2. Epilogue

Emperor Leian’s reign over the Pellion Empire had not always been so smooth. Rather, his beginning, having pushed aside his half-brother to ascend the throne, resembled a tyrant more than a benevolent ruler.

Things seemed peaceful for the first few years, but then an enormous incident erupted after about six years.

The Duke of Lucaen, the Emperor’s political enemy and father-in-law, was discovered plotting treason, and if that wasn’t enough, the Empress, formerly Lady Lucaen, was revealed to be an impostor.

The Duke of Lucaen and his family fell from grace not only for attempting to assassinate the Emperor but also for the crime of passing off a fake daughter as real and placing her in the Empress’s Palace.

Ironically, the fake lady herself survived. More than merely surviving, she received relatively lenient treatment for abandoning her fake father and providing information to the Emperor.

But that wasn’t the end. Just as the shock of the treason and the Emperor’s divorce began to subside throughout the country, a new shock struck the entire nation.

The fake lady became the true Empress once again. And she gave birth to a beautiful daughter for the Emperor, who had long been without an heir.

The lovely Princess Ivenia grew more vigorously with each passing day, and the imperial couple, once famously distant, now overflowed with such sweetness that it made the palace servants uncomfortable.

What had once been merely a monthly event—the couple’s conjugal visits—now repeated almost every night.

It was widely accepted that if the two weren’t so busy as Emperor and Empress, they would have locked themselves in their bedroom without taking a single step outside, not just at night but during the day as well.

Fortunately, they were a couple devoted to their official duties, so they weren’t completely absorbed in lovemaking day and night. But once night fell, that time belonged entirely to them.

Today too, they were intimately connected in their bedroom as if they had been born as one being.

The woman sat on the man’s thighs, rubbing her p*ssy against his *rect center while he held her waist with both hands, moaning like a beast.

“Haah, ugh, Calie, hurry……”

“Shh, stay still.”

When the man, desperate to bury himself deep inside her, whined with a m*an, the woman soothed him in a sweet, lilting voice. All the while, she continued to rub her plump, swollen cl*toris against his manhood as she moved her hips.

“Mm, ah… ah… good.”

She moaned. Though penetration hadn’t even begun, her already wet entrance quivered each time it rubbed against the rigid shaft.

Leian stared at the woman with a flushed face while holding her waist. His impudent wife had already made him rock hard but was focused solely on her own pleasure with no intention of relieving his torturous heat.

Each time her moist flesh contracted while rubbing against his shaft, he felt pleasure too, but it was nowhere near enough to quench his terrible thirst.

“Haah, Calie… please.”

He practically begged. His green eyes burned with hot passion.

Calie looked straight into those eyes and smiled seductively. Her husband was certainly fun to tease.

As she merely rubbed her l*bia against his manhood without giving him the cl*max he desired, he growled like a beast on a leash but never went against her wishes.

Calie slightly raised her hips. As she aligned her entrance with the man’s slick tip, Leian let out a satisfied m*an, thinking he could finally enter her.

But Calie was still teasing her l*stful husband. She drew a mischievous smile.

“Want to go all the way in?”

“Mm, ugh… yes.”

“So impatient. Be patient a little longer.”

“No, I can’t wait anymore…… I’m already, kuh, dying.”

“You can’t die, Leian. Did you forget your promise to live with me for a long, long time?”

Calie whispered coquettishly, then made large circular motions with her hips. As she moved while holding just his tip inside her, the pitiful man made a sound almost like a wail. Calie laughed.

“The fruit that comes after patience is always the sweetest. So, mmm, just a little more……”

She couldn’t finish her sentence. At the moment she spoke of patience, the man who had lost his patience grabbed her waist with both hands and pulled her down hard.

“Ah!”

The woman screamed as she was forced to impale herself on the man. Her undulating l*bia spread wide as the manhood drove in vertically. Having her entrance pierced in one go, the woman panted breathlessly.

“Ah, ahng……”

“Haah.”

Leian exhaled as the supple female body contracted, tightly squeezing his manhood. An indescribable satisfaction welled up as the woman’s secret hole completely engulfed what he had been craving.

He now moved freely. With the leash broken, there was no reason to endure any longer.

He firmly gripped his wife’s buttocks and thr*st his hips wildly upward. Their sweat-soaked lower bodies collided frantically.

“Ah, ah, hm! Ah, ahng, Leian…!”

