Patricia lifted the crystal glass to drink lemon water, feeling her mouth become parched. It was so quiet that the sound of water going down could be heard.

She drank the water slowly while pondering how to overcome this difficult situation. No matter how hard she tried to recall memories of the national marriage and the emperor, her mind remained blank like a white sheet of paper.

The emperor was breathtakingly handsome. It seemed unbelievable that she had forgotten him, as his looks were unforgettable even at a single glance.

“Patricia, let’s wait patiently since the partial memory loss is temporary.”

“……”

“Patricia?”

Patricia heard from Annie that she had been taken prisoner after starting a war and had been in a national marriage for ten days. But had they become close enough for the emperor to call her by name?

“Your Majesty. I heard that we had a national marriage ten days ago.”

“And?”

“I have no memory of Your Majesty.”

That woman doesn’t know how those words cut into my heart like a sharp dagger. That’s why she can say it so coldly with such an indifferent look in her eyes.

“I know.”

“I apologize, Your Majesty. Please show proper etiquette.”

Ah, Harchen was dumbfounded. Fanasong, to hear repeated requests for proper etiquette in the same space.

When she was first taken prisoner, she pleaded with desperate eyes. But this time she demanded with haughty eyes. Back then it was laughable, and now Harchen was frustrated.

“You want proper etiquette. Fine, Empress! Then, since you’ve recovered, you should perform your morning duties as empress.”

“Pardon? What duties are you referring to?”

“In the Karsik Imperial Family, the empress must greet the emperor with proper etiquette in the morning.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t remember. What is the procedure?”

“Stand up, sit on my lap, and kiss me.”

Harchen uncrossed his legs to make it easier for her to sit on his lap. Patricia hesitated, biting her lower lip, then slowly stood up.

She’s really going to do it?

Harchen had said those words out of relief from the suffocating days and resentment that she had forgotten him, her husband, due to her obsession with Patrick. No, above all, he wanted to embrace her out of concern.

He wanted to approach her and wrap his arms around her slender shoulders, just like when they sat at the seaside cemetery in Torun, gazing at the distant sea.

Patricia brought her hand, which had been holding her dress, to her lips and wiped it with the back of her hand before standing in front of Harchen.

He watched her intently with an excited heart.

This feels a bit different.

He inwardly chuckled as he observed her haughty gaze wavering with bewilderment.

Patricia saw the emperor smiling with the corners of his mouth raised. He seemed to be mocking her. She passed by the sofa where the emperor sat, turned around, and sat back down on the sofa she had been sitting on without hesitation.

“I can’t perform the Karsik Imperial Family’s morning greeting.”

Harchen’s expression froze like a stone statue. Even with lost memories, does her original temperament remain?

Patricia stared directly at the emperor with a sharp, cold expression.

He seemed a bit young to be an emperor. He was indeed handsome like a sculpture, but that was only on the surface. It didn’t have much aesthetic impact on Patricia, who had lost her memories and was like a blank slate. Above all, his expression that seemed to smile arrogantly was somewhat irritating.

“First, please show proper etiquette to me as the empress.”

“…Haa.”

“Also, it seems unfair to demand unwanted behavior when I’m confused right now.”

Patricia had forgotten the patience, humility, and even the timid attitude she had developed while living as the shadow princess. Her innate temperament was revealed through her eyes and expression.

Annie was the first to recognize this. And the emperor also noticed the haughtiness in Patricia’s gaze.

Harchen’s gaze, which had been intently fixed on Patricia, sank deeply. Her words about having no memory of him clawed at his heart.

“We’ve even spent our wedding night together.”

He spoke in a voice as deep and low as his gaze.

“That means we’ve done everything there is to do between us. Just because you don’t remember doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”

“I assumed we would have consummated the marriage since it’s a national union. However, I still can’t understand my feelings for Your Majesty. I’m sorry, but please wait until my memories return.”

Above all, the emperor as a man didn’t seem to be Patricia’s type. She didn’t feel attracted to someone arrogant and self-centered.

She was certain that she didn’t prefer tall, well-built men with distinct features either.

However, Patricia was also aware that she was treating the emperor with prejudice. Talking about preferences in a national marriage, how absurd.

But in her blank state, considering what the maid had said, the emperor’s attitude didn’t make sense. She was the instigator of the war and had been taken as a prisoner of war by the emperor.

Yet, ah, sit on his lap? Is he in his right mind? Did my previous self obediently follow that emperor’s words?

Patricia wore a complex expression. She furrowed her brow, then relaxed her expression and bit her lower lip that she had rolled between her teeth.

Harchen, who had been watching her face change expressions every second with interest, rubbed his lips with his index and middle fingers.

“If you don’t want to, you don’t have to force yourself. I don’t plan on speaking formally anyway, as it doesn’t suit my personality, and I have no intention of showing etiquette either.”

Harchen deliberately spoke in a cold voice.

