She fell asleep for a long time.
Slowly rising from her position, Rosena stared blankly at the ceiling for a moment.
“When did I fall asleep?”
No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t remember walking to the bed and falling asleep there.
Rosena lifted herself up and pulled the covers off. She was dressed in soft silk pajamas.
“…!”
Rosena, who remembered what happened before she went to bed, threw her head into the blanket.
Crazy, Rosena defined it in just one word. Setting aside that they took a bath together, how come…
Rosena, who was red up to the nape of her neck, exhaled heavily. The mood was partly to blame, but this time it was different.
She didn’t lose her rationality and she wasn’t rushed like she was being swept away by an unusual attraction. She reached out to him herself even though she had time to think.
“Ahhh!”
Rosena slapped the blanket with her palm. She couldn’t stand it because she was ashamed and embarrassed.
Rosena still remembered what she said a few months ago.
On the day she reunited with Yerhan, what she said herself flooded into her mind vividly.
– My condition is… divorce.
– Because we’re not getting married because we like each other.
– I don’t love you. It was just a mistake back then.
She had been trying her best to say it was a mistake, but now she couldn’t say it was a mistake.
She did think they had gotten a little closer lately, but…
Rosena sat still, with her blanket crumpled.
“Do I like him?”
She murmured to herself. And she shook her head in surprise.
She was embarrassed to be faced with a problem that she had been denying so far.
When she brainwashed herself that she didn’t like him, her heart was shaken whenever she thought of his face.
Rosena came to a very difficult conclusion.
She has him in her heart.
Rosena grabbed her hair.
Why did he make love with her? It certainly wasn’t as irrational as the last time. The blue eyes were clear and beautiful as usual.
Come to think of it, Yerhan was unexpectedly always taking care of her. He reached out first, and it made her feel better.
Anyone could tell it was something one would do with someone they liked. But Yerhan never said he likes Rosena.
At that time, he just asked her to pretend they’re a good couple.
Suddenly, she remembered what the crown prince had said.
– That’s why Yerhan married you. He needs your strength.
Rosena shook her head. She wouldn’t believe an unconfirmed fact. Even more so, it was the crown prince’s words.
But it was clear that there were more than one or two oddities.
The strange attraction of Yerhan and her father’s request not to meet the imperial family… a dream as vivid as reality…
Rosena kept getting anxious.
***
To the west of the Imperial Palace was a training ground where the knights trained.
Except for the knights directly under the emperor, all of the imperial knights practiced here.
It had to accommodate numerous knights, not only was everything wide, but training was also systematic.
The Herbet Empire used to be a loser in the continent.
Starting as a small kingdom, it engulfed other kingdoms like a raging storm for hundreds of years.
With the expansion of territory and the subjugation of numerous countries, Herbet was no longer a kingdom but a dignified empire.
Herbet, who had been constantly at war, had maintained peace since Barmun ascended the throne. Because Barmun was skeptical of the war.
He focused on managing the internal of the empire rather than increasing the territory by one more piece.
In particular, the monsters that appeared throughout the empire caused a big headache.
However, Barmun used Yerhan to wipe out the monsters and won the hearts of the public, further strengthening the legitimacy of the imperial family as a descendant of divinity.
The imperial people were loyal to the imperial family, and even the nobles who opposed the imperial family would lose their strength and had no choice but to stand on the emperor’s side.
For decades, the empire was peaceful.
Those who fought in the past retired as they grew older, so the new knights did not know about war.
All the young imperial knights were trained on the field, without real experience, like a frog in a well.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
Someone approached Crown Prince Zigrit, who was watching the knights train.
He was the vice-captain of the first guild of imperial knights.
When Zigrit looked up, the vice-captain was stunned.
He was as beautiful as a doll. Like golden threads, the fluttering blonde hair, smooth porcelain-like white skin, and blue eyes like glass beads drew the viewer’s exclamation.
But the vice-captain could not look at his face for long. The chills beneath his pupils seemed to freeze the surroundings like frost.
“If you’re going to watch the training, we will make room for you.”
“Nevermind.”
The vice-captain slowly raised his head. Then he realized that Zigrit was wearing training leather armor, not in his uniform.
Zigrit pulled the sword out of the scabbard he was wearing around his waist.
“Let’s fight.”
“…I’m not good enough, but I’d like to give it a try.”
The two immediately headed to the training ground for a fight. It was used once a month when there was a full confrontation of the knights.
Zigrit grabbed the handle according to the first chapter of sword fighting.
The knight, who played the role of referee, announced the start.
Since the two of them used real swords, from the beginning there was a sharp sound.
