“……Mmm.”

The soft sensation wandering across my lips like taking a stroll began to intensify.

“Where are you trying to go?”

Although I didn’t want to escape from his embrace, my body kept attempting to flee somewhere.

My body, which had been stubbornly heading somewhere while dragging the emperor along, was finally firmly held by his strong arms.

“If we go any further, we’ll both fall off the bed, you know?”

Emperor Rinel wrapped one arm around my waist and placed me back in the center of the bed.

“Were you planning to drag me to the floor?”

He had a pleasant scent.

More precisely, an alluring, sexy scent.

His large hand traced the left side of my face.

Ah, it’s cold. I thought it was an ice cube.

Although this man’s hands were as cold as if they had been dipped in snow, to me it was actually a welcome temperature.

Compared to his cold hands, his gaze was so intense it felt like it could melt my face and then some.

The image of the most ruthless emperor of the North Continent was nowhere to be seen here.

There was only an ordinary husband focused on his wife.

No, scratch that about being ordinary.

“Are you suggesting we go down to the floor? Hm?”

He asked playfully, slightly shaking our intertwined bodies.

“No… That’s not what I meant, I just unconsciously…”

“I don’t understand why you keep avoiding me. Are you shy? Or are you deliberately trying to seduce me more?”

It seems like you’re the one doing the seducing right now?

“I wonder which it is for my wife…”

“Everything is still unfamiliar to me. Especially in this position.”

Despite my honest answer, he tilted his head skeptically.

I felt like my emotions were being scrutinized under his gaze.

“Can I take that to mean you don’t dislike me?”

His husky voice pounded against my heart.

“How could I possibly dislike Your Majesty?”

“So you like me then.”

“……”

His direct question completely halted my already slow-moving thoughts.

“That’s quite a long pause. Huh, I guess it’s not quite there yet. Is there room for improvement in the future then?”

Emperor Rinel spoke in a disappointed tone, but his expression looked quite pleased.

“Your Majesty, may I ask… why you are suddenly asking such questions?”

I asked, snapping out of being mesmerized by his handsome features.

“I’m curious. About your thoughts.”

“You’re curious… about how I think of Your Majesty?”

Why?

“Yes, the Empress’s thoughts. I know well how everyone else in the palace thinks of me. But the Empress is different.”

Does that mean… I’m special?

“I can’t figure out your thoughts. I can’t figure them out, but they’re important.”

“Why is how I think of Your Majesty important?”

“So I don’t have to worry about how to act.”

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“I’m the Emperor.”

“…Yes, I’ve never doubted that fact.”

At my serious response, he placed his hand on his forehead and laughed for a while before continuing.

“Right. It means I’m in a position where I can do whatever I want. But I can’t do whatever I want with the Empress. I shouldn’t treat her carelessly either.”

…Why?

“Because you’re my wife.”

It was quite a touching statement, so I clasped my hands together as if praying and looked at him with moved eyes.

“Well, that’s what it says about marriage in the theology books.”

Was he embarrassed by his own words?

He patted his nape a couple times with his hand while glancing at me from the corner of his eye.

“But Your Majesty clearly said before that you don’t believe in God?”

Emperor Rinel smiled and nodded readily at my words.

“Still, out of the hundreds of things God supposedly said, I found a few useful ones.”

“Your Majesty… seems to be a warm person.”

I said, taking his ice-cold hand.

“Do you want me to believe that? Where in the world is there a husband as cold as me?”

Emperor Rinel lifted our joined hands slightly as he spoke self-deprecatingly.

He tended to speak of his low body temperature curse as if it were the most amusing joke in the world.

“I’m not talking about Your Majesty’s body temperature, I mean your heart.”

“Hmm, it’s the first time in my life I’ve heard that. That my heart is warm.”

Rinel made an embarrassed expression.

But the position we were currently in was even more embarrassing.

He must have had the same thought, as he slowly moved his body that had been dominating me to the side.

He briefly sat down next to me, rolling his eyes around, then leaned his back against the headboard of the bed.

Then he crossed his arms over his chest.

I also sat up, leaned my back against the headboard, and looked straight ahead with my arms crossed in the same pose as him.

Not facing him directly brought me peace of mind right away.

We sat side by side in silence like that.

Then Emperor Rinel broke the silence first.

“By any chance… did you say my heart is warm because I gave the Empress water earlier?”

Huh? You were still thinking about that?

I found Rinel’s question a bit cute.

