7.
“Huh?”
Even her sharp voice, which had been revealing her emotions on her behalf, vanished at his sudden remark.
“First one… you say?”
“Yes. Is that unpleasant for you? Would you have preferred if there had been others before or after you?”
“…Why?”
Startled, Free asked him without realizing it herself.
Why am I the first?
Aren’t you like others, with many wives? Isn’t that why you brought me here as a war prisoner?
Her confusion was understandable.
Until now, Free had believed that women from the defeated nations were all taken as wives.
‘Did he suddenly change his mind or something?’
Why her?
Why the Kingdom of Ezan, of all places? None of it made sense.
From Free’s perspective.
This man’s behavior was strange too. The royalty of other invaded nations hadn’t survived, yet the royal family of Ezan lived—all because of a single sacrifice.
That alone contradicted everything she’d heard before. Just as questions like “why” began to pile up—
‘It must be because of my sister. He wanted to take her, not me. My sister is meant to be the empress of the Behport Empire. That’s why he backed down more easily than expected.’
The conclusion was simpler and clearer than expected.
Once she reached it, Free’s curiosity quickly faded. Nothing else could explain his actions. Thinking of it that way made everything fit together easily.
At that moment—
When Free had been staring at him in silence for quite a while, Argent turned his gaze slightly away.
His face flushed ever so slightly, but it was so brief that Free didn’t notice.
“So, what is it you want to ask me? You don’t understand why you’re the first?”
“I understand that I’m the first. But what I don’t get is… the ‘last.’”
She could somewhat guess why she was the first and why his behavior had changed.
But when it came to the word “last,” nothing came to mind.
Looking at him, behaving as though he already knew everything that would happen, Free’s voice turned firm again.
“I don’t understand what you mean by ‘last.’”
“I just… no longer feel like it. I was originally planning to take on other wives after this, but I lost interest.”
Of course. Free’s head dropped as some unconscious hope she hadn’t realized she’d held quietly crumbled.
“So it’s like that after all.”
“Like what?”
“Nothing. Then what do you want me to do? As your wife? Am I to live like a prisoner, or…?”
“Just… live well.”
“Live well?”
Argent said no more.
“What do you mean by that?”
Free asked again, once, twice—but only silence answered.
In the meantime, the speeding carriage gradually began to slow down.
“We’ll be arriving soon.”
Only then did Free open the carriage window, which had been shut the entire time.
The sudden wind blew the thin curtain aside.
“Ah…!”
It was her first time seeing the land of the so-called barbarians. Free was left speechless by the view of the country she had only heard about in biased rumors. Who could call this a barbaric land?
Her wide, glimmering eyes stared endlessly outside.
In the middle of a vast body of water—a river so wide it might as well have been a sea—stood a bridge large enough for ten carriages to cross side by side with ease.
It was larger than any bridge in the Kingdom of Ezan.
At that moment, Argent opened the window on his side as well.
“This is the land you all call barbaric. What do you think? Does it seem like a land of barbarians to you?”
Free looked outside again.
A towering city gate.
So high no human could dare to challenge it—her eyes couldn’t even reach its top.
It was completely different from what she had imagined. She’d believed the barbarian land to be some hidden mountain village, with people living in huts.
Even if that wasn’t the case, she assumed it would be so small that it couldn’t compare to Ezan.
That the hundred black knights he led were probably the entire population.
But her assumptions were thoroughly proven wrong.
“It’s big. Really big.”
While they spoke, the carriage passed through the massive wall and entered a tunnel-like gate. The atmosphere changed instantly. Even the scent in the air and the sounds of the people were different.
As the carriage rolled in, flower petals scattered along the wide road as if awaiting their arrival.
The citizens, overjoyed by their emperor’s return, celebrated with genuine happiness. The faces of those calling out Argent’s name were all smiling.
Watching this from beyond the window, Free found the scene utterly new. A refreshing shock.
It looked like a village festival. Something she’d never imagined.
“The people… they like you.”
