The quiet Diana was meant to maintain while resting was shattered.

The peace had been fragile and poorly constructed to begin with. It collapsed not merely because of Wilhelm’s death, but because of the undeniable truth that her own brother had taken part in the rebellion.

She wanted to let everything go.

But she endured, clinging only to Licht.

There were countless moments when his green eyes, now unmistakably colder than before, made her heart drop. Yet he still believed the child in her womb was his, and because of that, had he not covered even the sins of her natal family?

That alone made Diana believe that the Licht she had trusted through four years of engagement had not changed at his mind.

But the moment she weakened, that belief shattered alongside her.

.

.

.

“What is this for?”

It was the day her physician, Maria, visited as usual to check on Diana’s condition.

After finishing her questions, Maria took out a needle and drew Diana’s blood.

“That is… to check on the child’s condition.”

“Is the baby still not doing well?”

“It’s just a precaution. That aside, I’ve heard you’re still struggling to eat. I’ll prescribe something for the nausea as well.”

“…All right.”

Diana answered weakly, then suddenly her eyes sharpened.

She did not ignore the strange sense of unease she felt toward her physician.

Maria was transferring the blood drawn from her wrist into separate vials.

“If you take that, will you be able to confirm it?”

“What?”

Pressing gauze firmly to her wrist, Diana asked in a calm, measured voice.

The moment she saw Maria’s flustered expression, Diana was certain.

“If His Majesty wants confirmation of parentage, and this blood can resolve his doubts, then draw as much as you need.”

“…No, Your Majesty. Blood alone cannot determine parentage. No matter how much we draw, there is no way His Majesty’s magic could be present in Your Majesty’s blood.”

So Licht must have pressed the physician to try something—anything.

Diana asked nothing further, only pressed harder against her wrist.

After Maria left the nausea medicine behind and departed, Diana was left alone in the room as always.

Lying on the bed, wrapped in thick blankets, she curled into herself out of habit.

She wanted to cry silently, but her shoulders trembled, and she restrained herself.

The thought of attendants rushing in, or reporting her state to Licht, was unbearable. She endured and endured, until the sorrow she had been suppressing burst out at an unexpected moment.

Diana searched for someone to blame.

In the end, every arrow turned back toward herself.

She had not been smart enough. Not strong enough.

Her family’s rebellion was her fault. Being taken by Enoch was her fault. Failing to notice Enoch’s feelings was her fault. Not escaping when she was abducted, not taking any action at all, everything was her fault.

“His Majesty the Emperor has arrived.”

Diana hastily wiped away her tears.

If he had come, she had to face him.

“Your Majesty?”

She tried to compose herself and sit up, but her body refused to move easily.

Licht’s footsteps were drawing closer.

The attendants moved in toward Diana. Seeing the cold sweat on her face, they exchanged signals among themselves.

They grew increasingly hurried.

Her blanket was pulled back. One attendant took each of her arms, lifting her upper body.

As Lily, her personal attendant, wiped Diana’s cheek, Licht opened the bedroom door and approached.

Diana’s unfocused eyes lifted toward the man coming closer.

“Why is the Empress in this state? Didn’t the physician already come?”

“Lady Maria didn’t say anything was wrong…”

“Call her back. Doesn’t the Empress look unwell to you?!”

Facing Licht’s sharp outburst, Diana barely managed to raise her hand.

She wanted to say she was fine, that she was only feeling unwell.

With the attendants’ support, she rose from the bed.

Dizziness hit her.

The moment her body swayed, the attendant opposite her gasped.

From then on, screams rushed toward Diana.

“Y-Your Majesty…! Empress…!”

“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!”

“Diana!”

At Licht’s desperate shout, a chill ran down her spine.

Clutching her lower abdomen, pain tearing through her as though it might split apart, Diana bent forward.

Blood was flowing between her legs.

She hurriedly looked up at Licht. He was rushing toward her, shouting something urgently, over and over.

The moment Diana leaned her body against his shoulder, a chill spread through her entire body.

She clutched her hair and screamed.

Something was terribly wrong.

Wrong beyond repair.

Aaaah—!

