Captured into the Bedroom of the Enemy Emperor (1 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 14
When Julia heard from her maid that the Imperial Guard Captain had come to Duke Leac’s residence, her heart fluttered.
‘Ah, finally. Is he going to announce our engagement?’
The day before, Carolina had visited and casually told her that the next morning, at the imperial breakfast, the Empress Dowager would propose to the Emperor that he announce his engagement to Princess Leac.
It was odd. It was too early for the imperial breakfast to have ended already.
Besides, if it were about the Empress Dowager’s message regarding the betrothal, the Chief Steward—not the Guard Captain—should have come.
“Hey, stop brushing already.”
Julia pushed aside the maid who was combing her hair and headed straight for the Duke’s study.
In the corridor, she ran into the Duke in uniform and the Duchess handing him his gloves. Julia offered a proper morning greeting and asked,
“Father, what brings the Guard Captain here?”
“Julia, Kazan of Tane has broken the peace treaty and invaded. You’re forbidden from going out—stay by your mother’s side.”
“Oh, Father—could it be that His Majesty will join the battle himself?”
“He must go.”
Julia hurried after the Duke, lifting the hem of her dress to match his brisk stride.
‘Then what about the engagement announcement? Will it be postponed again? What if Har Chen gets hurt?’
She grabbed the sleeve of the Duke’s coat just as he was mounting his horse.
“Father, I beg you—please go to war in His Majesty’s stead.”
“Having just one daughter…”
The Duke glanced down at Julia with a displeased look and spurred his horse forward. His knights followed behind. The Duke hardened his resolve to try harder to secure an heir before it was too late.
Duke Leac himself had no experience in warfare. No matter how much his only daughter pleaded, he had no intention of stepping into a battlefield teeming with death in place of the Emperor.
Even if not him, there were plenty of vigorous knights willing to spill their own entrails for the Emperor. Even against the war-mad Kazan, it wasn’t strictly necessary for the Emperor himself to command the front lines.
They could send the Guard Captain or Kalip as an advance force to buy time, then assemble a mercenary expedition from the troops currently mining in the Kaosan and Roche mountain ranges. The longer the war dragged on, the more disadvantageous it would become for Tane.
If both the Emperor and the Duke joined the rear forces side by side, it would look perfectly proper.
When Duke Leac and his knights arrived at the palace gates, the Emperor and his soldiers were just emerging from the palace, having finished their departure ceremony.
The Duke and his knights dismounted, knelt on their left knees, and bowed their heads.
The Emperor, though he saw Duke Leac and his knights, passed by with his usual cold expression.
It was indeed an urgent situation—but shouldn’t he at least nod in greeting to the man who would soon be his father-in-law?
The Duke flushed with embarrassment, his cheeks burning and ears hot.
Ever since Julia heard that the Emperor himself had departed for war, she’d been uneasy. Each day waiting for news from Panah Fortress felt like hell.
And the news that poured oil on that anxiety also came from Carolina.
Anna, the head maid at the dressmaker’s shop Rose Marie on Epi Street in the capital, had purchased a large quantity of lady’s supplies and sent them directly to Panah Fortress.
Despite her mother the Duchess trying to dissuade her, Julia insisted and set off with only a modest entourage in a single carriage from the ducal estate.
After riding nonstop for two days, she arrived at Panah Fortress’s main keep just in time to witness servants unloading lady’s supplies from the carriage ahead.
Julia scolded the steward until she uncovered the truth: those lady’s supplies had been bought and loaded onto an official imperial carriage.
‘The enemy leader who started this war is a woman? And the captured prisoner is Princess Tane?’
Julia recalled her days studying at the Tane Academy. She’d never heard there was a princess in the Tane Empire—it was unbelievable.
Even more unbelievable was the claim that a woman had escaped the impregnable Panah Fortress.
“Bring the maids who attended her.”
“Your Highness, the two Hoon Tribe maids are in the dungeon as punishment for negligence in watching the prisoner.”
“Then shall I go down to the dungeon myself?”
The steward was meeting Princess Leac in person for the first time. Still, he’d heard the rumors—if not for the late Emperor’s passing, she would have married the current Emperor. The steward bowed his head.
“Please wait a moment. I’ll bring them.”
When the steward left, Julia walked to the reception room window. She turned to look at her personal maid who had come with her from the ducal estate.
“You!”
“Yes, I’m Lena.”
“Yes, Lena. Come here and draw the curtains.”
Lena approached and pulled back the heavy double curtains.
Julia stared sharply up at the wide moat and towering fortress walls. From the first-floor reception room, the fortress wall soared so high into the sky it seemed endless.
“Just look. They say a woman climbed over such a wide moat and such high walls. She must be as burly as any man, right?”
“Yes, yes. Just looking at it makes me dizzy.”
‘Then why… the dress? Why prepare such things for that prisoner?’
A knock came at the door, and the steward entered with the two maids.
Julia’s mood soured further seeing their faces and attire—clean and unmarked, showing no traces of punishment despite supposedly being dragged from the dungeon.
“Steward, you may leave.”
Julia sat on the sofa and gestured for the maids to come closer.
“Kneel here before me.”
As the steward brought the maids up from the dungeon, he had agonized over how to explain who Princess Leac was.
Though noble society rumored her to be the Emperor’s fiancée, there had been no official announcement.
Thus, he had only told them to answer respectfully with whatever they knew.
The maids knelt and bowed their heads.
“Tell me everything you know about the prisoner, every last detail.”
The Hoon maids answered guilelessly.
“She was said to be a princess, but wasn’t stern at all—very gentle.”
“Her face and golden hair shone with light.”
“Yes, exactly! She was beautiful, though a bit haughty.”
“It wasn’t haughtiness—she was lively but dignified.”
