Eva entered the emperor’s office with her bare feet still wet with soapy water, not having properly put on her shoes. Hannah, who held Eva’s hand covering her eyes and carried Eva’s shoes in her other hand, followed behind.

“You’ve arrived, former empress.”

“I heard you were looking for me.”

“While exploring the castle basement, I found something that surprised me more than the undocumented gold or jewels.”

“The prison…… you mean?”

Even though Divlik didn’t specify, Eva immediately thought of the prison at the word “basement.”

Divlik sat cross-legged on the main seat of the sofa in the center of the office.

“Yes. This city has separate buildings for the knights and the police force. I was curious why there’s something like a prison in the castle basement as well…… Do you know anything about it?”

Eva answered in a voice that conveyed a deep sigh.

“Emperor Fabian used it to imprison servants who worked in the castle.”

“Imprison servants who worked in the castle? Why? If there was a problem, they could be dismissed or imprisoned in the knights’ or police buildings. What reason was there to spoil the atmosphere by imprisoning them in the castle basement?”

After a long hesitation, Eva finally answered.

“Because…… they had committed no crime that warranted imprisonment in the knights’ or police prisons.”

“People were imprisoned despite having committed no crime? Why?”

Eva merely moved her lips without immediately answering, but Divlik seemed to understand. Just as Joseph, notorious for his ferocity, possessed intelligence no less than his brother’s, Emperor Fabian must have been no less than his brother. Fabian, who was said to have treated Eva roughly despite treasuring her like a jewel, would have been worse to the servants.

“They…… broke a teacup I cherished, stepped on the collar of my dress, looked at me for too long. He would imprison people for things not even worth calling crimes.”

When this unexpectedly cruel answer came from Eva’s lips, Divlik muttered with a somewhat dissatisfied expression.

“So you weren’t the only one who was in love.”

“What do you mean……”

“It’s not normal, but it’s the kind of behavior a man blinded by love might do. If he treasured even the things your hands touched and couldn’t allow even another person’s glance, it means Fabian loved you too.”

After finishing his words, Divlik suddenly changed his expression and laughed out loud with an “Hahaha” as if finding it interesting.

“And yet he abandoned you and ran away? Well, it’s not surprising. In the end, when something more important comes along, humans tend to discard promises made to loved ones as if they never made such promises. For Fabian, his own life was more important, wasn’t it?”

While Eva kept her mouth shut, Divlik looked at Hannah and flicked his hand as if beckoning her to come closer. When Hannah approached timidly with a frightened face, Divlik snatched Eva’s shoes from Hannah’s hand, placed them on the table, and then motioned Hannah back.

“Former Empress. Would you come closer?”

Divlik called Eva with a gesture, his eyes gleaming like those of a beast.

Eva followed Divlik’s voice and stepped forward, and when she came close, Divlik immediately caught her by the waist.

“Lord Divlik! What……”

Before the surprised Eva could finish her sentence, Divlik pulled her toward himself and sat her on his lap.

“Why are you acting like this, former empress? I never said I would just leave you alone until the appointed time for us to unite our bodies.”

“But……”

“Don’t you pity that maid? Seeing how quiet the castle is, you must have silenced everyone, huh? How much must she be trembling in fear, unable to tell anyone? What do you think about throwing away the cloak and surrendering to me right here?”

Instead of answering, Eva bit her lips firmly, and Divlik pulled her body close and buried his face in the left side of Eva’s neck.

Even as he licked, bit, and left sticky marks, Eva could feel Divlik’s eyes looking elsewhere. She tried hard not to show any reaction, knowing he was doing this deliberately, but when she heard Finn and Hannah swallowing dry saliva as they watched, she couldn’t help it. To anyone watching, these actions would look like caresses in the bedroom.

“What are you trying to do, Lord Divlik?”

“What do you mean? I’m only trying to put your shoes on. It’s because you keep treating me like a beast that these things happen.”

Divlik exhaled deeply as if feeling wronged, then licked her ear after her neck and whispered in Eva’s ear.

“Why? Should I tear your clothes off right here?”

After a laugh that didn’t sound happy at all, Divlik went further and left lip marks on Eva’s collarbone and the upper part of her chest exposed above her dress.

“Hah.”

“Do you know? Wolves love only one female for their entire lives. Not only do they not love another female when their loved one dies, but there are cases where they don’t leave the place where the female died and starve to death. So if we’re talking about a wolf, even a beast is better than a person.”

