Chapter 23

He was so handsome, and she felt herself falling for him, overwhelmed by the affection he showed… Avgenia blurted out,

“You used to hate me.”

“…Did I?”

“More exactly, I thought you didn’t see me as a woman. Well, I know that’s not true anymore…”

She’d experienced firsthand how, for the past several nights and days, this man was constantly aroused for her, cherishing her with tender care. She tried to dismiss it as simply his gentle nature, but after his confession, she realized everything she’d felt was justified.

“You called me scary, called me a monster. You hated me so much as a child. So I just assumed you didn’t like me…”

“Ah, Your Highness.”

A faint pain flickered across Alexei’s face as he smiled. There was no avoiding the embarrassment of childhood memories.

“I was a kid. Who likes losing to the girl they like all the time?”

“You said my kisses were unpleasant… Wouldn’t even let me link arms.”

“I was so precocious I started having wet dreams at ten.”

He actually had his first wet dream later, but for similar reasons, he’d definitely rejected Avgenia’s innocent skinship. The girl he liked treated him like a little brother, kissing, stroking, hugging him—how could that be only pleasant?

Even as he answered each of Avgenia’s remarks, shame lingered on his face.

“Then why, when I tested you…”

Tested? Alexei tilted his head slightly.

“Before I started all this, I was ready to quit if you stopped me. But you just called me a gigolo, so easily.”

“That was you… testing me?”

With a short laugh, Alexei’s face grew incredulous.

“How is that a test? That was a notice.”

“A notice? I definitely asked what you thought…”

“You’d already decided and just wanted confirmation, right? I’m just an aide—how important could my opinion be to you, Your Highness?”

As their back-and-forth dragged on, they almost slipped back into their usual lord-and-aide relationship. It was their routine, but here, it had to stop.

Avgenia looked up at Alexei, who was gazing down at her, and with both hands, she cupped his cheek and forehead. Her voice was gentle as she continued.

“The Senate nobles kept making me fight my siblings, so I made plans just to escape. Didn’t you ever feel sorry for me?”

“Did you want me to pity you?”

“I thought you’d find a way to help.”

‘Because you’re Ramantus. The heir to Ramantus, the one who could even make griffins bow, the son of Duke Ivanov of Ramantus, who switched sides the moment my half-brother was born, making my unstable position even more precarious. You had more solid power than a princess pushed into noble infighting without a mother or maternal relatives.’

“As a friend, if you’d told the Duke I wasn’t interested in the throne, it would’ve helped, right?”

Of course, this was a blatant lie.

She’d actually hoped that gentle Lexie would tell her not to do anything risky, and instead use him. Now that her beauty had captivated all the men in society, maybe Alexei would finally let himself be tempted.

If she’d wanted marriage, that would be another lie, but she knew Alexei, who’d always avoided her, would never answer that way.

Either way, it was a strange thought. Waiting for adulthood, swept up in schemes to pit her against her half-sister and adorable half-brother, Avgenia at twenty couldn’t make proper decisions.

Her eyes trembled as she recalled the stormy days.

Alexei had guessed all this, knowing she wanted his sympathy. He’d always stayed close to her.

He sighed.

“I never imagined you thought that… When you declared you’d sleep with other men in front of me, it felt like you were confirming I wasn’t a man to you—I was too busy despairing.”

“You could have at least objected.”

“How could I go against you, Your Highness?”

She almost pointed out he’d objected plenty, but Avgenia knew. He’d always grumbled, but worked hard to make sure her wishes were carried out—he was a capable aide.

“That made you despair?”

“Yes.”

Alexei still looked up at her with a gentle smile. The incredulity and embarrassment lingered, but he was now simply a man baring his heart to the woman he loved.

Avgenia’s face blushed deeply.

“So, I—”

Her pale, slender hand stroked his firm cheek.

“How could I not see you as a man…”

“I get it now.”

“You were the only one for me since childhood.”

“…Young Alexei Ramantus ruined everything.”

