Ahazan walked leisurely to where Yuri and Clodine stood facing each other and draped the coat in his hand over her shoulders.

Clodine wanted to shrug it off at once, but as if sensing her intent, Ahazan pressed down firmly on her shoulders, stopping her.

“Your Majesty. You have arrived.”

“Yes, Yuri. So you were here.”

“I was just about to return inside.”

As Yuri spoke, his gaze lowered to Clodine’s hand still clutching his sleeve. Naturally, Ahazan’s eyes followed.

Only after feeling their gazes did Clodine release Yuri.

While walking back toward the banquet hall, Yuri glanced back twice. Though he had spoken so firmly in Ahazan’s defense, the thought of leaving Clodine alone with him clearly troubled him.

Once Yuri disappeared into the greenhouse, silence fell over the garden.

“What were you doing out here?”

Ahazan adjusted the front of the coat on her shoulders neatly as he asked.

Clodine watched his hands, then answered.

“I’m looking for my maids. Where have you hidden them?”

Despite the frustration in her voice, Ahazan met her eyes slowly. He opened his mouth as though to speak, then closed it again.

A cold unease crept into her.

“Ahazan. You truly brought my maids here, didn’t you?”

Earlier, he would have answered immediately.

This time, he hesitated. A faint sigh slipped from him.

“You actually believed that?”

That single sentence shattered her again.

Clodine shook her head, tears pooling in her eyes.

“Don’t tell me…”

She looked as though she could not bear for everything to be a lie.

Ahazan stepped back from her for once and looked away.

“It was a lie?”

Her whole body trembled.

He answered calmly.

“If you understand that, then stop looking for them. It’s uncomfortable to watch.”

“Why would you lie about something like that—!”

Her voice rose in anger, then stopped.

It took only a moment for her to understand his motive.

“You lied to make me attend the banquet.”

Her gaze was certain.

Ahazan offered no excuse.

“You despicable bastard.”

Her hurt was written plainly on her face. She threw his coat from her shoulders to the ground at his feet.

“It’s not even surprising anymore.”

Ahazan glanced down at the coat lying near his shoes, then seized her wrist and began leading her back toward the hall.

After only a few steps, she wrenched her hand free.

“I don’t want to spend another moment with someone like you.”

She turned and ran blindly into the darkness.

Her wide skirts billowed farther and farther away, yet Ahazan did not chase her.

Instead, he watched the space she had vacated, then quietly gave an order to the imperial guards concealed among the trees.

“Bring her to my chambers. Do not harm her in any way.”

***

“Let go! I said let go!”

Just before reaching an unfamiliar door, Clodine screamed.

The large soldiers gripping her slender arms paid no heed to her desperate command.

The gilded door before her needed no explanation as to whose chamber it concealed.

At last, it opened.

A lavish bedroom draped in ornate curtains was revealed.

The moment her eyes met Ahazan, who was slipping into a long night robe, she twisted violently in resistance.

One might think he would grow weary of her fierce rejection by now. Yet his expression remained composed.

“No! I said no!”

“She resisted severely, Your Majesty… There was a minor struggle.”

Her dress was soiled as though she had rolled across dirt. One of the soldiers, pale with fear at failing to carry out Ahazan’s command flawlessly, spoke hurriedly.

“That’s enough. Leave.”

The guards bowed deeply and exited at once.

“Open the door! Do you hear me? Open it!”

Clodine struggled against the heavy door until her strength failed.

“Let me go…”

Her voice broke into quiet sobs, cutting through the strange stillness of the room.

“Clodine.”

Ahazan called her name.

She did not respond.

Yet he continued as if she had.

“I’m the only one who can let you leave this room.”

Judging by the closeness of his voice, he was standing directly behind her.

“Of course, I have no intention of doing so.”

Before he could step closer, she spun around and pushed him with both hands.

“How can you do this? How could you do this to me?!”

Life felt like punishment.

If she had committed any crime, it was loving him with her whole heart, living as he wished, giving him everything.

When Ahazan had cast her aside, her world had collapsed.

Still, she had continued breathing. She had anchored herself to Rotermann, the only place left to her.

The kind people of Rotermann had taught her how to live again in the ruins of the world Ahazan had shattered.

And now he was destroying it again.

Ruthlessly.

“Was it not enough to torment me like this? How much more humiliation do you want to force on me?”

Ahazan had listened silently until then.

He easily restrained her small hands as she struck at his chest.

“Humiliation? This?”

His voice carried weight even without being raised.

“You have always overestimated me.”

“Let go! Don’t touch me!”

“You push me to the brink every time.”

His tone was laced with resentment as he gripped her wrists tightly.

Clodine shook her head violently.

“I’d rather die! If I must suffer this shame, I’d rather die!”

“You’re mistaken.”

