That night we…
‘Sit closer?’
Riella’s eyes widened and she held her breath. Herhan was staring at her and she was unable to avoid his direct gaze. The documents he’d been looking at were already closed.
It was The Emperor’s orders. She wasn’t qualified to judge whether someone like me would dare to come close.
Riella cautiously stood up.
When she tried to move to a seat next to him, Herhan’s expression was not so good. Moving one seat, one seat closer, Riella finally bravely sat directly across from Herhan, diagonally across from him. Only then did the emperor withdraw his cold gaze.
The problem was: Riella came here, and she sat closer, but she didn’t know what to do next.
She waited for the emperor to speak, but he didn’t say a word.
The emperor only broke the silence after a while.
“so what?”
When Liella tilted her head, not knowing his intentions, Herhan let out a tired sigh and said,
“Don’t you have something to say to me?”
‘Ah, did you mean to say it first?’
Riella nodded and said the first word.
“Which one do you want?”
“What?”
“If you want something, I’ll make sure to get it…”
This time, Herhan didn’t understand what she was saying and gave her a puzzled look.
Then, embarrassed, she lowered her head and muttered in a low voice.
“I’m sorry. I thought you were going to wait for an answer, but I couldn’t figure out what to pay for it… so I asked for your Majesty’s will…”
‘Ah… I told you to pay after helping you.’
Herhan raised his head with interest.
‘Even though I say that, I forgot about it, did that woman still care about it?’
“I’m sorry. Your Majesty is already the owner of the world, so you have nothing else you want.”
Riella guessed it and apologized again.
It was so ridiculous and absurd that Herhan let out a gigantic laugh.
‘Isn’t the content too bold for what she said while hesitating? ‘What do you want?’ Can you give it to me if I tell you? For a person that has nothing.’
Herhan laughed a few more times. Riella blushed as she realized her words.
“You’re right. I had everything I wanted. If there’s something I don’t have yet, it’s something no one else will ever have, So you won’t be able to get it. Does that answer your question?”
“Then what should I repay the favor with? May I testify…?”
“A testimony?”
“The fact that it was the royal family who hired mercenaries to assassinate Your Majesty. Isn’t that why you brought me here? as evidence to capture the royal family.”
At those words, the corners of Herhan’s mouth went down coldly.
It was not wrong. Of course, the reason he took Riella away from the royal family was mainly for political reasons.
But Riella’s words just now were somehow, very, very, very upsetting.
“Are you very used to treating yourself as an object?”
Riella flinched.
The emperor’s words hit her so painfully.
“With or without your testimony, the evidence is already enough on my side.”
“But I want to help…”
“I don’t need your help and I didn’t ask for it.”
Riella’s eyes widened at Herhan’s sudden demeanor. She lowered her hand under the table, clutching the hem of her dress. She was alone, and she was afraid.
Seeing that, a hot feeling ran down Herhan’s neck.
‘Why is this woman so desperate she doesn’t even scream?’
She had a terrible thought that maybe it would be better for her to cry out than to watch her hold her breath and tremble anxiously.
“If you really want to give something, why don’t you give me your body instead?”
So, Herhan deliberately thrust a knife-like word into her heart. The reaction was exactly what he expected.
At first, she went pale and surprised, then her eyes widened in horror. She parted her lips several times as if to say something, took a deep breath, and then closed her eyes again and again. Then she finally asked with her troubled face.
“Could we, on that night…”
Riella couldn’t even finish the question.
‘It seemed that she did not fully remember what happened that night.’
Herhan could have told her the truth. It’s been a night of a lot of things, but at least there’s nothing to worry about. But for some reason, Herhan didn’t want to do that.
“Yes, that’s right.”
He could hear Riella swallowing her breath.
“You’re not going to tell me you don’t remember after you hugged me like that, right?”
‘I never meant to lie. but I was upset for some reason.’
“I did…That’s right.”
Watching Liella lowering her head helplessly, Herhan waited for the next attack to fly at him. If not a slap, then at least a bit of bitter resentment for why he’d done it.
“I’m sorry. I’ve caused you trouble without knowing you’re an imperial family.”
However, Riella apologized.
‘It was truly a spectacle. Even when I ignore you as unhelpful, even when I act like a piece of shit telling you to give me your body again because I took you before, you still apologize.’
‘What has this woman been enduring to end up like that?’
It was difficult for Herhan to see her any longer, so he got up from his seat first.
After that, it was Acion who slowly approached Riella, who was left alone in the parlor.
“Huft. I knew this would happen.”
Asion clicked his tongue and let out a sigh, but Riella did not look at him as she painfully lowered her head.
Instead, she apologized again in a tired voice, saying, “I’m sorry.”
Asion looked at Liella with pity and laughed in vainly.
“What are you so sorry about? Is that a habit? get up.”
* * *
A few minutes after Herhan returned and lay down, Asion opened the bedroom door and entered.
Herhan wasn’t too surprised. He already knew that Asion was standing at the back of the hallway and heard all of his conversation with Riella.
