#21. I’ll Be Anything for You

“It never ends. I’ve turned a blind eye for too long.”

He closed his eyes tightly and spoke with regret.

“Never again will the Empress or Viscountess Highmond harm your consort. I swear on my name.”

“I believe those words.”

In his heart, Aidan wanted to handle everything himself. But he stepped back, knowing that if he did, he would surely want to behead them rather than give appropriate punishment. The current Emperor wouldn’t forgive them now. Moreover, Duke Hewitt would soon know and would surely demand accountability. Their crimes could not be taken lightly.

If by any chance they tried to sweep this matter under the rug again for the Empress and Lloyd’s sake, he would stage a coup and remove the Emperor first. He prayed it wouldn’t come to such a worst-case scenario. That way, his carefully hidden cruelty would never need to be revealed.

“Is the crown princess alright?”

The Emperor asked with a serious expression.

“Fortunately, we discovered it early and the palace physician prescribed an antidote. It will take some time, but he said she will recover.”

“That’s a relief.”

Seeing him exhale a long breath of relief, he seemed genuinely glad.

“After this matter is settled…”

He started to say something but swallowed the rest with a long sigh.

“Let’s talk after it’s settled. You must be tired, go rest now.”

Before leaving after finishing their conversation, Aidan looked back at the Emperor. Leaning deeply in his chair with his head tilted back, he looked more gaunt and tired than just two weeks ago.

His limit will come soon.

Aidan knew well what that appearance meant. When he lived as Park Jin-hoo, his boss had looked similar at times. And shortly after, he had dropped the bombshell announcement that he would retire and pass everything to Park Jin-hoo. That was the beginning of the incident. It was the catalyst for Park Jin-hoo being stabbed by the subordinate he trusted.

When betrayed in their trust, people most easily lose their will to live. That tired look now showed in the Emperor’s eyes.

*

When Aidan mentioned divorce and Karina actually went to the Hewitt duchy under the pretext of recuperation, rumors spread throughout the palace that Aidan and Karina were heading toward a breakdown. As Aidan had intended, most thought he no longer loved Karina, and since the other party was the Hewitt duchy, they whispered that even if not divorce, the separation might continue.

Therefore, everyone was surprised when news came that Karina would return to the palace simultaneously with Aidan’s return. Since the word divorce had come from the prince’s own mouth, they thought it was a serious matter, but some clicked their tongues saying it had just been a lovers’ quarrel after all.

“Welcome back.”

Aidan personally waited at Karina’s palace and greeted her. Seeing him welcome her with open arms as soon as he saw her, the servants felt almost deflated, wondering what they had been worried about all this time.

“What… does that mean?”

Karina, getting down from the carriage, pointed at Aidan’s arms and asked. Instead of answering, Aidan smiled deeply and spread his arms wider. Though she knew he meant for her to come into his embrace, there were too many watching eyes. Over a dozen servants and knights had their gazes fixed on the two of them.

“You’re not planning to ignore me in front of all these people, are you?”

Aidan used the same reasoning to say the opposite. Looking at his still smiling face, it didn’t seem right to pretend not to notice his arms here either. They were already talking about separation and divorce while she stayed at the Hewitt duchy, and if she ignored him as soon as they met, it would add fuel to the rumors of discord. Of course, they had already met at Aidan’s mansion, but this was their first official meeting in almost twenty days.

Karina took a short breath and approached right in front of Aidan. Carefully extending her arms around his waist and saying ‘I’m back’ in a small voice, Aidan smiled even more brightly and embraced her shoulders.

“I thought I would die missing you.”

His voice was so sweet that one could tell he was smiling just from hearing it. She thought this must be when people use the expression that honey seems to drip from someone’s voice.

Unlike Karina who was dumbfounded, the watching servants and knights murmured. Their worries about the two creating a hostile atmosphere seemed to dissolve in an instant.

“Isn’t your lie about missing me a bit too convincing?”

Karina whispered just loud enough for Aidan to hear while still embracing his waist.

“We just met yesterday, you know.”

Though she reminded him of their meeting at the mansion, Aidan paid no mind.

“It’s already been a whole day. One day felt like a year.”

His nonchalant response left her with nothing more to say.

In truth, Karina had missed him too. For two weeks, while he was at the Italus border region, she hadn’t been bothered. She had been busy passing the days investigating the herbs he had set in motion.

