“If your ex-girlfriend came back and asked to get back together, would you meet her?”

“Not now, I wouldn’t meet her.”

“Really? You seem to have moved on quite a bit. I’m jealous.”

“Would you meet him if he contacted you, Yun-ah?”

She downed a shot of clear soju with a bitter expression, feeling miserable that she couldn’t possibly receive any contact.

Strangely, drinking with Ji-hoon made the alcohol taste sweet.

“Ah~! That’s good. He won’t contact me.”

“But what if he did?”

“Then I’d meet him. I would. I want to see him. But he won’t contact me. No, he can’t ever contact me.”

“You fool! You always call me a fool, but you’re the real fool. If he contacts you again, you should reject him with a bang.”

“I didn’t break up because my feelings changed, but because I had no choice.”

“Still, if he really loved you, he shouldn’t have let you go. And that man should have held onto you.”

“I wanted to, but it seemed like we couldn’t be happy, but if I had known it would be this hard, I think I should have lived selfishly without caring about others.”

“Yun-ah, don’t meet him even if he contacts you now.”

She was surprised when Ji-hoon’s face suddenly lost its drunkenness, his eyes shining as he spoke with a determined expression.

“Meet me instead. I’ll treat you well and become an even better person than I am now. I’ll help you forget that person completely.”

“Are you drunk? Why are you suddenly like this?”

“It’s not sudden. My feelings changed quite a while ago. I’ve just been hiding it because I wanted to keep meeting you. Now I want to hold your hand and stop you from hurting anymore.”

She knew she should refuse right away, but she couldn’t readily answer.

Because she felt less pain when she was with Ji-hoon, she had a momentary selfish thought.

It seemed like she would feel more comfortable if she took Ji-hoon’s outstretched hand.

Though she couldn’t forget Charte no matter who she met, the bad thought that having someone else by her side might make the pain more bearable made her hesitate to answer.

She felt she couldn’t bear being alone again.

* * *

After receiving Yun-ah’s last message, Charte returned to his daily routine.

It was difficult, but he couldn’t take Yun-ah’s final request lightly.

He wanted to properly fulfill everything Yun-ah had wished for.

So he was living only as an emperor, buried in work, breathing with an expressionless face.

To those around him, it seemed like a machine moving rather than a person, having lost all vitality, which caused great concern.

Catano and Rad, not knowing what was happening, thought the emperor and empress had grown distant and were contemplating ways to reconcile them.

Prime Minister Whyman and Ivester, who had visited Charte to report on the next year’s budget, came out with regretful faces.

“I would like to speak privately.”

At the Prime Minister’s words, Ivester followed him to his office.

The Prime Minister instructed an attendant to bring tea and leaned back in his chair with a tired face.

After a silence, when the attendant had left the tea and gone, Ivester carefully spoke up.

“Are you going to just keep watching like this?”

“What else can we do?”

“What does Leila say?”

“I can’t figure that child out at all. She won’t come out of the library. I think you met her recently, did she say anything?”

“You know Leila isn’t the type to tell me every little detail. She just expressed some irritation, saying she hadn’t even gotten married but had to get divorced first.”

Prime Minister Whyman sighed with a troubled face.

“Is it perhaps better that she’s in the library rather than pushing for a divorce?”

Since Leila’s return, Prime Minister Whyman had aged ten years, as if he had faced all the storms with his face.

Ivester shifted the topic to Charte, another major concern.

“By the way, I’m worried His Majesty the Emperor might become seriously ill.”

Prime Minister Whyman nodded, stroking his newly grown beard.

“There’s no solution for that either. I’m ashamed of my incompetence, unable to resolve anything, and want to step down.”

“What are you saying? Everyone is enduring because you remain steadfast, Prime Minister.”

As Whyman shook his head with a weary face, Ivester asked a question with a troubled expression.

“At least during the time with Yasrin before, he seemed like a living person, unlike now, right? He had vitality, passion, and heat overflowing, correct?”

“I don’t know what kind of paradox this is, but he seemed much better when he was a tyrant. Back then, he was busy trying to kill others, but now I can’t relax because His Majesty the Emperor himself seems in danger.”

“To be honest, I’m worried something serious might happen to His Majesty at this rate.”

“I feel the same. Having already committed a great sin, I can’t even advise him to take a new empress or concubine like before, which is quite troubling.”

Prime Minister Whyman, feeling guilty about the incident where Leila had switched souls and left, had submitted his resignation, but it was rejected.

Rather, he was told that if he felt guilty about the incident, he should compensate with his abilities instead of thinking about resting comfortably, essentially receiving a life sentence as Prime Minister.

Charte, who had been able to meet Yun-ah because of what Leila had done, was inwardly grateful, but outwardly showed no indication and was able to easily keep Prime Minister Whyman in his position.

“It seems we need to come up with some measures. Think deeply about it. You would understand the heart of a man who has experienced separation better than an old man like me, wouldn’t you?”

Just as Ivester was unable to hide his embarrassment, an attendant knocked and entered with an announcement.

