At the same time, Divlik’s hand, sitting at his office desk, reached the last page of a thick report. Finn, seated at the auxiliary desk, noticed that Divlik had finished checking the documents and added an explanation.

“As you can see, there are twenty-five territories divided on the map. Currently, only seven noble families remain, and eighteen territories can be distributed by granting separate titles.”

“Good work.”

The report in Divlik’s hand was a document summarizing the territorial information of the Yarden Empire. It contained details about who ruled which region, what specialty products each area had, and population figures. Finn had organized it conveniently from north to south, in order of location.

<Floropel: Southernmost part of the continent, largest cotton producer.>

As if regretting that the document ended there when there should have been one more page after this, Divlik hesitated to turn the last page. Not noticing this hesitation, Finn stood up and approached him.

“Have you already figured out all the current finances?”

“According to these documents, yes. Seeing how the treasury here is overflowing, I’d say there’s probably more than what’s on paper, not less.”

After glancing at the document Divlik was writing on, Finn was surprised by the numbers written there. It seemed that while Fabian might have neglected other matters, he had diligently collected taxes from each territory.

“Is there this much?”

“I had guessed from the appearance of this castle, but the Frentz imperial family was in an even more affluent state than I expected.”

“Fabian was certainly a stupid man. With this money, he could have hired so many mercenaries from other continents.”

Finn shook his head at the document as if Fabian himself were contained within those numbers.

“Well, it’s fortunate for us. We can hold your imperial coronation ceremony very grandly without having to save anything.”

“Grandly?”

When Divlik responded as if it didn’t matter to him at all, Finn jumped up again.

“What’s with that dispirited answer, Lord Divlik? Really. Were you planning to just get it over with if I hadn’t brought it up?”

Even before discussing whether to hold it grandly, for Divlik, the coronation ceremony was one of those things he wasn’t sure was necessary at all. Not holding a coronation ceremony wouldn’t make Divlik any less the Emperor of the Yarden Empire.

“That’s not possible! You need to hold an impressive, splendid, and altogether magnificent coronation ceremony that will be remembered for generations to come!”

“Yes, I suppose I should.”

However, there was a need to imprint the fact that he had become Emperor in the minds of everyone.

To the people of the world.

—I was the Empress.

And to Eva as well.

* * *

As Eva’s rain-soaked clothes clung to her body, revealing her figure completely, the gazes of those who had taken shelter under the castle gate to avoid the rain grew more lewd. Eva, trembling like an aspen tree, thought all of this was fitting. That it happened to rain heavily at this time, that she was being violated by their eyes, that everything imposed on her was all deserved.

Eva released her hands that had been wrapped around her shoulders. She wished to be washed away by this rain. If she could disappear without leaving a trace, it would be good for everyone. But such a thing couldn’t happen.

The sound of rain pouring down as if trying to bore a hole in the ground suddenly changed strangely just around her.

“Are you still not thinking of pretending to give in and taking my hand?”

Divlik’s voice, which she hadn’t noticed approaching because it was masked by the sound of rain, came from very close. It seemed Divlik wasn’t using an umbrella, as apart from the sound of rain outlining his body shape, there was no other sound of rain being blocked.

“What are you truly trying to protect? Your body will be torn apart without making a sound no matter whose hands you fall into. What’s your reason for trying to protect it to this extent?”

The anger that had made Divlik cast Eva out here just now, and that had made him draw his sword against her just before, had disappeared without a trace. Instead, a small warmth seeped into Divlik’s voice as it penetrated through the sound of rain.

Could he be feeling pity for me standing here like this?

“I’ve already given you my answer.”

With Divlik’s presence somehow feeling only faintly perceptible as it dissolved into the rain, Eva answered in a voice more resolute than ever before.

“Ah…… yes. You said you could never accept someone like me.”

The laugh that followed sounded so empty that even Eva, who heard it, felt drained enough to want to give up everything.

“But what can I do?”

However, Divlik’s gaze that reached Eva after the laugh bore emotions completely opposite to what Eva had sensed in his voice. He stared so intensely that it seemed he would pierce through Eva’s face more forcefully than the rain. Divlik’s gaze, which had lingered on Eva’s face for a long time, fell to the ground along with the rain.

“Just as the imperial throne is mine, you are already mine.”

A laugh that lingered long with its slow delivery was cut off, and then his gaze reached her again. The nights of sleeplessness due to something remaining seemed to be no trivial matter. Feeling more moisture in that gaze than in the rain, Eva bit her lip.

This vulnerable energy occasionally felt from someone infinitely strong who would yield to no one weakened Eva’s heart more than threats of life and death, or mockery accompanied by deliberate undressing and touching.

For a moment, Eva wanted to ask what his reason was for trying to break her down to this extent. What exact form of submission did he want from a woman like her who was already a trophy, whose very state was already submission, that he was putting in so much effort?

“Lord Divlik. I was wondering where you went. Why are you standing in the rain like this?”

