“Let the servants clean it up. Don’t touch it.”

Swan, holding a glass of amber liquid, traced the scattered powder along the rim. Atlion snatched the glass from her hand. Swan glared at him, showing no sign of surprise. In the heavy atmosphere, Adelaide glanced briefly at Raoul. Raoul smiled weakly at his wife.

“It doesn’t seem medicinal.”

Atlion stared at her in silence. Swan brushed the powder from her hands, then looked over at the closed window and the scattered tobacco leaves.

“I’ll take care of it.”

“Yes.”

Swan replied weakly, her eyes still on him. Not long after, a maid entered. She quickly cleared the table. Atlion sat Swan down, then sat down himself. Adelaide said she had something to discuss with Raoul and was going out.

Swan watched the back of the woman who had brought her here, then shifted her gaze to a framed picture on the opposite wall of the bed. The frame was covered in red velvet, but the bottom part was uncovered.

It looked like a painting of a woman. The hem of her dress was visible… Swan, who had been staring at the picture, shifted her gaze to the Emperor.

“I didn’t know you were taking medicine.”

The Emperor didn’t react. He just stared at Swan. Swan lowered her eyes for a moment before raising them again. Two maids entered, drew back the curtains and opened the window. The air in the once stuffy room began to clear.

“Your Majesty.”

“I couldn’t sleep, so I had the royal physician prescribe something.”

“The royal physician prescribed this?”

Swan asked again. Atlion didn’t nod or answer verbally, but stared into Swan’s green eyes that reflected the sunlight. Eyes that contained nothing but themselves. It was strange that these eyes no longer wanted him.

Obviously, Swan had wanted him back then. She had said so in the pouring rain. But now she claimed she didn’t want him. It felt like a sharp needle pressing cruelly under his chin.

“Yes.”

“Did the royal physician really prescribe this?”

“……”

“Then the royal physician is a terrible person.”

Swan muttered, as if she were genuinely angry. Atlion stared at her furrowed face with a pleading look. Only then did Swan seem to realise that something was wrong and abruptly looked away.

“I don’t know who this royal physician is, but I think it would be wise to replace them. And… I don’t know what illness you have, but…”

“Did you marry Theodor?”

“……”

“Just as you have married me.”

The chattering swan quickly fell silent. A blue flame seemed to flicker in her moist eyes. Then swan nodded slowly. Atlion clenched his fist. He looked at her with a face that looked like it might die at any moment, then he put a cigarette in his mouth. He wanted to smoke marijuana, but Swan was in the bedroom.

“I never gave you a divorce.”

He murmured dryly, took a deep breath and stared at Swan. It felt like bugs were gnawing at his nerves, biting and squeezing. Every time Swan said something, the blood in his veins froze. That was why he was afraid to look at her. He could hardly bring himself to ask her to look at him.

He wanted to see Swan. He wanted to touch her as if it were habit. To hold her, to kiss her, and after kissing her, to thrust into her and gasp for air. But every corner of Swan he saw made him freeze.

Instead of showing his fragile flesh, he bared his teeth. It was the most common and easiest way for a husband to show his authority over his wife.

And Swan was his wife. Always and forever. He had never allowed her to do anything. But remarriage? Would Swan marry again without him?

The desire to kill made his blood boil. He wanted to cut and crush something, whether it was someone else’s flesh or his own. To stop himself, he smoked marijuana. To stop himself going mad, he had to take more than his usual dose.

Because he didn’t want to go mad. He didn’t want to lose his mind. At least not until he had her back. ….

“I hope you’ll give it now.”

The woman, warmed by a faint warmth, spoke with cold eyes. The Emperor, who had been watching her, burst out laughing.

“Why should I?”

“There are many reasons. How could I become Empress?”

“Don’t you want Mirabella back for good?”

Swan lifted her head. Since that day, she had been able to see Mirabella once a day. However, he still had custody and she could not see her without his permission.

Knowing how much it tore at her to see Mirabella in such a state, he still asked her if she didn’t want her back for good. It was almost a threat. The corners of Swan’s eyes twisted in response.

The Emperor blew out the cigarette smoke with a smile on his lips. His lips were curled, but his eyes weren’t smiling. It was a cruel grin. The cold sensation that made her toes tingle made Swan clench her fists.

