“Why do you think I would be surprised?”

What kind of imagination does he have about me.

I tilted my head and asked.

“If I express in words how I want to do you… Zelda, you might run away from here right now.”

I awkwardly touched the back of my neck with my hand.

“I’ve thought about things I want to do with you, but I haven’t properly done any of them yet. But today, I plan to do one of them.”

“Is… that so?”

“That just now, was it a question and not permission? If you hadn’t raised your voice at the end, I would have kissed you right away.”

“…”

“You have a strange talent for making the emperor self-conscious… Oop?”

I pressed my lips firmly against his as he was speaking with a smile.

It was something I did without realizing.

I could imagine how wide his blue eyes must be right now.

I invaded between his lips first, which seemed to have stopped in surprise.

The emperor, ambushed with a kiss.

Those lips that were teasing me just moments ago were now motionless, perhaps bewildered.

I acted according to my feelings, not caring about that.

Kissing is so comfortable since it doesn’t require etiquette.

It was such a peaceful act to kiss, as I didn’t have to constantly watch his reactions, there was no surveillance from others, and I could simply move according to my emotions.

Though my heart racing was a separate matter.

My lips were in a frenzy, as if swept up by rough waves in the middle of the sea.

“Oh, Zelda!”

I was also the one who pushed him onto the bed first.

Rinel seemed greatly surprised when I pushed his shoulders and took control over him.

Nevertheless, he followed my lead obediently, as if he had no joints.

I calmly began unbuttoning his shirt, but feeling impatient, I pulled it up over his face and took it off.

Unlike my voice that usually hesitated to give the answers he wanted, my two hands were very swift.

Indeed, I was a person whose body moved faster than words.

As I leaned down again, his breathtaking appearance filled my sight completely.

His chest muscles, firm like fortress walls, rose and fell severely, dizzying my vision.

What did I just do?

Looking down at his shirtless body, my reason belatedly returned.

But the problem was that I couldn’t stop here.

No, it would be more accurate to say I didn’t want to stop.

For the few seconds it took to remove his shirt, our lips were separated.

He seemed anxious about even that brief moment, like someone who had missed the boat they were supposed to board.

Our faces drew close again.

“This is truly maddening.”

Rinel’s low voice barely escaped between our lips.

And his next words didn’t make it out of his mouth.

Rinel’s breathing sounded like a pleasant song.

He separated his lips and grabbed my hand.

“Feel it.”

He suddenly placed my hand on his heart and stared straight into my eyes.

As the sound of his heartbeat was transmitted directly to my palm, it felt like my whole body was vibrating.

Add to that the sound of my own heartbeat, and the vibration intensified.

I even thought that if our pounding hearts were to jump out, they would not be easily caught.

“Rinel, I feel like my heart is about to come out of my mouth.”

“That won’t do.”

He responded seriously to my foolish confession.

This ridiculous conversation soon turned into action.

“Let’s put the heart back in its place.”

Rinel pulled me towards him and started kissing again.

It felt like dancing at a festival.

“You don’t seem to know how terrifying the crime of crushing the emperor like this is…”

No sooner had his words fallen than our positions were suddenly reversed.

“I’ll let you know.”

Rinel whispered, looking down at me.

At those words, all the nerve cells in my body began to anticipate.

His strength binding me was as persistent and solid as it was frightening.

I wanted to ask if it was okay to kiss this combatively, but while the movements were rough, the sensation felt was incredibly soft.

Although our positions had changed, the desire emanating from our eyes remained the same.

“I’m curious how terrifying that crime is?”

I asked somewhat boldly.

“Are you provoking me?”

“Would you call it seduction?”

“Dressed up in this gown, you mean?”

Rinel grabbed the hem of my dress and fluttered it disapprovingly.

It looked both petulant and amusing.

“I wore the lightest dress I could.”

“That sounds premeditated.”

“If so, will you give in?”

“What? When did I not give in already?”

Rinel said as if dumbfounded.

Since when, I wonder.

I seemed to have become addicted to this man.

His jokes, heard in a deep and serious voice, had somehow become a great pleasure to me.

“Did you really give in?”

“Don’t tell me you didn’t know?”

When I burst out laughing, he deliberately spoke to me in an even more serious tone.

“My heart has already given in, but why is there no progress with the body? What do you think about this situation?”

“It’s sad.”

“Before it gets sadder, let’s deal with this dress first.”

He attempted to pull down the sleeve of my dress that was draped over my shoulder line.

“Damn, can’t they make dresses a little looser? Why is it sticking so tightly to the skin?”

I couldn’t help him or stop laughing at his serious expression.

“It’s not like this dress is some new torture device.”

As he examined my dress this way and that,

Rip-!

The sound of tearing fabric came from the thin peach-colored satin dress.

Oh no.

“!”

“Ah, sorry.”

He had finally torn my dress.

