“It takes time to reach our separate palace. Please escape quickly!”

Louisa, the maid who had been serving the 17th princess alone, gathered clothes and jewelry and handed them to Latifa.

“Louisa! What about you, Louisa!”

Latifa quickly tucked away one small jewelry box with the most beautiful blue gem among the jewelry into her bosom.

It was an heirloom passed down from Latifa’s mother.

“My duty is to assist Princess Latifa. Flee near the border and take a ship to escape far, far away! If you’re caught by the desert barbarians, you might be skinned alive!”

“Ah…! Louisa!”

Pushed abruptly by Louisa, Latifa closed her eyes tightly, feeling as if she was falling downwards.

The place she fell was so dark that nothing could be seen.

[I can’t let this fortune that rolled in because of an ignorant girl go to waste.]

“Brenda?”

Along with the faint scent of desert sand, a hot gust of wind poured onto her face.

[Come with me to the desert.]

The man’s voice heard from the darkness was one she had heard many times before.

Latifa struggled desperately to escape from the darkness.

[I promise you the best treatment. I’m a man capable of that.]

“This voice… Who was it?”

-Clink.

Two gold bracelets on her flailing hand made a sound as they moved.

“Right. These are General Hades’ bracelets…”

As the sand smell intensified in the darkness, the bottom suddenly gave way, and Latifa’s eyes snapped open.

“…A dream!”

And she had to blink several times at the unbelievable sight before her.

What unfolded before her eyes was a vast desert.

‘Ah, am I still in a dream…?’

Under the fiercely blazing sun, all that could be seen endlessly were the backs of large camels and sand dunes.

The slow up-and-down swaying sensation and the hot body heat clinging to her back were something she had experienced before.

-Grrr.

“…”

With a feeling of her whole body’s hair standing on end, she couldn’t dare to turn around and only lowered her blue eyes to check the hand holding the camel’s reins.

That hand looked twice as large as Latifa’s white hand, and the skin was as dark as milk chocolate. And on the wrist were the same gold bracelets she wore.

‘Hades Caleb Ignite.’

It was undoubtedly him.

Oh my goodness.

Where am I?

“Uh…”

She tried to make a sound, but couldn’t properly put strength into her vocal cords. Not just her throat, but her arms, legs, every part of her body couldn’t muster proper strength.

‘My body won’t move…’

Her whole body felt like it had turned to jelly, just wobbling, and her head was heavy. Add to that the surreal landscape spread out in front. She couldn’t come to her senses even if she tried.

“Shh.”

Hades’ hot breath touched her from behind. The nape of her neck where his breath touched felt flushed and burning hot.

“Ugh…”

“It will be difficult to move your body now. They used quite a strange drug.”

‘Drug?’

“I told you three times. You shouldn’t bring in the wrong subordinates.”

“Ugh…”

She desperately wanted to ask what he meant.

“Your maid drugged you to sleep, then secretly boarded our carriage. It was discovered only after a week of departure.”

“…?!”

Brenda did? She drugged me?

“That woman said you wanted to become my woman.”

“Ugh…”

No. No, that’s not true! I never did that!

She writhed as much as she could with her immobile body to show that it wasn’t true. Then his sturdy chin settled between her shoulders as if to calm her.

“I know it wasn’t your intention. So stop moving.”

“Ugh…”

“We’re heading to the Grand Bazaar now. We can’t turn back a caravan that has already set out just to send you back to the Empire.”

Latifa looked again at the desolate sand desert spread out in front at Hades’ words.

‘He says we’re going to the Grand Bazaar?! Is this even possible?!’

Latifa’s blue pupils dilated to their limit and her lips parted wide.

“Don’t worry, I’ll deal with the cunning wench who poisoned you separately.”

‘That’s not the issue right now!’

As she struggled desperately, conveying her will to go back, his arm pulled her back more tightly.

“Shh. Originally, stowaways should be executed regardless of reason, but I kept you alive under the pretext of being my woman. If you resist like that, the soldiers will become suspicious.”

