Ivester warmly embraced her as tears poured out without control.

She endlessly thanked her precious friend she had met in the empire.

After Ivester left, she gathered Judith and the maids who had attended to her, as well as the close maids who had been in charge of her appearance.

She handed the maids pouches filled with gold coins.

They all looked at her with surprised and bewildered faces.

“This is a reward for all your hard work.”

The maids bowed their heads and expressed their gratitude.

To Judith, she gave a box filled with jewels and a pouch of gold coins.

“You worked the hardest by my side. I hope you know how grateful I’ve always been.”

“I am honored. I have always been lacking, yet you regard me so highly that I don’t know where to put myself, Your Majesty the Empress.”

“Thanks to you, Judith, I was able to manage well in the palace.”

“Why do you speak as if we’ll never see each other again?”

“Just because. I’m in a good mood.”

The maids’ expressions looked excited, as if they could fly away with the sudden reward.

After sending the maids away, she gave Judith a separate letter and gift.

“Please deliver this to Grand Duke Heinz.”

Although it was awkward when they first met, her memories with Heinz remained as pleasant ones.

Thanks to Heinz, she was able to actually get closer to her husband instead of just stalking him.

He was definitely someone she needed to thank and say goodbye to.

Now she had said goodbye to all the people she needed to.

Only one person remained.

The one person she least wanted to say goodbye to.

While leaving the empress’s palace and heading to the emperor’s palace, she looked up at the sky and noticed the brightly shining moon.

It was a half moon.

When the time of the half moon ended, it would be the time of the full moon, and by then she would be in Korea, not the Oneroad Empire. The thought made her heart ache.

She felt like the most unfilial and immoral daughter in the world for not being happy about returning to a world where her parents and sibling were waiting, worrying only about her.

But no matter what anyone said, Charte was the most important to her.

If someone asked if she would throw everything away because she was crazy in love, she wanted to answer that she would discard everything if given the chance.

She didn’t want to wake up from this love.

She didn’t know what kind of blinders she had on, but they didn’t seem likely to come off.

She never thought she would love someone else more than herself.

She thought it was impossible, but in another world, she had met someone she loved more than herself.

However, it was her fate to part with this love that hurt her heart just thinking about it and made her chest ache just looking at him.

It had always been that way.

Fate was always cruel.

Whether living as Yun-ah or as Leila, it always took away happiness at the most joyful moment.

Though she had to accept it, she didn’t want to live ordinarily and comply.

Her timid rebellion and only revenge against fate was to never forget Charte and keep him in her heart forever.

She vowed that her memories, at least, would never be helplessly defeated and taken away again.

* * *

Thinking she would never return, every step through the imperial palace, every sight she saw, took on great significance.

She was filled with regret for not having taken more time to imprint these places in her eyes and enjoy her time here.

She had to prepare to say goodbye to all these beautiful places—everything her eyes had seen, her hands had touched, her feet had stepped on, and her breath had reached.

Everything felt like a part of Charte, and she was definitely reluctant to part with it all.

With such difficult steps, saying goodbye to everything, she was heading to Charte.

After making eye contact and greeting each of the knights guarding the front of the emperor’s palace, she entered the office.

“Charte!”

As she approached the desk where he was working, Charte naturally wrapped his arm around her waist, sat her on his lap, buried his face in her nape, and softly called her name several times.

“Yun-ah, Yun-ah, Yun-ah.”

Each time he called her name, his sweet breath tickled her to the heart.

“Are you very tired? You’re not fully recovered yet, so please don’t overexert yourself. I wish you would always put yourself first.”

It upset her that this man, who was always her top priority, didn’t take care of himself enough.

When Charte lifted his face from her nape and looked at her with wistful eyes, her heart felt like it was being torn apart.

“How about having dinner in the room, just the two of us today?”

“That sounds good. Let’s be cozy, just the two of us.”

Charte carefully lifted her in his arms and walked to the room.

Not wanting to be apart even for a moment, she tightly wrapped her arms around his neck and rested her face on his shoulder.

“I’m happy, Charte.”

She felt Charte’s arms tighten.

Even during the meal, they didn’t take their eyes off each other and didn’t stop talking.

She understood what it meant to feel that every minute and second was precious.

Although they ate to avoid worrying each other, they couldn’t taste the food.

They were more focused on each other than on the meal.

“Charte, actually, I have something to confess.”

“What is it?”

“Promise me you won’t get angry.”

“Could I ever be angry with you? How dare I? A mere emperor?”

His effort to maintain a bright atmosphere made her laugh.

She felt upset again at the thought of having to part with someone whose love deepened the more time they spent together, but she forced herself to smile.

She didn’t want to leave a crying face with the person who would be more hurt than herself.

