‘A curse?’

A story that was hard to believe slipped from between those red lips. But the woman before him was not the sort to lie about something like this or toss out a joke.

It was already well known that the Empress Dowager was the Grand Witch, and it was possible that a curse capable of felling that dragon existed.

He still couldn’t quite believe that he was the linchpin of breaking it, but……

‘There are other men, she said.’

Kaian was skilled at negotiation. He had been trained that way, being an assassin who approached targets in many different guises. If he needed to smile, he smiled. If he needed to cry, he could smile through that too.

He knew how to become a tender lover to lower an assassination target’s guard, or to transform into whatever shape the other person wanted.

Even if that other person was the emperor, the light of his life, that radiant silver dragon.

And this was an opportunity.

“You mean to say that you need me?”

“Yes.”

The listless will that had been ready to give everything up blazed hot with desire for the first time in a long while. He wanted to be of use to the woman before him. He wanted to talk like this, live freely like a real person, and become someone who mattered.

Right. That’s how it was.

“You said that you need me in order to live?”

“I said as much.”

Kaian, who had wanted to keep this one life going even as he stained his hands with blood, knew that he was greedy as a beast.

He had been ravenously starved for affection, and he had circled around this woman for a long time. Drooling, watching for any scrap that might fall his way.

“Very well.”

Kaian pressed down the brief turmoil inside him and decided. Opportunities existed to be seized.

“I believe Your Majesty’s words. I believe that a wicked curse has invaded your noble body, and I believe the explanation that you must sleep with four men named by the Oracle.”

Iberis narrowed her eyes and stroked her chin.

“Your words are rather strange. Does that mean there is something else you don’t believe?”

“Not at all. Only.”

Kaian smiled with his eyes curving. He knew the power of his own face. Usually when he smiled at someone like this, the majority of those who were attracted to men responded well. Occasionally even those who weren’t were disarmed.

“Would I not need a clear guarantee? I am a criminal who came to assassinate Your Majesty the Emperor, and so I naturally need confirmation of the reward I can obtain after offering up this body of mine, Your Majesty.”

He had heard things about Iberis’s character. The emperor favors the bold. Of course, Kaian had no intention of hiding his true motives before a ruler either.

“If I cooperate in saving Your Majesty, what do I stand to gain?”

“I said I would give you your freedom.”

“Is that not a basic premise?”

“You will come to hold the Marquis Tessa household entirely.”

“That too would follow naturally once I finish my revenge and obtain my freedom.”

“Then.”

“I’m not sure at the moment, but what about the position of Your Majesty’s lover?”

“Haha.”

Someone who appears greedy puts their opponent off guard. It makes them think they can reel the person in by simply indulging that greed.

But the person before him was no ordinary human. The Snow Princess, the person who had walked every thorned path and brought down everything belonging to her enemy.

“Your face is very loud.”

Along with the emperor’s softly murmured words, his legs went cold. His knees struck the marble floor with a burst of sharp pain. He let out a grunt and bowed his head, and in the same moment his hair was seized.

“Who do you think you’re trying to bewitch?”

“Ugh!”

“I look on you with fondness and you don’t know your place.”

“Your, Majesty.”

He could say without question that this sort of treatment was also a first.

The pain was considerable, but even so a laugh rose in him. Iberis, so this is the kind of person you are.

“Isn’t that right, Kaian.”

The threatening voice was sweet. The pain of his scalp being pulled grew a little sharper, but he felt so pleased that a foolish grin kept slipping out.

“You’re still smiling?”

His life was right before his eyes.

“You insolent thing.”

The woman slowly bent forward. Through the translucent chemise, her full chest drew dangerously close, nearly spilling out. Her utterly unbothered manner, as though she felt no shame at all, was what made his own hands and feet go numb with agitation.

“You should consider it a grace that I haven’t taken your head right this moment.”

“Is, that so?”

That white, luminous skin looked like it would leave a vivid mark if he greedily pressed his mouth to it. Ah, this was not befitting of an assassin who had been trained to have desire all but cut out of him.

He felt like a dog in heat.

“But Your Majesty.”

He carefully raised his hand. With his fingertips he slowly traced over the hand gripping his hair.

As though pleading, almost like a coquettish consort. But Iberis gave no particular reaction beyond narrowing her eyes.

“Did you not say so yourself? That in order to undo the curse, I of all people must become the most important axis of it.”

