Chapter 1. Kill the Empress
***
Life after revenge.
Asha looked at the moon in the sky for a moment and then looked at Tamon.
What was this man like the first time she saw him?
Yes, that’s right.
He thought his eyes were straighter.
He seemed to be stubborn and decided that he was a man who did not easily reveal his inner feelings.
His tone was not frivolous, and he knew how to smile at the right time, and she felt that it would be difficult for her to change the atmosphere according to her own will whenever necessary.
All of that was an evaluation of ‘Tamon Krasis’.
They were meant to figure out how to deal with a man named Tamon Krasis.
He wasn’t an easy opponent, so she paid more attention and tried to find his weakness.
But now it was different.
She wanted to protect this man’s weakness.
No matter how strong a man he was, she wanted to prevent Tamon from getting hurt because of her.
It was comfortable to eat with him at the end of the day, and she enjoyed talking with him in response to his lame pranks and jokes.
Cold was always natural to her, but since meeting Tamon, warmth has become more natural.
She didn’t want to take the cold for granted anymore.
She hated living in tension all the time, and the speed of a cage where I had no choice but to grope for the type when she was thirsty for curiosity.
“I thought my world was over then.”
The time when she lost all her family and subordinates and was abandoned to rot in the cold.
At that time, she was caught in death and both hope and joy were cumbersome and uncomfortable.
“As if to thank you for saving me, I was going to end my life after revenge ended.”
“Asha!”
At her words of mentioning death again, Tamon called out her name, gritting his teeth.
Anger, sadness, and despair were intertwined in his desperate voice.
Asha smiled and shook her head.
“But not now.”
Tamon’s eyes narrowed as if doubting her words.
Asha spoke again in a slow, determined tone.
“I didn’t have any regrets back then, but now it’s different.”
“…”
“I have lingering feelings.”
The purple eyes that reflected the moonlight and shined brightly stared up at the sky again.
As she gazed at the still moonlight and smiled quietly, Tamon’s eyes seemed to burn.
Is this how it feels to look at the rising sunflowers while longing for the sun?
“Asha….”
He couldn’t figure out what he was longing for.
But one thing was certain, her eyes not looking at him made him suffocate.
As if wings would sprout from behind her crouched back, and she would fly away, far away, without showing any regrets.
Like a person who would run away, holding his breath and soul in both hands, leaving only his shell behind.
It felt so heartbreaking.
“Asha.”
When he called her name one more time, she turned and looked at him.
One day, she looked at him with the smile he had longed for.
That benevolent smile made Tamon anxious.
‘Why am I feeling this?’
His name was engraved in her heart, and Asha’s name was in his heart.
Even though it was engraved that they were each other’s only existence, they were thirsty enough to think it was strange.
Why is she doing this, why? why?
Because love was forbidden?
Because she gave up and showed a smile and laughter that was so rare to see? Because of the despair of not being able to contain a single word of ‘love’?
Tamon was led by Asha like a weak lamb led by fate.
He clasped her soft cheeks, fixed her gaze on him, and whispered in a tense voice.
“Tell me that’s me, Asha.”
A trembling sigh escaped Asha’s slightly gaping lips.
“Tell me that your lingering feeling is me.”
“Tamon.”
“I can be precious even if you don’t love me, right?”
A soft, cautious voice as if conciliatory, anxiously urged her.
“So, tell me it’s me.”
His lips rubbed hers and opened the gap and entered.
He pulled out his hidden tongue and tickled hers as if begging for an answer.
Perhaps because of the tongues that seemed to have become one, Asha could not utter a proper pronunciation.
As if to calm him down, she placed her hand on the back of Tamon’s hand that grabbed her cheek.
Asha, who was gasping for breath from the kiss, bit her lip and spoke heavily.
“I … ”
If she told him with those pretty lips that her lingering feeling for life was him, Tamon could take out his heart and offer it to her right now.
Hesitating because her cheeks were blushing and Tamon was biting her lips nervously so she couldn’t give him the answer he wanted.
Even though he saved her life at his will, if she could accept his foolishness and tell him he was the reason for her new life…
He would dedicate all the beautiful and precious things in this world to Asha.
If she wanted to, he would bring the most terrifying and heinous thing in the world.
Even if his body was destroyed and damaged over and over again, as long as she put him in the reason for her life with those pretty lips, he could do it all.
‘But what if?’
What if she doesn’t answer and pushes him away because he’s being terribly greedy?
Just thinking about it made his heart ache.
Ironically, Tamon realized anew that whether she wanted him or not, his heart was already hers.
“Thank you.”
Asha barely uttered those words in a whispering voice that wasn’t like her.
