CH 182

Lloyd lifted his eyelids as she stared at him, unable to wake him up. It seemed that her gaze was too tenacious.

“You can’t sleep?”

Lloyd asked in a low voice. There was no sleepiness in his eyes.

He frowned as if his eyes were too dazzled by her, stretched out his arms and hugged her tightly.

“Sleep more.”

You’re tired. Lloyd pressed his lips like a stamp over her head, then lifted them off and whispered.

“Or, would you like me to put you to sleep?”

Aria tried to nod her head unknowingly, then paused and narrowed her eyes.

“Lloyd must have said that at dawn too…”

She still vividly remembered how Lloyd said he would put her to sleep but made it harder to fall asleep.

She remembered frantically being carried away by him, drunk with pleasure.

She was tired, as Lloyd said. It felt like she had been to heaven and hell countless times.

“That’s why you fell asleep.”

She was asleep. But rather, it’s like being exhausted and fainted. Aria looked at him and made a sullen look.

“I slept well because of Lloyd?”

“Would you like some more?”

“Then I’ll die…”

Even if it wasn’t for the strange dream, her whole body was so overworked enough to fall asleep through one day.

‘So I just had a nightmare?’

After waking up from her dream, she checked again and Lloyd was the same as usual.

Sweet and kind. His emotions were always melting hot. So the person she saw in her dream felt indescribably strange.

‘It wasn’t that he got angry. He pushed me like I was someone else.’

Like he was pushed to the brink, his reason doesn’t exist anymore. There was no way Aria would leave his side without a word in the first place.

‘Nonsense dream?’

It was embarrassing, so she just wanted to forget it.

But it was so vivid.

And to pass it on as a nonsense dream, isn’t there already a time when this happened too? On the night when the gutter rat was completely defeated.

‘It was Lloyd’s dream back then.’

He once had a dream that seemed to hint at the Valentine’s Incident. He could call it a dream come true. Because he didn’t know the future like Aria did.

‘Then, is this a warning to me too?’

Someday in the future, Aria might run away in tears, and Lloyd might catch her and spat out those menacing words.

‘No way.’

Aria placed her own hand on Lloyd’s lips as he approached to kiss her. Then he curled his eyebrows in dissatisfaction, but soon closed his eyes and kissed Aria’s palm deeply.

‘It’s absurd, but if…….’

If Aria wants to leave Lloyd’s side, there will be only one reason. When she decides that Lloyd will be in danger if she stays with her.

‘If it was that amount of risk, I would have taken it.’

Aria and Lloyd have already gone through countless crises. Even so, to choose to leave while ignoring Lloyd’s earnest request to stay by his side…….

‘It’s impossible unless there is some kind of crisis.’

Were they facing such a crisis? A crisis worse than the Valentine’s Incident or Lloyd’s rampage?

Aria’s expression seriously hardened.

Then, as Lloyd looked down at her hand, he looked puzzled, raised his hand and placed it on her forehead.

“I think you have a fever.”

Aria blinked her eyes for a moment, and responded without much emotion. It’s been a while, but in the beginning, she would experience frequent minor illnesses.

“It will be better if I rest well.”

Aria replied indifferently, thinking to reassure Lloyd.

At that moment.

As the tip of her nose was tingling, she suddenly noticed that it was dripping with blood.

“Ah.”

It was a nosebleed.

As she gazed down puzzledly as her blood soaked the blanket, her head suddenly began to spin.

“Llo, Lloy…”

Before Aria could finish her words, her body collapsed down.

“Singing?”

Natalie visited the Emperor’s bedroom and raised her eyebrows. Then the gatekeeper, who was at the end of her gaze, said with a flustered look.

“Actually, it seems that His Majesty has been looking for young and beautiful women lately…”

Women? Natalie didn’t care who the Emperor was playing with. But if he abandoned his affairs and listened to singing all day long, that is a different matter.

‘Is the Emperor really ***ing crazy?’ the question was welling up to the tip of her throat, but she struggled to swallow it.

She was eventually given permission to come in.

“Your Majesty, have you…”

Been well, before the words were even spoken. Natalie lost her words.

