“I must be going mad. To think that this woman was important enough to set aside my lifelong ambition.”

He turned his head and looked around. The disheveled bedding seemed to capture the intensity of the previous night.

The burning heat had reached its peak when he began to touch Lea’s flesh and then gradually subsided.

It was the drug that could even bring one’s vitality to a boil.

“It wasn’t just the side effects…”

No, holding Lea wasn’t just because of the side effects.

To ensure perfect success, both the Count and Rikel had not informed Lea of their plans.

“But to think you’d go to such lengths to save me.”

Honestly, the Count had thought that upon hearing news of his death, Lea would flee. Yet, here she was, working hard to save him.

She had even run clinical trials on herself to test the side effects.

If her lord had died, she should have plotted her escape, but Lea did not.

She stayed by his side as if her only mission was to revive Akkia.

“Is it a sense of responsibility? Or just foolishness?”

Rikel had risked his life to smuggle the comatose Akkia out of the palace. And that day, Akkia, the sole prince and Count of the Croatea Empire, died.

Now all he had to do was live as a Magnolia lord and wait for the right moment. Yet, the thought of Lea dying in prison bothered him.

In a Count devoid of any warmth, filled with coldness and hostility, Lea was the only person who seemed human.

Ignoring Rikel’s objections, he turned back towards the execution site.

Yes, it was impulsive.

In a life where everything had been calculated, saving Lea was a sort of adventure.

She was a variable that had suddenly entered his life, but looking at the sleeping Lea, he didn’t think it was bad.

Akkia, who had been staring intently at Lea, muttered quietly,

“You have no idea how much I’ve sacrificed to save just you.”

There was no response from Lea as he softly stroked her cheek. What he had given up was a plan he had been preparing for years.

“Lea.”

He whispered quietly to her, who wouldn’t even hear his words in her deep sleep.
Like my cousin who climbed up by severing my limbs and stealing my most precious things.

Akkia will rise to the highest position in Croatia, even if he has to be soaked in blood.

“I will become the emperor.”

He will regain everything.

Akkia lifted his hand buried in Lea’s hair. Lea’s red hairs spilling between his fingers. It felt like red blood flowing down.

“The plan has been thwarted, but I have no choice but to start again.”

Although there was a hitch in the original plan, instead, Akkia had obtained this woman. He vowed never to make anything precious again.

“I certainly gave you a chance.”

A chance to run away from me.

He had repeatedly warned Lea not to approach him while they were in the mansion.

But Lea lightly leaped over the line she had drawn. Now that Lea had entered his life like this, Akkia no longer had the leeway to avoid her.

“You entered on your own.”

Even if this all started with the new drug that Lea made.

Akkia sensed that he could no longer let her go.

Just being together like this already put all his nerves on edge.

“I absolutely will not lose this time.”

Anything. So.

“You just have to be by my side like this.”

As you have been until now. Stay by my side, Lea. If you keep watching over me like this, I will give you everything you want in these hands.

Akkia’s eyes sparkled deeply as he whispered.

The possessiveness that had been quietly asleep in the red eyes entangled with desire and greed shone.