“I just thought it was a reasonable thing to ask.”

“What?”

But instead of meeting his eyes, Isabel let her gaze drift downward—from his face to his well-built frame, reclining deep into the train seat, the edges of his collar hiding even the barest hint of skin.

It was the body of a man who ruled the world as his stage. And right now, it was also the only thing in this world that she truly needed.

“As I said before, I have no intention of refusing anything Your Majesty asks of me.”

She felt the weight of his questioning gaze, as if he wanted to ask why. Isabel lifted her head and met his eyes.

“You bought me, after all.”

He had paid the proper price—just as Kailhart himself had once said, in his own words.

“So whatever it is you want—whether it’s what you asked of me last night, or anything else—just tell me.”

There was nothing she would deny him.

“If you want something from me besides sharing your bed, that’s fine as well.”

For a moment, Kailhart was silent, eyes closed, as if he was wrestling with something deep inside.

“I wanted to make you my wife.”

The moment she heard those words, Isabel’s body trembled ever so slightly. The weight of the train rounding a heavy curve pressed up through the seat beneath her, and suddenly the distance between them—which had always felt vague—became unmistakably real.

“I wanted us to truly be… husband and wife.”

Isabel clenched her jaw, staring at a face she could never quite read.

A husband and wife is nothing out of the ordinary in the world of human relationships. But the bond between Kailhart and Isabel was unique.

In the interest of strengthening the empire, Isabel, a fallen princess, was the perfect prize. It showed the entire continent the Emperor’s generosity in embracing the remains of a ruined nation.

It also provided a means of mitigating the stigma of being the late king’s illegitimate offspring — a vulnerability in Kailhart’s lineage that many sought to exploit.

“We may be husband and wife in name, but we can never truly be a real couple.”

The words seemed to shake something at the core of them both. As she looked into his deep, violet eyes, for an instant she saw that same longing gaze he wore above her in bed—desire, vulnerability, and want all tangled together. The memory made her insides twist.

Kailhart’s eyes flickered—just for a heartbeat—but she saw it. It was a fleeting crack in the mask, a raw honesty they never allowed themselves to show.

“How could I possibly dare believe otherwise?”

Isabel was the person closest to Kailhart, yet their hearts were never close. They used each other’s bodies, sometimes borrowed each other’s wit or sight when needed, but that had been the nature of their relationship from the very start.

“You needed someone to play the role of your wife in public. That’s why you chose me, isn’t it?” Even after the wedding, you hinted at it a few times. I remember. So I’ve tried my best to meet your expectations, to fulfill every duty you asked of me.”

Even after the ceremony—even after two years spent trying to bear his child—Isabel had never once considered them truly husband and wife.

Of course not. To her, he was always a conqueror, an invader.

As the train entered another tunnel, it felt as though the entire steel carriage and all its contents were being swallowed by the gaping mouth of a giant snake.

Darkness swallowed them up, leaving only the faint red indicator lights as beacons.

“In the end… you have no one but me.”

There was a desperate edge to his voice—a harshness, like metal scraping against stone.

“You need me, Isabel.”

“Yes, I need you.”

‘I need you—for the sake of the family you destroyed.’

The thought churned in her gut, old rage simmering just beneath her jaw. Feelings so long buried had warped beyond recognition.

“You are the only one I need.”

That was the whole truth. Kailhart was the only one who could give her what she wanted—but that didn’t mean he was her savior.

Kailhart’s expression wavered as he stared at her in silence for a long moment.

“So that’s really all you want from me.”

His face, flushed in the dim red light, twisted faintly with pain.

Isabel forced her lips into a smile.

‘Yes, this is all I have left. Of course it is. Everything I once had—everything I wanted to protect, everything that made me who I am—you destroyed it all.’

So it didn’t matter to Isabel what Kailhart felt when he held her in his arms. It was neither her concern nor her business.

From the beginning, their relationship had always been about a child.

If she could carry out the last wish of her beloved sister by bearing that hope in her womb, there was nothing else she wanted from the world.

Even if her captor wished to play at love, she would have gladly played along.

This was all she had left. If it meant bringing light to pierce through this darkness—no matter how long she had to endure being swallowed whole by the belly of the beast—she could withstand it.

As the train finally emerged from yet another long tunnel, a massive gorge spread out beyond the window.

Beneath the narrow track, there was a sheer, thousand-foot drop, with pitch-black water flowing far below. Just looking at it, Isabel found herself marveling at the effort it must have taken to lay tracks in such a place.

But the moment she carelessly leaned closer to get a better look at the gorge below, a screech of metal sliced through her ears.

A deafening crash followed, and the entire car rattled violently.

‘What—’

She froze as a fierce shock rocked her whole body, but before she could even process what was happening, a strong embrace closed around her.

“Stay with me, Isabel!”

Kailhart’s sharp voice cut through her dazed mind. Her vision wavered.

The landscape outside was tilting vertically.

No—it wasn’t the scenery that was off-kilter, but them.

What had moments ago been a distant, birds-eye view from high ground was now a crimson cliff rushing up to meet them.

The train car they were in had separated from the rest, and was falling.

Crashing—
Down into the gorge below.

Instinctively, Isabel grabbed hold of Kailhart’s arm.

Their compartment was at the very front, just behind the engine, and in that split second before the plunge, she caught a glimpse—through the open cross-section—of their startled attendants’ faces.

“Don’t panic. Hold on to me.”

With his left arm, Kailhart pulled Isabel tightly against him. With his other hand, he sliced the air.

A shimmering violet aura flickered around his body, then swept up and over Isabel, enveloping them both.

A deafening crash split the air, the sound nearly tearing her ears apart as the seats, corridor, ceiling—every part of the frame—were obliterated. Isabel squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for pain, but none came.

When she opened them again, she was unhurt. Not a single bone was broken.

‘How…?’

Her gaze, trembling, swept over the wreckage strewn all around her.

“Your Majesty, what—?”

“Save your questions for later.”

As he said, water was already pouring into the wrecked compartment.

Having landed on the river running through the bottom of the gorge, there was no way they could last long.

The water was rising by the second. As Isabel desperately searched for a way out, her eyes widened in alarm.

Behind Kailhart’s disheveled black hair, something dark lashed out—long and snakelike, creeping toward his back.

‘We have to get away…!’

However, her body was not as quick as her mind. Just as she tried to cry out, Kailhart swept his right hand through the air, tearing open a rift in space. In an instant, he drew a longsword from the void and swung it sharply at the approaching mass.

The black appendage fell away in chunks, severed by the blade. The pieces hit the wet floor and melted into the shadows.

A sharp sting grazed Isabel’s cheek. She’d cut herself on a jagged piece of broken seat as she dodged the tentacle.

Bl＊＊d welled up in a thin red line, but Isabel made no sound.

“Are you hurt?”

“I’m… I’m fine.”

Light shimmered along Kailhart’s sword as he stood between her and the advancing darkness, blue energy slicing through the next wave of shadowy limbs.

Somehow, this all felt strangely familiar to Isabel.

Just like when she’d fallen into the lake…

Just like the night her room was bombed and the intruders came.

That same eerie, sticky sensation climbing up her back.

As she glanced around, searching for an escape, the water inside the compartment rose even faster, suddenly up to her waist.

She scrambled for a way out when, abruptly, the water’s surface rippled. A surge spiraled around her, sending violent waves spinning inwards.

“Ah—”

Her vision wavered as droplets scattered before her eyes, catching the light and splitting into a rainbow of colors.

A sudden realization struck her.

And in that flash, she saw a reflection.

A man with black hair and violet eyes, weighed down by a heavy presence, yet smiling softly and kindly at her…