“But you’re not my lingering feeling. Rather you’re……”
She bit her lip as if looking for another word.
Her face flushed red, like an inexperienced student struggling to find an answer.
One second felt like eternity.
Tamon couldn’t stand the dizziness of that moment and swallowed Asha’s lips again.
Useful talent?
An obedient beast that doesn’t die even if she kills it?
If he was not the lingering feeling that made her want to live again, what was he?
Or, the general of an enemy country whom she still couldn’t understand what was inside…?
Tamon licked Asha’s sweet lips, thinking hard that it didn’t matter what he was to her.
The important thing was that Asha was by his side.
Because he just needed her.
“Tamon.”
“It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me.”
“…”
“You are mine, anyway.”
“….”
“Whatever I am to you. Asha, you are my imprinter. That’s enough.”
Tamon hugged her as if to crumble her and filled his heart.
It was said that love turned a man into a coward.
The weakness he didn’t know made fun of him.
But it didn’t matter.
Even though his love was so cowardly and difficult, he will embrace it until the end.
***
“Send a pigeon to the Krasis’s residence. If the need arises, stand by at a distance where they can reach Tanatos’ main castle within a day.”
“All right. I will tell them to leave immediately.”
The next day, even before sunrise, Tamon gathered the Platanus knights and formed a line.
In Tanatos’s July festival, he was able to bring only one Order in the name of Amor’s General of Foreign Affairs.
It was the same with Theoransha, who would come separately.
She would also be able to bring only the Knights of Barnes.
In any case, since they came separately, the two Orders of Amor were able to enter legally.
Although they were the two most powerful Orders in Amor, if an event that could shake the situation of a country occurred, two Orders would not be enough.
Theo will also secretly deploy her own personnel at the border.
No, she might have persuaded Tanatos’ neighboring countries to come.
Whatever it was, it wouldn’t be a bad thing to have enough reserve forces.
It would be best to end it with the purge without a major war as much as possible.
“Are you ready for departure? Let’s leave as soon as the sun rises. When the work is done, I won’t let you be disappointed with the reward you want.”
“Woo!”
At Tamon’s last words, the members of the Platanus knights cheered and scattered at once.
As long as they finished this schedule as soon as possible, a reward awaited.
Since he was not a cheap owner, they seemed to be looking forward to the rewards.
Jorge was the only one left in the small conference room where everyone had left.
Tamon put on a thin robe and glanced at Jorge.
“Why, your face has something you want to say, what is it?”
“You know, Captain.”
As if waiting for the right time, Jorge opened his mouth.
Jorge followed closely behind Tamon, who left the meeting room. Even though he asked, he showed no interest.
“I really don’t understand.”
“What?”
“Why are you doing this?”
At Jorge’s words, Tamon glanced down at him and grinned.
“I can’t understand myself either, so who do you think you are to understand me?”
“Look! The captain doesn’t understand yourself, so why are you doing this, really?”
It was also Tamon who jumped into the sea and saved the children.
He rescued the children and brought them back and lost an arm. Jorge only later found out that it was all for Aranrosia.
That was why he couldn’t understand the captain at all.
Who the hell was Aranrosia, and what kind of existence was it that his master sacrificed so much for?
“You said you would reward us at the end of this journey, right? Then….. After all this is over, what does the captain get?”
At the question that seemed frustrated, Tamon looked at Asha, who was rushing to prepare for departure. At the end of this journey, he thought he would have Asha entirely, but now it didn’t seem possible.
‘Then, should I just break those wings?’
So she could only look at him. Only think of him.
Tamon smiled bitterly and shook his head.
He hated himself for thinking that he wanted to break the wings again after giving them to her.
Since when did he become such a naive man?
Tamon, who swept his complicated head, slapped Jorge in the back of the head for nothing.
“Don’t ask useless questions, do your job well. Go and help them with their luggage.”
It was quite painful, so Jorge grabbed the back of his head and disappeared. Tamon shook his head and looked at Asha again.
As if she had already discovered him, she was also looking at Tamon.
Purple eyes looking straight at him, a smile hanging faintly as if relieved.
Perhaps, what he will get would not be a visible reward.
Perhaps a small space in Asha’s heart after she shook off her lingering affection for Tanatos.
The vacancy that once contained her hatred and revenge, which would remain like scraps, would be the reward for him.
Unbeknownst to Asha herself, Tamon was planning to fill her gaps tightly. So, let Asha’s life be filled with only him.
“Tamon!”
“Asha.”
Tamon, as always, walked straight towards her with a smile after he had wiped away his filthy obsession and desperate possessiveness.