Chapter 6.

“I asked why you wanted to see me?”

When his brow suddenly hardened and his voice deepened, Shuvien felt a chill.

‘Sigorjab breed? Are you crazy? Get a grip. That’s a fierce dog. You’re bringing in a fierce dog!’

“Let’s go to the reception room instead of here.”

“The reception room? Is the matter that serious?”

“Of course.”

There were too many watching eyes and listening ears here.

Shuvien wanted to escort Bellian to the reception room.

“Your Majesty, please go first.”

But Bellian didn’t budge and stared intently at Shuvien.

Finding it increasingly difficult to endure his intense gaze, Shuvien smiled awkwardly.

“Why are you staring like that? Is there something on my face?”

“You go first. I’ll move behind you.”

At Bellian’s words, the maids around them were more surprised than Shuvien.

How could anyone walk ahead of the Emperor!

That was a serious act of disrespect and violated imperial law.

But as they say, ignorance breeds courage.

Unaware of imperial law, Shuvien continued casually.

“Can I really go first?”

“Yes. I’ll protect your back.”

“Protect……”

What is there to protect? This is a count’s house. And with the Emperor visiting, security would be even tighter.

‘Well, there must be something I don’t know.’

“Then, I’ll go ahead.”

As Shuvien moved forward, Bellian followed closely behind.

Only the maids and servants watching this strange scene felt like dying.

But gradually Shuvien became conscious of him behind her and glanced sideways as she headed to the reception room.

‘What’s this? It’s really annoying. Not being able to see his face makes me even more nervous! Is that why he told me to go first?’

Finally, when she couldn’t stand it and slightly turned her head, her eyes met Bellian’s exactly.

Shuvien smiled awkwardly.

“Hahahaha. Your Majesty, I should just follow behind……”

“Just look ahead and walk.”

Bellian cut off her words sharply, and Shuvien, unable to make a sound, looked straight ahead and walked until she found herself at the stairs.

The house’s reception room required climbing these high stairs.

They could have simply built it on the first floor for convenience, but this too was Count Mondri’s vanity and ostentation.

He designed the path so visitors to the house could survey this debt-ridden crab apple of a house from all angles.

‘Gambling is already a hard addiction to cure, and then there’s the extravagance. This family is doomed. Even if Corel and the Emperor had properly married, they would have been ruined by bankruptcy.’

Shuvien glanced at Bellian again.

“Um, Your Majesty. Should I go first again……”

“Hurry up.”

“Yes……”

‘Right. We don’t have time for this. I need to confirm something very important today.’

Shuvien began climbing the stairs with a solemn expression, and Bellian followed a step or two behind her.

As she hurried her steps, Shuvien suddenly felt dizzy and staggered.

‘What, what is this!’

She almost fell backward, but Bellian’s hands immediately gripped her shoulders firmly.

“Ah……”

Shuvien exhaled a trembling breath and looked up.

“See? I told you I needed to protect you.”

Bellian continued speaking to her calmly.

‘What? So that’s why he wanted to follow behind me?’

He set Shuvien upright while cautioning her in a deliberately cold voice.

“Be careful. Your body will continue to get heavier.”

Bellian’s gaze moved to Shuvien’s stomach.

“It’s not just your problem anymore, is it?”

In the past, she would have laughed it off since it was only her problem, but now she couldn’t laugh.

All his words had become reality.

But before that.

‘Even though it’s early in the pregnancy, because Shuvien’s body isn’t very healthy, she occasionally gets dizzy. Did he notice what I momentarily forgot?’

Was that why he took such care to provide food and feed her?

It means he desperately wants this child.

‘He would probably be even happier if he knew this child was really his.’

Shuvien slowly organized her thoughts.

‘Would it be advantageous for me if he knew the child was real? Could it change Shuvien’s bad ending?’

As these thoughts weighed heavily on her mind, her steps grew increasingly slower.

Bellian watched her and reached a conclusion about what had been troubling him.

‘It’s still dangerous to keep her here. If she were to lose the child in her womb, what I’ve desired my entire life would be delayed.’

Upon reaching the reception room, Shuvien deliberately sent all the maids and servants outside. Bellian watched this leisurely, and when they were finally alone, he raised the corner of his lips.

“I was already curious about why you suddenly called for me, but to arrange for us to be alone like this. What is it? Did you suddenly remember that night?”

When Bellian’s tone mixed with embarrassing teasing, Shuvien cleared her throat and put on a serious expression.

“Ahem! It’s not that. I also want to become serious about our future.”

“Become serious? I’ve been serious from the start.”

