Thump, thump, thump… Viata’s heart pounded wildly.

What if the sound of her heartbeat drowns out every other pulse?

Under her trembling, long lashes, her large violet eyes shimmered with moisture.

Two months ago, she had barely managed to spend the night with him, and then missed her period. Lately, her whole body felt sluggish, and she’d been sleeping more than usual.

Gerard, the royal physician of the imperial palace and the emperor’s personal doctor, carefully examined Viata’s condition, then finally finished his diagnosis and gave a definitive answer.

“You are pregnant. Congratulations.”

At the single word “pregnant,” emotions she had suppressed for so long surged up all at once, making her eyes burn with tears.

‘Thank goodness.’

Viata smiled faintly, her eyes brimming with tears—not out of joy, but from relief at being alive. Now, unlike her previous life, she wouldn’t have to be used and then discarded.

“In the early stages of pregnancy, you must be very careful. Please don’t overexert yourself and make sure to rest.”

After Gerard finished the examination and left, the maid who had been attending to Viata watched her carefully, trying to be friendly.

“You’ll have to quit your job as a maid in the imperial palace now.”

“I suppose so.”

“I wonder how beautiful your baby will be, taking after their mother. The baby’s father must be a high-ranking noble, right? I’m sure the one who loves you will be overjoyed to hear you’re pregnant.”

It was the sort of roundabout gossip typical of palace maids.

There was no need to answer the maid’s probing questions, clearly designed to fish for information under the guise of compliments.

Even so, Viata shook her head twice. She answered, to keep herself in check and not to harbor any hope.

“That person isn’t a high-ranking noble. He doesn’t love me, nor is he happy about the pregnancy.”

As she spoke, a bitter smile crept across her lips.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything…”

A fleeting sneer crossed the maid’s face as she offered an insincere apology.

The palace maids would spread rumors and make their own wild guesses about who the father was.

It didn’t matter if they looked down on her or spoke ill of her. They would find out the truth soon enough anyway.

The baby’s father was none other than the emperor of the Travitas Empire.

[If you cannot bear the emperor’s child within two years, kill the emperor. If you fail to do either, you will die.]

Her mother’s—or rather, the former Grand Duchess’s—voice echoed in her ears like tinnitus.

Because of her natural beauty, Viata had been adopted into the Grand Duke’s family from a young age and raised as the emperor’s maid. Pregnancy was a mission she could not refuse—a matter of life and death.

This was her last chance. There was less than a month left of the promised two-year deadline.

* * *

Viata was summoned by Count Ezra Byten, the emperor’s aide, and headed to the main palace.

All the way there, her thoughts were consumed by the emperor.

Gis Carcier Gnoui. The 27th emperor of the Travitas Empire.

At a young age, he was recognized for his outstanding looks, exceptional intelligence, and renowned swordsmanship, and was chosen as the successor. When the former emperor passed away, Gis ascended the throne at the early age of nineteen.

In a short time, he stabilized the empire both inside and out, raised its prestige, and earned the awe and praise of the people.

But even such an emperor had one flaw:

He had no consort.

Despite being in the prime of his life at twenty-five, he avoided women. Nobles with daughters and neighboring kingdoms with princesses all vied for the empress’s seat and the succession, leading to silent checks, intrigue, and factional strife.

Though the emperor was still young, the imperial family had always been short of heirs, so early marriage was customary. Yet Gis adamantly refused to marry.

Because of this, countless embarrassing rumors circulated.

‘They’re all nonsense.’

Viata knew the truth. The emperor was not interested in men, nor was he sexually inexperienced or impotent.

If he set aside reason and surrendered to instinct, he was surprisingly passionate and vigorous.

Remembering the night she spent with the emperor sent a tingling shiver through her body, and her face flushed.

Still, there was one thing even Viata didn’t know:

Why Gis kept his heart closed to women and refused intimacy.

Beautiful women backed by powerful political factions had tried to win him over, but all failed.

