Cough- Cough-

A murky coughing sound echoed from the emperor’s bed.

The handkerchief covering his mouth was stained with bright red blood.

Oriat Hail Lucein, the 17th Emperor of Turecian, now 70 years old, originally had many sons and daughters, but now only two sons remained.

Twenty years ago, when rebellions broke out across the country and foreign powers joined to overthrow the nation, his children were brutally executed along with the empress.

Except for Oriat, who narrowly escaped, and Resban, who had gone missing, all were killed at the hands of enemies.

After rebuilding the country, recovering Resban, and taking a new empress, he had one more prince.

Officially called the Second Prince, that child was now nineteen years old and of age. Though intelligent, his abilities fell far short of Resban, the crown prince.

“Cough, cough.”

The door opened, and Resban approached with stiff footsteps.

Black hair resembling the late empress, bright golden eyes symbolizing the Turecian royal family, and an aura of strength far surpassing Oriat’s prime.

“How are you today?”

“I don’t think I’ll live more than a few days.”

“You said the same thing three months ago.”

At Resban’s words, the emperor chuckled despite his sickly appearance.

It was no lie that he wouldn’t live much longer, but he felt more at ease dealing with the detached Resban than the fussy Second Prince.

Oriat had already handed over most of the state affairs to Resban.

Due to Resban’s decade of continuous victories, the army followed him with their lives, and all imperial citizens supported the crown prince.

“Do you intend to be unfilial to the end? Or are those rumors from the barracks true?”

The emperor asked, slightly furrowing his brow.

“They say you took one of your white captains into your room and had him remove his pants.”

Resban moved his lips nonchalantly.

“I merely cut off his genitals and threw them to the dogs for molesting women in the conquered territories. Fed the man himself to the lions. Crunch, crunch, they chewed well.”

The emperor frowned at the graphic description, but Resban remained composed.

“Didn’t Your Majesty always teach me? Even if you win the war, losing the people’s hearts means losing everything.”

“People’s hearts aren’t won solely through war and punishment. You must show the future of the imperial family and give hope to the imperial citizens. How long do you intend to neglect your duties as crown prince?”

“The reclaimed territories…”

Resban’s golden eyes flickered coldly.

“One place remains.”

Ten years ago, when Resban started the war, he overthrew five small kingdoms. He thoroughly avenged the kings and royal families of the kingdoms that had trampled Turecian and dyed the continent red with blood.

Just hearing Resban’s name made those who were once enemies of Turecian tremble, and all in the conquered territories bowed their heads under Resban’s hooves.

They deeply regretted either pointing their swords at Turecian or failing to eliminate Resban when he had gone missing.

“Once you reclaim that place too, the daughter of Duke Heinz would already have two children by now.”

At the emperor’s words, Resban smirked.

“Were you still considering the Heinz daughter as a daughter-in-law? Surely you haven’t forgotten the story of her wetting herself at the sight of me.”

“That’s because you appeared covered in blood without even changing your clothes right after returning from war. How could any woman, no matter how strong-willed, not faint at such a sight? Oh, my head.”

The emperor narrowed the space between his brows.

If he had known Resban would become synonymous with terror among women, he wouldn’t have allowed him to undertake the revenge conquest ten years ago when he asked.

Though most territories had been reclaimed and the empire was more prosperous than ever in Turecian history, the emperor always worried about his successor.

“How desperate must I be to urge your subordinates to push even prisoners of war into your bedchamber?”

Of course, they disobeyed the emperor’s order, not wanting to die at Resban’s hands.

“So you’re saying anyone would do. I’ve been waiting for those words.”

At Resban’s words, the emperor frowned with a groan.

Even just five years ago, the families worthy of marriage ties with Resban, Crown Prince of the Great Turecian Empire, were naturally the empire’s most prestigious houses.

However, now those young ladies already had several children, and among the unmarried ones, there were countless rumors about Resban having a hobby of killing women or being a murderous demon, making them tremble at the mere mention of his name.

Of course, even now, if he were to present himself neatly in social circles, he could quickly gain the admiration and popularity of young ladies with his appearance, but Resban would not stop acting like a bloodthirsty war maniac.

“I will surely kill them all. I’ll cut off their limbs and make them writhe like worms in the gutter.”

That chilling venom flowing in the eyes of the ten-year-old was still vividly etched in Oriat’s memory. This would still be the driving force behind Resban.

“It would have been better if you had given up earlier.”

A cold smile flashed across Resban’s lips.

