Chapter : 75
Returning to Theo’s bedroom, Liriope fanned her still-heated face with her hand and sat down on the sofa by the window.
When she had asked why marriage—rather than an engagement—he responded with an unexpected, almost embarrassingly blunt answer: he wanted her from head to toe. Exhausted, she had stood up, but instead of following her, Theo had only assigned guards to accompany her.
“Really…”
Liriope murmured softly, cooling her flushed face on the back of her hand.
He said he wanted to preserve her virginity before marriage, and now he suggested marriage first—how was she even supposed to take that?
Leaning back against the sofa, she let out a long sigh.
—She had never loved anyone before, not even a little, except him. And probably never would again. Only him. The feeling, the desire to spend her life with someone.
—So let’s get married, Liriope.
Her face blazed as the memory resurfaced.
Even though he had given her the chance to leave him, Theo had ultimately chosen her, and she found it exasperating yet endearing.
And hearing him say that his life was already diverging from the novel’s story gave her courage.
Though she was in a world she had read about, much of it had already changed, so the ending didn’t have to match the original.
She had thought Theo would ultimately favor Rosearin because of the novel’s predestined events, but that, too, was a mistaken assumption.
The fact that he had confined her like this, even after she submitted the divorce request, clearly showed that Theo wanted her.
Liriope felt sorry for Rosearin but thought it would be nice if she could just be happy with Theo.
‘Of course, I’ll have to hear Rose’s side too. Unlike Theo, maybe Rose has come to like him.’
Nodding to herself unconsciously, Liriope resolved to meet Rosearin, talk things through, and think seriously about marrying Theo.
“The first thing we need to do is find the black mage. Black magic requires human souls, so he won’t be satisfied with just the North.”
Theo handed documents stamped with his seal to Adil as he continued speaking.
“Before the Empire suffered from black magic, they should have sought out the black mage. And the person who dared to bring black magic, which shouldn’t have risen, to the surface.”
“Do you mean there’s an accomplice?” Adil asked cautiously.
Theo looked at him while opening the next set of documents.
“Not ‘think,’ there definitely is one. Use your brain. Do you really think commoners or poor nobles could use black magic, which the Empire forbids?”
“…Well, the rituals of black magic require human souls and soul stones to trap those souls…”
“Exactly. How much do you think a single soul stone costs?”
“….”
Thinking about it, he was right.
Black magic didn’t just work by collecting dead souls.
They needed soul stones to contain the souls, and those stones were as expensive as the gems used for creating teleportation portals.
Summoning invisible evil spirits required a particularly large number of souls and soul stones.
So even acquiring the soul stones wasn’t easy. Almost no one made soul stones, which weren’t needed except for black magic or funeral rites for the dead.
‘Then it would be simple if someone with enough wealth and power could make the soul stones.’
Adil nodded unconsciously and then bowed slightly to Theo.
“I’ll look into it.”
Theo gave a single nod, returning his focus to the documents, and Adil left the office.
Theo’s eyes paused for a moment as a thought came to mind.
‘The Empress.’
The person who knew black magic in detail.
The one who had reason to summon a black mage to devastate the North.
And the one capable of excessively magnifying black magic to make the damage in the North massive.
The only person who fit all three criteria was the Empress.
He recalled how she had asked him during the hunting festival why he had switched places when Cardin got injured in his hunting grounds—clearly demanding accountability. That confirmed it.
If the Empress really had used a black mage to make the North like that, Theo couldn’t let it slide. He returned to the documents.
‘I need to finish this quickly and go to Liriope.’
Just as he was about to stamp the documents, he hesitated, realizing Liriope might already know something.
She had said this was the world from the novel she had read.
Having seen the ending, she had tried to leave, believing fate would bring her and Rosearin together.
Since she had tried to prevent the black mage’s actions, she likely knew who was behind him.
Theo quickly closed the current documents and moved on to the next set.
‘I need to finish this quickly and ask Liriope.’
By the time Theo finally finished his urgent work and returned to the bedroom, it was nearly midnight.
Weary, he opened the door to find Liriope sound asleep on his bed, and his lips curved into a smile.
All the fatigue pressing on his shoulders seemed to vanish the moment he saw her.
Carefully, so as not to wake her, Theo stepped back out.
He summoned attendants to prepare a bath and headed toward his personal bathroom.
The bedroom bathroom was only for simple face washing, so he went to the one he was accustomed to, loosening his jacket as he went.
Shortly after Theo entered the bath, two strong men came in to assist him.
Liriope woke to a cool touch on her back and arms.
It was already early morning, and the only light in the room came from the moon through the window.
“You’re awake?”
A low voice came from behind her as she lay on her side.
Turning her head, she saw Theo clinging to her back without a shirt.
Startled, Liriope sprang up, pulling the blanket up to her neck.
“W-What are you doing?!”
“Doing what?” Theo asked nonchalantly.
“No, why are you clinging to me…? And why aren’t you wearing clothes?!”
Her eyes quickly scanned Theo’s well-toned abs.
Perfectly sculpted muscles made her pupils dilate.
Whispering as quietly as possible, she tried not to wake anyone else. Theo, noticing her, chuckled softly.
“I just came out of the bath. Normally, I don’t wear anything until my body dries, but I wore something below out of consideration for you.”
Liriope let out a laugh, half exasperated.
“Well, if you’re being considerate, you should wear something on top too. Don’t come to bed shirtless like a pervert.”
“I wore something below—why would that make me a pervert?”
Theo shrugged nonchalantly, as if he were perfectly innocent.
“Coming to bed without clothes and sticking to me isn’t perverted?” she shot back.
“I’m wearing underwear. The bed is mine. And I only stuck to you because you were sleeping on your side.”
His calm, almost serene tone made her wonder if she was overreacting.
But as fatigue tugged at her, Theo tried to embrace her again. Her heart raced instantly.
“Don’t hug me, don’t.”
She smacked his arm.
“Put on clothes quickly.”
“Why?”
“Why? We’re going to sleep, right?”
“Problem?”
“Of course it is! You’re not letting me leave this room, so I guess I should sleep here, right?”
Theo nodded once.
“Exactly.”
“And you came to this room, which means you’ll sleep here too, right?”
“It’s my room.”
“Exactly. So why would two adults who aren’t married sleep in the same bed and take off their clothes?”
“Do you not understand the meaning of ‘naked’?” Theo asked, looking down at the comfortable pants he was wearing.
“I do! I mean, wear your top. Wearing only the bottom doesn’t help—your chest is fully visible.”
“Why should I hide my body from you? You’re the one who will become my wife anyway.”
“Not yet! And just because someone will be your wife doesn’t mean it’s polite to show off your body like that.”
“I thought it was quite a nice body,” Theo said, looking down at himself.
“Women squealed at it too.”
She wondered who and when, but decided anyone would have reacted that way seeing Theo’s bare chest.
Still, sharing a bed naked with him was uncomfortable, so she repeated her demand.
“Put on clothes if we’re going to sleep.”
“Sleeping with clothes is uncomfortable,” Theo pouted like a child.
“Then sleep in another room.”
“No.”
Liriope suggested, and Theo immediately rejected it like a child.
“You being in my castle and sleeping separately is incomprehensible to me.”
“Sleeping naked with a man in the same bed before marriage is incomprehensible to me.”
Theo smirked at her adorable scowl.
He got up, picked up a loose shirt from the bedside table, climbed back into bed, and handed it to her.
Then he said something that made Liriope gasp again.
“Put it on me.”