The emperor never let his guard down. He rejected all temptations coldly and punished anyone who crossed the line.

Viata, too, was one of the women cast aside by the emperor—in her previous life.

In her first life, Viata tried to win the emperor’s heart, believing that if she won his heart, his body would follow.

‘Winning his heart was harder than winning his body.’

In her second life, she used any means necessary, focusing solely on seducing his body, and finally succeeded.

She had secretly used a potion of allure to disarm the emperor.

‘It was a choice I had to make. I didn’t want to die, nor did I want to kill.’

Lost in thought, Viata soon arrived at the main palace.

Count Ezra Byten, the emperor’s aide, waited for her in front of the emperor’s office.

With his long silver hair tied back, Ezra, who had an intelligent and graceful impression, bowed to Viata when he saw her.

It was the first time she had received a greeting from Ezra, the marquis’s son, the emperor’s childhood friend, and aide.

Was it a reluctant courtesy to a woman carrying the emperor’s child?

Viata bowed her head in return.

Though she was the adopted daughter of the grand duke’s family and entered the palace as the emperor’s close maid, Viata was not treated as a noblewoman in either the grand duke’s residence or the palace, since she wasn’t even a half-blood relative.

Even the maids subtly ignored and ostracized her, and the lower maids often gossiped and envied her behind her back.

The only reason they didn’t openly despise her was because the former Grand Duchess, the real power of the empire, stood behind her.

“His Majesty is waiting for you.”

Ezra personally knocked and opened the door for her. Though he treated her more politely than usual, his gaze was colder than ever.

As the heavy, oak-embellished doors opened, Gis—seated at the reception table—exuded the dignity of an emperor.

Dressed in a splendid uniform with epaulets, he leaned back in his chair, deep in thought, but his gaze shifted to Viata.

Facing the emperor, whose golden eyes shone like dawn through his jet-black hair, Viata’s heart pounded and her face flushed again.

In contrast, Gis’s expression was calm.

Yet, beneath his expressionless face, silent anger, worry, love and hate, and countless emotions swirled like the calm before a storm.

It was the first time since that night they had spent together that their gazes met so intensely.

Viata was the first to avert her eyes from his.

She felt she couldn’t face him, having secretly given him a potion and concealed her pregnancy until now.

She was in a position where she should beg for forgiveness like a sinner.

As she parted her lips to ask for forgiveness and stepped forward—

“Ah!”

She had thought it would be a private audience, but unexpectedly, she saw the former Grand Duchess and the former Empress sitting on either side of the emperor, and quickly closed her mouth.

When Gis was fourteen, his older brother, the crown prince, died young. The widowed crown princess, upon Gis being named heir, relinquished her title and left the palace with her son.

Now, she had returned to the palace to meet the emperor with her mother-in-law. The former Grand Duchess, Viata’s adoptive mother, was that very woman.

“I have come at His Majesty’s summons. I greet Your Majesties.”

As Viata entered the office, all three pairs of eyes immediately turned to her lower belly. Even though it didn’t show yet, they were clearly conscious of her pregnancy.

Viata greeted the emperor and the former empress first, then bowed to the former Grand Duchess. She did not call her “mother.”

“I greet Your Grace, the former Grand Duchess.”

Adopted at thirteen, Viata had never once called her “mother.” She had learned not to.

The former Grand Duchess also never treated Viata as a daughter.

She had raised and trained Viata solely for this moment—not to adopt a daughter, but to hire one.

The former Grand Duchess didn’t even offer Viata a seat, simply continuing her conversation with the emperor.

“Your Majesty, this is a matter of utmost importance for the imperial family and the empire’s future. You must heed the former empress’s advice.”

The former empress looked at Viata—a mere shell of a grand duchess’s daughter—with disdain. Without giving the emperor a chance to speak, she firmly demanded,

“Yes. Hold the imperial wedding with that girl as soon as possible and officially announce the empress’s pregnancy to the people of the empire.”

Her words, which were essentially an order, cast a heavy shadow over the emperor’s golden eyes.