I am a demon.

I try to find other ways as much as possible, but if nothing else works, there’s no helping it.

Faivel looked at me blankly for a moment, then sighed.

“Once you experience love, you might find it’s not such a big deal.”

“Love is not a big deal?”

“Yes.”

I frowned, but Faivel remained calm.

He really thinks that way. That love is not significant.

“Do you know how many humans I’ve loved until now?”

“…I’m not interested in your love life.”

“At first it feels like you’ll die from happiness, but as time passes it fades. When you gaze down at your sleeping lover in your arms, you start to wonder why you liked this person so much… Because humans change.”

Faivel chuckled and tapped his head.

“Humans change, master. Unlike demons. That’s why they’re lovable, but at the same time, that’s why it doesn’t last long.”

Humans change.

Those words stabbed me painfully.

Now I cherish Mereum, but when time passes and he loses his current nobility, will I still care for him?

Is love about loving even the changed aspects of your lover?

Or is it natural for love to stop because they’ve changed?

Surely everyone has their own philosophy about love.

I respect that diversity, but I hadn’t experienced enough love to establish my own philosophy.

Living for such a long time, I had never been deeply infatuated with anyone other than Enrique.

As I was lost in thought and couldn’t answer, Faivel got up with a “Yup!” and opened the carriage door.

“It’s time to board.”

“…Right.”

“Don’t think too deeply about it. You’re more of a person of action than thought, master.”

Action over thought.

And what was the result of that?

Losing all my power and becoming a miserable human.

Taking Faivel’s hand, I got out of the carriage and silently looked up at the massive ship.

Faivel, standing behind me, placed his hand on his chest and bowed.

“I hope you have a summer night filled with passionate love.”

The dreamlike week was about to begin.

Under the dazzlingly bright chandelier sat a woman in an jaw-droppingly expensive dress, with a haughty posture.

Many men flocked around the woman with her flowing golden hair, trying to curry favor.

“I’m good at massages. Shall I rub your shoulders?”

“I, I can read palms. There’s a witch in my neighborhood, so I learned from her.”

The woman didn’t speak. Instead, she expressed herself with a fan adorned with ostrich feathers.

The men praised her, saying how elegant she looked, their mouths watering.

“Your Majesty. You’re the real one, aren’t you?”

“Of course I’m the real one. How could that lowly thing be real?”

Far from the so-called ‘Ostrich Feather Fan Empress’.

Near a table with various bottles of alcohol, stood a woman in a rather revealing dress.

Pale blonde hair and long eyelashes. This woman with upturned eyes had a mole on her nose.

Moreover, every word she spoke was clear and powerful, and her actions were refreshing.

Instead of a fan, the woman held a glass of strong liquor in her hand.

Though she had already downed three glasses in succession, she showed no signs of intoxication and remained perfectly sober.

The men cheered around this ‘Heavy Drinker Empress’ and drank along with her.

“Oh, Your Majesty. Why are you here when the party is in full swing?”

“Ah… I like reading books.”

The cruise ship was so enormous that it could accommodate up to 2,000 people, with three banquet halls.

In addition, there were four restaurants, a smoking room, a billiard room, a museum, a library, sports facilities. And even a performance hall with a piano, an observatory, and a swimming pool.

The concubine candidates could freely move around all these places and enjoy the services, and the actors were also stationed in various parts of the ship.

While some were at the party venue, not everyone was there.

The somewhat calm men who had sneaked into the library to escape the commotion encountered the ‘Bookworm Empress’ leisurely reading books there.

“Oh, have you read this book?”

The men seized the opportunity to start a conversation.

The ‘Bookworm Empress’ responded to each question with a gentle smile, and the men were convinced by her emanating dignity.

This must be the real one!

“She must be here. I’m sure of it!”

“Does Her Majesty the Empress really enjoy exercising?”

“Yes! My cousin’s younger brother’s lover’s friend is a squire in the Astaroth Knighthood. I heard that Her Majesty exercises diligently every day.”

Meanwhile, some had made their way to the sports facilities with their own information.

Of course, there was a woman there too.

With her wheat-colored hair tied up in a bun, she was holding a wooden sword, dressed in comfortable attire rather than a dress.

