The emperor detached himself from the window frame and walked leisurely towards Julia. Julia lowered her head and raised her eyes.

Her gaze reached the emperor’s thighs.

She was confident that if she could just sit on those firm thighs, close the distance once, and let their bodies touch, she could move on to the next stage of seduction.

Julia was eager to show off the charms of her body, which she had cultivated through diet control and massage.

She had been impatient since her academy days, but had never shown it until now. She could have made a fool of herself with clumsy seduction that wouldn’t work.

The emperor would surely have rejected her without mercy. She was his fiancée who would marry him anyway once this war was over.

But when Julia heard that the emperor, who had treated women like stone statues until the age of twenty-seven, had bought lady’s items, her world crumbled.

For the two full days it took to reach Pana Castle from the capital, all her nerves expanded and contracted, and finally burned black.

The fortunate thing was that the leader of the enemy country, who was also a prisoner, had escaped and was not in the castle.

Then was the war not over yet? Or was the war starting again because the prisoner had escaped?

Whether it was the end of the war or not, the emperor would stay in Pana Castle today. So it wouldn’t be so absurd for Julia, his fiancée about to be married, to say she was going to the bedroom, would it?

The emperor stopped in front of her and stood tall.

Julia’s spine chilled at the emperor’s cold expression as she glanced up at him. However, it was the same cold expression as usual.

.

.

.

Harchen knew what those words meant.

On the day of departure, at breakfast, the empress dowager had proposed to officially announce the marriage to Lady Leak, and Harchen had flatly refused. He had firmly refused several times before that as well.

His mother, the empress dowager, was deeply concerned that Harchen showed no interest in women, but Harchen had refused because it was Julia.

When he was young, Harchen also found Julia, Carolina’s friend, adorable, saying she followed him around like a crow. Then he happened to see Julia’s two-faced nature.

By chance, a group of little ladies flocked under the zelkova tree where Harchen was lying.

Just as Harchen was about to make his presence known, there was a chilling sound of slaps. Julia was striking a girl’s cheek with her fan.

“How dare you look at His Highness the Crown Prince with your filthy eyes? Didn’t I tell you not to?”

“I apologize, my lady. I couldn’t help it, Crown Prince Harchen was so beautiful.”

Slap, slap, slap.

“Don’t even call Harchen with your dirty mouth. Do you understand?”

“Yes, my lady.”

“Oh my, but you fell off your horse and got hurt badly? Let’s go to my carriage.”

That day, Calip told him that the young lady of the count’s family had fallen off her horse, and Lady Leak had taken her to the duke’s residence and even treated her.

Riding horses without maids, just young ladies? Falling off a horse but only scratching her face?

Harchen hadn’t intended to, but he couldn’t say that he had eavesdropped so ungracefully from up in the tree. Still, he was surprised that everyone believed such a clumsy act without suspicion.

“Calip. I know about Lady Leak’s two-faced nature, so don’t relay any more bogus good deeds in the future.”

“Your Highness, such an extreme reaction to Lady Leak’s good deeds is rather… Hmm. Are you in denial?”

Harchen’s face turned red with anger.

“That doll-like pretty lady declared she would become Your Highness’s bride. Isn’t that cute? Oh, Your Highness. Why, your face is even turning red.”

“I don’t like it. I’m serious.”

“Yes, yes. Your Highness is always serious and cautious.”

Even during his study abroad at Tane Academy, Calip would try to pair the emperor and the lady at every opportunity. Constantly, without ever tiring.

And just now, as Harchen was walking down the corridor after hearing from the butler that Lady Leak was waiting in the reception room, he encountered two maids who should have been in the dungeon.

The maids bowed deeply with both hands covering their cheeks, trying to pass by Harchen.

“Stop there.”

Harchen turned around and stood in front of the maids.

“Lower your hands.”

The maids’ cheeks were terrible. Their swollen cheeks were covered with scratches and gouges from metal pieces, intertwined with blood marks.

Harchen instructed the butler to take them to the military doctor for treatment.

*

Julia lifted her chin and lowered her eyes gently. Lena had told her that this pose was seductive and attractive.

Tonight, come to my bedroom. This is going too far.

“Why?”

Julia opened her eyes wide at Harchen’s question.

“Pardon?”

“Don’t ask questions. Answer.”

“Your Majesty. Don’t you know? With what feelings I came here. With what determination I came without any companions.”

Julia bit the inside of her cheek hard enough to draw blood. She swallowed the metallic taste of blood and her scream.

Tears welled up in Julia’s onyx-black eyes and rolled down her pale cheeks.

“Tonight, I wanted to… to Your Majesty…”

“Lady. Your fan is quite peculiar. The metal cuts on my maids’ cheeks were quite severe. Nothing to say?”

“What? I, I don’t know anything about… Were the maids hurt?”

“…Ha.”

Harchen rang the bell. The butler entered immediately.

“Butler, see her out.”

Harchen spoke coldly and left the reception room.

Harchen was about to sit on the sofa in the drawing room but moved to the table by the window instead. Calip and the butler who followed stood side by side.

“What?”

Calip, glancing at the butler who stood with his mouth tightly shut, stepped forward and spoke.

“Your Majesty. It’s almost dinner time, and it would be unreasonable to depart for the capital now. Postponing the departure until tomorrow would be…”

“Calip. Remove that carriage within ten minutes.”

“As you command.”

Calip bowed with a stiff face, bending his right arm.

The butler, watching the emperor’s expression, asked.

“Your Majesty, shall I prepare the meal here?”

“Something simple. Before that, draw a bath for me.”

