“But that wasn’t all. The reason I insisted on making you empress despite the controversy was…… not just because of the Theon name, not just because of your honest nature, but simply……”

How did the conversation end up here?

Rockfort wanted to gloss over it, but seeing Elia’s eyes full of curiosity, he had to continue.

“One day, you looked extremely beautiful to me. So I wanted to see you once more, and then…… I wanted to keep seeing you.”

Elia was so surprised she couldn’t even blink. She felt her cheeks flush again.

She desperately hoped Rockfort wouldn’t notice, but judging by his smile, it seemed he had.

“Your, Your Majesty…… said you wanted to possess me. I was especially disrespectful to Your Majesty, and truly……”

“Insolent and outrageous.”

As Rockfort calmly added, Elia unconsciously bit her lip and released it.

“……Yes, insolent and outrageous…… so you found me fascinating. If I had shown proper respect to Your Majesty like others, you wouldn’t have taken interest.”

“I won’t deny that.”

Rockfort hated the word “if.” Only what had already happened was reality.

“What has already happened between us won’t change. But there’s no rule that initial feelings and motivations must continue.”

Elia bit her mischievous lip again. She was still afraid and scared to open her heart to him, but she couldn’t deny his words either.

“You said you wouldn’t argue with me today.”

Hmm, Rockfort exhaled with dissatisfaction.

“Since those were my words, I should keep them.”

Suddenly, Rockfort, who had his arms on the table, leaned his upper body forward and came very close to her face.

Elia almost cried out in surprise but barely held it in. Still, her face was already as colorful as the flowers in the garden.

“You’ll want me eventually anyway.”

His low voice kept evoking memories of their kiss. Her lips, nape, earlobe, and even her pounding heart responded on their own as if engraved with that moment.

“I’m confident of that.”

Elia was a woman who couldn’t hide her emotions. Her constantly changing gaze and fair cheeks proved it. At least, everything was different from her initial rejection.

“It doesn’t seem like an unfounded claim.”

Rockfort tapped Elia’s cheek with his finger. She wanted to run away if her legs worked properly, but Elia could only turn her head with a prim expression.

“That was unpleasant.”

“……Yes.”

It was only half true, but her lips answered on their own.

“If I leave your side for a while…… would you be happy?”

At these unexpected words, Elia looked at him again.

“Perhaps, would you be a little curious and worried about me?”

Rockfort’s face, continuously asking incomprehensible questions, was more serious than ever.

“……Never mind.”

Seeing Elia’s troubled expression when she couldn’t readily answer, Rockfort rose from his seat first.

Indeed, he didn’t seem to want to press further today.

“Spring is short, so enjoy it fully and get well soon.”

Rockfort bid farewell with a single gesture and left abruptly. It was something that didn’t suit him.

“Sigh……”

As he moved away, sighs kept escaping her. At first they were sighs of relief, but at some point she had to exhale to erase the burning feeling in her chest.

“I really don’t understand at all.”

Despite everything, she had memories of living as his empress for about a year. Though she couldn’t stay close to him, she believed she knew his cold nature well—was that arrogance?

“This time he was too…… human……”

Of course, Rockfort was human too. But Elia didn’t know he had emotions like her, that his expressions changed with a few words, and that he ran away from annoying tasks.

“More importantly, what was today’s conversation about?”

Lilacs scattered before Elia’s eyes as she was lost in thought. They were a lighter purple than his eyes.

—If I leave your side for a while…… would you be happy?

She had never thought about that. Since the engagement was already formalized and she had entered the Imperial Palace, she believed she couldn’t leave Rockfort’s side no matter how much she hated or feared it.

—Perhaps, would you be a little curious and worried about me?

Rockfort wasn’t a person who spoke meaningless words. At least, that’s how he had seemed so far.

But why did he suddenly say such things?

“Is he considering breaking the engagement because I keep saying I hate it, afraid I’ll still say I hate it even after we live as a couple and have a child…?”

The emperor wouldn’t have time or energy to argue about feelings with Elia, who was just a duke’s daughter.

It was too trivial a matter for him from the beginning. As Elia knew all too well.

