Chapter 9

***

Adele’s hand was wrapped in his. It wasn’t an unfamiliar situation.

When she first met him, it was also like this.

The emperor held Adele’s and slowly kissed the back of her hand.

Thump. Thump.

Surprised, her heart beat faster.

Her eyes met the emperor’s as he placed his lips on the back of her hand.

The young man who gave her a shirt to wear instead of her wet clothes in an inn, the man Adele held in her heart for four years. He overlapped with the emperor in front of her.

“Adele.”

The emperor called her.

His pleasant voice was familiar.

Adele couldn’t help but shudder. She didn’t know what she was afraid of or what she was worried about. It was just that the emperor had caught her.

“Ah…”

Adele was perplexed.

As she tried to withdraw her hand from his grasp, the emperor said in a low voice.

“Adele, you still don’t know?”

In an instant, the emperor pulled Adele straight to him.

“Your Majesty.”

Their lips met.

The soft lips soon bit hers and sucked hers. Adele was confused.

“Ah…”

He was a cruel butcher.

Emperor Alfred was terrifying to even look at.

And he was an evil man who wanted to take Leo, who was more precious than life itself to Adele.

But, why did that make her heart skip a beat?

What was his name, where did he come from, who was he?

It was like that night when she fell in love without even knowing it.

Now she knew that he was the emperor, she was afraid.

She buried the fear where it left off, a memory of that day she would never forget.

“……Adele.”

“Stop. Stop it…”

Four years ago, Adele trembled at his touch between deep kisses.

“Do you hate me?”

That face, that look. Such words were foul.

Because she didn’t hate him, Adele bloomed in his chest with a flourish.

“Hmph.”

As Adele gasped for air, the emperor removed his lips.

An emperor she hadn’t even met. He was neatly crowned with conquests, and his lips were unusually red.

‘I don’t hate you.’

Adele looked at the emperor.

“If you don’t like me, don’t laugh like that in front of me.”

The Emperor left the dining room.

Left alone in the dining room, Adele felt like her soul had been drained. She was in a daze as she walked back to her room.

“Oh, Lady Ernst.”

“Huh?”

“Did you return the watch to His Majesty?”

At Yuria’s words, Adele looked at her hands.

The watch she tried to give back to the emperor was still in her hand until now.

“Oh, yes.”

The Emperor left the watch to her and took her heart.

***

They say you can’t tell a person’s heart even an inch away.

Van realized what Adele said.

“I can’t love you anymore. Van.”

When Adele said so, the world seemed to be falling apart.

He felt like he was going crazy with impatience in the morning. So he ordered an unscheduled breakfast. He wanted to give Adele something to eat, even if it was in front of Leo.

And all he wanted was to see her. In the last few days, Van has suffered from a worse thirst than when he was on the battlefield. His heart would come alive when he saw her.

He thought if he could just get her inside his realm, the frustration would go away.

He thought that seeing Adele would change everything.

As fate would have it, he thought that things around Adele and himself could be resolved in a flowing way, as if they were naturally intertwined. It was an illusion.

He had never gotten anything without trying before, but he thought this would be one thing she wanted. But Adele just sat there with a forced expression and only looked at Leo.

Van gently pushed Adele’s favorite grapes in front of her.

Van sighed inwardly as he watched Adele put a grape into her mouth and a sip of water.

Then Adele laughed.

For the first time, she laughed in front of him, the emperor.

‘There may not be another moment like this.’

He felt like that.

Adele was laughing, but Van was hurt as if a blade was stuck in his chest.

He dreamed of being happy with Adele, but he couldn’t say anything.

When she told him to take the watch, Van only saw Adele’s hand. It seems that he had to hold that hand now.

He impulsively kissed her, feeling like he’d miss Adele forever if he didn’t.

‘She doesn’t hate me.

And now I know.

It’s not that Adele really hates me.

It’s just that she doesn’t know how to approach me, just like I don’t know how to approach her.’

It was not an illusion, but a certainty.

The thought that he hadn’t lost Adele forever made his head bleed.

“Adele, you don’t change.”

Van was the one who wanted Adele to live. It was time for Van to do morning work.

Suddenly, there was a commotion outside the office.

“Your Majesty! I must see the Emperor right now.”

A young man came in without a proper announcement.

“Your Majesty! What’s going on here?”

The young man was a peculiar person.

He didn’t seem to pay any attention to his curly red hair. The only thing he wore was his clothes, which were neat and clean, without a single wrinkle or speck of dust.

His blue-gray eyes dared to express annoyance and rebuke against the emperor.

“Didn’t I tell you clearly not yet?”

“You did.”

Alvin was offended by the emperor’s insincere words.

“I went to the duchy with loyalty and faith in your majesty, and you do this to me while I’m there!”

