Before she could even utter ‘Oh no’, Latifa squeezed her eyes shut as the giant fangs approached right in front of her.

-Clang!

In that moment, a powerful force grabbed Latifa by the nape and quickly pulled her back.

“Haa, haa…!”

Startled by what happened in an instant, Latifa could only gasp for breath without saying a word.

‘What just happened?!’

-Grrrr.

The lion calmly growled as if nothing had happened, licking its large front paw with its long pink tongue.

And right in front of the vertical bars, a sharp sword was embedded horizontally.

Latifa was dangling from someone’s arm.

“Are you crazy? Sticking your head into the lion’s cage without any fear?! You must be desperate to die! After all that fuss about shaving your head, you stupidly stick your head in as if that creature is a house cat!”

Hades, with bloodshot eyes, was glaring at Latifa and growling even more fiercely than the lion.

[That male has been behind you for the past few days. Hahaha. Didn’t you know?]

It was the first time being mocked by a lion.

[He’s a male who cherishes his female. I was like that once too.]

Of course, it was also the first time her face turned red at a lion’s words.

“That can’t be!”

Latifa strongly denied with a reddened face. The lion then spoke solemnly again.

[Tsk. Though I may be just a former king now, my eyesight is still intact, you insignificant human. Anyone can see that those are the eyes of a male trying to claim a female.]

Latifa was so dumbfounded by the lion’s words that she couldn’t even think to refute.

“Hey?! Come to your senses. Have you lost your mind? Damn it.”

Seeming to interpret Latifa’s silence as fear, General Hades picked her up in one motion and turned his back on the lion’s cage.

“Are you alright? Did you get bitten somewhere?! You don’t seem to be bleeding… Damn, I need to call the physician again! Is anyone there?!”

Looking up at him from her position cradled in his warm arms, she could see his considerably flustered face. His black eyes were shaking greatly as he examined Latifa.

‘Are those… the eyes of a male trying to claim a female?’

-Thump, thump.

Unlike his usual heavy, pounding heartbeat, she could hear his heart beating at a faster tempo.

Hades urgently reached out his large hand and started touching her cheeks, forehead, and various places.

“What an incomparably stupid woman! Where’s the physician? Is no one there?!”

At his words calling her stupid, Latifa shook her head.

‘As expected. There’s no way the lion’s words could be true. If he had feelings for me, he wouldn’t call me stupid.’

Latifa pushed against his chest and finally managed to speak.

“I’m fine.”

“Damn it! Desert guardian spirits!”

Suddenly, it felt as if the ground was sinking beneath them, and she felt like she was falling to the ground. No, it wasn’t just a feeling – they really did sink to the ground.

Hades had sat down on the floor while still holding her.

“Damn it, damn it! I thought you were going to die! I thought you were going to die right then and there!”

There was an inexplicable sadness, anger, resentment, and a hint of madness in his somewhat agitated tone, and Latifa didn’t know how to respond.

“I, I didn’t die. I’m fine. Wait a moment! Ugh! Ha, General Hades…!”

Moreover, he had roughly pulled Latifa into his embrace with his long, large arms, to the point where she could barely breathe.

“Don’t you dare die before I give you permission, you insolent fool! You agreed to be my Frau, so your life belongs to me! Everything from a strand of your hair to the tips of your toes is mine!”

“Ugh, cough! Yes, yes! I, air! I understand, so… air!”

Latifa was on the verge of really dying from suffocation due to his manic behavior of embracing her tightly enough to crush her bones.

“Don’t you dare act as if you have no right to be happy with me!”

“Cou, cough! Ha, Hades…!”

He seemed so intent on shouting incomprehensible things that he didn’t even notice Latifa pounding on his chest as she gasped for air.

‘He’s not listening to me at all!’

Left with no choice, she used all her remaining strength to stretch one hand upwards. Then she gently caressed his frenzied cheek.

“Huh…!”

The moment her outstretched hand touched his hot skin, he surprisingly stopped his shouting and yelling.

