Cain was walking alone through the cold streets.

Although he hadn’t slept at all, busy organizing the events of the previous night, he showed no signs of fatigue.

At that moment, he heard people whispering.

“I heard His Majesty is visiting the streets today?”

“Over there, over there!”

He saw people excitedly hurrying in one direction.

Cain looked at them with indifferent eyes.

‘Niel Alpenhayer…’

Recalling the competence of the man who had so easily discovered who was behind the assassins he had accidentally killed that morning, his fists unconsciously clenched.

His unstable magic energy from the night before began to fluctuate again.

[No, Cain.]

Helasio, quickly noticing his condition, immediately scolded him.

[We just barely managed to calm it down, so you need to stay quiet for at least today. If you use more power here, you’ll really be in danger.]

Seeing Helasio, who would normally tease him wickedly with snickers, speak in such a serious tone meant his condition must truly be serious.

However, as always, Cain didn’t respond to Helasio’s words.

As he continued walking, he spotted a child selling flowers on the street.

Suddenly, he remembered finding an empty vase while cleaning her pharmacy that morning.

Would she like it if he put flowers in the vase…

“What’s with the flowers, Cain Aleret?”

“……”

“There’s no use denying it. Who else would fearlessly leave flowers by my bedside.”

“……I’m sorry.”

“No need to apologize. Well, it’s not bad. Looks nice. Like you.”

“……”

Recalling a conversation they once had, the corners of his mouth rose slightly.

A little later.

He held two nameless purple flowers in his hand.

He had bought flowers without even realizing it, just from imagining.

Would it be alright to go see her…

She had noticed something about his power and was curious.

She hadn’t asked more when he requested her not to, but he didn’t think she would tolerate his impudence forever.

And for someone who always hoped not to be abandoned by her, if she decided to probe deeply, he wouldn’t be able to hide it any longer.

So to delay that moment as much as possible, he should avoid meeting her.

But despite this, his feet were heading toward her on their own.

It was an unavoidable homing instinct.

No matter where he was or what he was doing, he always ended up going back to her…

Tap.

Something cold fell on his face. He unconsciously stopped walking and looked up at the sky.

His eyes deepened as he stared at the thick snowfall.

Suddenly, he clenched his teeth and lowered his gaze at the afterimage of red blood spreading over the pure white snow.

Then he noticed a white snowflake that had fallen on the flower petals he was holding.

Cain frowned slightly, then carefully brushed off the snowflake with his large hand.

Then he spread his palm to shield the flower petals from getting wet in the snow and continued walking.

At this moment, Helasio spoke in a subtle voice.

[Hey, Cain. Why don’t you ask Jella for help?]

Pause.

Cain, who had been ignoring Helasio’s nagging all along, glared at him with a fierce gaze.

[Like how you helped Jella in the past. If it’s Jella…]

“Shut up.”

Cain retorted in a cold voice.

How could he shamelessly accept her help when he had contracted with the dragon she had tried to eliminate with her life?

Faced with his bleak atmosphere, Helasio closed his mouth without adding more words.

After walking for a while, Cain realized that the direction people were heading overlapped with his own.

Cain’s steps came to an abrupt halt.

In front of her pharmacy.

Where people’s gazes were gathered, there she was, with that man proposing to her.

Niel Alpenhayer was always a flawlessly handsome man, but today he seemed especially perfect, as if he had put in much more effort than usual.

In his hands were an elaborate bouquet that the imperial gardener must have prepared and an expensive ring case.

She stared at the flowers and ring in his hand with wide, surprised eyes.

Niel bowed his head toward her.

The two whispered in small voices that couldn’t be heard.

Her eyes, which had been filled with bewilderment, trembled faintly at the man’s few whispered words.

His mind went blank at her visible agitation, even from a distance.

Niel Alpenhayer.

That man, perfect from birth, could do anything.

He was always the man who did things that he couldn’t do.

Even just this morning.

Hadn’t he so easily discovered who was behind the assassins he had accidentally killed?

And five years ago, when he had despaired at finally being unable to save her…

“……”

Cain closed his eyes deeply and reopened them.

The great shock of the day he first saw her fiancé was still vivid in his memory.

“Pleased to meet you, Lord Cain.”

Platinum blonde hair and pale green eyes that seemed to belong in a masterpiece painting.

The elegant appearance without a single flaw, and the perfectly refined young lord who spoke politely even to a slave like him.

“Please take good care of Her Highness.”

That arrogant generosity, asking him to take care of her with a gentle smile, as if he wasn’t even worth competing against.

Her fiancé was a perfect person, like herself.

