It seems like it hasn’t been long since I left the Empress’s Palace, but we’ve already arrived in front of the main palace.

“Did we perhaps take a shortcut?”

“Pardon? We came the same way we did this afternoon.”

Sharon looked back at the path we had come and answered my sudden question.

“Really? But why does it feel like we arrived so quickly……”

I muttered, looking up at the lit floor of Rinel’s main palace bedroom.

The imposing main palace building overwhelmed me, making my already tense mind even more uneasy.

In fact, the cause of my tension was the presence waiting for me inside.

“Your Majesty the Empress, are you alright?”

Sharon asked in a worried voice.

“No, I’m not alright at all. But I have to go in. Let’s go.”

“Yes, don’t be too nervous.”

“That’s right, please be at ease.”

“Don’t tremble, take deep breaths, Your Majesty the Empress.”

The three ladies-in-waiting took turns encouraging me from behind.

“But why are you all getting nervous too?”

I turned to look at them with a smile, even as my voice trembled.

Suddenly, the expressions of all three ladies-in-waiting froze simultaneously.

“Relax your expressions. I’m fine now… I’m fi- Ow!”

As I was talking while turning around, Sharon’s eyes widened as she exclaimed, ‘Your Majesty! In front!’

Wondering why she was acting like that, I turned my head forward again and immediately collided face-first with something.

It felt like hitting a pillar.

The impact was strong enough that it wouldn’t have been strange if I got a nosebleed.

Is it really a pillar?

My legs staggered as I bounced off after colliding with the pillar.

“Careful!”

What?

A pillar wouldn’t shout ‘Careful!’ and grab my waist, would it?

Just as I was about to fall backwards, someone caught my waist.

Could it be?

“……Your Majesty?!”

“What do you mean you’re fine? The situation doesn’t seem fine at all.”

What I had just collided with wasn’t a solid pillar, but Rinel’s body.

“Thank you for catching me, Your Majesty. But why… are you out here?”

“Me? I was… taking a walk, yes, I was on my way back from a walk.”

His words sounded like a lie, so I glanced at Raphael standing beside him.

Raphael, meeting my eyes, quickly responded.

“Yes, he was on his way out for a walk.”

“?”

The two men’s words didn’t match.

Rinel said he was returning from a walk, while his secretary said he was going out for a walk.

“Well, anyway, walking is good. Your Majesty, I think you can let go of my waist now.”

I whispered to him, conscious of the ladies-in-waiting surrounding us, as he was tightly holding my waist.

He glanced back at the line of attendants behind him, clicked his tongue, and then removed his hand from my waist.

“Well, shall we go up?”

Rinel extended his hand to me.

I took his hand and we began to climb the main palace stairs together.

“What determination… no, what brings the Empress to my bedroom tonight?”

He asked in a rather businesslike tone.

“I came to sleep.”

I returned the exact words Rinel had used when he suddenly entered my bedroom a few days ago.

Slightly surprised by my answer, he asked again in a calm voice.

“Just sleep?”

“……And to talk a bit.”

“And then?”

“……And to take a look around Your Majesty’s bedroom.”

“And then?”

“To sleep, of course.”

[This is the timeline separator]

As we reached the bedroom floor, his walking pace quickened.

Inevitably, my pace quickened as well to match his.

“When you say sleep, does that include other meanings? Or is it simply as the word implies?”

Rinel asked as he dismissed the ladies-in-waiting and guard knights following us, and grabbed the bedroom doorknob himself.

“Umm……”

As I hesitated, he opened the bedroom door before I could answer.

“Let’s go in first, and talk while lying down.”

“……P-pardon?”

I was practically dragged by Rinel as I stepped into his bedroom.

The bedroom of the Emperor of the Raphion Empire.

A place where, except for his mother, wet nurse, and some servants, no woman had ever been allowed in.

Even that was before he became Emperor, so surprisingly, I was the first woman to enter the main palace bedroom.

