Chapter 106
The horseback riding lesson became the catalyst for Kyle going off the rails.
I had been extremely careful all this time not to press the “go dark” button, but it all turned out to be pointless. I really didn’t want to match lips with him—the same lips I had matched with Raymond. This was my limit.
And the Emperor, wounded by me, began acting recklessly.
“The Emperor is looking for you.”
“His Majesty?”
When the etiquette lesson ended, the chief attendant came inside and informed me.
Before, he used to come to see me himself—why was he summoning me now?
After parting with the instructor, I headed to the room I was guided to, puzzled. When I went in through the door the attendant opened, Kyle was lying on the bed with his robe loosened. On either side of him, half-undressed women were clinging to his shoulders and waist.
“Aileen. You’re here.”
“…”
What on earth is this situation? For a moment, my mind went blank.
“I… I pay my respects to the sun of the Empire.”
Regardless of my embarrassment, there were other people present, so I offered a greeting first.
“Yes. How was your lesson?”
“It was fine.”
“What lesson did you take today?”
“Etiquette.”
“I see. Always make sure to learn well how to keep your body and mindset upright.”
That sounds like something you should be told.
The words rose to my throat, but I swallowed them back.
Even as we talked, the women kneaded Kyle’s arms and shoulders. As they touched the Emperor’s bare body, they cast looks and expressions at me that subtly looked down on me.
So, you’re having your fiancée stand far away from the bed while you roll around on it with other women? This is ridiculous. What’s the point of deliberately showing me this?
As for how I felt—oddly enough, I felt nothing in particular. It was just irritating, like my eyes were rotting from what I was seeing.
When Kyle seemed to have said everything he wanted to say, he dismissed me. From the start, it didn’t feel like he had anything to say so much as some other intention.
“Leave now. I intend to enjoy myself with the women.”
“Yes.”
Kyle draped an arm around the woman beside him as he spoke. When he pulled her close, she giggled happily. I replied flatly and immediately turned on my heel and left.
Bang.
“Eek.”
The moment Aileen left, Kyle slammed his fist hard into the headboard of the bed. The startled women shrieked and shrank back.
“Damn it.”
Still not venting his anger, he shoved away the woman clinging to his arm. The half-naked woman couldn’t even defend herself and rolled off the bed, but whether she was hurt or not was none of his concern.
‘To look at me with such loathing…’
Kyle had called Aileen on purpose. He thought that if she saw him with other women, she might at least realize the faint jealousy buried shallowly at the bottom of her heart—something she hadn’t even been aware of.
When his expectations were thoroughly betrayed, his irritation surged.
“Come here.”
“Eek, Your Majesty.”
Kyle roughly yanked the arm of another woman sitting beside him. He needed a target to vent his anger on immediately. In place of Aileen, he began to aggressively take the woman’s body.
After returning to my room, I washed my face again. I wanted to rinse away the eyes that had seen something I shouldn’t have. But no matter how much I washed, the image of the Emperor entangled with the women stuck in my mind like an afterimage.
“Haa…”
I patted my wet face dry with a towel. Looking at myself in the mirror, I tried to gauge the Emperor’s intentions behind his absurd behavior.
Was he trying to provoke my jealousy? Can you even feel jealousy toward someone you don’t like?
But far from jealousy, it had only backfired. Seeing him neglect ruling the country and obsess over women just made him look pathetic.
Naturally, the comparison brought my favorite person to mind.
I wonder how Raymond is doing.
He must be worrying about me a lot, right?
I missed him. His cool yet comforting scent, his smooth, straight nose, the long, thick eyelashes I saw whenever I closed my eyes, the gentle gaze he used to look at me—all of it felt unbearably dear.
Just endure a little longer. Once the Grand Duke’s faction finishes preparing, they’ll storm the imperial palace. When that day comes, I’ll be able to escape from the arms of that hateful Emperor. Believing that firmly, I moved on to attend another lesson.
When both the gentle strategy and the jealousy-provoking scheme came to nothing, Kyle was left with only one option.
He decided to act recklessly.
If nothing worked either way, then he’d just do whatever he wanted. After all, the fish was already caught. He was the owner, and there was no one who could say anything about it.
It was merely a conclusion born of stubbornness, but he refused to admit it. He convinced himself that because Aileen acted that way, he had no other choice.
Late at night, after finishing dinner and preparing for bed, Kyle went to her room.
