At the low, deep voice, Patricia felt her body heat up and her breath catch.

‘Ah, he remembers that day. But can that really be called a kiss?’

She felt breathless.

The Emperor raised his left hand from the chair back and grasped Patricia’s cheek. He lowered his head, intently gazing at her lips.

Even in this moment, Patricia’s heart fluttered strangely, and she hoped he couldn’t hear her pulse.

If that could be called a kiss, she too couldn’t forget it. In fact, she had recalled that moment several times, her face flushing.

“But those lips seem like the Princess’s lips.”

His breath touched Patricia’s lips. She kept her mouth tightly closed and held her breath.

“We’ll know if we check.”

She shook her head and tried to move back. But his hand grasped the back of her head and pulled her in.

“Your Imperial Majesty, now is not the time… Please show proper decorum.”

“Thinking about it now, we might have been acting on that terrace. But why?”

Anyway, then and now, an inexplicable sensation provoked him. The temptation was so great and stimulating, it was maddening. He wanted to do something.

The Emperor grabbed Patricia’s arm and pulled her up. He ran his hands down her shoulders and arms. Even with just his fingertips touching, she felt fragile and soft enough to crumble.

“The height and build of the lady of marriageable age are exactly like the Princess’s.”

The Emperor wrapped his arm around Patricia’s waist and pulled her close.

Patricia felt dizzy from the heavy scent that enveloped her. Tall stature, broad and firm shoulders, a face with clear contours even in the moonlight.

Under thick eyebrows, a sharp nose bridge, deep green eyes slightly lowered, lips that were expressionless but subtly turned up at the corners with a hint of arrogance.

‘Ah, I think I stared too much.’

Patricia, who had been frozen, gazing at the Emperor’s face as if bewitched by moonlight, barely came to her senses and grabbed his arms to remove them from her waist.

“Please don’t do this.”

“Princess, I usually don’t do this,”

Confirming I’m not crazy… Harchen, this woman is the leader of the enemy who started the war and is currently a prisoner. She cut down my soldiers and stained the empire’s land with blood. But. Why is it so…

“I’ve gone mad.”

The Emperor instinctively tightened his large hands. He cupped her delicate cheeks and stole her lips. As the surprised Patricia opened her mouth to scream, something hot instantly entered between the gap.

She had unknowingly grasped his shirt and accepted his lips, but when their tongues intertwined, she was startled and pushed against his large, firm shoulders.

Her eyes, turned a deep blue, glared at the smoldering green eyes, then she reached out and slapped his cheek.

Slap!

‘Ah… I didn’t intend to slap his cheek.’

His eyes flashed like blue fire had been lit in them. Patricia, surprised by her own unintended act of violence, covered her mouth with both hands.

She thought he would be angry, but the Emperor smiled, lifting the corners of his mouth.

His cheeks were red on both the slapped side and the unslapped side.

“This is maddening. Why is it so stimulating?”

The Emperor spoke in a low voice, brushing back the black hair that had fallen over his forehead.

Harchen Eint Carl Berk. He was born with the world in the palm of his hand.

As prophesied that he would usher in a new golden age, from the early summer of his birth, the Kaoshan glaciers began to melt. Golden fields and diamond mines were revealed.

The young 27-year-old Emperor had established a round table conference since his days as Crown Prince, tirelessly questioning and receiving reports from the imperial cabinet members.

He annihilated the marauding tribes that appeared in the Kaoshan mountain range and border areas, and accepted nomads and Heun people as imperial citizens.

Immediately upon ascending the throne, he abolished slavery and recruited commoner talents. He mercilessly exterminated three corrupt noble families.

He ruthlessly rooted out corruption even in his mother Diana’s family, the House of Orteo, to the point where it was nearly halved.

He shone light into every dark alley of the empire. He was cold in state decisions and sometimes arrogant.

Patricia had slapped the cheek of such a man. Twice, at that.

The Emperor’s thick eyebrows and deep eyes were expressionless. His emotions couldn’t be read.

Patricia felt her insides burning up.

‘He must be angry, he should get angry. He should slap my cheek.’

She pursed her lips, then bit her lower lip. Unconsciously biting too hard, blood welled up at the end of her parched lips.

The Emperor frowned as he watched her bite her own lip.

This Princess has a fundamentally bad habit.

She never leaves her lips alone. Without fear, in front of a burning beast’s eyes, she licked and bit her lips. Not knowing how that stimulation was grating on the Emperor’s nerves.

Haa, to do that right in front of me.

The Emperor groaned lowly and pulled her waist tight against him. He lowered his head as if confirming the sensation of their bodies pressed together without a gap. His deep green eyes stared intently at her.

“Princess, since I’ve already been slapped, shall we do a bit more?”

‘Do more what… Ah.’

The Emperor pulled the back of her head as he overlapped their lips. He sucked on her lips that tasted sweetly of blood. His rough hand delved into the front of Patricia’s shirt that she was wearing.

“…Huh.”

At her moan, her lips parted on their own. The Emperor tilted his head and persistently explored her inside.

Patricia pounded the Emperor’s firm chest with her fists. But that only hurt her own hands.

Moisture formed naturally between their sealed and pressed lips, but inside she felt parched. Her body heated up against her reason. Her insides felt like they were burning black.

The Emperor, who had been forcefully delving in, relaxed his strength and separated their lips.

“I’m right, Princess.”

