❖ ❖ ❖

“Have you been to the Hebe Palace again, Your Majesty?”

Kider wiped the sweat from his brow with an exaggerated flourish, raising his arm far higher than necessary. It was a gesture so exaggerated that anyone watching would find it obviously theatrical.

“And how did you know?”

The Emperor knitted his brows in an uncharacteristically coy expression. Seeing his master make such a face, Kider could barely contain the laughter that threatened to escape.

He had sent him out early in the morning on an errand that wasn’t even particularly urgent. As expected, the Emperor had clearly taken the opportunity to sneak away to some pleasant place.

Where that might be – there was no need to ask. It was obvious.

The Emperor’s expression said it all.

‘Did he always smile like that?’

That silly grin looked like a melting scoop of ice cream.

“Just by looking at Your Majesty’s face – no, even with my eyes closed I could tell.”

“In that case, why not go around blindfolded from now on? You’re gifted with other senses, so it shouldn’t be too much trouble.”

Seeing Kider’s mouth drop open in exaggerated offence, the Emperor allowed a faint smile to curl his lips.

“Did you return the borrowed item properly?”

“Of course I did. It’s a sacred item, after all, so they were quite pleased to have it returned safely. Judging by their reaction, I’d say there are a lot of people who don’t return things on time.”

“Building trust is essential if we are to borrow what we need again in the future.”

“Yes, absolutely right. Who knows, at this rate the red-bearded merchants might start treating Your Majesty as a special customer…”

“Enough of this nonsense. Nobody found out what we wanted to use the sword for, did they?”

“They agreed to lend it to us on the condition that they wouldn’t ask any questions. And the swordsmen wouldn’t even know that such an item existed. You don’t have to worry about that.”

“No one must ever find out.”

“Of course. Just leave it to me!”

With a confident smile, Kider shrugged his shoulders and shifted the topic.

“By the way, I heard about this morning. The former empress caused a scene again…”

“She seems quite determined to make Freya’s life miserable.”

The emperor’s icy blue eyes flashed coldly.

“Why not use this opportunity to create justification for stricter colonial oversight and send her back to Voltmon? It is her homeland, isn’t it?”

“She won’t go quietly. And we can’t exactly expel the former empress without a valid reason, not after she’s returned to the palace for the first time in four years…”

“In that case, isn’t there… another way?”

“Another way?”

“Reveal the truth about the late Emperor’s death – it is not too late. You buried it until now because you had suspicions but no solid proof, didn’t you? But that proof could always be provided if necessary.”

“Don’t talk about that.”

“Your Majesty.”

“Were it not for that person, I… would not be sitting on this throne.”

Seeing Rabion weighed down by such inner turmoil, Kider let out a sigh without realising it.

Perhaps his lord would never be able to sever his bitter ties with Tana as long as he lived.

❖ ❖ ❖

To think that what he once saw as pity would come to bind him so tightly.

The compassion they had once felt for each other – long ago – had now become poison.

Tana’s red eyes.

Those red eyes had seemed so pitiful then.

A girl who had watched her family die in her homeland and been dragged here as a prisoner before the shock had even worn off.

A young woman just beginning to shed her girlhood.

She had just turned twenty. And the thirteen-year-old boy, when he saw the red-eyed woman, was reminded of his mother.

His mother who had lived a hard life as one of the lowest ranking concubines of the late Emperor.

Rabion’s birth mother was already carrying him in her womb when the former Emperor died.

Seth, who ascended to the throne, was a cruel and ruthless man who slaughtered not only his half-brothers, but even his full brothers. No one expected him to spare the former Emperor’s lowly concubine, who bore his half-brother.

The woman’s belly grew with each passing day, and finally the child was born. But what greeted the newborn was nothing but the cold corpse of its mother.

Everyone believed that the child would soon join her in death.

But the Emperor did not kill the child. People whispered that it was only because the child was too young and would surely be killed when he grew older.

The child knew nothing, but his ears were open. He heard what they said. But he did not believe them.

“The Emperor will not kill me.”

There was no murderous intent in the Emperor’s eyes when he looked at him. Sometimes there was even a trace of warmth. The only place he felt true malice was from the Empress.

“Then why doesn’t the Emperor kill me?”

He didn’t understand at the time. He just thought it was because he was too young.

It was strange. Even the slightest smile that appeared on the Emperor’s lips when he looked at Rabion would send Empress Calliope into a rage. When the Emperor wasn’t watching, she would find every opportunity to intimidate, oppress and abuse the young Rabion.

“One day the Empress will kill me.”

The boy was sure.

At such a young age, the line between life and death was already blurred for him, and so he lived in fear every day. As he grew older, the Empress’s threats became more serious – more real.

One day, after returning from yet another terrifying encounter with Empress Calliope –

“Why are you crying, child?”

A soft voice whispered as she looked at him, curled up in a corner, sobbing quietly. Eyes red and wet with tears.

“Don’t cry. Come here.”

That warm embrace holding his little body, that soft voice.

“You and I… we’re not so different, are we?”

She smiled, but it looked as if tears might fall from those red eyes at any moment.

Only later did he understand – that that woman was just like him.

A fragile existence, no more significant than a weed growing in the palace courtyard – easily trampled, easily killed, and no one would find it strange.

When the prince was born, and Rabion was all but banished from the Empire on the pretext of studying abroad, there was only one thing that weighed on his heart – the pitiful woman he left behind.

Years passed, and when Rabion came of age, he was forcibly returned to the Empire after the death of his nephew, the Prince.

Returning with the one he loved buried in his heart, the Empire felt alien to him.

When he entered the Imperial Palace with a blank expression on his face, only one person greeted him warmly – the woman with the red eyes.

“You’ve grown into quite a man. Welcome home.”

Whatever she had endured in the palace over the years, she was no longer the frightened girl of the past.

Her red eyes no longer looked sad.

“The truth is… I’m the one who killed the prince.”

Time seemed to stand still at the sound of the whisper in his ear.

“Empress Calliope was determined to have you killed. As long as the Prince was alive, there was no way for you to return safely. I couldn’t bear the thought of you returning a corpse… so I killed him.”

So that was the reason.

Even when the Emperor died suddenly while he was alone with the red-eyed woman who would become the Empress, he said nothing – just like that day.

He couldn’t bring himself to ask her if she had killed him.

And so, thanks to her, Rabion survived – and eventually ascended to the throne.

After becoming Emperor, he poured all his energy into waging war against neighbouring lands, claiming it would consolidate his rule.

He had long known that those red eyes longed for him.

But he no longer cared.

Those red eyes no longer looked pitiful.

Then one day she left the Empire.

He was secretly relieved.

He simply wished never to see her again.

And he shouldn’t have. He really shouldn’t have.

“Why have you come back?”

She had come back.

With eyes full of insatiable desire – fixed on him.