“Actually. I was so scared about pretending the child in my womb was Your Majesty’s that I, I tried to escape somehow.”

“Tried to?”

At his suddenly cold voice, Shuvien’s heart sank.

“Why did you stop mid-sentence?”

Above his expressionless face, sharp eyes turned toward Shuvien, and she hurriedly continued while trying to control her trembling fingertips.

“I said ‘tried to.’ Not ‘will try to’!”

“Well, fine. Your thoughts are your own. But from now on, I’d like your mind to become mine as well.”

“So now it’s not. I will marry Your Majesty. I will properly become the Empress. With this child.”

Having barely finished speaking, Shuvien froze in shock even greater than before.

Suddenly a heavy weight pressed against her entire body, and she felt warm heat on her skin.

Bellian was embracing her with all his might.

‘Haa….’

Shuvien swallowed a trembling breath with her eyes wide open.

Bellian patted her and whispered in her ear with a completely different voice than before.

“Good. Now even your thoughts have become mine. I promise you. I’ll grant whatever you wish. I’ll give you everything you want. I told you then, didn’t I? As the Empress of the Great Alcanta Empire, I’ll make everyone kneel before you.”

Bellian faced Shuvien and raised his lips in a long smile.

“I’ll fill the entire imperial palace with you.”

The moment she directly saw his face expressing pure joy, Shuvien’s heart went thump….

‘No. Why is my heart thumping? Get a grip. Don’t be fooled by that face! He’s not a Sigorjab breed. He’s a fierce dog. He’s just happy because I’m caught in his trap!’

Shuvien forcibly removed this nonsensical rose-colored glasses and carefully spoke the real reason she had come here and said these things.

“But.”

“But?”

“Actually, I’m fine with marrying Your Majesty, but I do feel uncomfortable about all these lies. If, if this baby were really Your Majesty’s child, there would be no reason to lie……”

“It’s fortunate that it’s not my child.”

At his chilling voice, Shuvien couldn’t raise her head.

This was a completely different dimension from the fear she had felt from him until now.

That’s why she knew for certain without needing to ask further.

‘As I thought, he’s not infertile. And he knows he’s not infertile.’

“Because it’s not my child, I can say only pretty words to you. If it weren’t so.”

The hands that had just tenderly embraced her now became a cold chain touching Shuvien’s delicate nape.

Led by that touch, she had to raise her head even though she didn’t want to, and face him with his strange smile.

“I wouldn’t need to see you now. Not at all in this world.”

That meant.

‘He’s saying he would kill me.’

Having briefly tasted the bad ending, Shuvien’s heart, which had just skipped a beat, now completely froze, and her mind rapidly switched to survival mode.

‘For whatever reason, he doesn’t want his own bloodline, so he’s trying to establish an heir from another bloodline.’

So, on the day he discovers the child in her womb is his own, the novel’s tragic ending would occur—only the story would be different.

‘Right. This must never be discovered. Never!’

To think she had considered this man a puppy even for a moment.

No, he is a beast. A truly terrifying predator!

No, not even a beast.

Even beasts cherish their own offspring.

This is a monster that would ruthlessly tear apart even its own bloodline!

The only fortunate thing was that he firmly believed it was someone else’s child.

‘He definitely doesn’t remember. That I, I was his first.’

The reason was probably the bomb cocktail he drank then.

‘My diligent and meticulous past self did very well. This is the one and only thing I’ll praise about that one-night stand, truly.’

Bellian looked at Shuvien standing there completely speechless and thought he had frightened her too much.

“If you’re worried about being discovered, don’t worry. No one will ever find out that child isn’t mine. I will protect you. I’ll protect you so no one can harm you.”

Bellian smiled gently again, but Shuvien wanted to exhale in exasperation at that smile.

‘Who’s protecting whom? You’re the most dangerous person to me right now!’

But ironically, this man was also her protector.

‘Now I really need to make a proper escape plan.’

Until that plan was complete, she had to thoroughly hide that she was a fake and that the child in her womb was real.

Until then.

‘Yes, you need to protect me. You need to be thoroughly deceived so my life can be extended.’

“Now that you’ve decided to completely become my Empress, I can’t leave you here alone. Even if the wedding preparations take some time, wait at the imperial palace. Seeing you today, I can’t let you stay alone—it’s too dangerous.”

Just listening to it sounded like something a complete romantic would say.

“And to make the child that will be born my heir, we need to do it once more in the near future.”

“Do what once more, Your Majesty?”

The ominous words were met with an equally ominous answer.

“You and I need to sleep together once more.”