“Lorencia. I don’t know what you saw in the future, but I will never abandon you. Or is it that you’re being threatened by something in the Poloid Empire? Is that it?”

“Rather than a threat, I have merely faced the truth.”

Lorencia pushed a frame covered with a white cloth closer to Ruans.

“The truth before your eyes. Your Majesty.”

“The truth?”

Ruans reached out his trembling hand towards the frame but stopped.

“I don’t know what truth you saw, but my love for you is sincere.”

As he grabbed and pulled off the white cloth covering the frame, there was a portrait of a man with navy blue eyes and deep violet hair.

“Who is this man?”

“The man in the portrait is Cain di Glosten.”

Ruans tilted his head. Looking closely, the man resembled Lorencia.

“It’s a portrait painted by the artist of the di Glosten ducal family 20 years ago.”

Lorencia spoke with the corners of her mouth raised.

“He is my biological father. Your Majesty.”

Ruans momentarily forgot his words at Lorencia’s revelation. A brief silence passed, and the first to speak was Ruans.

“This portrait must be fake.”

“Fake?”

“Yes. It’s a fake made to keep you in the Poloid Empire. Lorencia. The only truth is that you are the illegitimate child of the Pol Heredian family. Don’t be fooled by such a fake painting. Indeed, you must not leave my side, Lorencia. You’ll fall for such lies.”

Ruans, who nervously sighed deeply, continued speaking.

“Lorencia, it seems I need to teach you how to distinguish between truth and falsehood first.”

“You don’t believe me. No, you won’t acknowledge it even after seeing it. Your Majesty.”

Not acknowledging meant the beginning of growing suspicion.

“How can I believe such a fake? Foolish and beautiful Lorencia. No matter what truth you saw or what you think of my sincerity, there is something that doesn’t change.”

Ruans looked over Lorencia’s body with bitter eyes.

“The fact that you, Lorencia, will become my concubine, be crowned empress, and bear my child.”

“Did you think I could become a concubine with a forged concubine acceptance decree?”

“I told you it’s not a forgery.”

Ruans pulled Lorencia’s wrist.

“You’re becoming my woman. Happy? You better not scream. If you scream and Duke Spencer comes into the reception room and sees you like this, it will show that you’ve lost your honor, Lorencia.”

Lorencia glared coldly at Ruans, who was holding her wrist.

“I don’t mind Lorencia glaring at me like this. It’s spine-chilling.”

Ruans raised his hand and caressed Lorencia’s soft cheek. She wanted to reflect back all the misery and filth that was beginning to fill her body, as if squeezing out the agony.

“See. You’re staying still even as I caress your cheek because you like me.”

“Do you think I’m in a good mood right now? This is the second time I’m feeling this way.”

“The second time? Who was the first? Don’t tell me you lost your virginity? It’s okay even if you get dirty, Lorencia. The fact that you’re becoming my woman won’t change.”

“I think you’re misunderstanding something, so let me clarify.”

Lorencia forcibly raised the corners of her mouth.

“The first person who made me feel this dirty was Lorirolls Young-sik, and the second is you, Emperor Ruans, who is right in front of my eyes.”

“Lorencia!”

Ruans, who raised his voice, put strength in his hand to pull Lorencia’s wrist harder. That’s when it happened.

“Aargh!”

Ruans screamed. Then he was limply dragged and seated on the sofa. He could only move his head left and right, unable to understand what had happened to him.

“What… is this!”

Ruans, startled by being unexpectedly pulled and seated on the sofa, put strength to lift his body. However, he gradually stiffened his expression as he realized his body was no longer moving according to his will.

“Why won’t my body move.”

Ruans had a fleeting desperate thought about his current state. He felt fear as he couldn’t move his body no matter how hard he tried.

“What’s the matter? Your Majesty.”

At Daniel’s words that came to mind again, Ruans flinched for a moment.

“What did you do to me?”

Monster.

“You better not do anything to me from now on, as you don’t know what I might do to you, Emperor Ruans.”

As Ruans’ gaze met Lorencia’s violet eyes, the force pressing down on his body was released with a snap. As his body loosened, it began to tremble on its own. An unknown sense of fear seemed to weigh down on his body.

And he fully understood the meaning of the beautiful monster Daniel spoke of.

“I can never be your concubine, Your Majesty. Take the forged concubine acceptance decree and return to the Isuter Empire.”

“I told you several times the decree is not forged! Why can’t you understand?”

