Chapter 2

He had forgotten that the person tending to him was the one with whom he had spent a night together. The place he had dared to enter was the bed of the Second Imperial Princess, and the one who cleaned up afterward was none other than the Young Master of Ramantus.

His prestige was enough to threaten even the Imperial Family, and as the heir to the Empire’s most distinguished house, Ramantus, he was actively involved in the struggle for succession to the throne.

In truth, even without that aura, just by appearance alone, he was not someone to be taken lightly.

A jawline cut like a sculpture, deep eye sockets with blue eyes shining like the finest sapphires, lips so sensual that even another man would be captivated, a sharply defined nose anchoring his face.

His tired face radiated a kind of decadent beauty, and his light brown hair, hastily arranged due to his early entry into the palace, had a natural charm.

The bourgeois man swallowed hard.

‘Wow, living with such a handsome man, someone like me would just be tossed aside after one night.’

Whether or not he felt any awe toward Alexei, Alexei pulled out a checkbook from his coat. He wrote the amount of 1,000,000 in a nervous script and handed it to the man, who received it with a look of deep gratitude.

“Ah, just in case.”

As the man reached for the check, Alexei, with a light gesture, made him miss it and spoke indifferently.

“There’s no need to hope that Her Highness will call for you a second time because of your exceptional skills in bed. If that were the case, you wouldn’t be left alone right now.”

Saying so, Alexei felt a deep self-loathing.

There had been so many men who aroused Avgenia, yet not a single one could satisfy her enough to be called twice, and he had to be content with that one fact. He hated himself for it.

It was, in truth, a kind of jealousy……

“Well, then, I’ll be on my way.”

Bowing repeatedly, the bourgeois disappeared into the lounge where the sorcerer was waiting, and Alexei roughly ruffled his hair. His neatly combed hair was instantly disheveled.

This was why he preferred to sleep a little longer instead of spending time fixing his hair. A familiar pain flickered in his chest.

Really, this is f*cked up.

The worst part of this tiresome routine, repeated once or twice a week, was being left alone in this bedroom, where the previous night’s passion still lingered in the air……

His gaze dropped downward. Thanks to the codpiece tightly fastened to his trousers, it wasn’t obvious, but Alexei himself knew all too well.

He knew that, once again, throughout this entire process, he had become vigorously aroused.

In fact, from the moment he confirmed that his liege hadn’t appeared in the office……

No, from the time he realized he was different from Avgenia and experienced the onset of puberty with his first wet dream.

Perhaps, for his whole life……

‘Ha, this really is f*cked up……’

Alexei approached Avgenia’s empty bed. The sheets, tangled and disordered, seemed to hold the sticky scent of the two bodies entwined the night before.

As he rummaged through the sheets, now entirely devoid of their original stiffness, a silk slip that must have wrapped around Avgenia’s body until last evening tumbled out.

Just by running his hand over the slip’s texture, Alexei vividly recalled the image of his iege clinging to his arm moments ago.

The feeling of her soft br*asts pressed against his arm, the darkened center visible through the thin silk, the silhouette of her slightly raised n*pples, the cleavage seen between her robe, the faint marks of that damned bourgeois’s lips, and…… her bare, vividly red lips……

Those lips, that cleavage, those n*pples, the open front of her robe—they all gave rise to countless fantasies.

Alexei gripped the slip in both hands and buried his nose in it.

Taking a deep breath, the subtle scent of Avgenia’s skin and the lingering fragrance of her favorite oil filled his nostrils.

“……Ha.”

He let out a self-mocking sigh and quickly unfastened his buckle.

In the now quiet room, the sound of Avgenia bathing with her maids in the next room echoed.

Splash, splash. It was unclear whether the sound of water against skin was Avgenia’s own or the hands of her maids caressing her……

To him, that sound was the sound of his t*sticles hitting Avgenia’s thighs.

No, it was the sound of his fingers relentlessly exploring Avgenia’s private parts, and at the same time, the sound of his lips leaving marks on her lush, milky-white br*asts.

He moved, stroking himself, to a spot right beside the door to the adjoining room. It was the best place to hear what was happening inside, and if the door opened, he would be hidden and gain a bit of time.

After Avgenia had spent a hundred nights with a hundred men, it was the place where Alexei would pleasure himself the morning after, a hundred times over.

Gazing at the bed he had never been allowed to share, with Avgenia’s scent lingering on the slip and negligee pressed to his nose and mouth, Alexei explored her in his imagination.

The owner of this room, who would never think to explore him.

The cruel liege of that bed, who would never permit him to join her.

“Ugh, hng……”

Tap, tap, tap, Alexei’s hand moved faster.

He imagined a night in this room that was never granted to him.

Not just exposing himself, but n*ked, parting the soft cleft of Avgenia’s pale b*ttocks with his own, imagining her folds tightly gripping his heated, dark shaft, his thick head pressing against her secret place, both of them reaching climax together……

A low, playful laugh from Avgenia drifted from beyond the door.

In his imagination, whenever he nibbled her ear with his lips, or desperately sucked her n*pples, or when she grasped his aroused flesh, eager for him to enter, Avgenia would laugh just like that.

“Ha, Avi, Avi……”

Words that could never reach her murmured from between his teeth, buried in the slip.

Avi, Avgenia, his cruel liege.

The beautiful, merciless tyrant who held him tightly and never once allowed him close.

Tap, tap, tap, his hand moved even faster, his breath growing rougher. The imagined thrusting, her breathless moans, all accelerated.

Swoosh, the sound of water pouring out as the maids changed the bath. She must be rinsing herself.

Countless droplets must be rolling over Avgenia’s pale skin.

Alexei even envied those droplets.

‘Now, soon……’

There was no chance of Alexei’s impious act being discovered.

Just as Avgenia had spent a hundred nights with a hundred men, Alexei had performed this act a hundred mornings, never missing a beat.

So, in the end, he could only, in his imagination, because he could never arouse Her Highness……

“……Kuh.”

There was no way his climax would be delayed while imagining Avgenia. His shaft swelled in his hand, veins bulging.

Avgenia’s scent, Avgenia’s milky skin, Avgenia’s soft flesh, Avgenia’s delicate lips, Avgenia’s flushed cheeks.

Avgenia’s, Avgenia’s……

All those things he could never see……

Tap, tap, tap, his hand moved at full speed. The moment a deep crease formed between his brows—

“……Ugh.”

Suddenly, what had been pulsing in his shaft spilled out onto Avgenia’s slip.

The hundredth climax in Avgenia’s bedroom.

Truly, this is f*cked up.

He became aroused just by seeing evidence of her with other men, but Her Highness……

‘Right. I’ve always looked foolish since I was young, so how could she ever see me as a man? That’s why she’s always so unguarded……’

With heavy, dejected steps, Alexei gathered the slip stained with his s*men, pretending it was a trace of last night, and the sheets, piling them up as laundry. The maids serving the Second Imperial Princess were always grateful for the thoughtfulness of her chief aide, Young Master Ramantus.

‘Thoughtfulness…… Who ever wants to be so thoughtful? D*mn it.’

Alexei let out a deep sigh and left the room with a weary face.

Thus, Young Master Ramantus, Alexei, had been in love with Gronlant’s Second Imperial Princess Avgenia for nearly twenty years.