I turned my head the other way and laughed silently for a moment before politely replying to him.

“I can tell just from the fact that you don’t mistreat me, an Empress from a foreign country.”

“The mistreatment was done by the Empress to me today. Anyway, I haven’t done anything good. Not yet…”

He quietly muttered as if talking to himself.

“It’s enough. So far…”

“Is that so? It’s not enough for me.”

“…Pardon?”

“I mean your attitude towards me. I should be able to say that this current state is enough like you, but I can’t.”

“Have I perhaps acted in a way that goes against etiquette?”

Somehow the warm atmosphere seemed to be turning cold.

“The problem is that you’re too polite.”

Emperor Rinel complained while fiddling with his chin.

“You know, whenever anyone tries to deceive me or shows an arrogant attitude, I want to cut off their head right away. When I get that urge, I’ve beheaded them without hesitation.”

Gulp-.

I quietly swallowed at his words.

“Of course, I restrain myself more often. Even now, there are a few candidates among the ministers whose heads could fly, but I’m holding back because it’s not the right time yet.”

Another gulp-.

Although his voice was calm, the content was quite brutal, so I had to swallow several times.

I’m worried that my head might fly off by his hand someday too.

After all, I’m probably the person deceiving the current emperor the most in the Rapion Imperial Family.

Without realizing it, my hand automatically went up and down near my neck repeatedly.

“But it’s really strange, isn’t it?”

Emperor Rinel said in a questioning tone.

“Even when the Empress does something that bothers me, I don’t get angry.”

“…Really?”

“Yes.”

Wait, that means I did do something that bothered him, right?

What was it?

I hid my tension and deliberately put on an innocent expression, blinking my eyes repeatedly.

“Did I perhaps… do something that bothered Your Majesty?”

“Earlier.”

“Yes?”

“You said ‘Goodbye’ to me.”

Emperor Rinel imitated my voice and rolled his eyes slightly.

“Ah…”

So, the fact that I didn’t stop him earlier was the bothersome action.

Suddenly, the back of my neck felt chilly.

Right at that moment.

“Ah, you startled me!”

As Rinel raised his hand, I unconsciously shrank my neck and moved away from him.

My side bent sideways like a boomerang, displaying quick reflexes.

Fortunately, he didn’t look like he wanted to behead me.

Instead.

“…What’s this? Why are you acting like this?”

He looked at me with an expression of disbelief.

Then he snorted and grabbed my shoulder, pulling me back to my original position.

“Th-Thank you.”

“You’re thankful for the strangest things. …Empress, there’s something I want to ask, and I’d like you to answer honestly.”

He chuckled for a moment before suddenly changing to a serious tone.

“Yes! Honesty is my strong point.”

‘You’re really something else, our proxy Empress.’

The spirit inside me sneered mockingly.

Yeah, go ahead and laugh. But except for that lie, I’ve lived honestly my whole life.

“Do you think of me as the Emperor?”

The Emperor’s questioning began.

“…As I said earlier, I’ve never doubted that point. If you keep asking, I might start to doubt it once.”

I couldn’t grasp at all what he was trying to get at with this line of questioning.

His gentle laughter continued as the questions kept coming.

“Do you think of me as your husband?”

“Of course.”

Somehow this feels ominous?

“Then…”

He paused briefly to catch his breath after asking questions without hesitation, and intensely studied my eyes.

He looked like someone waiting to catch the look in my eyes and expression after throwing out the real question.

The question Emperor Rinel asked as he slowly moved his lips was this:

“Do you think of me as a man?”

“!”

Was that really what you were curious about?

If he had asked “You wench! Did you think you and the Kingdom of Shateonil could deceive me to the end?”, I don’t think I would have been this shocked…

His question was more shocking than if my identity as a proxy empress had been exposed.

“I, I…”

I just opened and closed my mouth like a fool, unable to properly respond.

“No, never mind.”

He said coldly, waving his hand.

Is he angry?

But he immediately showed a repentant attitude.

“I’ll hear that answer later. I think I asked too hastily.”

He swept back his glossy black hair with a self-deprecating smile.

“Your Majesty.”

“Yes?”

When I tugged slightly at his clothes and called him, he responded with a rather gentle gaze.

“I have something I want to ask too.”

I should have kept my mouth shut at that moment.

I should have just pulled the blanket over my head and gone to sleep.

This was clearly the spirit inside me egging me on.

When heat rose in my body, I would occasionally do reckless things without realizing it, and 80% of the time it was the spirit’s will.

