‘Fits so well to be exquisite. The one and only existence that many people admire and fear, General Ignis, is the sun god. And among those numerous sparkling things, there is just one moon goddess, Kalende. That is me.’

Of course, there was a special ability to communicate with animals, which was why Hades brought Ratifa, but thinking about it, it didn’t seem like General Hades gained much advantage from her ability.

Rather, Ratifa seemed to have gained more.

If it weren’t for Hades noticing her, she would have been in a situation where she had to beg for food from the empire or lived a wandering and impoverished life.

She might have been dragged to a place where she had to do hard labor, like fetching water or doing laundry.

Thanks to Hades, Ratifa learned more about her abilities, became the goddess of the moon, and could have a body that could be treated so meticulously in the royal palace.

‘But why does he want to reclaim me so desperately?’

Hades had suddenly kissed Ratifa’s lips and touched her hair and face, but she couldn’t dare think of that as love.

Hades himself said it in his own words.

Moreover, men, under the excuse of instinct, don’t even whisper love to women they don’t love.

Ratifa’s mother was an empress, and she was born from the union with the emperor.

‘If the emperor loved my mother, he wouldn’t have cast her aside like that. Men are different from women. In their hearts, there may be thousands of rooms, but women don’t have that many.’

The greatest mistake in life was meeting ‘Emperor Tania,’ Ratifa’s mother always said.

Ratifa quietly took out the jewelry box that Hades had brought.

The jewelry box, finished with dark cherry wood and ivory, had a large aquamarine embedded in the center, shaped like a shield, and in the bottom right corner, there were meticulous silver engravings resembling claw marks on the beast’s claws.

It was the emblem of the Glacia noble family in Graecia, where Ratifa’s mother was from.

It was a family known as the shield of the empire.

Thinking about what she had carefully placed inside this jewelry box made it even more poignant.

A decorative golden key. The reason it was poignant was that the golden key was traditionally given to the princesses of the empire.

It wasn’t engraved with the emblem of the royal family, and she didn’t know its significance, but it was the first and last gift she received from the emperor on the day she entered the imperial palace, a mark of being a princess.
However, ordinary citizens of the empire were not well aware of whether such a key existed, and Ratifa didn’t hold it dearly. However, during the war, she considered gold more valuable than jewels, so she treasured it for that reason alone.

Sweeping away the aquamarine shield on the lid of the jewelry box, she murmured, “What is this blue shield of the jewelry box trying to protect now?”

Judging by its substantial weight, Hades had certainly put something inside.

Only now, after unlocking the looped clasp and slowly opening it, she found small sachets inside.

“It’s jasmine.”

Perfectly dried white and small star-shaped petals, just right for making potpourri, were tightly packed in the black sachets, looking surprisingly neat.

Grabbing one and putting it to her nose, she felt a refreshing and subtle, yet somewhere substantial warmth enveloping her body.

It somehow resembled his frequent scent. Ratifa took a deeper whiff of the jasmine fragrance.

“He really likes flowers that don’t suit him.”

Thinking of his enormous stature, Ratifa smirked and said, “Huh? Paper?”

At the bottom of the sachets, the golden key was wrapped in cream-colored paper. Ratifa unwrapped it.

On the outer surface of the paper, a large and powerful man’s handwriting was written in a smooth and elegant script.

“Ahahaha. What’s this?”

Ratifa burst into laughter after a while.

As she smelled the fragrant jasmine, somehow her body loosened. Ratifa untied the amapo sunshade tied to the window sill, and then lay on the bed.

After taking out a black sachet from the jewelry box, she subtly touched it to the gold bracelet he gave her and smelled it again.

Somehow, along with the scent of the desert’s heated sand, the man’s scent, and the faint jasmine, it seemed to emit a fragrance similar to Hades’s skin.

Among the intense scents of the desert people, this scent was the only one not unfamiliar to her.

‘He doesn’t want to see me.’

But she just wanted to go back quickly.

To the Caleb Sanctuary where this missed fragrance is.

Ratifa quietly closed her eyes and fell into a peaceful state of mind for the first time in a long while.

In the late night at the harem palace, Iota couldn’t fall asleep.

It was because of pure anger towards Hades.

Luhan was born as the legitimate queen but had long passed away, and there was no one who could rival my son, Traek, a man who seemed to be as fragile as the other half of Luhan.

No matter that I am a concubine of common birth, I was the niece of Ferma Chamberlain, who currently served as the grand vizier, and not of humble origin.

Traek also had the legitimate right to succeed to the throne, and due to the nature of desert people who worship strength, there were not a few factions supporting Traek.

Under my command and under the Ferma Chamberlain’s command, there were quite a few decent forces supporting Traek, and Luhan had only the grand bazaar’s lunatic as his formidable force.

However, the people of the Grand Bazaar loved Luhan so much.

Everyone adored the untamable lunatic, Luhan, just because he had the leash of Hades, an untamable madman, and that became one of his strong support bases.

“Of course, you’re smarter than Prince Traek. I admit that.”

Iota, pressing her forehead as if her head hurt, rolled around restlessly.

“Hades’ Frau lady is also not ordinary. She intentionally schemed with Hades and acted in a play. She hurt her shoulders just like Hades did, to gain sympathy from the sultan. There’s no other woman as ruthless as her!”
Iota strongly believed that Ratifa had conspired with Hades and deliberately stabbed herself in the shoulder with a dagger.

Hades swiftly picked up the dagger in a way that no one could anticipate, and even those beside him didn’t notice. Ratifa, who was a bit away, couldn’t have noticed either.

“Yeah, that woman claims to be favored by Hades.”

Iota got up abruptly from the bed and headed somewhere.