Chapter 4

‘When will the Emperor come?’

Right after the marriage, Cecil was escorted to this golden room in the Imperial Palace and the servants surrounded her.

Then everything was in chaos. She took a bath, they changed her clothes, all for the sake of preparing her for the night. When she came to, Cecil realized she was left alone in a huge room. The room was bigger and more luxurious than any other room she had ever seen in Navidan Palace.

It wasn’t just extravagant. There was nothing here that wasn’t expensive like the bed which seems you can roll over for at least ten times, even the table, chair, and other ornaments that decorated the room.

The table on one side of the room was filled with a mountain of food, including liquor and fruits. One would think that they would serve 20 people in this room.

It felt nice to dress up beautifully, however, this is far too much. It’s as if a banquet would be held in here.

After scanning the room and confirming that she was completely alone, Cecil walked towards the fruit platter and took a piece from the exquisitely cut orange.

The cool juice spread in her mouth with sweet taste and fragrant aroma relaxing her nerves.

“…It’s delicious.”

When she lived in the separate building from the main palace, fruits were considered a luxury since they were only served during extravagant event.

Navidan country is known to have a poor climate, making fruits difficult to grow. So most of them were imported from other countries. For a fruit-loving person like Cecil, it was terribly unfortunate.

She once tried to grow fruit trees in the garden at a corner of the palace with the help of the maids, but the results weren’t good…

Of course, that didn’t mean she wasn’t able eat any. She had robbed the greenhouses of the main palace several times since she barely seen by anyone so no one would be able to recognize her.

Recalling the past, Cecil’s hand which had been grabbing pieces of fruit to eat for some time halted.

‘Don’t tell me I shouldn’t have eaten this first?’

Suddenly, the emperor’s face popped into her head. Along with that was a question she had forgotten while snacking on the fruit.

‘Why didn’t he kill me?’

As soon as the wedding ceremony ended, she was suddenly dragged away by the servants as she heard the furious cries of the aristocrats.

<Let’s wipe out the Navidan Kingdom!>

<I’ll depart right now! I’ll burn all of them without leaving a single ant alive!>

<No matter how much we asked for them to send someone, how dare they send such an outrageous woman!>

Cecil heard their protests and she was jumping in glee inside thinking, ‘Yes, that’s it! Get rid of me!’

After pondering for a long time as to why the emperor hasn’t ended her life right on the spot, she decided to head towards the bed and flopped onto the bed.

The mattress bounced a bit causing it to sway, and adding the soft beddings that touched her face, it made her feel so good.

‘Maybe being an Empress is worth it, after all.’

Once again, she took another bite of the fruit and as she was lying down on the clean, soft bed while laughing at that thought.

However, she really expected that he would just die even before the wedding.

Soon, Cecil’s face looked grim.

‘Still, now that it has come to this, what should I do?’

She’s already did those things. She doesn’t understand why the emperor didn’t kill her, but her fate has already been decided.

Cecil glanced on the table again. She could see several bottles beside the mountain of food. She made her way towards it and picked up a bottle; she could smell a deep and strong aroma.

‘I don’t know much about alcohol, but this must be expensive…!’

Certainly, it wasn’t just your run-of-the-mill wine, as it was submerged in ice inside a silver bucket.

Cecil poured herself some wine in silver cup and took sip.

“Kuah!”

It’s very strong drink. The moment she swallowed the wine, she could feel her esophagus burning.

“Wow, this is no joke.”

Cecil blinked, and suddenly, she could feel her head spinning.

And before she could take another sip of wine, heat spread throughout her body.

“Hmm?”

Cecil rubbed her eyes and stared at the blurry room. What’s with this drink? Is there any kind of alcohol that hits you immediately?

‘Normally, I would call this alcohol but isn’t this more like a drug…? Wait. Drug?’

Cecil observed the changes in her body. Her mind was becoming hazy, her body was feverish, and she was gasping for breath. She had heard a lot of drugs that exhibit similar symptoms like this.

Where was it? Oh, right. She read it from the books the palace maids brought to her.

One by one, the titles of the books ran through Cecil’s mind.

<A hot night>, <Forbidden Love is Always Sweet>, < A Little Song Bird’s Cry from a Lustful Caress>, etc.

They were all titles that could not be mentioned in public. In books like these, typically, it’s those kinds of stories where man and a woman sleep right away without having annoying narratives…

Cecil hurriedly threw the glass in her hand in fright.

“Is this an aphrodisiac?”

Aphrodisiacs. What kind of drug is that? It’s the kind of drugs that immediately sets the body and mind ablaze and makes one follow their instinctive desires. And it’s obviously, when we say ‘desires’, it means sexual desires.

“Those crazy people! What did they give me?!”

Curses flew out of her mouth by itself. She put her finger in her amount in an attempt to vomit the liquor she had drunk.

However, it was too late. Cecil could feel her strength being drained away.

‘No, this can’t…be…’

Cecil’s body staggered and fell on the bed. Her consciousness was starting to slip away and she wondered as to why she was here in the first place.

‘The Emperor… looked so damn fine…’

No matter how much she pondered about it, that was the only answer.

Somehow, she pitied herself.

So, what if he was good-looking? He resorted to using an aphrodisiac. Cecil’s eyes slowly closed as she continued thinking about it.

When she came to again, the world was shaking.

‘What’s this?’

What is this? What’s wrong with my body? Wait. Where am I?  What’s happening to me?

Fortunately, she recalled what had happened to her before she collapsed with a hazy mind. A curse came hurling out.

“Damn you, Emperor!”

“I often hear that however, it’s been a long time since someone said it in before my presence.”