Whenever their swords collided, a tingling sensation ran through his arms.
His swordsmanship was smooth and sharp. It was imperial swordsmanship that emphasized courtesy and beauty.
Clank.
He heard the sound of the sword meeting and falling.
Upon the intense sound, Zigrit thrusted his sword into the neck of the vice-captain.
The vice-captain put down the sword as a sign of surrender.
“I lose.”
Even at the words of the vice-captain, Zigrit remained expressionless. It was a face that wasn’t full of satisfaction.
“After all, he is a person who deals with monsters.”
Zigrit’s eyebrows twitched at the words.
The imperial knights firmly believed that Zigrit was leading the Knights of Tiriad and dealing with the devil.
But it was the most disgusting words to hear for Zigrit, who harbored the truth.
Zigrit clasped the handle of the sword.
“Next.”
Trainee knights lined up to deal with Zigrit.
The crown prince pushed the knights he faced without a single defeat, but he did not feel refreshed at all.
Rather, there was only a rush of frustration that tightened the chest.
Zigrit recalled Yerhan’s face.
He had only seen Yerhan wielding a sword once. He was like a beast, dealing with many opponents with only one sword.
He had never learned swordsmanship properly, but he was able to overpowered Zigrit. Furthermore, he has a greater power than the Zigrit, who inherited the divine power from the imperial family.
Having both talent and skills, Zigrit was on a level beyond reach. The insides of Zigrit had been scorching for a long time.
Except for the loss, there was nothing superior to Yerhan.
The wretchedly cold truth pushed Zigrit to the end. So Zigrit found a way to boost the divine power.
He believed it was an item, but it turned out to be a human being. And it was also very close by.
Yerhan was able to have that power because he took Rosena one step ahead.
Zigrit recalled the day he met Rosena at the bookstore. The moment he made contact with Rosena, he felt chillingly powerful.
Once again, Rosena did not believe Zigrit, as expected.
But what if he gave her a little time to doubt Yerhan? Will she still be able to ignore him and live with Yerhan like she is doing now?
Zigrit was just waiting for the day to come.
Clank.
A sharp sound of iron was heard and the opponent’s sword flew away.
Zigrit gave a cold look as the knights gasped down on the floor.
“Did you train properly?”
“I’m sorry, Your Highness.”
The vice-captain shook his head. Zigrit looked at them with a dissatisfied look.
The Knight of Tiriad, led by Yerhan, doesn’t have many knights, but they are elite soldiers.
If the imperial knights and the Tiriad knights faced each other… it was uncertain whether the imperial knights could win.
“If you want your neck to be properly attached, you’d better not neglect your training.”
Zigrit put the sword in his waist and turned around. He left the training ground with no regrets, and his aide came quickly.
“Her Majesty the Empress is waiting for you.”
Zigrit walked along the aide toward the Empress Palace.
There was a cool pond under an arched bridge in the garden in late summer.
There were lotus petals blooming around the pond and various trees that were not commonly found in the empire.
This garden was built by the emperor after visiting the kingdom in the east.
Walking along the stone bridge, there was a wooden pavilion near the pond.
Zigrit raised his head and looked up at the pavilion. There sat Empress Tersia in a calm blue dress.
Zigrit climbed onto the pavilion, with the aide waiting below.
The empress, who was drinking tea from the East, put down the teacup.
“I’m sorry I’m late. I couldn’t change my clothes because I was in a hurry.”
Upon Zigrit’s calm words, the empress held out a teacup as if she didn’t care about it. She poured tea into the teacup and brought it up.
“The founding day of the country is just around the corner.”
The Founding Day is the most important event of the empire.
When the empress brought up the Founding Day, Zigrit calmly waited for the next word.
“Your brother already has two children.”
The younger brother whom the empress spoke to referred to the second prince.
The second prince married early and had two children. But Zigrit had no fiancée yet, let alone married.
“Because it has been His Majesty and my concern for you kept putting off your marriage.”
The empress looked straight at Zigrit.
“You are the one who will become emperor one day. So choose the right partner for the empress on this Founding Day.”
Zigrit was about to laugh. A worthy opponent for the empress, no one would ever fit in his heart.
“Your Majesty, the Empress.”
Zigrit quietly called the empress.
“I already have someone in mind.”
“…Which family’s young lady is she?”
The empress had a slightly agitated face. Because it was the first time she heard it. But Zigrit drank the tea with a relaxed face.
“I will introduce her to you soon.”
Zigrit smiled as he put the teacup down.
“She is more suitable for the seat of the crown princess, more than anyone else.”
