At Adrian’s question, Layla simply stared at him in silence. She wasn’t sure if it was okay to keep making eye contact like this, but Adrian, who was waiting for an answer, didn’t scold Layla at all.

Instead of answering, Layla responded to him with a question.

“……Do you truly mean it when you say you will restore our family?”

That statement he made in front of everyone at the Imperial Palace during the day, which had shocked them all. Layla wanted to know his intention behind saying such a thing.

“Even I don’t have the guts to spout nonsense in front of His Majesty the Emperor. And to be precise, it’s not a restoration, but giving you a new family name.”

However, there is no country that gives slaves a name or a family name. In that sense, Adrian, who still calls her ‘Layla’, could be considered an extremely generous master.

And it’s not just the name. He was allowing Layla a great many exceptions right now. Making eye contact, initiating conversation, and so on.

As Layla continued her train of thought, she had no choice but to admit it.

“You wouldn’t have lied in front of everyone.”

At those words, Adrian let out a deflated laugh and asked back.

“Does that mean the rest was a lie?”

“You pretended to be someone else in front of me.”

As she talked back, Layla began unbuttoning Adrian’s clothes. Adrian looked down at her delicate hands and thought to himself.

Fortunately, her hands have not become coarse yet.

“I know you must have found it amusing to act as Viscount Millay in front of me.”

“That’s not true.”

Adrian immediately denied it, but Layla clearly remembered what he had said. About whether she had fallen for him, that she was easily swayed.

It was clear he meant that he had seduced her knowing everything.

Adrian was a smart man, so he must have known. He must have known that only by appearing that way would Layla trust him and move according to the plan he had set up.

Perhaps even the first moment he faced her in Filmer was part of Adrian’s scheme. Layla knew how brilliant his mind was.

Didn’t he achieve what he wanted in Filmer without even revealing that he was the Crown Prince of Haken?

Adrian Raines is the epitome of a fearsome person if he’s not on your side.

Before taking off his shirt, Layla added one more thing.

“So are you saying that every single word you said in Filmer was completely sincere?”

“If I say yes, will you believe me?”

A cunning man.

Layla swallowed the words she wanted to say and simply took off his shirt.

As the collar opened, Adrian’s bare skin was revealed. Beneath the prominent collarbones, a firm chest could be seen.

A complexion much fairer than his sun-tanned face.

Layla continued unbuttoning downward and said.

“I know even if you keep probing like that.”

“Know what?”

“The restoration of the family will be for the future generations of Haken. ……If it weren’t for us Wessexes, perhaps His Majesty the current Emperor could have achieved the unification of the continent.”

“Layla.”

“Am I wrong?”

Just before undoing the last button, Layla stopped and retorted, causing Adrian to close his eyes for a moment and then open them again.

He knew that talking about the past would not be good for either of them, but Adrian hoped that this conversation would clear up her misunderstanding.

“It’s true that His Majesty has ambitions for the unification of Damburnen. But even without Wessex, it would have been difficult to achieve that dream.”

Even before Wessex betrayed Haken, about 10 more years prior to that, there was one thing that happened.

Haken and Fitzroy had briefly paused the war that had lasted for nearly 100 years between the two countries. It was thanks to a dramatic armistice negotiation.

However, both the Emperor of Haken and the King of Fitzroy harbored ulterior motives.

The 100-year war had left a lot of damage to both countries. But neither Haken nor Fitzroy wanted the war to end ambiguously or lead to the defeat of one side.

They had a truce, but both sides were looking for an opportunity to resume the war at any time, and years passed with both sides on high alert against each other.

And then one day, the Emperor of Haken discovered a very important item.

“Even with ‘Tristan’?”

The artifact ‘Tristan’.

It was a legendary item that only had records and rumors but no actual existence, so it was tentatively concluded that it didn’t really exist.

While renovating the corridor surrounding the outer wall of the Imperial Palace, Tristan was discovered buried underneath. Based on the comparison with the original design plans of the Imperial Palace from the early days of the empire, it was located around where the Emperor’s bedchamber used to be.

