Chapter 15
The emperor stepped away from the window ledge and walked toward Yulia with a leisurely gait. Yulia kept her head bowed, but her eyes lifted.
Her gaze landed on the emperor’s thigh.
If she could just close the distance once, just touch that firm thigh, she was confident she could carry the seduction to the next stage.
Yulia was desperate to show off the charms of the body she had carefully maintained through diet and massage.
She had been anxious since their academy days, but had never shown it. A clumsy seduction that failed would have made her look ridiculous.
The emperor would surely cast her aside without hesitation. Still, once this war was over, they were to be married.
But the day she heard that the emperor, who had regarded women like statues for all of his twenty-seven years, had bought ladies’ items, her world collapsed.
From the capital to Panaho Fortress, every nerve in her body had stretched thin and then shriveled up, until she was utterly scorched.
The only relief was that the enemy leader, the prisoner, had escaped and was no longer in the fortress.
If that was true, then wasn’t the war over? Or perhaps it would begin again now that the prisoner had fled?
Whether the war was over or not, the emperor would remain in Panaho Fortress tonight. So surely, it wasn’t outrageous for Yulia, his fiancée, to say she would visit his bedchamber.
The emperor came to a halt before her.
Yulia felt a chill down her spine at the cold expression on his face when she glanced up. But it was no different from his usual icy demeanor.
.
.
.
Harzen knew exactly what her words meant.
At breakfast on the day of his departure, the Empress Dowager had suggested they officially announce his engagement to Lady Reak. Harzen had flatly refused. He had already rejected the proposal several times before.
The Empress Dowager had been growing concerned over Harzen’s apparent lack of interest in women, but the truth was, he was rejecting Yulia herself.
As a child, even Harzen had found Yulia—Karolina’s friend—adorable, always flitting around him like a crow. But then, he happened to witness Yulia’s true nature.
By chance, he had been lying under a zelkova tree when a group of young noble girls approached.
Just as he was about to make his presence known, slap, slap, slap—an awful sound rang out. Yulia had struck one girl across the face with her fan.
“How dare someone like you look at the Crown Prince? I told you not to stare at him with those filthy eyes!”
“I’m sorry, Lady Reak. I didn’t mean to. I just… His Highness the Crown Prince is so beautiful—”
Slap, slap, slap.
“Don’t you dare speak his name with that dirty mouth. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Lady Reak.”
“Oh dear, you fell off your horse and got hurt, didn’t you? Come. Let’s take my carriage.”
That day, the young daughter of a count had fallen from a horse, and Sir Kalip had later told him that Lady Reak had brought the girl to the duchy and tended to her wounds herself.
Young noble girls out riding without maids? A fall from a horse that left only a scrape on her face?
Harzen couldn’t admit he’d been eavesdropping from up in a tree. Still, he was shocked at how easily everyone believed such a clumsy farce.
“Kalip. I’m well aware of Lady Reak’s two-faced nature. Don’t bring me any more half-baked ‘good deeds’ about her.”
“Your Highness, your intense reaction to her virtue might be… hmm. A denial, perhaps?”
Harzen’s face turned red with anger.
“They say that lovely doll-like lady will be your bride. Isn’t she adorable? Ah, Your Highness, your face is turning red again.”
“I said no. I’m serious.”
“Yes, yes. Your Highness is always so serious and prudent.”
Even during their time studying at the Tane Academy, Kalip would seize every opportunity to pair the emperor with the lady. Tirelessly, without rest.
And just now, as Harzen walked down the corridor after being told by the butler that Lady Reak was waiting in the reception room, he encountered the two maids who were supposed to be in the underground prison.
The maids tried to pass him with their heads bowed deeply and their hands covering their cheeks.
“Stop right there.”
Harzen turned back and stood in front of the maids.
“Hands down.”
Their faces were a mess. Swollen cheeks, metal-inflicted scratches, and deep wounds stained with blood.
Harzen instructed the butler to take them to the military doctor for treatment.
*
Yulia tilted her chin upward, lowering her gaze slightly. Rena had told her the pose was seductive and alluring.
She said she would come to my bedchamber tonight. That’s crossing the line.
“Why?”
Yulia widened her eyes at Harzen’s question.
“Pardon?”
“Don’t ask—just answer.”
“Your Majesty… don’t you know? Can’t you understand how I must have felt coming here? The resolve it took to come alone without an escort?”
Yulia bit the inside of her cheek hard enough to draw blood. She swallowed the bitter taste and the scream that followed.
Tears brimmed in her onyx-black eyes and trickled down her pale cheeks.
“Tonight, I was going to offer myself to Your Majesty…”
“Lady Reak. That fan of yours is quite unique. The metal left deep gashes on my maids’ faces. Do you have nothing to say for yourself?”
“What? I… I don’t know what you mean… The maids were hurt?”
“…Ha.”
Harzen rang the bell. The butler entered immediately.
“Butler. See her out.”
Harzen spoke coldly and left the reception room.
He had been about to sit on the sofa but changed course and took a seat at the table near the window. Kalip and the butler followed and stood before him.
“What?”
Kalip glanced sideways at the butler, who stood with his lips tightly sealed, and stepped forward to speak.
“Your Majesty. It’s nearly time for dinner, and it would be unreasonable to depart for the capital tonight. It would be best to delay departure until tomorrow…”
“Kalip. Remove that carriage within ten minutes.”
“As you command.”
With a stiff expression, Kalip bent his right arm and bowed his head.
The butler glanced at the emperor, gauging his mood, and asked cautiously.
“Your Majesty, shall I serve dinner here?”
“Something light. Prepare a bath first.”
