As though she had given him an unexpected answer, one of Carden’s eyebrows arched sharply.

“I died and returned to life. How could I possibly be the same person I was before? Would you not agree?”

There was not a single lie in those truthful words.

She truly had died and returned to life, and Roanne had indeed departed, allowing someone else to take her place.

However, the Prince seemed to interpret her words entirely differently.

“How amusing. I never thought I would live to see my consort joke in my presence.”

A joke?

She was being perfectly serious.

Mokyeong pursed her lips but did not bother trying to convince him.

She had never intended to do so in the first place, and explaining everything until her mouth hurt would gain her nothing.

There was something far more important to discuss.

“I came because I have a proposal for Your Highness before I leave.”

“A proposal from the woman who saved my life.”

Carden smiled as he poured himself another glass of whiskey.

“I suppose I could hardly refuse unless it was particularly unreasonable.”

“My savior? I am deeply honored. I was nervous because I expected you to regard me as your enemy.”

Carden studied her silently over the rim of his glass.

The emotion visible in his blue eyes was neither hostility nor goodwill, but something closer to curiosity.

As she watched him, her gaze unconsciously followed his glass downwards.

Each time he swallowed the liquor, his Adam’s apple moved slowly.

At that moment, the prince smiled and asked her a question.

“Would you care to die and return to life once more?”

“…….”

“I find myself curious about how much further my consort might change.”

“You died and returned to life as well, Your Highness. Why have you not changed in the slightest?”

Mokyeong smiled back without yielding.

“After all, ever since that day, I have become remarkably desperate to stay alive.”

In other words, she had come close to dying for real, whereas he had only pretended to die.

Someone raised amid the imperial family’s endless scheming would certainly understand her.

Carden’s eyes narrowed briefly, but rather than taking offence, he laughed quietly and put down his glass.

Then he slowly approached Mokyeong.

With each step he took, his enormous shadow — utterly incongruous with his lily-like beauty — fell more heavily over her.

“Why do you insist on provoking me?”

His slow voice descended upon her.

“You are beginning to irritate me…….”

As if that would make her cower!

If anyone had a right to be angry, it was Roanne, who almost died because of his scheme.

What a ridiculous man.

Continuing this quarrel would only be a waste of time.

Keeping her chin raised, Mokyeong spoke bluntly.

“Divorce me.”

Carden stopped abruptly.

He looked far more surprised than when he had discovered Roanne hiding in his bedchamber.

“Use the destruction of trust between us as grounds to cast me out of the imperial palace. Confinement is far too lenient. If possible, I would prefer you to push for a divorce.”

“……Is that what the Empress wants?”

So that was his first suspicion.

Considering that Roanne had spent the past two years under the Empress’s control, it was only natural.

“No. Her Majesty knows nothing about this. The very reason I slipped into this room was to avoid her watchful eyes.”

Mokyeong’s voice was clear.

Yet Carden’s eyes remained deeply clouded with suspicion.

Of course they did.

Had Mokyeong been in his position, she would not have believed such a claim easily either.

Therefore, it was her responsibility to persuade him.

“Were you not the Empress’s person?”

“I am not certain I was ever her person. Her dog, perhaps.”

Carden’s expression shifted ever so slightly.

“She tamed me with a whip, leaving me no choice but to obey. But now I want to escape. So please help me, Your Highness.”

Mokyeong raised her head and looked directly at Carden.

Her gaze was clear, as though inviting him to peer straight into her soul. Yet Carden merely stared back, refusing to answer so readily.

She had expected him to regard it as a favorable option, even if he did not openly welcome it.

His response was far more subdued than she had anticipated, making Mokyeong inwardly anxious.

‘What is his problem?’

He had found her presence so intolerable that he had tried to kill her. Why was his reaction so lukewarm now?

“……Do you not want a divorce? Why? Surely you are uncomfortable keeping me beside you.”

“That is not incorrect.”

Carden readily admitted it.

“It is true that your very existence makes me deeply uncomfortable and displeased. I also find it irritating that the Empress’s people use the Princess Consort as an excuse to come and go from my palace.”

