“Your Majesty…?”
Maybe it was because I recognized his face, but the moment I saw the Emperor, tears of relief unexpectedly burst from my eyes.
But his appearance was strange.
He was covered in blood and had an unfamiliar face I had never seen before.
“Are… are you hurt? Is all this… blood yours, Your Majesty?”
“…Why are you here?”
That one sentence made me feel small.
If I hadn’t come here, if I had been a little smarter and considered Prince Charniche’s words more carefully, perhaps Perry wouldn’t have ended up in danger.
That regret kept swirling in my heart.
Then, as if the sky had cracked open, the rain poured down harder, the downpour becoming fiercer.
It was a violent, torrential rain.
“We’ll discuss the reason later. For now, we need to find a place to shelter from the rain.”
“No, we must go rescue Perry! Maybe… really…”
The unpleasant thoughts that had been troubling my mind for some time kept trying to manifest in reality.
I was trying to bring the Emperor with me, but a calm voice stopped me.
“Where to?”
“That is…”
I couldn’t even remember where I had come from at this point.
The deep forest all looked the same, making it hard to distinguish directions.
I had just run to wherever my feet took me.
“I… don’t remember.”
At the sound of my teary voice, the Emperor let out a soft sigh.
“Wandering the forest aimlessly in this weather is no different than asking to die. Let’s at least shelter from the rain until it stops.”
Though I wanted to insist, the exhaustion on the Emperor’s face was clear.
He must have gone through a lot that I didn’t know about.
I didn’t want to burden him further in this situation.
“…Alright. But once the weather clears, will you help me find Perry? Is that alright…?”
“Sure, we’ll do that.”
I found solace in his simple response, and together we searched for shelter from the rain.
But suitable places didn’t seem to appear.
Even standing under a tree with dense leaves, raindrops still trickled through the gaps.
The dress I was wearing became drenched, heavy, and cumbersome.
After wandering for a while, we finally found a secluded cave.
It was deep and wide inside, and fortunately, no other beasts seemed to be around.
I crouched down in the cave with the Emperor.
Just as I was about to catch my breath, he asked me.
“Now, explain. What exactly happened?”
Immediately, words from Prince Charniche and the strange things he had said rushed to my mind.
I explained everything—how people had suddenly attacked after his words, and how masked figures had pursued Perry and me.
“That’s why… I had no choice but to leave Perry behind.”
Feelings of helplessness and anger towards myself surged up, like a great storm crashing down.
But then, unexpectedly, I heard a compliment.
“You did well.”
“Did you just say I did well? Because of me, Perry…”
“You must have told him. If something becomes too much or too dangerous, it’s fine to mess things up and leave.”
The way he looked at me was strangely warm.
I never thought this man would look at me with such tender eyes.
“But…”
“If you need someone to blame, then blame me. It was I who ordered Perry to protect you, and it was I who told him to escape like that.”
His sudden tenderness, coming out of nowhere, made my heart waver helplessly.
It seemed like I was completely immune to this side of him.
Feeling strangely on the verge of tears, I turned my gaze away and desperately tried to think of another topic to talk about.
“Wha-what happened to you, Your Majesty?”
“The wild animals attacked the humans.”
The image of those rampaging creatures flashed in my mind.
Even swinging a sword, they didn’t fall easily.
Could it be that all the beasts in this forest had suddenly changed like that?
“So… it’s not just Perry I should worry about, but everyone in the forest, isn’t it?”
“I sent Walton, so a search party should be coming soon. If they’ve survived until now, they should be rescued soon.”
The cruel premise made my heart ache.
Ordinary nobles couldn’t possibly be as strong as the Emperor or the royal knights.
“Do you think this is really… the work of the Duchess?”
“Probably.”
“Then we must hold her accountable. How many innocent people might have been sacrificed by now…”
“But she’s probably already framed someone else for it.”
“Pardon? Then what do we do?”
I looked at the Emperor in shock, and he added, as if reassuring me not to worry.
“If it’s confirmed that it was her doing, we can always make up a charge. But before that, we need to deal with this situation first.”
“…I hope no one gets hurt too badly.”
I sighed deeply, and his indifferent voice followed.
“And you don’t need to worry about Perry.”
“…Why? The person Ferry was facing looked dangerous just by looking at them. They were using strange powers.”
The Emperor chuckled softly.
I couldn’t understand how he could laugh in such a situation.
“I’m not just saying this. Perry is strong. I didn’t just have him stay by your side for nothing.”