“Her Majesty the Empress has arrived.”

Prime Minister Whyman and Ivester exchanged surprised glances.

This was the first time Leila had come to see them directly since her return.

After exchanging greetings with Leila who had entered, they sat down.

“Though I was never really an empress, I’ve come today not as an empress but as Leila Whyman, so please treat me comfortably.”

Prime Minister Whyman and Ivester nodded.

“I have something I’d like to discuss with Father.”

Prime Minister Whyman and Ivester tensed up, seeing that Leila’s eyes looked unusual.

After Leila finished speaking and left, Prime Minister Whyman was dumbfounded.

She had said it was a discussion, but it was closer to an announcement.

Leila, with a bright face as if she had put down a heavy burden, made her way to the emperor’s palace.

Charte looked at her with a surprised expression at her sudden visit.

“What brings the empress here without any prior notice?”

“Your face looks quite haggard, Your Majesty. I can’t even ask how you’ve been.”

“Thank you for your concern.”

“Your Majesty, do you remember what I asked of you before?”

“Of course. Didn’t you ask to postpone the divorce?”

“Yes. I needed time, so I made that request. And now I think I’ve found the answer, so I’d like to make a proposal to Your Majesty. If you like the proposal, would you help me?”

“Tell me. If it’s what the empress wants, I’ll help unconditionally.”

“I want to go back.”

Charte looked at Leila with a face that didn’t understand what she meant, urging her to continue.

“I mean I want to go to Yun-ah’s world.”

Surprise gradually spread in Charte’s eyes, and his voice trembled.

“Empress, what do you mean?”

“I want to switch bodies with Yun-ah again. So there’s something I’d like Your Majesty to help me with. Can you help?”

A happy expectation appeared on Charte’s face for the first time in a long while as a thrill ran through his entire body.

“Of course. I’ll help in every way I can.”

A refreshing smile spread smoothly across Leila’s face.

* * *

She asked Ji-hoon for time.

She felt self-loathing for using such a cowardly and weak method, but she had no choice.

She didn’t have the courage to readily give up the comforting time.

But from that night on, whenever she fell asleep, Charte appeared in her dreams.

Though blurry, it was definitely Charte.

He hadn’t shown even the tip of his nose when she was suffering and missing him so much, but after receiving Ji-hoon’s confession, Charte unfailingly appeared whenever she fell asleep.

As if he had been watching all along.

She, who had spent most nights wide awake, began to make every effort to sleep from that day on.

Some days with alcohol, some days with the help of medicine.

Nothing mattered as long as she could fall asleep.

The Charte in her dreams just looked at her and did nothing, but that was enough.

Moreover, compared to his initially blurry face, Charte’s face became clearer as time passed.

Of course, every morning after seeing Charte, she had to wake up in tears, but it was still good.

Waking up was so painful that she even thought she wanted to sleep forever.

All her countless promises to herself—that she was fine now, that she could overcome the separation, that she could live well alone—flew far away because of these dreams.

Time had passed, but she was not fine at all, had not overcome the separation, and could not live well alone.

One person stuck in the past was enough.

She didn’t want to drag someone else down and roll in the mud together.

After three weeks, she contacted Ji-hoon and met him.

She handed Ji-hoon a full glass of alcohol.

“I’ll pay today.”

We talked about what had happened during the three weeks as if nothing had happened, and laughed meaninglessly at meaningless words.

She tried to speak her mind several times, but Ji-hoon kept changing the subject without pause.

Unable to find an opportunity to speak, she finally called Ji-hoon’s name with a serious expression.

“Ji-hoon.”

Ji-hoon exhaled as if he had no choice, sending a regretful look that told her not to say it.

“I came out today to give you an answer.”

Ji-hoon poured alcohol into her empty glass and his own, then parted his lips with difficulty.

“Yun-ah, I’m sorry for rushing and making things difficult for you. I think I was impatient because the time we spent together was comforting. It’s pathetic that I fell in love while talking about the pain of rejection, isn’t it?”

“No. I felt the same way. I received a lot of comfort thanks to you, and our time together was good. But it seems too early. Even now as I sit here, I’m thinking of that person, so how could I accept your feelings? I don’t want to deceive you for my own comfort. You’re already a good friend to me.”

She raised her glass and looked at Ji-hoon, who clinked his glass against hers.

The way home after losing a comrade in heartbreak was a bit lonely.

The thought of having to send someone away for this reason again made her feel lonely.

It seemed that without Charte, neither happiness nor loneliness would ever be filled.

Suddenly, she felt resentful toward Charte.

“He’s an emperor, so he’ll remarry and have an heir someday. While I’ll grow old as a solitary elderly person. That jerk…… But why do I miss my jerk so much?”

After washing up and entering her room, she opened another can of beer.

“I drank a lot earlier, so one more can and I should be able to sleep.”

After emptying one can, she lay in bed and prayed to fall asleep quickly.

After tossing and turning for a while, she dozed off, and Charte appeared without fail.

“Yun-ah!”

For the first time, she heard his voice.