Who Stole The Empress

***

Their eyes met, and they kissed as if drawn by a magnet. It was a natural act, no need to say who was first. 

With her lower lip still contained, Tamon sighed. This woman would never know how crazy these pale, purple eyes could drive him.

Looking at her alone, made him feel a burning thirst. His whole body twisted and turned, but it would never be as painful as this. Oh, if only it were as painful. 

An even bigger problem was the ecstasy that overwhelmed the suffering. The deathly joy and shivers paralyzed his rational mind. Tamon murmured, filled with lust. 

“I’m going to eat you up one day.”

Roselyn laughed snidely at the great threat. He licked the tops of her feet and ankles, biting her knees and fingers as if to send a warning. 

“Why don’t you just go ahead and eat me now?”

At his act of licking her like a starving beast, Roselyn couldn’t hold back her laughter and pushed him away.

 “No. I must save it.”

“What does it taste like?”

“Delicious. It’s very sweet and refreshing.”

 His lips bit the inside of her knees. She fell down on her back again. She didn’t have the strength to continue, she thought, but then she heard the sound of his lips grazing her skin and her heart was going crazy again. 

It was a wet sound. His lips, which had been kissing her ankles carefully as always, brushed the inside of her knees. Roselyn grabbed onto his shoulders more and more . 

“I need to get some sleep.”

“I’ll hold you while you’re sleeping.”

It was kind of unsettling to think that Tamon might actually do that. Roselyn sighed and pushed his shoulder away with the ankle that was caught by him.

 “Don’t say nonsense.”

 “I’m serious.”

 “Seriously, don’t say nonsense.”

 “That’s too bad.”

Tamon grabbed her ankle as she moved away and drove his teeth into it again. She tried not to laugh, but it came out again. 

She lay down with her head on Tamon’s fluffy sleeping bag. The sky was particularly dark, probably because it was just before dawn. 

And in that pitch black night, she could see the stars shining as if they were embroidered.

Even though she was not lying on an expensive bed, she felt more comfortable than ever.

Roughly worn clothes, dragonflies, the smell of wood and soil, Tamon’s heat…

Everything was unfamiliar, yet strangely comforting.

Was that why?

Her lips moved on their own.

“In hindsight, I might have some idea of why Gillotti hated me.”

As she began to whisper, Tamon turned his body to look at her.

“I’ve never once tried to understand him.”

Roselyn mumbled as she fixed her gaze somewhere in the void, not looking at Tamon.

“I already knew how he had been treated by his father. I also knew in my head that it had made him a demon. But ……………”

She had never thought of it as her own business.

She looked at the portrait of the previous Emperor, and the numerous emotions in Gillotti’s eyes.

She could read them, but she could not empathize with them.

It was an emotion she could not relate to.

She had never experienced the violence, the hunger, the comparison, the jealousy, the timing, the misery of poverty. It wasn’t something she had to experience, so she did her best to try to understand it in her head, but that was all she could do.

She was also never jealous of anyone.

It was more accurate to say she had never felt any big, deep emotions.

“That was it. I thought that the emotions he was going through were something he had to deal with. He was the emperor. As I pushed myself as Empress, so should he.”

“….”

“Maybe that’s why Gillotti hated me more.”

The look in her eyes as she looked at Gillotti was probably similar to the previous Emperor whom he hated so much. She didn’t blame him or accuse him, but she couldn’t quite understand his inability to do what he rightfully should have done. That was probably why her eyes were so cold.

“Are you going to understand him now?” 

Tamon asked in a very low voice. His brows were furrowed in a way that indicated he didn’t like something very much right now. Looking at him, Roselyn smiled and rubbed his forehead gently.

“I just thought so. It’s not a kind feeling of understanding or forgiveness. The same goes for his woman..”

“But, why do you say that?”

‘Because you have expanded my world.’

Roselyn’s throat tickled with those words that she just couldn’t get it out. The more she learned about what she didn’t know, the more she naturally understood the parts of the world she thought she would never understand. 

Gillotti and Natasha.

She didn’t want to forgive the two of them, but she felt that perhaps it was her ignorance that had caused the situation to reach this point.