The atmosphere of the bedroom was less luxurious than the Empress’s Palace bedroom, but it had a grandeur instead.

I quickly scanned the interior of the bedroom while being led by the hand towards the bed.

The sound of our shoe heels echoed throughout the spacious bedroom.

Rinel walked quickly, holding my hand, without stopping midway.

“Where are you going in such a hurry?”

I asked, pretending not to know, even though I knew exactly where his footsteps were headed.

I couldn’t help but laugh at the sight of him striding straight to the bed without a word.

“You’ll see when we get there.”

I finally burst out laughing at his serious reply.

It was clearly visible that we were heading towards the large bed right in front of us, yet he said I’d see when we get there.

He suddenly stopped walking when we reached the front of the bed, after walking so hurriedly.

But the grip on my hand tightened even more.

“Rinel.”

When I called his name, he turned to face me.

“I was going to throw you onto this bed first.”

Rinel confessed, nodding towards the bed.

“Then I was going to talk.”

“You can do that.”

“I mean talk with our bodies.”

“……Oh.”

“But, I can’t do it.”

His tone and expression were extremely cautious.

In fact, as the Emperor, he didn’t need to be cautious about anything within the imperial palace.

He certainly didn’t need to be mindful of others’ eyes.

But right now, he didn’t look like the Emperor of the most powerful nation in the Northern Continent.

He looked more like a husband who deeply cares for his wife.

Even more shocking words flowed from his mouth after he honestly confessed his plan.

“I’m afraid you might reject me, push me away, I can’t do it.”

Looking at Rinel’s pure gaze as he spoke with sparkling blue eyes, I felt the urge to stick to him as if I had glue all over my body.

“Really? Even though you want to… do that?”

I threw out the words like a light joke, worried about his increasingly serious expression.

“Yes. Desperately so.”

The light joke I threw was returned with heavy earnestness.

I had expected to see a smile spread across his face at my words, but instead, the corners of his mouth seemed to droop even more.

“Shall we get on the bed first?”

He removed the robe I was wearing and threw it far away onto the sofa.

Despite the considerable distance, the robe flew like a bird and landed on the back of the sofa.

“Right now?”

“Yes.”

What conversation should I have?

I had only thought about meeting him, but I hadn’t considered what to talk about.

If I really had nothing to say, should I tell him about meeting Catherine and Rosie in the greenhouse today?

“If you want, we can take our time. It might be a bit painful to hold back, but I’m willing to endure such pain.”

“?”

Wait a moment?

It seems like our conversation is flowing in different directions right now?

“……I meant conversation.”

“……What did I say? I meant conversation too.”

“Ah. Is that so?”

When I looked at him with a ‘That doesn’t seem to be what you meant?’ gaze, he quickly added, pointing to the bed with his finger.

“The most comfortable and sincere conversations happen on the bed, you know.”

“Didn’t you just say it would be painful to hold back? What did you mean by that?”

I continued to test his quick wit, finding it amusing to watch Rinel try to cover up.

“Conversation is inherently painful. You have to hold back and match your pace with the other person even when you want to speak quickly. That’s why it’s painful…… you see.”

Oh, quite a plausible excuse.

“You mean conversation?”

“Yes, damn conversation, I mean.”

Despite his calm expression, Rinel’s face was gradually turning red.

Is he blushing from embarrassment, or from the sense of defeat at being caught in my wordplay?

But I was certain about my desire to kiss his slightly protruding lips that showed his dissatisfaction.

“You wanted to do it with me, didn’t you? Conversation.”

“Of course I wanted to do it desperately. Conversation.”

“And you’ve been waiting?”

“You mean talking?”

“Conversations that have been waited for usually go better, don’t they?”

“Yes, they go well. Let’s start by undoing this first.”

Rinel nodded and untied the sash of his robe.

He threw his robe onto the same sofa where he had thrown mine earlier.

Surprisingly, the robe thrown by his hand landed exactly on top of mine.

Rinel looked at me while fiddling with the buttons of his shirt.