As Harzen unfastened the buttons of his uniform, the attendant beside him took it off. Harzen began walking toward the dressing room, then turned and called the butler.
“I said not to touch the bed this morning.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. We haven’t even changed the sheets, as you instructed.”
“Good.”
Harzen had intended to relax in the bath at a comfortable temperature, but it didn’t go as planned.
The water felt too hot against his skin, and it was as though a burning stone pressed down on his chest. He was restless, and an unexplainable anger surged within him.
Patricia. When he received the letter proposing a royal marriage from the Emperor of Kazan, he had been thrilled. But the moment he remembered her indifferent face, that excitement vanished.
Perhaps she would refuse the marriage. She might even have a lover.
For example, the bastard who helped her escape…
Suddenly, his mind went blank, and his expression changed.
“Yes, I did kiss him. But it wasn’t anything special… to me, it was just something that passed by, like the wind.”
Haa. He clenched his fist underwater.
Patricia. Even if you hate it, you’re going to marry me.
I’ll keep you by my side for the rest of your life. I’ll make you bitterly regret toying with me.
Never in his life had anyone gotten under his skin like this.
Harzen couldn’t stay in the bath for even five minutes before he got up. His attendant dried him off and dressed him in a black robe. He walked down the hall and entered his bedchamber.
He lay on the bed. Faintly, her scent lingered.
He vividly remembered the softness of her lips when they touched his. The feel of her skin under his hand as it slipped beneath her collar made his whole body tense.
This is driving me insane. He moved over to the right side—where Patricia had slept.
As he leaned his face into the pillow, he noticed a fine strand of hair shining like sunlight. He pressed the hair to his bare chest.
It was just one strand brushing his skin—
He shot up and went to the window, flinging it open.
His chest burned like it was on fire.
Patricia. Come back. Just come to me. I’ll tie your hands to this bed… and do whatever I want… Damn it.
“You crazy bastard.”
*
“…Ha, Your Majesty.”
When Harzen opened his eyes, Kalip was standing there.
“What.”
“I brought your meal. The butler said to try waking you three times. Would you rather keep sleeping?”
“I’m up.”
The butler stood waiting after setting the dishes on the table by the window. Harzen took his seat.
The butler extinguished the solid fuel under the double-boiler and placed the warm mushroom soup in front of the emperor.
“Your Majesty. Lady Reak has departed for the capital.”
Harzen drank some water and began to eat the soup in silence. It felt like a gentle warmth was gradually filling his chest.
“Butler, what about the maids?”
“Yes, after treatment, I instructed them to rest in the maids’ quarters.”
“Good. Kalip, go bring the maids.”
“Me? You want me to?”
Kalip glanced at the butler, as if to say this was the butler’s task. The butler, hands clasped behind his back, calmly arranged the salad.
“Kalip. Is that a question? Are you in infancy?”
Kalip bowed to the emperor as he left, clicking his tongue inwardly.
‘Infancy? What a dated phrase.’
Still, it sparked a sense of déjà vu. He frowned, unable to place the memory. Kalip asked a servant and made his way to the maids’ quarters.
When he knocked and looked through the open door, he recoiled in shock.
The maid’s swollen cheeks had turned a bruised blue, looking like moldy bread.
“What happened to your face?”
All the way back to the reception room, the maids remained silent, mouths tightly shut like clams, ignoring his question.
When they arrived, the emperor had just finished his meal and was sipping Panian. The maids greeted him in unison.
“Kalip, did you find out who did that to the maids’ faces?”
“No. I asked on the way, but they didn’t respond.”
“That’s how a noble’s abuse gets buried.”
“Ah! Could it be… Your Majesty, was it Lady Reak?”
The emperor neither confirmed nor denied, maintaining his usual cold expression as he gave his dismissal.
“Kalip, Butler. Leave us.”
The moment Kalip thought of Lady Reak, he also recalled the time he had once asked the crown prince if he was in denial.
As memories of Count Kipling’s young daughter’s riding accident came to mind, Kalip swallowed hard.
‘Ha. So the Lord knew about Lady Yulia’s cruelty all along.’
Impressive. But he sure holds a grudge.
Kalip bent his left knee and bowed his head before his grudge-holding lord.
“Your Majesty. May you have a peaceful night.”
Once Kalip and the butler had left, Harzen gestured for the maids to sit. He offered them the tea and snacks the butler had prepared.
Harzen went over to the windowsill where Patricia had once perched, leaning against it and gazing up at the castle walls and the sky.
“That day. From the very first moment you saw the princess, tell me everything, in detail.”
With bruised cheeks stained with dried blood, the maids raised their eyes to the ceiling and took turns speaking.
“At first, she barely acknowledged our greeting. She just held out her bound wrists and asked us to untie them.”
“I see.”
“She went into the bathroom, but we couldn’t undress her because her wrists were tied. We’d undone all the buttons.”
“Yes, that’s right. We never untied her wrists. After thinking it over, Her Highness told us to cut the shirt with scissors.”
“Hm.”
The maids began recounting their time with the princess in vivid detail from the very beginning.
“A white eagle with a yellow beak came swooping down at frightening speed. We were so scared we backed away, but Her Highness wasn’t afraid, she touched it.”
“She touched it.”
Touched? No, she retrieved a message, more precisely, an escape plan, tied to its leg. As expected, she’d been communicating with an accomplice through the eagle. Princess, what should I do to you when we meet again? You’ll pay dearly for mocking me—harshly.
Harzen stared at the evenly spaced torches burning brightly along the castle walls, then broke into a crooked smile.
This royal marriage, I’m looking forward to. Excited, even.
