Chapter 90

“Don’t lie to me. You think I only read the letters and diary you sent? You even told me where to find your replies, and you think I didn’t read those?”

“They weren’t replies for Your Majesty.”

“So there’s another ‘Lehan’ besides me?”

Lehan scoffed. He had seen dozens, even hundreds, of letters addressed to “Lehan.” What kind of pathetic excuse was this?

“Your Majesty isn’t Lehan. Your Majesty makes a disgusted face every time I call you Lehan.”

“…”

“Besides that, there are many, many differences between Your Majesty and Lehan.”

His gaze, his manner of speaking, how he spent his day. Even the meals he ate. Edelis only realized it when she was investigating the head chef after the assassination attempt on the emperor, and she asked why the food on the table was different from usual. Until then, she had just thought he had the chef prepare the food she liked to accommodate her. And she had never known his own food preferences.

‘Just how far did Lehan go to accommodate me?’

The Lehan who thought of her and cared for her wasn’t the man in front of her. He was just a man with the same face and the same voice.

“So, please don’t call me by that name and confuse me.”

“Are you saying that because I have a lapse in my memory, the person you love isn’t me?”

“No. Your Majesty only married me; you don’t have the memories of being with me.”

“Even though you wrote in the letters that you loved me so much?”

“Please be precise with your words. The person I love isn’t Your Majesty, but Lehan. And Your Majesty said you hate being called Lehan.”

“Of course I do!”

Lehan grumbled, but Edelis truly didn’t understand why he hated being called “Lehan.” To Edelis, Lehan was Lehan from the very beginning. Even after they reunited, that hadn’t changed. To her, Lehan wasn’t the emperor but the person she had been with since childhood.

“…You don’t know why I hate being called ‘Lehan’?”

“No.”

“It’s preposterous that you’re the only one who doesn’t know something that even minor nobles are aware of.”

“I think most minor nobles don’t know either.”

The only time Edelis had seen something was when Lord Frache, who had called him “Keirhan,” almost slipped and said “Lehan.” That was all. But she hadn’t known he hated it so much that he would get so serious. She wondered if Lehan had also hated being called “Lehan” but had gone along with it.

“Is this also a lapse in my memory?”

“I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

“No, it’s better that it’s not well-known.”

“What do you mean?”

Lehan was deeply displeased at being called “Lehan,” his name from the days he spent in the arena. If someone hadn’t saved him back then, he probably would have died there. The time he spent in the arena was a horrible nightmare. It was a memory he never wanted to recall. But she was calling him by that name. 

He would only allow the girl who saved him to call him “Lehan.” When others called him “Lehan,” it was nothing more than a reminder of his dirty past. And Edelis was no exception. He thought she was calling him that to upset him and remind him of his past. To tell him that he was worse than a slave. That although he wore the emperor’s skin now, he was just a gladiator inside. That’s why he had hated Edelis even more. Not only did she sneak into his bedroom, but she called him “Lehan.” 

If anyone else but the Empress had called him “Lehan,” he would have cut off their head on the spot without a warning. But that misunderstanding was only cleared up when Lehan read the letters. He realized that she had been calling him Lehan all along and with affection. Still, Lehan couldn’t understand why he had allowed her to call him “Lehan.”

“Never mind.”

Lehan saw no reason to answer Edelis’s question, regardless of her bewilderment. It seemed she didn’t know that he was a former gladiator. If most minor nobles didn’t know, then all the better. In his memories, he had suffered a great deal suppressing the rebellion, so it was a relief if she didn’t know. Still, she was his wife by name, and he didn’t want to explain in detail that he couldn’t forget the girl he met in his childhood. Thinking this, he ignored Edelis, who was looking at him, demanding an answer, and lay down on the bed.

‘Wait a minute. In the noble’s records, the rebels were purged, which was exactly the same, wasn’t it? Then wouldn’t everyone know that I was a gladiator?’

Just when he thought one mystery was solved, another difference emerged, and his questions were endless.

“Edelis… No, Empress.”

When he called her by her name, Edelis’s expression instantly hardened, and he had to call her Empress again as before. Only after creating this difference from Lehan did Edelis’s face relax. He didn’t like her building a wall between them, but he understood since he also didn’t want to be called Lehan by her.

“Yes.”

“Did a rebellion happen right after I ascended the throne?”

“It happened continuously for about a year. Even I, who was in a territory far from the capital, knew about it.”

“Do you know why they rebelled back then?”

“There were so many different reasons, so I don’t know all of them… But I heard stories that they were looking down on the imperial throne.”

“In more detail?”

“I don’t know the specifics.”

“Hmm, I see. I’ll ask others about this.”

