Chapter 1. What Happened That Night

Elia shook her head, which felt as heavy as if a rock had been placed on top of it.

Her eyes were so dry and sticky that she couldn’t even open them properly.

“Ah, mm.”

A sound like a broken flute came from her parched throat.

Water. She needed to drink water.

The first thought that came to mind was the desire to quench her thirst.

Let’s drink water. And then open her eyes properly……

‘Wait?’

Let’s think about this first.

Why is her body in this state?

Suddenly, as if someone had struck her head with a hammer, she realized she had been drinking. And more than her usual limit.

‘She had submitted her resignation, and His Majesty suggested they share a farewell drink.’

A lowly palace civil servant had no ability to refuse the emperor’s command.

‘So in the evening……’

Elia had been on her way to make her routine report after finishing her daily work.

At the end of the report, she told the emperor that she wanted to resign and return to her hometown.

The emperor stopped his quill pen at those words and stared intently at Elia for a long while.

And then he asked.

—Why?

……like that.

Even thinking about it again, it was an emotional reaction.

Where in the world could there be a woman who could continue working normally after hearing that her workplace superior, whom she had harbored unrequited love for a full five years, would soon be getting married?

Moreover, when the emperor gets married, it was obvious that Elia’s workload as a financial administrator would double, no, triple.

But Elia was a realist.

She was also the owner of a timid disposition who couldn’t dare tell the emperor that she had harbored unrequited love for him for a long time, nor that she had planned to return to her hometown anyway when His Majesty got married.

—My father is getting on in years…… He wishes for me to return to my hometown, take in a son-in-law, and give him a grandson.

It was an absolutely perfect excuse.

Even though she was the young lady of a baron family from the provinces with no particular influence, Elia was still the only daughter of a noble family.

What could the emperor do when she said she was returning to her hometown to continue the family line according to her elderly father’s wishes?

The emperor stared intently at Elia again for a long while at those words.

The emperor’s eyes, which were as beautifully colored as cut jewels, looked truly like inanimate objects when no emotion was contained in them.

Anyone who received that gaze would twist their body and become restless from that cold stare. The emperor, who bestowed such a gaze upon Elia, finally smiled lightly.

—I see. If that is your father’s wish, how can I stop you? But it’s regrettable. In that sense, let’s have dinner together this evening. Ah, of course, together with Finance Minister Zeke.

It wasn’t a bad combination for a farewell dinner. Finance Minister Zeke was Elia’s direct superior, and the emperor was her ultimate superior.

Since it was a feast at the imperial palace, the food was delicious and the wine was excellent.

The light conversation that flowed was also impeccable.

Smooth conversation continued about who would be good as Elia’s successor and how far the handover should be completed. Even after the meal, wine glasses continued to be exchanged for quite a while.

The emperor’s attitude was so natural that she felt resentful inside.

Wasn’t he even sad that someone who had worked under him for five years was suddenly leaving? She wondered if she was such a trivial existence to that extent, and her surge of emotion was probably due to the alcohol.

Elia’s memory ended exactly there.

‘How did I get home after that?’

Elia frantically searched through her foggy mind.

“Oh my. Have you already come to your senses?”

A cold, low voice poured over Elia’s consciousness like ice water.

‘Huh?!’

Elia’s head whipped around toward where the voice came from. She turned so quickly that she nearly twisted her neck with an audible crack.

Elia groaned silently as she writhed in pain, and when she tried to bring her hand to her aching neck, that’s when she realized something was terribly wrong.

Her hand wouldn’t move.

“Don’t pull too hard. You’ll hurt your wrist.”

A calm voice without emotion pointed out Elia’s action.

“Ah, I…… ahem.”

“Shall I loosen it a bit? I was wondering if I had tied it too tightly when I bound you.”

“Your, Your Majesty?”

Her vision fully recovered and the emperor came into view.

But the emperor’s appearance made Elia extremely flustered.

“That…… Your Majesty. Why are your clothes……?”

“Is my attire important? If it were me, I would ask about something else first.”

There were certainly many things she wanted to ask.

She clearly remembered drinking and then her memory cutting off at some point, so why was she lying in this luxurious bed?

Why wasn’t the finance minister visible and only His Majesty the emperor was there?

Why were both her hands tied to the bedposts, and so on.

However, the scene before her eyes was too stimulating to voice the numerous questions.

The emperor’s attire as he slowly brought a pewter wine cup to his lips was excessively sensual.

An emperor in a thin silk robe that revealed his silhouette, which was obviously n*ked underneath! And because of the loosely tied waist sash, his chest was completely exposed!

The half-n*ked form of the man she had harbored unrequited love for five years was magnificently stunning.

His broad shoulders and the tightly woven chest muscles were enough to make her face flush.

But now was not the time to drool over that artwork-like body.

