And as if to keep the words he just spoke, he finally exploded deep inside her with hip movements that seemed ready to thrust in even his balls. Simultaneously, Lysith, feeling an org*sm that seemed to make her vision flash white, tightly squeezed his thick c*ck.

“Huh, ahh, hng!”

“Kuh……”

Having spurted his seed to the end while shaking his hips at the squeezing walls milking his ej*culation, Verheigen swept back his wet bangs while exhaling “huu.”

After briefly looking down at Lysith who was still trembling all over, he slowly pulled out his c*ck that had completely filled her inside. This revealed her red walls clinging as if telling him not to leave.

After briefly considering thrusting back in like this, he reluctantly pulled out his c*ck. Though his still firmly er*ect shaft screamed, wanting to release more desire, he had no choice since she seemed like she would collapse if they did more here now.

“Haa, ha……”

The system’s cheerful congratulatory sound rang in Lysith’s ear again. Since it was fine to check later, she roughly dismissed the system window with hazy eyes and took deep breaths.

Barely maintaining a cat-like pose, she slowly toppled to the side as if her legs lost strength the moment his c*ck pulled out. Verheigen, who blankly stared at her tear-reddened eyes and messy face, lowered his face and gently licked her tears with his tongue.

“Hnng……”

“You look like you’ll die if we do more. I had one more thing I wanted to try, but I’ll have to save that for next time.”

Warning lights flashed again in Lysith’s hazy mind upon hearing those words.

She had to escape the Imperial Palace. Otherwise, it was obvious she wouldn’t be able to do anything, whether quests or whatever, while being completely wrapped up by this man.

Verheigen thoroughly washed Lysith as she lay limp in a daze and carefully dried her while attending to her every need. When he sat on the sofa outside the bathroom holding her in his arms, he looked down and found her sleeping peacefully at some point.

She must have gotten drowsy after eating dinner. Thinking this while gently stroking her slightly swollen eyes, Verheigen pulled her close again. It felt as if the soothing scent of her soft flesh gently caressed his heightened nerves.

After deeply inhaling Lysith’s scent while losing track of time, Verheigen alternately checked the window and time before whispering to her in his arms.

“Lysith.”

“……”

“Lysith.”

“Hnng……”

After playfully biting her earlobe, he smiled with curved eyes when the half-asleep Lysith struggled to open her eyes. As soon as she made a puzzled face at that smile, he immediately overlapped their lips to block her question.

When Lysith confirmed his situation through their joined lower bodies, she startled and raised her fists to hit his chest, but naturally it had no effect at all.

‘I’m gonna die! I’m going to!’¹T/N: I’m not sure how to translate this perfectly, but the character said, “복하사다! 복하사라고!”. The term 복상사 (腹上死) literally means “death on top of the abdomen” and refers to someone suddenly dying during s*x while on top. It’s mostly used to describe men, but there have been cases where women experienced the same thing. In those cases, it’s called 복하사 (腹下死), meaning “death under the abdomen.”

Whether or not he knew about Lysith being in a life-or-death crisis, Verheigen pulled down her thin slip while continuing his deep kiss.

Though he truly showed his Emperor-like aspect of keeping his words, unfortunately, that wasn’t particularly necessary for the current Lysith.

Feeling the man’s touch freely toying with her br*asts in his grip, Lysith finally closed her eyes.

‘I need to get out of the Imperial Palace quickly……’

* * *

After several days of bright sunshine, today the weather suddenly turned fickle, with dark clouds hanging heavily as if rain would pour down at any moment.

The deep blue eyes that had been staring at the gray sky outside the office for a moment turned back to the documents before him.

However, the black letters on the documents wouldn’t properly register in his mind. This was quite contrary to the reputation of Grand Duke Clonair, who was known to never bat an eye at most matters.

“Sigh……”

The man’s faint sigh filled the quiet office.

Unlike his usual self who efficiently handled daily tasks, the documents piled in front of him had been delayed and pending for about two days now.

Dietrich, who had been forcibly gripping the paper, tossed it onto the desk and rubbed his face several times with both hands.

Naturally, a time for contemplation followed. The thoughts he had been trying to chase away by focusing on work settled right in the center of his mind.

