“Death is all that awaits me anyway. So I wasn’t curious about anything…”

Mercedes slowly caught her breath and continued.

“But now I can’t help but ask. You worry about me, willingly help me, and even though you could just kill me, you’re granting my ‘request’ under the pretext of a deal.”

“…”

“So tell me. Why do you have to kill me? Is it for political reasons? To frame the Empress Dowager for my death and solidify the imperial power? But then you could just order your subordinates to do it. Why do you want to kill me yourself? There was hesitation in your dagger.”

Mercedes’s words gradually sped up and her breathing became ragged.

It seemed the things she had been holding back had burst out.

“Mercedes. Hold on-”

“Don’t touch me.”

Carlos thought she needed to calm down a bit. If she got too agitated in her poor health condition, it could be serious.

But his large hand, which had instinctively reached out to take hers, had no choice but to stop in midair upon hearing her rejection.

“…Sorry. Calm down. Talk slowly. I’d go crazy if you collapsed in front of me.”

Carlos ran a hand through his hair and rubbed his face. Mercedes watched him, clutching her heart that was beating so violently it seemed it would shake the world.

Was expressing emotions always accompanied by this anxiety and chaotic whirlwind of feelings? The more she learned about emotions, the more unfamiliar the changes in her body felt.

It was frightening too.

‘But… the people of the Count’s family.’

Even when they got angry, they didn’t seem to struggle like her. Perhaps the more you express your emotions, the calmer you gradually become.

For now, Carlos was right. Her health had not recovered, so she needed to be calm.

Mercedes took a deep breath to collect herself and opened her mouth again.

“…I should calm down. Fine. Now I want to hear the reason.”

The reason.

Carlos closed his eyes for a moment.

To live, I’m trying to kill you.

It was such a difficult thing to say.

How selfish. And how hurtful.

He even felt he was detestable.

“Carlos.”

“…”

“Carl.”

Since that day, Mercedes had not called him by that nickname even once. Carlos opened his eyes without realizing it.

In front of him sat a strong woman staring straight at him with a determined look.

“I’m fine, so tell me.”

‘When did she…’

Carlos looked back on the time he had spent with her.

At first, he thought her struggling might be a little pitiful. But since he was going to kill her anyway, he acted as he pleased without developing any affection, provoking her.

But when did it become like this…

“You have grown dazzlingly.”

“What do you mean?”

Carlos knew.

He had delayed a hundred times and reconsidered a thousand times. He couldn’t sleep and barely escaped the thoughts by turning his attention to work.

“Mercedes. Mercedes… Mel.”

He spoke the nickname he couldn’t call her before, the one he wanted to call her.

For a moment, Mercedes’s eyes wavered.

Carlos approached her.

“I… I can’t kill you, I just can’t.”

“I’m not trying to hear your confession. The reason-”

Carlos sat next to her and very gently, as if holding the most precious thing in the world, cupped her face.

“You are lovely. Stronger than me. How can a person shine so brightly?”

“…Carl. What strange things to say-”

“Mel. I won’t kill you.”

Carlos would regret his choice. His limbs would stiffen and ache, and he would become an emperor who turned his back on the burden of the empire on his shoulders.

Still, if he quickly found someone suitable from a collateral line to handle the succession, even after his death, Leopold, Franz, and the other adjutants would lead well. There was also Skye.

So…

To kill this pitiful and lovely woman.

To act despicably to save his own life.

He wanted to stop now.

It was really an inevitable thing.

“I can’t kill you.”

Carlos said once more with emphasis.

Mercedes looked at him with confused eyes. But her gaze still turned to his lips.

How much had she longed for the times they had spent two nights together?

“What do you… take me for? What do you want to do with me? You don’t need to make me let my guard down to kill me. I can die-”

“I can’t kill you. You are light. A light that makes my shadow stretch out so long that even the detestable things are clearly visible.”

“…What are you talking about?”

“Mel. Survive. Live for me. I won’t kill you. I’ve made up my mind.”

Carlos answered clearly without a tremor in his voice or a flicker in his eyes.

She had only asked for the reason, but the answer she got was that he wouldn’t kill her.

Mercedes was confused. But Carlos’s next words swallowed up all the confusion and the world spun dizzily.

“Mel. I truly love you.”

Mercedes’s heart crumbled. She had heard his confession and been betrayed, but in the end…

“You cruel man. Damn you. I really… hate you.”

Mercedes loved him too. She hit his chest with her fist a few times, shedding a single tear. Carlos, not knowing what to do, wiped away the tear and preciously cupped her face.

“I’m sorry, Mel.”

No answer came to the apology. Mercedes simply captured his lips.

Carlos seemed slightly surprised for a moment, then quickly accepted her breath into him.

It was a kiss that made their whole bodies heat up.

