The sound of my thin apricotcolored factorymade dress tearing was heard.

I can’t live.

“!”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

Finally, he tore my dress.

Fortunately, the torn part was the sleeve of my right shoulder.

I should be thankful that the middle part of the dress did not tear.

If I just wear a robe, no one will know that one sleeve of the dress is half torn.

“I was surprised. I thought I tore the empress’s arm.”

Rinel rubbed his heart with his hand and let out a sigh of relief.

I showed him the ragged fabric of the right shoulder area and said,

“Please tear the rest.”

His eyebrows shot up and he murmured to himself, ‘Hmm? Can I do that?’

His two hands approached me like ghosts.

“Not the dress!”

“Huh?”

He stopped his movement with both arms straight ahead.

“Then?”

“Please tear off this dangling right shoulder area completely.”

“Oh, is that what you meant? I thought…”

Rinel awkwardly chuckled and tore the fabric off the right shoulder line that was half torn.

He looked at me blankly, holding the sleeve he had torn with both hands.

I let out a deep sigh and began to take off the dress.

I thought it was fortunate that Sharon had chosen a dress that was easy to put on and take off.

Thanks to Sharon’s sense, I was able to take off the dress without difficulty by myself.

His eyes got bigger and bigger.

“Rinel, can you please look away for a moment?”

Even though I was wearing a slip under my dress, I felt a bit uncomfortable because he was staring so intently.

“Why? We’ve already… No, let’s turn off the light instead. That should do it, right?”

I nodded, thinking that would be much less embarrassing.

All the lights illuminating the bedroom disappeared in an instant.

At first, I couldn’t see anything, but after a few minutes, I could see the outline of Rinel’s face.

He kept looking at me even in the dark.

I took off the dress and pulled the blanket over my body.

I heard Rinel rustling.

I had a feeling I knew what he was doing now.

Even though I couldn’t see very well in the dark, I also looked away for a moment.

After a moment, his large hand stroked my head and turned my face toward him.

Our eyes, accustomed to the darkness, met.

As the night deepened, our cautious instincts began to reveal their true colors.

His clear blue eyes revealed his expression vividly.

As his large hand, which had been gently holding my face, passed my chin, a shiver ran through my body.

It felt like everything in the world was coming together.

Even our souls.

Knock, knock, knock.

Just at the crucial moment, there was a knock from outside the bedroom door.

“What’s going on!”

Rinel shouted irritably at the bedroom door.

“I’m sorry to report, but we have news that the second concubine, Melanie, has fallen down the stairs!”

At the urgent voice of the secretary Raphael, Rinel and I simultaneously made surprised faces.

But soon he wiped the surprised look off his face and furrowed his brow deeply.

“Why would she roll down the stairs when she was just fine?”

He grumbled gruffly.

“First, listen to what Raphael has to say in detail.”

I said, lifting his chest muscles that were dominating over me as if I were lifting a pillar from a shrine.

“Do I have to?”

“She rolled down the stairs, didn’t she?”

“It could be her hobby.”

“…”

“Or a specialty.”

“Whether it’s a hobby or a skill, you should see and then accept it.”

“Ha, we should have taken the lead, but we are a step late.”

“What are you talking about now?”

“What I’m saying is right.”

“Huh? Melanie’s situation was different. It was dangerous.”

“Rolling on the stairs is as dangerous as rolling on the bed, what’s different.”

His mumblings, like talking to himself, were strangely plausible and almost made me nod.

“First get dressed and hear the details from Raphael.”

I hastily picked up my factory dress, with one sleeve missing, from the marble floor and put it on.

Unlike me, who got dressed quickly, Rinel laid back down on the bed, tucked his arms behind his head, and didn’t move a muscle.

“Get up, hurry!”

Like pacifying a child who wouldn’t listen, I forcibly sat him up and inserted his shirt into his arm.

Even after all this, he still refused to move.

Looking at his expression, it seemed he was purposely dawdling.

I had no choice but to button up his shirt for him.

Despite having heard that his bride, who had just held a ceremony yesterday, had rolled down the stairs, he was as calm as if he had heard news of a Melanie from another country with the same name.

Rinel watched my hand swiftly buttoning down his shirt, and burst into laughter.

Strangely, his attention was focused on something irrelevant.

“You button up from the top. I button up from the bottom.”

Rinel said profoundly, like a magician who had discovered a tremendous fact.

“But why am I nervous while rebuttoning?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Nothing.”

He stroked my right shoulder, where the sleeve had completely disappeared, and smiled.

“It’s done now. Tell Raphael to come in.”

As I left the bed first, turned on the lamp, and walked towards the mirror, I spoke.

“Right now?”

“When else would you call him?”

“Raphael will be surprised again.”

I heard Rinel mumbling something behind me, but I couldn’t hear it properly as I was fixing my disheveled hair in front of the mirror.

“If the empress says so, it must be so. Raphael! Come in.”

At his call, Raphael, who had been waiting outside the bedroom, quickly ran in.

“Your Majesty!”

“What on earth has happened?”

“Yes, that is, Heeieek…! Ah, my eyes!”

Raphael, who was striding towards Rinel, suddenly stopped and covered his eyes with his hand.

Why is he doing that?

While smoothing my hair in front of the mirror, I looked back at Raphael.

“What’s wrong, Raphael? As if you’ve seen a demon?”

As I asked, looking at Raphael, Rinel naturally caught my eye.

He was fumbling with the buckle of his pants.

Ah, I think I know why Raphael was so surprised.

Rinel asked Raphael triumphantly.

“Raphael, did you see it?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”