“That must be it. Actually, he should have done it long ago.”

Perhaps Rockfort now wants to let go of her, who rejects him.

Even though they had formalized their engagement, with Elia’s excuse of being ill, he could use his power as emperor to send her out of the Imperial Palace as soon as tomorrow.

Or maybe he wanted to punish her to break her spirit?

—You’ll want me eventually anyway.

But that one sentence, which went in a different direction from Elia’s current thoughts, kept ringing in her ears. Those extremely arrogant and self-centered words were truly like that man.

As if nothing he couldn’t possess should exist, as if Elia was no exception.

“He’s really terrible.”

Rockfort always appears as he pleases, stirs up Elia’s mind and heart, and then leaves.

“Really…… terrible.”

He makes her heart race, makes her keep biting her lips, and though he comes and goes abruptly, he runs around noisily and boisterously in her head and heart for days.

“That’s why…… I hate him so much……”

She learned something new again.

That there were truly many reasons why she hated him.

* * *

Rockfort ate alone at the end of a long table. The table was so long it could seat dozens, but he always dined alone for dinner.

Looking at the unnecessary candles lined up along the long table, silently.

“Your Majesty, shall I bring dessert?”

“No. I’m finished.”

The grand chamberlain quietly withdrew, and Jayden came to offer a silent bow. Rockfort pressed a napkin to his mouth to wipe it, then glanced at Jayden.

“Do you think I’ll apologize if you protest with that sulky face?”

“……No, Your Majesty.”

Though he felt aggrieved and wronged after spending all day looking for Rockfort, what could he do? Rockfort was the emperor and his master.

“I avoided everything because it was annoying and noisy, so what would be the point of taking you along?”

“I merely quietly guard Your Majesty’s side……”

“I can protect myself within the Imperial Palace.”

Having personally demonstrated such excellent martial arts and bravery even on the battlefield, there was nothing to say against that.

“Still…… You knew that when you announced the princess’s matter in the council, the nobles would naturally have much to say.”

“However, I didn’t expect their opinions to unite for the first time during my reign.”

Rockfort had learned well how ugly humans could be from watching the empress dowager’s political schemes since childhood. He had personally commanded wars, and after seven years on the throne, he thought he had seen the worst of humanity.

“I underestimated them. Humans are more despicable than I thought.”

He knew the council would naturally prioritize the alliance with the Grand Duchy. But he thought at least one person would discuss Princess Leticia’s situation.

However, not a single person wondered about the welfare of the princess who begged to return to the Empire.

They only suggested sending an envoy to show the Empire’s dignity to the Grand Duchy and confirm their loyalty to the Empire, which would not change even if the relationship between the Grand Duke and his wife became unstable.

“Ironically, I was naive.”

That night, in the emperor’s bedchamber. Even as the night deepened, sleep wouldn’t come.

Remembering Elia’s fair cheeks turning red, the image overlapped with Leticia smiling brightly in that place, pressing guilt down on his chest.

—Brother, people misunderstand because your face looks too scary when you don’t smile.

A gentle and kind heart that was hard to believe came from the daughter of the cold empress dowager Cassandra.

—Smile, like this!

Leticia was the only being in this cold Imperial Palace to whom Rockfort had opened his heart and on whom he had leaned. She was also the only person who showed him what it meant to be human and what a warm heart was.

—Brother’s judgment is right. The world doesn’t know how warm your heart is, so they talk nonsense.

Right after his ascension, when Rockfort expelled the empress dowager and took away the former emperor’s power with his own hands, the evaluations poured on him were hardly favorable. Accusations that he was a cold-blooded man who harshly betrayed even his own parents because he was blinded by power made the entire Empire buzz.

—They’re my parents too. So I know what they’re like…… It’s sad and unfortunate, but I understand your decision, brother.

At that time, only one person—Leticia—said she understood his decision. He couldn’t forget how much comfort that gave to Rockfort, who had ascended to the throne at just 17 years old.

“My sister was kind, but strong.”

Rockfort murmured alone. Although she had left crying for her marriage, for a while she had a good reputation as the Grand Duchess for her many charitable acts, and she had a child who would soon turn three.