During Rakrahan’s adolescence, Emperor Gerard ordered the relocation of the Edkins family’s territory near the capital.

Six months later, when they had emptied the northern region and completed the move, a quite grand party hosted by the royal family took place.

Since it was a welcoming party for the Edkins family, which had moved its domain, even the young Rakrahan gained the qualification to attend.

There, he saw Emperor Gerard, the Empress, and Rionne, the emperor’s government official, for the first time.

A conceited man and his protective government officials.

And Empress Laurence, who continuously kept her head down with a powerless demeanor.

Throughout the party, he felt as if someone was staring at him, and it wasn’t just his imagination.

When he turned his head to find the source of the gaze, undoubtedly, it was Empress Laurence.

But she had already turned her face away.

So, he didn’t know.

What the woman looked like.

Moreover, at that time, Rakrahan was not of an age where he particularly wanted to understand her actions.

Throughout, he had a feeling like he had seen someone somewhere, but it was someone he had never properly seen.

Only when he recalled his past life, Rakrahan could piece together the fragments of memories that had scattered.

“The Empress is more emotional than anyone else.”

During the time when Edkins ruled the kingdom after becoming Merc.

Even in his past life, Laurence was the empress of the empire, living as the emperor’s wife, yet she unreasonably overlooked Rakrahan.

She didn’t even try to hide the greedy gaze in her eyes.

In the past and now.

“All the actions I took were just attachments.”

Rakrahan seated Vercheria on his lap.

As he gently stroked her tender back, she closed her eyes languidly.

The two of them spent some time like that.

It was a moment when the time that had passed from the past to the present felt especially poignant.

“There’s something I want to ask.”

“Yeah.”

Vercheria slowly opened her golden eyes and met Rakrahan’s gaze.

“At the very beginning. So, when we first met, why did you come to love me?”

At this unexpected question, the corners of Rakrahan’s eyes softened.

The first time he saw her was when she was covered in mud and collapsed in the hunting grounds.

He took off his cloak and embraced her.

It was at the moment when he was about to hand her over to the knight who had been by her side.

He stopped in the face of the faint strength felt from her chest.

Her dirty hands, struggling even as they were covered in mud, were pushing him away in a situation where he might have frozen to death due to rain and cold.

As if she couldn’t entrust her destiny to a stranger.

From that action, he felt an indescribable will to live.

This is what humans are like.
The determination of this woman toward life is indeed formidable.

Perhaps he already knew from that moment the fact that he couldn’t escape from Vercheria.

“It was fate.”

However, Rakrahan had no intention of saying those words.

It was just a catalyst, after all.

What he came to love afterward was all of Vercheria.

“I couldn’t find any other way to express it, except for that.”

“Fate is something that was decided to happen from the beginning.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Isn’t it strange for a person who was a god to talk about fate?”

A smile appeared on Rakrahan’s lips.

“Since the moment you and I fell in love, I don’t think I’ve been in my right mind.”

He gripped her small head and pulled her closer.

Tilting her head, he pressed his lips against Vercheria’s plump ones.

The smooth and soft flesh created a pleasant sensation as it frictionally clung and then deformed.

It was not just a kiss.

What they shared was each other’s sincerity penetrating through a long period.

It was the warmth consoling each other through the hardships.

Rakrahan withdrew his lips and swept back Vercheria’s hair, which flowed down towards him.

“From now on, it won’t be easy.”

She laughed, exhaling with his words.

“Is it harder than living in the tower, enduring the battlefield rather than that?”

“Yeah, it seems so.”

Despite the efforts of the Absolute God and Rionne to separate the two, what they missed was the time of trials that Rakrahan and Vercheria had endured.

Each of their lives had been hell, but when they became one, there was nothing they couldn’t endure.

As long as they were together, there was no time they couldn’t withstand.

“The Empress must have been quite a good person for the Absolute God to want her to sleep.”

“It’s hard to believe that the person who called me her daughter and exploited me was the Empress.”

“Even the parallel butterflies seem to have been used much earlier than we thought.”

Rakrahan gently stroked Vercheria’s smooth hair.

Her golden hair felt even better to the touch than it looked, bringing comfort just by touching it.

“Perhaps the Absolute God gave it. Since our goals are the same.”

“Are we breaking up?”