***

The parched land was being soaked by rain.
A woman with curly silver hair and tanned skin sat on the bed looking at the rain outside the window, then opened the window.
The rain rushed in, wetting her face and hair. She grinned as the raindrops hit her.
Still like the mischievous child she once was.
Herta, lying on the bed, stole glances at her.
When she didn’t turn around despite his blatant staring, he nuzzled his cheek against her thigh.
She burst into laughter. Her short silver hair shook, revealing the marks from the previous night on her neck.
Herta felt something indescribable.
He felt greater joy than when he had removed a massive mountain, created an endless river, or repelled a kingdom’s army with a single gesture.
Outside, the rain he had summoned was falling.
The weather was cool, and her skin against his was warm. Her hand gently ran through his hair.
Suddenly, unable to bear it any longer, he spoke.
“If you marry me, everything I have will be yours.”
Upon receiving Herta’s proposal, her eyes widened, and then she erupted into laughter.
Then she nestled into his arms as he anxiously awaited her answer. Her warm body heated his embrace.
“You forgot to say the most important thing, Herta.”
What could that be?
She looked at him with either great exasperation or affection as she pressed her lips against his. And whispered.
“I love you.”
“No one will ever love you, Herta.”
No. His mentor was wrong.
Herta tightly embraced the woman in his arms.
Even if, as his mentor had said, the many people who approached him didn’t love him and only wanted to use him, it didn’t matter.
As long as this woman loved him, nothing else mattered.
That’s how it truly was…

***

The door to the Emperor’s office burst open, and the Empress stormed in, fuming.
“Herta!”
The Empress, who had called the Emperor by name without hesitation, strode across the office and plopped down on the Emperor’s lap.
Herta naturally pulled her waist into an embrace, and she grabbed his collar.
She was the only one who could speak to him so casually and lay hands on him.
“I heard from my brother. What more did my family demand…”
“Your family? I’m your only family now.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I just don’t like you caring about Basilinte. They would have gone to you if I didn’t meet their demands.”
Herta kissed the hand gripping his collar and whispered.
“Just care about me. I can fulfill whatever they demand anyway. They gave you to me. In return, they could take this empire and I’d have nothing to say.”
She replied with a complicated expression in a small voice.
“Don’t be like that. Ignore whatever they demand. …Except for my brother.”
“Is that an order?”
“Yes.”
At her firm affirmation, as if she had made up her mind, Herta smiled.
He had expected this.
With her free-spirited nature, she was rather distant from her parents, like many nobles. Enough to cut ties with them if she had to choose between them and her beloved husband.
Herta enjoyed separating her from her family.
There was still her brother whom she had been close with since childhood, but he was just one person.
“I wish you had no one but me.”
He wished he were the only meaningful thing in her life.
“Sometimes I imagine what if you went blind. So you couldn’t see anyone else.”
“…You have a strange way of expressing love.”
Even as she looked at him strangely, she leaned in to kiss him. She opened her small frame fully to embrace him and whispered that she loved him.
“No one will ever love you, Herta.”
So, his mentor was wrong.
He was loved. She loved him.
Love…

***

“…The Empress is not the biological daughter of the Grand Duke and Duchess of Basilinte?”
Recalling the free-spirited girl who ran barefoot through the Grand Duke’s residence in her childhood, he thought it was absurd.
The Grand Duke and Duchess of that time might not have cherished her, but they treated her as family.
“It has been confirmed that at a young age, she married the young duke of Basilinte, then after meeting Your Majesty, divorced the young duke and was adopted.”
“No one will ever love you, Herta.”
“I was only 7 years old then! If I hadn’t married my brother, then I would have lost all my parents’ titles and assets to distant relatives and ended up on the streets. My brother was just helping me.”
She explained, holding his hands.
“It wasn’t even a real marriage. It was to protect my inheritance, and my brother promised to divorce me when I became an adult. He cherished me like a real sister…”
Herta wanted to believe her. In fact, her story was consistent, and the evidence was clear.
But—
“Why didn’t you tell me first? Why did I have to hear such things from someone else’s mouth rather than yours!”
“Because you love me too much!”
Fear flashed in her eyes, which were always full of affection and mischief. Then she burst into tears.
“I was afraid if you knew, you might kill my brother…”
With cheeks flushed red from crying, she fell into his arms. And sobbing, she whispered.
“I love you, Herta. You’re the one I love. So you won’t kill anyone, right?”
“No one will ever love you, Herta.”
He didn’t want to know what expression the woman in his arms was making, what look was in her eyes.
For fear that she might not actually love him. That all her actions might have been lies.
It was the first time in his life he had felt such emptiness and fear.
“…Yes. I love you too.”

***

“Everyone will be desperate to use you. They’ll worship you, fear you, and struggle to gain your favor. Because you have that kind of power.”
From around that time, the words of his mentor, whom he had occasionally mocked, began to dominate his daily life.
He could no longer trust her.
What she did, whom she met, what she thought—he felt compelled to control everything about her.
To this, she often became angry, condemned his distrust, and sometimes cried.
“If you can’t trust me like this, why keep me by your side? Rather…”
Fearing she might suggest they break up, he cut off her words.
“Tell me you love me.”
She looked at him with aggrieved eyes and moved her lips.
“I love you.”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s not sincere, just don’t let me find out.”
“But none of them will ever truly love you.”
“Then everything I have will still be yours.”
She stared at him, not knowing what to do, and after a long while, barely managed to whisper softly.
“I never wanted such things from you.”
All people want such things. They want to enjoy the power and strength he possesses.
While he wanted to beg her to love him in exchange for anything he could give, he also wanted to be loved for nothing at all.
“Even if you were a human with nothing, I would have loved you.”
And as always, she uttered the words he most wanted to hear.
He fell deeper in love with each moment. It was always like that when he was with her.
He fell helplessly for her, and the more he did, the more anxious he became.
He wanted to be the only one by her side, and wondered why she didn’t feel the same.
If she loved him, then why?
Herta hated her. And he loved her even more than that, and distrusted her just as much.
Nevertheless, he thought this was better than when he loved no one. Even though it was more painful than those emotionless days.