“Arsen?”

“I suppose my wife is quite shy.”

With a few touches of his hand, her dress loosened and then collapsed in a heap on the floor.

“You would be embarrassed to do this outside. Even if there’s no one around.”

“Arsen!”

Lydia tried to turn to face Arsen, but she failed as he swiftly lifted her up. Arsen laid her down on the hammock.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m in the middle of explaining. The reason why this hammock is installed inside.”

The more she struggled to get up, the more the hammock swayed and the cloth entangled her body. Holding the hammock to prevent it from flipping over, Arsen looked down at Lydia with a pleasantly curved smile.

However, his eyes flashed like those of a predator who had found a toy.

Ah. Only then did Lydia realize why this hammock had to be installed inside the house. On the unfamiliar hammock, Lydia couldn’t control her body.

She couldn’t even push away the snake-like touch that crawled up her legs and lifted her thin chemise.

This was a trap. A trap Arsen had set to devour her.

“Let me down.”

“Why not enjoy it a little more?”

“How am I supposed to enjoy anything here—, ah, stop, it tickles.”

Arsen’s touch, which had trapped her in the hammock and was tickling her all over, grew increasingly intimate. The house, which had initially been filled with Lydia’s laughter, was now filled with her rapid breathing.

Arsen thoroughly tasted Lydia, who was flailing inside the hammock, with his hands and lips. Her body swayed, her mind swayed. After her vision burst white and then flickered black several times, Lydia, now limp, panted from exhaustion.

“Ah, Arsen, no, no more, please?”

“You still seem unsatisfied.”

Unsatisfied? Unsatisfied!

Lydia had felt more than enough of the dizzying sensation that shot up to the top of her head. If anyone was unsatisfied, it must be Arsen.

“I’m dizzy, Arsen. Let’s go to the bed now.”

“The sun is still up, I’m not sure if that’s appropriate.”

Going to bed isn’t allowed, but this is? He was clearly teasing her. But what could she do? This was a game that the physically weaker person would lose.

“But I want to go. Carry me there.”

“……You’re the one who said you wanted to go.”

So don’t complain halfway through that it’s difficult. Arsen made that clear before carrying Lydia to the bed. Her already half-removed chemise flew far away, and Arsen’s shirt, which had completely hidden his body, fell to the floor.

“Lydia.”

His body must have been craving this, as he was particularly rough today. He seemed to be trying to control himself, but it wasn’t working well, as he bit his lips several times.

Lydia occasionally closed her eyes at the heat rising from top to bottom.

“Ah!”

“You should look at me, wife.”

When she did, Arsen would bite Lydia’s tender flesh to make her open her eyes. When she barely managed to keep them open, red eyes heated with passion looked down at her as if they would devour her. No, they were already in the process of devouring her.

Lydia looked at him with moist eyes, delighting in the pleasure he gave her, then writhed again at the dizzying sensation that surged through her once more. A week, a whole week. By the third day…

When Arsen wouldn’t leave her no matter how much she hit and pinched him, Lydia resorted to biting his shoulder, which apparently acted as some kind of stimulant for him, as he attacked even more passionately, leaving her memories of what followed rather patchy.

“Haa, when, when we return, when we return, you’ll see……”

“I look forward to how you’ll punish me.”

Arsen briefly kissed her glaring eyes. Lydia’s white skin was covered with red marks where he had been. He couldn’t be more pleased.

‘Am I crazy?’

Self-deprecating contempt bubbled up, but Arsen had to admit it in the end.

That he was half-mad for Lydia.

* * *

“You couldn’t find out?”

“I apologize, Your Majesty.”

Five years had passed. During that time, Richard had made every effort to extract the manufacturing method for the Ludger’s disease treatment from the temple, but failed repeatedly.

This was because Lydia sent each ingredient to the capital with very long intervals between them, then alternately sent Charles and Wellington to make the treatment.

“D*mn it!”

Because of that medicine, Richard was helplessly manipulated by Pope Manus. Whenever he had the chance, the pope took the grand duchy’s side and angered Richard.

“Your Majesty, you should restrain from drinking—”

“Do I look like I can abstain from alcohol right now?”

