Side Story 2.2

Lehan, who had been welcoming Edelis, was taken aback. He hadn’t expected her to come to him in tears.

“What, what’s wrong? What happened?!”

“Your Majesty…”

“Edelis, please tell me.”

But Edelis only clung to him, weeping. It had been a long time since he had held her, and her tears made him want to drag in all of her attendants for questioning. Just as Lehan was about to lose his patience and order his chief eunuch to arrest every servant in the Ruby Palace, Edelis spoke.

“Your Majesty.”

“Yes, what is it? Don’t worry about the consequences, just tell me. I’ll handle everything.”

“W-well…”

Hesitating whether to speak, Edelis glanced furtively at Lehan. He waited patiently for her to speak, and she finally did, cautiously.

“I was out for a walk and I overheard something.”

“What did you hear?”

“That Your Majesty… would cast me aside.”

“…Pardon?”

“Cast aside.”

“No, wait a minute.”

Lehan raised a hand to stop her. His bewildered eyes darted across the floor. Cast aside?! Cast aside! What kind of nonsense was this? The words “Edelis” and “cast aside” were a combination that could not exist. Besides, Edelis had only just arrived at the palace yesterday. He had waited seven years, and he couldn’t even wait for the short time until the wedding; her presence in the palace alone had filled him with sleepless nights. He had considered visiting her room countless times and even wondered if he could just go and see her face in the middle of the night. But now there was a rumor that she would be cast aside?!

“Who would dare utter such rubbish! I’ll have them arrested immediately and nip this rumor in the bud.”

“No, don’t!”

The rumor didn’t exist, so Edelis quickly stopped Lehan. It was an act born out of his favor for her, but she worried that innocent palace attendants would suffer if he got directly involved.

“This is the palace where I’ll be living for the rest of my life. I want to get along with the people here.”

“The rest of your life…”

Her words held a resolve to be buried in the palace, no matter what. But Lehan seemed to be captivated by the word “lifetime” and repeated it, his face flushing.

“Yes, for the rest of my life. So I don’t want to punish them as soon as I arrive.”

“But a rumor like that means they’re disrespecting you. And disrespecting you is no different from disrespecting me.”

“It’s probably not everyone’s opinion. And all I have to do is show them that I haven’t been cast aside.”

Edelis’s voice grew quieter, feeling embarrassed. When she turned her head away to avoid Lehan’s intense gaze, her flushed ears caught his eye. His heart beat even faster at the sight.

“How… would you do that?”

“Um… j-just come to my bedroom now and then.”

“Now and then?”

“Wouldn’t ‘now and then’ be enough?”

Despite having gone through with her plan, she was too embarrassed to tell the Emperor to visit her bedroom frequently. So she figured that if he came, a child would eventually be conceived. However, Lehan’s gaze was far more intense than Edelis had anticipated.

“How often is ‘now and then’?”

“I don’t know? Once a month?”

“…Isn’t that far too rare?”

“Oh, really?!”

They hadn’t yet had their wedding, so the palace attendants hadn’t told her about such things. She had been taught about it in her childhood, but no one had told her about the frequency. Edelis shrewdly gauged Lehan’s reaction and increased the frequency.

“O-once a week?”

“I have no other consorts or imperial concubines. Nor do I plan to.”

“Then… once every three days?”

She thought that would be enough, but the Emperor seemed to think differently.

“A rumor like that started just one day after you arrived. Do you think going so infrequently will be enough?”

“W-well, they might have thought I was abandoned as soon as I got here!”

Edelis regretted not coming to the palace more slowly, but she couldn’t take back what was already said. And she failed to notice the intensifying gaze Lehan was giving her.

“Then… I should go to you today.”

“Y-you should?”

She had achieved her primary objective, but Edelis couldn’t meet Lehan’s eyes. Her friends from her peer group already had two or three children, but Edelis had been cooped up in her territory since her debutante ball and hadn’t had a single proper relationship. She was a person who had learned about romance from books.

“The story of you being cast aside came out after just one day. I’m worried about what will happen if another day goes by.”

“O-okay. Then I’ll see you later.”

Edelis hurriedly bowed to Lehan and tried to leave his office. But as she turned halfway, her wrist was caught by Lehan and she was pulled directly in front of his face. Edelis gasped, unable to even breathe properly.

“Is ‘later’ alright?”

“Y-yes?! Why, why, why, why…?”

