With every step Rachel took, memories of the life she had left behind surfaced one after another.

What is Father doing right now?

And the elves…?

The elves were probably going about their day as usual.

After all, none of them knew that the Emperor had chosen Rachel to become his imperial consort.

Rachel and Count Flynn had agreed to keep everything a secret so the elves wouldn’t panic.

If they learned that Rachel—the last surviving royal bloodline among them—had been taken from them as well…

It was impossible to tell what they might do.

If Lucius, the elf closest to Rachel, had found out…

He would have challenged the Emperor with his life on the line.

And…

‘I have to keep it a secret that I married Reiner.’

Lucius was the only elf who knew Rachel had once saved a human in the forest.

When she’d first told him about it, he’d been furious.

‘Rachel! That’s what an imprint is! What have you done? You imprinted on a human you didn’t even know?’

But he had soon calmed down after convincing himself that Rachel and Reiner would never meet again.

Yet what if he found out that Rachel had run into Reiner at the Imperial banquet…

And had even married him?

She couldn’t imagine how Lucius would react.

Lately, Rachel had begun noticing something strange in the way Lucius looked at her.

Almost…

As though he were looking at her as a woman.

Perhaps she was mistaken.

It was only her own suspicion.

‘Have you even thought about what it’ll be like? To be consumed with desire for a human you don’t even know every single night? Doesn’t it disgust you to feel that way over a mere human?!’

‘Disgust…?’

Rachel looked at Reiner’s broad back.

Not at all.

Though she’d never told Lucius, Reiner had been far from repulsive the very first time they’d met.

Back then, she’d simply thought he was a beautiful boy.

Now…

He had become a man.

Far more handsome than he had been before.

Perhaps these feelings were only because Reiner was the one she’d imprinted on.

She couldn’t be sure.

‘But this man doesn’t make me uncomfortable. Not even a little.’

The comparison between Emperor Felix and Reiner only made her feelings even clearer.

‘If anything… I’m grateful. I’m glad the man I married was Reiner.’

Pressing a hand over her racing heart, Rachel followed him inside.

Imprinting.

She still had no idea just how powerful it truly was.

The door closed behind them.

Silence settled over the hallway.

Lucius—

The Lucius who harbored feelings for Rachel—

Had deliberately never explained imprinting properly to her.

He knew that even when an elf imprinted on a human, the intensity of that desire was no different from an elf imprinting on another elf.

He had witnessed it firsthand through Rachel’s mother, Layla…

And the King of the elves, Ian.

Yet he lied to Rachel.

He told her it was merely a desire she could endure.

Something she could overcome with enough willpower.

Even though he understood better than anyone how overwhelming it truly was.

Because he was afraid.

Afraid she would leave him behind…

And choose a human instead.

The Ian he had seen…

Had been utterly consumed by his awakened human soulmate.

***

“Ahhh! Just k*ll me! Please… just k*ll me!”

Blood vessels had burst in Layla’s amber eyes as she screamed.

“AAAAAH!”

She clutched at her golden hair—the same brilliant gold Rachel had inherited—as she writhed in agony.

“Count! Hurry and fetch the Count! At this rate, the young lady is going to die!”

As the head maid shouted, hurried footsteps echoed through the corridor.

“Layla!”

The moment Count Flynn appeared, tears streamed down Layla’s face.

“Brother…”

Sobbing, she buried her face against his shoulder.

In only a matter of days, Layla had become frighteningly thin.

Her voice had deteriorated until it sounded like metal scraping against stone.

“Brother… Please let me leave. I have to see him. Please… Just let me see him once.”

Count Flynn tightly embraced his beloved younger sister and closed his eyes.

“Layla… please.”

A few days earlier…

Their lives had begun to fall apart after Layla returned from the Forest of the Elves.

“Sob…He saved me when I was dying, Brother. He saved my life.”

“I know. I know.”

“I want to see him. Please… just once. Let me see him just one more time.”

Layla cried out again and again.

Count Flynn had heard stories about an elf’s imprint before.

But he had never imagined it could be this severe.

Layla had been out hunting on horseback when she was thrown from her horse near the Forest of the Elves.

Her spine had been broken.

She had been moments away from death…

When Ian, the King of the elves, found her.

The King of the elves chose to save Layla.

He breathed his life into her.

And in that instant…They became imprinted.

‘Should I have let her die instead? Or is it better that she’s alive… even if it means this?’

Tears streamed down Count Flynn’s face.

‘If they never meet again… there’s a chance she’ll eventually forget him. There have been cases like that before. So please… protect this woman.’

