A breeze carrying the scent of flowers drifted in through the open window.

Ahazan asked, his voice as fresh and gentle as the fragrance.

“Did you sleep well?”

It had been closer to fainting than sleep.

Clodine thought so, yet she tried to keep warmth in her voice.

“What happened last night was not intentional.”

“Not at all, even if it had been, I wouldn’t mind.”

Wouldn’t mind? That was not something that should ever leave his lips.

“What happened yesterday should never occur between you and me.”

Ahazan was, after all, Charlotte’s fiancé. Though the night had been like an accident, the fact that she had spent it in the chamber of a man who was formally betrothed unsettled her deeply.

Ahazan seemed to understand the meaning beneath her words at once.

“How thoughtful of you.”

Then he spread a letter across the desk so she could see it, tapping the contents with a long finger.

Clodine’s eyes lowered to the parchment. As she read, her brow slowly furrowed.

“This is…”

Unable to believe it, she picked up the letter and read it again more closely.

It stated that the engagement between Ahazan and Charlotte had been formally dissolved as of today.

Her gaze lingered on their signatures at the bottom before she finally spoke.

“What… is this supposed to mean?”

She had come today intending to persuade him, to make him abandon his reckless ideas about annulling his engagement and naming her Empress, and to urge him to marry Charlotte as originally planned.

Yet before she could begin, she felt as though she had already lost ground.

Ahazan smiled faintly, as if he had known her intentions from the start.

“What else? It means that even if something far worse than yesterday were to happen every day, it wouldn’t matter anymore.”

“Ahazan!”

So in the end, Charlotte had been hurt.

Clodine imagined the pain Charlotte must now bear. A heavy sorrow filled her chest.

“This is something you should never have done! She waited seven years, seven years, hoping you would return safely from war. How could you do something so cruel to your fiancée?”

“She did, she was different from… certain others.”

“What?”

“I mean I do feel properly sorry for Lady Charlotte.”

There had been something in his words she did not quite understand, but she set it aside. There were more urgent matters.

“If you feel sorry, then don’t do this. Revoke the annulment at once, Ahazan.”

“The ink on it hasn’t even dried yet. How ridiculous do you intend to make me as Emperor?”

“And do you even understand what is truly ridiculous?”

If he had broken off his engagement to make her Empress, nothing could be more absurd.

“I came today to speak of this. Whatever you are planning, stop it here. Put everything back where it belongs.”

At her plea, Ahazan rose from his chair.

She had been looking down at him; now she was forced to look up.

The faint smile vanished from his face.

“I am putting everything back where it belongs.”

Nothing was where it belonged.

She frowned.

He stepped around the desk and came to stand beside her. His large hand brushed aside the strand of hair that had fallen across her cheek.

“This is how it’s meant to be. You beside me. Me beside you. Isn’t that right?”

His low voice brushed against her ear, sweet, and therefore all the more dangerous.

Clodine turned to face him fully.

“From what time are you speaking?”

“Our relationship now?”

“That ended seven years ago.”

“Then we begin again.”

“Begin again? With the man who killed my husband?”

For the first time, he did not answer immediately.

He looked at her without expression, yet the air between them shifted.

Clodine herself knew that she had never truly loved O’Neil. She could admit that much. But she also knew what weapon to wield to force Ahazan to confront the reality of what he had done.

She clenched her skirt tightly.

“Call it an excuse if you must. But tell me the real reason. Why did you kill my husband? Why did you take my kingdom…?”

She could not finish. Tears threatened.

The kingdom meant something entirely different to her than O’Neil ever had.

Ahazan glanced aside for a moment. She felt a flicker of relief, but it lasted only an instant.

When he looked at her again, there was something fierce in his gaze.

“Do you still love him?”

“What?”

She had not expected that question.

Love… It was a feeling she had never imagined toward anyone but Ahazan. And yet he asked whether she still loved O’Neil.

There was never a ‘still’ to begin with, she thought.

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m asking whether merely thinking of him makes you cry like this.”

Only then did she realize tears had already fallen. She wiped them away quickly.

“This is because—”

She meant to say it was because her beloved kingdom had fallen, but he cut her off.

“Unfortunately, seeing you like this only convinces me that my choice was right.”

Right? Killing O’Neil and tearing Rotermann apart in a single stroke?

Her fingers trembled against the fabric of her skirt.

Even now, her people, bereft of their homeland, were scattered across the continent, suffering…

Slap.

Clodine’s thin hand struck Ahazan across the cheek.

The thought of her poor people, whom she could not even ask after, had shattered her reason entirely.

She stood before his turned face, breathing harshly.

“You bastard.”

For seven years she had gone to church day after day, praying for his safety and his victory. The memory now burned with shame. Why had she cared so much about the well-being of a man who had discarded her so irresponsibly?

And this, this was the man he truly was.

A person’s essence changes with time and experience. At last, Clodine trusted the harsh truths of the world more than any fairy tale.

There was nothing left to say.

She turned her back on him without hesitation and strode toward the door.

She did not make it ten steps.

Ahazan caught up and roughly spun her around.

“Let me go!”

She twisted, trying to wrench her hand free. He paid no heed to her fierce resistance and pulled her closer.

“At the end of this month. Our wedding.”

The air froze.

“Exactly twenty nights from now.”

Clodine stared at him, stunned, praying she had misheard.

“Whether it’s your dead husband or your lost kingdom, mourn them until then.”

He continued mercilessly, without the slightest regard for her heart.

“After that, I won’t tolerate it.”

His rough fingers brushed the trembling corner of her eye.

“Go ahead and refuse. I dare you.”

“You truly—”

“Ah, before that…”

Their voices overlapped. Ahazan spoke as coldly as if pronouncing a death sentence.

“Think carefully about how many lives are tied to your ankles.”

It was a threat.

Blatant and undeniable.

Her face drained of color.

“What do you gain by marrying me like this?”

She could not understand. No matter how she turned it over in her mind, there was no reason for him to force such a dishonorable marriage.

Count Ramier might hold influence within the empire, but the Marquis of Langham was no less powerful. Charlotte was not inferior to Clodine in any way.

This marriage defied social order itself. No one would openly oppose it, but neither would anyone call it right.

“Why? Are you worried I’ll suffer some loss?”

He asked with a crooked smile.

“Don’t worry. That won’t happen.”

She wanted to pry open his mind and see what scheme lay hidden there.

When his grip loosened slightly, she tore her hand free.

“Please reconsider, Ahazan. I cannot become your wife.”

Nowhere in imperial history had an emperor stolen another man’s wife and made her empress. Even Emperor Lionel, called the most debauched ruler in history, had not crossed such a line.

It was forbidden territory.

Ahazan was stepping over it.

“Unfortunately, marrying a widow is not illegal, Clodine.”

“Widow?”

The word struck her like a blow.

“It twists my insides to know I wasn’t your first…”

For a brief moment, he grimaced as if the thought truly repulsed him.

Then his voice softened.

“I’ll settle for being your last.”

There was no reasoning with him.

The realization that they had fallen to this, two people incapable of understanding each other, filled Clodine with despair.

Nothing she said would persuade him.

Her heart turned cold.

“So now, please…”

Ahazan stepped closer again. They stood so near their breaths mingled.

He lowered his head and looked into her eyes.

In those golden depths, there was something unnameable, something intense and consuming.

Ahazan. He truly…

“Be my bride, Clodine.”

He had truly lost his mind.