Jeanne looked at the cruel man with a tender face. That’s the kind of person he was. He casually made her into a woman who was nothing. He said she was his wife…. He said she would be the only woman in his life, yet he brought in concubines.

So what use was the vow? She lowered her gaze.

‘No, Jeanne. You were the one who told him to bring in concubines. He’s not at fault.’

Jeanne soothed herself, suppressing the anger that rose like a soft swell.

“Then I wish you would leave. Since you say it’s not my concern. I want to rest now too.”

She firmly closed her mouth. The villa was her space.

She had decided since he gave her this place. To raise the children here…. She wanted to leave the main palace where the emperor stayed. He had agreed. But he did nothing. He was an unqualified father.

“…What would you like me to do?”

He asked. Jeanne, who had been looking only at the child all along, looked directly at him. Her expression asked if he was really curious about that.

“Divorce me. That’s all I want from Your Majesty.”

Jeanne recited emotionlessly.

Cesare looked at her without distortion. Jeanne tried to read the emotion pooled in his icy eyes. His hand might fly again, but Jeanne didn’t hesitate.

“Why?”

“…I want to stop.”

“So why?”

He asked again. Suddenly, she felt suffocated. Jeanne gently stroked her neck at the discomfort. She belatedly realized it wasn’t due to psychological reasons but because physical force was being applied.

A blue energy lightly enveloped her. Jeanne bit her lip and raised her gaze. She deliberately reddened her eyes and let tears fall where he could see them. Instantly, the energy loosened and gently caressed her.

Jeanne felt an energy caressing her chin with the same tenderness as his touch. The emperor rarely displayed his abilities as an Adam. That was because there was no other Adam like him yet.

All his children were Adams who had not completed their growth. He knew that he was a superhuman who transcended ordinary people. In this world, freely displaying such abilities was a burdensome thing.

‘I want to reign, not be worshipped.’

Even the one closest to God is human, they say. Jeanne didn’t understand what he meant until she directly faced his power. Also, that without Eve, Adam is an incomplete being….

“Jeanne.”

The man who had been looking at her with his back against the sofa parted his lips. The blue energy that had been caressing her chin moved toward the br*ast that the child wasn’t sucking. It felt like a cool chill touching her br*ast. Jeanne tucked in her chin and glared at him with reddened eyes.

“…What will you do if we divorce?”

He slid his lips. Suddenly, the child who had been sucking milk began to whimper. It seemed he was starting to react to his father’s energy. Young Adams were sensitive to even the touch of energy, or aura.

If not careful, they could have seizures. Since Jeanne had experienced Kiril having seizures and suffering from fever in this way, she was very concerned about the current situation.

“Stop it, Your Majesty. The baby is afraid.”

Jeanne pleaded with him as if begging. Enoch, who had been sucking milk, waved his chubby arms and burrowed into her bosom as if trying to escape his father’s aura.

She stood up from the sofa and turned her back. His aura thinned and retreated from her. However, Enoch, who had started to cry, didn’t calm down easily.

The child, startled by the unfamiliar sensation he had never experienced before, screamed and struggled. It was pitiful to see the child babbling “Mamma ma” as if trying to return to the womb. She readjusted the child in her arms and soothed him with “Shh—.”

His face, ripe like a red apple, was wet with tears. She glanced at her husband, who was watching darkly from a distance, then fled.

Young Adams, more precisely, Adams under seven years old, reacted very sensitively when they directly felt their father’s aura, even if it was their own father.

According to the monks, since they were still babies, their abilities hadn’t manifested yet, but nevertheless, the remaining energy was so unique that even a biological father had to be careful not to disturb the baby’s energy. Especially since babies were immature beings who couldn’t control their aura, they could only react but not manage it.

‘That’s why the mother, Eve, is important. Only Eve can heal and control Adam.’

Recalling what she had been taught by a monk in the Empress Dowager’s palace during her girlhood, Jeanne fled from her husband. The villa was modest compared to the main palace, so there weren’t many bedrooms. She entered the largest one, her eldest son’s bedroom, to catch her breath.

