“It felt like my heart was breaking.”

“……”

“If you said you loved that guy again, I wouldn’t know what to do.”

Lysith didn’t bother responding to his muttering.

Her heart wasn’t particularly directed toward anyone specific. She liked all four male protagonists. Not in an emperor-with-a-harem way, but simply on a human level.

She might have human-like fondness, affection, and sympathy for all of them, but……

‘Love is something I couldn’t do from the beginning……’

In her situation, love felt like a luxury. And the reason she felt this way was because she was wary of growing attached to the male protagonists. It would be a lie to say she had never weakened, but at least the current her didn’t want to fall in love.

She didn’t want to love; she wanted to escape this game and reclaim “herself.”

As Lysith remained silent, lost in thought, Verheigen lifted her up and carried her toward the familiar red sofa.

After setting her down comfortably, he sat beside her and buried his face in her shoulder, seeking her warmth just as he had two months ago. The soft skin and her unique scent calmed the man’s nerves that had been on edge.

Enjoying the gentle touch of her hand stroking his platinum hair, Verheigen suddenly opened his eyes as if remembering something.

“But why did you choose him back there?”

“……”

“Don’t tell me you feel sorry for that bastard?”

Lysith silently swallowed. Honestly, she couldn’t deny it……

After all, she now knew everything. She had even seen Dietrich’s face turn white as paper during the thunderstorm and his shoulders trembling uncontrollably.

Moreover, from what she had just heard, Verheigen was the one who had wronged him first.

Though she didn’t think he would have done it without reason.

As Lysith remained silent, Verheigen’s face instantly hardened. He raised his head, interlaced his fingers with hers, and looked into her eyes.

“What did he tell you?”

“Just some old stories.”

“……I suppose he talked about the music box.”

His intuition was uncannily accurate. How did he figure that out from her vague response?

Anyway, having discerned the truth, Verheigen swept his bangs back with his free hand and let out a deep sigh that seemed to come from the depths of his being.

“That… no, whatever I say won’t matter. You think I was wrong, don’t you?”

“Now I do. I just heard His Highness the Grand Duke’s story. But it’s not like there was poison hidden in the music box, and you were protecting him from danger, right?”

“……That’s right.”

For a moment, Verheigen’s eyebrows raised as he noticed she had almost called Dietrich by his name, but they lowered again at her subsequent words.

Still holding her hand, he buried his face in her shoulder again and muttered to himself that there was no helping it, then began his story.

“Do you know that the imperial family is called the children of god?”

“Of course I know that. It’s in the founding myth and everything.”

“Yes. And though few know it precisely now, it’s true.”

“Not just a fabricated myth?”

Verheigen nodded in response to Lysith’s question.

“And among them, occasionally a blessed child is born.”

Blessed? Since this was the first time she had heard of it, it probably wasn’t common knowledge.

“You probably don’t know this story. Only people in the imperial household know about it. Or perhaps… the Tower Master might know.”

“Ah……”

At Lysith’s ambiguous response, Verheigen momentarily looked displeased, seemingly reminded of Ashites.

The reason she had unconsciously made a sound was because of information she had heard during her previous visit to the Magic Tower. When discussing curses, there had definitely been mention of blessed individuals.

But with those red eyes right in front of her, it wasn’t an appropriate situation to recall in detail.

Meeting her sky-blue gaze, Verheigen continued his explanation.

“I am that person. No one knows this either. Only my parents knew, but they’ve passed away now.”

“Is it okay to tell me?”

“Why not? I’m the one choosing to tell you.”

Setting aside his subtly irritating tone, Lysith nodded in understanding.

“What changes when you receive this blessing?”

“The blessing bestowed upon the imperial descendants is special. It allows you to remember your past lives.”

At this unexpected revelation, Lysith’s heart dropped with a thud.

“……Past lives?”

“Yes. However, those memories don’t feel like ‘me.’ They feel more like someone else’s memories.”

It had been the same when she received her memories.

Feeling a sense of déjà vu, Lysith swallowed dryly and then reacted as if hearing this for the first time, expressing amazement.

“Then what kind of person were you in your past life, Your Majesty?”

“I’ve been a king, and I’ve been an emperor.”