“Lord Divlik, please stop……”

Eva called Divlik with a plaintive voice asking to be released, and Divlik laughed with a voice that felt empty.

“Is the emperor who abandoned and left you still in your mind?”

“Lord Divlik……”

“The more I think about it, the more it infuriates me. While I was fighting a war, I can’t even remember when I last embraced a woman, let alone love. That man had held this body, which I can finally claim, countless times.”

In an instant, as his voice seemed to fade away, Eva’s b*ttocks were lifted slightly into the air before landing on the table.

Eva couldn’t help but be momentarily surprised by Divlik’s action of lightly wrapping her waist and moving her body, but she soon regained her composure. As if his words about putting on her shoes weren’t a lie, Divlik pulled both of Eva’s feet onto his lap.

“Your feet have gotten dirty. There was no need to rush here like this.”

Divlik rubbed Eva’s feet against his thigh to brush off the dirt on them. With her knees bent, her dress skirt flipped toward her body, exposing the petticoat that was the only thing covering the area between her thighs to Divlik’s eyes.

If her legs spread just a little more, there would be space for Divlik’s body to enter. Divlik, who had paused for a moment, licked the top of Eva’s foot, and when Eva let out a startled moan, Divlik got down from the chair and moved between Eva’s legs.

Could he possibly intend to finish it here?

Eva’s knees were now on Divlik’s shoulders, her feet suspended in the air, with Divlik’s face between her thighs. Eva deliberately turned her head away, not looking at him, but she knew where Divlik’s gaze was fixed. It was on her center beyond the petticoat pants.

“Divlik…… Ah! Lord Divlik……”

But what Eva felt before that gaze was something wet touching that place. The clean, dry petticoat pants began to slowly dampen from the outside. Through the completely wet cloth, she could clearly feel a poking sensation. She knew it was Divlik’s tongue.

Finding the piece of cloth blocking his tongue annoying as he tried to dig deeper, Divlik pushed the petticoat pants aside and was about to put his mouth directly on Eva’s p*ssy.

“Ah! Lord Divlik!”

When the startled Eva flailed her feet and grabbed her hair, Divlik’s blue eyes peeked up from between her thighs and looked up at her.

“Why are you so surprised? It’s just this much.”

“Please…… stop. Haa…… please.”

Eva tried to appear composed, but it wasn’t easy. Not only was she surprised, but she could fully feel Divlik’s tongue exploring her center through the cloth. Perhaps the wetness on her underwear wasn’t just Divlik’s fluids.

If Divlik had removed the cloth even once and put his mouth directly on that place, Eva would have done more than just breathe heavily. She would have let out strange moans that would have sounded like they belonged in a bedroom. Perhaps before pulling back slightly just now, Divlik had noticed that Eva’s place had swollen a bit from the stimulation.

In any case, Divlik seemed to like some of Eva’s reactions, including her momentarily ragged breathing, and smoothly came out from between her legs to put shoes on Eva’s feet. Eva calmed her trembling chest and felt relieved, and at that moment, her legs spread apart at once, and Divlik’s body slipped between them. Eva couldn’t even breathe.

“I don’t understand why you keep feeling relieved in front of me. Is it okay to let your guard down so easily in front of a beast? You never know how you’ll be devoured.”

Divlik’s breath against her ear had become hotter than before.

Devour? Would he really remove her underwear right here where people were present and lick that place until Eva trembled and tilted her head back?

Eva wanted to say something, feeling that if she didn’t speak, the heat emanating from Divlik’s body would completely envelop her. But Eva couldn’t think of any special words to calm him. As Divlik’s body slowly sank to the floor, Eva had to consider asking him to at least send the people away if the situation was unavoidable.

At least send out those two people over there who didn’t know where to look and were pretending not to see.

“You definitely respond better when people are around than when we’re alone. Was this your preference? I suppose that space in the public garden was meant for you, former empress.”

Fortunately, that was as far as it went. Divlik, who had knelt on the floor, left a deep kiss mark on the inside of Eva’s thigh and then backed away.

“While I quite like your troubled face, if you make such a face at just this much, what kind of face will you make on that night?”

Eva couldn’t easily exhale even at those words from Divlik. She feared that even her breath might irritate Divlik and become another stimulus.