No intention of showing etiquette? How arbitrary.

Patricia looked up at him with a stern expression. Their gazes met tensely in the air.

She’s glaring quite fiercely.

Harchen was curious about what she was thinking of him to glare with such eyes.

I’m quite handsome, aren’t I?

Well, that gaze is already starting to look like a new charm. So in the end, am I the only one falling in love for the second time, you fool?

He was prepared to endure and wait out her temporary partial memory loss and obsession with Patrick.

Meanwhile, he thought that frequent physical contact might awaken her body’s memory faster than her mind. Well, he was also willing to tell her in detail about the memories they had shared.

But her provocative glare stimulated him, making him restless. He forcefully suppressed his desire to embrace her greedily and his impatience.

Harchen spoke with an outwardly relaxed smile.

“On the way from the capital to here, we spent several passionate nights in the vineyard and in the wooden mansion by the sea in Torun. You clung to my neck, calling me Harchen.”

Patricia looked at the emperor’s thick, straight collarbones, long neck, and broad shoulders. She couldn’t imagine herself clinging to that neck at all.

Harchen gazed intently at Patricia, who had opened her eyes wide and mouth in surprise, and whispered languidly.

“We got along quite well and liked each other. You were even aggressive enough to seduce me first.”

Patricia looked at him with an astonished expression as he said such things so casually. The content was lewd, but his arrogant expression made it even harder to believe.

“I… don’t quite understand. It’s hard to believe we’re on a first-name basis when we’ve only been married for a short time…”

“Is that so? Then…”

Harchen stood up from the sofa. As he straightened his upper body, Patricia looked up at him with a slightly intimidated expression at his overwhelmingly tall height. He was like a tall tree with no end in sight.

Harchen went to the sofa where she was sitting and placed his hand on the backrest, leaning his upper body down. His large shadow covered her first, followed by a strong scent of peppermint.

“We can try it directly then.”

Before she could avoid it, a large hand approached and cupped Patricia’s cheek.

“I’ll give today’s morning kiss for now.”

“What are you…”

The emperor pressed his lips to Patricia’s cheek, then looked down at her, smirked, and briefly touched her lips as if stamping them before pulling away. It was a more chaste morning kiss than Patricia had expected.

He took her left hand and spread out her fingers one by one. He placed his left hand next to hers, beside the wedding ring on her ring finger.

The couple rings, differing only in size, were placed side by side.

“On July 27, 989 of the Karsik Imperial calendar, at 2 PM, we had our wedding ceremony in Helios Hall.”

“……”

“It’s a blue-green diamond mined from the Kaosan ice wall.”

The emperor tilted his head slightly and stared intently into her eyes, speaking in a low voice.

“It’s the blue-green color that shines when your eyes and my eyes meet and perfectly become one.”

Patricia saw her own blue eyes reflected in the emperor’s deep green eyes. The two eye colors met to form a blue-green.

“It’s a set with the necklace. These blue-green diamonds are limited to just the necklace and couple rings. I only allowed that much to be mined before closing off the ice wall itself. It’s a dangerous area. But I see you’re not wearing the necklace now.”

The emperor gazed intently at her exposed white neck. Patricia’s skin tingled under his hot gaze.

He whispered in a low voice with hot breath against her ear.

“You seemed a bit disappointed earlier when we kissed.”

“I was not.”

“You’re quite honest now and responding well to my touch, as if your body remembers.”

The emperor traced his fingertips down her neck and collarbone.

“Sir. Are you busy?”

Patricia approached Iden, who was wielding a sword. Iden turned to look at Patricia, then knelt on one knee before her with his sword still in hand, bowing his head.

Patricia extended her hand, gloved in black lace. Iden took her hand and slowly brought it to his lips.

“Would you like to walk with me for a bit?”

Patricia led the way, and Iden followed a step behind on her right. Patricia walked across the lowered drawbridge and along the inner wall of the castle.

“You said you first met me when I was thirteen, correct?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. That’s right.”

“I believe my memories will return soon. However, I can’t leave my mind blank like white paper indefinitely.”

“……”

“The background of my stay in the west tower of Tane Palace, my life there, and why I came here wearing armor instead of my twin Patrick.”

Patricia suddenly turned around and looked up at Iden. Iden was tall with platinum blonde hair and red eyes. Despite being a knight with a sturdy build, he had white skin and a clean face without a single scar. Above all, his expression was neat.

“Sir, please fill in the blanks for me.”

Patricia had heard a rough outline of her situation from Patrick and Harchen, but their accounts seemed too emotional to be objectively credible.

She sought out Iden, who was Patrick’s knight and had spent a long time with her, and had helped her escape from Fana Castle, to ask him.

She had seen Iden wielding his sword. His movements were neat and agile.

“I feel I can trust your words.”

Patricia turned and walked along the inner wall of the castle. Light from quartz and diamonds embedded in various parts of the wall shone on Patricia’s black lace dress.