Dylan left.

But Charlize was soon surrounded by many people.

Because the imperial maids greeted Charlize eagerly.

Especially when Mary saw Charlize, she was very happy. A welcoming face.

The other maids, like Mary, were very fond of Charlize. Some even seemed to cry.

“It’s not a dream, right?”

“I missed you so much.”

“I missed you, Grandmaster. Sincerely.”

Mary cried from a little distance and came up to Charlize.

“Grandmaster.”

Mary came lightly as if she were throwing herself into Charlize’s arms. Charlize didn’t push her away.

In the first place, intimacy between people is not difficult.

Rather, knowing Mary, who never showed this much emotion. She could feel the sincerity that she would have missed more.

“Why did you come now?”

“Did you wait?”

“Yes. Yes.”

For this moment, Charlize’s mood softened. She felt as if her nerves, which had been pulled sharply and taut, had loosened a bit.

Dylan seemed to allow as much as the maids. Dylan is a monarch who rules perfectly even though he is not in his seat.

If she didn’t like being friendly with the maids, Mary wouldn’t be able to hug her.

“Sorry for being late.”

Actually, she wasn’t sorry. Charlize was sweet to Mary.

Charlize carefully raised her hand and patted Mary on the back. Mary burst into tears.

“Don’t cry.”

“Grandmaster…”

I missed you. Grandmaster. Why are you here now?

The voices of the maids were mixed together and headed for Charlize. Dylan might have cared a little as she left. She didn’t even think about the feelings of the maids left behind.

She felt weird.

Everyone was missing Charlize.

“I’ll guide you.”

Mary, who came to her senses first, bravely wiped away her tears with her sleeve.

Charlize nodded her head.

In front of the place where they arrived soon, the maids said.

“It’s the Empress Palace that the grandmaster will use in the future.”

“We organized it beautifully every day and cleaned it up. We hope you like it.”

Charlize was surprised. Empress Palace?

‘This is too much.’

Charlize tried to refuse, but she paused for a moment.

Dylan never kills people. But he showed Charlize the possibility.

He can do anything for his Master.

‘If I refuse.’

Someone is going to die. Maybe that’s why Dylan allowed the maids. Because he thinks it’s better to make weaknesses than isolation and confinement?

Charlize contemplated her thoughts calmly.

Interestingly, she hated it when the deposed Emperor did that. Since Dylan is doing it. She didn’t hate it.

Is it sympathy for the old lover who has changed so much?

No, actually. After Charlize returned, she felt more guilty about raising Dylan, who had been alone, into a tyrant.

‘It made him obsessed, jealous, and eventually crazy.’

She understood Dylan’s sense of betrayal. Knowing that she broke complete trust in the first place.

“…”

The maids became quiet at Charlize’s complicated face. The maids soon withdrew.

Charlize was left alone in the Empress’s room. She has been to Keira a few times.

The room was full of things that Charlize liked. Even the small items were all items that Charlize used and cherished.

‘Even the smallest things like this.’

Charlize looked a little dazed when she saw the sapphire earrings on the table.Is that all?

Even the colorful jewels embedded in the pen. All the familiar ones.

‘It was Dylan who made this.’

Dylan must have waited, carefully selecting only for Charlize’s taste.

One year. Two years. Continuously for three years.

Even though she can’t see him, she was overwhelmed by Dylan’s deep presence.

Not a single object was unmarked by Dylan. Even when she turns her head, it’s all emperor. It was only Dylan.

Charlize stayed still.

His possessiveness seems to be suffocating, but it’s also read with terrible love and hatred.

‘Love, is that such a great feeling?’

A consuming and destructive feeling that clears you up and clouds your rationality.

No matter how much you look at it, it’s close to self-contradiction.

Charlize had a complicated mind.

‘The Empress Palace has been assigned to me.’

Although the intentions seem blatant.

Contrary to Dylan’s wishes, Charlize could not become the Empress.

Let alone national marriage. She couldn’t be with Dylan forever.

The real piece of Ehyrit was said to be complete. It was also because Charlize was an evil god that even dyed Dylan black.

She had to stay away. That’s the way for Dylan. Because she doesn’t want to hurt Dylan.

‘Yeah, no wonder that Dylan doesn’t trust me.’

If Dylan hadn’t threatened her. Charlize would never have returned to the Empire.

But it wasn’t even completely harsh. Because she didn’t point a sword at Dylan.

Charlize raised her head.

‘That painting on the wall.’

It was a portrait that Dylan gave her as a present when they were lovers.

In the picture, Charlize was smiling softly.

Now, she soaked in that belief that must have been shattered. Her heart was heavy.

Still.

She can’t help it.

Charlize’s eyes shone slowly.

***

“Why are you still single, Young Duke?”

“I happened to…”

Kahu always answered a question he often hears like this.

He was already 25 years old.

It was a late celebration in the noble society, where weddings were held earlier than the coming-of-age ceremony. In response to that vague answer, those who asked the question remained silent with vague faces.

