The hood came off slowly. Two years had passed, but his jet-black hair and cool, ash-gray eyes were unchanged.

Heliones lifted his face, delicate and flawless like a sculpture a master craftsman had labored over, and looked at me.

For a long moment, he said nothing. He simply watched me with that characteristic blank expression I remembered, still and unreadable.

“I’m glad to see you’re doing well.”

When his lips finally parted, his voice came out different from its usual low, resonant weight. It broke into small, uneven fragments.

“I, well…”

I wanted to give him a suitable reply, but in that instant I couldn’t figure out what to call him, and stumbled over my words.

Come to think of it, I was in an audience with the emperor and hadn’t even greeted him properly.

We were meeting for the first time in two years, and on top of that, he was now the emperor of a nation. I couldn’t afford to be rude. I needed to greet him properly.

I may have been called by unflattering names, but I had spent my whole life as a princess and then as the wife of a titled man. Formality came naturally to me.

This was a first audience with the emperor. Kneeling was the proper thing to do.

“I present myself before the sun of the great Frianc Empire, Your Imperial Majesty.”

That was a fairly respectable greeting, I thought.

I bowed my head deeply as etiquette required and waited for Heliones to give me leave to rise.

Silence fell again. Impatient as I was, I couldn’t lift my head before the emperor acknowledged my greeting, so I had no choice but to stay still and wait.

Thud, thud. After a stretch of quiet, instead of giving me leave to rise, Heliones walked toward me.

His footsteps carried no emotion, neither hurried nor slow, and I watched the dark shadow draw closer with my nerves pulled taut.

Thump. Heliones knelt before me and took my hand.

“My lady.”

“?”

The emperor had knelt before me, and on top of that he called me his lady. I was so startled I reflexively lifted my head, then immediately remembered I hadn’t been given leave to do so.

I was about to bow again at once out of propriety, but Heliones’s expression looked somehow pained, and I couldn’t pull my eyes away from his face.

“Huu.”

Heliones couldn’t seem to bring himself to speak. He drew in a long, slow breath and let it out, then did it again.

He had never been a man of many words. Even when we were married, he rarely opened his mouth unless something truly needed to be said. A man of few words.

And yet now he kept parting his lips, like he had something he had to say, only to press them shut again.

He seemed to be working up to something difficult.

What could it be? Was he going to k*ll me, the last surviving royal of the Kingdom of Rodencia?

But if that were it, why not simply have me killed when they found me? I hadn’t committed any war crimes, so putting me on trial as one would be difficult.

If not that, then what? What could possibly make a man who always met people’s eyes with unwavering certainty look this hesitant?

I was still turning it over in my mind when Heliones’s lips finally opened. His red lips trembled, lips that gave him an overall sharp impression but whose corners curved just slightly upward, softening what might otherwise have been an unpleasant look.

“Why did you run away?”

“Run? I simply found a new home since we divorced.”

“Were you ever curious about how I was doing?”

“I see you in the newspaper every day.”

What was he trying to say, trembling like this and asking questions that led nowhere? What good did it do to wonder about someone you’d divorced over two years ago? He had become emperor. He was doing fine.

Oh. Or maybe he wasn’t doing as fine as it looked. Maybe he needed something from me. Surely not, but what if…

“Are you calling me here about the settlement money?”

Receiving a large sum in alimony after arriving without a dowry and leaving without producing an heir had always weighed on me.

It had allowed me to live comfortably, but I often felt a nagging unease that the money was never truly mine to keep.

It had always been a burden on my conscience, so the words came out on instinct, but even in that moment I kept my tone as polite as I could so as not to offend him.

Though judging by the way his composed face crumpled helplessly, like a candle flame guttering out, it seemed the consideration was wasted.

“I could sell the house, though I don’t know if it would cover everything I’ve spent. It’s quite out of the way, so… I tried to earn my living expenses as much as I could, but what fell short I drew from the settlement. If you’d like, I could write a promissory note and repay it, even if it takes time…”

Pride aside, even an emperor needed money. Private wealth was what allowed one to project the overwhelming authority that matched one’s station.

The settlement sum was modest compared to the Gertil family’s fortune, but it was by no means a small amount.