Even so, he did not agree to the divorce.

While Mokyeong regarded him in confusion, Carden slowly looked her over as though examining something before asking a completely unexpected question.

“Why did you kiss me?”

“…….”

That was what he wanted to know?

“For the past two years, we have never even held hands, much less kissed.”

Carden stepped closer once again.

“So I cannot understand why you kissed me merely to save my life. Moreover, you already knew that I was awake at the time.”

He lowered his head and whispered the final words into her ear.

They were so close that his breath brushed against her ear.

Mokyeong narrowed her eyes.

He was a truly fascinating man.

Without saying a word, he gave off an unmistakable sense of danger.

Carden soon straightened up and looked at her expectantly, silently urging her to answer.

She could not tell whether the faint curve of his lips was a sign of provocation or mockery, or if it was simply curiosity, which had surfaced from time to time throughout their conversation.

Either way, it was preferable to outright hostility.

“Because you would not open your eyes.”

“You kissed me merely to make me open my eyes?”

“Did you imagine there was some other reason?”

The corners of Mokyeong’s lips curled mischievously.

“Ah! Perhaps you thought I had ulterior motives?”

When she questioned him as though he had made an absurd suggestion, Carden merely shrugged and laughed.

His low, husky laughter brushed pleasantly against her ears.

Even his voice was absurdly alluring. Whenever Carden Rubert laughed, the deep resonance was enough to make her ears melt.

What a dangerously captivating man.

Had they met in the martial world, she might have tried to claim him for herself. But this was another world, and the body she now inhabited belonged to Roanne.

Besides, this man had tried to kill Roanne.

In a sense, he had even succeeded.

“Have you finished asking your questions? If so, I would appreciate an answer to mine.”

“I still have one question remaining.”

“I did not realize Your Highness was such a curious man.”

Carden was unbothered by her reluctant response. If anything, he seemed even more amused.

“What did you feed me then?”

“Pardon?”

“When you kissed me. You undoubtedly put something inside my mouth.”

Carden’s blue eyes remained fixed on Mokyeong.

“What was it?”

She was genuinely surprised by the question.

To awaken Carden, she had gathered all her remaining internal energy from her dantian and transferred it to him.

It was such a faint trace of energy that an ordinary person would never have noticed it.

She had given him just enough to drive out the poison remaining in his body and clear his clouded mind. She had never imagined that he would sense it.

“It had no physical form, but you undoubtedly fed me something.”

Carden narrowed his eyes.

“It tasted subtly sweet and refreshing…… something like that.”

He even remembered the faint sensation carried by her internal energy.

For the first time, Mokyeong regarded Carden in a different light.

‘So this is what it means to be an Inversio.’

She had yet to cross swords with him, so she could not hastily determine whether he had reached the Transformation Realm or the Profound Realm.

However, the fact that he had sensed such faint energy and remembered it despite his impaired state was more than enough to prove that he was no ordinary warrior.

‘I cannot afford to underestimate him.’

After engaging in a prolonged battle of gazes, Mokyeong deliberately hesitated before answering.

“Even if I told you, I doubt you would believe me.”

“Now I am even more curious about your answer.”

“……If I tell you, will you divorce me?”

Carden’s smile deepened.

This time, it was not a friendly smile.

“Let us say it would increase the likelihood.”

……Why would he not give her a definite answer?

Could he possibly not want to divorce her?

Did he want to kill her but refuse to divorce her? Was that it?

When Mokyeong glared at him incredulously, Carden abruptly changed the subject.

“Instead, why not become a double agent?”

“…….”

“Joining hands with me to bring down the Empress does not seem like a bad proposition.”

It was an unexpected proposal.

Unfortunately for him, Mokyeong was not tempted in the slightest.

“No. I do not want to. I refuse.”

Mokyeong rejected him without hesitation.

“I have no desire to remain trapped among a snake, a tiger, and a wolf any longer.”

“Three?”

“We cannot exclude His Majesty the Emperor.”

The moment she mentioned the Emperor, the amusement in Carden’s eyes faded ever so slightly.