“…Huh?”

Cecil snapped awake when she heard a voice. That beautiful face that she saw during the day was now staring at her.

His dark hair being illuminated by the lamp, seemed as if the it was a moving night sky, and his black eyes looked mysterious in the darkness, as if swimming in a deep ocean where the bottom can’t be seen.

He looked gorgeous in a bright room, and now that he’s in a dark one, he looked even better. Isn’t this cheating?

Cecil stared at him in a daze once again, she lowered her gaze without thinking and realize something.

“…What. Why are you completely naked?”

“No, I’m not. I’m still wearing my bottom.”

To his reply, Cecil felt the world spin just like when she closed her eyes earlier.

She doesn’t know when he arrived, but the emperor came up to the bed and undressed himself.

Maybe it was just her imagination, but next to her are the clothes of the emperor strewn all over the place. At that moment, the emperor picked up a scattered garment, crumpled it, and flung it out of the bed.

She could see it flying far away hitting and falling against the wall.

The emperor, with not much effort, ran his fingers through his neat hair sweeping it aside.

Cecil could still make out his figure even in a dazed state.

‘So you both have the looks and a great body.’

She set aside what was happening right now and enjoy the spectacular view unfurling before her eyes.

A tanned body with well-defined muscles. Cecil swallowed when she saw his muscles and the veins pop out on his arms as he threw away his clothes.

‘Ha, I didn’t know you have a splendid body like this.’

His figure was that of an ideal man usually depicted in the novels given by the maids that she had read before.

At that time, people often said that if a man has the looks, they don’t have a great body, and if they have a great body, they don’t have the looks. Then they would ask where in the world could they find a person who has them all.

‘Well, he’s right here!’

If only she could, she would drag this man and show him to the palace’s maids.

After staring at the emperor still with a foggy head, Cecil soon realized that there’s a real problem with this.

“Wait, why are you on top of me?”

It’s good that he’s naked and all, but why did he undress and came on top of her? He paused for a while before answering her question.

“So, you want me to be at the bottom? Is that how you like it?”

“No, that’s not it?”

“Then, what’s the problem?”

With that, Cecil started to voice out her thoughts.

“There seems to be a problem with the drink, I think someone drugged it with an aphrodisiac.”

The emperor’s face stiffened.

“An aphrodisiac?”

“Yes, that’s right. An aphrodisiac. Even if you’re not so confident about yourself, why would you resort to doing something like this? Those things are used by scum. I’m going to kill them all.”

She might have not died during the day, so this means he wants to kill her during the night.

Cecil didn’t hold back and continued speaking and thought that she might as well die right now.

“I’ve heard of a drug like that, but I never expected that the Emperor would use it.”

“Wait. I think there seems to be a misunderstanding here.”

“You don’t have to make any excuses. I hope I’m the only one who knows. Oh but, I’m sure that the servants know since they’re the ones who prepared it. Oh… then again, you know that doing this without consent is a crime, right?  The same goes for using aphrodisiacs.”

With her claims, the emperor stood up and made his way to the table. He examined the bottle Cecil had opened and asked,

“Did you drink this and thought it was drugged with aphrodisiac?”

“I know it’s not liquor. What kind of alcohol would make me this weak and my mind this hazy?”

“As you’ve said, it’s certainly not alcohol.”

That’s right. At this time, Cecil was about to throw some curses at him again in her head.

“This is a truth-serum.”

“…Huh?”

“It’s a truth-serum. A very potent one at that. Why would you do something so bothersome as to drink something you were supposed to use?”

Cecil was dumbfounded that it was a truth-serum instead. Why would someone bring something like that?

“The truth-serum… Don’t tell me it’s for me…?”

“That wasn’t my intention though.”

At that moment, the emperor narrowed his eyes.

After scanning the room for a while, he came to the bed and hovered over Cecil once again.

“Wha-what are you up to?”

“Let’s do something tonight.”

He answered flatly to Cecil’s surprise. The emperor’s hand grabbed onto her turning her around and holding onto her stiff shoulders.

“Aaahhh!”

Cecil screamed at the sudden shot of pain she felt on her muscles.

A few days ago, she had been busy preparing for today’s wedding. She was so tense and the pressure kept piling up until the day she reached the palace here in the Empire.

She could feel the stiffness of the muscles of her neck like she had fallen asleep the wrong way earlier after drinking the drug.

The emperor’s fingers pressed and massaged her muscles making her cry out. The emperor’s hands moved again.

“Ahh! Ouch! Sto—, Stop it!”

Cecil continued to moan thanks to the hands of the emperor who continued massaging her muscles without mercy.

After sometime, she wondered how did she suddenly get under the sheets. Cecil twisted and groaned in the sheets trying to avoid his hands.

“Ah, no! Not there! That’s enough. Ahhh!”

“Stay still.”

“No! Stop it!”

Every time the emperor’s hand pressed, a loud yelp would be heard. Soon, Cecil, after tearing up in pain, noticed something weird.

‘This actually feels really nice, doesn’t it?’

Certainly, it was painful at first when he massaged her muscle so hard, but after that, it felt nice…

Furthermore, her neck seems to feel good as well. After realizing this, Cecil stopped struggling and totally left herself in the hands of the emperor.

“Oh! There… there! Ah! Mo-more…….!”

A thought suddenly flashed in her head while she was struggling between the feeling of pain and pleasure.

In a dark room. Their first night of marriage. Bodies wrestling with each other under the bedsheets. Moaning sounds.

‘Wait a minute, if anyone were to hear this, this would be the perfect situation to create a misunderstanding, right…?’

And at that moment.