Since Johannes Frache knew he was a former gladiator, it seemed easiest to ask him. There was no point in racking his brain over a question he couldn’t solve immediately, so he decided to clear his head.

“Anyway, Empress.”

“Yes?”

“Since you’re rejecting me…”

“Rejecting you?!”

Edelis jumped. If not calling him by his name wasn’t a rejection, then what was it?

“If that’s not a rejection, then should we continue what we were doing earlier?”

“What we were doing earlier?”

“Yes.”

Edelis seemed to have completely forgotten, her eyes filled with questions. The hale and hearty Lehan couldn’t understand her.

“What a husband and wife do, late at night, on a bed.”

“…”

“And as you know, I don’t have any concubines, right? I don’t seem to have any hidden mistresses either.”

“…I suppose not.”

“In my memory, there were no mistresses, but there were concubines.”

As Lehan’s touch, which was clearly a temptation, reached Edelis, she trembled. Her trembling, as if she knew nothing, looked endearing. When Lehan leisurely kissed her forehead, Edelis’s face turned red. Of course, given his position as the emperor who could have many women, he would inevitably have more experience. Even so, such an innocent reaction. It was enough to remind him of their first night.

“Are you too nervous?”

Lehan leisurely got on top of her. And he put his fingers on the shoulder strap to take off her slip.

But Edelis grabbed his hand.

“Your Majesty.”

“Let go of my hand and talk, will you?”

“You don’t even allow me to call you by your name; you don’t really think I’ll allow this, do you?”

Edelis tried to push his hand away and make him remove it from her clothes. But there was no way Lehan would be pushed back by her weak hand.

“Empress. You don’t have the right to refuse.”

“Why not?”

“The biggest duty of an empress is to produce an heir. You wouldn’t say you don’t know that, would you?”

“…Of course not.”

“Right, as long as you’re the Empress, you’ve always made an effort to have an heir, haven’t you? A few days every month. I don’t know if today is one of those days, but looking at the approximate date, it seems right.”

Lehan remembered that to have an heir, he had called her to his bedroom on the dates instructed by the imperial doctor every month. And no matter how confused his memory was, he thought this was a common issue in any country, so he didn’t doubt it for a second. More accurately, he hadn’t doubted it at all. 

Unlike now, Edelis had an excellent relationship with the old him, so they might have had intercourse even without the imperial doctor’s instruction. When his thoughts reached that point, he felt a strange unpleasantness. The feeling of his wife being taken by some undeserving guy.

“…”

“It’s settled, so just leave it to me.”

They say you never know what will happen, but to think the day would come when he had to persuade the Empress, who always blushed in front of him and looked a little expectant.

“Your Majesty.”

“What? Do you want me to leave it to you?”

Lehan raised one corner of his mouth and smiled slyly. If it was the current Empress, Lehan was more than willing to leave it to her. Not the previous Empress, but given the current Empress’s bold personality, it would probably be a good idea to let her do as she pleased. …It might even be better. He had brought it up as a joke, but he was secretly getting excited.

“Yes, please leave it to me.”

“Okay.”

At the welcome answer, Lehan quickly lay down next to Edelis. He bit his lip to hold back the smile that was about to break through from anticipation. It had been a long time since his heart had pounded so hard. Just a moment ago, she was blushing like someone on her first night, and now she was stepping up so boldly. She was completely different from the Empress he knew. Although his memory was a little confused, he felt that this might be okay.

‘The plague had a much better outcome than in my memory, the Empress’s success has strengthened the imperial authority, and with the saintess’s lack of success, the Holy Empire won’t have a strong influence either.’

What if he didn’t have concubines? It would be even better if the imperial authority was strong, and if necessary, he could take one later. Besides, given Joerne Brill’s affection for his daughter, the empress’s family would not pose a threat to the imperial authority. While he was thinking about this and trying to be satisfied with the current situation, for some reason, Edelis was just lying quietly next to him.

‘How long is she going to leave me hanging? How much is she trying to tease me?’

The Empress seemed to be much better at handling men than he remembered. Finally, Lehan couldn’t wait any longer and slightly opened the gown he was wearing. At Lehan’s movement, Edelis’s gaze moved to the open gown, and her face became even redder at the sight of his solid chest revealed through the opening. And Edelis sat up, and her white hand moved to the knot on Lehan’s gown. 

As her hand moved slowly, Lehan let out a hot breath and considered just untying the knot himself, but the anticipation that grew with every moment prevented him from moving. Just as Lehan thought he couldn’t take it anymore, Edelis’s elegant hand finally untied the knot on Lehan’s gown. Lehan felt his gown open and tensed his body even more.