Leaning into her hand, Alexei kissed the fuller part of her palm.

Avgenia’s rosy eyes shimmered.

She’d missed something so clear. Because of his foolishness as a child, her tyrant had hidden her feelings for too long. That cruel “test” was actually a kind of rescue signal, and she’d never noticed.

Alexei now understood how Avgenia looked at him on the bed, not just swept up in pleasure, but with eyes full of love.

He knew how her arms trembled when she hugged his neck, how shy she was at every first kiss, how often her lips nearly whispered words of love.

Each time, Alexei had to suppress the urge to speak his love. Whispering love while aroused on the bed felt too deceptive.

So, he’d planned to propose to Avgenia weeks ago, but had convinced himself it was fine even if he never won her heart. That was wrong.

For her sake, for Avgenia’s sake.

He should have asked for love, not just conditions, from the start.

His feelings had only grown since their first touch.

“So, Your Highness.”

Alexei was now resting his hands on Avgenia’s knees.

“I didn’t expect to say this here, so I haven’t prepared anything…”

He lifted his chin, drawing closer, his face filled with urgency. For the first time as an adult, his blue eyes shone with intense, passionate emotion.

“Would you make me your husband?”

Avgenia’s fingers, still touching his face, brushed his hair aside. He’d styled it quickly to look good for her, and now his neat forehead was exposed. Her slender fingers softly traced where his hair grew, as if checking the place that had sweated these past days.

She was choosing her words. Alexei’s heart raced, not knowing what would come from those adorable lips.

“So.”

Gulp, Alexei’s throat bobbed with tension.

“This was your plan all along?”

“…Yes.”

“So when you said you’d resign as aide—”

“I did have to go to Ramantus. I figured I’d pretend to negotiate a marriage, and if it all fell apart, my parents would eventually give up.”

“And until then, you’d let me keep up my libertine lifestyle?”

“If you found another option, Your Highness, I’d have to accept it…”

Alexei’s expression changed. He was no longer just a man unable to hide his love and desire for his beloved, but an aide outlining future plans to his lord.

“Ramantus is perfect for you, Your Highness. No one would be foolish enough to make the Duchess of Ramantus Empress, and when my father retires, you can return to life at the Imperial City, and rejoin the administration. By then, the First Princess’s succession should be stable.”

So, by his calculations, this was best for Avgenia too. Rather than ruining her image and waiting for supporters to abandon her, she could quietly withdraw from the succession fight, leaving room to help the First Princess.

Avgenia knew he’d thought it all through, so her questioning was really just teasing.

“But the Duke supports Nikolai.”

“As I’ve said many times, my father is just living in his own era.”

Emphasizing his point, Alexei squeezed her knee.

“He’d be happy to use you to rally supporters, Your Highness.”

“That won’t happen.”

“Of course not. You won’t step forward, and neither will those elders. Did you think I hadn’t considered all that?”

Maybe because he’d spent so long being curt, even while proposing and outlining future plans, Alexei’s tone was prickly. Really, it was just him showing off his competence.

That was the Alexei she loved. She couldn’t hate him.

“Besides, you know I became your confidant for those reasons.”

“Of course. But still, the Duke supports Nikolai…”

“It’s partly because your mother passed away, but also because he thought you and I would never be together.”

“That’s…”

“Yes. I told him I didn’t think you liked me, Your Highness…”

The great head of Ramantus wouldn’t let his beloved only son marry into the unstable imperial family. As Alexei confessed another childhood mistake, his face darkened.

Ahaha, with a clear laugh, Avgenia smiled. Only then did Alexei’s face show deep relief.

“Anyway, even if things hadn’t gone this way… I would have found a way to propose to you.”

He was now kneeling, his face just below Avgenia’s.

“What do you think?”

The aide Alexei was gone, and the man who’d longed for her all his life gazed up with pitifully earnest eyes.

Avgenia gently stroked his cheeks and forehead.

“If you’d done this four years ago, it would have been even better.”

