“Shouldn’t you be thanking me instead?”

Clodine hurled the words at him, her rising emotions spilling over in tears. The look of shock that spread across Ahazan’s face made something bitter surge up from deep inside her, scraping painfully against her throat. When she forced her voice out, it came hoarse and strained.

“I’m offering to end it for you since you might not be able to keep the promise anyway.”

“What?”

Why did it feel so unbearably unfair?

For days she had locked herself away, trying desperately to swallow and dissolve feelings she did not even understand. Yet the moment she faced Ahazan, all that effort crumbled into nothing.

Like a cart hurtling downhill with broken brakes, her emotions could no longer be stopped.

“Those promises were never important to you in the first place. Teaching me to swim. Teaching me to ride.”

Ahazan slowly shook his head, his brows knitting together as if he truly could not follow her words. The incomprehension in his eyes only deepened her wound.

Tears brimming in her eyes, Clodine glared up at him.

“You can just leave again whenever you want. Isn’t that right? Promises to me don’t matter to you. When the time comes, you’ll simply walk away as you please!”

“Clodine, what are you saying—!”

He stepped toward her with a frustrated sigh, but suddenly stopped mid-sentence. The tension in his brow gradually eased.

As though something had clicked into place, he lowered his voice.

“Is this because you heard that I’ll be leaving the palace soon?”

Even though she had already seen the documents with her own eyes, hearing it confirmed from his lips made the ground beneath her heart collapse.

Her shoulders slumped. The fury that had burned in her just moments ago drained away, leaving only uneven breaths.

‘So he really is leaving.’

And with that thought, everything she had said began to feel like nothing more than childish resentment.

Then like a flood bursting through a long-forgotten dam memories she had wished buried forever surged up.

Following him as far as her blistered feet would allow on the day he departed for war.

His cold back as he rode away without once turning to look at her.

The countless letters she wrote each day, knowing no reply would ever come.

Prayers whispered to the heavens, begging to see him at least in her dreams.

An endless war.

An empty palace.

Memories that vanished without a trace.

Promises only she remembered.

And every morning, waking to the brutal proof of a love she had carried alone.

But things were different now, weren’t they?

She was no longer the foolish girl who loved him in secret.

If he were to leave again, she should be able to accept it calmly this time.

Perhaps she could even wave him off lightly and prove that their long, twisted fate had finally lost all meaning.

‘Then why… why am I still crying like a fool?’

Unable to meet Ahazan’s gaze, Clodine lowered her head. A tear slid from her chin and darkened the fabric of her skirt.

As he stepped closer, she retreated, step by step.

‘Did I think becoming Empress would change the past?’

She had raged against becoming the wife of her enemy, yet somewhere deep inside she had harbored expectations.

The hypocrisy disgusted her.

Covering her mouth with a trembling hand, she whispered…

“Clodine.”

“Don’t come any closer.”

She kept backing away until her back met the door.

With a clenched fist, she pressed weakly against his chest.

“If I had known you were leaving, I would never have asked you to teach me to ride.”

She never should have made that suggestion.

If she failed to learn enough before he left, what would he have said? That he would finish teaching her when he returned? Another promise left hanging in the air?

Her tear-soaked voice trembled.

“Let’s forget it. Don’t leave any promises behind. Just go.”

“Who decided that?”

His refusal came without hesitation.

She struggled to lift her gaze to him.

“Can you promise to stay by my side until I can ride on my own? Even if it takes a year? Ten years?”

“Why do you assume I never made that kind of resolve for you?”

Though she had nowhere left to retreat, Ahazan continued forward.

He caught her wrists and pinned them gently but firmly against the door, his gaze serious as he looked down at her.

Her face, swollen and raw from tears, twisted in anguish.

“You’re already preparing to leave, and yet you say that… Just how lightly do you take me—?”

“That’s right. I’m already preparing to leave.”

Ahazan admitted it without the slightest hesitation.

Clodine bit down on her lower lip, the will to argue draining out of her. She wanted to shout at him to go, if he disgusted her so much, then he should just leave at once. But in truth, she could not force a single word out.

Whether he noticed her silence or not, Ahazan continued calmly.

“If I leave the palace this time, there’s no telling when I’ll return. There are many places I must go, many people I must meet, and many matters I need to resolve.”

She had expected it to be a long journey but she had at least hoped there would be a planned date of return.

Apparently, there wasn’t.

Perhaps…

Perhaps he simply needed a wife in name a woman to occupy his throne in his absence.

Perhaps that was why he had brought her back. A former queen who had once ruled a nation, someone who understood the Empire’s affairs Clodine Ramier. A convenient Empress to hold the palace while he was gone.

Like broken shards snapping perfectly back into place, every assumption began to align into the most plausible explanation she had ever formed.

‘So that’s it.’

At last, everything made sense.

After all, without some political motive, why would he have desired so desperately to reclaim a woman he had once abandoned?

Her legs nearly gave out beneath her. She pressed her back harder against the closed door to keep from collapsing. Even though she had finally found an answer to the question that had long haunted her, the emptiness inside her only grew.

“If luck turns against me, I may never return, the war ended not long ago. There are still plenty across the continent who would gladly drive a blade into my back.”

Unaware of the storm inside her, he only made it worse.

At that, a terrible thought took hold of her mind that she might be left alone in this vast, silent palace forever.

Clodine twisted her wrists desperately, trying to pull free from his grip, tears spilling over.

“I understand… just stop… I don’t want to hear any more, so please—”

“No. You need to hear this properly, Clodine. You still know nothing.”

Ahazan cupped her small face in his large hands and forced her chin upward. The face she had lowered toward the dark floor was lifted into the light.

“Do you know how long I struggled before saying this to you? How many times I asked myself if there was a safer path… an easier way… whether I could simply remain here with you and spend my life quietly by your side? You didn’t know any of it but I turned back again and again, right in front of you.”

Even as she sobbed, Clodine tried desperately to grasp each of his words, her gaze trembling between his eyes.

“And now I speak only after making you cry like a fool. So at the very least, listen to me clearly and take this chance to take revenge on me.”

“…What are you talking about…?”

The more he spoke, the less she understood.

She stopped crying and stared up at him, bewildered.

Ahazan looked at her steadily.

“I’m going to build a new Empire. It’s the only way to reunite a nation fractured by war. And I want the journey that begins it… to be one I take with you.”

She fell silent.

“As I said before, my side is dangerous, Clodine. I can’t promise that every day of our journey will be safe.”

His warm hand brushed away the tears clinging to her cheek.

“But until the moment my life ends, I will protect you first.”

“…Ahazan…?”

“The new Empire we create will give strength to your people of Rotermann as well.”

His confession came in waves, relentless and overwhelming. She could only stare at him.

“To be honest, leaving everything else aside…”

He gave a faint, almost self-conscious smile one that somehow reassured her all the same.

“Even if there were nothing left to bind us, I can’t bear to grow distant from you anymore.”

His voice did not rush, yet it did not falter either. It rose softly to its quiet peak.

“Whether you leave with me or not that’s your decision. From this moment on, I will only wait for your answer.”

His low voice trembled through her heart.

“So go ahead. Trouble me as much as you need to, until your anger fades.”