“I think you also know how much I don’t belong in this place, Your Majesty. Above all, I don’t want to live in a marriage without love.”

Swan looked at him with desperate eyes. The Emperor just looked down at her with an indifferent face. After a moment’s hesitation, she sighed.

“Your Majesty, I was wrong.”

She knelt. Atlion, who had been smoking, twisted his face in disgust. Swan lowered her eyes and clasped her hands.

“I wanted to create a harmonious family, Your Majesty. Indeed, a harmonious family. That was enough. I didn’t mind being poor as long as I had a husband who loved me and a child to love. That was my dream. I was the kind of person who would do anything for it.”

Atlion put his hand to his chin, his face full of arrogance. He looked like a king on a journey, listening to the complaints of a farmer from a distant village. And so Swan pleaded earnestly with the man who could never be her husband.

“I was ignorant and foolish in the past.”

Atlion’s thick eyebrows furrowed subtly. Swan fluttered her lips, then spoke each syllable clearly.

“Not for a single day have I not regretted the person I was then. Just as Your Majesty regrets it, so do I. I regret it deeply. So…” 

The man who had been looking down at her with a stern expression slowly rose and approached her. 

“There was never a time when you did not regret it?”

Suddenly, her shoulders were gripped. A brute force, as if intent on crushing her bones, overwhelmed Swan. With a groan of pain as she staggered, Swan looked up at him with terrified eyes. The man who had been staring down at her with shadowy eyes was now holding her, his face contorted with rage.

“Are you telling me you’ve regretted the days you spent with me?”

“Your Majesty…”

“Didn’t I promise to give you everything you wanted? Your child! Your family! I swore I’d give you everything! I told you that the man you chose that day would be your husband and stand by your side, didn’t I?”

The Emperor, shouting so fiercely that his blue eyes were bloodshot, glared at Swan as if he wanted to kill her. His eyes were one that seemed to want to swallow her whole.

Swan could barely breathe as she looked up at him. She couldn’t understand what had made him so angry. She didn’t know what had broken him. The contours of his face, dry as ice, were sharper than ever.

The lines seemed to cut when touched… The moisture in his blue eyes flickered faintly. Swan lifted her hand to stroke his chin. A heavy aura lingered in the deep shadows beneath his dishevelled black hair. Tears fell from his reddened blue eyes.

“You want me, don’t you?”

“I…”

“Say it… Say that you need me, that you can’t live without me.”

“I…”

“Say you want me… that you can’t live without me.”

His low, quick whisper was followed by a twisted expression as he pulled Swan towards him. His soft lips devoured her. His large hand found its way to the crumpled neckline of her dress. The man was determined to strip her n*ked. There was no sweetness to the tongue that pushed past her parted lips.

As if driven by some desperate urgency, he pushed deeper, his tongue entwining with hers. She found it hard to breathe. She pressed against his chest, her nails desperately scraping his skin. But he paid no attention, his only focus was holding her down.

Still locked in a devouring kiss, he dragged her to the bed. Eventually he managed to force her onto it, pulling down her cleavage to expose her br*ast.

“Swan.”

Atlion pulled away from her lips and called out sweetly. Swan, her lips bitten and trembling, clung to his forearm, her face on the verge of collapse. His hands slid down her satin dress, past her waist. The tongue that had entwined with hers now brushed against her n*pple. Goosebumps crawled up her skin. She tried to pull her head away, but the more she struggled, the more relentless Atlion became, biting and sucking at her n*pple with ferocity.

As his tongue licked the curve of her br*ast and teased the ribs beneath, Atlion continued to stimulate her. Swan, gasping for breath, began to kick her legs.

“Stop, stop…”

“Shall we have another child?”

She shook her head. Mirabella alone was more than she could handle. With tearful eyes she looked up at him, twisting her body to escape. Atlion caught her frail shoulders and leaned in to kiss her again.

She raised her hand and slapped him across the cheek. Shocked by her own action, she stumbled backwards.

“Don’t say something so horrible.”

“What’s so horrible?”

“Everything. Everything. It’s all horrible.”

She burst into tears, her face burning and contorted with fear. Atlion stared at her with a blank expression, devoid of emotion or sensation.

“I don’t want you, Your Majesty. You are not my husband. Even my child does not want you as her father. So please…”