The mission to capture the Tarecus prince ended in failure. It had been an operation that Raiden and the kingdom knew about from the beginning, and using that as justification, the Tarecus troops and rebels attacked the Empire directly.

This entire operation came from Raiden’s mind. 

Just as Raiden had predicted, the Emperor called all the border troops to the royal palace to strike at the rebels, causing the imperial palace to fall to the rebels and Tarecus troops who used teleportation magic to move directly to the palace before all the troops could even gather. 

The Emperor, who came to his senses too late, eventually abdicated, and Bran took the imperial throne.

While Rihana, pierced by Casian’s sword, remained unconscious for over two weeks, the new Emperor moved busily to stabilize the Empire and worked hard to solidify the alliance with Tarecus.

Just as Raiden had thought, Casian, who disobeyed the Emperor’s command and injured Rihana while trying to attack Raiden, was pressured to break his engagement with her.

‘I want the engagement between Count Rihana Ariella and Marquis Casian Lewandes broken.’

‘Don’t be ridiculous! What right does a foreign country have to interfere with the engagements of Empire nobles!’

Casian stubbornly insisted he would never break the engagement. However, the new Emperor who ascended to the throne consulted with his ministers and made Casian pay for his crime of stabbing his own fiancée through the broken engagement. And he arranged Casian’s engagement to Melissa. 

Though she was the daughter of the deposed Emperor, it was to be mindful of the nobles who had followed the Emperor, and also to solidify Bran’s position even slightly since he had neither children nor an Empress yet. In any case, the imperial family’s power needed to grow so the nobles couldn’t rise up.

Since Bran had risen to the imperial throne through the nobles’ rebellion, using his bloodline to increase his power was a natural course.

And he arranged for Rihana to make a political marriage with Raiden for the friendship between the two countries, just as they had promised. However, Rihana would continue as the head of the Empire’s Count family and pass it on to one of the children born between them. 

The Tarecus Kingdom became an independent nation that received no interference from the Kadelai Empire as promised, and the new Emperor and the Tarecus King became closer friends than anyone.

Though there was considerable opposition to all these matters, everything ultimately went as Raiden wanted. Duchess Pellentes watched all these situations unfold and realized that Raiden was a more cunning, wicked, and clever man than anyone in the world. 

Thinking that whatever he set his mind to would be accomplished somehow, she resolved never to make him an enemy.

Though all matters were settled this way, Rihana still hadn’t awakened. It was truly fortunate that she didn’t lose her life despite being stabbed above the heart. Raiden, who brought Rihana to the Tarecus Kingdom, nursed her without missing a single day, casting healing magic on her.

* * *

Casian was still holding out, saying he couldn’t marry Melissa. 

Though his engagement was broken as punishment for stabbing his fiancée, and he was pressured into an engagement with Melissa under the pretext of disobeying the former Emperor’s orders and inciting war, he couldn’t bring himself to marry. 

He needed to confirm that Rihana, who had gone to a foreign country, was awake, and he needed to bring her back.

There was definitely still a chance.

Casian thought Rihana would forgive his mistake. Since she was the one who chose him, he thought she would certainly take responsibility for that choice. Just like himself, he thought Rihana would still want only him as her companion. This was partly because of what he heard from Letia, who came to him accusingly.

‘Not only did you treat her like a ghost, but you almost killed her! What exactly did our captain do so wrong to Your Lordship?! Don’t you feel sorry for the captain who had unrequited love for Your Lordship for so long!’

‘…?! What do you mean…!’

From Letia’s words, Casian realized he had been misunderstanding Rihana all this time. He truly hadn’t known that Rihana had been harboring unrequited love for him. She hadn’t been cold to him – she had been in love with him and didn’t know what to do. 

Learning this belatedly, Casian couldn’t let go of Rihana even more. So he refused marriage with Melissa and focused only on reversing the situation so that when she woke up, Rihana could choose him again.

Melissa, who realized she had been played by Casian’s unwavering sincerity, decided not to forgive him.

