“Siara…”

Unable to hold back, Diego firmly gripped Siara’s br*asts. His rigid member emerged menacingly from between his robe. However, a thin but solid wall of ice formed between them.

Siara glared at him with narrowed eyes.

“Trying to smooth things over so easily?”

But the ice melted completely from Diego’s fire. The same happened to the ice awls hovering above her head.

Mounting Siara, he looked down at her.

“Are you protesting that you won’t do this with me anymore?”

“…Yes. You know I’m not young. I’m not at an age where I’d be blinded by love and engage in an affair.”

“Then what should I do?”

Diego lifted her leg and kissed her thigh. Soon, a red kiss mark appeared.

“…Sort it out.”

“With whom?”

“You know…”

Now that he was Emperor, couldn’t he do without an Empress? Siara’s eyes narrowed slyly.

Seeing this, Diego grew desperate. His member already ached painfully. He felt he might die if he couldn’t enter her immediately.

Yet he also found joy in this situation. He was grateful that Siara had come this far when she could have easily fled, and he found her obvious jealousy endearing.

Diego rubbed his member against her entrance.

“I will. I’ll listen to you… Just don’t run away from me.”

Siara touched Diego’s face and kissed his lips. Her face flushed slightly.

“…Where would I go anyway?”

“You have places.”

“Still, being by your side is the best…!”

In that moment, his weapon-like member pushed deep inside. It forced its way into the tight space, stretching it to accommodate his shape. After several urgent thrusts, Siara’s nails dug into his back.

“Hah, ugh…!”

When Siara winced in pain, Diego finally began licking her br*asts. After a few licks, her n*pples hardened. Diego bit the protruding n*pple.

“Stop… Hah.”

Diego’s hand moved downward and gently rubbed her cl*toris. Siara’s body twitched, tightening around him.

“…D*mn.”

Muttering a small curse, Diego placed her legs over his shoulders and began thrusting roughly.

“I wanted to go slowly today… But you’re so tight inside, it’s difficult, Siara.”

“Shut up and finish quickly…!”

“…I said I’m going slowly.”

“Haaah…!”

Though he said he’d go slowly, Diego moved his hips mercilessly. The sensation made her feel like her vaginal walls were being scraped raw by his gl*ns. Diego folded her legs and pushed even deeper. Her legs dangled helplessly over his shoulders.

“Hoo… Siara.”

“Mmph, ugh.”

Tears were now streaming down Siara’s face. He licked her tears and sucked his tongue.

“We’re far from done.”

Diego thrust his member even deeper inside Siara.

“Siara…”

How many times would it take before he tired of her? Such a day would likely never come.

“This is unacceptable! A mere night companion in His Imperial Majesty’s bedchamber? He should be producing an heir with the Empress!”

Marquis Marcel Hart confronted Diego accusingly. Marquis Jenkins, Prince Isaac’s father-in-law, merely watched the situation with amusement. He sided with the Emperor, adding a few words.

“My, my. Marquis Marcel! The Emperor is still young, so his vigor is naturally strong, isn’t it? Hoho.”

Internal conflict was exactly what he desired.

The balding Marquis Marcel pounded his chest.

“If this is the case, at least make her a secondary wife!”

That seemed better than her not leaving the Emperor’s bedchamber. Empress Samantha was determined to behead Siara the moment she left the Emperor’s palace. However, as long as she remained inside, there was nothing that could be done.

Diego responded lukewarmly.

“…I will make a decision soon.”

“Your Majesty! It’s already been three months since you said that!”

“My, only three months have passed? …This requires careful consideration, so please wait a little longer.”

After the meeting ended, Diego walked to his office and casually spoke to his attendant Peter.

“Have you gathered the materials?”

“…Yes, almost.”

“Good. Now I can resolve this.”

Three months. It had been three months since he had been intimate with Siara. She had told him not to touch her until he resolved matters with the Empress. Diego was extremely anxious. Though they shared a bed, he could only see her back every night. Whenever he tried to touch her, ice awls would point at him.

Would she really kill him?

