Chapter 39
When Liana gave a small nod, Ian Hart reached out his long arm and picked up the documents.
His red eyes, reflected in the moonlight as he read in the dim room, were deep and intense.
Flip—
Though calloused like a warrior’s hand should be, his hand was graceful and straight as he flipped through the papers one by one.
Before long, the soft rustling of pages stopped.
“…Ha.”
Ian Hart let out a dry laugh and dropped the papers on the table.
“…Princess, it looks like there isn’t a single decent person in here.”
So he could see it too—just how trashy these candidates were.
“I know. That list is just full of garbage.”
The guild she’d hired for the background checks had dug up even the most recent details of the five candidates’ private lives.
Liana, having read the documents carefully, was well aware of just how awful they all were.
But still…
“…I don’t have a choice.”
“…”
“No, wait. Maybe I do? I could just run away.”
Liana laughed bitterly at her own thought.
That was her final option—one she, as someone burdened with responsibility, could never actually take.
In the end, she had no option left but to choose one of the five and marry them.
“…Princess.”
Just then, Ian Hart, who had been tapping the table with his finger, called her in a low voice.
As she looked up, her gaze met his vivid red eyes—glowing even in the dark room with no lights on.
He looked into her amethyst eyes for a moment, then opened his mouth like he’d come to a decision.
“I’d like to make you an offer.”
Liana blinked at the calm and quiet voice.
What was he suddenly—
“What kind of offer?”
Up until this moment, she hadn’t even imagined what he would say next.
“Will you marry me?”
It was her first ever proposal—probably her last, too. But either way, she had never imagined it would come from this man.
“…”
Liana’s mind went completely blank. Her frozen brain struggled to process the words she had just heard.
So…
“…Are you talking to me right now?”
“There’s no one else in front of me.”
Unlike the completely stunned Liana, Ian Hart was perfectly composed.
He looked so calm, you wouldn’t believe he’d just proposed.
“To explain more clearly, what I’m offering is a contract marriage that benefits us both.”
Contract marriage.
That phrase helped her brain start functioning again—but there were still a lot of things she didn’t understand.
“…Why are you suddenly offering a contract marriage? I really can’t see what benefit you’d get from this.”
The more she spoke, the calmer she became.
She had just been startled by something she never expected.
But really—who in the world would expect to be proposed to like this out of nowhere?
Ian Hart let out a soft hum.
If the reason he said this was…
“…Is it because you pity me?”
If Ian Hart had made this offer out of pity, then what was she supposed to do with that?
Just as Liana’s eyes began to darken—
“Princess, just to be clear, I’m not a philanthropist. I don’t make offers like this out of pity.”
Ian Hart’s tone was gentle yet firm. Liana turned her eyes toward his neatly handsome face.
Meeting her serious gaze, he continued speaking.
“Marrying you has benefits for me as well.”
He briefly explained the current stance of the nobles in the empire.
In short, he too was being hounded by nobles to take a wife.
“…So you’re saying you want to make me empress?”
“Yes. You won’t try to kill me in my own palace, and you’re not a puppet of those sneaky nobles.”
His voice was low and almost chilling as he said it, like there was something deeper going on.
“…So, what do you think? Doesn’t that sound like a deal that benefits us both?”
His voice, soft and seductive, whispered temptingly into Liana’s ear.
Two days had passed since the welcoming banquet ended.
By now, even the guards had fully adjusted to Liana’s palace and settled into a routine.
But Liana herself didn’t feel comfortable.
Because of what Ian Hart had said that night—the proposal… no, the offer he made.
A contract marriage…
Honestly, Liana had no reason to reject the proposal.
If it were before she cleared up her misunderstanding with Ian Hart, maybe she would’ve rejected it without thinking—but now, she didn’t feel any ill will toward him.
If anything, she might even say they’d grown a little closer, especially after the day he apologized.
And if what Ian Hart said was true—he too was under pressure to get married—then this contract marriage would also be beneficial for him.
Though, if we’re being real… he’d be getting the short end of the stick.
Even so, Liana couldn’t give a quick answer to such a good offer—and the reason was the last will her mother, Ivella, had left her before dying.
“Liana, my daughter… Please take care of your grandparents… Make sure they live well…”
Objectively, Ivella hadn’t been a very good mother.
She had a weak personality, unable to stand up to her parents, and she collapsed easily in the face of misfortune.
Ivella had been pushed into a palace banquet by her parents, where she spent a night with the king and became pregnant with Liana.
That was the beginning of her tragedy.
The king would visit her occasionally, but only as a form of amusement. And the queen at the time—Revina, his official lover—tormented Ivella relentlessly.
All that pain eventually drove Ivella mad. At times, she even laid hands on her own daughter.
But young Liana still loved her, and now pitied her.
And it was because of Ivella’s dying wish that Liana had continued taking care of those wretched grandparents.
Did my mother ever realize that the parents she both loved and feared were being used by the queen?
The queen, mistaking Liana’s loyalty as affection for her grandparents, lured them into gambling and buried them in massive debt.
And those foolish grandparents, knowing full well that the queen had a hand in their daughter’s death, still bowed and scraped before her.
“…Mother, I really tried to keep your last wish.”
Years ago, Liana paid off their debt using the money she earned from war and her allowance from the palace.
She even begged them not to gamble again, offered to help them move to another country for a fresh start.
They cried and promised, nodding tearfully.
But on the day they were supposed to leave, they didn’t show up.
They had broken their promise and returned to gambling—and now owed twice as much as before.
Liana had repeated this process three times.
And each time, her grandparents had betrayed her pleas and hopes.
“…I’ve done more than enough.”
She had barely seen them face-to-face more than a dozen times in her life.
Most of those were because she had taken care of them out of obligation to her mother’s dying wish.
At the core of it all was guilt—for being the child that made Ivella’s life so tragic.
Most people would probably call her foolish and pathetic.
Even I think I’m foolish and pathetic.
Liana knew full well she was doing something stupid—clinging to a dying wish from a mother who hadn’t even loved her that much.
And she also knew—she’d already done all she could.
“…It’s time to let go.”
She murmured bitterly and let out a long sigh.
Trying to shake off the storm of thoughts in her head, Liana slowly reached for some of the documents spread across the table.
A carefully selected list from the king and queen—“Who Will Be the Worst Husband?”
“…Yeah, no matter how I look at it, the emperor is way better.”
Objectively speaking, Ian Hart was the better choice—by far. It was laughable to even compare him to the other candidates.
If she married Ian Hart, even the king wouldn’t be able to say a word.
Seeing the queen’s face when her precious picks were thrown out? That would be satisfying too.
Same for her half-siblings.
It really did seem like accepting Ian Hart’s proposal was the only way forward.
“Maybe I should visit him later…”
As Liana let out another sigh and leaned back against the sofa, deep in thought—
She suddenly felt someone’s gaze.
And despite her heavy expression just moments ago, a small smile appeared on her face.
Come to think of it… didn’t they say Kkamang is over ten years old?
As she deliberately made herself look more relaxed on the sofa, she felt a sneaky presence slowly approaching from afar…