“Well… I’m sorry.”

Her bittersweet smile made Alexei’s heart ache.

They’d misunderstood each other and couldn’t be honest, so years had passed. He’d resented Avgenia’s coldness for a long time, but now, he knew he was the only one at fault.

He loved her so much, but had hoped his feelings would fade someday.

He’d started “playing the aide” to stay close until his feelings cooled, but the closer he stayed, the bigger his feelings grew.

And as much as he’d loved Avgenia all his life, he couldn’t imagine living without her.

On the day he returned, feeling self-loathing for failing to respond to her advice on s*x, and after hearing his father urge him to marry, he’d agonized late into the night… but in the end,

He decided to end this deceptive relationship, and live a life where he didn’t have to forget Avgenia.

“I thought we were headed different ways, so I’d eventually forget. But that’s not how it works…”

His words were plain, but Avgenia believed them completely. She felt the same.

“Even watching you spend nights with so many men, Your Highness, even when you taught me how to please a woman, never seeing me as a man…”

“I never imagined a man who asked me how to please a woman would actually like me.”

They shared a brief laugh.

“So, you planned a marriage without love?”

“I do love you, so I thought at least I could legally love your body…”

“Mm.”

“But since you didn’t see me as a man, I was going to say you didn’t have to fulfill marital duties. You could take a lover if you wanted. We could just pretend for the wedding night…”

“What about an heir?”

“If you had a child, I’d claim them as my own, whoever the father was…”

“Are you insane?”

Avgenia’s jaw dropped at the increasingly ridiculous story.

“You’re Ramantus!”

“If there’s no direct heir, adopting is normal.”

“That’s only if there’s a collateral line.”

Besides…

Avgenia stretched her foot from the bed. Her small, white foot traced up his thigh and touched something thick and hard.

She pressed it with her toes, and Alexei’s face rippled with emotion—clearly arousal.

With Avgenia on the bed before him, his body wasn’t going to wilt just because he was dressed.

“You really planned not to use this?”

“Well, something like this…”

Recalling that resolve, a faint pain flickered on Alexei’s face.

What use was it to him? He was relieved he wasn’t impotent or premature, but only one woman had ever made him this way.

Now that he’d felt Avgenia’s insides, he knew he’d never be able to abstain again.

“Why didn’t you just think about having an illegitimate child instead? If you don’t use this for anyone, it’s a loss for the Empire.”

“If it’s not for you, Your Highness, it’s useless.”

The only woman he ever wanted to unite with and give pleasure to was her, always just one. Even if Avgenia looked elsewhere, he would simply be jealous and destined to remain faithful for life.

Just as he always had.

Receiving his earnest gaze, Avgenia shyly wiggled her toes. Beneath, the hardened pillar twitched.

“Now that I think about it, back then, just hearing you speak made me so aroused that I had to run away, Your Highness.”

“Oh my.”

“And right now, it’s a little painful too.”

So, just a moment… Alexei tried to gently move aside that mischievous foot.

“Right. You said you had a number of times you wanted to fill.”

Avgenia’s foot stubbornly traced up along his shaft. Deep lines creased Alexei’s brow.

Because they’d been entwined at every glance for days, even a slight touch was enough to signal arousal. Alexei, reaching under her robe, grasped Avgenia’s inner thigh and pressed his lips to the corner of hers.

“No matter how many you’ve embraced, it doesn’t matter now. From now on, I just want to be the only one to fill you, Your Highness…”

Finally, Avgenia’s lips in his mouth tasted sweet.

“My beloved Avi.”

“I’ll answer when you send the proposal.”

She was telling him to convince his father first. Since it was a marriage between the Imperial Family and the most powerful house, that was proper.

At the same time, the Imperial Family had no way to refuse a proposal from Ramantus, so once the Duke was convinced, it would naturally happen.

Just one ‘I love you’ would be enough, really.

Unable to contain his love for his sly tyrant, Alexei grinned with a twisted face.