With Cal’s help, Clodine forced her unsteady legs to move and finally entered the residence prepared for her and Ahazan. It had been arranged in advance by the Empire’s vanguard, sent ahead to Porto in case of unforeseen circumstances.

Unlike the people of Tylutan, the people of Desalon had made no preparations whatsoever to welcome the imperial procession and that fact was now undeniable.

“The physician has been summoned. Please endure a little longer, Your Majesty.”

Cal’s face was filled with anxiety as he watched Clodine, whose trembling hands would not stop as she collapsed into her seat.

Moments later, Valoran burst into the house.

Without hesitation, he shoved Cal aside and snarled.

“So this is the result of insisting on guarding her alone?”

His fury was like that of a wild beast.

Cal couldn’t answer him carelessly.

Not only because of the intensity of his anger but because he understood, all too well, how deeply Valoran cared for his master’s safety.

“It was an unexpected situation. I understand how you feel, but first, Her Majesty must—”

“Shut your mouth.”

Valoran cut him off sharply.

“I’ve already seen with my own eyes how your precious knights dared to look at my master today. Don’t test my patience any further.”

“Valoran, that’s a misunderstanding—!”

“Enough!”

Clodine, already overwhelmed by the image of Ahazan’s blood-stained face that refused to leave her mind, finally raised her voice sharply at the two men.

Thankfully, at that moment, Merian arrived with the physician.

Seizing the chance, Clodine dismissed them both without further argument.

Sunlight streamed gently through the windows so warm and peaceful, it felt utterly out of place after what she had just witnessed.

As the physician finished the examination and spoke quietly with Merian, Clodine lay down upon the neatly arranged bed.

The bedding was crimson.

And no matter how hard she tried she could not separate that color from what she had just seen.

It was foolish.

How could something so ominous, so cruel in color, ever be considered auspicious?

And yet the Empire used it everywhere.

In garments.

In chambers.

In everything.

‘It’s horrible…’

Clodine hugged herself tightly, her body still trembling, desperate for warmth to seep into her through the blankets.

The image of Ahazan overlaid with memories from the past only deepened the fear, amplifying it beyond control.

‘You should have come a little earlier.’

‘I already killed him.’

‘I simply thought… he wasn’t worthy of your love.’

She could never forget the bright, almost cheerful expression Ahazan had worn as he spoke those words standing over O’Neil’s lifeless body in the Rotermann palace.

No, she would never forget it.

One could not give such absurd reasons for killing someone unless they truly believed a life could be taken on a whim.

One could not strike down another so suddenly unless they saw human life as no more valuable than weeds.

Clodine couldn’t understand.

How had he become so cruel?

The tears she had held back finally slipped down her face.

The image of the man inside the tent collapsed, clutching his wound, desperately trying to breathe would not leave her mind.

And then as if she could endure no more Clodine suddenly sat up.

“Your Majesty…! You must rest!”

Merian and the physician rushed toward her but Clodine pushed them away with a force unlike her usual self.

As if possessed, she rushed out of the house.

Cal and Valoran immediately chased after her but having already overstepped once, neither dared to stop her this time.

They could only follow at a distance.

‘I have to save him. He must not die…’

‘Ahazan must not kill again…’

But the truth was Clodine wasn’t running for the sake of that unknown man.

Not entirely.

What she truly wanted was to stop the Ahazan in her heart from becoming a monster once more.

The war was over.

No emperor in this world, no matter who they were had the right to sl*ughter their own people so mercilessly.

And you, Ahazan…

‘You are better than that.’

Clodine ran on, heedless of the countless eyes fixed upon her.

At last, she reached the tent hidden among rows of soldiers and just as she arrived, she heard Ahazan’s voice cutting through the unnatural silence.

“Love? Do you think something so trivial can justify abandoning a greater cause?”

Her steps faltered.

Just as she was about to enter, she froze.

Cal, who had followed closely behind, moved to stop her from overhearing but Clodine lifted her gaze, eyes bloodshot, and silenced him with a single, desperate gesture.

Not a sound.

Neither Cal nor Valoran dared move.

And from inside, Ahazan’s voice came low, but clear enough for the three standing just outside to hear.

“If that so-called love had ever been worth more than the throne of an emperor, your country wouldn’t have been so easily used and destroyed.”

“That is why they call you a war demon one without blood or tears.”

“At the very least, this ‘war demon’ doesn’t defend enemies after being fooled into ruining a prosperous nation.”

His voice, laced with faint amusement, remained coldeach word deliberately cutting, relentlessly provoking.

Clodine heard enough.

She turned away from the tent, unable to take another step forward.

She knew better than anyone words needed context.

There had to be reasons behind what Ahazan had said to the Prince of Desalon.

She shouldn’t jump to conclusions.

She shouldn’t assume his true intentions.

‘But why… love…?’

Wasn’t it said that no matter how one tried to hold it back no matter how wide they spread their arms a wave would come crashing in all the same?

Why did the words of the late Empress Elizabeth suddenly come to mind?

The doubt and unease now flooding her felt exactly like those terrifying waves she had once only seen in paintings.

‘Who behaves so recklessly on horseback like that?’

‘But you were the one who started teasing—!’

‘Teasing? No… I’d call it love.’

Her steps, which had been pushing forward, faltered completely.

Clodine lowered her gaze, her face on the verge of breaking.

The ‘love’ he had spoken of so briefly days ago as if it wasn’t worth repeating and the ‘love’ he had just now dismissed as inferior to a throne…

If those were the same word then what was she supposed to believe?

If that was the reality she had overlooked then she had willingly allowed herself to be deceived.

If the ‘love’ he claimed wasn’t mere manipulation but something so fragile it could be cast aside before a greater cause then she could never forgive herself for the way her heart had trembled at his words.

At this rate she had no right to deny it.

She was no different from the fool he had just mocked someone who defended an enemy.

Tears welled up again.

Her chest ached, stupidly, painfully.

‘So that’s why… for a moment, I thought I was loved.’

Swept away completely, Clodine let out a faint, self-mocking thought.

Perhaps his feelings had reached as far as affection a kind of care, a kind of fondness.

Enough to make her heart race.

Enough to make her hope, even if only for a moment.

But could something like thatever truly be called love?

At the very least Clodine Ramier had never loved Ahazan so lightly.

She had been willing to give up everything she had to throw even her last remaining self into the mud just to protect him.

Even now she still wished that everything was nothing more than her misunderstanding.

It was like a curse this habit of endlessly trying to understand him, to justify him, no matter what he did.

Even the remnants of her love, everything, was still for him.

Because she had loved him like that she believed she had the right to measure the weight of the love he spoke of.

And so from her perspective his ‘love’ was nothing more than liking.

A feeling strong enough to sometimes resemble love strong enough to make even him mistake it for something deeper but still…

‘At the critical moment… it would always be pushed aside.’

A love that confused her but never made him truly rely on her.

A love strong enough to make him want her as his wife yet always weighed against some greater cause.

A love he had once abandoned for that cause and now reclaimed, once again, for another.

Perhaps from the very beginning until now that was the way he had loved her.

Ah…

Now she finally understood.

Why, even while loving her, he had been able to do all those things to her in the past.

Turning back toward the residence, Clodine no longer cared

whether the man inside the tent lived or died.

Even if Ahazan had spared him today it no longer mattered.

Because in her heart, he had already become a beast once more.