Upon discovering it, the current Emperor, Frederick Raines, who is Adrian’s father, began to devise a plan to strike at Fitzroy in earnest.

The problem was the danger of Tristan.

“Force doesn’t solve everything. And Tristan, while undoubtedly possessing immense power, requires His Majesty to risk his life in order to use it.”

“Did His Majesty have to risk his life as well?”

“……”

Layla’s question quite penetrated to the core.

After pondering for a moment, Adrian came up with an answer.

“Yes, I did too.”

His psychokinesis ability was so outstanding that it clearly stood out even among the people of the Haken Imperial Family, but Adrian himself didn’t really feel the greatness of it.

In fact, he had nearly exhausted all of his ability just by dealing with a pack of wyverns, hadn’t he?

Of course, the very fact that he could handle not just one but multiple wyverns was remarkable, but……

To Adrian, it seemed like an ability with little practical use.

If he were to become the Emperor of Haken, he would also strive to unify Damburnen, but his approach would be different from what the current Emperor envisioned.

He didn’t want to start wars like crazy, like the warmongering emperors of Haken in the past.

After hearing his answer, Layla quietly looked up at him as if she was thinking about something, and then undid the last button of his shirt.

In front of her eyes, as she spread the collar wide open, Adrian’s magnificent upper body was revealed.

His skin was so fair that it seemed a shame to touch it for fear of leaving a blemish, and his body was filled with intricate and delicate muscles everywhere.

During the past decade or so since parting with Layla, Adrian Raines had accomplished numerous feats, as if to prove that the trust of the Haken Emperor was not based on mere illusion, by personally moving his heavy feet.

He had dealt with the monster waves in provincial cities that had been tormenting the people of the empire, and even stepped in when Haken’s friendly nations or neutral countries were in trouble.

This solid body of his must be a compression of the years that had passed.

However, Layla noticed a long scar that divided Adrian’s abdomen above his pelvis, which was as perfect as a sculpture, and unconsciously touched it with her hand.

“……It’s here.”

Although it was an old wound, she could feel a slightly bumpy sensation along the line as she touched his skin.

This was the first time she had seen his body with her own two eyes like this.

Adrian pondered whether he should remove Layla’s hand, but he didn’t, worried that she might be startled.

Instead, he spoke to Layla as gently as possible, as if to comfort her.

“It’s all in the past, Layla. It doesn’t bother me at all now.”

“They say that when you get a big wound, it sometimes throbs.”

“Even that throbbing has faded away with enough time now.”

It had been more than 10 years.

It wasn’t just a bluff; Adrian really wasn’t bothered by it at all. He didn’t resent Layla either. That incident wasn’t her fault.

He didn’t want to be a petty person who sought someone to hate and blamed the weak.

Seeing Layla seemingly captivated by his scar, Adrian suddenly grasped her wrist.

And with the back of his other hand, he lifted her chin so that she could look into his eyes.

At the same time, as Layla belatedly realized the reality and fluttered her eyelids, Adrian carefully took her lips.

But it was different once they touched. Adrian, who immediately embraced her body, pulled her slender waist and pressed it against his own body.

Feeling Layla, with her small stature, struggling to resist, he pushed her against the table where the ornaments and belts he had just unfastened were piled up.

He rubbed his lips against hers, then parted her plump lips, tilted his head, and interlocked them without giving her a chance to breathe.

Unable to endure Adrian leaning towards her, arching her back, Layla propped her elbows on the table.

As her posture stabilized, Adrian instead drove her even more fiercely and continued the intense kiss.

Through their touching chests, Layla felt how fast his heart, and her own heart, were beating.

Gradually losing ground to him, Layla unconsciously fumbled on the table. In an instant, the sound of the items on it falling to the floor rang out with a clatter.

Layla was startled by it, but Adrian paid no heed to such things.

Instead, he lightly lifted her body onto the table and cupped her face with both hands.