He seemed to be asking for my permission to take off his shirt.

“We’re going to have a conversation, aren’t we?”

“Who said what? I always sleep without a top on.”

“That’s unexpected? You sleep without a top even though you’re sensitive to cold? I think it might be better if you keep it on for now?”

When I asked with a suspicious look, he hesitated before nodding.

“……Well, I can take it off later.”

“Yes, do that.”

I smiled and climbed onto the wide bed that wouldn’t let you fall even if you rolled several times.

As soon as I settled on the bed, Rinel immediately climbed on as well.

Moonlight streaming through the terrace door illuminated his face.

He looked truly beautiful, but also dangerously so.

He crawled on all fours like a predator, slowly approaching me on the bed.

Every time he supported himself on the bed with his arms, the chest muscles visible through his shirt elegantly rippled.

He looked like a predator facing its prey.

As he got closer and closer, my heart started racing like a four-legged beast at an incredible speed.

The tension rose to the high ceiling.

It seemed the same for Rinel.

“You’re not planning to bite me, are you?”

A foolish question popped out as I looked down at him, now right in front of me.

His serious expression, maintained throughout his crawl, crumbled in an instant.

He made a deflating sound with an incredulous expression, then suddenly growled like a beast and opened his mouth wide.

Before I could dodge, he bit my thigh over the thin dress with a ‘chomp’.

Good heavens.

‘The Emperor of the Raphion Empire bared his teeth like a beast, growled, and bit the Empress’s thigh.’

This would make headline news in the gossip papers that noble ladies secretly read.

“What are you doing?!”

I shouted, twisting my leg to the side, so startled I almost had a fit.

I almost reflexively kicked his handsome face.

If I had…… those neat teeth that show when he smiles brightly might have fallen out.

“Zelda, you were about to kick me just now, weren’t you?”

As expected of a man who handles swords, his ability to read the other person’s body language was excellent.

“How could I dare to do such a thing? How could I possibly kick Your august and noble Majesty!”

“Right? I must have misunderstood?”

“Of course, I’m such a frail person that even if I did kick, it would be no more than tickling with a feather.”

Frail person, an obvious lie.

My conscience itched, but it couldn’t be helped.

He nodded, then crawled back a bit before suddenly grabbing one of my feet and lifting it to his chest.

Is he planning to bite my foot after my thigh?

“W-what are you doing?”

He answered my question with action.

With a smack, the lips of the Raphion Emperor touched and left my instep, making a cheerful sound.

“!”

“You’re not kicking this time?”

Rinel said with a sweet smile, still holding one of my feet.

Anyone watching would think he had just captured a wyvern chick from the Valley of Death.

“Then how about here?”

I didn’t want to know where Rinel’s lips were heading, but it was too clear what he was trying to do.

I internally chanted, ‘No way, no way.’

Why is he trying to kiss the sole of my foot?

“Eek, it tickles!”

In that moment, unable to bear the unbearably ticklish sensation, I unknowingly put strength into my foot.

Because of that, a choked scream burst from his mouth.

“Ugh!”

Oh no, what should I do?

As I tried to pull my foot back, in my confusion, I accidentally……

extended my foot forward even more.

With my foot blocking his mouth, he fell back with a short scream.

It looked just like a knight falling on the battlefield after being shot in the chest with an arrow.

Fortunately, even though he fell backwards, there was no risk of injury on the bed.

The problem was that I had dared to push the Emperor’s mouth and make him fall.

With my foot, no less.

Damn, this is bad.

This isn’t why I came to his bedroom……

“Your Majesty!”

I urgently called out to him, quickly kneeling and crawling on all fours towards him, just as Rinel had done earlier.

“If, if you were hungry, you should have said something, why did you go for someone’s foot……!”

In my panic, crazy words spilled from my mouth.

Rinel’s blue eyes, which had been blank, rolled to look up at me.

I couldn’t tell if he was trying to laugh or cry.

Oh, I’ve really messed up.