As Harchen unbuttoned his uniform, the attendant standing nearby removed it. Harchen was walking towards the dressing room when he turned back and called the butler.

“I told you not to touch the bedroom this morning?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. As you ordered, we didn’t even change the sheets.”

“I see.”

Harchen tried to spend time leisurely in the bath at a suitable temperature, but it didn’t go as planned.

The water touching his skin was hot, and it felt like a hot stone was placed on his chest. He was anxious and anger welled up for no reason.

Patricia. The excited feelings he had when receiving the letter proposing a royal marriage from Emperor Kazan sank as he recalled her indifferent face.

Perhaps she might refuse the royal marriage. She might have a lover.

For instance, someone who helped her escape…… that bastard.

For a moment, his mind went blank and his complexion changed completely.

Yes, we have kissed. But it was nothing special…… it was just a passing moment for me, like the wind.

Haa. He clenched his fist underwater.

Patricia. Even if you don’t like it, you must go through with the royal marriage.

I’ll keep you by my side for life. I’ll make you regret deeply for toying with me.

There had never been an existence that irritated him this much in his life.

Harchen couldn’t even sit for five minutes before getting up. An attendant wiped off the water and helped him into a black robe. He walked down the corridor and entered the bedroom.

He lay on the bed. There was a faint scent of her.

The memory of her soft lips touching his came vividly to mind. He shuddered as he recalled the sensation of his hand reaching into her bodice.

I’m going crazy. He moved to the right side where Patricia had lain.

As he was about to bury his face in the pillow, he discovered a thin strand of hair shimmering like sunlight. He placed the hair against his open chest.

Just a single strand of hair touching his chest.

He abruptly got up and went to the window, opening it.

His chest felt hot as if on fire.

Patricia. Come quickly. Just come. I’ll tie your hands to the bed and. Do whatever I want to my heart’s content….. Oh no.

“Crazy bastard.”

*

“…Ha, Your Majesty.”

When Harchen opened his eyes, Calip was standing there.

“What.”

“I brought your meal, and the butler said to try waking you three times. Do you want to sleep more?”

“I’m up.”

The butler had set up the dishes on the table by the window and was waiting. Harchen sat in the chair.

The butler turned off the solid fuel of the double boiler and placed a bowl of mushroom soup at a suitable temperature in front of the emperor.

“My lord. Lady Leak departed for the capital earlier.”

Harchen drank water and ate the soup without comment. It felt like a warmth-filled energy was steadily building up inside him.

“Butler, what about the maids?”

“Yes, after finishing their treatment, I told them to rest in the maids’ quarters.”

“Well done. Calip. Go and bring the maids here.”

“What? Me?”

Calip looked at the butler as if such a task was the butler’s job. The butler nonchalantly served salad with one hand behind his back.

“Calip. Is that a question? Are you in your infancy?”

Calip inwardly clicked his tongue as he bowed to the emperor and left.

‘Are you in your infancy, he says. Just when was that question ever in fashion.’

Yet he felt a sense of déjà vu but couldn’t recall the memory, frowning. Calip asked an attendant and went to the maids’ quarters.

Calip knocked and was shocked by what he saw beyond the opened door.

The maids’ swollen cheeks had already turned a bluish-purple with bruises, looking like moldy bread.

“Why do your faces look like that?”

Throughout the walk to the reception room, the maids kept their mouths tightly shut like clams, as if they couldn’t hear Calip’s question.

When they arrived at the reception room, the emperor had finished his meal and was drinking Panian. The maids greeted in unison.

“Calip, have you found out who did this to the maids’ faces?”

“No. I asked on the way here, but they didn’t answer.”

“That’s how the nobles’ violence gets covered up.”

“Ah! Could it be… Your Majesty, Lady Leak?”

The emperor neither confirmed nor denied, maintaining his usual cold expression as he issued a dismissal.

“Calip and the butler, you may leave.”

As Calip recalled Lady Leak, he simultaneously remembered the question he had asked the crown prince long ago, ‘Are you in denial?’

As Calip traced his memory back to the young lady of Count Kipling’s horse-falling incident, he held his breath.

‘Ah. So. My lord has known about Lady Julia’s wickedness since then.’

‘How impressive, holding such a grudge.’

Calip bent his left knee and bowed his head before his lord, who was blazing with resentment.

“My lord. Have a peaceful night.”

After Calip and the butler left, Harchen told the maids to sit down. He offered them tea and snacks that the butler had prepared.

Harchen went to the windowsill where Patricia had sat and leaned against it, looking up at the castle walls and the sky.

“That day. Tell me in detail, from the very moment you first saw the princess.”

The maids, with their cheeks caked with red blood, took turns speaking while looking up at the ceiling.

“At first, she barely acknowledged our greetings. She held out her bound wrists, asking us to untie them.”

“I see.”

“She went into the bathroom, but couldn’t take off her shirt because her wrists were tied. All the buttons were undone though.”

“That’s right, we absolutely didn’t untie her wrists. After some thought, Her Highness the Princess told us to cut her clothes with scissors.”

“Hmm.”

The maids recounted again in detail from the moment they met the princess.

“A white eagle with a yellow beak swooped down terrifyingly fast. We were scared and stepped back, but Her Highness the Princess fearlessly touched the eagle.”

“She touched it.”

She didn’t touch it, she tied a letter, more precisely, an escape plan. As I thought, she contacted her accomplice through the eagle. Princess, when we meet again, what should I do to you? You must pay the price for mocking me, severely.

Harchen grinned as he looked at the torches hanging at regular intervals on the castle walls, burning brightly.

I’m looking forward to this royal marriage, it’s exciting.