Seth was a very special horse to Ahazan. From childhood until now, the two had always been together.

“You’re no longer afraid of horses?”

Because Clodine could not bring herself to look at Ahazan’s face and kept staring only at Seth, he asked the question lightly.

She glanced briefly at his profile before answering.

“No. I’m still afraid.”

For some reason, that answer made Ahazan let out a quiet laugh. Only then did he shift his gaze from Seth and look directly at her.

“Shall I punish them now? The ones who put you in danger back then.”

There was a warmth in his voice that had not been there before.

Clodine bit down on her lower lip, refusing to be swept away by that familiar yet unfamiliar air he exuded.

“If you want, just say the word.”

Ahazan rested his elbow on his raised knee, propping his chin on his hand as he spoke.

Clodine shot him a sideways glare.

“Why bring that up now? After all this time.”

It had been nearly twenty years.

Ahazan quietly mulled over her words before murmuring something incomprehensible.

“To me, it feels like yesterday.”

Clodine turned to look at him.

What did he mean? That he had been just as frightened that day?

She was curious, but brushed the thought aside. Surely there was nothing more to it.

In truth, she was deeply unsettled.

Sitting beside Ahazan like this, talking softly in the stable, made everything that had happened recently feel unreal. It was as though she stood somewhere along the blurred boundary between reality and illusion.

“Ahazan.”

Her voice was low and quiet.

This was not a dream. Not imagination. This was reality.

And reality had piled mountains of problems at her feet.

“I…”

She had rehearsed the words dozens of times on her way here. Yet they refused to leave her mouth. It was sorrowful. It was painful. It was terrifying.

She could not even look at him as she spoke. But she could feel his gaze fixed on her.

After a long hesitation, her red lips parted, her voice still slightly hoarse from days of illness.

“I’ll do it. The marriage.”

The moment she said it, it felt as though something heavy burst from her chest.

Clodine pressed a small fist against the center of her br*ast and lowered her head deeply. The dusty ground seemed closer than ever.

“I’ll do as you want.”

So this is how it ends.

Her eyes burned. She swallowed again and again, determined not to cry.

But Ahazan said nothing.

She had expected some immediate reaction, any reaction. Instead, silence.

She forced herself to continue.

“Spare my people, Ahazan. Then I’ll do anything. I’ll live exactly as you command. I won’t resist anymore.”

Her voice trembled.

“Don’t torment innocent people. I’ll bear everything myself—ah!”

Before she could finish, Ahazan grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward him.

She lost her balance and instinctively clutched at his firm arm. A soft gasp escaped her lips. Her dark eyes widened.

Only when her gaze met his, he speak.

“I told you. I promised.”

“Ahazan…”

“I was afraid. Afraid you would reject me to the very end. So I used them. Your people.”

Clodine’s eyes wavered as she stared at him.

For a fleeting moment, he looked like the man she once knew.

“I have no intention of hurting them. As long as you stay by my side…”

“…”

“I want nothing else, Clodine.”

She could not even think clearly. Her entire body trembled.

“I’m sorry for hurting you.”

When those words finally left his lips, the tears she had fought so desperately to hold back spilled over.

“I’ll never forget it. I’ll live remembering, repenting.”

She covered her face with shaking hands and collapsed into his chest, sobbing softly. Her fragile cries echoed through the dark stable.

“Clodine, please…”

Was it her imagination? His voice seemed unsteady too.

It was desperation.

“Please… be my wife.”

His third proposal.

It was a proposal that tore through her heart, so painfully different from the first and second.

To hear it only now, in circumstances like these, pierced her to the core. It was the proposal she had waited for her entire life. And yet she could not answer it with joy, with a smile. That reality felt unbearably cruel.

Clodine forced herself to steady her breathing and slowly rose to her feet. Ahazan moved as though to close the distance between them, but her hand gently pressed against his shoulder, stopping him.

“Keep your promise. That’s enough for me.”

To expect anything more from him now would be absurd. Even if he were to live the rest of his life in repentance, it would not resurrect the one who had died in vain, nor restore the kingdom that had fallen.

And she had already experienced more than enough of a loveless marriage.

Her former husband had tried to seize and control her from the moment they wed, resorting to every despicable tactic he could. Though the methods differed, Ahazan’s attempt to subdue and bind her through force made it difficult to imagine a future truly different from the past.

So she could not allow herself to become a woman whose heart trembled at a single confession filled with emotion.

She had loved him once. That was why she knew. To desire him always came at a price too heavy to bear.

Clodine turned and walked away. After only a few steps, his voice followed her.

“You can ask for more.”

Her feet stopped against her will.

Ahazan continued.

“You’re always allowed to, Clodine.”

***

The imperial study was vast and quiet.

Rain fell outside, and the sun hid behind heavy clouds, leaving the room dim despite the hour. Candles lit since midday cast a warm glow across the chamber.

“You summoned me, Your Majesty.”

Count Helario Ramier bowed deeply before his young sovereign.

Ahazan smiled lightly at the gentle, kindly face of the man before him.

“Thank you for coming.”

“It is my duty, Your Majesty.”

Count Ramier.

From childhood, Ahazan had treated him with exceptional regard.

“I should have called for you sooner. It must have been suffocating to wait.”

When thanked for coming, Helario had immediately denied it. But to the question of whether it had been suffocating, he offered no answer.

A father who loved Clodine as Helario did could not have slept peacefully even a single night. It was remarkable that he had not stormed the palace to demand his daughter back.

“Do you resent me?”

Ahazan asked gently.

“As her father?”

Ahazan responded with a faint smile.

“If I say I do not resent you, it would be a lie. If I say I understand, that too would be flattery.”

Ahazan liked that about him. He had no need for a chancellor who clung to his seat like a puppet.

“Why did you not come to see me? I had expected you at least once.”

Nearly a month had passed, yet Helario had not so much as approached the palace.

“I trusted that you would summon me.”

Just as Ahazan had trusted him, he too had trusted Ahazan.

Ahazan swallowed the flicker of gratitude and allowed a brief pause. Pleasantries were finished.

“Count.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Helario bowed once more.

The tension between them was palpable. They both knew what was coming.

“I intend to seat Clodine as Empress of Van Helsing.”

The words fell sharply, like glass marbles scattering across ice.

“She has lived as a queen for seven years.”

It was a reprimand.

Why had her queenship been stripped from her? Did he truly mean to take another man’s wife? Why now, why attempt to turn back time?

Ahazan dismissed it with a single question.

“Where?”

“Where…?”

Rotermann. Helario almost said, but the word died in his throat.

That kingdom no longer existed.

Only then did realization dawn.

“There is no such history anymore, Count.”

Helario felt a chill rise along his arms.

“Why…?”

Rarely did Helario show such visible shock.

Ahazan hesitated before speaking.

“Helario. Do you know when I first accepted her as my Empress?”

“At the time of your betrothal, I would assume…”

“No. That is what everyone knows.”

Then when?

Helario shook his head.

Ahazan gave a quiet laugh. At that moment, the sun broke through the clouds, casting a shaft of light across the study.

“The day I swore to protect her until my dying breath.”

He let the memory surface.

‘When are you talking about?’

She had said yesterday in the stable.

But to him, it was as vivid as yesterday.