No—! My baby! It’s too soon! You can’t come out yet!

Aaaah… please. Please!

***

“Did my suspicion hurt you?”

That short question, nothing more than a handful of words, made the tears she had barely managed to stop spill over again.

Diana squeezed her eyes shut. She didn’t want to cry in front of Licht. But it was useless.

Licht took her tears as an answer. And in truth, they were.

Before Diana could even wipe them away, Licht cupped her cheek and fixed her face toward him.

“Throw me away.”

Diana spoke first, cutting him off before he could say anything. Her distant voice clung to him more desperately than ever.

“Please. Please, throw me away.”

“…Why should I?”

Licht asked a beat too late. For a moment, he looked genuinely at a loss.

Diana placed her hand over the one gripping her cheek.

“Then k*ll me. I want to die. You can make up any reason you like. I don’t want to live anymore. Please.”

She had discarded all dignity and pride, crying and pleading like a child.

The more she did, the more blankly Licht stared at her.

Suddenly, Diana dropped to her knees. Grabbing his hand, she shouted in a frenzy.

“I’ve done so many things wrong. I don’t want to be here. Let me go. I can’t breathe. I just want to die. I was wrong. I’ll be punished. I’ll accept my punishment!”

To Licht, Diana no longer looked like someone who even knew what she was saying.

She gasped intermittently, muttering like a madwoman about wanting to escape the imperial palace. It was impossible to call her sane.

As Licht listened to her hollow rambling, he abruptly grabbed the woman kneeling before him by the collar.

The rage surging inside him now was no less than when he had learned his wife had been taken by his own brother.

“Stop spouting nonsense at this point, Empress.”

“I want to disappear. Please help me. I was wrong.”

Even with her collar seized, Diana did not try to shake him off. Instead, she wrapped her hands around his clenched fist.

Licht forced himself to loosen his grip, exhaling heavily as he did.

Unable to restrain herself, Diana continued begging, as if under a spell, to leave the palace.

“Diana! Diana! D*mn it!”

At last, Licht cursed aloud. He hoisted her up and threw her onto the bed.

In the blink of an eye, he was over her, his body pinning hers down. He placed a hand on her abdomen.

Diana shrieked and struggled, but Licht’s thighs clamped down hard, restraining her completely.

“Listen carefully. Diana Ranelles Harzen.”

“No! I don’t want this!”

“Listen! You need to know what I’ve endured to keep the name Harzen from being torn off after yours, so you never say that kind of thing again!”

“Licht…!”

“I didn’t hang Wilhelm’s bastard head from the bell tower, and I spared the Schuettmanns, who should have fallen as traitors, all because of you! I crushed the nobles who tried to drag you down with rumors of a tragic affair of you with my brother, and I punished those who claimed you were carrying his child for imperial insult! I became the emperor who punished the most nobles in the shortest time because of you!”

It was as though Licht were disgorging everything he had held back.

Pinned beneath him, Diana could not bring herself to meet those green eyes pouring fury onto her. She turned her head away, sobs slipping between her lips.

She knew.

How could she not know?

Licht’s mind was no more intact than hers.

He was a man who had killed his own younger brother with his own hands barely half a year ago.

“I’d be lying if I said I never doubted whether the child you carried was mine. But so what? The one who wanted that child to be mine more than anyone else was me. Me!”

The sudden rebellion had risen from both his blood and his in-laws.

Licht had endured brutal days, suppressing every chaos surrounding him, just to ensure that no blame fell upon her.

And now what?

She wanted to disappear?

Wanted him to k*ll her?

Absurd.

“You’d do well to abandon the idea that I’ll ever let you go.”

Licht loosened the grip of his thighs that had mercilessly confined her. With his rough hands, he brushed back Diana’s soaked hair, exhausted from crying.

In contrast to her shattered expression, his touch was unexpectedly gentle.

Diana turned her head, unable to decide what kind of face she should look at him with.

Licht slowly rose from the bed.

Looking down at the wreck that was Diana, he spoke in a deeply sunken, restrained voice.

“I was prepared to raise the child, even if it wasn’t mine.”