Ian returned the unconscious Layla to Count Flynn.

With one final request—

To make sure she never came to him.

“K*ll me…Please… just let me die again, Brother…”

Sobbing uncontrollably, Layla begged for death.

But Count Flynn couldn’t bear to watch his beloved sister suffer any longer.

Layla broke the lock that Count Flynn had intentionally left loose and escaped.

Then she found Ian—

Who, unable to bear his longing for her, had come all the way to the Flynn estate.

For days…

They held each other.

Until their soft skin had been rubbed raw.

Until their lips split open and bled from countless kisses.

Until the m*ans they could no longer suppress left their voices completely hoarse.

Even when the warmth of each other’s bodies felt so intense they might melt together…

Neither of them stopped.

That…

Was what an imprint was.

A bond so absolute that nothing else in the world mattered.

A longing so overwhelming that they couldn’t endure a single moment without holding one another.

It was a future Rachel had yet to experience.

***

The unexpected sight inside the room brought Rachel’s steps to an abrupt halt.

Three men sat waiting inside.

Each of them looked completely different from the others.

They openly looked Rachel up and down…

Then frowned without trying to hide it.

“Tsk.”

The moment Reiner let out a soft click of his tongue, the three men reluctantly gave Rachel a curt nod.

“Good day.”

“Welcome.”

It seemed she wasn’t particularly welcome here.

“I’m Rachel Flynn.”

As she always did when meeting someone for the first time, Rachel lifted the hem of her skirt in a graceful curtsy.

Then she smiled brightly at the stoic men.

“As of today, I’m His Grace’s wife. I look forward to getting along with all of you.”

One cleared his throat.

Another awkwardly shifted in his seat.

None of them met her eyes.

‘Winning them over isn’t going to be easy.’

No matter how outgoing Rachel was, rough men like these were difficult for her to deal with.

She had never had many opportunities to meet strangers while growing up.

Out of concern for her safety, Count Flynn had spread all kinds of bizarre rumors about her.

That she was astonishingly ugly.

Or that she suffered from a terrible skin disease.

As a result, Rachel’s social circle had always been small.

Still, thanks to her naturally warm and cheerful personality, she’d managed to get along well with everyone she did meet.

Until now.

When Rachel stood there without knowing what to say, Reiner stepped between them.

“Let’s get going.”

“Yes.”

The three men pushed back their chairs and stood at once.

Looking at Rachel’s widened eyes, Reiner said,

“It’s time to go home.”

***

Rachel had long heard the rumors about the North’s brutal climate.

The Newberic Empire occupied the largest territory on the clover-shaped continent of Rozia.

Even if the continent’s three kingdoms combined their lands, they would still be smaller than Newberic.

Had all of that vast territory been habitable, Emperor Felix would never have suffered from a shortage of funds.

More land meant more people.

More people meant more taxes.

The problem…

Was the weather.

The farther north one traveled across the vast continent, the colder it became.

Eventually, the cold grew so severe that human beings simply couldn’t survive there.

At first, there had been brave pioneers willing to settle the region.

Now…

Every one of them had given up.

As a result, the Emperor had effectively abandoned the entire northern third of the Empire.

For years, those lands had been handed out as meaningless rewards to insignificant nobles…

Or simply left ownerless.

Then one day…

Reiner appeared and purchased every last piece of it.

No one had even noticed.

The North had been so thoroughly ignored that, by the time anyone realized what he had done, it was already too late.

Not long afterward…

People discovered a colossal wall stretching across the northern frontier.

Beyond that wall…

Lay the Duchy of Graham.

“It’ll be cold.”

Rachel nodded without meeting Reiner’s eyes.

Each time she moved, the hood of her thick robe slipped lower over her forehead.

Standing beside a snow-white horse, Rachel found Reiner’s shadow falling over her.

“Are you sure you won’t regret not stopping by home first?”

Beneath the hood that covered her head, Rachel nodded once more.

They had crossed only a single mountain by carriage…

Yet the air had already grown noticeably colder.

Even Rachel, who rarely felt the cold, found it startling.

Reiner reached out with one large hand and gently pulled the hood back into place over her forehead.

His fingers skillfully tied the robe’s drawstrings.

Rachel quietly watched him.

His touch was unexpectedly gentle.

“Once you get on that horse…There’ll be no turning back.”

A few loose strands of hair slipped free beneath the hood he’d tied and brushed against her cheek.

Rachel looked straight into Reiner’s eyes.

“Don’t worry. I’ll never regret it.”