[Frau. My happiness. No one can take away my happiness.]

‘Ah, I can hear his voice again. Why? Why do I keep hearing his voice?’

The fleeting question passed.

His inner voice, slightly different from the agitated tone just moments ago, sounded somewhat tearful and sad, so Latifa gently cupped his cheek.

Contrary to her expectation that it would be very hard, his face was just a bit sticky from the desert heat, but otherwise had soft skin no different from other people.

Following that soft sensation, Latifa slowly tried to calm him.

“I, I didn’t die. Your happiness, your Frau is still alive… So please calm down and loosen these arms before I really die!”

At that, the arms enveloping her gradually loosened. Latifa buried her face in his chest and sprawled out, panting heavily.

“Whew! I thought I was going to die from suffocation rather than being eaten by the lion!”

Fearing he might tighten his grip again if she let go, Latifa continued caressing his cheek as she barely managed to raise her head.

‘Huh? Something’s different.’

The black eyes that were always inscrutable, the obsidian-like eyes that seemed like they would burn everything with their blazing fire, were now calmly settled.

“Latifa, I…”

Hades trailed off with an extremely strange expression. It was the same face he had made when Latifa had fallen onto his chest last time.

His ambiguous expression, not knowing what to say or what expression to make, somehow overlapped with that of a child who didn’t know what to do after doing something wrong.

“This body…!”

As his eyes gradually reddened, an agitated voice flowed from his mouth again.

Sensing signs that the black madness might seep in again soon, Latifa quickly spoke while gently stroking his face.

“General Hades. Your happiness, your Frau is alive. We made a deal, remember? I am your Frau, and as you said, from a single strand of my hair to my toes, my life, my breath, my abilities – all of it belongs to Hades Caleb Ignite. I wish for your happiness.”

The fate – or perhaps ill fate – that began when she caught his eye in the Empire.

For Latifa, who had come to the desert after that fate had twisted and turned, now only Hades remained. She could only say that she was completely captivated by him.

For her to remain intact, he needed to remain intact. After all, she had entrusted everything in the desert to him.

Then the only thing for Latifa, who had become his Frau, to do was to pray for her master’s happiness.

“My… Frau.”

His shaking black pupils slowly turned towards Latifa.

-Tap.

Hades pulled away her hand that had been caressing his large cheek and spoke in his usual voice.

“Don’t ever do such a dangerous thing again. Damn it.”

His hot breath seeped into Latifa’s nape just as it was, the heat transmitting down to below her collarbone. Feeling slightly embarrassed by that heat, Latifa twisted her body and stood up.

“What were you thinking, sticking your head in there? Even three-year-olds don’t do such things.”

The more she listened, the more annoyed she felt.

As if she would thoughtlessly stick her head into a lion’s cage?

‘That lion told me to come closer, so I went closer! Did I do it because I wanted to? And who was it that told me to befriend the lion in the first place?’

It was you, General Hades!

“It’s because you only gave me a week that this happened in the first place.”

“…It didn’t matter. I was planning to chain it up and display it anyway. No matter how much you can talk to animals, taming a lion is a different matter.”

“What?! Then why did I put in all this effort until now?!”

He slowly got up, dusting himself off, then rubbed his forehead and said,

“For your amusement.”

“I’m sorry, but it wasn’t amusing at all! If you knew how hard I tried to befriend that lion, how draining and difficult every day was, you wouldn’t say such things!”

“I see. You look like it. The circles under your eyes are dark and your skin is tanned. This won’t do. I can’t bear the embarrassment of having this as my Frau.”

Hades pulled out the sword embedded in the lion’s cage and reattached it to his waist, then grabbed Latifa’s shoulder and pulled her along.

“Tomorrow is the appointment ceremony. You need to stand there beautiful and perfect without a single flaw. Now, I’ll take care of everything, so you just move quietly on the stage I’ve set.”

“The, the lion.”

