“Emperor Parnes Escalo is the man who has the entire Western continent firmly in his grasp. Are you telling me he truly didn’t know that the Khan Kingdom’s army has been searching for you in the free border zone for months? That man who would be dead if he lost his wits.”
“So you’re saying that His Majesty Parnes Escalo intentionally didn’t tell me.”
“That’s right. To prevent you from being sent back to the Khan Kingdom.”
Aster plucked a shrub leaf within reach with a snap and twirled it around.
Water droplets that had formed on the surface scattered in all directions.
“Why would the emperor want to keep you from being sent back while hiding the truth? An emperor who covers your eyes and ears, coaxing and soothing you while holding you in his embrace and refusing to let you go – that’s a kind of madness.”
“What’s truly puzzling is how you, Lord Aster, know about my survival when even Shallen and Rose don’t know.”
“I wasn’t aware of your survival; I believed in Emperor Parnes Escalo’s capabilities.”
Kasallin’s brow furrowed.
Aster continued speaking.
“Emperor Parnes Escalo would never have let you die. He would have searched for you even if it meant deploying millions of troops. That’s what King Shallen overlooked. The king assumed you were already dead and only tried to find your corpse. That’s why he couldn’t find you.”
“So, now that you know I’m perfectly alive, what do you plan to do? Will you scurry back to your master and report everything?”
“Speaking of which, aren’t you curious about how His Majesty Shallen and the queen are doing now?”
“Well. They must feel somewhat sorry for me.”
Kasallin answered sarcastically.
For a moment, Aster couldn’t contain his bursting laughter and bit his lips tightly.
“Unfortunately, Her Majesty the queen is thoroughly exploiting your death and enjoying the greatest glory of her life.”
“Rose is exploiting my death?”
“Right now, you’re remembered in the Khan Kingdom as the woman who died most disgracefully. It was fabricated that you slipped and fell to your death while going to meet a man in secret. People are making a tremendous fuss praising the queen, saying she’s a virtuous saint of the ages for understanding and accepting such an inappropriate sister to the very end.”
Rather than being angered by these words, Kasallin quietly fell into thought.
When her complexion didn’t change in the slightest, Aster raised his eyebrows as if surprised.
“Then what did you mean by what you wrote in that letter? That Shallen and Rose had been deceiving and betraying you for a long time.”
“I recommend you return to the Khan Kingdom and find out for yourself. A funeral is scheduled to be held at the royal palace.”
“My funeral.”
“That’s right. They’ll create an empty coffin with no body inside and shed hypocritical tears while collecting massive condolence money. For that event, even after announcing your death, the royal family has been putting on a show for months with the excuse that they’re not yet mentally prepared to let you go.”
Aster spread both hands to either side as he continued.
“A person cannot walk two paths simultaneously. Choose. Will you live protected like a princess in the emperor’s embrace while being consumed by anxiety about when you might be abandoned? Or will you return to the Khan Kingdom and face the truth?”
The choice is yours, Lady Kasallin.
Aster smiled softly as he put a period to his brief speech.
Nevertheless, it still felt like tens of thousands of unresolved questions and challenges were complicatedly stirring through her mind.
“Why did you bother coming to me and telling me these things? What ulterior motive are you harboring?”
“I’m merely a spectator who likes to meddle here and there.”
Aster adjusted his hat and stepped back.
“Well then, I’ll be waiting to see you again in the Khan Kingdom soon.”
Aster disappeared into the forest through the thick fog.
Kasallin returned to the imperial palace with very slow steps, holding the extinguished candle lamp.
Dawn was breaking over the ridge.
“An emperor who covers your eyes and ears, coaxing and soothing you while holding you in his embrace and refusing to let you go… that’s a kind of madness.”
It was just as she emerged from the side path, repeating Aster’s words in her mind.
“Did you enjoy your dawn walk?”
Parnes Escalo, who had been leaning against the stone wall with his eyes gently closed, greeted her as if he had been waiting when Kasallin approached.
As if he knew you would appear from that place.
Kasallin stopped dead in her tracks and opened her eyes wide.
He should have just been getting out of bed at this time, yet he was here waiting for her, perfectly dressed from head to toe. It was an unimaginable development.
“Even though you’re wearing wool, you’ll catch a cold wandering around when it’s this chilly. Let’s go inside quickly.”
Parnes Escalo walked ahead without adding any other words.
At first glance, it sounded like simply caring words worried only about catching a cold, but in reality, he was wearing a gentle mask while sending a silent warning.
He won’t ask anything, so you shouldn’t cross the line any further either.
Kasallin slowly followed a few steps behind Parnes Escalo.
Although he didn’t bother to turn his head to check if Kasallin was following, he walked at a very slow pace so she wouldn’t have difficulty.
‘The emperor as a comfortable and warm fence.’
A life of being protected like a princess within it, then at some point being driven out with the label of ‘abandoned mistress.’
Looking at his broad back and silently following this path, Kasallin was not unaware that this path led to such a life.
When she thought about it, there was nothing wrong with what Shallen and Aster had said.
Parnes Escalo was ultimately a man too.
If he held her body and soul in his grasp and indulged in them, there would surely come a moment when he felt boredom.
‘Having been abandoned once before, yet trying to make the same mistake again.’
They say humans are foolish beings who repeat the same mistakes, and those words were exactly right.
Kasallin stopped following.
And she spoke to his back.
“Your Majesty. I’d like to continue painting that portrait, when would be a good time for you?”
[This is the timeline separator]The sun that had been hesitating to show its face over the mountain valley had already passed its zenith and was gradually stretching.
Kasallin and Parnes Escalo visited the flower garden, maintaining a slight distance as always.
