Chapter 44
Anel was at a loss for words, staring blankly at his lemon-colored hair whipping wildly in the strong wind.
The color, sharp enough that biting it would taste bitter, filled her entire view.
“Still, what can I do about it, my lady?”
His low voice whispered in her ear.
Each time his voice sank into the grassland, the entire prairie seemed to sway.
“I suppose I’ll have to play along.”
“Johan.”
Anel, almost unconsciously, called his name.
As soon as her lips spoke his name, Johan twisted the corner of his mouth in a strange smile.
“The gift you want.”
He paused to enjoy the silence, then said—
“How far are you willing to go?”
“How far?”
Anel tilted her head slightly at his choice of words.
“What is it that you desire?”
In truth, there was nothing she couldn’t buy with her wealth.
She was the sole heir of the Duke’s house.
With the Duke imprisoned, Anel managed the family’s fortune.
And the wealth of the Duke’s house…
to Anel, it seemed nearly infinite.
Without touching the imperial budget, her private fortune alone was enough to cover any cost.
“I see.”
As if realizing this, Johan curled the corners of his eyes and smiled slyly.
“I misspoke. To the sole heir of the Duke’s house, no less.”
He opened his slightly upturned lips, a playful glint on them.
“To ask for limits from someone who can obtain anything money can buy… it’s understandable you might not get it, isn’t it?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“But alas, Empress, I wasn’t asking about the limits of money.”
Not asking about money?
Anel froze again.
“What do you mean…?”
“Well.”
Johan wrapped Buttercup’s reins around his hand twice—a signal that he was about to take off.
“Think carefully with that clever head of yours. What gift might I want?”
“Your Majesty.”
“Then perhaps I might accept whatever you demand in return for the gift.”
“!”
Johan reached out toward her.
Anel panicked and tried to evade him, but his hand skillfully passed by—
“Perhaps you’ll demand the nobles of the empire reveal the money they’ve hidden away, in my name no less.”
He steered toward Delphi’s reins.
“You’ll distribute relief to the empire, hold grand festivals with abundant food… even pardon those who became thieves out of desperation.”
“….”
She had been pierced to the heart.
Johan, as if expecting this, smiled.
“I know what you want.”
He placed Delphi’s reins back into Anel’s hands.
“It means I can see every thought fluttering in that small head of yours.”
Then he double-checked that she held the reins tightly.
“Now, shouldn’t you also know what I want, Empress?”
As soon as Johan finished speaking, he spurred both Buttercup and Delphi.
Both horses raised their heads in excitement and began galloping rapidly.
“Your… Majesty!”
“Then bring me what I want. In return, I will give you what you desire.”
Anel leaned down, gripping the reins with all her strength to keep from falling off Delphi, who was running at a reckless speed.
The wind was so strong that her tightly bound dark brown hair began to loosen slightly.
“Don’t worry. Unlike what you said, Delphi won’t drop the rider she recognizes as hers.”
“You should have warned me anyway!”
Anel glared at the man riding Buttercup beside her, running almost equally fast as her own steed.
He handled the horses so skillfully.
Gentle Buttercup kept pace almost perfectly with her own steed.
“So what’s the fun in that?”
“Why should I find it fun…!”
“Not your fun, mine, Empress.”
Johan laughed freely and heartily.
“Isn’t that your duty? As Empress, to please the Emperor.”
“No such duty exists in any manual, etiquette book, or law!”
“Really? Then I suppose we can have a line engraved on that today.”
Unlike Anel, who leaned forward, Johan sat relaxed, holding the reins with only one hand.
The sheer casualness was infuriating to Anel.
“Do not use your position so selfishly.”
“Do you know why I abandoned the comfort of being a Duke to usurp the throne, Lady Morata?”
The rare use of a formal title made Anel flinch.
It reminded her of the first ballroom where she had met him.
“I don’t want to know.”
Anel tried her best to sound firm, though Delphi’s presence made her falter slightly.
“I wanted a world where my words became law.”
“…Is that really the reason?”
Johan smirked at her.
“Lady Morata, you have no sense of humor—or are you just overly naive?”
“If that’s humor, I’ll pass.”
Tsk, tsk.
Johan clicked his tongue twice.
“Well, Lady Morata, I’m not usually a madman…”
His expression radiated sheer ennui.
A deep boredom, indifferent to everything in the world.
“I’m not crazy enough to endure troublesome matters for such trivial reasons.”
“Then why… why do you do this?”
It was a question she had always held.
Why…
Why did he rise to this position, even at the cost of countless lives?
“Do you want to know, Anel?”
Johan turned to look straight ahead again.
Calling her name, yet not looking at her at all.
“Because it all had to be mine.”
His voice had no inflection.
“From the beginning, it all had to be mine.”
Only when the white fence marking the end of the prairie appeared—signaling the boundary of reality—did Johan glance back at Anel.
“Starting with you, Anel.”
In his eyes was a hollow greed.
Anel couldn’t quite grasp if this could even be called greed.
Giselle stood by the window, watching the pair of riders.
Behind her palace stretched the imperial hunting grounds.
From her bedroom, she could see the entrance of the grounds.
“….”
Seeing the two, hair disheveled from the wind, Giselle clenched her hands.
Anel dismounted from her black horse, far larger than her stature would suggest.
Johan had already dismounted, supporting Anel by her waist.
The white horse he rode was familiar to Giselle.
“…That’s Buttercup.”
She remembered the horse, as she sometimes gave it sugar cubes.
A gentle horse.
Other horses might bite or kick her, but Buttercup never did.
And it never once looked at her.
“Still the same.”
Preparing sugar cubes for the horse, sandwiches and cakes for Anel—that was Giselle’s role.
Anel always shared the food fairly with her, but Giselle was never satisfied.
She had longed to eat an entire sandwich or cake on her own, even once.
That had been her only childhood wish.
And now…
“Joan.”
She wanted the only bright light of the prairie…
“Yes, Mama.”
…for herself alone.
Not because she loved him, nor did she want his heart.
Simply, if she could possess, even superficially, the man no noblewoman had ever held…
Even under the pretext of a transaction, it was enough.
After all, no one would ever know the truth.
The man the whole world could not have…
if she could have him.
“Tell the steward I want to learn horseback riding too.”
“Horseback riding?”
Joan raised an eyebrow at her mistress’s sudden remark.
Then, seeing where Giselle was looking, she lowered her head to suppress a laugh.
‘Ah.’
Giselle wanted to follow the Empress.
‘Could she really be jealous of the Empress? Does she even have shame?’
An adult Empress wanting to learn horseback riding—likely a first in palace history.
Joan stepped back.
“Joan?”
At that moment, Giselle called to Joan as she was about to leave the room.
