“What is it? Now that you’ve come to your senses, does my touch disgust you that much, Your Majesty?”

Before dawn had even broken, his voice—colder than the biting air of early morning—cut sharply enough to freeze the listener’s heart.

Barely covered by a single thin blanket, the man radiated a dangerously alluring presence. He was Kaian, Emperor of the Lecanto Empire.

Even within the bluish chill of daybreak, his brilliant blond hair and blazing red eyes asserted their colors vividly. It was as though a sun that had yet to rise outside the window had already risen upon the bed.

“What is the meaning of this?”

“Must you ask?”

Estelle truly could not understand the situation.

When she fell silent, Kaian’s eyes narrowed, and one corner of his lips curled crookedly upward—a clear sign of displeasure.

“You were begging to be held all night long. And now that it’s over, the Empress treats her own husband like an intruder.”

“…?”

Kaian looked at Estelle with cold contempt, as if she were detestable.

“I’ll be going.”

Leaving only those frigid words behind, Kaian departed from Estelle’s chamber.

“Ha.”

Left alone, Estelle looked around with a bewildered mind.

The bed, the couch, the mirror, the table.

Everything was familiar.

A scene she had buried in the far depths of memory—

It was exactly as she remembered.

‘This is the imperial palace of the Lecanto Empire. And this… is the room I used in my first life.’

Estelle sat weakly on the bed, organizing her thoughts.

She carried a secret she could tell no one—she had lived two entirely different lives.

Her first life had been as the Empress of the Lecanto Empire, and her second as the promising CEO of a trading startup in 21st-century South Korea.

‘I was on my way back from a buyer meeting…’

Her last memory was the moment she was caught in a horrific traffic accident. No matter how miraculous the circumstances, surviving it would have been nearly impossible.

‘Then… does that mean I died in Korea and returned to the Empire again?’

It did not take long for her to reach that conclusion. If this had been her first time experiencing such a thing, she would have denied it as impossible—but she had already lived through one reincarnation. She could not simply reject it.

Before she could fully process her tangled emotions, a familiar scent lingered at the tip of her nose.

Kaian’s presence remained in the bedding he had just left. The sensual fragrance stirred old memories, and her heart—once torn to shreds by them—lurched violently.

‘Get a hold of yourself. If time ever turned back, you swore you would never love him again.’

Estelle tried to steady her heart.

But he was still a dangerously alluring man.

Regrettably so.

***

Estelle had been a perfect Empress.

From a young age, she mastered statecraft and countless other disciplines; her knowledge rivaled that of past emperors and easily surpassed the bounds expected of an imperial lady. She possessed a genius-level political sense and sharp insight.

Moreover, her natal family—the Duchy of Astria—was the most prestigious house in the Empire. Even her bloodline made her a flawless imperial consort.

And Kaian, who had become the continent’s youngest Swordmaster at merely eighteen, was the most gifted emperor in Lecanto’s history in both civil and martial arts.

His imperial authority was so absolute that no one dared mention his past as the Second Prince born of a low-ranking consort.

Because of this, the Lecanto Empire stood on the threshold of its golden age.

Yet between the two of them lay a long and bitter ill fate.

Everyone knew the Emperor despised Empress Estelle. One only had to see how he abruptly invested the previously designated Empress as a mere consort, while elevating Christine—of the declining House of Count Joan—to Empress.

“Her Majesty Empress Christine has never even handled a single household ledger herself, they say.”

“So all the duties are being carried out by Empress Estelle?”

It was a strange and unprecedented situation, the Empress and consort effectively reversed, yet the Emperor merely allowed the humiliation Estelle endured.

Of course, their relationship had not been so terribly twisted from the beginning.

As children, they had been inseparable friends of the same age.

“Estelle, I’ll become Emperor for you. Right now I’m nothing more than the Second Prince, but with you beside me, I feel like I can accomplish anything. I’ll make the Empire a place where you can achieve your dream of becoming the first Duchess in your own right.”

