“Is it because of what happened a few days ago that you’re doing this?”

Seira smiled at him with a firm expression.

“No way. Of course, I’m sorry about that day.”

“You’re sorry…”

His low recounting gaze slid downwards. After staying a long on her thin neck that Louis had grabbed on to a while ago, he slowly closed his eyes and then opened them.

“You must think of me as a very, very funny joke.”

Unlike his voice, which was cold enough to make her shiver, his touch that brushed her ears was soft. He tucked over a few strands of hair behind her ear and covered her cold cheeks with his palm.

“Didn’t the time you spent with me, the promise you made, mean nothing at all?”

His behavior was so natural it was enough to mistake the years from their break-up to the present for a day’s dream.

“It’s all over. Seven years has long since passed…” Seira whispered.

“Yeah, like seven years ago.”

Cutting her off, he spat the words as if he was tired of chewing at them for a long time.

“You didn’t show me your face even once. After I tried everything, you didn’t even look at me as if I was completely nonexistent and cut off from your life.”

Seira clenched her teeth so as not to frown. His words sounded as if all the hardships he gave to Askan were a means to call her before him.

By this point, Seira couldn’t understand.

“Why? What’s left between us but hatred?”

“Do you ask because you don’t know? Of course I believed you’d come back to me one day.”

Seira couldn’t help but to laugh at his words.

“Your Majesty must have thought I would give up Askan after all.”

She had struggled with all her might and lived as a family head of Askan, but it seemed to be trivial in his eyes. Was the time she spent struggling in fear, sadness, and pain just looked like trivial whining and rebellion to him?

“I thought you couldn’t let go of me, just like I did. That’s how special we are to each other,” Calrad said.

“I don’t think that special relationship is because we spent a night together.”

Calrad’s blue eyes shook at the words she uttered out of frustration.

‘What, is he being serious?’ she thought at the back of her mind.

It was amazing that the owner of the empire was this naive.

‘No, he must be pretending.’

Seira shook her head and said firmly.

“None of the Viseltium nobles gets married for allowing them to be first.”

It was a fact of course. An Alpha and Omega were in full swing every month. Before welcoming a companion, one had to find a partner and have a relationship until one found a partner to spend the rest of their life with. If not, one had no choice but to rely solely on repressive drugs.

“Even if it’s not necessarily because of that, we’ve been engaged for eight years. I watched you grow up. When you cried, I carried you on my back and if you were sleepy, I hugged you and put you to sleep. Like all your firsts were me, all my firsts were yours. Even the day you started your first period, I was your…”

“Stop!”

Seira took a step back, swatting his hand off that was touching her cheek.

“Stop talking nonsense.”

She shouldn’t talk to the owner of the empire in this way, but Calrad seemed to forget that he was the emperor in the first place.

“It’s all over already. Do you think I stayed quietly at the palace because I loved you? I just needed someone to take care of me when I was young.”

His brows twisted by her cold words.

“That’s enough,” Seira whispered, “You don’t need to say more.”

“No.”

But Seira never stopped talking.

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty, I’m happier now than the time I spent at the palace. I am not going back.”

“You won’t last long anyway! Wandering through a rough battlefield with an Omega’s body like yours, torn and badly injured. So what has changed? Askan is still nothing but devastation!”

“Even so, the place where I fall will not be in your arms.”

At Seira’s words, there was a chilling silence that hung heavy in the air between them.

His veins were blue on his chin as he clenched his teeth while he looked down at her. Unlike a few days ago, his pheromone was completely in control, and he showed no excessive excitement.

However, Seira did not know that he was actually angrier than ever. For his blue eyes, staring at her piercingly, were seething with coldness that dropped by the second.

How long has it been?

“Seira.”

In a monotonous voice, as if to clear all the emotions, he spoke her name again.

“Seira… Seira Ewin Askan.”

Seira stiffened as his mouth uttered her full name. Calrad was the only one who knew her hidden name. As both her parents and the late Emperor and Empress, who signed the marriage agreement on behalf of their young children, died already.

“I left you alone because I thought you would eventually come back to me.”

His words were self-deprecation. He seemed to dwell on the foolishness of the past.

“But if that’s not the case…”

He tilted his head, talking to himself in a low voice, “Yeah. It was a bad decision from the beginning.”

“Your Majesty.”

Seira took a step back, preparing to use her power if he made any unexpected moves on her.

“Where are you going?”

His eyes, which were facing her way, clearly captured her reflection with their deep blues.

“I’ve decided, Seira. I will not allow you freedom now.”