At that moment, Finn’s urgent voice broke Eva’s contemplation. From the sound of pitter-patter above Divlik’s head, it seemed he had brought an umbrella.

“Finn.”

“Yes, Lord Divlik.”

“We need to send someone to the Western Grand Duchy.”

“Someone? What for this time……”

“Tell them I want to meet in person.”

“Are you planning to go yourself?”

“Yes. Go there in person. And bring back the neck of that rat hiding there.”

Along with his words about taking action personally, Divlik’s blue eyes sparkled with murderous intent as he looked at Eva. As if he would grip and erase even the remaining traces of Fabian within her.

* * *

“When will this ever end?”

Western Grand Duchy’s capital, ‘Elan.’ In the most secluded corridor at the end of Elan Castle, where darkness had begun to fall early due to gathering clouds.

“It’s not even night yet. I don’t understand what he’s doing, acting like a dog in heat since broad daylight.”

Under the faint last rays of sunlight that seeped in, emerald eyes flashed brightly.

Fabian van Frentz. As Divlik had expected, Fabian was here. Dressed in a glossy silk shirt and a well-fitted uniform, looking exactly like an Emperor as before.

“Ah, Grand Duke.”

From the slightly open door of the Grand Duke’s bedroom came continuous moans of a man and woman intoxicated with each other’s bodies. Occasionally, the woman’s cries of pleasure on the bed were so loud that they filled the empty corridor, forcing the knights standing guard at the door to swallow painful breaths.

“Is he doing this on purpose?”

Fabian kept biting his nails anxiously as if he couldn’t hear those sounds.

It had been several hours since he arrived at the door. It wouldn’t be strange to suspect that the Grand Duke had instructed women to put on an act because he didn’t want to talk to Fabian.

Is it even possible? To be at it for hours?

It had been days since the Grand Duke had been avoiding proper conversation. This was clearly a trick to prevent Fabian from barging in by flinging the door open.

Before Fabian could grab the doorknob, the door opened with a click. The women leaving the bedroom through that door, barely dressed, were not just one or two. Fabian opened the bedroom door as if he had been waiting and entered.

“It wasn’t just one woman? How many…… were you really doing this the entire time?”

After all the women had left, Fabian entered the bedroom and exclaimed in disbelief. Joseph faced Fabian with his back turned, wearing nothing, proudly displaying his back and buttock muscles that were cracked like a drought-stricken field.

“What do you mean hours? Little brother, it’s been since sunset yesterday.”

“All day doing that……”

“Why? Are you jealous? If you want, I can bring anyone from the annex for you.”

Joseph filled a transparent crystal glass on the bedside table with water and drank it in one go, then turned to face Fabian with a majestic gesture. He looked confident in his n*ked body, as if it wasn’t just because Fabian was his brother.

“I don’t need that. I don’t need any other woman except Eva.”

“The Emperor of the empire fussing over one woman.”

Joseph shook his head as if appalled. It wasn’t behavior appropriate to show before Fabian, who had been the Emperor of Yarden in name, but Fabian didn’t mind Joseph’s rudeness either.

“Have you heard the rumors?”

“What rumors?”

“They say Eva was walking around in mourning clothes. So everyone thinks I’m dead. When are you going to help me reclaim Yarden!”

Fabian asking this looked so immature that he seemed more like Joseph’s son than his brother. As a result, it was Joseph rather than Fabian who appeared to possess what could be called dignity.

“Do you really have some plan when you told me to retreat? I just can’t understand no matter how much I think about it.”

“Haven’t you ever thought that needing to be told everything explicitly is the problem?”

“What?”

Fabian burst out angrily, but Joseph showed no particular reaction as he put on a robe that had fallen to the floor and tied the waist string.

“Do you know which nobles have died in Yarden now?”

“How would I know?”

“At least it’s certain that all those nobles who gave you headaches by making various excuses not to pay taxes on time are dead.”

“Really? Ah, is that why you said to leave it? To sweep away all the disobedient nobles in this opportunity?”

Fabian’s mood improved immediately, and he sat down heavily in a nearby chair, his straight, neat golden hair swaying.

“Aren’t you grateful? They’ve taken care of all the disobedient nobles for us.”

Joseph sat in the chair opposite Fabian, crossing his legs and resting one arm on the armrest. Sitting face to face in similar spots highlighted the difference in their physiques. Though their faces looked identical as if stamped from the same mold, Joseph’s body appeared almost twice the size of Fabian’s.

“What about Eva then? Why did you tell me to leave Eva behind? Whether we reclaim it or not, you should have brought Eva with us. Do you know how anxious I’ve been worrying that something might happen to Eva?”

This was the desperate and urgent matter that had Fabian pacing outside the door and biting his nails. More than rumors of his own death, he was unbearably concerned about rumors that Eva had survived by offering her body to the conqueror.

“If you were so anxious, you should have brought her with you.”

Joseph sneered as if Fabian’s complaints were absurd.