It was because she had lost her gaze to a beautiful woman who was trapped in a cage.

‘What else is that?’

The Emperor’s strange behavior astonished the Princess once again.

The slave trade in the Fineta Empire was very secretive. Even the nobles were reluctant to show off slaves in such an exposed place.

“I’m done with greetings. By the way, Natalie.”

“Ah, well, yes.”

The Princess answered tremblingly while still fixing her gaze on the cage.

“What do you think?”

The Emperor, Conrad III, crossed his arms in appreciation, pointing to the cage and asked.

What the hell was she supposed to think?

‘Brother, are you really crazy?’

Or does he want her to hide behind him and be just moderately crazy so that she can enjoy the rest of her life leisurely?

Perhaps he didn’t want an answer while asking that question in the first place, he continued.

“They say she’s a Siren. Doesn’t her song exude admiration?”

Siren. She’d heard rumors that such a thing is popular these days.

A heavenly race that does magic through songs or something. Contrary to the fact that the name of the tribe was clearly derived from a monster, there were even rumors that they were actually a descendant of angels.

“Thanks to her, my insomnia seems to be getting better little by little. I haven’t heard any strange voices lately.”

“Is that so?”

Natalie nodded bitterly. She didn’t have the sensibility enough to enjoy arts in the first place.

But it was a really good song.

As she listened to it, she was moved, she wanted to listen to it more, and she was getting more possessed. At the same time, she had a feeling that it would be really dangerous if she continued to listen.

“That’s enough singing.”

Natalie flatly refused and brought her point.

“Why don’t you take her to the office together?”

“What? Such a terrible thing to say. That song is for me. Only, only me.”

“It’s really creepy… Anyway, please stop and go see the affairs. Since this meeting is attended by envoys from other countries, the aide cried and asked me to tell you that if you don’t attend, the damage will be severe.”

“Ah, the meeting. Yes, I have to go.”

Conrad III’s voice seemed to be half lost in his hazy eyes. And he finally lifted his heavy butt off the bed.

“Ugh!”

He fell down quickly. Then he touched his forehead, perhaps his head was throbbing.

“Are you okay?”

Hearing Natalie’s worries, the Emperor fell into deep confusion.

The moment he was about to leave Siren’s side, he felt like he was waking up from a sweet medicine.

The headache that haunted him returned.

“You will die. In endless pain.”

“You will be destroyed.”

It felt like a terrible hallucination came by. No, it was obvious.

The moment he was engulfed by the fear that grew in an instant, he started sweating and lost his breath. His whole body was trembling.

The Emperor, who went white with fear, stuttered.

“No, no. Go away!”

“What?”

He seemed to have come to his senses for a moment and after trembling for a moment, he spoke as if he was being chased.

“Natalie, my condition seems to have gotten worse, so I need you to attend as a proxy. I can’t go.”

“Do you think that makes sense?”

As Natalie asked back sternly, the Emperor raised his voice abruptly.

“You dare to disobey me!”

“……”

“Come, come on. Siren. Your fantastic singing voice. Don’t stop, come on!”

He was really like a lunatic.

He mumbled something she can’t understand, and then suddenly got angry and shouted for her to leave?

Natalie was eventually forced to leave the room at his will.

“How, how is he?”

When she came out of the bedroom, the Emperor’s aide, who had come in advance and was waiting, asked her.

Marquis Montes.

Montes was a family with a long history that was loyal to the Emperor from generation to generation enough to be called the dog of the imperial family.

“He told me to go instead.”

“Ha. What is that……”

After grabbing the back of his neck, he seemed to want to fall, but he didn’t.

Because it was his responsibility to take care of the future matters. He can’t expect much from the recently insane Emperor and the long-time rumored ignorant Princess, so now the fate of the empire was in his hands.

“I can’t help it. I’ll be right next to you, so you can just sit down prettily.”

Then, after a moment of thought, Natalie held out her hand.

“The document.

“What?”

“Give me all the documents that have come up for His Majesty today. I will decide everything.”

The affairs that the Emperor abandoned. She was willing to look into it instead.