“Need help?”

“With what?”

“Document work.”

“What?”

At his unexpected words, Olivia groped his finger that covered her eyes and pulled it down.

With eyes opened as wide as possible, Olivia asked again.

“What?”

“I feel like pulling all my hair out, so these documents should be processed before that.”

Cryer chuckled and lifted Olivia’s hair ends, rolling them skillfully between his fingers.

As the smooth and faint scent of roses emanated from the hair that was entwined with his rough knuckles, an inexplicable warmth seemed to rise subtly from the hair ends, despite the fact that it couldn’t be so hot.

Olivia, as if nothing happened, pulled her hair out of his fingers and spoke.

“You? Documents?”

“Yes.”

Responding to Olivia, who turned her puzzled face toward Cryer, he answered with a blunt expression.

“What confidence do you have?”

Her blunt reaction was something anyone would expect.

Although there were some disputes between Olivia and Cryer, and she had seen things that others might find unpleasant, Olivia was undeniably the sole heir to the Bolshevik Empire, the only successor to the current commander.

Among the documents that the next empress handled, there was nothing unimportant, and they were so complex and headache-inducing that one would want to pluck their eyes out.

“I think I can do it. If secrecy is an issue, it wasn’t my intention, but I’ve already seen too much.”

Recalling the history of the Bolshevik Empire while re-examining it from one side of her office, Cryer unintentionally saw Olivia scribbling on the documents or stamping them with an unstoppable stamp.

Of course, seeing it doesn’t mean he had used that information for anything.

“You don’t have any secrets. Everything I can see, you can see too. The problem is not that…”

“What does that mean?”

Before Olivia could finish her sentence, Cryer interjected abruptly.

“That mean? What mean? The problem? You’re about to say something.”

“No. You said you can see what I can see.”

“Yeah. It doesn’t matter. I told you. I trust you. Besides, honestly, whether your empire is doing well or not, I don’t care at all. In a good sense or a bad sense.”

Cryer didn’t bother to answer and nodded slightly.

Because it was true. He cared not only about the empire but also about the entire continent.

He just wants to erase this damn slave mark.

Even now, nothing was different. He wanted to get away from the chains of the ancient god.

Since the moment Olivia pulled him, offering her hand and saying, “I’ll help you get away,” it has been an unchanging goal.

Isn’t he living only for that?

Even though there was no hope of getting away from the chains of slavery that pulled him like a long, dark swamp, the moment Olivia reached out her hand, a dazzling light descended from that dark pit like a painful light.

There was no way to escape.
“Can we really escape?”

“We can escape.”

It didn’t take Cryer long for his thoughts to change.

And what about life after that… he hadn’t even thought about it.

Cryer looked at Olivia, who was rummaging through documents, murmuring incessantly, and not letting go of the pen, with a thoughtful gaze.

What would happen between them once the stamp on my collarbone disappears?

“Now that the job is done, you go your way, and I’ll go mine!”

Olivia might say that, turning her back on him cheerfully.

Logically, that would make sense.

After all, he had personally taken her life away four times.

A man who appeared in front of her as death without fail in the repeated lives.

Although they joined hands to survive, there would be no reason to continue holding hands even after survival was assured.

Recently, she blushed in front of me for a while.

The cheek that swelled up temptingly, as if wanting to be asked in a way that wanted to be asked, and even the earlobes that burned while twitching.

The air that surrounded Olivia at that time satisfied him deeply, even if he took a deep breath into the depths of his lungs.

But she immediately chose to escape from him.

Her desperate thoughts were clearly readable from the small back that was quickly moving away.

Don’t get close. Don’t shake. This is crazy. So, that’s why!

And after he put the ancient god into his mouth, Olivia seemed to have lost the color of those moments as if they were lies.

Whether it was fortunate that she didn’t avoid him or unfortunate that she didn’t notice it.

Either way, he could endure it now.

Isn’t she by my side? Isn’t she by her side?

But what about the distant future that cannot be grasped?

No matter how many times, dozens of times, or hundreds of times he thought about it, there was no choice for him to leave her.

Only the situation where she flew away from him came to mind.

If so, could he say goodbye, waving his hand, without looking back at Olivia leaving?

The conclusion came in an instant.

No, he couldn’t. It’s impossible.

Cryer picked up the document in his hand and covered his face so that Olivia couldn’t see it.

Because his emotions of desire, greed, longing, and thirst were vividly revealed on his face.