Chapter 8

The moment his hands lifted the hem of my dress, my body froze.

At the same time, memories from the carriage flashed through my mind.

“There’s nothing wrong with making it feel good.”

The lips that had explored every part of my body, and…

No, forget it. Forget it already!

The dress came off easily, like shedding a shell.

The underskirt beneath it went with it.

The rough texture of his palms brushed against my waist and arms as they passed.

Every place his skin touched seemed to retain heat afterward.

Lothar placed the dress and underskirt on the floor.

That left me completely naked.

I hadn’t expected to expose my bare back without a single thread covering it.

For some reason, my mouth went dry.

“Please wait a moment.”

After whispering briefly, Lothar stood up.

Soon after, I heard the sound of a towel being soaked in water on the table.

Shivering slightly in the cool air, I wrapped my arms around my knees.

Don’t think about it.

He’s basically just a bathhouse attendant.

My hands can’t reach my back well, so I’m just getting a little help…

Damn it. I was thinking about it.

Too late, I realized letting him help me had been a mistake.

Unable to endure even a moment of silence, I spoke first.

It was a topic Lothar wanted to discuss anyway.

“The private soldiers you secretly gathered. In this life, Marquis Stauffen exposed them, right?”

“Yes, she did.”

“In previous lives, the informant was always someone else.”

The sound of water being wrung from the towel somehow sounded strangely suggestive.

I swallowed discreetly before revealing Lothar’s long-hidden weakness.

“Tobias.”

“……”

“The commander of the Imperial Third Knights who served you for years. He betrayed you. Every single timeline.”

I remembered Tobias’s frozen expression earlier that morning when he’d been forced to hand Lothar over.

By now, he was probably back at the Imperial Palace desperately begging for forgiveness.

I wondered how Lothar would react.

Would he drop the towel in shock or something?

Then his low voice answered calmly.

“I thought so.”

“Huh?”

Since when had he suspected it?

“From the moment we began heading toward Lumen Monastery, he kept saying things he normally never would. Apologizing for failing to serve me properly. Saying I suffered because he was incompetent…”

His voice grew closer again.

Then a warm, damp cloth touched my back.

“Haa…”

A sleepy sigh escaped me automatically at the warmth spreading across my skin.

Only now did I feel alive again.

“Normally, he would’ve told me to endure the monastery for a while. That opportunities would come as long as I stayed alive.”

Lothar began wiping my back slowly and gently.

I’d expected his touch to be rough, but surprisingly, it wasn’t.

So Lothar must have already expected his death from the moment he boarded the carriage to the monastery.

Was that why he’d accepted my ridiculous kidnapping marriage proposal so easily?

Suddenly, I remembered the version of Lothar I’d seen in the past.

His corpse in a coffin.

Since it was an imperial funeral, the archbishop had naturally dragged along decorative ornament me.

The man had looked like a beautifully crafted doll lying among bright flowers.

When I saw his face back then, I’d thought the following:

He’s just like me.

Maximilian’s dolls.

People who lived if he ordered them to live and died if he ordered them to die.

My brief thoughts were interrupted by Lothar’s calm, deep voice.

“Do you also know why Tobias abandoned me?”

Oh, I knew very well.

Maximilian himself had mentioned it many times across countless lives.

He always found it amusing that his half-brother’s loyal subordinate had chosen him instead.

Feeling Lothar’s hands moving lower along my back, I answered,

“Friederike got pregnant with Maximilian’s child.”

At that moment, Lothar’s hands stopped.

“Fridi… with his child?”

Fridi.

Friederike.

Both names referred to Tobias’s younger sister.

Judging by the nickname, they must have once been very close.

Though that relationship was already ruined now.

“Next spring, the two of them are supposed to marry. Originally, the announcement would’ve come after your funeral.”

Maximilian and Friederike’s marriage.

Then the birth of their child.

It was a future repeated so many times I was sick of it.

Tobias’s sister would become the Crown Princess of the Elheim Empire and eventually the Empress.

Lothar’s hands, which had frozen briefly, began moving again.

“Tobias truly was placed in a difficult position.”

His muttered voice sounded heavier than before.

This guy really was a little pitiful.

Should Tobias support the political struggle of the lord he’d served all his life?

Or should he serve as emperor, the husband of his sister and father of his future nephew?

Every single time, Tobias chose Lothar’s death.

Not once had the answer changed.

Was it purely for the sake of protecting his family?

As if.

In exchange for exposing the location and size of Lothar’s private army, Tobias received the title of Count.

For the second son of a noble family, betrayal had become an opportunity.

And that wasn’t all.

Afterward, he became Maximilian’s right hand and handled all sorts of filthy work.

That bastard was trash through and through.

Maybe Tobias had once been a decent subordinate while serving Lothar.

But a person’s soul corrupts faster than expected.

The Tobias I knew from past lives was nothing more and nothing less than the Emperor’s puppet.

“So if I’d reached Lumen Monastery… Tobias would’ve personally come to take my life.”

“That’s right.”

I prayed Lothar wasn’t naive enough not to understand that.

Having finished washing my back, Lothar draped the warm cloth over my shoulders.

Then I heard him stand up.

“I’ll step outside for some air for a moment. You seem rather shy.”

Huh? What nonsense was that?

“Me?”

“Your ears have turned red like carrots.”

“……”

Oh, for fuck’s sake.

Was he lying?

I instinctively touched my ear.

There was no mirror nearby to confirm the truth.

I could only hear quiet laughter behind me.

Soon, the door opened and closed.

When I glanced back, he really had left the room for me.

“…Was that consideration or mockery?”

Grumbling to myself, I picked up the towel from my shoulders.

Lothar didn’t return to the room until I’d changed into my chemise and finished preparing for bed.

His mind seemed complicated.

After climbing onto the bed first, I hesitated briefly before leaving the right side empty and lying down on the left.

Then, for a short while, I thought longingly about white rice, kimchi stew, and rolled omelets I hadn’t eaten in ages.

“Grrr… huh?”

Looks like I’d accidentally fallen asleep.

When I opened my eyes, the room’s lamps had already gone out.

And—

“It seems your sleeping habits are worse than expected.”

In the darkness, I met dark green eyes gleaming in the moonlight.

Then I realized.

I was lying on my side with my right leg thrown over Lothar’s thigh.

Oh, holy shit.

My thin chemise had long since ridden up carelessly.

Below the hem barely covering the line between my thighs and hips, my pale skin was pressed directly against Lothar’s bronze skin.

The sight was absurdly obscene.

At first glance, it almost looked like…

“……”

Like what?

I had definitely lost my mind for a second.

Today had been exhausting.

Pretending nothing had happened, I quietly lowered my leg and tucked it beneath the blanket.

Then I turned over and stared at the ceiling when Lothar’s pleasant deep voice spoke again.

“Come to think of it, there’s something important I never heard.”

“What?”

“How exactly did you persuade Marquis Stauffen? Given her personality… even after hearing the information, I imagine her first instinct would’ve been to tear Tobias apart limb from limb.”

Oh.

A reasonable guess.

Across all timelines, I’d only met Marquis Stauffen once in this life.

Yet she’d left such a strong impression that I understood her personality immediately.

Even if she’d been born in modern Korea, that woman would’ve become a soldier.

Or a terrorist.

Either way, Lothar’s question made sense.

Tobias’s betrayal.

House Stauffen’s deliberate betrayal after learning the truth beforehand.

It sounded plausible enough, but there was still one missing link connecting the two.

Because I hadn’t told him the most important part yet.