“Ha, the Empress’s lady-in-waiting.”

He laughed pleasantly for the first time in a while. It was like the laugh of a child who had discovered an amusing toy. He stared at the herbal tea she had left behind for a moment before reaching out and taking a sip.

Even after that, he didn’t leave the cabin until he had emptied the cup. He quite liked the herbal tea that smelled like her. And this small, cozy cabin too.

Come to think of it, I didn’t even ask her name.

Dade suddenly became very curious about the black-haired woman.

Nian didn’t remember clearly how she had made it back to the East Palace after his teasing.

Had she cried? No, she thought she might have laughed quietly. When he approached with a peaceful expression—always remembered in her mind with a cold face—she felt endlessly distant. She had almost burst into tears.

And the moment she realized that the person she had always waited for couldn’t even remember her, the hot feelings boiling inside her instantly cooled. She thought her heart had been trampled and crushed over the long years, but apparently not.

She was still hoping, and he, as expected, didn’t acknowledge her. In a way, that was fortunate. She was grateful that he had discarded even the last thread of her heart without caring.

Finally, Nian hated him. She felt resentful, but that was just disappointment toward someone who didn’t consider her feelings, never actual hatred.

If she were to truly hate him, she felt she would completely fall apart. Despite everything, she had never hated him.

‘It doesn’t matter anymore.’

Nian smiled bitterly.

After that day, Nian met Dade again the very next day. Annoyingly, Dade had returned to the herb garden.

In fact, he too was puzzled by his own return to this shabby, insignificant place. But the night sky he had seen during his late-night walk had been so beautiful that it reminded him of her eyes.

And when he actually met her dark eyes here, they indeed shone like the moon and were cool.

Nian stared at him with a dry expression as he entered the cabin, then lowered her eyes and spoke.

“What brings you here?”

“You don’t seem very pleased to see me.”

Despite Dade’s light tone, Nian simply turned around and continued the work she had been doing at the workbench. Dade looked at her back with disbelief.

“Have you perhaps forgotten who I am?”

“That’s what I wish, but unfortunately, I know. Is it Your Majesty who has forgotten…… who I am?”

Her voice trembled slightly on the last sentence, but Nian continued her work without showing emotion. Only the small clattering sounds echoed in the old cabin.

Dade had approached behind Nian.

“Though you are the Empress’s person, you’re a lady-in-waiting, and your behavior seems too disrespectful.”

Though he was saying something unpleasant, he was somehow smiling. He grabbed her shoulders and turned her around. Then he stared intently into her eyes as they finally faced each other fully.

She was truly an incomprehensible woman even upon second glance.

Unfamiliar yet familiar, plain yet beautiful, cold yet cozy. A strange woman who possessed all these contradictory qualities. That’s why their first meeting felt like a dream to him, hazy and distant.

After looking up at his eyes for a moment, Nian finally lowered her gaze and spoke.

“From now on, it would be better if you didn’t come in person when you need something, but instead send someone to order it.”

“If it’s something I need, didn’t I mention it yesterday?”

Despite Nian’s discomfort, he responded without concern. His tone was playful, but his eyes grew even darker.

“Yes. But you also said it was something I could never provide.”

Seeing Nian respond without backing down to his words, he somehow found himself chuckling.

Should he call her brave? Or perhaps bold?

With mischief in his heart, he grabbed a strand of her hair that he had been craving madly and kissed it. The herb scent permeated even to the tips of her hair, making it quite regrettable when he had to let go.

“What’s your name?”

“Ilena.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Nian murmured her old name that had barely come to mind.

Her cherished old name from before she became Empress and received the name Nian, the name she was called in her family. Dade might have heard it before, so she partly hoped he would remember, harboring a vain expectation.

However, making such expectations meaningless, Dade merely smiled slightly. Nian unconsciously bit her lip lightly.

“Quite a common name, isn’t it?”

“Have you heard it before?”

“Well, perhaps sometime?”

You, being clever, remember quite a lot. Just that I’m not among those memories. You probably remember many Ilenas.

Nian smiled bitterly. Dade looked at that smile with a strange expression.

“The more I see you, the stranger you are. You.”

“……”

“You smile with a face that looks like it’s about to cry.”

At his words, Nian immediately removed her smile. It was too precious to show to a thoughtless man who didn’t know why she might cry.

“Could you give me a cup of tea? I’ve been tired all day.”

“If all you need is a cup of herbal tea, then certainly.”

Nian answered while gently pushing away Dade who kept coming closer.

“It sounds like you won’t give me anything else.”

