“It’s surprising that someone who climbs mountains like a squirrel doesn’t know how to swim.”

“Due to my carelessness, I nearly drowned in a river when I was young. Since then, I haven’t been able to enter the water.”

Arabel hesitated before answering the Emperor’s words.

Despite her fear of water, she tried to cross the river for the baby deer. The Emperor, carrying Arabel in his arms and wading through the river’s current, looked down at her reddened slender neck and thought.

Surely, like when she saved the beast, she must have been trying to save a wild animal… or put herself in danger for the sake of family members who weren’t really family.

Although Arabel didn’t explain further and kept her mouth shut, the sharp Emperor had already figured out the girl in his arms to some extent. And his intuition was surprisingly close to the truth.

Arabel’s frightened eyes tightly closed, unable to look at the rushing water that threatened to swallow them up to the Emperor’s waist.

Earlier when crossing the river, the current was much weaker, and above all, the safety of the baby deer was more important, so there was no time to think. Moreover, due to what happened in the carriage, she wasn’t in her right mind when the Emperor carried her across the river.

The year she turned nine, when her mother passed away. Her father secretly stole newborn livestock to experiment on the healing abilities of him and his two daughters, deliberately breaking their necks or legs. The injured animals ultimately couldn’t recover and died.

That day too, she was fleeing to the mountains with a lamb her father and sister Camille had stolen for experiments, when her sister and Roxy caught up, trying to take the lamb away. They struggled by the riverside to keep it from being taken.

Thrown off by the strength of their arms, she fell into the deep river and was swept away by the suddenly violent current, nearly drowning.

“As I was losing consciousness in the water… that’s when my master saved me.”

At Arabel’s words, the Emperor’s hands holding her tightened.

“It must have been your first meeting with your ‘most handsome and perfect’ master.”

“Yes, if master hadn’t saved me, I would have already died. When I opened my eyes and first saw master, I thought an angel had come down from heaven to take me away.”

Not noticing the slightly sarcastic tone, Arabel nodded and answered in her brightest voice since coming to the riverside.

The Emperor’s mood, which had been satisfied with Arabel wrapping her arms around his neck while crossing the river, suddenly plummeted.

“From now on, if a situation arises where you need to cross a river…”

The Emperor spoke in a dry voice, trying to keep any emotion out of it.

“Never let another man carry you across.”

When Arabel raised her head to look at the Emperor, his neck turned slightly red before quickly returning to its normal color.

“All men are wolves. You must not let your guard down.”

Arabel’s large eyes widened even more at the word ‘wolf’, and her shoulders tensed slightly. If that was the case, then the Emperor carrying her across the river was also a wolf.

The Emperor quickly added:

“No, all men are wolves, but… I’m different. Because I’m the Emperor, I’m different from other men. Do you understand?”

Embarrassed by his completely nonsensical reason, and even childishly using his ‘Emperor’ title to justify it, the Emperor cleared his throat.

Seeing the clear eyes that seemed to teach that the most dangerous man was actually the Emperor, he composed himself and said:

“About what happened in the carriage earlier… it’s because I’ve only been back to being human for a day after being a beast. I momentarily lost my reason due to hunger at lunchtime. You know better than anyone how carnivores change when they’re starving.”

Although it was a poor excuse, the innocent girl nodded as if she finally understood.

“It will never happen again. Do you believe me?”

When the Emperor once again promised in a serious voice, Arabel nodded and replied:

“Yes, I believe you.”

The corners of the Emperor’s mouth slightly curled up as he lifted Arabel’s body higher to keep her feet from getting wet.

The Emperor’s arm strength was the best in the continent, and the girl in his arms was very light. In his arms, Arabel’s body suddenly bounced up, causing her lips to collide with the Emperor’s neck.

At the same time, both their breaths stopped, and the Emperor’s footsteps came to an abrupt halt. The long, firm neck that wouldn’t flinch even if a knife entered it now felt dizzyingly ticklish, as if flower petals had fallen on it.

As the Emperor resumed walking, he spoke in a slightly lowered voice to Arabel, who had lowered her head and was biting her lip:

“There’s a very famous lake in the Imperial Palace. When we return, I’ll teach you how to swim next summer. It’s too cold to swim now in late autumn. So that in emergency situations, you can swim across rivers without the help of wolves, ahem, other men.”

“But I won’t be at the Imperial Palace next summer, will I? Wasn’t I supposed to leave two months after the competition ends? That’s what I wrote in the letter I left for my master…”

When Arabel reminded the Emperor of his promise, his mood soured again, and he replied somewhat gruffly.

“Then prepare to learn swimming as soon as we return to the Imperial Palace. The lake used to have hot springs flowing into it, so it won’t be too cold.”

The hot springs had flowed 300 years ago, and now the lake was fed by underground glacial water from the continent. That’s why it was the best summer resort.

A gentle smile spread across Arabel’s lips, unaware of the Emperor’s mood swings between hot and cold. She thought the Emperor was truly a good person for thinking of her safety and wanting to teach her to swim even in cold weather.

She believed that the Emperor’s behavior in the carriage earlier was due to the instincts of a hungry beast that had only returned from being an animal for a day.