But after meeting at the mansion, her heart wasn’t the same as before. Perhaps because she knew she could see him right away at the palace, the day felt unusually long, just as he said. While telling Duke and Duchess Hewitt that she would return to the palace and start making small preparations, she felt needlessly anxious.

She couldn’t express such feelings honestly in front of Aidan. Was it because she had lived too long as the crown princess, maintaining her pride and dignity? Unlike Aidan, who could freely say he missed her and reveal his feelings with such bright smiles, it still felt awkward for her.

“Duke Hewitt must have been worried.”

Aidan asked as they walked together through the palace corridor.

“Wasn’t that why you deliberately dropped those words at the policy meeting?”

Of course, his words had reached Duke Hewitt’s ears. Hearing the rumors, Duke Hewitt had acted as if the world was ending.

‘Divorce! What is this all about? Did something happen with His Highness the Prince? Why are such words suddenly coming up?’

Duke Hewitt had been so agitated he seemed about to collapse from high blood pressure. To calm her father, Karina had to explain that she had been poisoned, and Aidan had probably spread such rumors deliberately to protect her from the Empress.

‘His Highness the Prince seems to care for his consort more than we thought.’

The Duchess had held Karina’s hand and patted it while speaking. Only when she said that Aidan had clearly sent her to the Hewitt duchy fearing she might be threatened by the Empress while he was away from the palace could Duke Hewitt finally calm down.

As Aidan had wanted, Duke Hewitt strengthened Karina’s guard even more. Having guards attached to her constantly without a moment’s break was suffocating. Because of this, she couldn’t even visit Aidan’s mansion for the first few days.

Only when Marquis Belmont’s trial began, revealing his relationship with the Empress, and news came that the Empress had been confined to the northern palace, did Duke Hewitt’s vigilance decrease. Lloyd was also unable to move freely as doubts about his birth surfaced. Only then could Karina finally go out with just a few guard knights.

“The result was good, so it’s fine, right?”

Karina slightly glared at Aidan, who smiled shamelessly.

“If you were going to expose Her Majesty the Empress’s matter before leaving, there was no need to mention divorce at all.”

Because of all the divorce talk, she had to hear everyone’s concerns. Since she could only guess Aidan’s intentions and couldn’t be certain of his true feelings, she couldn’t firmly answer that there would be no divorce. Moreover, that wasn’t what Aidan wanted either.

“It’s called being prepared.”

When she tilted her head in confusion, not understanding, Aidan smiled and added an explanation.

“Because we can’t ignore the possibility of contingencies. Even if we had the Empress bound, we couldn’t know how the Emperor would handle Lloyd. Since we couldn’t know what might happen while I was gone, it was better to block all possibilities.”

When he put it that way, she had nothing more to say.

“Why did you put His Highness Lloyd in check, too?”

Aidan turned to look at Karina’s question.

“Anyone could see that His Highness Lloyd was someone who regarded me with goodwill.”

Though it was closer to obsession than goodwill, nevertheless, no one thought Lloyd would harm Karina. Generally, people thought he wouldn’t damage something he desperately wanted to possess.

“At that time, you didn’t even know I had died by his hands.”

Karina had only revealed yesterday that she had regressed after dying by Lloyd’s sword, which made it even stranger. Why had Aidan also considered Lloyd and tried to protect her by sending her to the Hewitt duchy?

“Well…”

Aidan smiled bitterly.

“Where I lived, there were always articles about dating violence.”

“Dating violence?”

“Hitting and killing the person they like. There are so many crazy people in the world. People who had been following someone they liked would become so extreme just because their feelings weren’t reciprocated. I wondered if things would be any different here. Unpredictable crazy people exist everywhere.”

“Did you think His Highness Lloyd might become extreme?”

Aidan didn’t deny it.

“He was a bit unstable. The marriage wasn’t something he wanted either. It would have been troublesome if he lost his mind while I was away.”

“What if I had taken your words seriously? What would you have done if I really wanted a divorce?”

At Karina’s question, Aidan turned to face her directly. He lightly gripped her shoulders with both hands.

“Your safety was what mattered most to me.”

He spoke in a calm voice while meeting her gaze. When their eyes met, the corners of his eyes curved gently.

“Thanks to that, you’re standing here before me now without a single hair harmed.”

His lips curved into a gentle smile as if that was enough.

I really can’t figure him out.

Karina swallowed a rising sigh. She didn’t doubt his words about liking her. She could tell just by looking at Aidan’s eyes and expressions. At first, she wondered if he was just too good at acting, if he was making false expressions to deceive her. But now she felt she knew for sure.