Richard gulped down strong liquor straight from the bottle. At some point, he had become unable to live without alcohol and sedative medicinal herbs.

He sat on the throne he had so desperately wanted, but the Empire was not truly his. As territories near the grand duchy, including the Evansi marquisate, voluntarily pledged allegiance to the grand duchy, the northern part of the Empire fell under the effective rule of the Bayern family.

Even in the capital, forces supporting the grand duke wielded significant influence. Throughout the Empire, many still praised Arsen’s achievements.

Richard felt insecure, and in order to produce the hero of the new era mentioned in the oracle, he took any woman with blonde hair and light-colored eyes into his bed. He didn’t care if the woman already had a husband.

As a result, Richard fathered several children with different mothers and found himself following exactly in the footsteps of his father, whom he had so desperately not wanted to resemble.

“I should have listened to him.”

No, his father had been better off than him. At least he wasn’t an alcoholic, didn’t limp, and possessed the Empire in its entirety.

In contrast, what about now? In reality, half the Empire belonged to Arsen.

“I shouldn’t have married Giselle. I shouldn’t have abandoned Lydia.”

Thinking that everything started from there, Richard couldn’t bear it. Unable to endure, he reached for the liquor bottle again.

The emperor, once believed to be intelligent and destined to be a wise ruler, had now begun walking the same downhill path as his predecessors.

* * *

When winter came, Lydia and Arsen set out on a journey to move to the Edis mansion in the borderlands.

This was to prepare for the demonic beasts that would appear in the borderlands during winter. The people in the border could have migrated across the river, but many chose to remain.

This was because they could now make enough to live on with income from working in the mana stone mine rather than farming. Regular subjugation was necessary for them and for the mana stone mine.

So they decided to stay at the Edis mansion during winter. And just as they were about to depart and board the carriage, Lydia received a letter from the maid she had planted beside Rozena, just in case.

“It seems Richard will end up limping on his left leg.”

“I see.”

“Still, an emperor is an emperor, I suppose. Even while limping, he’s somehow managed another romance. It seems Baroness Luena, who was his mistress, is carrying Richard’s child.”

“Isn’t a baroness someone who already has a husband?”

“That’s why the capital is in an uproar, apparently.”

Rozena, who had fallen out of Richard’s favor for being friends with Lydia, unlike Giselle, had regained Richard’s affection by generously embracing Baroness Luena.

Giselle allied with Pope Manus to increase her influence without Richard’s interference, and Richard, angered by this, began deliberately favoring Raphael.

They rarely met, but whenever they did, they fought as if they would devour each other. Though they had become emperor and empress as they wished, they were not at peace. Nor were they happy.

Compared to them, how happy was she?

Lydia smiled at Arsen, who only had eyes for her. He didn’t care what happened in the capital. He was only anxiously concerned that Lydia might catch a cold in the borderlands’ chill.

“Since my wife hates the cold, I’m worried.”

While riding in the carriage from the ship to the Edis mansion, Arsen repeatedly tucked Lydia’s robe tightly around her.

“It’s not that cold yet. It hasn’t even snowed, come on.”

Though they were now spending their fifth winter together, Arsen remained unchanged. Lydia was always his priority.

Her anxiety that Arsen might one day grow tired of her had melted away in the warmth of his steady love.

Looking out the carriage window at the borderlands she hadn’t seen in a while, Lydia suddenly murmured.

“Your former name was Ian, right?”

When Arsen became an adopted son of the Edis family, he changed his name, and his former name had been Ian.

“That’s right.”

Lydia leaned toward him and whispered.

“It’s such a pretty name, it would be a shame to waste it. If we have a child later, shall we name them Ian?”

“If that is your wish.”

Arsen honestly didn’t care about the child’s name. He embraced Lydia to prevent her from escaping and whispered.

“For that, we have something to do first.”

“What is it?”

“We need to make a child. Shall we start now?”

“You’re really incorrigible.”

She pushed against Arsen’s shoulder, but ultimately couldn’t stop him from approaching. The chilly winter wind of the borderlands flowed through the gaps in the carriage.

Lydia still felt the cold keenly and hated winter. But Arsen’s side was her spring. There, Lydia would always be warm.