−Imperial Palace of the Heltered Empire−

In the reception room of the Peony Palace, the residence of the Empress Dowager, a silver snake and a yellow fox were facing off with tremendous force.

Empress Dowager Natalie and Duchess Caroline Le Sang.

Inside, they were growling, unable to devour each other, but outwardly, they appeared to be the perfect mother and daughter. Although not a drop of blood was shared between them, and the age difference was only four years.

Both the Duchess Caroline, who had brought specialties from the eastern farmlands she managed, and the Empress Dowager, who was serving rare tea imported from her home country, were busy sizing each other up.

Because of the Emperor’s notification received yesterday. He had informed them that he was personally bringing back the final candidate for the Empress selection competition to the capital.

Now there would be eleven candidates instead of ten. Moreover, a strong contender had joined the two-way competition between Princess Lilibet and Lady Grace, who had been the most likely candidates, turning it into a three-way race.

The rumor that the Emperor was personally bringing a candidate for Empress spread like wildfire, causing a stir not only in the upper nobility of the capital but also in foreign countries. Until now, the Emperor had been famous for never giving a glance to women.

How bad was it that the king of a vassal state, suspecting he might prefer men, had sent a beautiful man to his bedroom during a visit to curry favor? Of course, that incident resulted in the vassal king having to pass the throne to his younger brother.

“Did Your Majesty the Empress Dowager really not know anything about this? Don’t you usually know everything that goes on in the palace?”

“How could an old lady in the back room know everything His Majesty the Emperor does? I thought you, the Duchess, as His Majesty’s only blood relative, would know.”

Silence fell between the two women with tea and refreshments in front of them.

“How remarkable must this lady be for His Majesty the Emperor to personally choose and bring her?”

“All that’s known is that she’s a direct descendant of the Duke of Delcincre family, which was highly trusted by the 19th to 23rd Emperors.”

“I heard that the Delcincre family doesn’t live in the Empire anymore, but moved their base to another country.”

“How did he come to meet a daughter from such an unknown family…”

The tea in the two women’s mouths was famous for its sweet taste, but their palates were still bitter.

Once useful to the Imperial family for their healing abilities, the family’s very existence had now been completely buried.

Although she was the daughter of an insignificant family… looking at it differently, it meant that so little was known about the family that it would be difficult to find weaknesses.

Most of the upper nobility in the capital didn’t even know the Delcincre family existed, and the family members were all scattered living in other countries after leaving the Empire.

If only they could contact her family, they could find out if there was anything to discredit her, or try to win them over to their side, but it was difficult to find even a clue to their whereabouts.

“Still, it’s not right for a woman who hasn’t even gone through two rounds of competition to participate in the final competition. It’s too unfair.”

“What can we do? It’s stipulated in the rules of the Empress selection competition that His Majesty the Emperor can select one candidate.”

“His Majesty, who hasn’t shown interest in any of the candidates competing so far, suddenly brings a lady. The current atmosphere is as if the lady from the Delcincre family has already become the Empress.”

It was true.

Some nobles quick to adapt to changing times were already trying to curry favor with the never-before-seen lady of the Delcincre family through the Imperial head maid and butler.

“No matter how much she’s caught His Majesty’s eye, she must win the selection competition to qualify as Empress. It’s an unbreakable rule of the Imperial family. Many previous Emperors have put forward ladies they liked as candidates… but less than half of them became Empress.”

As the Empress Dowager spoke with a forced casual smile, Duchess Le Sang also raised the corners of her mouth to hide her burning anxiety.

But there was a terrifying premonition that this time could be different. Because the Emperor was none other than Maxwell. The fact that he had chosen someone as his companion certainly wasn’t due to any emotion of love.

God had given him everything, but not the ability to love anyone.

That was the greatest gift God had given to the ruler of this land. There was no way his judgment would be clouded by emotions, which was why he had begun to conquer not only the Empire but the entire continent.

That’s why everyone believed without a doubt that the candidate he was bringing this time would be a formidable competitor. He had chosen her as a candidate not for any personal feelings towards a woman, but for purely calculated political reasons, and she would surely…

“Grace, you need to be on high alert. The opponent isn’t the reckless Lilibet who relies only on her beauty. The woman coming with the Emperor is surely a high-level strategist. If we’re not careful, we’ll be the ones getting played.”

“Princess Lilibet, you don’t have time to dawdle having picnics with the other ladies. The daughter of the Delcincre family who’s become a candidate this time must have an intellect rivaling the Emperor’s. That means she’ll lie as easily as breathing and be impossible to read. We need to prepare thoroughly so we don’t fall victim to her.”

After ending their tea time and parting ways, the Empress Dowager and the Duchess went to find Grace and Lilibet, whom they were backing, to urge them that now was not the time to relax comfortably.

She was surely a cold-blooded person without blood or tears, just like the Emperor, and an ambitious woman who would throw away her conscience for her goals.

The cold-blooded and ambitious woman they were talking about was now sitting next to the Emperor, her mouth full of chocolate-covered marshmallows she was tasting for the first time, showing a happy smile.