Had her father found out, too? Had he found out that his dear friend’s family had been torn apart because of his daughter?

She had been too far away at the wedding to see his face clearly, so she had no way of knowing how he felt. But her father would never act this way.

He was a gentle man who held her hand while teaching her to write when she was little. Instead of scolding her for neglecting the virtues expected of a woman and spending all her time reading, he had introduced her to the classics.

He would never stop visiting her.

Yes, he would confront and reproach her if he had to. He would never turn his back on her.

‘Something must have happened to Father. Either that, or my requests never reached him.’

Only after Yu Haeyeon managed to evade the attendants who trailed her everywhere and finally reached the Imperial Academy, where her father worked, did she learn the truth.

“Haeyeon? No—Your Majesty, what brings you here?”

“I have come to see my father.”

“The Chancellor? But he…”

The Director of Studies at the Imperial Academy, her father’s pupil and ward, told her everything that had happened.

“My father… is dead…?”

Consumed by guilt over his dear friend’s family being accused of treason and ruined because of his daughter, Yu Geom had hanged himself. Her mother had followed him, and then her younger brother…

“Aaaaaaah!”

Haeyeon clutched at her head as though she might tear her hair out, screaming. Then she fled the Imperial Academy, running without knowing where she was going. She could not hear any of the voices calling after her.

Only when she reached a secluded spot did she stop, gasping for breath, her lungs crushed by rage and despair.

“You said you would spare my parents and Haeon if I stayed alive and remained by your side. You said you would let them live!”

They had taken their own lives, so the emperor had not killed them himself. But he was the one who had driven them to the brink.

“So this is why you kept me from leaving the empress’s palace.”

She had no idea why the mad emperor was so obsessed with her. One thing was certain, though: he wanted her to stay alive.

‘Then I will destroy the very thing you want most.’

Once she had made up her mind, her thoughts raced with startling clarity.

The Emperor would already have heard that she had gone to the Imperial Academy. It would be easy enough for him to guess what she had learnt there.

How would he react when he discovered that everything she had fought so hard to protect had been taken away?

“Yes. You knew from the beginning what I would do.”

It was an odd idea, but what other reason could he have had for insisting that she become his empress on the condition that her body remained unharmed?

She had to put a stop to it there and then. There was no need to return to the inner palace.

Looking around, she spotted a tall tree with a thick trunk. She took off her shoes and climbed it, just as she had done as a child.

Despite scraping her palms raw, she made it up into the branches. Tearing a strip from her ornate robes, she tied it around a sturdy branch and fashioned a loop at the end. She slipped it around her neck.

She hadn’t noticed on the way up, but looking down now, the height made her feel dizzy.

As she curled her trembling fingers into her palms, she heard hurried footsteps drawing closer.

Without hesitating for a moment longer, she stepped into the empty air. The support beneath her feet vanished, causing her robes to flutter and making her feel as though she were a butterfly.

“Yeon!”

A voice rang out like a scream.

“Get the empress down at once!”

“I shall fetch a ladder, Your Majesty.”

Something cracked near her neck, and her breath was cut off. Her body thrashed in its struggle to live, but the binding around her throat would not budge, perhaps because she had tied the knot so securely.

Unlike “that time,” when she had flown through the air, she felt trapped. Yet she was glad to know she was dying.

“D*mn it! She’ll die before you return. I—I’ll do it myself.”

A rustling like an insect’s beating wings brushed her ears. Then her body suddenly felt weightless.

“Haeyeon, please open your eyes.”

The man’s anguished face passed through her fading vision.

Yu Haeyeon realized she was dying. And with that realization came a smile.

‘I won.’

She had lost her entire family, so she could not explain why that thought had come to her.

“Haeyeon…”

Darkness swallowed her vision as though a light had gone out. Her hearing lingered longest, catching a voice thick with tears. Something warm seemed to fall onto her face, but she must have imagined it.

“Yeon. Haeyeon.”

He had driven her to her death, and now he had the gall to act grief-stricken. It disgusted her.

“Did I not tell you that you were all I needed?”

‘No, all my world needs is for you to be gone.’

As she lost the words to retort, her consciousness slipped into darkness.

***

“Gasp.”

Yu Haeyeon clutched her chest and sat bolt upright.

Moonlight streamed through the open window, illuminating her pale face. Her chest felt so constricted that it was as though a stone had become lodged inside it. She pounded it with her fists, then suddenly sensed someone nearby.

Slowly turning her head to the left, she saw a man lying beside her — a man so beautiful that anyone who saw him would be captivated.

Yet all Yu Haeyeon felt was a sickening surge of hatred, terror, and revulsion.

‘Why is this madman here?’

Hadn’t she died?

Her lips trembled as she shrank away, only to meet his eyes as he stirred awake.

“Haeyeon?”

The half-n*ked man sat up and caught her slender arm, bare beneath her thin nightgown.

Had she failed to die?

“Haeyeon, what is it?”

“Let… go!”

Yu Haeyeon frantically shook her arm. His grip seemed light, yet she could not wrench herself free.

“I said let go! Let go!”

The man watched her struggle so violently that her black hair whipped around her, then abruptly pulled her into his arms.

“Haeyeon.”

He brushed his lips against her pale cheek and called her name tenderly over and over again until her struggles gradually subsided.

Jin Mugyeol swept her long, tangled hair back and rubbed his thumb beneath her reddened eyes. He cupped her cheeks in his large hands.

Yu Haeyeon’s heart lurched as she met his black eyes, which seemed capable of swallowing light.

His eyes had looked just like that before. There had been no glimmer of light in the eyes of the madman who had killed her innocent fiancé and threatened her family.

A large hand gently patted her back as she struggled for breath.

“What has come over you all of a sudden? Did you have a nightmare?”

At his familiar, tender touch and the gentle concern in his voice, Yu Haeyeon blinked her wide eyes.

“Your Majesty…?”

“Yes, it’s me.”

After closing and opening her eyes several times, she realized that the man before her was the emperor of this country—and her husband.

A gentle, wise emperor, different from the madman in her dream.

“What on earth did you dream about to frighten you so?”

Yes, she was Empress Yu Haeyeon of Gyeong.

After discovering that her former fiancé had taken a mistress before they were even married, she sought solace in the arms of a man she had met by chance.

She should have ended the engagement immediately, but after being engaged for over ten years, it was not an easy decision.

After all, no respectable man would want to marry a woman who had been engaged to someone else for over a decade. If she remained unmarried, her family would be ridiculed.

“Your happiness will be your parents’ happiness.” Encouraged by his words, she had finally ended the engagement.

While searching for a new husband, she received a formal proposal from the Eighth Prince and discovered that he was the man she had met by chance in the marketplace.

She willingly married him.

Relief washed over Yu Haeyeon as she remembered this, causing her delicate lashes to tremble.