You call yourself a wolf? You don’t think you can properly protect her, so you have no intention of sending her away?

It was clear that the lion cub must have hit his head back then.

Losing Chloe was definitely his own mistake. That strange Tigrian woman, thinking about it now, the woman who had disappeared was also a member of the assassination group. He was so preoccupied with her that he didn’t even know Chloe was being kidnapped. It was a trap that took advantage of his sharpened state to protect Chloe, and he stupidly played right into their operation. It was infuriating, but he had no choice but to admit the lion cub’s words.

However, just because he made a mistake didn’t mean Trascan could say such things about Chloe. What right did he have to Chloe to spout such nonsensical garbage?

He was willing to grant any requests made in return for providing the magic stone treatment and arranging a space for recovery here. That’s why he obediently came to the Emperor’s room despite his demands to come and go, right? But when he said such nonsense, there was no point in even considering the price.

“I appreciate that my woman has to stay in your palace. But that’s one thing, and I can’t understand with my normal mind what you’re saying about Chloe’s whereabouts.”

“Staying? Protecting and caring for Chloe was all my job. It will continue to be my job in the future.”

At this point, he thought he shouldn’t owe this madman anymore.

“You don’t need to do anything, and you have no right to, so stop talking nonsense. I was going to leave after Chloe fully recovered, but since you’re spouting crazy talk, I’ll leave the palace as soon as she wakes up.”

To begin with, this lion cub was completely unnecessary in the process of getting Chloe back. He just followed behind unnecessarily and drew the attention of all the humans in the palace. Nevertheless, he tried to accept it as a favor. But if this is how it’s going to be, the story changes completely.

“If you hadn’t lost her in the first place, Chloe wouldn’t have been so battered and there would have been no need for recovery. From now on, she will be protected within my palace.”

“Chloe will formally become my wife, and from now on, she will be protected not only by me but by the entire werewolf race as the Alpha’s mate. There’s no place for you to intervene.”

“I don’t trust you wolf pups. You’ll lose Chloe again. Don’t try to hold onto Chloe because of your blind imprinting. When you’re in heat, you can’t even use your strength. What Chloe needs is not the position of your wife, who can’t fight without a pack, but the position of Elaion’s Empress, whom the Tigrian king absolutely cannot dare to provoke.”

“……”

This lion cub was making absurd claims using Chloe’s attempted murder as an excuse. Saying he would take Chloe away.

Or could it be that yesterday’s incident was also planned not by Staxton, but by this guy? Playing with Chloe’s life and making such an absurd claim to make her the Empress of Elaion as an excuse?

No, that couldn’t be. Because if it had been a little later yesterday, Chloe would have really died. This guy may be crazy, but he couldn’t be that crazy.

But anyway, this guy was crazy. The problem was that this crazy bastard was a lion shapeshifter and now the Emperor of Elaion. It wasn’t easy to just bite him to death on the spot for saying absurd things.

Suddenly there were two enemies. In addition to Staxton, who was trying to kill Chloe, there was Trascan, who was trying to take her away.

The old tiger’s provocation made the young lion cub’s head spin, and Hugrey found himself walking into the lion’s den where he had taken Chloe back with his own feet.

‘It hurts, it hurts. When will this pain end?’

Chloe, who had been writhing in pain as if a fire had broken out inside her body, opened her eyes. The room was dark.

Crackle, crackle. The sound of flames flickering in the fireplace could be heard. As she turned her gaze in that direction, she saw the faint figure of a person standing in front of the fireplace.

“Hugrey?”

When Chloe called the duke’s name, the figure turned to look at her. The face of the person with his back to the fire was dark. As he got closer, his face became clearer.

“Calcus?”

Only then did Chloe recognize that he was Calcus, not Hugrey, and also realized that this unfamiliar place where she was lying was not where she thought it was.

Then, is this the palace?

“Chloe, you’re awake.”

Calcus, who had approached right in front of her and sat down next to the bed, said.

“Am I still in the palace? Where’s Hugrey?”

“Yes, this is the palace. It’s been two days since you collapsed.”

“Where’s Hugrey?”

Chloe looked around the unfamiliar room again, searching for the duke. She felt uneasy not seeing him.

“The duke, well… he seems busy.”

At Calcus’ ambiguous words, Chloe tried to get up.

“Just lie down, Chloe.”

“No! Tell me where the duke is. I… Ah!”

However, when she actually tried to get up, her body ached as if it would crumble.