Things I had been holding back inside or thinking unconsciously would sometimes be carried out due to the heat rising in my body.

A minor example is that when noble young ladies would play mean tricks on me or insult me, I would unknowingly retaliate against them without hesitation.

Most of the time, the retaliations were carried out so cunningly that I wasn’t caught and managed to get through the crisis.

Today, I couldn’t guarantee what would happen or if I could clean up the aftermath.

“What is it? What are you curious about?”

Emperor Rinel showed curiosity as he gently narrowed his eyes.

Ah, please don’t look at me with such expectant eyes.

“Please answer honestly too, Your Majesty.”

Although the words were clearly coming from my mouth, this was the spirit’s mischief using my inner consciousness.

The spirit’s laughter hit my cochlea.

Damn it.

Intoxicated by the heat rising deep within my body, courage spread up to my throat.

“Do you think of me as the Empress?”

My lips were moving on their own, but it was also what I had been thinking inside when I heard his question earlier.

“Yes.”

Emperor Rinel kept twitching the corners of his mouth as he watched me mimic his questions.

“Do you think of me as your wife?”

Stop. Please.

Let’s stop here.

But my reason and instincts had already started to diverge.

“Of course I think of you as my wife.”

Although he showed signs of awkwardness, he still answered diligently.

There was one last question left…

Even though we both knew what that question was, tension hung in the air.

I consciously pressed my lips tightly together, trying not to open my mouth.

“Does this question require some contemplation?”

As I just moved my lips around without speaking, he asked first, seemingly frustrated by my behavior.

He appeared to be enjoying this moment.

“There’s no queshmm.”

I barely managed to make a sound while clenching my molars tightly.

“There should be one more final question, shouldn’t there?”

Seeing his somewhat disappointed expression made me feel like my heart was crumbling like a sand castle.

Emperor Rinel’s eyes, like the blue sea, shook my heart back and forth.

The corners of his mouth were gently raised like the tip of a sailboat.

Seeing him smile at me made my lips move on their own again.

“Do you think of me as a woman?”

Haah, in the end I couldn’t overcome the spirit’s power and asked that final question.

I went and did it.

I felt so embarrassed I wanted to throw myself off the terrace.

Emperor Rinel’s eyes deepened.

I wanted to avoid his gaze, but at the same time I was curious about his answer.

Well, I could hear the answer and then run out to the terrace, it wouldn’t be too late.

Unexpectedly, his silence was much shorter than the time I had been silent when asked the same question.

“I think of you as a woman. I am thinking of you that way.”

At Emperor Rinel’s unhesitating, clear and firm voice, my heart dropped somewhere inside my body.

But with his next words, my heart returned to its place.

“Whether that can lead to love… honestly, I’m not sure yet.”

“I see…”

I tried not to show a disappointed expression.

There was nothing to be disappointed about.

In fact, when you think about it, it was a natural thing to say.

“Are you disappointed?”

“No! Your Majesty, I think it’s natural since you don’t know much about me yet.”

“What if I get to know you better? Then, what happens?”

“You should be careful…”

I whispered, covering my mouth with one hand.

“Of what?”

“Not to fall for me too much.”

“…My. You have quite the confidence. Are you serious?”

“How could I be serious? It’s a joke.”

“?”

“You’re really innocent. I didn’t expect you to take it so seriously… Pfft.”

I burst out laughing at his serious expression.

“You’re crazy.”

“Mmph.”

Emperor Rinel pressed my lips, which had parted in laughter, together with his index finger and thumb.

With my lips pursed like a duck’s bill, he spoke firmly with strength in his eyes.

“But, I have no intention of being careful with you?”

What does that mean?

“It was warm. That moment we shared on our first night… So lately I’ve been constantly thinking about that moment…”

“!”

He stopped speaking and released my lips that he had shaped into a duck’s bill.

Then he rubbed his well-defined features with both hands, dry-washing his face.

“You might have been mistaken.”

I patted his back and spoke softly, causing him to raise his head.

“Mistaken?”

“At, at that time, the priests were also waiting outside the bedroom, and it was such a confusing situation… I think you might have been mistaken.”

I tried to change the awkward atmosphere by laughing and saying, “Haha.”

“Could that be? Yes, perhaps you’re right.”

Emperor Rinel unexpectedly accepted my words easily and nodded.

“So, wife.”

“Yes, hus…band.”

“I want to find out again.”

He said solemnly.

“Now.”

“?”