* * *

News broke that the emperor, blinded by the empress, had given his knight to the Count in Shame. And that the knight had been sent when she was rumored to be his ‘concubine’ before becoming empress.

At that point, people started saying things like “Has the emperor gone crazy over a woman?”

Talk of “Mercedes is a seductress. She devoured the emperor in bed.” which had died down also resurfaced.

The emperor’s knight! It wasn’t something to be given to just anyone. Especially for the current emperor who had conquered the continent with his army.

It was a privilege. And he had secretly handed that privilege over to the Count, but the knight had escaped, leading to a major defeat in the territory war.

This was a big scoop.

From the fact that the emperor’s knight who had fought in the conquest war was incompetent enough to be defeated in a territory war, to the fact that he had secretly given ‘Loom’s precious soldier’ to a concubine who wasn’t even empress at the time. It was all humiliating.

In fact, giving one knight to a concubine wasn’t a big deal.

The problem was that Carlos had handled everything cleanly, coldly, and fairly until now.

The fact that the perfect emperor had begun to grant special favors to someone made the people of the empire gradually uneasy.

Who knows?

If the empress stirs up pillow talk, what else might the emperor do!

The empress who betrayed the bonds of nature and abandoned her father, with a bad personality. And the emperor who loves her like crazy and showers her with everything.

In the end, rumors continued from talk of ‘deposing the empress’ to ‘is the emperor in his right mind?’

Amid the heated discussions, an emergency meeting of the nobility was convened exactly three weeks after the empress’s scandals began appearing on the front pages of newspapers.

“…What is going on?”

At this point, even among the adjutants, people started to talk.

Leopold had told them not to pay attention to Her Majesty the Empress, and many who had come to the adjutants’ office for their first meeting had evaluated Mercedes favorably.

So it had been quiet until then.

But this incident was growing and even the emperor whom they respected and were loyal to was being criticized.

“It’s all because of that woman. Why should His Majesty be criticized too? Only that woman should be!”

“His Majesty is fair and just, but also has compassion. He must be exercising chivalry to help that pitiful woman.”

“Whew. The more I think about it, the less I like that woman.”

“By the way, it’s been a week already. We need to respond!”

Eventually, someone was bound to express their displeasure loudly.

The imperial palace was in turmoil. Everyone’s loyal hearts remained the same, so the arrows were aimed at Mercedes.

Amidst the increasingly noisy adjutants’ office.

“She’s not that kind of person.”

Leopold, who had come out of his inner room and was rubbing his temples while flipping through a tall stack of papers, spoke as usual, but with certainty.

“…Pardon?”

“Her Majesty the Empress is not that kind of person. She’s neither a seductress nor someone who will ruin the country.”

Leopold was the one who disliked Mercedes the most from the beginning, and for some unknown reason, he never smiled when having to constantly go meet her.

But he, the one who oversaw the adjutants! To take Mercedes’s side. This was so unlike Leopold’s usual character.

He was quite cold and never praised or protected anyone. He only analyzed.

The adjutants looked at Leopold in surprise.

“So don’t speak rashly. You are His Majesty’s sword and pen. Her Majesty the Empress is also His Majesty’s person, so protect her. The empress I have observed for half a year is not someone who deserves such words, and is someone who will have countermeasures for this incident.”

Leopold spoke indifferently and went into his room.

The other adjutants were dumbfounded. The turmoil in the imperial palace seemed likely to be resolved soon.

* * *

This nobility meeting was held in an even larger conference room than the last one, and the emperor, empress, empress dowager, and all members of the Count’s family attended. Many reporters were also invited. Most of them were called by the empress dowager.

The emperor didn’t call reporters, as if trying to hide something. From that alone, people anticipated the emperor’s defeat today.

Since one of the two sides had to prove the truth and remove the humiliation, today’s meeting took a form close to a trial.

“What on earth is going on…?”

“How could you treat your father so coldly?”

“Could it be that even the Lucas incident last time was because the empress acted too vulgar, making Lord Lucas act so coldly?”

“My goodness. That could be it. If that upright man hurt a woman… she must have been that bad of a person.”

The gathered nobles were all criticizing Mercedes.

It was natural. Because the emperor and empress had endured silently without any response while all sorts of rumors were flying around.

The general opinion was that if the nobility meeting had not been convened, they would have stayed holed up in the imperial palace until the end.

“Let’s watch closely what kind of appearance they show today.”

“…Hmm. It may be a historic day when we can choose a woman to bring out His Majesty the Emperor’s wisdom with our own hands.”

Someone openly spoke of keeping the emperor in check, but no one stopped them or told them to watch their words.

That’s how bad the atmosphere in the capital was right now.

“His Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Empress are entering.”

In the chaotic conference room, the two appeared.

The empress, escorted by the emperor, tottered to the head seat. Seeing this, the empress dowager, who had already arrived, frowned.