She wondered if her sidelong glance, her heartlessness, her coldness, had fostered a hatred of inferiority in Gillotti… 

Tamon, who had been staring at Roselyn with a stiff face, sighed deeply.

He grabbed her cheek with his rough hand and made her look at him.

“You’re not at all at fault.”

Seemingly reading her mind, Tamon said in a decisive voice.

“As you said, Gillotti, he is nothing but a weakling who has failed to overcome what he should have overcome. You did not become the Empress to be his nanny or teacher. Not only that, but you were not willingly entrusted with the position. And…….”

The hand stroking Roselyn’s cheek was as soft as ever, despite the cold, calm words spitting out so quickly.

“You were very young then, too.”

“….”

“Once again, don’t be too hard on yourself. You did the best you could back then.”

The words she had thrown at him one day pushed him over the edge.

“You can’t love me.”

“No, don’t ever love me.”

“You can only hate him completely. Asha. Don’t try to understand him. But if you still feel like trying to understand him… Just put me in there.”

The words of the past became thorns and poked his heart.

His limbs went numb with a pain he had never experienced before.

“Think of me, understand me, feel me, put me in these two beautiful eyes. That alone will fill my heart with joy.” 

After all the revenge, Roselyn was going to end her life laughing over the dead bodies of her enemies.

She thought there were no regrets in this world where all the people she loved were gone. She was just going to finish all her unfinished obligations and go after them.

But why?

He seemed to be letting her know that she shouldn’t do that.

“…Why did you want to go to Tanatos, Tamon?”

“What do you mean?”

“Actually, you don’t have to help me this much.”

It didn’t matter if she was his engraving partner, she thought there was no reason for him to cling to him and cared about her business.

There was no reason for him to try to kill Gillotti with eyes more angry than hers, no reason for him to become her partner in this reckless rebellion.

“…”

Tamon fell silent for the first time.

His stiff face seemed to already have an answer to her question.

But he didn’t answer aloud.

Roselyn knew why.

“If the conditions that I told you at that time…” (Roselyn)

“If I told you I would revoke them, would you answer me now?” (Roselyn)

“The conditions……?” (*the conditions when they became the engraving partners was that Roselyn told Tamon don’t love her)

Tamon asked as if he didn’t know.

Roselyn was confused.

It was because she realized later what he was trying to say.

Why did she want to hear his answer when she already knew? What was she going to do if he told her himself?

“Asha.”

Seeming to have realized something, Tamon called out to her urgently.

Roselyn turned away from him, biting her open lips.

“It’s nothing.” (Roselyn)

“It’s not? I think you were about to say something very important just now. ………….” (Tamon)

“No, it’s not….”

Roselyn couldn’t bear to face him.

She turned away and stared at the fire with confusion in her eyes instead of looking at him. (*she has feelings for Tamon but in denial)

It was at that very moment that she saw a strange black dot in the land beyond the fire.

‘No way….’

Startled, she raised her head and looked beyond the fire.

Her shaking eyes hardened coldly.

The unusual expression on Roselyn’s face instantly changed Tamon’s face, who had been following her gaze, as well.

Ekkkkk.

At the same time, the black dot instantly expanded in volume and turned into a huge black portal.

The two got up and backed away.

Tamon, holding his sword quickly, pushed Roselyn behind him.

Grrrrrrrrrr!

The monster’s head appeared from an even larger hole.

“What is this all of a sudden—!”

It was a good thing they were wearing clothes. If they hadn’t, they would have been running away naked.

Roselyn quickly checked the position of the horses.

The horses, which were tied to a wooden post, began to get scared at the appearance of the giant monster stepping out of the black hole.

As if that were not enough, the horses were tied up behind the black hollow.

Roselyn gritted her teeth.

“That’s…!”

When the monster was fully revealed, Tamon had to admit that he was even more confused than before.

Green horns, three eyes, and a living, moving red tail.

“…It’s Perharz.”

That one word, said like a groan, made Roselyn’s face go pale.

Perharz.

In the history of the world, many monsters had come out from the black gap, but there were only two records of that green horns and red tail Perharz appearing.

And the two records were more disastrous than those left by any other monsters.

“D*mn it, does this make sense?”

It was so ridiculous that Tamon burst out laughing.