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chapter 3…
“Yes, Y-Your Majesty.”
Lucrezia hurriedly nodded. Her cheeks were burning, and she felt too embarrassed to lift her head again after nodding.
“However, my lady.”
“Yes?”
“Do you have a hobby of self-harm?”
Lucrezia’s face drained of color.
Self-harm?
The Emperor spoke as if he knew nothing—but he had clearly been watching from the moment she cut her own palm. He had witnessed everything.
He had seen her failure in full.
This might truly be the end.
Her lips trembled faintly. The Marquis’s gaze felt as though it were piercing through her cheek.
She had to salvage this somehow. With that thought, Lucrezia hurriedly opened her mouth.
“No, Your Majesty. It’s not that—”
“There’s no need to make excuses. I was rather impressed.”
“…Pardon?”
Startled, she looked up at the Emperor. The corner of his lips curved slightly. It was hard to believe that such a cold mouth could form such a mischievous smile.
“The sight of you devoting yourself to training, even wounding your own body.”
“Ah…”
“You may possess the qualities of a warrior.”
Lucrezia flushed. A warrior? Someone as thin and frail as herself? Was the Emperor mocking her?
“Well then, everyone.”
The Emperor’s voice fell like a breeze beside her ear.
“Have a pleasant evening.”
Just as suddenly as he had appeared, he disappeared.
The remaining nobles stared at Lucrezia in stunned disbelief.
“My goodness. This is the first time His Majesty has spoken to a noble lady.”
“What in the world is going on…?”
“Could it be His Majesty fell in love with Lady Larenne at first sight…?”
“He didn’t even show interest in Princess Lariana, who’s said to be the most beautiful woman in the realm!”
After the banquet ended, Marquis Zepher did not punish Lucrezia.
Instead, he launched into a lengthy lecture on how to seduce a man—insisting she had talent.
It was not something one should hear from a father. Lucrezia had to suppress her nausea the entire time.
“It seems the proposal will proceed more smoothly than expected. After all, no matter how proud they are, how could they break a promise made to the imperial family?”
The Marquis rubbed his palms together, smirking.
“Lucrezia! You must succeed properly next time.”
“Yes, Marquis.”
“You still cannot even perform a simple healing spell? I am working this hard to make you the greatest woman in this country, and yet you’ve been neglecting your training!”
“I have not, Marquis… I will strive harder.”
Lucrezia answered calmly, like a wound-up doll. The Marquis clicked his tongue in irritation.
Then he leaned closer and whispered conspiratorially.
“You know very well how undeserved the position of Empress would be for someone like you. Considering your lowly bloodline, it’s something you should never even dream of.”
Lowly bloodline.
At those words, Lucrezia lowered her head silently.
Half of her blood came from the House of Zepher.
The other half came from a monster.
Her mother, a slave, died giving birth to her. While disposing of the body, it was revealed that she had in fact been a fairy, hiding her true identity.
Fairies—called monsters or forest fiends—were shunned as wicked beings capable of wielding magic.
Their most distinctive trait was their eerie violet eyes.
Like the amethyst-colored irises Lucrezia hid beneath brown contact lenses.
“Yes, Marquis.”
If this marriage were to truly be completed, it would be an enormous fraud against the imperial family.
How dare someone with fairy blood attempt to enter the imperial lineage?
The thought made her heart grow heavy. In her right mind, she would never dare commit such a sin.
‘But… it is Father’s command.’
To Lucrezia, her father’s orders were absolute. No matter how irrational, she could not defy them.
Feeling her chest tighten painfully, she stared out the window.
That night, Lucrezia could not fall asleep easily.
Her guilty thoughts gradually took the shape of a face.
“You may possess the qualities of a warrior.”
Crimson eyes that seemed to captivate the soul. A low, rough voice that sounded as if it whispered directly into her ear. Hair as dark as ebony, so smooth it looked as though it would slip through one’s fingers at a touch…
‘What on earth am I thinking?’
Startled, Lucrezia shook her head.
The handkerchief tightly bound around her palm showed no sign of loosening. Wrapping her other hand over it, she finally fell into a deep sleep.
A month later.
Marquis Zepher succeeded in receiving a favorable reply from the Imperial Palace regarding the marriage proposal.
Hearing cheers erupt from his study, Lucrezia pressed down on her wildly pounding heart.
The morning of the wedding ceremony dawned—a day she had once thought would never come.
Lucrezia looked at herself in the mirror of the bridal waiting room.
Beneath a splendid tiara, her wedding veil cascaded like butterfly wings.