She wanted to be remembered with a smiling face by the person she loved.

“Actually, those stories…… Phew.”

When it came to actually confessing, the words wouldn’t easily leave her mouth.

Before leaving, she wanted to tell Charte the truth about the stories.

She didn’t want to leave with lies.

But all sorts of worries made her hesitate—what if he was disappointed after hearing the truth and thought she had deceived him, what if he thought it was a scam.

She deeply felt that this was why people couldn’t live with sin.

“What is it? It’s okay, just tell me comfortably.”

Perhaps because she was nervous, she swallowed hard.

She took a deep breath again and summoned her courage.

Why was this more nerve-wracking than revealing her identity?

“I, actually, well, ah.”

In the end, she couldn’t say it and hung her head.

“As long as you’re not saying you don’t love me, everything is fine.”

“Even if I stole something?”

“Of course. I’ll compensate for everything, so don’t worry at all.”

“What if I committed murder?”

“I would certainly go and apologize and take the punishment in your place, so don’t worry about that either.”

Feeling as peaceful and serene as if blessed by a heavenly angel, she finally gathered her courage.

“Actually, those stories I told you……”

“……?”

“I didn’t create them.”

Charte looked at her with round, puzzled eyes, and his face was incredibly cute.

Ah! Seeing how she was still swayed by Charte’s face even in these last moments, in such a serious moment, she was clearly still infatuated.

“Charte, in the world where I lived, there’s something called dramas. Unlike books that you read, these are watched as videos. All the stories I told you were from dramas I watched. None of the stories were created by me. I’m sorry for lying like this.”

Charte looked surprised and didn’t say anything.

When a silence fell as if the flow of air had stopped, she lowered her head in guilt. Then Charte reached out, pulled her onto his lap.

“I’m sorry. I’m more sorry. For making you tell such lies. Whether you created those stories or not doesn’t matter at all. Yun-ah, your very existence is what’s precious.”

She was grateful, so grateful.

She wanted to say something, but feeling that words couldn’t fully express her current feelings, instead of answering, she pounced on Charte’s lips.

Unlike her rough gratitude, Charte gently bit her lip and inserted his soft tongue.

At first, he seemed to be teasing with subtle playfulness, but soon he began to move passionately.

Charte explored every corner as if coveting all of her, not missing any spot, infusing her with his heat.

The room was filled only with our excited breathing and dizzying passion.

When her mind began to blur from the intense, deep kiss, she pushed Charte away because she couldn’t bear it anymore.

She laughed seeing how she had messed up Charte’s hair so much that it looked like a bird’s nest.

Although she had barely stopped, it was regrettable to stop here.

Because it was their last night.

But because she had no right to this body, she had to give up at this point.

“I love you, Yun-ah.”

“I love you, Charte.”

For a long time, they just looked at each other without saying anything.

It was sufficiently happy just to breathe in the same space and look at each other without doing anything.

“Don’t come that day. I don’t want you to see me leaving.”

Charte shook his head with a resolute face.

“Charte, I think it won’t be easy for me to leave if I see you. It would be too hard for me, so for my sake, please don’t come.”

She didn’t have the courage to see Charte watching her leave.

She felt she couldn’t bear to see him falling apart.

If she saw such a face, she thought she would cry for the rest of her life.

“I’m sorry, thankful, and I love you, Charte. Meeting you has completed my life. I want to leave in this completed state. I don’t want to leave any gaps.”

Charte tightly closed his eyes without saying anything.

Though he didn’t answer, she knew he would do as she wished.

“You should forget me quickly and love again. Find someone who can walk this lonely path with you, carrying the heavy burden of being an emperor. If I think of you walking this path alone, I don’t think I can be happy even after I return. I’ll take all the pain, sadness, suffering, longing, and regret with me. So you just be happy. Just promise me that one thing.”

Charte shook his head.

“No. Leave behind all the pain, sadness, suffering, longing, and regret. You go back and live as if nothing happened. Don’t worry about me and forget everything that happened here.”

After pouring out all their emotions and feeling exhausted, she fell asleep in Charte’s arms.

When she opened her eyes, Charte’s free hand was blocking the incoming sunlight.

“What time is it now?”

“It seems past noon.”

“What? Why didn’t you wake me? What about your meeting?”

“Skipping one day won’t cause a major issue in the empire. Prime Minister Whyman would have handled it well.”

She glared at him with affection, not really annoyed, and snuggled into his arms.

“I was truly happy. This feeling is enough.”

“Thank you for teaching me so much. Thanks to Yun-ah, I learned what real happiness and real love are. I probably wouldn’t have known until I died if I hadn’t met you. The love you gave me made me grow. And thank you for telling me good stories.”

For a long time, we silently held each other, feeling our hearts and remembering the warmth.