‘Making my love into trash – I’ll never forgive that.’

Melissa gritted her teeth and vowed never to let Rihana, who had his love, be with him. Even twisted love was fine. She thought she had to have Casian, and to completely possess him, she went to find him. To create grounds so that Casian, who was refusing marriage, could no longer refuse, she ate the fruit of blessing in advance.

The fruit of blessing was a fruit that allowed the Empire’s imperial family and the kingdom’s royal family to have children. The fruit from the primordial tree only responded to imperial or royal blood, and it was necessary to have offspring. 

Commoners could have children without the fruit of blessing, but imperial and royal families couldn’t have children without it – perhaps because of the blood they possessed.

There were even rumors that the blood of the Tarecus royal family, born with magical power, was connected to the blood of the Kadelai Empire’s imperial family, which was why the imperial and royal families of both countries couldn’t have children without the fruit of blessing.

In any case, Melissa was also imperial family who needed the fruit of blessing to become pregnant, and Casian knew her body well, so he had embraced her without worrying about contraception. Melissa planned to exploit this weakness of Casian’s.

The justification that would force him to marry her – that was for her to bear Casian’s child.

Of course, she wasn’t unconcerned about what regrets her current actions might bring later. Though she resented and was angry at Casian, she ultimately felt she couldn’t spend her life with any man other than him.

‘I don’t even want to imagine marrying a man other than Lord Casian. In the end, it has to be Lord Casian for me. Even though he’s so resentful and hateful, I still miss him.’

Tears welled up in Melissa’s eyes.

Even if Casian would spend his life beside her longing for Rihana and suffering, it didn’t matter. Even if that became the punishment she was giving him, even if she herself would suffer from that punishment, it didn’t matter.

Because ultimately, the only thing she wanted was Casian.

* * *

Rihana woke up ten more days later. Having been unconscious for well over a month and a half, when she opened her eyes and saw the unfamiliar ceiling, she wondered if she had died and come to heaven. 

This was partly because Raiden’s room ceiling was so splendid, and partly because the winter scent filling the room felt as pleasant as heaven.

“Are you awake?”

And Raiden’s voice, which made her heart flutter just by hearing it, was enough to make her think this might indeed be heaven.

‘…Rai?’

She definitely moved her mouth, but no voice came out. When she slowly lowered her eyelids that had opened with difficulty and raised them again, a handsome face suddenly popped up before her eyes.

“Yes, I’m here. Hana.”

Seeing Raiden call her Hana, she realized the man before her was truly Raiden.

Rihana tried to put strength in her upper body to sit up, but not only did she have no strength, Raiden also stopped her from rising.

“You won’t be able to get up right now. You’ve been lying down for well over a month.”

“…”

“I have many things to tell you.”

“…”

“But before all these stories, there’s something I need to ask of you.”

Raiden’s eyes, which had been endlessly gentle just moments before, instantly turned cold. No, it would be more accurate to say they hardened.

“Never throw your body to protect me again, understand?”

“…”

“If you get hurt or endangered in my place even once more, I truly won’t forgive you then, Hana.”

“…”

“I’ll tear apart this body of mine that you saved by sacrificing your body.”

Raiden’s face, speaking like a growl, was full of sincere emotion.

Rihana blinked her eyes and then smiled weakly with a soft chuckle. Throwing her body to save Raiden had been an action she herself hadn’t thought about at all. She had no regret about that action, and if such a situation happened again, she would certainly throw her body without hesitation to save him.

To say he would tear apart the body of Raiden that she had saved – was that really something that should come from the mouth of the man she had rescued?

“Why are you laughing? I’m dying of frustration.”

“…”

“Should I recite to you one by one how much my blood ran dry during that month and a half?”

“…”

“Don’t do that again. Never again, even if you die.”

Raiden immediately buried his face in Rihana’s chest with a disheveled expression and muttered.

He really had been worried, he muttered lowly – that each day she didn’t wake up was h*ll, and never to drop him into that h*ll again.