She fell asleep for a long time.
Slowly rising from her position, Rosena stared blankly at the ceiling for a moment.
“When did I fall asleep?”
No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t remember walking to the bed and falling asleep there.
Rosena lifted herself up and pulled the covers off. She was dressed in soft silk pajamas.
“…!”
Rosena, who remembered what happened before she went to bed, threw her head into the blanket.
Crazy, Rosena defined it in just one word. Setting aside that they took a bath together, how come…
Rosena, who was red up to the nape of her neck, exhaled heavily. The mood was partly to blame, but this time it was different.
She didn’t lose her rationality and she wasn’t rushed like she was being swept away by an unusual attraction. She reached out to him herself even though she had time to think.
“Ahhh!”
Rosena slapped the blanket with her palm. She couldn’t stand it because she was ashamed and embarrassed.
Rosena still remembered what she said a few months ago.
On the day she reunited with Yerhan, what she said herself flooded into her mind vividly.
– My condition is… divorce.
– Because we’re not getting married because we like each other.
– I don’t love you. It was just a mistake back then.
She had been trying her best to say it was a mistake, but now she couldn’t say it was a mistake.
She did think they had gotten a little closer lately, but…
Rosena sat still, with her blanket crumpled.
“Do I like him?”
She murmured to herself. And she shook her head in surprise.
She was embarrassed to be faced with a problem that she had been denying so far.
When she brainwashed herself that she didn’t like him, her heart was shaken whenever she thought of his face.
Rosena came to a very difficult conclusion.
She has him in her heart.
Rosena grabbed her hair.
Why did he make love with her? It certainly wasn’t as irrational as the last time. The blue eyes were clear and beautiful as usual.
Come to think of it, Yerhan was unexpectedly always taking care of her. He reached out first, and it made her feel better.
Anyone could tell it was something one would do with someone they liked. But Yerhan never said he likes Rosena.
At that time, he just asked her to pretend they’re a good couple.
Suddenly, she remembered what the crown prince had said.
– That’s why Yerhan married you. He needs your strength.
Rosena shook her head. She wouldn’t believe an unconfirmed fact. Even more so, it was the crown prince’s words.
But it was clear that there were more than one or two oddities.
The strange attraction of Yerhan and her father’s request not to meet the imperial family… a dream as vivid as reality…
Rosena kept getting anxious.
***
To the west of the Imperial Palace was a training ground where the knights trained.
Except for the knights directly under the emperor, all of the imperial knights practiced here.
It had to accommodate numerous knights, not only was everything wide, but training was also systematic.
The Herbet Empire used to be a loser in the continent.
Starting as a small kingdom, it engulfed other kingdoms like a raging storm for hundreds of years.
With the expansion of territory and the subjugation of numerous countries, Herbet was no longer a kingdom but a dignified empire.
Herbet, who had been constantly at war, had maintained peace since Barmun ascended the throne. Because Barmun was skeptical of the war.
He focused on managing the internal of the empire rather than increasing the territory by one more piece.
In particular, the monsters that appeared throughout the empire caused a big headache.
However, Barmun used Yerhan to wipe out the monsters and won the hearts of the public, further strengthening the legitimacy of the imperial family as a descendant of divinity.
The imperial people were loyal to the imperial family, and even the nobles who opposed the imperial family would lose their strength and had no choice but to stand on the emperor’s side.
For decades, the empire was peaceful.
Those who fought in the past retired as they grew older, so the new knights did not know about war.
All the young imperial knights were trained on the field, without real experience, like a frog in a well.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
Someone approached Crown Prince Zigrit, who was watching the knights train.
He was the vice-captain of the first guild of imperial knights.
When Zigrit looked up, the vice-captain was stunned.
He was as beautiful as a doll. Like golden threads, the fluttering blonde hair, smooth porcelain-like white skin, and blue eyes like glass beads drew the viewer’s exclamation.
But the vice-captain could not look at his face for long. The chills beneath his pupils seemed to freeze the surroundings like frost.
“If you’re going to watch the training, we will make room for you.”
“Nevermind.”
The vice-captain slowly raised his head. Then he realized that Zigrit was wearing training leather armor, not in his uniform.
Zigrit pulled the sword out of the scabbard he was wearing around his waist.
“Let’s fight.”
“…I’m not good enough, but I’d like to give it a try.”
The two immediately headed to the training ground for a fight. It was used once a month when there was a full confrontation of the knights.
Zigrit grabbed the handle according to the first chapter of sword fighting.
The knight, who played the role of referee, announced the start.
Since the two of them used real swords, from the beginning there was a sharp sound.