Because there were only two men in the Empire who heard this question.

Emperor Dylan I, who did not hang out with any woman even after Charlize left.

And Kahu.

“You still haven’t forgotten her?”

The butler, who knew Kahu’s heart best, often asked that question. He had never answered, but the butler remained silent with a familiar face.

For the past three years when Charlize left. It was Kahu, who refused all the offers of marriage that were pouring in.

Even if the Duchess comes and cries, asking why the exemplary son suddenly deviates. Somehow he didn’t want a political marriage.

No, because he couldn’t forget her.

Charlize Ronan.

The woman who came to the imperial palace office, asked about the return, and disappeared for three years. Kahu couldn’t forget her.

If he had known that the conversation would be the last, he should have held on to her more strongly, regretting it over and over.

Even Kahu didn’t know he could be this emotional. Is it because he was a fiance who promised to get married before the return? Did it mean that much?

He thought that it was not polite to get married with someone else in mind.

‘Above all.’

This empire is twisted.

Charlize left, and the empire that Kahu was concerned about unfolded.

Not everyone knew, but only Kahu knew. Of course, everyone was unconsciously afraid of the emperor. There has never been a time in all history when the imperial power was as strong as it is now.

Dylan reigned on top of everyone and destroyed tradition. Even the noble family, the founder of the country, was shaken by the emperor’s words.As before the return, the nobles obeyed Dylan perfectly.

History has been newly written.

The sudden disappearance of Charlize. A dramatic achievement due to the sudden appearance of the magic sword ‘Kiera’. They were all real events that happened in real life.

It was all erased and rewritten by Dylan’s will.

War broke out from time to time. In the end, only victories were repeated and the continents were united into one. Civil wars, wars against other countries that coexisted.

It was a turbulent time.

The man was a complete genius.

The knights were exalted by the infused spirit of victory, patriotism, and boiling praise.

Although everyone is hurting their mouths to support the wise king. This was the way to defeat, the tyrant’s method.

‘To everyone, there was no free will.’

The only allowed will is Dylan’s.

How is the capital leading hundreds of years ahead? Does it benefit everyone?

But Kahu also noticed.

‘Even at this moment when he became a tyrant, the man seems to maintain his rationale.’

The moment when Charlize cuts off more. She didn’t know how he would really change.

Because Dylan and Kahu had this conversation in the past.

“Young duke. If the bird you raised flew away in search of freedom.”

Dylan continued to talk.

“Is this the fault of the person who did not break the wings of the bird, the person who opened the cage door, or the person who made the cage?”

The bird’s escape. Dylan’s question hinted at his relationship with Charlize.

Looking down at the continent that has been united into one, with the face that was once a boy. Dylan was unusually calm and polite.

Kahu, who returned the sword for the emperor’s private meeting, was defenseless against the attack.

If he had spoken informally like a tyrant, he wouldn’t have remembered it so impressively. Rather, Dylan, who spoke softly, was more afraid for Kahu.

Even before regression and now. Dylan was the man who drove the most rumors and following talk in history. Dylan’s every move becomes a hot topic. It is recorded, studied, and analyzed.

There was no way for Kahu to know what the genius of the century thought and lived.

“I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault, Your Majesty.”

He just responded to Dylan. However, the emperor immediately denied it.

“…No.”

It was a moment when a cool smile permeated Dylan’s voice.

Dylan turned his head and firmly intertwined his gaze with Kahu.

A smiling but with a cold face.

Kahu felt an instinctive fear at the moment. It wasn’t because of the halo surrounding Dylan.

It was just more of an animal instinct and original reaction. He couldn’t breathe. He wanted to get down and obey right away.

He is not someone who can be treated on an equal footing. Although he was Kahu who grew up without envy in the status of a young duke, he felt the instinct of servitude flowing through his veins. His whole body stiffened.

“As much as the bird is willing to stick its neck out of the leash. It’s the fault of the person who failed to provide important value.”

What does this mean?

Dylan had a strange face.

If words had a form, then Dylan’s voice was a drop of blood.

‘Who started the fall?’

it would be Charlize.

Its origin is Charlize. If she touches Dylan again, what will happen to the Emperor?

It is only this time that.

‘Now, the world may collapse.’

Kahu realized. The end of destruction is the whole world that has eventually become a pile of dust.

Was that the intention of the continent united under the emperor?

Then Dylan suddenly asked. The masculine face was calm.

“Young duke, do you know about the Kiera Project?”

As if the tension so far was for this. Dylan asked.

This was the question that the emperor really wanted to ask.

For a very short time, it seemed that the world was moving so slowly that it made him dizzy. Kahu was shocked.

However, since this stopped at the unconscious stage, he answered very appropriately.

“I know, but I don’t really know. In detail, I…”

“Is that so?”

He must have been disappointed, but he carefully raised his head, but it was quite unexpected.

Because the emperor was smiling softly.

At that time, Kahu knew why. Dylan couldn’t shake off the feeling that he was satisfied by finding the answer.

***