#1.

“Natalia is pregnant with my child.”

Wrapped in severe headache, Aella struggled to raise her body, heavy as lead.

Was it because she had fallen down the notoriously high stairs of the Empress Dowager’s Palace? Her waist throbbed as if about to break, and her limbs felt awkwardly foreign.

She clenched her jaw and straightened her head. Without trying to regain her senses, she felt she might lose consciousness as she had for the past few days.

“You know her? Natalia Dohimer.”

Despite surely having heard about her unrecovered condition. This was the kind of thing her so-called husband was saying.

“…You mean Count Coumont’s daughter?”

Her husband smiled with his eyes and swept back his short platinum hair with a dignified attitude. Watching him, ink-black anger rose within her.

But she already knew from experience that she shouldn’t explode with anger now.

“So you do remember.”

Yes, I know her well. Natalia Dohimer. How could I forget her?

Your first love to whom you gave your virginity.

The maid he personally assigned to Aella when she became Empress of the unfamiliar Napier Empire at merely sixteen.

And the most prominent mistress among those her husband openly flaunted until Aella came of age.

Thinking of the past, her heart began to race rapidly. She took heavy breaths.

Her husband moved closer as if to comfort her and firmly wrapped his arm around her shoulders. Only then did Aella realize she was trembling.

Twisting her body slightly to shake off his hand, Aella asked with difficulty.

“…Did you meet Count Coumont’s daughter when you visited Mardieu’s temple?”

That was two months ago, which matched the timing considering when pregnancy could be confirmed.

“Yes.”

“I see…”

“Before the child is born, I’ll depose you and place Natalia on the throne as Empress.”

His voice, casually announcing divorce, was gentle as always. This matter must not be significant to him.

After all, he was a young emperor enjoying the absolute power established by his predecessor.

Not only his beautiful appearance. Even his innate arrogance and sensitive temperament were accepted as those of a ruler.

In short, he had nothing to hold him back.

“But this is merely a contract marriage.”

He fiddled with her golden hair, which looked surprisingly neat for someone who had been bedridden until now.

Frowning her delicate eyebrows at his sticky touch, Aella murmured.

“A contract marriage… you say.”

Looking at her amethyst-like purple eyes as if licking them, he replied.

“We can’t make the child a ‘White’.”

‘White’ was the surname given to illegitimate children of the imperial family. In other words, this marriage was meant to elevate a child destined to be illegitimate to the status of heir.

Driving that point home, her husband emphasized.

“When the time comes, I plan to reinstate you as Empress.”

“……”

“You’re kind, so you’ll understand.”

The smile hanging at the ends of his handsome eyes somehow seemed mocking.

Aella knew what he would say next. Then what should she answer?

She had thought about this moment countless times. Though neither pleasant nor ever desired, she had imagined this moment innumerable times.

Once again, a heavy heartbeat resonated in her chest.

Her husband gathered Aella’s abundant hair as she sat with her back straight. Then he tied a red ribbon embroidered with the imperial crest at the end.

“The only one I love is you, Aella.”

Stroking her earlobe with his thick fingers, her husband whispered.

Feeling her hair stand on end wherever he touched, Aella roughly turned her head.

It was a small rebellion she had never shown before. For a moment, her husband’s straight brow furrowed slightly before smoothing out again.

“Congratulations on the pregnancy.”

She meant it. This was truly good news indeed.

Because she now knew it was an opportunity to escape from her husband.

Aella wore a smile as soft as a feather. Her husband looked blank for a moment, then tilted his head to kiss her forehead.

“But, Your Majesty.”

When she pushed his shoulder, he appeared taken aback.

Aella’s hand naturally slid down her husband’s broad shoulder and felt her own neck wrapped in thin linen cloth.

She felt something hot rising from within. Trying to suppress her intense emotions, she whispered in an elegant tone.

“Have you written the contract?”

“…What?”

The emotion in his deep amber eyes was clearly bewilderment. She stared steadily into those eyes before opening her red, luscious lips again.

“You said it was a contract marriage.”

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Alone now, Aella clutched the copy of the contract her husband had given her.

‘Francis Lebier.’

She had to clench her teeth to avoid tearing the document bearing her husband’s familiar signature and the Lord Chancellor’s seal.

After calmly checking the contract’s contents, she paid special attention to the fifth clause.

‘In the year the emperor turns thirty, Natalia Dohimer will be removed from the position of Empress.’

Aella could read between the lines.

The reason Francis wanted to elevate a woman from a ruined count’s family to be a one-year Empress was because of the ‘prophecy.’

That prophecy, which he reportedly received at birth, was quite famous. It stated that he would die in front of an hourglass around thirty while being chased by time.

