“But……”

“You don’t like it?”

Rockfort had changed somehow. He had always been direct and willful, but now even the faint line that had existed between them seemed to have disappeared.

“Surely you wouldn’t refuse to have dinner with me after I’ve returned exhausted from the harsh battlefield.”

His handsome eyebrows slanted downward. The innocent Elia had no way of knowing that he was half-teasing her right now.

“I heard there are specific protocols for your return……”

“I am the law.”

He was still an arrogant man. Though he spoke of a harsh battlefield, no environmental change could alter him.

The same was true for the gap between them.

“Victor.”

At the emperor’s command, the head chamberlain who had been waiting outside the reception room quickly entered and bowed his head.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Before going to the shrine, I will cleanse myself, so make preparations.”

“Yes. Then the victory ceremony……”

The emperor, looking much healthier than before, raised the corner of his mouth.

“I am tired from just returning from the battlefield, so I will postpone it for a few days.”

He was standing robustly with eyes more vibrant than anyone else’s while saying such things—it was truly a shameless lie.

“Today, I would like to have a quiet dinner with my fiancée who must have worried while waiting for me……”

Elia’s cheeks flushed hot for no reason, and she turned her gaze away.

“Yes, I will prepare according to Your Majesty’s orders.”

Rockfort nodded at that satisfactory response.

Their lips had parted, but his touch still lingered, seemingly reluctant to leave, playing with the ends of Elia’s hair.

Though they were palace servants, Elia felt embarrassed to show such a scene and stepped back, only then ending his lingering touch.

“Then, I’ll see you again at dinner.”

Rockfort calmly announced as though they had just been together yesterday, then turned his military boots and left the reception room.

Seeing the backs of Victor and Marienne following him, it truly hit her once more that he had returned.

“Hannah……”

Once Rockfort’s presence had completely disappeared, Elia urgently called for Hannah.

“Yes, my lady.”

When Elia stretched out her arms, Hannah quickly supported her. She hadn’t noticed while leaning against his chest, but her body was so weak that it was difficult to stand properly.

“Cyril, a chair for the lady.”

“Yes.”

Even after sitting down, the dizziness didn’t completely subside.

Everything felt like a dream. The kind of dream she had several times after he left—one she dared not speak of.

“Cyril, bring some warm tea. My lady…… are you alright?”

Elia’s cheeks were visibly red. Her lips appeared slightly swollen and plumper than usual, and above all, her half-dazed appearance was concerning.

“I’m just a little surprised.”

Despite her deliberately calm attitude, the heat in her cheeks wouldn’t cool down.

Hannah, who had watched over Elia her entire life, couldn’t help but know. What this change meant, where that heat came from.

“Yes. Would you like to take a bubble bath after your tea?”

“What? Why would I need a bath……!”

Her sensitive reaction to such a trivial suggestion confirmed Hannah’s suspicion.

“Baths are best for tension, and you usually enjoy them anyway.”

“Well…… if you say so……”

Elia had been staring into the distance for a while.

She seemed completely unaware of the dirt smudged on her fair cheeks or Rockfort’s traces in her hair.

* * *

Rockfort removed his tiresome military boots and immersed himself in the comfortable bathtub of the emperor’s chambers.

He had thought this expedition was quite short, but the moment he saw Elia, that thought completely shattered.

“In just a few seasons…… she has become a full-fledged woman.”

The Elia he had kissed before was certainly a woman. But she had also been like a fruit just beginning to bloom, not yet fully ripened.

It wasn’t because he had been suppressing his desire while anxiously wondering about trivial well-being.

Clearly, Elia had changed.

Certainly, the lips that had parted in that moment to accept him remained vivid. He wasn’t sure if it truly meant she wanted Rockfort as a man, but it was clear that the hot imprint he had left on those fine lips still remained.

— In any case, you will come to want me.

It was Rockfort himself who asserted this.

He had been confident then. Now, it seemed his wish was half-fulfilled.

But…… he felt a strange feeling.

“Ha……”

Rockfort roughly rubbed his lips with his hand. Yet the soft sensation of Elia’s tickling lips remained.

Wasn’t it amusing? It was Elia who had been afraid, who had rejected him. He was confident that he could easily conquer her.

So there was no reason for him to tremble. There shouldn’t have been.

His lips that tasted her, his fingertips that caressed her, his heart—none of them should have trembled.

He had thought so. Until he kissed her again……

“Why…… to this extent?”

