“Something about you perplexes me and makes me curious.”

As Carson continued speaking, Ines’s smile deepened.

“Not being moved according to my will is another aspect.”

“Do you think I’m like that?”

Seeing his puzzled expression, Ines laughed as if she couldn’t believe it. With a face relaxed as if enchanted by his smile, Ines asked again.

“Again?”

“It becomes surprisingly strong when it becomes a moment of crisis.”

Suddenly, Ines found herself sitting on his lap. As she nodded, he deeply kissed her.

Ines extended her arms and hung them around his neck. Despite Carson delaying the wedding to comfort her, the waiting time felt long, and Ines felt the same burning impatience.

“Sometimes, it’s the things that make me laugh with silly words…”

When she heard those words, his refreshing face, like the autumn breeze, came to her mind. Carson’s words continued to sneak into Ines’s responses.

“And it also makes me want to shed tears always.”

But at the following words, Ines could no longer smile. She had never seen him cry even once. She couldn’t imagine that sight in her mind.

If Ines, with her own deity, sheds tears unable to overcome certain emotions, how should she watch him?

Ines detached herself and looked at him. Despite Carson’s face looking comfortable, her heart kept feeling itchy.

She reached out and touched his cheek. Unable to resist the softness of his cheek against her cold fingertips, she couldn’t help but ask.

“Have there been moments when you wanted to cry because of me?”

“There were.”

Answering calmly, he took her hand that touched his cheek and placed it on his lips.

Does she know? There were days when the senses that woke up anew every time she saw him were so vivid that her heart would almost burst into tears.

There were many days when she couldn’t shed tears, choked up, and couldn’t breathe on the days she had to lose him.

Ines Swenden is emotion itself to Carson.

Carson, who doesn’t know how to cry, carefully wiped away the tears in Ines’s eyes with his large hands.

It was a dawn where the gentle moon embroidered the sky.

It seemed like a day when the outside view was still chilly just by looking at it.

The former empress, who tormented Carson fiercely in his childhood, was found hanged in a shabby house.

Sunghwang was facing regret with blood spilling out, and his brother, unaware, was probably sleeping with two black cats in his arms.

In Landhill, the long boat sound indicating the arrival of goods would ring soon, and in Edmont, it was time to strike the bell for the priests who were going to stand in a row.

The large lake that appeared in his dreams would still envelop the forest scenery, and the monstera would still be blowing dry winds, making the seasons colorless.

And now, there is Ines in front of him.

Carson held her chin with his large hand and stroked her cheek.

Here, now, and Ines.

What more does he need?

“I love you.”

At the confession that was spoken like a breath, Ines’s heart responded without hesitation. In the end, instead of shedding tears, he showed a familiar smile.

It was a perfect smile that never failed to captivate Ines.

“Don’t think about sleeping even if you’re tired.”

When Ines’s face turned red at his casual words, he pressed her cheek with his fingers. When she asked with surprised eyes why, he laughed out loud.

“Why do you always get embarrassed so easily?”

At his teasing words, her face became even redder. Then, as if it were a habit, she pulled her lower lip and asked.

Just as Carson reached out to remove her lips, Ines bit his face. This time, with a smile, Carson asked for the reason.

Instead of answering, she approached his lips straight away. As she approached, Carson, who was taken aback, stopped for a moment, and Ines whispered in his ear.
“Anyway, it’s already dawn. Saying it’s wrong to sleep.”

This time, Carson raised his eyebrows and bit his lower lip.

Twisting, the view quickly flipped, and soon two sunlights looked down at Ines.

With some courage, Ines’s words made Carson’s eyes flicker.

“Gradually.”

“That’s true.”

“Yeah, and from now on, we’ll share a room all the time.”

Ines’s forehead furrowed.

“In the world, there’s no such law…”

But her feeble resistance was soon swallowed by Carson.

“Who dares to stop the emperor’s decision, worried about what might happen to the empress?”

“Uh, uh.”

Without giving her a chance to speak, he pressed her against him.

“And we are quite late, aren’t we?”

“What, what?”

Carson didn’t bother to answer and pressed his lips to her neck. The night of the imperial couple, erasing all anxieties, grew deeper.

One year later.

Ines looked at the unfolding scene with a satisfied gaze.

“Do you like it?”

Noah also proudly looked at the result of his efforts with a pleased expression.

“To see a building being constructed like this after a year, it’s hard to believe even when I look at it.”

“Isn’t it all thanks to the stable bureaucracy? It’s all thanks to Her Majesty, the Empress.”