But contrary to her expectation, Khalid answered by tightening the hand gripping her shoulder.

A firm, wordless weight that told her to stay still.

“I asked what you are doing to my wife, Your Imperial Majesty.”

Khalid pressed Ludwig again, but he did not so much as blink.

“I haven’t done anything yet. I was just about to when you barged in.”

“Your Majesty!”

Ludwig’s blunt provocation drew Khalid’s voice up sharply.

But Ludwig, armored in that impenetrable poker face, only wore an amused smile.

“And yet the Duke speaks as though I were about to devour the Duchess.”

“……Do you think I don’t know what you’re after?”

Khalid’s voice tilted upward at the end, then he fell abruptly silent.

In the meantime, the hand on her shoulder moved slightly higher.

“……Hh.”

Khalid’s warmth settled over the part of her shoulder the dress left bare.

Asilri felt a breath escape her before she could stop it and bit down on her lip.

But Khalid only moved his hand the way a man might handle something that was his.

“Mind yourself, Your Majesty.”

“Hmm?”

“It is only natural for one’s eyes to follow what one desires.”

Khalid cut himself off firmly and wrapped an arm around Asilri’s shoulder, drawing her to her feet.

She stumbled at the sudden movement, and he caught her securely, pulling her naturally into his arms.

“But knowing where the line is and keeping to it, that is what separates a man with reason from an animal.”

Khalid held Asilri against him in plain view and threw the words out directly.

That it felt like a declaration of war was no illusion.

But Khalid showed no sign of stopping.

“A man who cannot hold that line is no different from a beast.”

The air had grown so volatile it felt ready to burst, and Asilri was just about to say something when.

“……Ngh.”

The arm holding her tightened, pressing her just enough that she could not move.

Before she could even react, hot breath spilled into her ear.

“Stay still. If you move now too.”

“……!”

“I can’t be held responsible for what I do to the Emperor.”

The low, growling voice was as much a warning as anything.

As though Asilri were the only one who could quiet a beast gone wild.

Faced with that raw, tangled feeling, Asilri found she had no idea what to say.

But the dangerous silence did not last long.

“Kk……. Hahaha!”

Ludwig, who had been savoring the strange tension between Asilri and Khalid, burst into a hearty laugh.

“Truly fascinating. Asilri, you really are a remarkable woman.”

After laughing for quite a while, Ludwig rose slowly from his seat.

His gaze brushed over Asilri and landed on Khalid.

“I suppose this secret little meeting must come to an end. Any longer and your fierce husband will have me mauled.”

Ludwig said it lightly and moved to pass them.

But true to form, he did not step back so easily.

“Keep this in mind, however.”

The low, flat voice was cold to the bone.

“As the Duke is well aware, we are in the same position.”

“……Your Majesty.”

“Just as I have no right to meet with the Duchess alone.”

Ludwig paused, and Khalid turned to face him.

“You would do well not to forget that you too have no right to involve yourself in the Duchess’s affairs.”

The words were clearly not directed at Asilri, yet Ludwig’s gaze rested solely on her.

Sensing her eyes on him, Ludwig suddenly walked toward her with long, deliberate strides.

Then, with Asilri still held in Khalid’s arms, he bent down quite willingly to meet her at eye level.

Her body went rigid, caught in his gaze, and she could not move.

“If you were to recall what the Duke chose for himself, between the Duchess and honor on the battlefield.”

“…….”

“You would not dare, but.”

With that, Ludwig turned away without hesitation.

The precarious meeting ended on his own terms.

* * *

From the moment they left the Ernst Imperial Palace until they returned to the Renatus estate, a strange silence hung between Asilri and Khalid.

Khalid seemed to have no room to spare Asilri a glance, yet he did not forget to steer her into his bedroom in the end.

But what was different from usual was that Khalid was the one who left the bedroom first.

Whether it was out of consideration for Asilri, or whether it was to sort through.