Good heavens. To think I have to be called Hades’ woman to stay alive. As the problem grew increasingly serious, Latifa slowly relaxed her body.

“Even if you hate it to death, there’s no choice. You, come with me.”

“Urgh…”

As a groan escaped due to sudden nausea, he lowered his voice even more softly and whispered in her ear.

“You, with your body unwell, just let everything go for now.”

“…”

“The Empire, the war, or even that cunning maid, everything. It’s okay to let go of everything that’s troubling you now. The flame of flames is protecting you.”

At the gently whispering voice and the reassuring words that he would protect her, Latifa unknowingly let out a small hot sigh and leaned her head against his chest.

“You can think about the headache later. For now, just bury everything in the sand of this desert.”

Yes. At least if the mad dog of the Grand Bazaar is protecting her, she could feel a little… just a little bit at ease.

“No matter how great your worries are, there’s nothing bigger than this desert, so don’t worry and bury it all.”

As she leaned against his body, the tension throughout her body began to slowly ease. Latifa just blankly stared at the surreal sand desert spread out in front, as he said.

The desert, stretching endlessly beyond the horizon, was so vast that it seemed to swallow all of Latifa’s fears, making her feel strangely unburdened as if she had really let everything go.

She took slow breaths, surprised at her own unusually calm self. The hot wind carrying the scent of sand and jasmine gently caressed her silver hair, welcoming her to the desert.

**

A white dust storm blew over the dark desert ground.

‘It’s cold…’

During the day, she sweated just standing still and the heat was suffocating, but at night it became unbelievably chilly.

Hades silently wrapped a leather blanket around her slightly trembling back. But the reason Latifa was shaking wasn’t just because of the cold.

The real culprit was Hades Caleb, casually reading a scroll over there.

‘All of this happened because of General Hades!’

If General Hades had just left her with the refugee group from the beginning, Brenda wouldn’t have done something this terrible to her.

His strangely persistent interest had ultimately led to this disaster.

Hades said that a woman named Brenda told the soldiers that Latifa was Hades’ woman, and even left the bracelets as proof, showing Hades’ bracelets to the soldiers.

Latifa had felt chilled by Hades’ words that she might have been immediately killed by the soldiers as a stowaway if it weren’t for those bracelets.

“What about Brenda?”

“Well, she’s fine.”

Hearing Hades’ vague short answer, she leaned her head against the leather wall of the tent and closed her eyes as dizziness came over her again.

‘What kind of drug did Brenda use on me? My head feels like it’s going to split…’

Latifa wrapped the blanket tighter and thought about the Grand Bazaar. But it was too vague.

The long geographical distance and drastically different climate. And because of the biggest cultural differences, the Grand Bazaar was close to an unknown world in the Empire.

‘As far as I know, it was definitely said to be a great market.’

Unlike the Tania Empire, which ruled the entire imperial territory with strong imperial power, the Grand Bazaar was different.

Originally meaning “large great market,” the Grand Bazaar was like an artificial country based on desert tribes.

The center of trade routes created by nomads and settlers living in various places, paving roads in the middle of the desert, had become a large, prosperous and complex metropolis over a long time, which was the Grand Bazaar.

‘They have a leader called a sultan, not an emperor, right? Hades also mentioned the sultan occasionally.’

She knew their culture to some extent from the books she read while studying the desert language, but book knowledge and reality are different.

‘How am I going to live there…’

Just as she was feeling gloomy about the pitch-black future she couldn’t see an inch ahead of, Hades picked her up, causing her to open her eyes wide.

As soon as she opened her eyes, they both flinched at the direct eye contact with his black eyes.

“I thought you were sleeping and was going to move you.”

“…”

“The sandstorm is getting worse, so I was thinking of closing the door. If you want, I’ll keep it open.”

Shake shake. She barely shook her head to convey that it wasn’t necessary, and he lowered the leather awning with one hand. The small lamp light illuminating the tent flickered in the wind.