“I told you to just lie down. You haven’t fully recovered yet. Your bones were completely shattered. It will take some more time for you to recover. Don’t move and lie down.”

At Calcus’ explanation, Chloe finally relaxed and lay back down.

No wonder her whole body ached. It seemed that many parts of her body had been broken.

“Where is the duke? He’s here, right?”

For some reason, she felt anxious not having Hugrey by her side.

“He should be.”

However, Calcus didn’t seem to want to tell her anything specific about Hugrey.

“Can you call the duke for me?”

“Well, he’ll show up when it’s time for him to show up, right? I don’t really feel like calling him.”

Calcus’ voice was so cold, it was almost frightening.

“Calcus, what’s wrong with you? You’re a bit strange.”

She thought she had ended things with Calcus on a pretty good note. But something felt a bit off. It felt like they weren’t communicating, so to speak.

“What’s strange? I’m just the same as always. The Calcus Tacan who wants to give you the best, then and now. And right now, it seems that what you need is not the duke, but me, the Emperor.”

What about the Emperor?

Chloe was so dumbfounded that she couldn’t answer and just frowned.

“I told the duke too. You’ll be safest as Elaion’s Empress. I’ll protect you.”

“What? Empress? Are you crazy? Why are you doing this? I told you I love the duke.”

In the end, Chloe sat up, ignoring the pain.

“Yeah, I think I’m a bit crazy about you.”

“Calcus!”

Leaving Chloe, who was just glaring at him in disbelief, Calcus left the room.

“He’s crazy.”

Chloe thought Calcus really seemed like a crazy person. And unfortunately, the object of his craziness was her.

Calcus Trascan tripled the number of troops guarding the Imperial Palace where Chloe was staying under the pretext of strengthening palace security, effectively detaining her. Strengthening security was just an excuse; he had finally locked Chloe up in the Imperial Palace. It seemed he really intended to carry out his own plan to take Chloe away from Hugrey and make her Empress.

It was clearly insane, but since the madman happened to be the Emperor, he wielded his power recklessly for his crazy actions.

The palace consisted of the main palace, the Imperial Palace, and the outer palace, which could be reached by passing through the four gardens surrounding the Imperial Palace on four sides. The outer palace was relatively easy to access and even allowed guests to stay, but in the main Imperial Palace, outsiders had to leave by nightfall and weapons were prohibited.

The outer palace served as the outer walls surrounding the palace, and the core of the palace could be said to be the Imperial Palace where the Emperor actually resided. Strictly speaking, Chloe was an outsider and should have been moved to the outer palace before midnight. However, the Emperor put her in the Imperial Palace, very close to the Emperor’s room in the central palace, on the grounds that the place where she collapsed was inside the Imperial Palace.

The fact that Calcus unnecessarily intervened in a matter that Hugrey could have handled alone, escalating the situation and resulting in Chloe’s identity as the Tigrian princess being publicly revealed, worked against Hugrey in many ways. Because even after Chloe recovered, Calcus publicly justified her detention under the pretext of protecting the Tigrian princess.

Moreover, Calcus Trascan displayed a cunningness in not taking any measures that contradicted the justification he put forth, allowing Hugrey to freely enter and exit between the main Imperial Palace and the outer palace. By allowing outsiders to come and go freely, he made it seem as if Chloe wasn’t being detained.

It was a cunning and strange tactic considering Hugrey’s situation of not being able to stay away from his territory indefinitely. If Hugrey temporarily accepted this situation and left for his territory, this state could continue for as long as possible. It meant that the situation could unfold according to the madman’s will.

Of course, Hugrey had no intention of leaving Chloe here and returning to his territory. He had to take her back to Roizen. However, weapons were prohibited when entering the main palace, so he couldn’t fight the Emperor’s entire army with his bare hands. He couldn’t fight in wolf form either.

Fighting in wolf form in front of humans, not as a fight between shapeshifters, would be breaking the treaty of the entire shapeshifter race, and the rampage of the Alpha, the leader of the werewolves, would make the werewolves the enemy of the entire shapeshifter race. In the end, Hugrey decided to gather the werewolves to respond to the lion Emperor’s crazy actions.

This was because detaining the Alpha’s mate, when an imprinted werewolf becomes weak without their mate, was equivalent to harming the Alpha.

Of course, just because he gathered the werewolves didn’t mean there was a high possibility of an armed conflict that would immediately deal a major blow to both sides. However, if the Emperor didn’t stop his crazy actions, there was a need to show that he was willing to engage in armed conflict if necessary.

For now, pressuring the Emperor was the first priority.