I had accepted it in desperation, with no clear path forward, but for a wife who had been a wife in name only, it was more than I deserved.

I was grateful to have had it, but the time to return it had come.

I laid out my repayment plan in as matter-of-fact a tone as I could manage, so he wouldn’t feel any guilt or embarrassment on my behalf.

“Ha. Haha. Hahaha.”

A strange thing. A person was laughing right in front of me, so why did it look like crying?

Heliones had been sitting there with his face all scrunched up, and then at my words he suddenly let out a hollow laugh.

Had I done something wrong? Should I have kept my mouth shut and just waited for a lawyer to push papers in front of me to sign?

I hadn’t meant to irritate the emperor. It seemed I had made a mistake.

After that strange laugh went on for a while, Heliones let all the strength drain from his body, sank down to the floor, and murmured like a sigh.

“As I thought, to you, I am nothing…”

He had been calling me “my lady” this whole time. Surely he meant me? I wished he would just call me by my name instead, but looking at the state he was in, staying quiet seemed like the right move for now.

“You may stay here for the time being. I’ll make arrangements so you have everything you need.”

“Pardon?”

What was this all of a sudden? I had been living well, running an art class out of the cozy little three-story house I had always dreamed of, and now he wanted me to live in the middle of the capital? Why?

“The money you have… keep it.”

What was he going on about, making one-sided declarations like this? I had no idea what he was after.

“I like my own house. Or rather, if you want it back, I’ll return it right away, but I’ve settled into the neighborhood and I have students, so…”

“Do whatever you like with the house or anything else!”

“!”

Heliones, who almost never raised his voice, suddenly raised it. Though honestly, who was the one saying things that made no sense?

“I don’t want to…”

“Non-negotiable. It is an imperial command.”

“Wha, what?”

I tried to push back, even just a little, but he shut it down in one stroke and pulled out the imperial command card on top of it.

I had been living well. Why drag me to the capital?

He could dislike me. He could hold a grudge. But you killed my family and destroyed my homeland too, didn’t you?

Even if I feel nothing about any of it, couldn’t we just call it even?

I had spent our entire marriage living like a criminal, unable to make a sound without watching myself, an unwelcome guest in my own home.

Even in public, I had stood there and taken every arrow aimed at the imperials of a fallen empire, I, the cursed princess, absorbing it all in their place.

I really felt like I had done my part. So why?

My frustration and irritation must have shown on my face. Heliones glanced at me and his eyes twitched slightly, but he quickly put his blank emperor’s face back on and rose from the floor.

“Is there anything you absolutely need to bring?”

At this point, my fate was decided. Whether he fabricated evidence to put me on trial as a war criminal or took personal revenge, there was no way out.

“Some clothes, and my paints, brushes, and paper.”

“Understood.”

Heliones turned away without hesitation, and I suddenly remembered something important and grabbed his arm.

“And!”

“?”

“I have a maid named Hanna. Please dismiss her. Her severance, one year paid in advance from my account…”

“Understood.”

Not even waiting to hear the rest, Heliones walked out of the townhouse just like that.

Was what just happened a dream or reality? I still couldn’t be sure.

Smack. I slapped my cheek. It hurt. So it was real.

Some time later, I pulled back the heavy curtains and peered outside. The entrance to the townhouse was empty.

For a moment, the word escape surfaced in a corner of my mind, but I pushed it away just as quickly.

Soldiers acting on imperial orders wouldn’t be so clumsy as to stand out in the open watching me.

D*mn. What did he expect me to do with this?

It was still early afternoon. Now that the tension had eased, my stomach, which had had nothing since I woke up, let out a growl and made its presence known.

Right. Eat first. If there was any t*rture or interrogation ahead, having some strength in me would help me last longer.

Ah, there was that habit of imagining the worst again. He wasn’t like those people.

Heliones had been an indifferent husband, but he had never mistreated me, even though I was practically his enemy.

I had been the one walking on eggshells on my own. I had always been given a warm, comfortable bed, nourishing and well-prepared meals, and dignified, comfortable clothing.

And yet, despite all of that, my hands were beginning to tremble.

‘To think the royal family produced a non-ability user. Rodencia will fall because of you!’