The arms of the strong and robust man lightly picked her up and placed her on a pile of silk blankets arranged on the opposite side of his bed.

Before, she would have been startled and tense just at his touch, but now there were so many surprising things that him holding her was nothing.

‘They say humans are animals of adaptation…’

As she stared blankly at Hades putting her down, he asked.

“Are you afraid?”

“…”

“The Grand Bazaar is not such a frightening place.”

It might not be for you.

She turned her head with an expression that said “as if” and buried her face in the blanket. But Hades didn’t return to his place and sat down beside her.

“It’s not as desolate as the middle of the desert.”

“…”

“It’s hot, but just as intense. The streets are lined with rare and unheard-of things. I guarantee, every day different merchants will come to captivate your five senses.”

At Hades’ words, the scenery of the great market was reflexively drawn in her dark mind. Would there be men breathing fire and dancers throwing knives that she had only seen in books? Would there be animals called crocodiles? Elephants too?

“In the morning, it’s filled with the scent of acacia honey, and in the evening, the smell of cumin stew resonates. Men compete in strength in front of women throwing flowers, and children line up for shadow plays.”

Colors began to fill her mind, which had been dark and full of sand until now.

“It’s a land of opportunity. A place where yesterday’s beggar can become today’s tycoon. That’s the Grand Bazaar.”

“…”

“There’s something I’d like you to do there.”

“What? What do you want me to do?”

No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t figure out what she could do. She didn’t know why he was so persistently proposing a job to her, not someone else.

“I know your secret.”

“…?”

“So, Latifa. Become my Frau and let’s go to the Grand Bazaar.”

Frau? What’s that?

A soft blanket was laid over her lying body. It was silk with a touch incomparably softer than the blankets she used in the Empire.

“I’ll give you the highest honor and wealth.”

“Mmm.”

As she surrendered her body to the softness of the blanket, Hades’ voice began to sound distant. At the end of her drowsy consciousness, she felt Hades fiddling with the ends of her hair, but she was too sleepy to push it away.

“Let’s enchant everyone in the Grand Bazaar with this moonlight.”

“…Hmm.”

“We’re going to make Ruhan the next sultan.”

Hades kept muttering something, but Latifa was already asleep and couldn’t hear anything.

**

On the opposite rear of the procession, Brenda, tied up with ropes all over her body, was wailing and writhing.

“What are you going to do with this woman?”

A soldier asked Hades, who was standing expressionlessly.

“Her crime is severe. She should have died, but I spared her life for her sake…”

“Shall we dispose of her?”

As the soldier was about to draw his sword, Brenda writhed even more violently.

“Not yet.”

“Not yet?”

“Her condition is worse than I thought. If she can’t endure, kill her then.”

“Understood.”

Despite Hades’ brutal answer, the soldier bowed his head politely and replied.

“Until then, she needs to learn how to serve her superiors. There’s a position that’s just right for that greedy woman.”

Hades skimmed through a scroll and pointed to one place. It was a list of imperial spoils to be presented to the sultan.

-Imperial 3rd Princess, Aris Delbrune Tania.

“I heard this princess was extravagant and greedy? Where is she now?”

“She’s under special management in the 10th Army. We’re taking strict care as she’s a prisoner to be presented to the sultan.”

“Put this wench in there too. Seeing a fallen princess, she’ll realize how blessed and luxurious her life has been until now.”

“Yes, General!”

As Hades, having finished his business, was about to return to his tent, he paused for a moment and turned his head.

“Do you have any more orders?”

“Before sending her to the prisoner princess, pull that wench’s hair five times, no, about ten times.”

“Pardon?”

Hades said, sharply raising his eyes.

“I don’t like repeating myself twice.”

“Ah, yes! I’ll pull her hair ten times!”

“Then, good work. May the guardian deity’s blessing be with you.”

“May the guardian deities’ blessings be with you too, General.”

As Hades walked out gracefully, pig-like squealing began to sound loudly from behind.