Oriat knew what Resban was talking about.

“I didn’t think she was good enough for you.”

The girl from Prihatz that his son had been searching for. They say you can tell a good sprout from its cotyledons, but her eyes seemed quite dull.

Her family background was insufficient, and she showed no qualities worthy of entering the imperial family, so how could he have helped find her?

So he had a servant spread the word that she had died from illness.

He had heard rumors that she later became the wife of a duke, but to think he would still remember after all this time.

“Leave your last words.”

Oriat now thought it didn’t matter what happened.

He was too old.

“Don’t take your brother’s life, produce an heir.”

The cloudy golden eyes in his wrinkled gaze were shining.

“You must embrace a woman and continue the imperial lineage.”

Cough-

Another blood-tinged cough burst from between his dry lips.

Resban merely gazed at his old father with unemotional eyes.

The lineage grows old, rots, and disappears, while power and authority extend from one end of the continent to the other.

Even amidst the clash of different causes, only the sweet scent of rabbit blood he had smelled earlier lingered faintly at the tip of his nose.

**

“If you have nothing to say, would you please leave now? It’s getting late.”

Esika spoke in a cold voice, looking at Callian who had been standing frozen in front of her for a long time after opening the door and entering.

Callian gazed at Esika with wavering eyes.

He had been thinking and thinking for several days.

Where did his relationship with her go wrong?

And what he had lost.

“My lady… do you resent me?”

Esika Klaus, this intelligent and beautiful woman… He had consistently ignored her for three years, even though she had come all the way to the capital just for him.

“…”

At first, he had denied the very fact that she could change.

He thought Esika’s love would be eternal, even without receiving anything in return.

And he had consistently rationalized his own resentment towards her changes.

Foolishly, he had only believed his mother’s words that Esika was extravagant and wicked.

Even though he could clearly see she was being abused, he turned a blind eye, thinking there must be a reason for it.

“I’m… sorry. I’m sorry for everything.”

Callian’s tightly clenched fist tensed.

His low voice desperately conveyed his apology to Esika.

Esika merely looked at Callian with emotionless eyes.

“Only after you turned away from me did I realize how greatly I had wronged you. I realized too late how much you must have been hurt because of it.”

“…”

“I shouldn’t have only believed mother’s words. I should have judged for myself.”

His self-reproach was filled with bitter regret.

“So please give me another chance, Esika. A chance to make amends for my mistakes and start anew with you.”

He had never begged Esika for a chance in this manner before.

He had always believed all his actions were right and had no regrets.

If it were the previous Esika, she would have shed tears and fallen into Callian’s arms.

She would probably envision a tomorrow with her husband, who had realized true love after hardships and trials, saying, ‘Of course. Let’s live well together from now on.’

However, Esika felt no emotion even at his sincere regret.

“What if.”

Esika poured cold water on Callian’s regret with a calm and composed face.

“If I hadn’t changed, would you be apologizing to me now, Your Grace?”

Callian’s purple pupils wavered greatly at Esika’s words.

Esika’s words struck at the core of this distorted relationship.

‘I know. That people don’t change.’

Esika’s blue eyes pierce through Callian’s soul.

And what would have happened if she hadn’t realized her identity as a spirit was clear.

“…Esika.”

This man would still not have given her a single glance.

He would be looking at her with contemptuous eyes, as if wishing she would just disappear, like when he pushed her down.

Everything would have flowed according to the novel. Yuri would be pregnant with Callian’s child, and she would be driven out…

“What’s important… is that I’ve realized how precious you are to me.”

Callian grabbed Esika’s shoulders and cried out.

He spoke with a desperate voice, his eyebrows furrowed, as if begging her to understand his sincerity.

But Esika raised her hand and removed Callian’s hands from her shoulders.

There was not a hint of hesitation in that gesture, and Callian felt a pain as if his heart had been stabbed by a knife.

Is this what it feels like to be thoroughly ignored?

“What’s important is that I’ve already been hurt enough.”

Callian’s eyes wavered at the word ‘hurt’.

“And I no longer…”

The heart that had been stabbed continued to throb.

It was an excruciating pain he had never felt before.

Esika’s eyes, which he wanted to find even a speck of warmth in, were as cold as an ice sea.

“You took away my clothes and sent me to a small room, had the maids feed me rotten bread, and poured ice water on me in winter.”

It was more frightening that she spoke as if she had never been hurt while saying she had been hurt.

She had the same cold, calm gaze when reporting to the imperial investigation team.

“…love you anymore.”