of years (In the case of Lena), or if you have to live eternally with the person that refused to avenge the death of your mother (or sister) and instead made her his woman (In the case of Dina, Aunt Dayana, and Aunt Sera).
Eventually, cracks will form in the relationship, and perhaps some of them will choose to die or simply refuse to continue his relationship with him. That is not what Claus wants to see.
What is he going to do then? Well, you can continue reading the story to know. However, I have already left plenty of clues in previous chapters (some clues almost one hundred chapters ago). If you noticed them, congratulations. If not... I don't know, you can read again, or wait until when the story reaches that point.
Right, three chapters today...
Enjoy, Aidka :p
...
Several days have passed since the night with the empress, and not much happened during then.
My aunts moved to live with me (although they are not sleeping in the mansion yet due to their work in the auction house). Susan has not moved yet, but she is planning to move soon.
Meanwhile, I used my identity as Clark and feigned investigating Bryan's whereabouts.
I did not put too much effort into it, though. Just enough to put a show for the empress. After all, I'm the person behind Bryan's disappearance.
I also dealt with some small details regarding my plans, but nothing worthy of mention except one.
Blackmailing the empress.
Just like the last few times, I put a message inside a magic stone containing images of Bryan being tortured.
This time, though, the message contained what I wanted for the empress to do.
[Your son is planning a coup. Help him to succeed.]
It was everything I wrote.
And with this message, I was planning to make the empress finally betray the emperor completely.
When the empress reads this message, she will immediately ask Alan about it.
Alan has always trusted his mother, so there is a fifty percent chance of him telling everything to her. And even if he doesn't, with the empress's abilities, she will eventually discover his plans.
By then, the empress will be forced to make a decision.
To stop him and be a good wife, or to help her son with his coup.
However, I know what she will choose.
She will help Alan.
In other words, she will betray the emperor.
Normally, the empress would not agree to such a risky plan. Instead, someone as wise and scheming like her would have tried to find another solution.
A coup would have been her last option.
However, now there was more than Alan and her ambitions at risk.
The life of her second son was at risk too.
Plus, the empress has already betrayed the emperor before. She cheated on him with me, twice.
Thus, she will find it much easier to betray him again.
By this point, all my plans will start to converge together.
Without the emperor noticing, I have made all the people close to him betray him.
His wife, his most beloved son, his loyal subjects.
Even his father was on my side now.
Without him realizing, I have taken almost everything from him.
And soon, even his throne will be taken and given to Dina.
Only his life will remain, but such a life will be worse than dying for someone like him.
Plus, my revenge will not end with just that.
With a small smile, I teleported the message to the empress's bedroom, where she can find it easily.
Then, I left my room and went to eat lunch.
As always, lunch was prepared by Daisy.
I thought she would find it hard to cook for so many people and proposed her to hire a cook, but Daisy refused vehemently, saying that it was her work.
In the end, Rose and Katherine ended helping her with the excuse they felt uncomfortable living here without doing anything.
… Yeah, Rose, Katherine, and Evelyn were still living in my mansion.
The academy was still sealed after the disaster caused by the Immortal. Even now, some of the bodies had not been buried.
Moreover, the news of two thousand people dying in the academy had spread to the entire capital, shocking many people.
Many people started to blame the empire for the deaths. Due to that, the atmosphere in the capital had been tense recently, with many people fearing a revolt.
Fortunately, the church stepped out before the situation got out of control and gave a speech explaining that the people that died were being controlled by an otherworldly demon that had infiltrated the human lands and that the deceased were no longer humans.
With the influence of the church, many people quickly accepted this explanation. Only the relatives of the dead were still unsatisfied.
But strangely, even after the church's explanation, the situation did not improve too much.
In fact, some rumors appeared saying that the imperial family was the one at fault by not stopping the demon in time.
These rumors spread quickly, reaching to each corner of the empire in just a few days.
That, plus the news about the daemons' invasion, put all the citizens of the empire in a nervous mode.
Even an idiot could see these rumors were being spread purposefully.
And very few forces in the empire had such power.
For example, the three great families.
In the current situation, only a small spark was needed to start a fire of rebellion that would burn through the entire empire.
"… It's already close." I said with a sigh.
Now, I only need to wait.
I planned to take advantage of the time remaining before the start of the chaos to spend time with my women. To give them as much attention as I could.
I focused mainly on Hope, Daisy, Marana, Raven, Louise, Elene, Claire, Lluvia, and Clarice, sleeping with them each time I had the opportunity.
I also need to pay a visit to Safelia and my fiancée, Clara. But they are normally in the church, so it's a bit harder.
And there is Iris. I have not seen her in a while.
As for Aunt Dayana, Andrea, and Susan, they are going to leave the capital with me, so I can spend time with them then.
Besides spending time with them, I also tried to use this opportunity to advance my relationship with Katherine and Rose, but Evelyn was eyeing me from close all the time, as though warning me to not put a hand on her students.
I could only shrug and wait for an opportunity.
But in the night two days before leaving the capital, I received news from Iris.
Someone wanted to make her go through posthumous marriage and marry her into the imperial family as the wife of my 'deceased' brother, Bryan.