I couldn’t move my body under Rinel’s gaze that seemed to crave me.

“Zelda…”

The moment he called my name, I closed my eyes, grateful for that voice filled with affection.

His lips descended and settled on my silent lips.

After a brief fumbling, his kiss began to overwhelm me as if angry.

As if it were originally his place, wandering around at will, loosening up, wandering sadly, then grasping and lingering again…

It felt like Rinel was pulling at my very soul.

He let out a low sigh as he parted his lips.

“Tell me. Say you want me to stay with you like this tonight.”

His desperate command took my breath away again.

“Say you don’t want me to go to the concubine’s chamber.”

“I don’t want that.”

I answered, opening my closed eyes, regretting the impending loss of his magnificent sensation.

“Hah, I see.”

He pressed his lips to mine again.

It felt like tremors were coursing through my entire body, about to explode.

Without realizing it, I wrapped my arms tightly around his broad, sturdy back.

My contradictory action felt ridiculously thrilling.

He exhaled the deep breath he had been barely holding back.

“Hah… Here you move as I wish, yet your words keep pushing me away…”

He whispered, touching my lips with his fingers.

“Please, Zelda. If you have nothing to say, just keep your mouth shut.”

Rinel whispered, pressing his cheek against mine.

“I keep getting annoyed and want to stop you.”

Rinel’s blue eyes shone like the Mediterranean Sea sparkling in warm sunlight.

“Say it again…”

He said, burying his face in my neck.

“I don’t want Your Majesty to be in my bedroom tonight.”

“…What?”

He suddenly lifted his head and looked down at me with a shocked expression.

A disappointed expression.

Eyes clouded with hurt.

Lips frozen, at a loss for words.

His beautiful body slowly distancing from me.

Watching Rinel’s dejected expression, I cursed the words I had just uttered.

But it was an unavoidable choice.

I couldn’t meet his eyes and turned my head to the side.

“You don’t want me to be with you tonight? Is that what you meant? Just now?”

Rinel’s hand brought my head back in place as he asked pressingly.

I knew.

If I answered yes, he would leave the bedroom without asking twice.

And perhaps he might never visit the Empress’s palace again.

Fear and anxiety were rapidly spreading through my heart.

“Zelda, do you dislike looking at me and answering me too?”

Rinel raised his body completely.

A cold wind blew over my body where he had left.

“Are you angry that I interrupted your pleasant conversation with Grand Duke Martins?”

Absurdly, he sought the reason for my rejection in the wrong place.

Perhaps that would be better?

No, I didn’t like that.

“You know better than that, Your Majesty.”

I retorted, raising my body to follow him.

“But you’re not telling me not to go either, are you?”

Instead of answering, I placed my hand on his shoulder.

He avoided my touch and stepped aside.

My heart ached.

Rinel stared at me for a moment with a thoughtful look.

Sending a gaze that even now asked me to hold him back.

As my gaze fell from his face, he turned away.

Opening the bedroom door wide, he turned back to me and said,

“If it is truly the Empress’s wish, I shall go to the concubine’s chamber now.”

The final words he left behind tormented me all night long.

[This is the timeline separator]

In the end, I stayed up all night.

His sorrowful gaze as he left the bedroom pained my heart throughout the dawn.

Every hour, unwanted imaginings of what he might be doing in the concubine’s quarters kept arising.

Just earlier, Sharon told me that Rinel and his attendants, who had left the Empress’s palace last night, seemed to be heading towards the direction of Catherine’s palace, the First Concubine.

“But it’s not certain if His Majesty really went to Catherine’s chambers. That direction is also his usual night walking course…”

Sharon quickly added, as if trying to comfort me.

“It’s alright. It’s only natural.”

A bitter smile played on my lips as I drank my black tea.

What if I had held him back last night?

We would surely have spent a good night together.

But this wasn’t such a simple matter.

The anger of Catherine, the First Concubine who was abandoned on her first night, would surely reach the ears of her father, Duke Et Calios, who possessed the most powerful private army in the Rapion Empire.

And that fact would not only reach Duke Calios, but would also be on the lips of all the ministers, leading to wariness and resistance towards me.

It was only natural that the Emperor Rinel’s position would become difficult as well.

So, I did well.

“Yes, you did well.”

As the Empress from the Kingdom of Chatonille until Princess Resilia remarried him, I shouldn’t create any friction with the Rapion ministers.

But my not holding him back yesterday wasn’t for Princess Resilia, nor for the Kingdom of Chatonille.

It was solely for Emperor Rinel Gardion Edfa, for him alone.

Although my choice last night avoided friction with the ministers, I still hadn’t resolved Rinel’s hurt feelings.

Perhaps I might never be able to resolve it.

Even if I leave this place someday, I want to get along well with him until then.

His hurt face from last night was truly terrible.

“Sharon, what would His Majesty be doing at this time?”

I asked listlessly while receiving the attention of three ladies-in-waiting at the dressing table.

“At this time, I think he might be having tea time in his office or the audience chamber.”

“I see…”

“Um, Your Majesty?”

Sharon, Solie, and Teresa exchanged glances, and then Sharon stepped forward and carefully spoke.