When he moved closer, an ice awl scratched his cheek and embedded itself in the bed. He could have melted it by force, but he didn’t want to.

‘Jealousy…’

He was smiling. It made him incredibly happy that Siara trusted and liked him enough to show her feelings so plainly. So he decided to be patient a little longer. After all, her wish was also his wish.

The next day, all of Marquis Marcel Hart’s misdeeds surfaced.

People around him rose to denounce him. It was the same method used to remove Duke Light, but easier. All his misdeeds were true.

His title and lands were reclaimed by the imperial court, and Samantha was deposed and left the palace.

“The Emperor did such a major thing without even telling me?”

The Empress Dowager clutched her neck. She had accepted Duke Light’s removal since he had good lineage but no substance, but she hadn’t expected her ally Marquis Marcel to be expelled.

She wondered which nobleman she should bring to her side now. She wasn’t sure if anyone would side with Diego after he had rejected her faction.

While the Empress Dowager racked her brain to find other candidates, Diego seemed to have eyes only for Siara.

The angry Empress Dowager grabbed an elderly lady-in-waiting and asked.

“Where is she?”

“Do you mean Lady Annie?”

“Yes! That girl!”

“She should be in the imperial library. I hear she spends a lot of time there.”

The Empress Dowager finally decided to persuade Siara. She planned to offer her a high position among the secondary wives if she would convince her son.

Huffing, she went to the imperial library where Siara was reading a thick book.

“Ahem!”

Siara looked up at the Empress Dowager’s voice. As the Empress Dowager sat across from her, an elderly lady-in-waiting placed tea on the table.

Hiding her face behind a fan, the Empress Dowager glared at Siara with disdainful eyes.

“This time, I’m thinking of welcoming Viscount Rogers’ daughter as Empress, just as you suggested!”

“…Is that so?”

Siara drank the tea the lady-in-waiting had given her. She thought it was perfect timing since she was thirsty.

The Empress Dowager struck the table with her fan, seeing Siara’s composure.

“Do you think I don’t know what you did?”

“…?”

“I’m talking about Samantha’s deposition! The people I planted in the Emperor’s palace told me everything! That you told him to resolve it! By what authority are you manipulating the Emperor from behind?”

“…Diego isn’t weak enough to be manipulated by me.”

“What? Diego? Even I don’t call the Emperor by his name…! How impudent!”

The Empress Dowager vowed to teach Siara a lesson once and for all.

Trembling with anger, she called for knights.

Siara glanced at the book she had been studying intently and spoke.

“I see that Your Highness is the daughter of Count Evans.”

“Yes! My mother was a proper noblewoman.”

“…But did you know that your great-grandmother was a commoner?”

“What?”

The Empress Dowager was shocked.

Siara opened genealogy books of all nobles and pointed to the section marked Evans.

“Look. Your great-grandmother has no surname.”

“…She passed away before I was born, so I don’t know much about her. But why does this…”

“It means that commoner blood flows in your veins too.”

“…What?”

The Empress Dowager’s hands trembled, and seeing this, Siara smiled brightly.

“If Diego and other nobles found out about this… Wouldn’t that be interesting? Don’t you think?”

Immediately, Diego’s legitimacy would be questioned, putting him on equal footing with Prince Isaac.

The Empress Dowager gritted her teeth at Siara’s fox-like smile.

“So? You must want something? A title? Or power?”

She hadn’t expected such blackmail to work. But for the Empress Dowager who was obsessed with bloodlines, it was more than effective. Even minor nobles had a strong sense of privilege, and the imperial family would be even worse.

“Make me Empress.”

When Siara said this with a smile, the Empress Dowager’s face twisted frighteningly.

As soon as those words left her mouth, Siara’s head slumped onto the table.

The Empress Dowager’s lady-in-waiting said.

“…The drug seems to be working well. What shall we do?”

“Bury her alive! So she’ll never be found!”

“Understood.”

The lady-in-waiting called for strong maids waiting outside. Several maids grabbed Siara’s limp arms and legs and carried her out.