It wasn’t a heavy wooden sword, but a very light one modeled after a rapier.

“Is there anyone who dares to spar with me? If there is such a brave soul, step forward!”

The ‘Swordswoman Empress’ who shouted loudly gripped the wooden sword tightly with both hands.

To real knights or nobles who frequently interacted with knights, her posture might have seemed amateurish, but the commoners were easily fooled.

Besides these, there was also an empress at the swimming pool, and an empress at the performance hall.

The concubine candidates continued their conversations with the women they first met, guessing whether this person or that person might be the real one.

But those with a bit more sense were looking not at the women, but at someone else.

The captain of the Astaroth Knighthood, with jet-black hair and golden eyes.

The chief in charge of guarding this ship for the next week.

The Empress’s closest confidant.

It was Mereum Quan.

‘Troublesome and pathetic.’

Mereum let out a brief sigh at the presence of men glancing at him and following him.

They thought they were being stealthy, but their footsteps had been grating on his nerves for a while now.

It seemed they intended to consider whoever he approached as the real one, but their unwillingness to make any effort to find the real one themselves was so vexing he wanted to wring their necks.

“Your Majesty. Is the food to your liking?”

“Ah, yes. It is.”

Suppressing his irritation, Mereum approached the most conspicuous actor in the banquet hall and spoke to her. Then he heard the whispers of those who had been following him.

‘Tch.’

Clicking his tongue briefly, Mereum scanned the banquet hall with cold eyes.

As expected. He thought as much, but Leonarda was not here.

‘Go ahead and check the ship’s security situation, she says. What a fine excuse.’

Back in the corridor, Mereum felt the persistent gazes trying to cling to him and put strength into his legs.

“Huh?”

“Where did he go? He was just here!”

Swiftly moving to the upper floor, Mereum called out to Eldaim.

“Please make it so that no one can sense my presence.”

− Gladly, my contractor.

For a moment, a spray of water with a refreshing scent arose.

After that, Mereum’s presence completely disappeared, and people passed by him without noticing even when he was right in front of them.

His footsteps made no sound, even more so than a highly trained professional assassin.

This was because the mist surrounding him absorbed all sounds.

‘I’ve looked at all twelve, but she’s not anywhere.’

Did she not board the ship at all?

Growing anxious, he clenched and unclenched his fist.

In truth, Mereum had received very little information about this concubine selection.

Of course, as the head of security, he knew the ship’s structure, the actors’ information, and the faces of all 365 concubine candidates.

But what Mereum wanted to know wasn’t that.

Where she would be, with whom, and what she would do.

That was the only thing he was chasing after.

− I can find her through the water droplets.

“Thanks, but I won’t seek your help in finding Leo.”

− Such stubbornness.

Everyone on this ship is trying to find the real empress.

Leonarda was so fair that she didn’t give him any information about where she would be. She wouldn’t listen even when he said it was dangerous.

She insisted there was no way she could be in danger since no one would be able to find her anyway.

So how could he not feel competitive?

Mereum wanted to be the first to find her, more than anyone else.

Moving only by his own intuition, just like the other candidates.

He believed that then she would have no choice but to acknowledge him.

That the person who should be closest to her, the one most needed by her, was none other than him.

‘A faint scent of cinnamon sugar.’

At that moment, a familiar fragrance drifted on the wind from somewhere.

The salty smell of sea breeze, the cheap perfume scent the concubine candidates had doused themselves in, the smell of various foods and strong liquors – in this terrible hell of mixed odors, it was the only scent that could save him.

‘It’s barely noticeable due to the other foul smells, but it’s definitely Leo’s scent.’

Mereum, who had been looking down from a high place, began to move as if entranced.

Down the stairs, past the promenade, avoiding the noisy swimming pool, circling around once. Crossing the beautifully decorated garden and finally reaching the deck.

The deck, where officially certified merchants were selling their wares, resembled a festive street. Hundreds of lanterns were hung to push back the dark night, making it look like a paradise floating on the sea.

And there, Mereum spotted a maid.

She was such an ordinary maid that one would never think she could be the empress.