When he first saw Elia, he knew. The platinum blonde hair flowing like moonlight, the piercingly blue eyes, and the defenseless gaze looking at him.

At first glance, he wanted to possess that woman.

If the incident with Cecilia had never happened, if he had met Elia before taking his first empress, he could pride himself that his instinctive desire would have been directed toward her.

“I am the one…… who possesses. Nothing has changed.”

Keeping someone truthful by his side? That was merely a justification to temporarily mask his intense possessiveness.

Once, even he believed that reason was valid, but now he knew it was just an excuse to have her.

“How amusing.”

His cold reason was still driving his desire to the end.

What if Cecilia had been a virtuous empress? What if she hadn’t betrayed him or died?

If after that…… he had met Elia?

“I thought I was different from the former emperor.”

He despised his father for taking three empresses despite knowing it would cause confusion. He considered his father’s consorts, who bloomed briefly like flowers at banquets only to wither away, foolish and futile.

— Why did you make her empress?

Rockfort recalled an annoying memory. Seven years ago, after his ascension and after he had banished the empress dowager to a separate palace, he asked the former emperor directly.

— Mother…… was a woman who should never have become empress.

— I wanted to possess her.

The former emperor answered without a moment’s hesitation, making Rockfort laugh bitterly.

— She was so beautiful and lovely…… I wanted to possess that smile, that heart, so I couldn’t help but give her anything.

He thought he would never know such vulgar feelings.

Even after meeting Elia, he felt that way. But…… he couldn’t deceive himself with such arrogance forever.

“Damn it.”

Right now, if Elia were to whisper that she wanted him with those fine lips, if she were to fall into his arms, he felt he could give her everything he possessed in this world.

No, he would do just that. With such desperate, yearning feelings, he could readily give her this world if she asked for it.

“Your Majesty, did you call for me?”

Victor’s voice from outside the bathroom barely broke his contemplation.

“Yes.”

Not yet, not yet…… there was no need to think like that yet.

He was different from the former emperor, and Elia was different from the empress dowager. Such concerns would be useless in the future.

“I will attend to Your Majesty.”

Victor brought several servants to dry Rockfort’s body as he rose from the bathtub and brought out fragrant oils. Of course, new clothes awaited him as well.

“Victor, I have many questions for you.”

“Yes.”

At the head chamberlain’s signal, the rest of the servants withdrew. Rockfort put on a clean shirt for once and buried himself in a soft sofa.

“Everything that happened to Lady Elia while I was on campaign.”

“As commanded, I have recorded it in a journal.”

Victor, who had served Rockfort for many years, respectfully took out a notebook and presented it to Rockfort.

He sat leisurely, quickly flipping through the journal, then looked back at Victor.

“It seems it was truly a peaceful daily life.”

His expression suggested he found it somewhat unexpected.

“I cannot say it was entirely so.”

When Victor answered honestly, one of Rockfort’s eyebrows raised.

“Following Your Majesty’s orders, I recorded all of the lady’s daily activities in the journal. However, I felt that some things…… cannot be captured in words.”

Rockfort nodded as he looked at Victor’s composed eyes, now in his middle age. It meant he should continue speaking.

“For instance, the day Lady Elia completely removed her splints and bandages and began rehabilitation. The first day she stood up with support. The day she took her first step with a cane.”

All were days that had been plainly recorded in the journal he had presented.

“Written down, they amount to no more than a line, but what I witnessed with my own eyes were moments that were extremely harsh and heart-wrenching.”

“Standing again on a once-broken leg wouldn’t be easy. I know that.”

Victor quietly shook his head. It was a rare occurrence for the emperor’s head chamberlain.

But he had clearly seen it. Elia’s struggle that couldn’t be captured in words or conveyed through speech.

“The lady fought truly desperately. Even when a single step took hours, even when her face was covered in tears from the pain…… she never stopped.”

Rockfort unconsciously closed his eyes.

“Now. How is she now?”

“She still…… cannot walk properly.”

It was something he had somewhat prepared for.

He recalled Elia’s steps from earlier, barely walking while supporting herself with a cane.

Though she had staggered, those fragile steps that clearly knew their direction were vivid in his mind, making his chest feel cold for no reason.

The imperial physician had already informed Rockfort. Still, he thought it was fine. Even if she could never stand up, he would take her as his empress.

“I remember what the imperial physician told me. That nothing would be easy.”

But at the same time, he knew. That Elia would not be satisfied with that.