He had no idea what to do. That was his first thought.

Lysith Gronevelt wasn’t some object. His head knew this, but his heart refused to listen to reason. No, above all, was what he felt now even truly love?

Wasn’t he acting just like a whining child who wanted to get back what was taken from him?

“Damn it.”

He had no counter-argument for himself. Isn’t it quite laughable that he only now realized how precious her pure affection had been in his barren life? If he had only listened a bit to his aide Adiz’s words……

“If only you had said those words earlier, sir.”

“……”

He knew it. There was no way to turn back time, and her heart had long since departed from him.

Unless he could go back to the past with this realization, he would surely repeat the same mistakes. Back then, he had been an extremely sensitive and cold-hearted person.

If someone were to ask if he was different now, well.

That wasn’t quite true either. Dietrich still hated the Emperor, Verheigen. It started with youthful impulse, and now it had evolved into bad blood due to personal incidents.

As he slumped from his upright posture and leaned back, he felt the chair cushioning his body comfortably. Closing his eyes with a small sigh, the last face he had seen naturally came to mind.

First was her complexion, which had looked quite tired from meeting him, followed by her face from their wedding day.

While she had seemed happy to be by his side before, now it didn’t seem like she would be happy even if she were with him. Rather, it felt like she would be unhappy. Whether it was because of his belated feelings or because she now loved someone else……

As he pondered this, the clear difference in her gaze suddenly came to mind. Not only had her way of looking at him changed, but there seemed to be something fundamentally different about her.

That quick-wittedness, that sparkle, that natural elegance she showed when drinking the poisoned wine at the banquet, a completely unimaginable transformation from her once timid self.

In the end, she had collapsed with her face contorted in pain, and such a sight of her……

Dietrich pressed his throbbing temples firmly and shook his head gently while letting out a small sigh.

“Huu……”

It had been over a month since Lysith Gronevelt collapsed. This meant she had been staying in the imperial palace for over a month as well. And when he visited the imperial palace, rumors were circulating in social circles that ‘His Majesty the Emperor is treating Lysith Gronevelt quite well.’

However, the rumors had changed slightly now.

“A-ahem. I heard something else.”

“Oh my. Please don’t keep it to yourself, madam.”

“……I heard they share the same bed.”

This wasn’t something he had heard directly at the banquet, but rather a conversation relayed by Adiz, who was collecting rumors under his orders.

Recalling this again, Dietrich let out a hollow laugh.

“Ha, really…… Should I call it pathetic, or clever……”

How could news of the imperial bedchamber spread so easily? From Dietrich’s perspective, that rumor was clearly spread ‘intentionally.’ It was no different from the Emperor’s… yes, a kind of marking his territory.

Some nobles would understand this, while others wouldn’t…… Regardless of who spread the rumor, they seemed to enjoy having something to gossip about during their gatherings.

After pressing his furrowed brow for a few seconds with his eyes closed, Dietrich slowly opened them. His deep blue eyes gleamed sharply in the darkness.

……If Verheigen had overlooked anything, it was that his competitors were men who couldn’t care less about such things. Not just Dietrich. Penchev wouldn’t care whether the Emperor spread such rumors or not, and Ashites was the type of man who would rather be angry that he hadn’t marked Lysith first.

“……”

If only people’s hearts could be organized as neatly as documents. Dietrich let out yet another sigh, losing count of how many times he had done so today.

Glancing slightly to the side, he noticed the pile of letters on the small table. However, since the reply he had been waiting for wasn’t among them, he quickly looked away.

Since he had sent it to her residence, it would probably take a bit more time to get a response. There was also the option of sending it to the imperial palace, but he had given up on that because of Verheigen.

He had sent letters before, but since she seemed unaware of their contents, he could guess she had thrown them away without reading. However, this time he deliberately used a unique envelope that even the head maid or butler couldn’t filter out and would have to deliver to their master.

It was a somewhat childish and petty method, but it was his only option.

“Lysith. Lysith Clonair……”

For now, he wanted to meet her face to face and have a proper conversation.

Not like the foolish exchange from last time, but a real conversation.

* * *