The bond between Kaian and Estelle was deep enough for them to promise each other a secret future. Serena, Kaian’s mother and the late Imperial Consort, cherished Estelle like her own daughter.

But peace could not last forever.

In the year Estelle and Kaian turned sixteen, the Shavennen Lake Incident—where Serena was accused of treason and executed—split their fates apart.

At the time, an assassin who had attempted to m*rder the then-reigning Emperor Carlos was discovered hiding behind the imperial palace at Lake Shavennen. By cruel coincidence, Serena had been there at that very moment.

All evidence, including the assassin’s testimony, pointed to Serena as the one behind it.

However, the true culprit who framed her… was Estelle’s father, the Duke of Astria.

The late Empress had been his sister, and when she finally bore a son after fifteen years of marriage, the Duke began moving to eliminate the other princes who stood in the way of succession.

Serena, the late Imperial Consort, was the Emperor’s most beloved companion and possessed only a weak power base—naturally making her the first target.

Kaian knew that.

Moreover, the one who had arranged to meet Serena for a picnic at Lake Shavennen that day… was Estelle.

Kaian believed Estelle had lured Serena there according to her family’s plan.

From that moment on, the way he looked at her turned frost-cold.

“Was this your intention from the very beginning? Seven whole years—just to eliminate me and my mother!”

“No—no, Ian! That wasn’t my intention!”

“How amusing it must have been for you. Watching me whisper foolish dreams of the future, never realizing you were a spy sent to kill us.”

Kaian no longer trusted Estelle.

But it was all a misunderstanding.
Estelle was innocent. She too had been used by her father, the Duke of Astria.

She had never told anyone about the picnic—especially not her family.

There was even a saying that within the imperial palace, the Duke of Astria had ears in the walls. She could only assume one of his unidentified agents had existed even within Serena’s residence.

Only after the incident did she realize the truth—
the Duke, who had always despised Serena for her low birth as a dancer, had allowed Estelle to visit her chambers freely solely to prepare this very trap.

Everyone in the Empire called Estelle the precious jewel of the continent’s greatest noble house, the Duchy of Astria.

But reality was different.

The Duke exploited Estelle’s brilliant strategies and insight as if they were his own, yet on days when the slightest thing displeased him, he abused her.

“A useless girl who can’t even carry on the line! Do you know what kind of child Regulus was? And you dare bring ruin to this Astria, a house that has endured a thousand years!”

He believed Estelle—the twin—had stolen the life meant for the duchy’s eldest son, Regulus, who died young at the age of eight.

Treated as unwanted since birth, Estelle initially believed everything was her fault. She even held onto the hope that if she tried hard enough, her father would love her. That was why she offered him all her abilities, just as he wished.

But instead of praise, the ab*se only worsened.

“My dear Estelle. The young lord Regulus’s passing was not your fault. Why would you think such a thing? You must have suffered greatly.”

The one who saved Estelle from her long despair and self-loathing was Serena, the late Imperial Consort.

By then, Estelle was finally able to resent her father.

There was no reason she would ever turn her back on the woman who had taught her love for the first time in her life just to help a father like that.

But outside, the Duke wore the mask of a disturbingly perfect doting father, so no one knew the truth.

Not even Kaian.

“Astria’s lady… the cunning hunger for power flowing in your blood is revolting.”

In the end, she and Kaian became worse than strangers.

Even so, Estelle loved him.

Immediately after Serena’s execution, Kaian—being the son of a traitor—could not escape punishment. The late Emperor exiled him to Pecator, a frigid, barren island swarming with monsters.

It was infamous as a cursed land, and everyone expected Kaian to die there.

Only Estelle believed he would return.

Avoiding the Duke’s watchful eyes, she built a secret force of her own.

Having managed the duchy’s internal affairs from a young age in place of her late mother, securing independent funds was easy for her.

With sufficient capital combined with Estelle’s exceptional political sense and insight, the organization grew rapidly—within a year becoming the largest and most secretive underground guild in the capital.