But weren’t prophecies relics of a bygone era? Magic and miracles had long disappeared. Almost no one seriously heeded prophecies anymore.

However, Francis apparently didn’t belong to that ‘almost.’

Moreover, he had recently passed his twenty-ninth birthday.

‘He must have been concerned.’

Despite years of effort since Aella came of age, no child had come between them. So she could understand his position.

If Francis died without leaving an heir, the throne would pass to his younger brother, whom he utterly despised.

“How could he still…”

Pushing aside her voice that sounded terribly hoarse even to her own ears, she read the final clause.

“Each party may exercise conjugal rights at least once a month.”

A bitter laugh burst from her lips.

This was indeed a contract marriage, as he had said. And they had diligently observed this clause.

Thus, Natalia Dohimer would bear another child.

Aella burst into shrill laughter, her thin back shaking. A faint joy was evident in that laughter.

“Natalia is pregnant with my child.”

In fact, when she ‘first’ heard those words from her husband, Aella wasn’t composed.

In her first life, she had been naive,

“How, how could you?”

Because she had regarded her husband as heaven.

“You said you loved me. You said I was your only Empress.”

Eventually, she exploded with anger she had been suppressing,

“She’s pregnant again! I can’t stand it anymore. I’m leaving now.”

“No, you cannot leave me.”

For the first time in her life, she lost her composure and wailed.

“I will go! I will run away!”

And what happened then?

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Aella was caught before she could even make it halfway down the corridor lined with golden carpet.

Two guards holding long spears blocked her path. Watching the scene as if appreciating it, the emperor crossed the corridor with leisurely steps.

Francis pulled her trembling body close and whispered threateningly.

“Aella Verosa, didn’t I tell you? You are my Empress.”

Then he gripped her chin and showered her with fierce kisses. The salty taste of tears and lukewarm saliva wet her tongue.

She should have bitten him then. She should have severed his tongue.

But the innocent and clumsy Aella of that time couldn’t do it.

Francis carried her in his arms and took her somewhere.

It was a secluded tower. Only the cold moonlight passing through a small window dimly illuminated the interior.

As soon as he threw her down on the plush bed, Aella should have trembled with fear.

“Are you going to imprison me? Don’t do this, please? Your Majesty! I beg you!”

She screamed and struggled wildly. It was unlike her. Wasn’t she the most perfect Empress?

As if mocking such an Aella, her red shoes flew off and rolled across the floor.

Ah, she was truly careless. Trying to escape while wearing shoes. It would have been fortunate if she hadn’t fallen at the bottom of the stairs.

The emperor grasped her slender ankle like a shackle. Then he very kindly put the shoe back on her foot.

“The Empress Dowager personally selected these for your pretty feet. You should treasure them. Don’t you agree?”

But now she wouldn’t even have the chance to worry about falling. Overwhelming despair engulfed Aella. From that day on, Aella’s life became a distant gray.

Time burned through the years and rushed fiercely, and four years passed in an instant.

She must have been reported as missing.

Because after Aella was miserably divorced, her family, the Ducal House of Lorendal, strongly protested.

The emperor barely suppressed their dissatisfaction by promising to reinstate Aella as Empress.

Otherwise, the emperor would have had to immediately return the enormous dowry she had brought and the right to use the southern ports of Siren. Those were privileges the inland Empire could hardly afford to lose.

Perhaps her husband sincerely waited for the time to depose Natalia Dohimer. The day he would restore Aella.

But that never happened.

There was no law to cast out a pregnant Empress. Natalia became pregnant, and pregnant again, eventually bearing four children.

Natalia exceeded expectations not only in creating life but also in taking it away.

The poison in the tea Aella drank was proof of that.

“A message from Her Majesty the Empress.”

The imperial physician who came to check on her condition whispered in an eerie voice.

“Accept this gracious gift with gratitude.”

What? Gracious gift? Gratitude?

The moment she questioned this, her mouth burned as if she had swallowed a fireball.

“Keogh…!”

Clutching her throat, Aella rolled on the ice-cold stone floor.

“Heuk, why on earth…”

“Because you should never bear His Majesty the Emperor’s…”

The physician’s voice was drowned out by coughing up blood. Her violently fluctuating vision blurred.

Aella’s convulsing body suddenly stiffened like an iron skewer.

The surging waves of death were approaching moment by moment.

Was this the end? Aella almost felt relieved.

However, her husband, arriving just in time, turned pale and embraced Aella tightly.

“Save my wife immediately!”

Even as she was losing consciousness, his terrible voice struck her ears sharply.

It was the august emperor’s command. As always, what he desired was immediately fulfilled.

Aella barely managed to save her life. But the most precious hope crumbled within her body.