Only someone as perfect as him could stand beside her.

That’s why his place would always have to be behind her, where her gaze couldn’t reach.

That day, Cain had to suffer from the realization of his position.

That perfect man was now proposing to her.

Why did the flowers in his hand suddenly seem so worthless at this moment?

Thud.

The flowers he was holding fell to the ground.

Cain turned away with a gloomy face, not even thinking of picking them up.

In an instant, the magic energy emanating from his body stopped time.

[Cain Aleret!]

Helasio screamed in the frozen time.

[You, I told you not to use this power just for today…!]

But Cain fled without responding to those words.

He couldn’t bear to see the moment she accepted that man’s proposal.

Why?

That man had been her fiancé long ago, too.

Why now, suddenly, why?

Could it be?

Cain Aleret, did you dare to covet that man’s place?

Even though you said you just wanted to stay by her side and protect her.

Even though you said that was all you wished for.

So presumptuous…

Throb.

Throb, throb, throb.

With the throbbing pain, the area around his heart began to turn black.

At the place where he had been standing until just now, only two limp purple flowers remained.

***

Snap.

Jella felt that strange moment when time had stopped.

‘Is it just my imagination…?’

She felt Helasio’s energy in the air.

‘No way. Cain…?’

Jella blinked and looked around.

But Cain wasn’t there.

Perhaps she had sensed wrong because she’d been on edge since last night.

‘More importantly…’

She could feel the gazes of people filling the street, watching from a distance.

‘He deliberately made a big scene.’

He probably judged it better for people to think he was unilaterally pursuing her, considering the difference in their social status.

Jella quietly looked at Niel, who was proposing to her.

Just a moment ago, she had been surprised by his sudden appearance.

She couldn’t help it.

After all, just last night, that happened between them.

Just as she was worrying about what to do if he made a passionate confession of love…

“I came to confess. Ah, to be precise, to propose.”

He had said that in a straightforward voice, making her worries seem silly, and suddenly presented her with a bouquet and ring.

“Accept it. It’s the empire I’m returning to you.”

That passionate intensity from last night was completely gone, replaced by his usual gaze and voice.

Just like years ago, when Marquis Niel Alpenhayer was her fiancé – a gentle, mild, and affectionate gaze and voice.

As if he had sensed her concern…

“I like you, Miss Jella. Please marry me.”

And so, Jella was even more troubled.

His confession, devoid of emotion, paradoxically felt sincere.

“Please allow me to dedicate the empire to you.”

She could see people cheering at his confession.

To people, his confession might have sounded like a romantic proposal, but Jella knew those words weren’t metaphorical.

This wasn’t a simple confession of love.

Niel Alpenhayer truly intended to offer this empire to her.

The proposal was extended solely for that purpose.

‘The choice is mine, but the throne is for me? It almost sounds like… he became emperor because of me.’

Jella unconsciously bit her lower lip hard.

She hoped her guess was an exaggeration.

Perhaps she would have been less flustered if she had received a passionate confession in front of everyone.

‘The throne… he says.’

After opening her eyes in this body again, becoming emperor again was not in her options.

As someone who had read the original story, she naturally believed that Niel would become emperor at the end of this story, and even after learning that the original had changed, she hadn’t considered a different ending.

A numbing shock washed over her at this option she had never considered.

But if it was something Niel Alpenhayer had planned, it would surely proceed perfectly without even the smallest disturbance.

That’s the kind of man he was.

Just as Jella was staring blankly at the bouquet and ring extended to her.

Whoosh!

An arm suddenly appeared and snatched the ring from Niel’s hand.

‘Huh?’

Jella and Niel turned to the side simultaneously.

Yupheon, who might have arrived yesterday, was standing there.

He put the ring he had snatched on his own finger and clicked his tongue.

“What’s this? It doesn’t fit.”

The ring wouldn’t even go on his pinky finger.

Of course not. This ring was made to fit Jella’s finger size.

“What are you doing, Yupheon Arne?”

Just as Niel glared at this rude intruder, grinding his molars.

“Ha! Haha! Hahahahaha!”

Yupheon suddenly burst into cold laughter.

He laughed so loudly that small tears even formed at the corners of his eyes.

As people were bewildered by the pope’s behavior, as if possessed by a demon, he flashed his eyes wildly and stretched the corners of his mouth into a long grin.

“Ah, my f*cking beloved darling.”

An instant cold silence descended. People blinked, wondering if they had misheard.

In that quiet stillness, only Yupheon’s distorted voice rang out clearly.

“Goddammit, this proposal is too pathetic.”

An even colder silence than before flowed.