“……?”

“That’s why I’m an emperor now too.”

What is he saying? Lysith’s head tilted involuntarily as she inwardly muttered this. Finding her cute, Verheigen smiled at her with his eyes.

“I don’t remember all my past lives. I only remember the lives that are necessary for my current self.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Yes. That’s why there was no controversy when I ascended to the throne at such a young age, and in such an unstable situation.”

This was genuinely fascinating. Lysith had simply thought that he had good innate political sense. But it was actually because he had experience from past lives that made him so familiar with it.

As she tried to find similarities between his story and her own situation, her thoughts froze at his next words.

“And there’s something else I still remember. A translucent paper-like thing floating in the air that only I could see.”

Floating in the air, visible only to oneself, translucent……

Too stunned to manage her expression, Lysith froze completely, but Verheigen continued speaking, either unaware or unconcerned.

“I haven’t seen it again since I saw it once as a child.”

“……Is that so? That’s fascinating.”

Finally regaining her composure, Lysith responded with feigned interest, causing Verheigen’s eyes to narrow imperceptibly for a moment before returning to normal.

“Anyway, once my parents learned that I could remember my past lives, they completely disregarded me.”

“……”

“They wouldn’t have treated someone else’s child that way.”

Having heard this much, Lysith rolled her eyes. So this was the reason Dietrich himself didn’t know why Verheigen disliked him……

Leaning on Lysith’s shoulder as she was at a loss for words, Verheigen grumbled resignedly.

“That music box irritated me every time I saw it. Someone would scold me for not acting maturely when I asked to sleep together, yet someone else who would sleep with him even without being asked.”

When he was young, Verheigen couldn’t understand why they treated him that way. But as he grew older, he began to understand. They must have treated him that way because he felt like someone else’s child, not their own.

Or perhaps they thought he didn’t need affection because he remembered his past lives due to the blessing.

“As I grew older, I started to understand why they acted that way, so now it’s not really……”

“That’s not true.”

“……”

“It’s fundamentally wrong to treat a child that way for such a trivial reason.”

After speaking firmly, Lysith felt somewhat bitter in her mouth.

Verheigen had received God’s blessing and recalled his past lives, but because of it, he hadn’t received his parents’ love. Meanwhile, Dietrich had belittled himself by viewing a man who could only be a genius due to his past life memories as a rival.

‘Sigh.’

It was quite a complicated relationship. It was difficult to find who was fundamentally at fault in this situation. Still, she really disliked the previous emperor and empress.

When she had heard the story from Dietrich, she had thought they were good people.

“When you say things like that, I…”

As Lysith was inwardly sighing heavily, Verheigen grabbed her thigh and gently pushed her sideways, causing her to fall.

Lysith threw a surprised look at Verheigen as he climbed on top of her after she fell onto the sofa, but he continued his sentence that had paused momentarily due to the change in position.

“How can I not love you?”

“Ah, wait. Mmph……”

Mounting her in an almost pouncing manner, he didn’t hesitate to devour her soft lips. As he skillfully pushed his tongue between her lips, her gasping breath rushed in.

“Hm, mmm……”

He wrapped around her smaller tongue, rubbed against it, and sucked up her saliva as if plundering it, then ended the kiss, noticeably shorter than usual, and pulled away.

Naturally, Lysith’s puzzled gaze fell upon him, but Verheigen casually brushed it off with a smirk.

“Did I look like someone who would do such things to a person who fainted today?”

“Ah……”

“If you were expecting it, I could oblige.”

“N-no!”

As she hastily shook her head, Verheigen nodded in understanding and flipped their positions, placing her on top of himself.

“If you say you love that guy again, I think I’ll kill him, Imperial faction or not.”

“What?!”

Shocked by his startling words, Lysith, who had been sprawled on the chest of a man at least twice her size, raised her head with wide eyes.

Is this… normal?

She was uncertain. Does a man in love normally become this foolish and unable to discern right from wrong?

‘I’d have to have seen it to know.’

Unaware of Lysith’s complicated feelings, Verheigen emphasized in a sulky tone to her startled face.

“Don’t choose that guy in front of me.”

“I understand.”

In any case, there was only one thing Lysith could say in this situation.