“It’s the emperor’s return. Isn’t it natural?”
“…Natural.”
She remembered the times she’d gone to the market with her father.
It hadn’t been a warm father-daughter outing. It was an official royal procession. Yet during those outings, she’d never once seen their people happy. No one welcomed the king. They only trembled in fear, shrinking away from the figure of power.
This was the kind of scene Free had longed for—but her homeland had never shown her anything like it.
A country where the king commanded fear, not respect. Where citizens were ruled solely by force.
Maybe her own kingdom had been the real barbaric land.
Free’s face turned bitter.
Argent, watching her, wore a sorrowful expression.
“If not for you, things would never have turned out this way.”
Until he met her, his country had been no different from the others.
Before Free, Argent had believed that rulers should rule through fear.
But she had wished for something different.
She had wanted people to be happy.
So he had found countless ways to build the nation she had dreamed of.
He had gained so much because of her… This prosperous country should have rightfully been hers.
“Free. The world you longed for. Even for a moment, I hope you’re happy seeing these people.”
His first and last love.
That’s why Argent tried to avoid her as much as he could.
If you try to possess, you lose.
If you try to gain, you gain nothing.
Just watching is enough.
He swallowed those thoughts again and again and only stared into the distance with quiet eyes.
Free, for a long while, kept her gaze out the window.
“Intellia.”
“Yes?”
“That’s the name of this place. The one you call the barbarian land. Not a small village, not a kingdom—the Intellia Empire. That’s the name of the country you’ll be staying in. My country.”
“Oh. It’s a lovely name.”
Even that name had been given by the Free of the past.
This land hadn’t even had a name before. Intellia—a word meaning “land of freedom.” Argent both loved and hurt for that name.
“A wise and beautiful woman gave it that name.”
“A woman?”
“Yes. She wanted this country to become what it is now. That’s why this transformation was possible. This place was made to fulfill her wish. This is Intellia.”
The words tugged at her heart.
Something in Free’s chest thudded. It wasn’t because of the man half-hidden in front of her. It was because his words had pierced something in her.
‘This is strange.’
A rush of feelings she couldn’t describe came over her.
Ever since meeting him, her heart had started acting like it belonged to someone else. She had felt different lately—but after meeting him, even more so.
‘It doesn’t feel bad. It’s just… just…’
Her gaze lingered on Argent for a while.
But the conversation ended there. As if he no longer wanted to talk, Argent turned away from her.
The carriage stopped at just the right time.
“Looks like we’ve arrived.”
Until now, Free hadn’t been nervous—but suddenly, her whole body tensed.
“So… when you said to live well, how exactly should I live?”
“Let’s see. Freely, I suppose.”
“Freely.”
“I won’t formally marry until you wish it. So for now, stay as a guest, comfortably.”
Her sky-blue eyes flickered at the unexpected words.
“You’re not going to marry? Didn’t you bring me here to make me your wife? Or a slave…”
“Not at all.”
“Then why did you bring me here?”
To that final question, Argent chuckled and rose from his seat.
“I was curious. That’s all. So live freely—and keep me interested.”
Just your happiness and freedom alone… that will be enough for me.
Argent swallowed those words and stood. Just then, Free grabbed his sleeve.
“…If someone else had come instead, would you have treated them the same?”
“Who knows.”
No. If someone else had come, he might have killed them the moment they stepped out of the castle.
Locked them up like slaves. Tossed them aside to anyone.
Or discarded them on the way here.
He briefly imagined what would’ve happened if someone else had been brought instead—and then stepped to the door.
“You’re really strange.”
“So are you. So just live like that. It’ll be fun, having a princess by my side. So live on. Just like you always have.”
That was the end of the conversation.
As the carriage fully stopped, Argent opened the door himself and stepped out.
“Your Majesty, there you are.”
Before the carriage even stopped completely, a man managing Argent’s horse approached in a fluster.
“Cliden. A guest.”
“A guest, Your Majesty?”
