“Herwen. I have fulfilled my duty and returned to you. I’ve lost everything. But why… why is that woman next to you instead of me?!”  

Larael collapsed at Herwen’s feet, screaming and sobbing.  

Ariella, who had been hiding behind Herwen, peeked out cautiously. Ariella was Larael’s friend, but now she stood there wrapped in a blanket, n*ked. When their eyes met, Ariella quickly hid behind Herwen again.  

“Lara. Your role is over. You knew this already. You knew my heart had left you. Stop being so pathetic. If you behave, I might visit you on lonely nights. Just stay quiet.”  

Larael clutched her chest and closed her eyes. Then, as if making a decision, she opened them wide and lunged at the pair entangled before her. But before she could even touch them, she was thrown backward. Herwen had kicked her away.  

After kicking her, Herwen drew his sword and pointed it at her neck.  

“You should be grateful I’m not killing you. Look at yourself. A wretched woman begging for love from the man who killed her child.”  

“My child? You killed my child? My child?”  

‘But didn’t the child die from illness?’  

‘How could a mother be so oblivious?’ 

Larael, ignoring the blade at her neck, lunged at Herwen. Shocked, Herwen swung his sword, grazing her chest. But she didn’t care about the pain and grabbed his collar, wailing.  

“What did you do to my child?”  

Herwen shouted something, trying to shake her off, but Larael clung to him like a madwoman. Finally, Herwen’s knights arrived and pulled her away. To a mother who had lost her child, Herwen was her only salvation.  

She was the only woman the late emperor had ever embraced. After losing her child, she became obsessively attached to Herwen and played a significant role in helping him ascend to the throne. In the end, she poisoned the emperor and made Herwen the ruler, but Larael could only remain the late emperor’s woman and Herwen’s hidden lover. Now, she wasn’t even that. 

She had been utterly abandoned.  

Larael was sent back to her palace in disgrace.  

How could she have been so foolish? Everything she had done flashed before her—every evil deed she had committed with her own hands. Outside the window, snowflakes colder than her heart were falling. She opened the window, and the icy wind rushed in.  

As she contemplated her final moments, why did the emperor she had despised for his indifference and aloofness come to mind? She remembered the moment she handed him the poisoned cup. Overcome with regret and remorse, she had tried to drink it herself, but he had taken the cup from her and drank it calmly.  

She had thought of him as unlucky, but he had known all along.  

‘He knew everything.’  

“Even in death, I will atone for my sins.”  

With that, Larael threw herself into the bitterly cold snowstorm.  

***

“I must see His Majesty!! Stand aside at once!!! How dare you block my way!!”  

Larael’s head throbbed as if it would split open. Someone was shouting at the top of their lungs, and the booming voice echoed painfully in her head. She shifted her body and suddenly felt something strange.  

Why was she still alive? She opened her eyes wide and glanced around, only to freeze in shock when she saw the person lying beside her in bed.  

Startled, Larael clutched the blanket and scooted back, sitting upright. Golden hair and a face as handsome as a finely crafted sculpture. The man was Edward, the emperor known as the Sun of the Empire, and her husband. 

Why was this man here?  

The sharp pain in her head began to subside. Frowning, she looked around. This was undoubtedly the emperor’s bedroom.  

“Stand aside!!”  

The noise outside the bedroom became clearer.  

“Stand aside, or I’ll kill everyone.”  

“This is treason.”  

“My fiancée is in this bedroom.”

Larael covered her face with her hands. This situation… she had experienced it before. This was where it all began. This was when everything went wrong. 

Her fiancé, Grand Duke Vellaus, had brought her to the imperial palace, claiming he wanted to introduce her to his brother, the emperor. The emperor, drunk, had assaulted her and then insisted on taking responsibility by making her empress. However, due to opposition from his ministers, she was made a consort instead of the empress.  

Grand Duke Vellaus, having lost his fiancée to the shameless emperor, gained the sympathy of the empire’s people and became the beloved Grand Duke of the North. All the events that followed had started from this very bed.  

Larael lowered her hands and looked at the emperor sleeping beside her, oblivious to everything. But had this man really assaulted her? Back then, knowing nothing, she had cursed the emperor who had ruined her life, resenting and despising him for years.  

‘But do I even have the right to blame him?’  

Larael shifted slightly. Her body felt unusually light. She now knew that her body didn’t feel like one that had spent the night with a man.  

From the hazy memories of the previous night to this very moment, and even the calculated cries from outside, she realized it had all been Herwen’s scheme.  

‘For some reason, I’ve returned to the moment when everything began.’  

Edward began to stir at the commotion outside. As he showed signs of waking, Larael panicked.  

‘How surprised would he be to see me? Back then, I didn’t care about his feelings. I cursed him, resented him, and ran to Herwen Vellaus.’  

Edward’s eyelids slowly lifted, revealing his deep, ocean-like teal eyes. He looked at Larael in confusion, his expression gradually shifting to one of shock. He quickly got out of bed. Standing outside the covers, Edward’s body was completely bare, causing their gazes to awkwardly focus on one spot.  

“Uh… um, the robe.”  

Larael spotted a robe draped over the sofa beside the bed and pointed at it before quickly turning her head away. Edward, frozen by her calm demeanor, didn’t move for a moment.  

When Larael turned her head, Edward turned his back to her and hurriedly moved to the sofa to put on the robe. Then he called for his attendant.  

“Tricks!!!”  

“Your Majesty’s attendant isn’t here right now.”  

When Larael spoke, Edward glanced between her and the bedroom door. Only then did he seem to register the noise coming from outside. He had been so stunned that he hadn’t noticed it until now.  

At that moment, the door burst open.  

As expected, Herwen entered dramatically, playing the role of the tragic hero. Behind him, knights with drawn swords pointed their weapons at him, shouting for him to stand down.  

Herwen strode in, saw Edward and Larael, and collapsed to his knees on the floor, wailing.  

“How!!! How could you do this, brother!!! How could you!!!”  

The knights who had followed him in looked at the n*ked emperor and the woman with him, their faces filled with despair.  

“You took my unconscious, drunken fiancée and did ‘this’ to her.”  

Herwen pounded his chest and shouted. Larael quietly observed the scene. 

Was he trying to remind her of what she was supposed to do? To cry and scream, accusing the emperor of assaulting her?  

Edward covered his face with his hands and sat on the bed. Larael looked at his broad back. At that moment, the empress dowager arrived, rushing in. She wouldn’t side with the emperor; after all, her biological son was Herwen.  

“What is this commotion so early in the morning? Grand Duke, committing treason?”  

The empress dowager scanned the room as if trying to understand the situation. When her gaze landed on Larael, her expression hardened, and the wrinkles on her forehead deepened.