Whenever their swords collided, a tingling sensation ran through his arms.
His swordsmanship was smooth and sharp. It was imperial swordsmanship that emphasized courtesy and beauty.
Clank.
He heard the sound of the sword meeting and falling.
Upon the intense sound, Zigrit thrusted his sword into the neck of the vice-captain.
The vice-captain put down the sword as a sign of surrender.
“I lose.”
Even at the words of the vice-captain, Zigrit remained expressionless. It was a face that wasn’t full of satisfaction.
“After all, he is a person who deals with monsters.”
Zigrit’s eyebrows twitched at the words.
The imperial knights firmly believed that Zigrit was leading the Knights of Tiriad and dealing with the devil.
But it was the most disgusting words to hear for Zigrit, who harbored the truth.
Zigrit clasped the handle of the sword.
“Next.”
Trainee knights lined up to deal with Zigrit.
The crown prince pushed the knights he faced without a single defeat, but he did not feel refreshed at all.
Rather, there was only a rush of frustration that tightened the chest.
Zigrit recalled Yerhan’s face.
He had only seen Yerhan wielding a sword once. He was like a beast, dealing with many opponents with only one sword.
He had never learned swordsmanship properly, but he was able to overpowered Zigrit. Furthermore, he has a greater power than the Zigrit, who inherited the divine power from the imperial family.
Having both talent and skills, Zigrit was on a level beyond reach. The insides of Zigrit had been scorching for a long time.
Except for the loss, there was nothing superior to Yerhan.
The wretchedly cold truth pushed Zigrit to the end. So Zigrit found a way to boost the divine power.
He believed it was an item, but it turned out to be a human being. And it was also very close by.
Yerhan was able to have that power because he took Rosena one step ahead.
Zigrit recalled the day he met Rosena at the bookstore. The moment he made contact with Rosena, he felt chillingly powerful.
Once again, Rosena did not believe Zigrit, as expected.
But what if he gave her a little time to doubt Yerhan? Will she still be able to ignore him and live with Yerhan like she is doing now?
Zigrit was just waiting for the day to come.
Clank.
A sharp sound of iron was heard and the opponent’s sword flew away.
Zigrit gave a cold look as the knights gasped down on the floor.
“Did you train properly?”
“I’m sorry, Your Highness.”
The vice-captain shook his head. Zigrit looked at them with a dissatisfied look.
The Knight of Tiriad, led by Yerhan, doesn’t have many knights, but they are elite soldiers.
If the imperial knights and the Tiriad knights faced each other… it was uncertain whether the imperial knights could win.
“If you want your neck to be properly attached, you’d better not neglect your training.”
Zigrit put the sword in his waist and turned around. He left the training ground with no regrets, and his aide came quickly.
“Her Majesty the Empress is waiting for you.”
Zigrit walked along the aide toward the Empress Palace.
There was a cool pond under an arched bridge in the garden in late summer.
There were lotus petals blooming around the pond and various trees that were not commonly found in the empire.
This garden was built by the emperor after visiting the kingdom in the east.
Walking along the stone bridge, there was a wooden pavilion near the pond.
Zigrit raised his head and looked up at the pavilion. There sat Empress Tersia in a calm blue dress.
Zigrit climbed onto the pavilion, with the aide waiting below.
The empress, who was drinking tea from the East, put down the teacup.
“I’m sorry I’m late. I couldn’t change my clothes because I was in a hurry.”
Upon Zigrit’s calm words, the empress held out a teacup as if she didn’t care about it. She poured tea into the teacup and brought it up.
“The founding day of the country is just around the corner.”
The Founding Day is the most important event of the empire.
When the empress brought up the Founding Day, Zigrit calmly waited for the next word.
“Your brother already has two children.”
The younger brother whom the empress spoke to referred to the second prince.
The second prince married early and had two children. But Zigrit had no fiancée yet, let alone married.
“Because it has been His Majesty and my concern for you kept putting off your marriage.”
The empress looked straight at Zigrit.
“You are the one who will become emperor one day. So choose the right partner for the empress on this Founding Day.”
Zigrit was about to laugh. A worthy opponent for the empress, no one would ever fit in his heart.
“Your Majesty, the Empress.”
Zigrit quietly called the empress.
“I already have someone in mind.”
“…Which family’s young lady is she?”
The empress had a slightly agitated face. Because it was the first time she heard it. But Zigrit drank the tea with a relaxed face.
“I will introduce her to you soon.”
Zigrit smiled as he put the teacup down.
“She is more suitable for the seat of the crown princess, more than anyone else.”