The Emperor grasped Patricia’s chin. His deep green eyes swept over her blue eyes blazing with anger, her pale cheeks, and red lips.

“These lips, this breath, even the sweet and sensitive inside, can’t be deceived.”

His low voice pressed through her blood vessels as it circulated. Her body trembled slightly with a strange lingering sensation.

Patricia shook off the Emperor’s arms and turned her head to wipe her lips on her own shoulder. Displeased by this sight, the Emperor cupped her cheeks again and met her gaze.

“Look me in the eye and answer. We’ve kissed before, haven’t we?”

Patricia misunderstood the Emperor’s question. How many women must he have kissed to ask such a question?

“What difference does it make?”

At least it means I’m not crazy, hallucinating. He stroked her cheek with his fingertips and lightly rubbed her reddened, swollen lips with his index finger.

“It seems the Princess wasn’t affected at all?”

I was quite sincere, and I’ve been going crazy for a long time because of this vivid sensation lingering on the tip of my tongue.

Patricia shook her head to brush off the hand touching her lips and said with a cool expression:

“Do you ask every woman you’ve briefly encountered if you’ve kissed them like this?”

Briefly encountered… Haa. Just what does this Princess think of me?

The Emperor let out a hollow laugh and lifted her chin with his hand to meet her gaze.

Princess, it was my first time.

“Princess, what kind of question is that, I’m astounded.”

Patricia suddenly recalled the young ladies gazing at him at the banquet. In her memory, he was a splendid and arrogant Crown Prince. He might confuse her with one of the many young ladies.

Moreover, now he was the enemy emperor and she was a prisoner.

She tried to turn her head away, but the Emperor spread his hand to cup her cheek. She felt like she would be sucked into the Emperor’s intense green eyes.

“Let me go.”

“Answer!”

‘I can’t get involved. Get a grip, Patricia.’

Patricia pushed away the Emperor’s body. She broke free from his embrace and said with her fists tightly clenched:

“Yes, we’ve kissed before. But it wasn’t anything special… It was just a fleeting moment for me, like the wind.”

Bang!

The Emperor slammed his fist on the table.

“You played with me.”

Patricia bent her knees in a curtsy before turning around with an uneasy feeling.

“I will take my leave now.”

“Sit down. The interrogation isn’t over yet.”

“Your Majesty is enraged. After you’ve regained your composure…”

Patricia straightened her back as much as possible.

“Also, I request that you address me with proper respect.”

‘Of course, if there’s an opportunity for that.’

She slowly crossed the reception room into the bedroom, without showing any signs of haste. Her neck stiffened.

“The Princess is quite willful.”

Patricia heard the Emperor’s words behind her, but she entered the bedroom without breaking her posture.

She closed the double doors and quietly turned the lock under the gold-decorated handle.

Only then did the strength leave her legs.

She stumbled to the bed and collapsed on it. She pulled the leather strap wrapped around her ankle, folding it over double to the length of her arm and set it aside neatly.

Patricia put her hand under the pillow and felt the cold metal of the scissors.

She couldn’t fall asleep easily. She mentally checked her plan. To succeed, she needed to rest her body even if just for a moment. But her nerves were on edge and her thoughts automatically became biased.

She touched her lips with her hand. She traced where the Emperor’s lips had touched.

The Emperor was rough and clumsy, but the lips that touched were soft. The tongue that entered and stirred inside was hot and dizzying. Her chest ached at the memory of those deep green eyes staring at her intently.

If it hadn’t been this situation, if the Emperor hadn’t pushed so forcefully… If they had met in the academy courtyard, could she have honestly confessed her feelings of attraction?

‘It was impossible, clearly.’

Patricia lay on the bed, looking up at the ceiling, lying straight.

It was the first time, that kiss. It couldn’t be dismissed as a fleeting emotion. If it had to be compared to wind, it was like a storm that enveloped her whole body and left wounds. But any wind had to be cut off with a single stroke.

*These lips, this breath, even the sweet and sensitive inside, can’t be deceived.*

Recalling his expression as he spoke in a low, calm voice, she felt her blood vessels expanding and tightening.

According to Patrick, there was a princess from the Karsic Empire who came to study abroad following the Emperor, with marriage talks ongoing. Was she one of the young ladies who danced the waltz with the Emperor…

‘Get a grip, Patricia. Why are you curious about such things?’

This was no time to be leisurely daydreaming. There was no time to waste emotions. It was a luxurious emotion.

Click click.

At that moment, she heard the sound of the bedroom doorknob turning.

‘No way, the Emperor? Is he crazy? Trying to enter the bedroom?’

She had locked the door from the inside when entering the bedroom. She was certain. The doorknob rattled a few more times, then went quiet after confirming it was locked.

Not long after, the door connecting to the dressing room opened with a soft sound.

‘Huh, …what.’

Patricia had no idea that the Emperor had entered the bedroom while she was asleep the night before and slept in the bed with her.

She slipped her hand under the pillow. The metal scissors were in her grasp. She had secretly taken them from the Heun maids’ sewing basket during the day.

She hoped the Emperor had come in to retrieve something. If not, she was determined to use the scissors.

Time passed, but there was no sign of approach to the bed.

She opened her eyes slightly. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could clearly see that the figure standing in the middle of the dark bedroom was the Emperor.

He stood by Patricia’s side of the bed, then moved to the foot of the bed, slipped off his robe with a soft sound, and climbed onto the bed.

Patricia’s hand holding the metal scissors became damp.