“The rumors won’t stop until I go, will they? They say rumors travel faster than words. Who knows how far it’ll spread by then…”

Edelis couldn’t tell him that no such rumor existed. As she stood speechless, Lehan wrapped his arm around her waist and continued.

“Rumors are bound to be distorted. They say you will be cast aside when you won’t. Who knows what stories they’ll make up before I go…”

“Surely they wouldn’t speak so lightly of the Empress?”

“This is the Imperial Palace where they’re already saying you will be cast aside after just one day.”

“Th-that’s true…”

The heat from Lehan’s hand on her waist seemed to spread to her. His thumb, which had been holding her wrist, slid into her slightly clenched fist and gently opened her palm. It was such a small gesture, but Edelis’s heart felt like it would leap out of her mouth. Lehan, whether he knew what she was thinking or not, gently stroked her palm.

“What about… now, instead of later?”

Lehan’s warm breath, so close to her, made Edelis feel dizzy. She was sure she had come to seduce the Emperor, but she couldn’t seem to get a grip on herself.

“After hearing what you said… I think now is fine, too.”

As soon as Edelis gave her consent, Lehan’s lips descended directly onto hers. Edelis unconsciously tensed and tightly gripped Lehan’s thumb in her hand. As if that were a signal, Lehan, with his arms wrapped around her waist, turned, causing her to lose her balance and fall onto the bed. He swallowed hard at the sight of her on the bed, a place where he occasionally rested when he was tired and that smelled like him. He saw her flinch as his hand ran down her arm. For the first time, not as a facade, but truly, for the first time in a very long time, Lehan smiled.

‘Now that you’re back in my hands, you can never get away again.’

Until the day our lives end. And perhaps for all of eternity after that.

***

“Your Majesty. The delegation from the Holy Empire requests an audience.”

“Are you all right?”

Lehan immediately noticed Edelis’s expression change and worried about her. But unable to tell him the truth, Edelis simply nodded.

“You don’t have to receive them. Rest. If going back to the Ruby Palace is too much, there’s a space behind my office where you can rest.”

“No, no. It won’t take long. I’m fine.”

“If you feel even a little bit unwell, tell me immediately.”

“I will.”

Edelis smiled and nodded at Lehan, whose eyes were full of concern. It had been five months already, and her stomach was visibly swollen. He had brought the wedding forward as much as he could after noticing her pregnancy, but since it was an Imperial wedding, he couldn’t move it up any further. He probably could have if he hadn’t stopped working every day at sunset to find Edelis. In any case, since neither of them wanted to give birth before the wedding, they had moved the date up as much as possible.

Edelis, heavy with child, shifted around and managed to get comfortable just as the priests entered the room. Among them was the brown-haired female protagonist.

‘S-Saintess… Really?!’

She seemed so surprised to see Edelis’s swollen belly that she couldn’t control her expression.

“Ugh!”

A sudden wave of stress caused a pain in Edelis’s stomach, and Lehan immediately waved his hand, telling them to leave. But the Saintess ran forward.

“I will use my divine power to heal you.”

At the Saintess’s words, Edelis grabbed Lehan’s hand and shook her head, and Lehan nodded in response.

“How do you expect me to let you heal her when I don’t even know who you are?”

“I… I am…”

“She is the Saintess, Your Majesty!”

“I have not been informed of that. Even if you are a Saintess, do not lay a hand on my wife. Not unless you can be held accountable with your life if something goes wrong.”

“…”

“Are you alright, Edelis? What are you all doing? Call the royal physician immediately!”

The delegation from the Holy Empire was forced to leave without even having a proper audience, and Edelis was immediately examined by the royal physicians who rushed in.

“Do you not like the delegation from the Holy Empire? Should I send them away?”

“You can’t do that to a delegation…”

“So what if they’re a delegation? Are they more important than my wife or my child?”

“…Don’t say that.”

“Then I will make sure you don’t have to see them. Not even a shadow.”

Edelis smiled at Lehan, who looked only at her. She felt completely at ease. The book wasn’t the truth, after all. Lehan still only looked at her and didn’t even glance at the Saintess. The next time she saw the Saintess’s shadow was when they were returning to the Holy Empire. Edelis, wrapped in Lehan’s arms, looked at the frustrated Saintess and couldn’t help but let out a sneering laugh. Yes, just like the Saintess had sneered at the Empress in the book.