The flower garden where she had first met him remained exactly as it was despite the changing seasons.
The only difference was that all the flowers had fallen.
“If it’s here, you’ll be able to paint without worrying about the gazes around you.”
“Thank you for making time despite being busy.”
“Never mind. I was idle anyway.”
A lie.
She had just seen poor Duke Ludwig searching endlessly with a pale face.
Kasallin set up an easel in the middle of the desolate garden where all the flowers had disappeared and mixed paints.
After dipping her brush in honey-colored paint, she added to the paper his serious eyes as he read a book under the shade.
However, as she repeated her brushstrokes, dissatisfaction appeared on Kasallin’s face.
The paint was too dull to express his eyes, which were neither brilliant gold nor ordinary yellow, but filled with mysterious and subtle light.
No, perhaps she should blame these talentless hands instead.
“This isn’t right.”
Kasallin, who had been staring at the portrait that fell so short of the real thing it could be called an insult, opened her mouth to call him.
He had already put down his book and closed his eyes.
“Your Majesty.”
Kasallin whispered softly and approached him closely.
His profile, with quiet peace instead of his usual stern and cold-blooded expression, was very beautiful.
Kasallin sat down beside him absent-mindedly and gazed at his face for a long while.
The moment his firmly closed strong lips caught her eye.
“You only come close when I hold my breath. Like a frightened baby bird.”
Kasallin was startled and pulled back.
His rough hands, which had unusually many scars for royalty, wrapped around Kasallin’s waist.
Kasallin, whose build was much smaller compared to Parnes Escalo, was helplessly pulled into his embrace.
“Let, let me go.”
“If I let you go.”
Parnes Escalo continued with a breathtakingly beautiful yet cynical smile.
“Are you planning to overwork these tender ankles that haven’t even healed yet and run away again to somewhere my eyes can’t reach?”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“……”
“You knew from the beginning. That the Khan Kingdom was searching for me. How could you keep me locked in a room like hiding an object and not say a word?”
A few seconds that felt like eternity passed in heavy silence.
Parnes Escalo gripped Kasallin’s shoulders tightly with hands where blue veins bulged.
“Wasn’t it Shallen Riche who truly treated you like an object?”
Parnes Escalo continued in a somewhat suppressed voice, chewing each word.
“If he knew you were here, he would have dragged you to the Khan Kingdom without asking or questioning. Without listening to your wishes. Stuffing you into a carriage like luggage. Did you want that to happen?”
“Still, you should have told me.”
“Do you want to return to his side that badly? To that heartless man who doesn’t even care if you fall off a cliff and become battered all over?”
“I don’t mean I want to return to Shallen!”
Kasallin, who usually didn’t raise her voice over most things, couldn’t contain her frustration and shouted.
But Parnes Escalo didn’t simply give in like other times.
He clearly revealed his fierce energy and glared with bloodshot eyes.
“No, if I had told you, you definitely would have returned! Because you’re that kind of person. So foolishly kind and overflowing with responsibility that you couldn’t have turned your back on your homeland!”
“Yes. I probably would have! Whether I liked it or not, whether it killed me or fed me, that place is my home!”
Hearing those words, strength gradually drained from Parnes Escalo’s hands.
Kasallin escaped from his embrace.
“I’m going back. I need to show everyone that I’m alive.”
Kasallin deliberately turned her head away from his face and clenched her fists tightly.
“I’m a living person. I can’t live forever trapped in Your Majesty’s comfortable embrace like a dead person. For my own sake as well.”
“Why did you come to this garden that day?”
Kasallin looked at him with wavering eyes.
“You should have just ignored it and passed by. Why did someone like you have to appear in my life…!”
Parnes Escalo swallowed his remaining words beyond his throat and gently pulled Kasallin’s hand toward him.
A cool forest fragrance drifted in.
“Push me away if you dislike it. I’ll be pushed away easily enough.”
Parnes Escalo cupped Kasallin’s cheek as if it were a fragile glass bead, then slowly brought his lips to meet hers.
Hot heat parted her closed lips and surged in, fiercely expanding its presence.
Startled, Kasallin lost strength in her legs and swayed helplessly.
Parnes Escalo caught her before she could fall, but never let her go.
Kasallin, completely embraced against his chest, pitifully dangled her two feet in the air, no longer touching the ground.
Her mind seemed to become blank paper from the frighteningly slow and tender kiss.
“Your, Your Majesty.”
Kasallin, short of breath, panted and pushed against his chest.
Parnes Escalo desperately suppressed his roughly rising wild nature and impatience as he released Kasallin.
Kasallin was perplexed.
His kiss should have felt unpleasant, but far from that, she was perplexed by her own heart that had begun to waver.
“Nevertheless, if you truly must leave, use me.”
Kasallin looked up at him with a face where confusion hadn’t completely cleared.
“So that no one can ignore you, so that even the sun floating in that sky wouldn’t dare look down on you.”
The Parnes Escalo who had just been holding Kasallin tightly and didn’t know what to do had disappeared.
He was commanding Kasallin as an emperor.
“I can make you the most noble woman in the world. Only I, Parnes Escalo, in all the world can do such a thing.”
“Your Majesty.”
“Do you want to make King Shallen and Queen Rose pay the price? Then become the empress of my country, the Rnel Empire. Become my only companion.”
Parnes Escalo took something out from inside his pocket.
A lapis lazuli butterfly ornament that seemed to contain deep blue seawater gently settled on top of Kasallin’s head.
The jewel that the Rnel imperial family has traditionally given when proposing for generations.
Now she thought she understood a little why it was specifically butterfly-shaped among all things.
“Everyone will bow their heads before you, and no one will be able to touch you. If you want revenge, shouldn’t you have this level of backing?”
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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