“Why…..?”

“Why? I have my own pleasure. I like it very much, would you mind taking a look?

The ghostly voice made Hazel shudder all the more. The hand on his other side was still hidden by the trees.

It was so dark around him that she couldn’t even see the hazy shape of what he was holding in his hand.

“You know I don’t like blood. It scares me.”

“You can’t be.”

Thud.

Hazel stared blankly as Achilleon threw something in front of her. Suddenly, time seemed to stopped, and she forgot how to breathe.

“…….”

After confirming the identity of her prey, which was thrown to her feet, Hazel hastily took a breath and backed away.

“Oh…ah”

Achilleon slowly walked over to Hazel, who was breathing hard with her mouth open.

“How’s it? Is this sweet enough?”

“Your Majesty, Your Majesty.l

“I’m a husband who lets my wife have everything she desires.”

Hazel retreated again when he saw his prey on the floor.

“Why? Isn’t he the man you love? Don’t run away like that.”

“…….”

“Isn’t that the face of your lover? Or is it too bad he’s not alive?”

“Achilleon, what the hell is this…?”

The words didn’t flow out properly due to her trembling jaw and stiffened tongue.

“Don’t call me that.”

Achilleon said with a smile. It was a miserable and beautiful smile, but it just looked bizarre because of his bloody face.

It was as if a demon had eaten her husband and taken his skin, leaving something else in front of her, only identical in appearance.

“As you called my name countless times with your mouth and huddled with me, what were you thinking about in your mind?”

“I’m…I’m….uh…”

The bloody smell grew stronger as Achilleon approached. It was so strong that Hazel felt nauseous.

“Tell me, Hazel. Hmm? What did you have in mind? You imagined wrapping your legs around that man instead of me and then hips to hips with him, didn’t you?”

“…….”

Hazel couldn’t say anything. Her body began to tremble as she faced her husband’s empty gaze, as if it had lost its focus.

He was an infinitely affectionate husband to her. The rumors that he was an emissary of war, that the number of heads that fell under his sword would fill the rivers of the continent, were just a distant cry.

But today, Hazel could see firsthand what those terrible rumors were about. It wasn’t just rumors, or a conspiracy created by someone with malicious intent, but the complete truth.

Achilleon gradually narrowed the distance between them. Scared, Hazel turned around and ran. At that moment, her body jerked back.

“Aah!”

Her husband’s arm wrapped around her waist and squeezed her tightly. She moaned in agony at the force of the hand that grabbed her hair.

“It’s sad to see Sisef, don’t you agree? After chasing you because he likes you, but you, the woman who used to show him affection, is running away now that he is like this.”

“No, no, no. It’s not like that.”

It was clear that Achilleon misunderstood something.

“It’s not true. Who would say such a thing? Ahhh!”

Hazel screamed at her suddenly twisted arm.

“You married me so you could watch him, didn’t you? You go behind my back and hold him in my bedroom, to f**k like animals.”

There was a faint whisper in her ear. Hazel let out a labored breath and struggled to escape his grasp.

“Tell me, Hazel. Am I wrong?”

“…….”

She could have told him it wasn’t true. It was all a misunderstanding, an illusion, that she had only ever loved him, her husband, as Empress. She had never committed any injustice, and she was an honorable person.

But…

“Huh?”

She couldn’t say anything as she looked into his eyes that were glowing with blue madness.

A word thrown by Achilleon froze her lips.

“I guess you can’t deny it.”

“Please let me go, please let me go…”

Achilleon stopped thinking normally and spat out nothing but futile demands.

“No, Hazel.”

“…..”

“It’s just the beginning.”

A cruel smile fell on the lips of her husband.

****

Something cold and damp touched her face. Once, twice. Hazel gradually awoke to a hand passing over her forehead and wiping her cheeks and neck.

“Are you awake?”

Under her shivering eyelids, her green eyes rolled from side to side. Someone was talking beside her, but it wasn’t a familiar voice.

When she woke up every morning, it was her husband who was the first to welcome her.

After kissing her forehead, he would quietly slip out of bed to attend to his official duties, or wake her up with a sweet caress on mornings when he had a little more time to spare. That was how the morning of the emperor and his wife began.

It used to be that way.

“…….”

Where is this place?

The gorgeously patterned walls and ceiling were unfamiliar. The curtains draped over the bed were also different from the usual ones.

This is not the Empress’s bedroom.

Hazel jumped up.

“This is… This is…”

A terrible pain came over her and Hazel grabbed her head. She gasped in agony as the pain continued as if she were being pierced by a large nail.

She had a very terrible dream. It was really a strange dream. It was too vivid to be a dream.

Her husband was smiling gently at her in the dark forest, and….

“Ah…”

A sudden headache hit Hazel, and she held her head and let out only a groan.

‘This is a nightmare, isn’t it? I just can’t wake up from a very terrible dream.’