“Leave it be. On the way here, I noticed Caleb’s maids were unusually excited.”

“Why?”

Hades chuckled and lightly tapped Latifa’s clothes.

“They finally received the clothes and accessories I ordered from the Grand Bazaar’s master craftsmen. There must be hundreds of sets, so you’ll have to spend the night in the hammam with the maid girls trying them on. I should make an example of one of them for taking so long.”

“Clothes? I already have plenty of clothes!”

“If you call those rags you’re wearing now clothes, that is.”

The clothes she was wearing now weren’t particularly bad. In fact, they were quite excellent.

Judging by the soft crimson silk fabric, the sophisticated small gold ring decorations, and the carefully embroidered patterns, it was definitely not something that could be called rags.

“These are clothes your maid gave me!”

He quickly walked barefoot across the marble floor, practically dragging Latifa along as he headed towards the main building. All the while, Hades shouted loudly to the surrounding servants, giving instructions for everything.

“Light the fires in the hammam! Keep adding firewood all night long, I won’t forgive you if the embers go out even once. Everything should be of the highest quality, no, beyond the highest! Prepare everything perfectly! Who’s that walking leisurely over there? Everyone run! Become the greatest flames and burn out without regret!”

Not wanting to dampen Hades’ excitement, which was different from his strange behavior earlier, Latifa also picked up her pace to match his quick strides.

It was tomorrow.

The Frau appointment ceremony had already come upon them, just a day away.

**

“The Moon Goddess?”

Latifa asked Yanan in surprise.

“Yes. Lord Hades instructed us to dress you up as if the moon had taken human form as a woman. He said to give you a beauty that combines elegance and mystery.”

Latifa leaned back on a long sofa in one corner of the hammam with a tired expression.

The floor of the hammam, which was a masterpiece of marble and colorful tiles, was now a mess with clothes strewn about, and gold and silver accessories were rolling around in between.

Amidst all this, Latifa had already tried on and taken off at least a hundred outfits.

And that wasn’t all. Every time she put on clothes, the maids excitedly crowded around her, bringing all sorts of accessories like sapphire bracelets and ruby circlets, trying this and that on her.

“It seems Lord Hades intends to turn you into Calende.”

“Calende?”

At the mention of Calende, the maid girls started giggling.

‘Is it a bad word?’

“Calende is the moon goddess who protects the night desert.”

“And Ignis, the sun god, protects the day desert.”

At those words, the girls chuckled again, covering their mouths.

‘Why are they laughing? Being the moon goddess isn’t funny, is it?’

Unlike the monotheists of the Empire, Latifa knew from studying the Epic of Harsept that the desert people had countless gods.

‘The warrior Harsept and the sword dancer Suriya became close because they both favored Calrups, the guardian god of swords.’

One of the maid girls, holding a delicately crafted gold bracelet and a hair ornament set with a large green sapphire, said thoughtfully,

“Usually, when minstrels praise Lord Hades, they compare him to Ignis.”

“Because his temperament is like fire. He’s also the one who received the title of Ignite, the flame of flames.”

“When the two of you stand side by side, it will be like the sun and moon themselves.”

The maids of Caleb’s private estate, who were initially wary of Latifa as an imperial, now spoke to her quite familiarly after enjoying the sauna together with just a towel wrapped around them.

They really, really liked Latifa, who at first thought they were trying to flatter and gain something from the high-ranking people, like the maids in the Empire.

But the real reasons were:

-Since the young lady arrived, not a single person has been hurt within Caleb’s estate.

-They opened a women’s hammam in the main house because of the young lady.

-Because the young lady deals with Lord Hades, we feel like we can breathe a little.

-Lord Hades is so focused on the young lady that he hardly gets angry at us.

Thinking about the reasons made her feel even sadder, so Latifa stopped thinking about it.

“Being the moon goddess seems like quite a good treatment.”

As Latifa changed the subject, one of the maid girls shook her head.

“Well, actually, Calende is an ill-fated goddess.”