“I… behold His Majesty the Emperor.”

Grand Duke Martins erased his surprised expression before me and paid respects to Rinel.

I couldn’t move my body at the sight of Rinel exuding anger with his whole body.

His cold eyes, which seemed to freeze the entire audience chamber, moved between me and Grand Duke Martins as he asked.

“Is there something about you two that I shouldn’t know?”

I had to make up some excuse.

His chillingly calm voice made my lips stiffen even more.

I had no choice but to rely on Grand Duke Martins, who was smarter than me.

I waited for the grand duke to come up with some plausible excuse, but he was also terrible at quick thinking.

“Empress.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Were you that close with the grand duke whom you refer to as ‘we’?”

“We’re not… that close.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, I’m certain.”

It was from this moment that a smile began to appear on Rinel’s face.

“Then would you mind if I killed the grand duke?”

I, who had been looking at the marble floor, raised my head in surprise at his words.

“What do you think?”

What an enticing offer?

I almost clapped my hands.

Instead of words, I sent Rinel a positive signal with my eyes.

He probably wouldn’t notice my positive signal though.

“It’s not a bad idea, but……”

After I said this much, I glanced at Grand Duke Martins.

The grand duke was watching me with a rather hurt expression.

“If you kill the grand duke, an even stranger noble might come from the Kingdom of Shatonil.”

“…… Ah! I hadn’t thought of that. Ha, haha.”

Rinel laughed, throwing his head back.

I wasn’t joking, I was serious though?

He swept his glossy black hair back and spoke again.

“Yes, the empress has a point. That would be more troublesome for me too, wouldn’t it?”

“That goes without saying, Your Majesty.”

I replied with a grin.

I deliberately ignored the piercing gaze of Grand Duke Martins on the left side of my face.

The grand duke also began to laugh reluctantly at the conversation between the emperor and empress who were laughing while talking about his life.

Of course, the grand duke’s eyes looked terribly sad.

That sight was a bit pitiful, but the feeling of satisfaction was greater.

Thanks to that, the atmosphere that had been tense until just now subsided slightly.

It was a shame to have missed an easy opportunity to eliminate the grand duke, but I still didn’t dislike him enough to kill him yet.

Of course, I might regret today’s events later.

“Grand Duke, congratulations on being able to leave the empress’s palace alive.”

Rinel said, clapping two or three times.

“……Pardon?”

“You’d better leave now. I don’t know what I might do if my smile disappears.”

Rinel said, stepping aside from the audience chamber door he had been blocking.

When Grand Duke Martins hesitated, Rinel shot him a look asking why he wasn’t leaving.

The grand duke pretended to bow to me while turning his back to him and whispered in my ear.

“Tonight, you must send His Majesty back to the concubine.”

“?”

“That way, you can stay here comfortably without being attacked by ministers while Your Highness remains in this position.”

The grand duke’s advice sent my mood back into darkness.

I have to send him back after he came to see me?

To the concubine’s bedroom?

“Grand Duke, do you still have words to share with the empress?”

Rinel’s annoyed voice was heard.

He slowly walked towards where the grand duke and I were standing.

The grand duke opened his mouth to make some excuse, but,

“Why don’t you leave now?”

Rinel cut off the grand duke’s words.

As a result, the grand duke just opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish before bowing his head and quietly disappearing outside the audience chamber.

“Let’s go to the bedroom.”

Rinel said, taking my hand as soon as Grand Duke Martins left.

He was silent on the way from the audience chamber to the bedroom.

He opened the bedroom door and gently pushed my back inside.

It had become a very strange situation where I, rather than my husband who had just come from the ceremony with the concubines in the afternoon, was being more cautious.

I felt unnecessarily intimidated even though I hadn’t particularly done anything wrong.

Oh right, my very existence is a sin though.

“From now on, it’s forbidden.”

Rinel said, turning me to face him as the bedroom door closed.

“……What is?”

“That word.”

“What word?”

“The word ‘we’.”

“Ah, you mean the conversation with the grand duke? That’s a misunderstanding……”

“Whether it’s a misunderstanding or whatever, I said it’s forbidden.”

“That’s not what I……”

“Whether it’s a misunderstanding or whatever! I said I don’t want to hear it. Your use of ‘we’ with another man.”

“……Yes.”

As I nodded and obediently replied, Rinel’s hardened expression gradually softened.

“Even if Grand Duke Martins is the only person from the Kingdom of Shatonil here, isn’t it a bit much to have a private audience with him alone at this hour?”

“I’ll be more careful from now on.”

I was about to say that Grand Duke Martins had come unannounced, but stopped myself.

I didn’t feel the need to explain in detail to someone who had just taken four concubines today.

“It’s the one who comes uninvited that should be careful.”

Fortunately, Rinel thought that Grand Duke Martins had come to see me unilaterally.

“This is what saved the grand duke.”

He said, fiddling with the silk shawl draped over my shoulders.

“What do you mean? Why is this shawl…… Ah!”

I flinched involuntarily as he suddenly pulled the shawl down.

“If you hadn’t been wearing this shawl, I would have thrown one of the grand duke’s eyes out the window.”

“You’re more merciful than I thought. Sparing one eye.”

“Me? No way. I was thinking of sending the other one back to his kingdom.”

