In the deep darkness where she could not see an inch ahead, Asha shed tears alone.
Even though she was blatantly exchanging body heat with him, she felt a lonely sensation as if she was completely alone in that space.
Karaf summoned her to his bedroom once a month, every time they consummated.
It was like a flower tempting and drawing a butterfly, but the flower did not let the briefly lingering butterfly go all night.
It was indeed a long night.
Asha felt horribly lonely every time she was with him, as if her body and mind were pricked by thorns, but she could not tell anyone about it.
The union of the flower and the butterfly, the ritual for blossoming, was considered sacred.
She could not easily adapt to palace life.
Although Vanessa was an empress and a saint, no different from a noble position, there was no one in the imperial palace who treated her graciously, as she was not an officially enshrined butterfly through the blossoming ceremony but a slave who had been sold.
The emperor was no exception.
Asha tried to love him, but Karaf did not love her.
He merely kept her beside him like a preserved golden butterfly specimen to solidify his position as emperor.
Rumors that she could not make the emperor bloom spread quickly throughout the empire.
As time went on, Karaf’s eyes became colder when looking at her.
Of course, it was not like that at first.
Whether he felt sorry for her as a slave, or just wanted to change her to his taste, Karaf also pretended to care for her in his own way.
Asha mistook it for affection, but he was a man who did not know love.
Like the flower language of the black rose, he reached the end of obsession, and he was a tyrant who armed himself with thorns all over his body, coercively embracing the other party and injuring them.
He was the kind of man who injured the other person without knowing it, and rather became angry for not accepting his love.
As soon as he realized that she could not make the flower inside him bloom, his attitude began to change noticeably.
He did not hesitate to threaten or verbally abuse her, and if she did not move according to his will, he would lock her in a room or punish her.
They had almost no conversation other than through their bodies, and Asha lived a thoroughly isolated and lonely life in the palace.
Never fully melting into the noble world as an immigrant…
In the end, she attempted to escape from the palace, but she was caught by the knights and dragged back as usual.
Asha knelt on the red carpet, looking up at him with a trembling face.
Karaf drew his sword from the sheath, not looking at her but casually examining the blade.
“…… What are the servants and maids of the imperial palace doing? The butterfly tries to escape every chance it gets, and how can they not foresee and stop it once?”
It sounded relaxed at first, but there was a storm brewing inside.
Everyone in the room sensed an impending bloodbath and tensed up.
Karaf ordered the knights to bring all the servants who usually attended her.
Like Asha, they knelt on the carpet, trembling, unable to lift their heads.
He calmly commanded the knights.
“Kill them all in front of the butterfly, for the sin of not stopping the butterfly.”
Asha’s face turned pale with shock.
Her mysterious purple eyes were filled with veins as if they were about to shed bloody tears.
“Please kill me instead.”
Karaf looked at her indifferently, resting his chin on the armrest of his chair.
“How can a flower kill a butterfly? What are the knights doing? Kill them one by one.”
Immediately, one knight dragged a servant who usually tidied Asha’s bedroom out with a stern face.
The child was the first girl in this palace who had pitied her and bestowed kindness upon her.
“Vanessa ma’am…! Vanessa ma’am…!”
The girl screamed in a torn voice, begging to be saved.
Asha eventually collapsed at his feet, tears streaming down her face.
She didn’t care if she got hurt.
Being ignored and trampled upon was now all too familiar to her.
But she could never get used to precious lives being senselessly trampled upon because of her.
Asha spoke in gasps of shock, her words stumbling.
“Whatever you ask, I’ll do… please… spare the child’s life… Your Majesty…”
She knelt at his feet and bowed her head.
Hot tears fell on his military boots, drop by drop.
Karaf silently bent his knee and sat down, gently holding her chin and making her look at him.
Looking at Asha’s tearstreaked face, he spoke in an infinitely compassionate expression, lowering his eyelids slightly.
“Never try to run away from me again. Don’t even ask to be killed. Rather beg to be spared, as you are now. It feels like my heart will be torn less that way.”
He tenderly wiped her tearsoaked eyes with his thumb and whispered softly into her ear.
“You are mine forever.”
[This is the time separator]Asha’s eyes snapped open.
When she came to, she found herself lying in a strange bed.
Turns Out He’s Been Secretly in Love with Me
One-line summary: He acts like he doesn’t like her but is actually playing hard to get.
Synopsis:
Xu Muzhou like her. He has liked her for a very long time, and through repeated schemes, he finally closed the distance with her.
But this is still far from enough.
He wants to be the one who stands out among her many suitors, to fight for her attention, and to make her take the initiative to pursue him.
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