They described her manner of speaking, her cute gestures, her bright and cheerful dancing—everything exactly as it happened.
“A dignified person starting a war? Swinging a sword!”
Julia seethed at their naive praise.
‘She danced in trousers right in front of her maids—how vulgar.’
What pushed her anger to its peak was hearing that the prisoner had been tied to the Emperor’s bed and slept there.
“Where is His Majesty? Where is the Emperor?”
“He rested in the reception room.”
Even with the maid’s answer, Julia’s venomous glare didn’t soften—she remained as tense as a coiled viper.
“You helped the prisoner escape! You made her trousers and gave her scissors!”
Unable to control her emotions any longer, Julia struck both maids’ cheeks with her jeweled fan, its edges heavy with dangling gems.
The silver setting encasing the gems scratched one maid’s cheek, drawing beads of blood; her lip split open, and blood trickled out with a soft gurgle. Stunned by the sudden violence, the maids couldn’t even scream—they just held their breath and clutched their blood-soaked cheeks.
At that moment, cheers erupted from the fortress gate.
“Har Chen! Har Chen! Har Chen!”
It was the Emperor’s return.
Julia ordered the maids dismissed and instructed her personal maid to tidy her face and hair. Lena, quickly working her hands, said,
“Your Highness—you look utterly beautiful.”
Lena was the kind of maid who knew exactly what her mistress wanted to hear.
“Yes, let’s go.”
*
The Emperor sat upright, slowly crossing his long legs.
He tilted his head toward the ceiling but lowered only his gaze to look at Julia—like a black wolf perched firmly atop a high cliff.
Har Chen saw the Princess’s moist eyes fixed on him, her cheeks flushed. For a moment, he recalled Patricia’s indifferent stare and felt irritation flare.
Most ladies look at me with eyes like that. How could it be otherwise?
He remembered the moment he’d held Patricia—bound at the wrists—as she peered out the window and asked, “Who are you?”
Ha! Patricia—she doesn’t even remember this Har Chen’s good looks.
The more he replayed the memory slowly in his mind, the angrier he became.
I wonder how she’ll react when she stands before me again.
He thought of Emperor Kazan’s proposal for a royal marriage alliance and let out a faint chuckle. At least he could afford to smile now that the marriage had been decided.
The Julia before him—sitting with clasped hands, gazing at him—was utterly beneath his notice.
His mind was entirely occupied by thoughts of his former prisoner, Princess Tane of Tane. His heart raced, then flared with anger, then grew restless—and his thirst deepened.
He lifted the pewter cup in his long fingers and gulped down its contents. The strong liquor slid down his throat, making his Adam’s apple bob.
Julia stared at the Emperor’s cold face as if touching him with her eyes.
His sharp, sensitive features grew more demonically handsome each time she looked—enough to steal her breath away.
Occasionally, he’d lift the corners of his mouth in a smile. When Sir Kalip made an unsatisfying joke, the Emperor would smirk in disdain—but it was so striking it left onlookers breathless.
His broad, straight shoulders; his lean waist packed with muscle; the veins standing out on his hands; his wildly pulsing Adam’s apple; his firm, long legs.
No matter how many thousands of times she saw him, her heart always burned.
The Emperor undid one button of his uniform and ran his fingertips over the wound on his neck.
Then he glanced briefly—but sharply—at the fan Julia had opened. Along the lace-trimmed edge of each segment of the unfolded fan hung jeweled ornaments.
“Princess Leac, what brings you here?”
Julia, entranced by the red wound peeking above his high collar, barely managed to pull herself together and set her teacup down on the saucer.
“Her Imperial Majesty the Empress Dowager was worried about Your Majesty joining the battlefield directly, so she sent restorative medicine—I came to deliver it.”
A transparent ploy.
“You traveled all the way to a war zone with just a knight and a maid, no companions?”
The Emperor lifted his empty pewter cup. The steward standing nearby poured more from a Panian bottle. Julia gripped the hem of her dress with her lace-gloved hand.
“Your Majesty… the lady’s dresses and supplies sent to Panah Fortress—why…”
“…”
The Emperor suddenly rose from his seat. His chilly, abrupt movement cut Julia off before she could finish her question. He turned to the steward.
“Steward, she says she brought medicine—accept it.”
Har Chen walked to the window and looked down at the moat. He recalled Patricia swimming through the dark water. Hah—how did she avoid the vipers?
“Your Majesty, this is my first time here. They say the view of Panah Lake is beautiful, especially the forest at sunset, so red…”
“Princess!”
Har Chen leaned against the windowsill, arms crossed.
“We are at war. Do you wish to see not the sunset, but the red blood spilled by friend and foe alike?”
“Your Majesty… I have something to say to you alone.”
Julia spoke in a low, trembling voice. The Emperor hadn’t even offered her tea, nor dismissed the steward and Kalip. Now she was asking them to leave.
For a moment, the air in the reception room froze into silence. The steward and Kalip looked at the Emperor.
“Leave.”
Once they departed at the Emperor’s dismissal, Julia stepped closer to him, lowered her head slightly, and said,
“Tonight… I will come to Your Majesty’s bedchamber.”
Male lead is a Love-Obsessed Merman
When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
_____
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Re-reading this chapter, it made realize how little Patricia regarding her life compared to Patrick, all because of her guilt over her twin’s sickness which she assumed caused by her taking away his nutrition during pregnancy (in my opinion, it’s an entirely absurd superstition and baseless theory at best). Glad Patricia has come far by started relying in Harchen until she can trust him and vice versa.
Oh! Harcen made a surf board and have Patricia surfing at the sea? That’s so nice of him! If I were her, I too would be thrilled as I riding the waves.
Could it be the grave with the red hibiscus is the late Empress’ (a.k.a Patricia and Patrick’s mom) grave? Talk about cutting onion.