Empress Lenisha stayed awake all night with her eyes wide open.

She had often been unable to sleep on the battlefield, but this was the first time it had been like this.

Lenisha read a book in silence, and Casius pretended to rummage through the book in front of her, looking at her.

They were books that were found after searching the Emperor’s bedroom.

It was shocking that the books that the madman kept beside his bed were quite sane.

Lenisha found those books under the bed and chuckled.

It was Casius’s job to take them out.

She was actually having fun reading them, even though she didn’t like the titles.

“……You’re really calm.”

Casius, looking at the dawn breaking in the sky, mumbled without realizing it.

Lenisha told Casius that he could sleep if he was bored, but how could he sleep in this situation?

He felt like his life had been stolen.

An unexpected proposal all of a sudden, and the confirmation of the marriage.

And it was a mysterious and strange night when Casius was chosen as Lenisha’s husband.

And now a new morning was about to dawn.

The events of yesterday were too clear to be called a dream.

He was a little resentful because he seemed to be the only one confused right now.

Lenisha looked up from the book at the words he had thrown.

“You can only see these books here.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Emperor designated them as forbidden books and burned them. They mostly run on a different track than Lexus. The current Emperor rules this empire with terror. These radical books wouldn’t help at all. He probably burned them all early in his reign, right?”

“But why this…”

“I don’t know. What the Emperor is thinking in his mind. The Emperor is cunning like a snake slithering on the ground.”

Lenisha insulted the Emperor with a smiling face.

“He drives people crazy and finally makes everything go his way. That’s why this empire is running well even if the Emperor does nothing.”

Her tension seemed to have eased as she chattered away.

Casius rummaged through the book.

He could not fully understand what these were saying, what Lenisha’s words meant.

However, he understood that it was a matter of political inclination.

He was a little spiteful.

This was the first time Lenisha had looked relaxed while talking about Lexus.

“The dawn is breaking. That door will open soon. Sir Casius. Once that door opens, you cannot turn everything back. I’ll give you one last chance.”

“What opportunity are you talking about?”

“A chance to run away from me.”

Lenisha smiled calmly.

The shadows of dawn fell over her thin face lit by the first light of day.

Even though she was smiling, Lenisha looked like she was crying.

“I don’t intend to stop once I’ve started. I’ll see the end and put an end to my relationship with Lexus.”

Her slender body wrapped in thin platinum hair, and her gentle eyes filled with the color of tender spring.

Although everything that made up Lenisha was fragile, she now looked like a war goddess.

Like the goddess of war who would surely win.

“……Don’t stop.”

Casius spoke as if he were entranced.

“Keep going that way. I will be behind you.”

“……”

Casius was now seeing Duke Rotera through Lenisha.

Not being able to stop once started was the same for Duke Rotera.

Lenisha was indeed Duke Rotera’s daughter.

“As your husband, and as your supporter, I will stand behind you.”

“You are really kind, Sir.”

Lenisha spoke with a melting voice.

“Am I?”

“You are, at least to me, quite kind.”

Lenisha put down the book she had been reading.

It was a book she had held in her hand to endure a boring night.

But what caught Lenisha’s attention more than the book was Casius.

Casius, who sat stiffly, grinning at Lenisha.

There was still quite a large table between them.

Neither of them thought to cross it.

“But the distance between us seems unfriendly. We’re going to be a married couple, aren’t we? Sitting apart like strangers doesn’t suit a married couple.”

“Your Majesty, the Empress.”

Casius said with a serious expression.

“Even if the Emperor has made up his mind and it’s bound to happen, Your Majesty, you are not yet my wife. I don’t want to disgrace you in any way. I…”

Casius bowed his head, seemingly confused.

Lenisha’s heart warmed at the sight.

He was a man who didn’t fit in with high society, and he didn’t fit with Lenisha.

To say that he fit well with Lenisha, he was too untarnished.

Could Casius possibly match the already bottomreaching Lenisha?

“……You will surely get whatever you want. Even a divorce.”

“A divorce?”

Horror surfaced in Casius’s golden eyes.

He looked as if he had heard such a disrespectful word for the first time.

Casius shook his head.

His red hair shook as violently as his emotions.

“There will be no such thing, Your Majesty. I will not demand that of you……”

Casius hesitated before opening his mouth.

“Promise me you won’t say that, even if you have no choice.”

This time, it was Lenisha who looked surprised.