When I still looked unconvinced, he added more explanation.
“Of course, in terms of brute force, he might not be able to win. But if he goes in with the resolve to kill his opponent, he’ll succeed no matter what.”
“But he kept losing when he fought with Sir Veratri…?”
“That’s because Perry didn’t go into the fight with the intention to kill Veratri. In fact, Perry once gave Veratri a fatal wound.”
He gave Veratri a fatal wound?
I couldn’t believe it.
“Really? How did that happen?”
“You’ll have to ask him directly.She’ll explain it to you.”
With his casual response, the anxiety that had been tormenting me suddenly dissipated.
When I met Perry again, she would probably explain with a confident smile how magnificently she had subdued her opponent.
Just imagining that made me feel a sense of relief.
“…Yes, Your Majesty is right. I’ll ask her when I see her.”
After that, I waited for the rain to stop, watching outside the cave, but the heavy downpour still continued.
At some point, I started feeling cold and shivering.
The Emperor placed his hand on my cheek, and then his face stiffened.
“When did you get so cold?”
“Really? I just thought it was a bit chilly…”
“You should have told me if you weren’t feeling well. Don’t just stubbornly endure it.”
His words of reprimand were brief, but suddenly, the Emperor started removing his clothes.
I couldn’t help but scream at the unexpected action.
“Ahh! Why are you suddenly taking off your clothes…!”
“To raise your body temperature, we need to take off the wet clothes first. Since there’s nothing to cover you with, we’ll just have to stay close and share body heat.”
For a moment, I imagined myself in his arms.
I couldn’t bear to do something so embarrassing while still in my right mind.
“No, you can’t…!”
“We’ve already seen everything, so what’s the problem now?”
“It’s different now! Cuddling like this, naked, is something only lovers would do!”
At that moment, the Emperor’s face changed oddly.
He looked both surprised and embarrassed.
“…We can just back-to-back each other, right?”
“Ah…?”
Only then did I realize that I had misinterpreted my pure intentions in a sinful way.
It felt like heat suddenly surged up my face.
“Well, if that’s the case, then there’s no problem…!”
At that moment, a playful laugh was heard.
“Now I see, you wanted something else, didn’t you?”
“Not at all! Uh, let’s just do as you said!”
I turned my body and began removing the dress I was wearing, layer by layer.
It was hard to take off because it was wet.
But I couldn’t just sit there without anything on, so I remained in my underwear and pressed my body against the Emperor’s back.
The Emperor was also only wearing drawers, so there was no difference between us.
Although we weren’t completely bare, being like this made it feel as if our bodies were melting from the heat.
‘It’s starting to feel a bit warmer, maybe?’
The next problem was finding something to break this heavy silence.
Since I didn’t have any normal conversations with him usually, I didn’t know what to say in moments like this.
At that moment, I noticed the first failed experiment, which had returned looking all dirty and rough, as if it had been rolling on the dirt.
“Why is it like that?”
It had been so soft and white like wool when I had handed it to him, but now it looked like a mess, which made me a little sad.
“Please don’t tell me you stepped on it because you didn’t like it?”
“…What kind of trash do you think I am?”
“Well, considering how you usually behave…”
I was about to say more, but I felt like I was about to cross a line that shouldn’t be crossed.
Life is precious.
“If you look at my behavior… you could never think that. I must have misspoken.”
The Emperor let out a hollow laugh at my sudden change in attitude and added:
“…That wasn’t me.”
“Then who was it?”
“A bear came and stepped on it.”
It would have been easier to accept if he had just honestly said he didn’t like it and stepped on it, but that pathetic excuse made me feel worse.
‘Poor number one…’
At least the cloth doll made for Sir Kerif was much cuter and more lovable, so that was a relief.
As I was pondering the next conversation topic, the Emperor’s breathing grew increasingly rough.
“Why are you like this all of a sudden?”
“…Don’t worry about it.”
From the sound of his voice, I could sense suppressed pain.
A possibility I hadn’t considered before flashed through my mind.
‘Could it be that he has an injury I don’t know about?’
If he was covered in that much blood, it must have been a serious battle.
Recently, he had been exhausted, so it was likely that he couldn’t perform at his usual level.
“Let me see. Did you get hurt…? Why didn’t you say anything sooner…!”
But what caught my eye wasn’t an injury at all.
It was the man’s symbol, towering like a huge mushroom toward the sky.
“Ugh, meh…!”