She repeated the same words over and over in her mind as if she were casting a spell.

“Are you okay? You must be dizzy from waking up so suddenly.”

Hazel looked to the side and saw a maid holding a hand towel. She tried to help Hazel get back on the bed, but Hazel pushed the maid’s hand away and hurriedly asked,

“What about Sisef?”

“…….”

“Where is Grand Duke Sisef?”

The maid bit her lip as she grasped the hand towel, then turned her gaze to the other older maids next to her.

“Chief maid.”

The white-haired woman who was called “chief maid” simply shook her head. Hazel looked alternately at the maids and the maid with the hand towel.

It was then that she realized that not only had the scene in the room changed, but everyone had changed.

The two maidservants, and indeed everyone else in the room who cared for her, were unfamiliar faces. The maidservants she had brought with her from Land, the ones she had chosen directly after marrying into the empire, were all absent.

There was not a single thing left in this room that was familiar to her.

“Who are you…?”

Hazel had an extreme aversion to strangers taking care of her, so she picked servants personally. There couldn’t be a face that she didn’t know.

“As of today, we will be serving the Empress. If there is anything you need, please let us know.”

Hazel was taken aback when the chief maid replied politely.

“What about my maids?”

“Shall I bring you a meal? Or do you want a bath…?”

“Where are my maids?”

Hazel asked, squeezing the maid’s arm, and the maid turned to other maids with her tearful eyes.

“I will bring the court physician. You seem to have a headache….”

“Shut up and answer my question. Don’t you know who I am!?”

All the maids in the room looked at Hazel with nervous faces at her loud roar.

“Grand Duke Sisef! Is he still alive? Is he alive?”

Her flickering eyes scanned the maids one by one. But not one of them made proper eye contact with Hazel.

“Answer me! No, I’ll check it myself….”

“No, Empress!”

As soon as Hazel stood on the floor with her bare feet, the maids rushed to her and held her back.

“Let go of me! How dare you! You dare to block me? Let me go! Let me go!”

At that moment…

“You want to know?

Hazel turned around at the sound coming from behind her. The man stood leaning against the door and looking at her was Achilleon.

“…….”

His cold, shining blue eyes were staring at her. There was a smile on his lips, but no laughter could be found in his eyes.

The maidservants who had tried to stop Hazel suddenly slipped out like an undertow as soon as they spotted the Emperor.

Achilleon walked over to where Hazel was standing, gradually narrowing the distance between them.

“You seem to have a lot of strength.”

“…….”

“Hazel, you need to think about your body. Do you know how many days it took you to wake up?”

His voice was as soft as velvet.

“…Your Majesty.”

“You need to rest. You seem to be very excited, but it’s better to lie down and rest.”

Hazel’s body shuddered at the honeyed sweetness of his voice.

“I brought you one of my gifts to see if perhaps you will feel better.”

Achilleon beckoned, and the attendant beside him brought out a box. Then, Achilleon lifted it up.

“Do you know what this is? Hazel?”

It took Hazel a moment to figure out what the box he had brought was. What was it that was in there?

“Why? Are you familiar with it?”

“That’s….”

Hazel’s face turned white. Achilleon flipped the box over and spilled everything inside.

Hazel stared at what was scattered on the floor. The letters, still neatly folded in its envelopes, were all stamped with rose patterns.

It was letters that she had exchanged with Sisef when she was a princess in Land kingdom. Among them were bracelets made of colored thread, engraved with their initials.

“I didn’t realize you’d keep them like this.”

“…….”

The Emperor stepped on the letters that were scattered on the floor.

“They’re your treasures, aren’t they? You hid them because you were afraid of who I might find out.”

“This…Why…?”

Hazel stared at the scattered letters with horrified eyes.

“What? Who sent this?” Hazel asked, trembling.

These were stored in the far end of the Empress’ bedroom. Hazel was the only one who knew where they were and could open them.

“Does it matter?”

A cruel smirk drew across Achilleon’s lips.

“The thing is, Hazel….”

He held his wife’s face gently.

He gently grabbed his wife’s face.

“You still had these damn things.”

It was a fact that could not be refuted. It was something Hazel and Sisef had exchanged before they were married, but it was something that should have all been burned after she was already an empress.

Nonetheless, what she kept was clearly her unrequited love. But, It was something she hadn’t even opend recently.

Achilleon approached Hazel, stepping over the letters.

“Oh, don’t come any closer.”

Hazel struggled to retreat. The image of Achilleon was exactly the same as the one she had encountered that night in the forest. The one had thrown his brother’s body at her in the dark forest….

It’s not a dream. It was not a dream, but a cruel reality.

“Don’t come, don’t come… Argh! Argh!”

“You can’t do that. Hazel. I can’t believe you rejected your husband.”

Achilleon easily subdued Hazel and knocked her over the bed.

***