“Not fulfilling marital duties, yet ruling the inner palace as empress—is that how you planned to live?”

With each question, Rockfort’s face showed increasing disbelief.

There’s a limit to innocence. Sometimes she appeared detached and wise, but at times like this, she was every bit a lady of her age.

“Ha…… I’ve never engaged in anything so unproductive since my coronation.”

Rockfort muttered to himself.

“The engagement ceremony isn’t just reciting vows before the archbishop.”

One step, he moved closer. Her large eyes followed his movement.

“Marriage too isn’t something where you can set distances with a ruler, as you suggest.”

Rockfort, aware of Elia’s hunched shoulders, took her hand instead.

Her hand, beaded with sweat, felt so small and soft. He felt pathetic for intimidating such a small woman.

“When I said I wouldn’t let go of this hand…… I meant I wouldn’t abandon you.”

Elia recalled his words from their engagement day.

No, in truth, she never forgot them. She simply convinced herself those words held no meaning.

Because she knew too well that after harboring expectations or hope, the only one who would end up hurt was Elia herself.

“It’s also true that I was confident you would come to share my feelings once I brought you to my side.”

Rockfort kept giving Elia chances. His behavior differed so drastically from what she saw in her previous life that it felt strange and unfamiliar.

“I……”

Even the warmth of the hand holding hers felt that way. The size and warmth of his hand made her previous life—where she only felt his body heat as she neared death—seem unbelievable.

“I will be a good empress.”

Elia now feared something different from before.

“I will certainly become a good empress and ensure Your Majesty has no worries.”

It wasn’t just bad and painful things she feared.

Some things made her heart flutter and pound so much, burned so intensely, that she couldn’t bear the fear that they might someday disappear.

“I want to become the empire’s empress…… not just a woman or a wife.”

He planned to execute the palace servants if he heard one more word of rejection.

But seeing those blue eyes brimming with tears right before him, such thoughts vanished long ago.

“Unacceptable.”

Rockfort murmured firmly. Then he bent down and pressed his lips against hers.

“……!”

Surprised, Elia’s eyes widened, and she tried with all her might to push against his chest, but she couldn’t possibly match his strength.

Unlike before, his lips pressed more persistently against hers, delving into her mouth as it opened to exhale.

“You……”

Rockfort’s hot, soft touch made her head spin and her vision blur. When his lips gently bit her lower lip, his unique scent wafted over her indescribably.

“Mm, st…… op!”

When Rockfort pulled away, small teeth marks showed on his lips. Feeling dizzy and finding it unbearable, Elia unconsciously bit his lip.

Perhaps it was fortunate it didn’t bleed. But if they continued kissing, she might have died from lack of breath.

“You are already my woman.”

Rockfort’s eyes gazed at Elia with heat.

He wiped the moisture from his lips with the back of his hand. Even during this brief moment, the heat in his gaze tickled Elia’s chest and hastened her heartbeat.

“Remember this sensation now. Someday, you will be the one desperately wanting me.”

“I……”

“I have a temperament that demands I possess what I desire.”

Perhaps Elia had underestimated him.

“And what I want now is you as a woman who desperately desires me.”

Elia knew what kind of person Rockfort was as emperor, but she had never once seen his face as a man.

“On the day your blue eyes fill with longing for me, I will embrace you and make you mine.”

His arrogant and dignified appearance somehow felt familiar, but the unfamiliar sensation of his still-moist lips was unbearable.

“You will eventually want me as a woman. Quite desperately, very earnestly.”

His low voice echoed in Elia’s ears and made her heart tremble.

“Ah, you can believe that.”

His eyes gazed at her intensely, like a predator.

“I’ve obtained everything I’ve ever wanted until now, and you’ll be no exception.”

Elia’s breathing remained uneven. The heat hadn’t faded from her fair cheeks, and her blue eyes, half-filled with tears, only fueled Rockfort’s desire.

“Next time, I’ll teach you how to breathe while kissing.”

“Next time…… I might bite until you bleed.”

Rockfort snorted at her petty threat. Strangely, those defiant eyes only fueled his desire more.

