Chapter 16
“P-please… spare me…”
It wasn’t Eleanor, but a young woman of delicate beauty who stood there, trembling and crying, barely covered in a slip. She was a maid of the Crown Prince’s palace—someone even the Empress recognized.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Renatus quickly covered her body and growled.
“I told you before—you’ve gone too far. Are you satisfied now?”
“…This can’t be.”
“To think you would go so far as to show such disrespect toward me in front of the lower servants.”
Letting out a hollow laugh, Renatus looked thoroughly displeased.
“I can hardly endure the humiliation. Even as the Empress, this is beyond what you’re allowed to do.”
“You—are you certain you properly searched the Crown Prince’s bedchamber?”
Julia urgently pressed the maids, who nodded in flustered agreement. Still, she didn’t look convinced.
“I’ll go in myself—!”
“That’s far enough, Your Majesty.”
Renatus stepped in front of Julia, blocking her path to his bedroom.
“I find it difficult to tolerate any further discourtesy.”
Julia looked up at him in confusion.
The moment she met his eyes—cold as a raging winter storm—she felt a chill run down her spine.
“I’ll ask again.”
Renatus spoke sharply.
“Who dared to feed Your Majesty such nonsense?”
“Your Highness, please calm—”
Lady Pereto tried to intervene on Julia’s behalf, but a cutting reprimand struck her down immediately.
“How dare you interrupt a question directed at Her Majesty the Empress?”
Even Lady Pereto, who usually held sway over him, couldn’t dare utter another word in the face of Renatus’s icy fury.
As suffocating silence filled the room, Renatus pressed for an answer in a voice as precise and cold as a needle.
“Answer me. Given the situation, I’d have every right to replace all of my attendants, wouldn’t I?”
It wouldn’t be strange to assume that a spy of the Empress existed within the Crown Prince’s palace, reporting his every move.
For that reason, Julia had never before acted as though she knew everything happening within his palace.
But today was no ordinary matter.
“…That…”
Because she had never once doubted Lady Pereto’s report, even the quick-witted Julia struggled to come up with a convincing response.
In truth, no matter how much time she was given, if Eleanor couldn’t be found, no justification would hold.
“I believe I’ve heard enough of Your Majesty’s answer.”
As Julia bit her lip in silence, Renatus ended the situation after waiting just long enough.
“Please return. I won’t see you out.”
At the unmistakable dismissal, Julia’s expression froze.
If she left now, she would be giving the Crown Prince justification to purge his staff—but she had no means to continue pressing further.
In the end, she clenched her lips and offered the best words she could.
“I apologize, Your Highness. It seems there was some misunderstanding today.”
“That is far too great an overreach to be dismissed so lightly, Your Majesty.”
Renatus cut her off coldly, his expression clearly asking why she was still here.
Grinding her teeth, Julia finally withdrew with her maids.
As Renatus escorted the trembling maid back toward the bedroom, he turned and issued a command.
“No one is to interfere.”
Though directed at everyone, his gaze landed squarely on Lady Pereto. Watching her bite her lip, he entered the bedroom.
Eleanor emerged from inside the wardrobe where nightgowns were kept.
To think she had hidden in such a cramped space—it was unexpectedly clever. Renatus let out a quiet chuckle.
“Was that your idea?”
Eleanor nodded, and the corner of his lips lifted further.
“I suppose I must commend your quick thinking, Lady Eleanor.”
“I couldn’t have done it without Sir Alber’s help.”
Renatus summoned Alber and had him take the maid away. Until the night passed, she would be confined somewhere out of Lady Pereto’s sight.
“I suppose we were lucky.”
“I agree. Though even the Empress wouldn’t dare rummage through a wardrobe.”
That would be no different from declaring open hostility toward me, he added inwardly.
“Which is why we need to make things certain from here on.”
At that, the faint smile on Renatus’s lips disappeared.
As he looked at Eleanor, he saw a serious determination in her eyes—eerily similar to when she had asked him to become her husband earlier.
“How so?”
He asked, testing her.
Without hesitation, Eleanor replied,
“Because I couldn’t forget the man I’ve loved for so long, I came here on the eve of my wedding to another man.”
With those words, she rose to her feet.
“I think we need to stay true to that story.”
“So—”
Renatus let out a small, incredulous laugh.
“You’re saying you’ll spend the night with me? Truly?”
At his blunt wording, Eleanor’s gaze wavered for the first time.
Watching her quietly, Renatus soon let out another dry laugh as she nodded.
“You don’t need to worry about me. Unlike you, it would be my first time—but…”
He paused, momentarily caught off guard by her words, and she continued.
“…it’s something I would have had to go through tomorrow anyway—as another man’s wife.”
That single sentence left Renatus unable to think of anything else.
At the same time, Eleanor slowly stepped toward him.
As he watched her approach with slight tension, his brow furrowed faintly.
Then Eleanor carefully took hold of his arm and rose onto her toes.
Though she wasn’t short, he was simply too tall—this was the only way their eyes could meet.
She gently pressed her lips to his.
Before long, her strength gave out, and she lowered herself, her cheeks faintly flushed from the effort.
In that moment, Renatus wrapped a hand around the back of her head and pulled her toward him.
His sudden kiss was nothing like Eleanor’s tentative one—it was on an entirely different level.
It felt as though her world was being devoured, like prey caught in the jaws of a beast. As if he might consume her whole, he captured her lips and guided her backward toward the bed.
Staggering as she retreated under his lead, Eleanor clutched tightly at his arm, dizziness overtaking her.
“Breathe, my lady.”
Despite his polite tone, there was nothing gentle about the way he claimed her lips, and she didn’t even know how to breathe properly.
It felt as though she were trapped in a sealed room—her breath grew shallow, her chest tight.
When she wavered slightly, Renatus pulled her closer, wrapping his free arm around her waist.
At that moment, Eleanor felt completely enclosed by him.
Then his movements slowed—no longer as wild as before.
As if showing consideration, he kissed her more gently, and only then did Eleanor manage to steady her breathing.
The heat sparked between their lips slipped down her throat, spreading quietly through her body.
The air around them seemed to grow warmer.
Just as she began to register the strange sensation, the back of her calves hit the bed, and she fell onto it.
When Renatus climbed over her, their legs tangled—and their desires were laid bare between them.