“Yes? Do you have something to say?”

“Well… We know it’s presumptuous, but according to what we just learned from a friendly lady-in-waiting working in the main palace, His Majesty is alone in his office right now.”

“Is that so?”

“It seems there’s no audience after lunch today. So if Your Majesty were to go to the main palace now…”

“Sharon.”

“I-I’m sorry, Your Majesty! I shouldn’t have presumed to know and made you uncomfortable…”

“Let’s go to the main palace right now!”

As Solie had just finished styling my hair, I stood up from the dressing table chair without hesitation.

I instinctively felt I needed to see him right away.

“Pardon? Oh, yes!”

Sharon’s expression brightened again.

“Let’s go!”

Solie put down the comb she was holding on the dressing table and quickly opened the bedroom door.

“Just a moment, Your Majesty!”

This time, Teresa, who was in charge of makeup, stopped me as I was about to leave the bedroom, applied some pink lipstick similar to my eye color, and then exclaimed, “Now we can go!”

[This is the timeline separator]

I walked to the main palace at a rather quick pace, accompanied by my ladies-in-waiting who seemed even more excited than I was.

From entering the main palace lobby, I slowed my steps, catching my breath.

“Please announce that the Empress has arrived.”

Upon reaching the office, Sharon spoke in a solemn tone to Raphael, the Emperor’s personal secretary.

Raphael was extremely flustered by my appearance.

“Y-Your Majesty the Empress! J-Just a moment… Ah, I apologize! Right now in the office…”

“Oh, is he meeting with ministers?”

It was possible that someone had requested an audience with Rinel while I was on my way to the main palace.

“That is… not ministers, but the First Concubine Catherine has just entered.”

Raphael said with a very awkward expression, watching my reaction.

Unlike my composed demeanor, the three ladies-in-waiting standing on either side of me simultaneously put their hands on their waists and glared at Raphael.

The innocent Raphael was thoroughly intimidated by their fierce gazes.

“I thought he went to Catherine’s chambers last night, what business does she have in the office today?”

I started speaking calmly, but I noticed my voice gradually rising.

“Actually, last night His Majesty…”

Just as Raphael was about to answer my question, the office door opened.

A servant who had brought in tea came out with an empty tray, and upon seeing me, was startled and greeted me, leaving the office door open.

“Oh my goodness, Your Majesty the Empress!”

Because of this, I could see through the open door Rinel and Catherine sitting face to face, drinking tea.

Oh no. I was just about to leave…

My eyes met Rinel’s.

Following his gaze, Catherine also turned her head towards me.

Catherine’s beautiful features, which had been brightly smiling, crumpled terribly upon seeing me.

Sharon and Raphael seemed so nervous about the current situation that I could almost hear them swallowing.

“What brings the Empress to the office at this hour…?”

Rinel said, rising from the sofa.

“Come in.”

At first, he seemed surprised, but then he greeted me in a voice colder than usual.

“I came thinking you were alone.”

I said as I entered the office, glancing at Catherine.

Catherine reluctantly rose slowly, barely bending her knees in a semblance of courtesy towards me.

“I greet Your Majesty the Empress.”

Catherine once again did not bow her head to me today.

I needed to check if she had steel implants in her cervical vertebrae.

I gave her an artificial smile and then focused back on Rinel.

“Sit down.”

He offered me a seat.

While maintaining the courtesies due to an Empress, I felt he was deliberately avoiding my eyes.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

I hesitated for a moment, unsure where to sit.

Should I sit on the same sofa as Catherine, or should I go to Rinel’s side?

Thinking it would be better to face him directly rather than looking at Catherine, I sat down next to Catherine on the sofa.

“Your Majesty the Empress, you look particularly well today?”

Does she know that Rinel was in the Empress’s palace last night before going to her chambers?

Is that why she’s looking down on me and being sarcastic now?

I glanced at Catherine and shrugged my shoulders.

“Do I? I had a good night’s sleep for the first time in a while.”

It was obvious to anyone that I hadn’t slept a wink, but I smiled brightly at Catherine while lying.

This time, however, Rinel seemed displeased.

He narrowed his eyes and stared at me intently.

Both of the people who spent the night together looked very disgruntled as they gazed at me.

I was the one who spent the long night alone, so why are they acting like this?

“I have said all I needed to say to Your Majesty, so I shall take my leave now, Empress, Your Majesty.”

Catherine’s tone had become even sharper than before, and for a moment, I almost slashed at her Adam’s apple with the edge of my hand.

Now that I looked closely, Catherine’s eyes were just as bloodshot as mine.

‘How much sleep did the Emperor deprive her of last night for her eyes to be that red?’

The fire spirit inside me, which had been blazing since dawn, said mockingly.

Catherine walked out of the office door as gracefully as a proud bird.

Her back seemed to be covered in thorns.

As the thorny one exited, an even sharper gaze awaited me.

“Empress, what is the matter?”

“Your Majesty, last night…”

“It wasn’t bad.”

“!”

Rinel spoke before I could finish my question.

It was an answer I neither wanted to hear nor know.

“Isn’t that what you came to find out?”