But Rockfort rarely suppressed his own desires. It was a feeling he had forgotten during his seven years as emperor.

Elia’s disheveled face and defenseless eyes looking at him roughly provoked his instincts, but it wasn’t time yet.

“I wonder how you’ll feel when you discover the joy of kissing.”

Seeing her biting the lips he had just explored, his patience seemed to reach its limit. Rockfort deliberately moved his heavy legs and turned his back to her.

“I’ll be back.”

After they completely disappeared from each other’s sight, both sighed deeply for different reasons. Left alone, Elia’s trembling wouldn’t subside.

The earlobe where his lips had brushed, the cheek where his hot breath touched, and above all, the kiss that had deeply penetrated her stirred turmoil in her heart.

“I didn’t want it……”

A spark of desire burned in Rockfort’s eyes. That spark completely warmed Elia’s cold breath.

“I…… shouldn’t want this……”

When his hot kiss invaded between her lips, pouring all his passion in an instant, all of Elia’s memories and resolutions faded white.

At first, she pushed with all her might, but her hands lost strength, and all her bodily sensations focused on her invaded lips and his soft tongue.

“Surely it would have been so.”

She couldn’t deny it. His flame dominated everything about Elia in that moment. That passion was so overwhelming she couldn’t breathe, and her heart raced madly.

She bit his lips to reject him in the end because she couldn’t bear it anymore. Not because it was painful, not because she hated it, but because she feared her deliberately frozen heart would completely melt in his flame.

—I’ll be back.

He said there would be a next time. This meant not an end or conclusion, but merely a beginning. Of course, Elia had no right to refuse.

But what was most perplexing was something else. Rockfort, exhaling hot breaths, was a completely different man from what Elia remembered.

“Why, now…… why look at me with those eyes now of all times.”

In her previous life, Elia always waited for his gaze. Her heart always pounded, hoping their hands might brush against each other.

But Rockfort was a man who never showed affection or burning desire for women. At least, not to Elia.

“Has only I truly changed in this world?”

Only Elia returned from death. Only Elia made different choices after experiencing a terrible future.

She tried to avoid misfortune and eliminate the worst situations. She moved to change her life and future. And yet……

“Ah……”

Elia let out a low sigh.

“Because I changed, did he change too……?”

The belated realization seemed to strike the back of her head hard.

“Because I became a different person than before.”

In her past life, Elia was an ignorant criminal. In Rockfort’s eyes, she was also a shameless and detestable woman.

But not this time. By confessing the truth, Elia became a completely different person to him.

“Yes. My parents’ fate changed too…… If I were my former self, I wouldn’t have talked back to Uncle, let alone come here—I would have already died by his hand……”

Elia kept making different choices because she didn’t want to repeat the misfortunes of her previous life. As a result, the lives of everyone around her changed as well.

She realized too late that even Rockfort was no exception.

“I thought his heart was cold.”

The Rockfort Elia remembered knew no warmth. And she was certain that fact wouldn’t change.

But her expectations were wrong. The reason was simple. Elia knew nothing about the man called Rockfort. She never properly looked him in the eye, fearing his cold face, so how could she know his heart?

“I knew…… nothing……”

Rockfort was always someone to fear and avoid. What made it more miserable was that Elia could never bring herself to resent him.

Despite being a man who showed her only cynicism, part of her wanted his heart in a shameful way.

It felt incredibly special to be held in his arms when she finally drank poison and approached death. She even regretted not being able to feel the sensation of his embrace due to the intense pain…… that’s how much she wanted it.

“I don’t understand…… anything.”

Her chest kept aching. Her lips remembered the trace of his breath, and she feared losing her heart again to that heat.

In the past, he was cruelly cold to Elia. But there might be something worse.

What if, after knowing his embrace just once, she had to see his cold face again? That could hurt her more than poison.

“How foolish.”

Those last words were directed at herself. She hated herself for finally giving up on pushing him away, for constantly recalling the sensation of his lips and the warmth of his body.

Yes, what she resented most was her own heart and mind that still raced because of that man.