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

I should be grateful that the middle part of the dress wasn’t torn.

If I just put on a robe, no one would know that one sleeve of the dress was half-torn.

“That startled me. I thought I had torn off the empress’s arm.”

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

I showed him the tattered fabric on my right shoulder and said,

“Please tear it off completely.”

His eyebrows shot up and he muttered to himself, ‘Huh? Is that okay?’

His two hands approached me like ghosts.

“Not the dress!”

“Huh?”

He stopped with both arms stretched out in front of him.

“Then?”

“Just completely remove this dangling right shoulder part.”

“Ah, that’s what you meant? I thought…”

Rinel chuckled awkwardly and completely tore off the half-ripped right shoulder line of the fabric.

He held the sleeve he had torn off himself preciously with both hands and stared at me blankly.

I sighed deeply and started to take off my dress.

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

Thanks to Sharon’s sense, I could easily take off the dress by myself.

His eyes grew wider and wider.

“Rinel, could you look away for a moment?”

Even though I would still be in a slip underneath after taking off the dress, I felt a little burdened by him staring so intently.

“Why? We’ve already… No, let’s just turn off the lights instead. That’ll do, 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 make out the outline of Rinel’s face.

Even in the darkness, he kept his gaze fixed on me.

I took off my dress and pulled the blanket to cover myself.

I heard Rinel rustling.

I could guess what he was doing now.

Even though I couldn’t see well because it was dark, I also looked away for a moment.

A moment later, his large hand stroked my hair and turned my face towards him.

Our eyes, now accustomed to the darkness, collided.

As the night deepened, our cautious instincts were slowly revealing their true colors.

Rinel’s clear blue eyes made his expression starkly visible.

A shiver ran through my body as his large hand, which had been preciously cradling my face, passed my jawline.

It felt like everything in this world was overlapping.

Even our souls.

Knock knock knock-

At this crucial moment, there was a knock from outside the bedroom door.

“What is it!”

Rinel shouted irritably towards the bedroom door.

“I beg your pardon, but we have received word that Her Majesty the Second Consort Melanie has fallen down the stairs!”

At Secretary Raphael’s urgent voice, Rinel and I both made surprised expressions.

But he quickly erased his surprised expression and furrowed his brow deeply.

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

He grumbled grumpily.

“You should hear the details from Raphael first.”

I said, lifting his chest muscles that were dominating over me with both hands, as if lifting a temple pillar.

“Do I really have to?”

“They said she fell down the stairs.”

“It might be her hobby.”

“…”

“Or her special talent.”

“Whether it’s a hobby or a talent, you should at least hear the report first.”

“Haa, we should have rolled first, but we were a step too late.”

“…What are you saying now?”

“What am I saying? I’m saying the right thing.”

“Pardon? Melanie’s situation is different. It must have been dangerous.”

“Rolling in bed is just as dangerous as rolling down stairs, what’s the difference.”

His muttering was strangely plausible, and I almost nodded.

“Quickly put on your clothes and listen to Raphael in detail.”

I quickly picked up my satin dress with one sleeve missing from the marble floor and put it on.

Unlike me who quickly got dressed, Rinel lay back down on the bed, put his hands behind his head, and didn’t move.

“Get up, hurry!”

I forcibly sat him up as if coaxing a disobedient child and put his shirt on his arms.

Even after doing this much, he still refused to move.

Judging by his expression, he seemed to be deliberately putting on airs.

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

Despite hearing the news that his consort who had just had her ceremony yesterday had fallen down the stairs, he was too calm, as if he had heard news about a Melanie from a different country who just happened to have the same name.

Rinel burst into laughter as he watched my hands quickly buttoning up his shirt.

Strangely, his attention was focused on an odd place.

“You button from top to bottom. I button from bottom to top.”

Rinel said profoundly, as if he had discovered an amazing fact.

“But why do I feel nervous even while buttoning it back up?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Nothing, never mind.”

He smiled as he stroked my right shoulder where the sleeve had completely disappeared.

“It’s all done now. Quickly tell Raphael to come in.”

I said as I got off the bed first, turned on the lights, and walked to where the mirror was.

“Right now?”

“Then when were you planning to call him?”

“Raphael will be surprised again.”

Rinel mumbled something behind my back, but I didn’t hear it properly as I was fixing my disheveled hair in front of the mirror.

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

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

“Your Majesty!”

“What exactly happened?”

“Yes, that is… Eek! Oh my, my eyes!”

Raphael, who had been striding towards Rinel, suddenly stopped and covered his eyes with his hands.

Why is he doing that?

I turned to look at Raphael while fixing my hair in the mirror.

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

As I asked while looking at Raphael, my eyes naturally fell on Rinel.

He was hastily fastening the buckle of his pants.

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

Rinel asked Raphael triumphantly.

“Raphael, did you see?”

“…Yes, Your Majesty.”