“Oh? Go on then. Aren’t you afraid?”

The grip on his hair was no ordinary strength, as though she could become as cruel as she pleased depending on his answer. He had tried to push her away earlier and couldn’t. The emperor was certainly the emperor.

An instinct-level sense sent a chill down his spine, but Kaian only smiled all the more brightly.

“You won’t kill me before the curse is lifted. Did you not say you wished to make a deal with me?”

“And you believe the curse?”

“I know you are not someone who speaks nonsense. Just as I remember Your Majesty, do you not remember me as well?”

“You would lean on that connection and try your luck?”

“Yes.”

Kaian kept his eyes locked on hers without forgetting for a single moment, and smiled with his eyes curving shut.

“That is what I intend.”

You already knew everything, didn’t you? You knew I was circling around you. And you chose me. So you have to take responsibility.

“I have, for a long time, you……”

Wanting to be even a little more to her liking, since she was to be the person he would share a bed with, he made use of everything he had.

Ah. It really would have been nice if I had a soft, swishing tail.

He had thought that once, when he heard the anecdote about Iberis treating a white-furred fox she had found on the hunting grounds and sending it on its way.

But Kaian’s words could not continue.

“Tch.”

“……!”

The painfully gripped hair was released. Still on his knees, something white and soft swept past before his eyes.

It was Iberis’s leg.

“Fine.”

Thud. A white foot came to rest on Kaian’s shoulder.

“You dare try to seduce the emperor.”

The shrewd, smooth smile he had been wearing stiffened slightly. For a moment the assassin’s performance was cut out entirely. This ruler was excessively without shame.

Ah, d*mn. A white, softly gleaming thigh spread open right before his eyes. A thin, smooth scrap of fabric barely covering what lay between……

“Amusing. Go on, say more.”

“……”

“Why has the one who was chattering away gone quiet?”

“……”

He swallowed dryly. A cold sweat ran down his spine under that overbearing downward gaze, as though the deal were already struck, as though she already knew everything. He felt himself about to get hard.

“You don’t mind whatever I do?”

“Quite fearless.”

The small white foot slid slowly down along his shoulder. It pressed down on his chest, rising and falling with his roughened breath, and trailed along his lean, trained abdomen……

“Think about it. I am the emperor, and I must spread my legs and take men into me.”

That delicate heel slid down toward the place where a dizzying heat was beginning to spread.

“There is no reason I should be pleased about it.”

The composed Kaian let out a choked sound and bent his upper body slightly forward.

“Hm? Think carefully before you climb so high. All I need from you is your c*ck, so I could just as well cut off your arms and legs and keep only that, couldn’t I?”

Pressing down hard on the arousal that was on the verge of rising, Kaian barely managed to smile.

“But Your Majesty.”

He carefully took hold of the foot pressing into him with cruel force and lifted it slightly. The dizzying sight spread before his eyes again.

“Then there would be no pleasure in it for you. And I believe you have no such inclinations either.”

“How would you know?”

“In that case, there would have been no need to go to the trouble of summoning me like this. You could have simply kidnapped me and locked me up, and that would have been the end of it.”

“You are nothing but a mouth.”

A white calf, a smooth thigh. And the foot that had just been pressing down on his member. He took in all of it, then carefully pressed his lips to her round knee. It was an extremely slow movement.

So that she could push him away at any time if she disliked it. But Iberis did not refuse. She smiled quietly and swept her hair back.

“All right, fine. You climb higher than I expected. I hear you’ve been charming noble ladies left and right with that face and that tongue, and I can see why.”

But a member of the imperial family carrying the power of a dragon was cruel, as expected. What had seemed like a satisfyingly softening look in those silver eyes took on something close to killing intent.

“But the emperor has her dignity to consider.”

This time his collar was seized.

“Let me give you a warning.”

The one who had drawn close reached out and placed a hand on his cheek. It was not a gentle touch.

“Excessive greed I cannot permit.”

“Ugh!”

Crack. With the sound of ice spreading, a sharp pain shot across his cheek. A stream of hot blood ran down Kaian’s neck.

“Moderately. With proper fear of me. Yes?”

“Ngh.”

“Then I will look upon you with favor.”

The smell of blood made his head swim. He wanted to swear the contract immediately.

“Let us confirm first.”

White fingertips traced his cheek, and she brought her blood-soaked fingers close to him.