When the door burst open without a knock, Aileen flinched and turned her head. Only one person would do something like this, but she had still hoped otherwise. And when she confirmed without the slightest error that it was indeed the culprit, her brows knit together.
“Your Majesty….”
She said nothing more, but her eyes were clearly reproaching him. His behavior was plainly rude, and her brow furrowed of its own accord.
Kyle strode toward Aileen. Then he roughly grabbed her arm.
“Ah!”
The white skin reddened under his tight grip. A groan escaped her from the pain.
He opened his eyes wide. His pupils, steeped in violent emotion, gleamed with madness. The fragile shoulder trapped in his rough hand trembled. It looked so small it seemed like it might crumble if he squeezed any harder.
How could something this weak toy with the Emperor of the Frales Empire? The thought felt ridiculously laughable to him in that moment.
“Aileen.”
Aileen looked up at Kyle. Her body was trembling, so lifting her head was slow, but she met his gaze squarely. Fear was visible in her green eyes. The confidence with which she had once rejected him was gone; the shadowed eyes looked painfully forlorn. Kyle liked that look.
“Aren’t you curious why I haven’t been using your healing powers?”
“…!!”
Kyle bit down on the tip of his own finger. A few drops of blood fell with soft plops. Red stains marked the ivory carpet.
His bloodstained, red, bewitching lips came down over Aileen’s lips.
Aileen’s eyes widened, and she shoved him away with all her strength. It was a reflexive movement born of the skin-crawling sensation. She raised the back of her hand and wiped her lips. Kyle, who had let go of her arm, stumbled back a step—but he smiled in satisfaction. Even with just a light kiss, the wound was already healing.
“How fascinating. I should’ve forced it sooner.”
“…”
To say something so beastlike without batting an eye.
Kyle took a few more steps back and lifted his head. His arrogant eyes looked down at the woman glaring up at him, her eyes filled with resentment.
“Don’t worry. I won’t casually hand my precious you over to just anyone.”
The only one allowed to handle her as he pleased was himself—that was Kyle’s thinking.
“You’re quite useful. You’ll have to become a lifelong remedy just for me.”
He let out a satisfied chuckle. “Heh.” His steps as he turned and left the room were remarkably light.
Kyle’s mood rose and fell in real time, like bipolar swings.
He was pleased at the thought that he possessed a fine living remedy, and then immediately cursed Aileen for rejecting him and clawing at his heart.
He was explosively venting emotions he couldn’t even control himself onto Aileen.
The next night, he came again.
Kyle backed Aileen up against the wall. Pressed by the murderous force of his presence, Aileen had no choice but to retreat step by step.
When her back finally hit the wall, despair washed over her. There was nowhere left to retreat. Kyle planted his large palm against the wall and leaned in. He was so close she could feel his breath on the tip of her nose.
“Did you like Raymond that much?”
He raised his other hand and grabbed her chin, forcing it up. At the rough movement, a groan escaped her lips.
“Tell me. What did you like about him? Did you spend the night together? Did the two of you roll around on the bed together?!”
As Kyle shouted, the hand that had been clutching her chin moved to her throat. Her slender neck fit entirely within one hand. The more he tightened his grip, the harder it became for her to breathe, and as her face twisted in distress, pleasure stirred within him.
Even as she was being choked, she spoke with difficulty.
“Does Your Majesty… truly… want to hear… my answer?”
“What?”
“If your purpose is… to frighten me… then you’ve succeeded. I’m afraid of you now, Your Majesty.”
“Afraid? If you’re afraid of me, then why won’t you listen to me?”
When he released his choking hand, Aileen coughed violently. This time, Kyle’s fingertips traced along her jawline. The slow, precarious motion, like aiming a blade, sent a chill down the back of her neck.
“I don’t understand why you’re doing this to me. You don’t love me, so why are you obsessed with me?”
Aileen asked, meeting his gaze directly. Even as she swallowed her fear, she wanted an answer to the question she had long harbored.
“Did you want love? Hah! That’s far too much for someone like you.”
But Kyle dodged the question. He had no composure to refine and explain emotions he didn’t even understand himself. The only thing he was certain of was his own desire.
“Even fear is fine. As long as you move the way I want you to. That’s all I want.”
In the end, it was the desire of a ruler.
Those who place everything beneath their feet find it unbearable for anything to stand on equal footing with them. Kyle was no different. He pretended to be a victim, pretended to be unloved, but in truth, he was a tyrant who couldn’t rest until he possessed what he desired—a twisted way of compensating for his lacking childhood.