Through the veil, her face shimmered with elaborate adornments.
A face unfamiliar to her.
Neither smeared with ashes nor stained with blood.
“You will become the bridge between the imperial family and House Zepher.”
The Marquis, who had entered the waiting room, spoke in a grave voice.
“A man is ultimately shaped by a woman. Even if he is the Emperor of a nation, he is still a man. If a woman is determined to ensnare him, there is no man she cannot tame. The fate of our house rests on you! Never forget your heavy responsibility.”
His fingers dug painfully into her shoulder.
“Once inside the palace, focus solely on seducing the Emperor. Get him drunk openly if you must, cling to him, spread your legs—use every method available! It doesn’t matter if you appear vulgar. Men pretend to despise vulgar temptation, but they drool over it all the same.”
Lucrezia’s face turned deathly pale.
Soon after, the ceremony began.
Seeing the crowd gathered like clouds, Lucrezia felt faint. The countless eyes dissecting her from every angle made her skin prickle painfully.
Stiff with tension, she walked down the long wedding aisle.
At its end stood the man who would become her husband today.
For a moment, she forgot her nervousness and simply stared.
The Emperor, whom she faced for the second time, was still breathtakingly beautiful. Clad in pure white ceremonial attire, he looked almost sacred. It was hard to believe such a man bore the nickname “Butcher.”
Unlike Lucrezia, who stood entranced, the Emperor’s indifferent gaze sweeping over her was ice-cold.
“By the grace of the Holy Earth Mother, from this day forward, you two shall—”
As the priest recited the vows, Lucrezia heard none of it.
All her senses were consumed by the man before her.
After studying her through the veil for a moment, the Emperor spoke clearly.
“I, Kirion Winchester, swear from this moment to take Lucrezia Larenne as my lifelong companion.”
Companion.
In other words, husband and wife. The closest form of family.
Though merely formal words, they pierced straight through Lucrezia’s heart. Even though she knew the Emperor would never truly regard her as his wife.
Suppressing her trembling, she repeated her vow.
“I, Lucrezia Larenne, swear from this moment to take Kirion Winchester as my lifelong companion.”
“Then please exchange the vow of a kiss.”
Her heart jolted violently.
Even the countless guests seemed to hold their breath.
Closing her eyes tightly, Lucrezia lifted her chin so the Emperor could kiss her. Though she could not see, she felt every gaze fixed upon her.
She braced herself for the touch of lips—
—but startled when the Emperor’s hand grasped her chin and lifted it.
Leaning close, he whispered:
“Have you been practicing your healing magic well?”
At the low murmur that wrapped around her, her heart plummeted.
He remembered.
That brief encounter from before.
Forgetting even to breathe, she looked up at him. The moment their eyes met, she could not even blink. She felt like prey caught in a predator’s grasp.
“I never imagined that healer would become my wife.”
Murmuring as if to himself, he lifted her veil with his other hand.
His red eyes slowly examined her revealed face. Lucrezia stiffened.
His demeanor was different from their first meeting.
Back then, at least there had been a trace of mockery. Now there was no smile at all.
Only contempt—for a pawn of Marquis Zepher.
After surveying her coldly, he whispered:
“I’m about to kiss you.”
Her heart dropped again.
“Do you prefer to keep your eyes open?”
Like a deer startled by light, Lucrezia hurriedly shut her eyes.
She heard a faint breath from him that almost resembled a laugh.
A moment later, she felt a soft warmth brush against her lips.
It was shockingly gentle—impossible to believe it belonged to a man with such a cold face.
It felt as though thousands of birds were beating their wings inside her chest.
“Waaah!”
“Long live His Majesty the Emperor!”
“Long live Her Majesty the Empress!”
The guests, who had been curious about their whispered exchange, burst into thunderous applause at the sight of their kiss.
After the ceremony concluded, Lucrezia was immediately escorted away by maids.
“May we attend to Her Majesty’s bath? She is quite shy.”
Clara, a maid brought from the Zepher estate, spoke up.
The Marquis had sent five of his household maids to the palace, claiming it was to help the timid new Empress adjust. Knowing the circumstances well, the head maid Jaina nodded and withdrew.
“Today is the most important day of your life, Lady Lucrezia.”
Clara whispered as Lucrezia sat in the bath—addressing her by her maiden title despite her new status.
“Of course, an innocent young lady like you may not know bedroom arts, but men are helpless before a pretty face. You must have confidence, my lady.”
Clara and the other maids continued whispering among themselves.