Alvin waved his hands in the air. When the chair didn’t come as he wished, Alvin turned around.

“Has the chamberlain changed again?”

“Yes, Dawson, bring Lord Alvin a chair.”

Dawson, who was still figuring out his job due to his sudden promotion, quickly brought out a fluffy chair. Alvin sat down as soon as the chair arrived.

“What does Lord Ellipson have to say about this?”

Alvin remembered a woman who had a great deal of land near the capital.

The emperor suddenly entrusted him with the ambassador to the Duchy of Jetsen. Upon receiving the ambassador appointment letter, Alvin believed the emperor and half believed the Marquis of Dreyfus.

“She didn’t say anything, but she showed it with her actions.”

“What?”

“She let Adele run away.”

Alvin was astonished.

“Then Lord Ellipson…………”

“I didn’t kill her.”

“Phew.”

Alvin breathed a sigh of relief.

He clearly saw the emperor making a look as if he had done a great deal of mercy for not killing Lord Ellipson.

“What will you do now?”

“I will put Leopold on the imperial register at this council meeting.”

“No.”

Alvin didn’t back down.

“We must send Adele out of the castle now.”

“Ha. I like your perceptiveness.”

Van put down the pen in his hand and rose from his seat.

“If you cannot even put a prince on the imperial register, do you think I will insist on such a position?

“Are you threatening me?”

Alvin was so shocked he could hardly speak.

“It’s not a threat. It’s an order.”

“Huh, okay. Then let’s leave it in the middle and go to the monastery.”

“Ha.”

Van glared at Alvin.

“Adele isn’t going anywhere.”

Alvin stood up quickly.

“That killing intent! You really shouldn’t use it anytime you want! This is not a battlefield.”

“It was you who said that the war was not over when you returned to the Imperial Palace, it’s just that you don’t need weapons.”

“I understand.”

Alvin, who was about to leave the office, spoke.

“I will take care of Lady Adele’s education.”

“I see.”

“You, is your name Dawson?”

“Yes.”

“I am Count Alvin Castellan, His Highness’s second-in-command.”

“Yes, Count Castellan.”

“Next time I wave my hand like this, bring me a chair and some water.”

Alvin was often speechless and his blood pressure rose during the conversation with the emperor.

“Yes, sir.”

After his explanation, Alvin headed for Adele’s room.

“I hope I can talk to her.”

***

Adele slept for a while after breakfast.

Maybe it was because it wasn’t easy.

Since coming to the Imperial Palace, Adele often dreamed about Van. Whenever she dreamed about him, she often felt tired the next day. But it wasn’t a problem because Van didn’t often appear before. But, perhaps it was because she was worried about the emperor, recently Van appeared in her dreams almost every day.

‘I’m not sure if he will come now.’

Last night, Adele consciously tried to erase Van from her dream.

She had to live in reality.

Adele didn’t know how the real Van lived.

Van in her dream only listened to her story, but never told her his story. So it was natural that Adele didn’t know.

There was no way that the Van she didn’t know would appear in her dream.

It was hard to meet the emperor as he followed her like an afterimage.

It was less painful this morning as she saw the emperor as he was.

‘He kissed me.’

So it was actually a misunderstanding that she was taken to jail like he said? So the Emperor didn’t have any intention of killing her?

Adele was curious.

Adele stuck her hand under her pillow.

“I couldn’t give it back.”

The round pocket watch was beautiful and somewhat feminine. The floral pattern of vines engraved on the gold lid was really pretty. It wasn’t an ordinary object.

“I’m just going to look at it, okay?”

Adele had never seen a watch like this before, so she peeked at it for a moment, looking here and there, curious. At the sound of a “knock,” Adele closed the lid of the clock and put it under her pillow again.

“Lady Ernst, you have a visitor.”

“Visitor?”

Adele was a resident of the Imperial Palace.

But only the Emperor and Leo visited her. There shouldn’t be anyone else.

“Yes, Count Alvin Castellan.”

It was the first time Adele heard his name.

“Show me.”

Adele followed Yuria to the parlor. It was the first time she had ever been in this room.

“Good afternoon. I’m Count Alvin Castellan.”

“Hello. I’m Adelaide Ernst.”

Adele greeted Alvin with both hands clasped together and a bow.

“Are you sure I’m the one you need to see, Count?”

“Yes.”

Yuria brought in tea and refreshments.

‘What am I supposed to say?’

The only aristocrat Adele had ever met was Marquess Dreyfus.

So she was at a loss as to why Alvin had come to visit and what to make of this awkward silence.

“Miss Ernst.”

As if thirsty, Alvin, who drank two cups of tea, set down his empty cup and asked.

“Would you like to be the Empress?”