“Your, Your Majesty? Did I make an unseemly drunken scene? If you tied me up because of that…… I’m sorry. I’ve committed a mortal sin. But since I seem to have sobered up now, I’d appreciate it if you could untie me.”

As far as Elia knew, her drinking habit was simply falling asleep.

When more than three cups of alcohol entered her system, Elia would fall into a dead sleep regardless of whether she was on the street or anywhere else. At first, people around her laughed, saying they’d seen all kinds of strange drinking habits.

But was today different somehow? Even so, she couldn’t have done anything wrong enough to warrant being tied up, could she?

“A mortal sin…… You did commit a great sin.”

……Or not? Did she do something wrong?

“Your Majesty. If you could tell me what…… wrong I did……”

The emperor narrowed his eyes and stroked his smooth jawline with the hand not holding the wine cup. With an expression as if he were making an evaluation.

“Your wrongdoing is.”

Gulp.

At the emperor’s words that dragged out the ending, dry saliva went down her throat from tension.

Elia became anxious.

She had done something wrong. She must have really made a drunken scene.

How dare she act drunk in front of the emperor. It was shocking.

But still, why?

If she had done something wrong, she should have woken up in prison, so why did she wake up tied to a bed?

The emperor slowly gave an answer to the anxious Elia.

“What you did wrong was building up someone’s expectations, only to let them down.”

“……Huh?”

A stupid question leaked from Elia’s mouth.

What? Building up someone’s expectations, only to let them down?

“Your Majesty?”

When she called the emperor, thinking she had misheard, the emperor smiled slowly. Like a predator with prey in sight.

“Marriage…… marriage. Fine. You’ll take in a son-in-law? Have you already scouted out a suitable man?”

It was an unexpected statement.

Why would the issue of Baron Weiss’s son-in-law suddenly become a topic of discussion while discussing her drunken misconduct?

The emperor’s eyes narrowed as he looked straight at Elia, who was blinking her large eyes like a broken wind-up doll.

“You’re going to run away as soon as I mention selecting an empress?”

The emperor’s final murmur came with a grinding sound of teeth.

Elia felt goosebumps crawling up her spine.

The instincts she had developed over years of working as a civil servant told her:

Now was exactly the time to grovel!

Whatever the situation, as long as she had upset her superior’s mood, apologies had to be quick.

“I’m, I’m sorry, Your Majesty! I was wrong!”

To the emperor’s eyes, Elia’s resignation letter must have looked like irresponsible avoidance.

Of all times, she was running away just before the Foundation Festival and empress selection, leaving behind an administrator. From the emperor’s perspective, it was reasonable to be angry.

It was a bit strange that instead of a reprimand, she was dragged to a bedroom in the middle of the night and tied up, but let’s apologize first.

“I’m sorry. It may sound like an excuse, but I’ve adequately prepared the handover and preparations for my successor. So when I return to my hometown and get married……!”

Crack!

The words “I’ll live quietly like a dead mouse” were never completed.

Because the emperor crumpled the pewter wine cup he was holding like a piece of paper.

Elia blinked her wide eyes.

Was that something that could be easily crushed by human hands like that? That couldn’t be possible, could it?

“……when you get married…… I see. So? Who were you planning to marry?”

The emperor asked as he casually threw the crumpled pewter cup. The flying pewter cup rolled around making a heavy, dull sound.

Elia, who had been staring at it blankly, moved her lips several times before shaking her head.

A man to marry? There was no way such a person existed.

Having nothing to say, she kept her mouth shut, but the emperor seemed to interpret Elia’s silence differently.

“You’ve hidden him so thoroughly that you don’t even want to reveal who he is?”

At his twisted tone, instinctive fear surged up.

Something doesn’t seem right about this?

The emperor approached the bed, staring intently at Elia, who was lightly trembling from the chilling sensation that brushed past the back of her neck.

“Well, I’ll deal with that guy slowly.”

The emperor’s following words were almost a murmur. Elia, who didn’t have the courage to ask about the latter part she couldn’t quite hear, racked her brain.

The alcohol had almost completely worn off now. Looking outside the window, it seemed to be deep at night, and this appeared to be the emperor’s bedroom.

“Your Majesty. If you could tell this ignorant subject what has angered you…… could you perhaps give me a chance to apologize?”

She carefully opened her lips, feeling pressured to say something.

At that question, the emperor, who had been approaching the bed, stopped walking.

“Financial Administrator Elia Weiss. You seem to be mistaken, but I’m not angry.”

“If you’re not angry, then why is this……?”

When she asked while pulling at the rope that tightly bound her hands, the emperor pulled up the corner of his mouth.

It was a manufactured smile, but to Elia, it was an attractive smile that made her heart sink.

“You should have woken up just a little later.”

Before she could ask what that meant, the emperor’s face came closer.

“Your Maj—mmph!”

Hot breath blocked Elia’s call.

It was Elia Weiss’s first kiss in her 23 years of life.

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