Not all m*n and women had to face each other as lovers. They could live as family. To Theo, she was precious family.

“I see.”

Tears streamed down his cheeks. There was something he needed to know. Even if his tongue was torn out, he wanted an answer.

“Do you love Swan?”

“Silence! How dare you be so impertinent before His Majesty?”

The captain of the guard raised his voice again, roaring fiercely, but Theo did not falter. Suddenly the Emperor raised his hand, silencing the outburst. His piercing blue eyes glittered coldly as he glared at Theo.

“Swan is my wife.”

“Swan is my family. I asked if you love her.”

Strangely, the trembling that had seemed unstoppable suddenly stopped. Atlion looked at him with an intense, fiery gaze.

“I told you, Swan is my wife.”

“No. I asked if you love her.”

Theo hugged him tightly, his tear-stained face shaking miserably. He desperately wanted the Emperor to say he loved her. He needed to hear it, for surely Swan still loved him. Even if she claimed to have forgotten everything, Theo knew that she hadn’t been able to let him go completely. He understood that loneliness wasn’t something that could simply be filled by being together.

He had learnt from her that some kinds of love weren’t complete just by being by someone’s side. So…

“How rude.”

“……”

“Swan is my wife. And you stole her from me. You!”

“Swan never called you her husband! Therefore, Your Majesty has no right to question me about my time with her!”

Theo’s voice broke as he shouted, his words fueled by desperation and frustration. He was shouting at the Emperor – the exalted, holy Emperor. There was nothing in his realm that he did not know. No one could remain silent when he demanded an answer. And yet Theo had raised his voice, a futile outburst that could cost him his life. To dare to shout in front of the Emperor was an act worthy of decapitation.

But still, still…

“How dare you…”

“You don’t even love Swan! Do you know how much… how much she has suffered…?”

Theo’s voice broke into sobs. His heart ached for Swan. He hadn’t wanted to feel sorry for her – he wasn’t the kind of man who could afford to feel sorry for anyone. But he did, and it tore him apart. He also felt anger surge through him, replacing the fear he once had of the Emperor. He felt this way because Swan was his family.

“Then tell me – do you love Swan?”

“Yes! I love her! Swan is my family. Una is my daughter. Swan is my sister and I am her brother. She is my only friend and my only family. So I will take her with me. I won’t let her spend her life alone with a man who doesn’t love her!”

Theodor shouted, clutching the iron bars. He felt no fear, only a burning determination to take Swan away. He thought only of her and Una. This man – the so-called Emperor – was not a man worth loving. He wanted to scream at Swan for ever loving anyone like that, and then take her and Una far away to show her what happiness could truly be. Just as she had once brought him happiness, he would do the same for her.

“Raoul.”

Atlion called Raoul’s name in a low voice. Raoul stepped forward and bowed his head.

“Take him to the place of execution.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Raoul bowed again to confirm his agreement, then gestured to the guards. Theodor, still clutching the iron bars, was finally dragged out, his expression now one of fear. His battered body offered no resistance as his arms were seized and he was dragged away.

“What is this… let me go!”

Though he struggled, his efforts were in vain. His weakened body was easily overpowered as he was dragged along. Flailing desperately, he was dragged further and further towards his fate.

“Let him go!”

A piercing voice, sharp as a death cry, echoed through the dungeon, reverberating in the underground chamber.

“Swan.”

The woman who had run in and embraced Theo was panting heavily, her breathing uneven. Still restrained by the guards, Theo looked down at her in surprise as she clung to his collar, murmuring his name repeatedly.

“Theo, Theo…”

Swan, who had been calling his name over and over again, suddenly fell silent. Theo, startled, looked at her before glancing cautiously at the Emperor. The once intimidating figure that had cowered in his presence now just stared at Swan. His sharp features, once cutting like a blade, seemed pale and haggard in the dim torchlight.

His icy blue eyes, once unyieldingly cold, now shimmered with the vulnerability of an unhealed wound as they rested on Swan. They no longer held their impenetrable hardness.

Swan, who had buried her face in Theo’s chest, slowly raised her head to meet Atlion’s gaze.

“Your Majesty.”

The Emperor remained silent, making no reply. Swan, undeterred, began to approach him.

“Who has brought you to this point?”

The man, as if trying to hide the cracks in his composure, sharpened his gaze once more and directed his question at Swan. Her face, pale as paper, tightened as she bit her lips.

She didn’t know who had arranged for her to come here. All she remembered was calling for Atlion, banging on the bedroom door he had locked her in and then hearing the metallic click of the door unlocking. When she stepped into the corridor and looked around, there were no servants guarding her room, no imperial guards in sight.

Her foot brushed against something. Looking down, she saw a set of green maid’s robes from the Imperial Palace and a map leading to the underground dungeon. She could easily guess what it meant.

If anyone was going to help her, it could only be Adelaide. Adelaide could have easily obtained the maid’s uniform, and the map to the Imperial Palace dungeon could have come from her husband, Sir Raoul.

Swan opened her mouth to speak, but then stopped. Instead, she knelt before Atlion.

“Your Majesty, please. Please release Theo. I beg you. Theo has done nothing wrong. It’s all my fault. It’s all my fault.”

Tears streamed down her cheeks, falling relentlessly. She knew Theo would be killed – executed in the most brutal and merciless way. His ears would be torn off, his skin flayed. Atlion was a man capable of such cruelty, and under the Emperor’s orders, no matter how barbaric the act, it would be carried out without hesitation.

Theo’s kindness and innocence wouldn’t matter to them. She had to stop it. She would do whatever it took to stop it. Even if it meant living her life as the Emperor’s mistress, she was willing to do so if it meant saving him.

“I have never spent a night with Theo. I swear it. I swear on my late mother. I haven’t done the things you fear, Your Majesty. We haven’t even registered our marriage. Thinking of him as my husband… that was just my… my feelings. So please…”

Swan’s tearful voice echoed through the dungeon. Atlion stared down at her with a face that seemed ready to break. His breathing was erratic, uneven, and his footing was shaky as he pressed his weight against the cold stone floor.

He no longer had the strength to contort his face in anger. He just stood there, staring at them in silence. The fact that Swan could plead with him like this, bring him to this breaking point, was more unbearable than the question of who had sent her here.

It was horrible – horrible, unbearable.

“Your Majesty. Please, please spare Theo. I will stay by your side, so please…”

Atlion’s lower eyelids trembled uncontrollably as he stared at Swan’s desperately clasped hands. His gaze, hollow and withered, as if it might vanish altogether, fell on the woman before him. Swan had loved him once. She had looked at him with eyes filled with a desperate longing for love, a look that had once been his alone.

But now she loved another man.