[I have no intention of accepting anything other than Bliché. And that holds true for Renatus as well.]

Whether it was to sort through the noise in his own head, she could not say.

What was certain was that Asilri, sitting alone, felt no less tangled inside.

“……Why did the Emperor say that?”

In her previous life, she had leaned on Ludwig, knowingly or not.

She had assumed this life would be no different.

So she could not understand why, this time, her heart would not move toward him.

[You would do well not to forget that you too have no right to involve yourself in the Duchess’s affairs.]

The way he had turned it back on Khalid felt almost like……

Asilri let out a sigh without finishing the thought.

Something was changing.

She was becoming aware of it, slowly, but the pace was too slow.

She felt her own helplessness all over again.

Because right now, she did not even truly know what was going on inside Khalid, who had vanished from sight.

[If you were to recall what the Duke chose for himself, between the Duchess and honor on the battlefield, you would not dare, but.]

Asilri felt a sudden ache in her chest.

The voice that had been goading Khalid had only left her own heart in disarray.

What Khalid had chosen.

“……I should go ask him.”

Because she could not simply stay here like this.

Asilri settled the matter in her own mind, like a justification, and rose quickly from her seat.

“Where did he go?”

Asilri forgot the lateness of the hour and searched for Khalid with a restless urgency.

But finding him was not difficult.

“……Khalid.”

Before long, she spotted Khalid standing at the far end of the garden.

He stood in the deep dark, touched by a faint thread of moonlight.

He felt distant, like Khalid alone was standing in a different space entirely.

Asilri moved toward him, then stopped for a moment.

It was nothing but instinct.

Something ominous held her feet in place.

“Khalid……?”

Asilri called his name first, which was rare for her.

But even at her careful voice, Khalid did not turn to look at her.

Asilri too stood frozen where she was, unable to bring herself to go closer.

Her slight frame trembled on instinct.

A dark, reddish energy was visibly seeping out from Khalid, curling through the air.

“Why on earth…….”

After standing rigid for a long moment, Asilri took one step toward Khalid without realizing it.

The dark energy rose like something rejecting any outside touch, but to Asilri it looked a little different.

It was precarious in a way that looked ready to consume Khalid himself before anyone else.

“Khalid, what is…….”

Asilri gathered her courage and moved toward him slowly.

She had always waited for Khalid to react first, but he did not turn to her, and the ache of it cut deep.

In the end, Asilri reached out to Khalid first.

It was the first time she had ever reached out to him, but neither of them had the presence of mind to register that.

Then her hand touched him.

Zap.

“Ngh, ugh!”

In that instant, the ominous energy spread wide and crashed over Asilri.

A sharp, dizzying sensation seized her.

But only for a moment. A rough hand caught her with enough force to scatter that feeling entirely.

“Hah……!”

Asilri’s eyes flew wide open and she looked up, and what spread before her was a face both familiar and strange.

“Why are you?”

The low, fractured voice came out in a snarl.

Eyes stripped of reason, a gaze so fierce it felt foreign.

Then Khalid’s ominous eyes locked onto her and held her fast.

At the first reaction she had drawn from him, a faint hope rose in Asilri’s eyes.

But it crumbled almost immediately.

“Ugh, why are you here…….”

Khalid forced the words out with great difficulty, then in the end, his rough hands clamped hard around her slender waist.

It was instinct overriding the last thread of reason.

“What is happening?”

“……Ngh, ugh.”

“Can you hear my voice?”

“…….”

“Khalid, answer me. Please.”

Asilri pushed past her own trembling voice and kept speaking to him.

She had already given him everything, so what was she relying on to provoke him so recklessly.

That thought was Khalid’s last foothold of reason.

“……Hh!”

Khalid suddenly lifted his head and pushed his face close to Asilri’s.

“Stay. Still.”

With that threatening warning, Khalid gripped her face and forced her to look at him.

It looked like a desperate struggle to keep Asilri’s gaze anchored on him.