“Riella Blinite took you to the bedroom well.”
Asion was a man with a funny side.
He could do things Herhan wasn’t asked to do, like just now, and be a nuisance like a nanny.
It was the same now. Asion walked over to Herhan, who was still leaning against the bed without a word and studied his complexion.
“Your hand.”
Herhan gave a brief command to Asion.
“No.”
Then, Asion also gave a short answer.
“Give it to me when I say it nicely.”
“Huft…”
However, there was no power to resist the master’s order twice with a threatening tone.
In the end, Asion held out one of his arms to Her Han. Herhan lightly grabbed his wrist. Asion’s thoughts sounded very loud and clear.
‘That was a fun fight to watch. You were so mean.’
‘Are you very upset?’
‘I know. Wouldn’t it be unpleasant to go around having accidents like that without me knowing?’
‘Oh my God, you hug all the women. I thought you two were in a relationship. Oh, my God. You’re really good at what you do.’
“Are you just nagging in your head?”
“How trustworthy and good is that, when the outside matches the inside?”
Herhan laughed once and let go of Asion’s hand.
‘Did the nagging in my mind be too much?’
Asion was embarrassed, so he turned his shoulders for no reason and continued.
“Don’t do this to me, read Liella Blinite’s mind.”
“I can’t hear. Her mind.”
“Ah…That’s why you’re so mean.”
‘I hate to admit it, but it was a straight line.’
‘If I had been able to read her mind, I wouldn’t have bothered her like before. But strangely I didn’t hear that woman’s mind.’
“Well, there are times when your ability doesn’t work well.”
Asion was right.
Herhan was born with a special ability to read other people’s minds, but that ability didn’t always work the same for everyone.
So there was no need to worry too much.
‘Even knowing that…Why is it so frustrating that her mind is dark?’
“Anyway, don’t overdo it. It’s bad for your health. Did you take your medicine this evening? How is your headache?”
Asion spoke as if awakening Herhan’s thoughts.
Before the second round of nagging, Herhan frowned, closed his eyes, and pretended to sleep.
But there was something that never left his head no matter how hard he tried. It was Eiella’s bloodless white hand, clutching the hem of her shirt, which had been holding back her emotions when he intentionally hurt her earlier.
* * *
The same goes for Riella.
Ever since she woke up again at the annex, she had trouble sleeping, but tonight had been especially difficult to sleep.
She pretended to be fine in front of the emperor with all her might, but she wasn’t. In fact, Riella wasn’t okay at all.
She was not okay with not being able to help, and she has been caught thinking that she was insignificant.
Worst of all, her hopes that he might be a good person had been dashed by his words.
Everything slashed at Riella’s heart.
‘What the hell did I expect?’
When she thought about it, it wasn’t surprising. Fabian and her colleagues, who had cared for her so much, abandoned her and have not yet appeared. So what is different about that man?
The Emperor of the Elshweig Empire was a man rumored to be busier and more cold-hearted. There was no way he would show useless warmth to a woman who’s only been with him one night.
The story is that he dared to rescue herself from the princess and put her here…
‘Do you really want my body again?’
At that point, Riella smiled sadly.
‘I’m glad no more tears came out.”
Is it because she cried hard in advance, or is it because she has developed the tolerance not to cry for tolerable things now?
The next evening, Riella decided to visit the emperor herself this time.
In fact, the emperor could have taken herself last night if he wanted to. Nevertheless, asking her ‘Why don’t you give me your body?‘ was a generous treatment for what the emperor said to the sinner.
Therefore, Riella had to answer the question. As he said, she can’t escape anywhere.
“Who is it? stop. This is His Majesty’s space.”
The knight, who was guarding the emperor’s inner room, looked at Liella, who bravely approached there, in a bewildered look.
“He’ll be in the study room.”
It was Asion who sighed and opened the door. Riella bowed politely, and when he saw Riella enter, he clicked his tongue at the bewildered knight, and said “There are some things you don’t know.”
The inner room of the annex had a ceiling so high that it was incomparable to Riella’s room and it had its own dignity. It was a spacious, opulent room with glittering chandeliers and an air of holiness. It was a room fit for an emperor.
It’s so noble and superior that it makes her afraid that she can’t touch it.
She mustered up the courage to walk, but even when she tried to take a deep breath, only trembling breath leaked out. The more she did, the tighter Riella clenched her slender fists.
The study was just to the right.
It was easy to see through the cracks in the slightly open door, where the tightly packed bookshelves were visible.
“Your majesty. I have something to tell you.”
Even though the door was open, Riella deliberately knocked.
Still, there was no answer from inside.
‘Is he busy? Or is it just an order to enter?’
She guessed that and she lowered her gaze and hesitated, she saw Herhan’s fingertips. It was stretched out, limp, on the bare floor of the study.
“Your majesty? your majesty!”
Riella didn’t even have time to wait for permission to open the study room door.
Beneath the desk, where papers were randomly scattered, Herhan lay down.
* * *