Wow, the grand duke should have heard this conversation! What a shame.

“It’s fine during the day, but I don’t like another man seeing you late at night…… No, I don’t like him seeing the empress’s sturdy bare shoulders.”

“What? Do my shoulders look sturdy? That’s the first time I’ve ever heard such a thing.”

I frowned and looked down at both my shoulders alternately as I asked back.

“No, I misspoke. Not shoulders, but…… where was it? Ah, yes. I meant I don’t like other men seeing your delicate collarbones.”

Rinel’s words were drifting in an increasingly strange direction.

“But what kind of man is Grand Duke Martins?”

I asked him while caressing the line of my collarbone with my hand.

“If he’s not a man, then what is he? Then bring the grand duke to me in a dress. Then I’ll acknowledge it.”

“……That’s a terrifying thought just to imagine.”

“Ahem, anyway, that aside.”

He cleared his throat and changed the subject.

“Seeing the grand duke visit the empress’s palace at this late hour, do the Shatonil nobles usually treat royal etiquette lightly?”

“I heard that in the Raphion Imperial Court, it’s not a big deal for ministers or nobles to request an audience as long as it’s not bedtime. Did I hear wrong?”

As far as I knew, that was the case.

I heard it from Raphael, the emperor’s direct secretary, so it must be true.

“Is that so?”

“What do you mean, ‘is that so’?”

“Ah, well, you probably didn’t know since it’s a different country. But such a thing is unthinkable in my country.”

For some reason, he was lying right now.

He seemed a bit guilty as his eyes began to wander left and right.

He’s a man with no talent for lying at all.

“Is it…… set by law?”

I deliberately pretended not to know his lie and asked.

“Law? Uh, yes.”

“Ah, is it an old law?”

“Starting tomorrow.”

“……You mean?”

“Yes, it’s a law that will be implemented from tomorrow, so the grand duke hasn’t committed a crime. That’s something to celebrate.”

“The grand duke almost became a criminal by a day’s difference.”

I laughed as I retorted to his nonsensical words.

He then said with twitching cheeks that he was an emperor who always obeys the law.

“By the way, what brings Your Majesty here at this hour? Aren’t you supposed to go to the concubine’s bedroom today?”

“Yes, but I ended up coming to the empress’s palace.”

“Why……”

“You’re saying the exact same thing as me.”

Rinel muttered as if to himself, laughing shortly.

“Pardon?”

“That’s what I was thinking to myself the entire way to the empress’s palace. ‘Why……’ Those words.”

Rinel’s gaze somehow looked shy.

“Um…… But, do the priests also come into the bedroom to sing blessings for the first night with the concubines?”

“Was that what you were curious about?”

“A little.”

I already knew from him that priests don’t attend the first night with a remarried empress.

But it could be different for concubines, so I was a bit curious.

Rinel raised one corner of his lip crookedly.

“Why don’t you…… tell me that you’ve been worrying about that issue all day?”

“What difference would it make if I said that?”

I ended up asking him a somewhat provocative question.

“Everything.”

There was strength in Rinel’s voice.

Everything would be different?

Is that really true…… I was curious.

Does it mean he might not spend the first night with the concubines?

No way, that can’t be.

What’s the point of taking concubines?

Surely he didn’t take four concubines just to have meals together, take walks, and sit on the bed holding hands and talking.

“Say you were worried.”

He said abruptly.

“……”

The fact that he would be spending the night with another woman tonight had been troubling my mind all day.

That was an undeniable fact.

But I remained silent.

“You’re not saying anything. How embarrassing for the emperor.”

He smiled faintly.

I just looked up at him.

If I said I was worried,

If I really said so,

It felt like many things would change, just as Rinel said.

So I was afraid.

Suddenly I became scared.

I shouldn’t hold onto him……

But I want to hold on. I’ve come to want to hold on.

These contradictory feelings were changing several times per second.

My heart keeps trying to enter a difficult path.

What should I do?

Rinel came up close in front of me.

I stepped back as if I had been waiting for it.

At that, his brows furrowed and his lips parted.

“Tell me not to go.”

“……Your Majesty!”

This time I moved first, stepping far back to distance myself from him.

But despite the distance created, he approached me again.

We repeated this cycle of narrowing and widening the distance between us.

My body, fleeing from him, bumped into the bedpost.

There was nowhere left to retreat.

He slowly bent his upper body forward in front of me, as if enjoying cornering a mouse like a cat.

I inhaled sharply at his perfect face that was hard to handle and bent my waist backwards.

He seemed startled to see my waist bending flexibly like a bow.

“Why are you doing this……”

“Is it that difficult? To say you don’t want me to spend the night with a concubine?”

He asked as if interrogating.

“Rinel.”

“Tell me you don’t want it. Then I’ll……!”

When I just called his name without saying anything else, he grabbed both my shoulders and shook me.

At that moment, my left shoe slipped on the marble floor and I lost my balance.

He looked like he was going to support my waist but then pulled his hand away and just watched as my body fell onto the bed.

Instead of catching me, Rinel fell onto the bed along with me.

When I tried to get up, he quickly dominated over me.

“Where are you going.”

Rinel grabbed both my wrists and raised them above my head as he looked down at me.

“You haven’t answered yet.”

He looked like a beast starved for desire.