“It’s strange. It can only be a forgery.”

Lorencia tilted her head.

“I have the family seal… How could the family seal be stamped on the decree?”

“What?”

“Even if that decree is genuine, I cannot become your concubine. Because I have become the head of the Pol Heredian family.”

Ruans sprang up from his seat. But an unknown force forcibly sat him back down on the sofa. Cold sweat poured like rain, drenching his whole body.

“After Duke Brant died, Illina must have been released from prison, right? Because the position of family head became vacant. But Illina can never become the family head.”

Ruans once again struggled with all his might to move his immobile body. But it didn’t budge at all. He looked at the beautiful Lorencia, who was smiling leisurely. It was utterly incomprehensible. Above all, the day after he told Brant to stamp the concubine acceptance decree with the seal, Brant took poison and died. He showed his will not to stamp the seal at the cost of his life.

The reason he died was probably because his pride was hurt that Lorencia, an illegitimate and unsightly child, was becoming a concubine while his daughter Illina was in prison.

“Because I am the head of the Pol Heredian family.”

But it doesn’t make sense to give Lorencia the position of family head and the seal.

Ruans looked at Lorencia with unbelieving eyes. Looking at her breathtakingly beautiful face, his suffocating heart vanished, and his heart pounded.

“I can’t move my body right now… Is this power also yours, Lorencia?”

“What if it is?”

“Such power is amazing. Since when could you use it?”

Although he felt fear at the fact that Lorencia was freely using a strange power, his desire to possess her beauty and strong power grew. Another reason he couldn’t give up on Lorencia was added.

Indeed, she was the monster born for him.

“Beautiful Lorencia. You knew Duke Brant would die, didn’t you?”

Ruans spoke his thoughts. No matter how much he thought about it, wasn’t it strange? How could the family seal go to Lorencia overnight? There was no way Brant would have entrusted the family seal to someone else to deliver it to Lorencia, who was in the Poloid Empire…

“Whether you believe it or not, I have become the head of the Pol Heredian family, so I absolutely cannot become your concubine.”

“I’ll make you my concubine somehow.”

“If we stamp the decree you brought with the family seal I have, we’ll know if it’s genuine or fake, right? If the seals on the decree are all real, the decree will remain intact, but if the family seal I have is fake, the decree will disappear.”

Ruans couldn’t say a word. The seals of the family head and the emperor are imbued with magic.

When the family seal and the emperor’s seal are stamped side by side, the paper is permanently preserved. However, if even one of the two seals is fake, the paper disappears.

That’s why Pelena forged both the Pol Heredian family seal and the emperor’s seal and stamped them on the decree before sending it.

“I’ll stamp the seal over the decree you brought to verify it for you. That’s the fastest way to check if the decree is forged or not, right? If you want, I can also show you Duke Brant’s will.”

“Something like a will can be easily forged.”

“Just like you forged the decree, Your Majesty?”

“Lorencia. The decree doesn’t matter. I told you I love you! What do you want from me? Do you want the truth about the decree? Do you really need to go this far to prove whether it’s forged or not? I love you, Lorencia. Let’s go back together. Hmm? Just stay by my side.”

“Your Majesty. Do you think I want the truth? But what can I do? I already know the whole truth…”

Lorencia tilted her head.

“Your Majesty. Please return to the Isuter Empire. And could you pass on a message to Duke Daniel for me?”

Lorencia slowly approached Ruans, who couldn’t move, and lowered her head to him. Then she whispered softly in his ear.

“Tell him the monster with purple eyes has fully awakened. The amethyst beads have completely revived. Tell Duke Daniel that our mother told you the power we possess will never blossom with love.”

Lorencia raised her head, looked at him, and gave a bright eye smile. Now they would gather and discuss whether the prophecy she made was true or not.

“Duke Daniel. Tell him that he was completely deceived by our mother 20 years ago.”

Having finished speaking, Lorencia straightened her waist and took a step back.

“Then have a safe trip back.”

As Lorencia left the reception room, Ruans’ body moved freely. Ruans screamed.

He couldn’t stay in the Poloid Empire like this. He was at a loss as to how to tell Daniel that Lorencia hadn’t loved him.

Although it was shocking that she had pretended to love him, what was most despairing was that he no longer knew where her prophecy began and ended in truth.

Still, thanks to Lorencia’s prophetic dream, he was able to get rid of the damn Adrian, his own father the emperor, and the unsightly empress.