Nian raised her eyes toward Dade, who didn’t back away despite her pushing but rather moved even closer.

“So, do you intend to take it by force?”

“If you insist on not giving it, gladly.”

“!”

Inwardly, Dade was also regretting this moment. He had wrapped his arm around Nian’s waist as she flared up, pulled her close, and without realizing it, kissed her bold lips.

It was a foolish act, but Dade didn’t withdraw his lips. Instead, he embraced Nian’s waist more firmly as she struggled and stole her lips.

Nian twisted her body, applying force with her hands, and kept her lips tightly closed, refusing to yield. He teased her firmly closed lips with the tip of his tongue, then sucked on her lower lip and bit it lightly.

At that moment, Nian’s lips parted in surprise, and his tongue invaded without hesitation. Holding the struggling Nian firmly, Dade finally enjoyed her sweet scent that he had stolen.

Nian was pushed backward by Dade’s overwhelming strength. As she moved backward, he advanced. Only when she became dizzy from lack of breath due to his forceful kiss did he remove his lips. Then he lightly kissed her neck as her chest heaved from breathlessness and whispered.

“You smell of herbs too.”

Despite Nian’s struggles, Dade gave her one more brief kiss before finally releasing her.

Once her hands were free, Nian slapped his disrespectful cheek. Having done it instinctively, she was inwardly shocked.

Heavens, striking the Emperor!

Nian’s chest heaved as indignation and fear tangled within her. With each deep breath she took, she felt his scent and couldn’t bear it, biting her lip tightly.

For a moment, his eyes hardened coldly. His blue eyes pierced through Nian’s black ones. She reacted with a start, unable to hide her surprised feelings.

“This is the first time in my life someone has slapped my cheek. You’re prepared to take responsibility, I assume?”

Nian clenched her trembling hand and answered, borrowing his words.

“Gladly.”

Her voice trembled slightly at the end, unable to fully hide her fear. Dade smiled somewhat dangerously and spoke.

“I’ll look forward to it.”

The old cabin door creaked behind him as he turned away silently.

* * *

“Aren’t you going to the herb garden today either?”

Azel asked worriedly as Nian took a spoonful of her breakfast.

“Well……”

Nian hesitated before answering. Seeing her like this, Azel tilted her head curiously.

“You insisted on going when I tried to stop you before…… Did something happen?”

At Azel’s concerned meddling, Nian swallowed a sigh that was about to escape and rose from the table. Azel stood up too, asking if she was done eating, but Nian raised her hand to gently decline and headed to her bedroom.

She intended to lie down for a while. The headache that had persisted since that day worsened at Azel’s words. Nian no longer visited the herb garden.

The fragrant place that had been her only sanctuary had now become an unbearably painful location for her. Dade’s meddling was infinitely unpleasant.

‘So easily…… How ridiculous.’

He had thoroughly ignored her. For five years, she had waited consistently by his side, but he hadn’t granted her a single thread of affection or a single glance. Realizing that what had been desperate for her was just a trivial matter he would allow even to a woman he had met only twice made her hate him more.

‘I hate you. Dade.’

Emotions rose to her throat, rippling as if about to overflow, but cruelly, not a single tear flowed. Nian raised her hand and touched her lips.

Annoyingly, his lips, which had stolen hers without permission, were unbearably soft. When she recalled that kiss from that day—something he would never have allowed her on that day—Nian tightly closed her eyes.

The hatred that slowly poisoned her like an autumn viper had already invaded deep into her heart.

The faded herb scent on her pillowcase no longer provided comfort. She resented Dade immensely for taking away even her last sanctuary.

Though she desperately wished to fall asleep, sleep never came, yet Nian remained lying in bed without getting up. The upcoming royal ball suddenly came to mind, but today she had no desire to work at all.

Meanwhile, Dade couldn’t hide his displeasure at his inexplicably tangled feelings. Even in his peaceful daily routine, an unknown irritating feeling occasionally pricked him like a thorn stuck in his heel.

Ah…… Yes, he admitted it. It was because of her, the woman from the herb garden.

The beautiful, cold woman who hadn’t shown even a strand of hair since that kiss.

Somehow familiar, she had shaken him from the first time he saw her, and eventually made him reach out and take her. He kept thinking about her.

The reason was probably the “debt” she owed him. Slapping the Emperor’s cheek—it was beyond impudence, and he had been displeased about it the entire time.

If not for that, he wouldn’t have cared about a mere lady-in-waiting of the Empress. Despite saying she would gladly take responsibility, contrary to her words, she no longer appeared at the herb garden afterward.