The most perfect environment for an Adam was in the arms of Eve. In other words, Adam is safest and most comfortable in the womb of his mother, Eve. It’s not strange that the baby struggles to return to her womb.

After all, it must be the first sensation he’s felt. They say babies think they are the center of the world. Adams tend to have this tendency even more strongly. Believing that only they are Adam and only their aura exists in the world, even their father who created them would be frightening and unfamiliar. Moreover….

‘You are not qualified.’

She bit her lip. To emit aura with emotion toward a wife who was breastfeeding their young son…. It was unforgivable. She didn’t want to understand.

She lay down on Kiril’s bed, patting the back of her son who was wriggling and burrowing into her bosom.

Her husband’s low question echoed in her mind.

‘Why?’

His face looked as if he truly didn’t know the reason. His face, now without even bewilderment, was smooth and firm.

‘Terrible person….’

She thought as she patted the baby’s back. Cesare is a terrible man. Her husband is an incomprehensible person. His love, his sincerity…. She now truly wanted to stop.

* * *

It was deep midnight. Long fingertips traced her forehead where brown hair was disheveled. It was a familiar touch.

Jeanne opened her eyes and stared at him. Through the loose gown, the clear-cut pectoral muscles gleamed in the light of the lantern. She had clearly said they should sleep separately because Enoch might have a seizure.

Since she said their nursing son was sick, he seemed to have no choice but to withdraw with a stiff face. He had experienced what could happen if a young Adam was disturbed.

Even Maxim, who now runs with open arms when his father is mentioned, used to burst into tears at the mere sight of his shadow before he turned two.

Because of this, he had to keep his distance from his wife for a while. He was the one who would embrace her whenever he had a moment, whether in the bushes or the bedroom, without discrimination.

His wife was always within reach, and even when her abdomen was swollen with child, she was ready to satisfy his desires. But things changed after Maxim was born.

He recalled the particularly sensitive child while looking at the youngest sleeping soundly in his wife’s arms. Maxim, that is. Maxim was their third child. He was the child they had after Kirion and Joshua. Cesare remembered that child from the moment of his creation.

How they were at that time. Where they rolled around and how she panted, covered in lust. Although Jeanne would back out, saying she couldn’t remember even if he recited it all, in truth, she too couldn’t forget what that morning was like.

‘Take it easy.’

‘It’s the carnival presided over by the Empress Dowager. The best…’

‘Don’t you know that no matter what you do, you’ll never satisfy the Empress Dowager?’

He twisted his lips into a smile. Jeanne stiffened, and he lifted her chin. Her delicate skin was white and soft. He lowered his head to kiss her neck and then seduced her. Let’s go make a baby. She pushed against his chest. She said the second prince was still too young. He thought of his second son. A child who resembled him just like the firstborn. However, he thought the child’s nose resembled his wife.

‘We need to make a friend for him.’

‘Kiril….’

‘Kiril is the child who must inherit the throne.’

He shook his head. His wife stared at him with uncomprehending eyes. The woman turned her gaze away and moved her lips as she pushed him away a bit more.

‘It’s a time when they need a lot of attention.’

‘We can bring in more governesses.’

She turned her head. He slipped his hand under the hem of her dress. Jeanne glared at him with pursed lips. He licked her neck with a seductive smile. It was noon. The woman who had said that the concubines from the rear palace had been called to the main palace for the carnival sobbed that she needed to return.

Despite her saying she shouldn’t be away for too long, the emperor laughed. In a deserted corridor leading to the small reception hall, behind a beautiful pillar carved with murals, he held her waist and whispered for them to run away. She narrowed her brows and shook her head. Her stern face saying that he shouldn’t neglect his official duties like this was quite adorable.

‘Go back. If the Marchioness of Toulouse or Baroness MacMillan… Ah!’

He smiled at the woman who was firmly restraining him. If she was worried about being discovered, they already had been. He gazed at the arched window in the small reception hall. The sharp-eyed Toulouse was watching their behavior. The other concubines hadn’t noticed yet, as they were busy gossiping among themselves.