“Hmm, ugh, Calie. Ah, d*mn……”

So good. Too good. Good enough to curse. Good enough to lose his mind.

Leian bit into his wife’s shoulder hard while shaking his body wildly at the edge of ecstasy, half out of his senses. Calie let out a high-pitched cry at the tingling sensation.

“Aahng!”

As she threw her head back and cried out, clear fl*id burst forth. Leian felt his manhood swell to its maximum size and tried to pull out by moving his body backward.

“No…!”

But Calie gasped and tightly embraced his neck. Leian was so surprised that he forgot he had been trying to withdraw.

What happened next was beyond his control. His stone-hard center spurted warm liquid inside her.

“Hmm……”

“Haah.”

Leian closed his eyes tightly and exhaled a long breath of physiological satisfaction. Calie softly moaned with her cheek resting against his head. Her soft br*asts pressed against his firm chest, deforming their shape.

Leian opened his eyes and slowly withdrew. Her clinging inner flesh released him along with the slick fl*id. As her body collapsed to the side, he carefully held her in his arms.

“…Why did you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Why did you hold me back earlier?”

After roughly catching his breath, Leian confronted his wife with a mix of resentment and confusion. His tone was somewhat brusque, but his hand gently caressed her disheveled blonde hair.

Calie took that large, warm hand and kissed the back and palm in turn. It was a hand she had come to love deeply. A hand that led her to pleasure and also comforted her with quiet affection.

“Just because I like having you inside me until the end.”

Calie answered honestly. She often felt empty when Leian suddenly pulled out while she was still savoring the afterglow of cl*max. Today she didn’t want to leave that regret.

Usually, she understood why he did it and went along with him. But sometimes desire overwhelmed reason, and today Calie had given in to her primal impulses.

Seeing Leian so anxious, as if they had committed some terrible sin, made her wonder if she had done something wrong. But what was done couldn’t be undone, and above all, she didn’t want to apologize for her choice.

Calie soothed him gently.

“It’s fine, Leian. I’ve never shown signs of pregnancy all this time. And you’ve even taken medicine, so why worry so much?”

Born amid universal expectation and anxiety, Princess Ivenia had grown up receiving blessings and love and was now four years old. She would turn five after her birthday this year.

Almost five years ago, Calie nearly died giving birth with her broken body. As a result, Leian gained a legitimate heir and a lovely daughter but suffered the terrible fear that he might lose his wife.

Once it became almost certain that Ivenia was healthy and would safely grow to adulthood, Leian immediately made a decision. He found and promptly took medicine that cut off a man’s seed.

It happened without him consulting others, and most people still didn’t know what the Emperor had done.

Only his close confidants, including Baron Borten, knew, and even they only learned about the Emperor’s actions after the fact.

Though they couldn’t say it openly, they were naturally shocked. The Empress Dowager and the Empress, who received the news around the same time, felt the same way. The Empress Dowager in particular was absolutely furious.

“For an Emperor to cut off his own seed, what a bizarre… What if something happens to the Princess? What if we need a new heir!”

“Please refrain from such ominous talk. The Empress and I will protect the Princess well to prevent such things from happening.”

“Hmph, really… How can that be up to human will? Have others been having multiple children all this time because they didn’t know that?”

“Of course, I’ve considered the possibility of variables. But the same would be true if the Empress became pregnant again. If Calie were to conceive again and lose both the child and her own life, this country would have neither an Empress nor a new heir to the throne.”

If the Empress dies, you can remarry! The Empress Dowager wanted to shout at her son.

But she knew perfectly well what expression her son would make if she uttered even one such word.

Anyway, it was meaningless to argue about something that had already happened and risk incurring her son’s wrath. In the end, the Empress Dowager accepted reality with a sense of resignation.

“Hah… I understand. Since Your Majesty’s will is so firm, there’s nothing to be done. It seems our Princess Ivenia will remain an only child forever, so I must pray she grows up healthy without any mishaps.”

“That is precisely what we shall do, Mother. Please don’t worry.”

Seeing him brazenly telling her not to worry after creating something to worry about in the first place made the Empress Dowager feel a burning rage inside.

She barely managed to restrain herself, wondering how on earth she had raised such a son.

Calie, who heard her husband’s belated confession, felt similar to her mother-in-law. However, she didn’t yell at him, demanding to know why he had done such a thing.