Thud.

The struggle ended in an instant.

Her back struck the bedroom door.

Ahazan pinned her there, his solid frame pressing her in place.

“I have no intention of letting you die peacefully.”

His voice was cold as frost.

Her tear-streaked black eyes glared up at him with burning hatred.

He showed no trace of pity.

“Not even death will take you from me.”

It sounded like a spell. A curse.

Though she was its target, it was Ahazan who seemed bound by it.

“Run as much as you like. The more you run, the more you’ll realize you cannot escape me.”

Clodine felt her vision blur from the shock.

The anemia she had long suffered from flared up again. Her strength faltered, and a hoarse voice slipped weakly from between her lips.

“Why… all of a sudden… toward me…”

Ahazan immediately sensed her condition. He carefully loosened his hold on her waist, but the moment he did, her body slid helplessly down his arm.

The instant she lost consciousness—

Ahazan drew her limp body into his arms slowly, yet fiercely.

“I only regret not doing this sooner.”

***

While she lay unconscious from anemia, Clodine dreamed.

In the dream, she was fourteen again, seated at one of the monthly tea gatherings she used to share with her fiancé, Ahazan.

Unlike most noble children who were betrothed after their debutante, the crown prince’s engagement was decided in infancy. In the Van Helsing Empire, the empress’s authority stood nearly equal to that of the emperor. Thus, the future empress was trained from childhood, set apart from ordinary society just as the crown prince was.

Clodine had been raised as Ahazan’s future bride since the age of five.

Yet she had never once resented that fate.

It was not because she believed it was the rightful place of the eldest daughter of the prestigious Count Ramier house.

It was rather…

‘You have arrived, Your Highness.’

Clodine curtsied gracefully as Ahazan entered the tea room.

When she lifted her head, his face shone as neatly composed as ever. Afraid she might blush, she lowered her gaze quickly.

For her, marriage had never begun as politics.

It had begun as love.

The afternoon sun poured warmly over the back of her pale hand as she held the teacup.

When the servants finished preparing the tea and withdrew, Ahazan removed his outer coat with his usual unhurried grace.

“Let us change seats.”

At first, she did not understand why, but she agreed without much thought. They had not yet poured the tea, so it seemed of little consequence.

How foolish she had been.

Only after she saw the sunlight that had been scorching her skin now fall entirely upon Ahazan did she realize his reason.

‘Isn’t the sun too strong?’

Clodine asked belatedly, concerned.

Ahazan poured tea into her cup, his expression calm.

‘Not particularly.’

Perhaps it truly did not bother him, he trained daily in the open yard without shade.

Or perhaps he had simply brushed it aside to avoid the inconvenience of moving the entire tea table.

But as she watched his hair glimmer under the sunlight, Clodine secretly felt her cheeks flush.

Call it a selfish illusion if one must.

Ahazan always possessed a certain consideration that never failed to appear at the necessary moment, even if he often left her puzzled.

‘And…’

He filled his own cup with a different tea than hers, as he always did.

What tea would he choose today?

There was not a single shadow on Clodine’s face as she watched him.

And Ahazan returned her gaze, his golden eyes shining as brightly as his hair.

Even then, his features had already begun to sharpen into something formidable. Whenever he looked at her like that, something fluttered in her stomach.

‘Yes, Your Highness.’

She spoke the familiar title carefully, always making sure it sounded beautiful when she said ‘Highness.’

But his next words erased all her effort.

‘How long do you intend to call me that?’

It was a bewildering question.

Was it wrong to call the crown prince by his title?

Clodine’s eyes rolled thoughtfully from side to side.

When she looked back at him, he sighed lightly through his nose.

‘I have a name that’s easier to call.’

‘Y-Your Highness… how could I possibly…’

She faltered, flustered.

‘If you don’t call it, then it may as well not exist. You are to become my wife.’

It was not incorrect.

If Clodine, who would become empress, did not call him by his name, then once he became emperor, there would be fewer and fewer who would dare address him as ‘Ahazan.’

‘When we are alone, you may treat me more casually.’

Even with his permission, she could not measure how far that casualness was meant to extend.

‘For now, start by calling my name.’

She hesitated, uncertain.

Ahazan even set the stage for her, resting his elbow on the red tablecloth and propping his chin in his hand.

‘Say it. My name.’

Ahazan.

She sometimes whispered it when she was alone.

But now the owner of that name sat before her. It felt like being caught with a stolen sweet in her mouth.

‘A… Ahazan.’

She managed it in a barely audible voice.

‘I can’t hear you.’

His tone was faintly teasing.

Blushing, she tried again, a little louder.

‘Ahazan.’

Was it enough?

She lifted her eyes to look at him.

He was smiling, just slightly.

‘Yes, Clodine.’