Chapter 1. Kill the Empress
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Roselyn looked around with cautious eyes. Her body was heavy, either from being wet or from lack of energy.
“… Where am I?”
A raspy voice came out from her scratchy throat.
“My bathroom.”
‘Bathroom.’
With that one word, Roselyn’s mind spontaneously remembered Amor’s custom. A country where water was abundant, heat was plentiful and all the people enjoyed bathing. The ecology of Tanatos and Amor was completely different, and they formed different cultures. Bathing was a luxury in Tanatos.
There was no shortage of water due to heavy snowfall, but there was a lot of energy that went into heating the water, and filling the tube with hot water was one of the most luxurious activities.
An extravagant pastime enjoyed by royalty or high-ranking nobles.
Roselyn looked around the bathroom, which she was missing, forgetting the situation for a moment.
The water with the right temperature filled the large bathtub which was large enough for 10 men of Tamon’s size, still, it would have plenty of space.
The aroma that filled the interior also relaxed the body and soul.
A much more vivid sense of reality pierced her than when she had just looked at the entrance of the mansion with vaguely open eyes earlier.
‘I’m really ……… here in Amor?’
It was an unfamiliar climate, an unfamiliar place, an unfamiliar landscape…..
Roselyn suddenly came to her senses. No, it was more true that she suddenly remembered her true reality.
A terrible scene flashed before her eyes.
People were dying and dying again.
Someone had their hands and feet cut off, someone had lost their eyes and tongues.
Someone crawled on the floor in front of her, pleading with her to kill them.
They were all Roselyn’s people.
People who obeyed her and loved her….
The purple eyes that had been boiling had sunk once more. Cold eyes filled with sadness, anger, and emptiness stared at Tamon, who had forced her back to life.
Tamon was staring at her too.
Looking into his red eyes, Roselyn couldn’t help but be curious.
What was his purpose?
Why in the world did he hide her and bring her here?
Most importantly, why did he bring her back from the brink of death?
And how she went from a tattered state to such a fine state without seeing any healers or taking any medicine.
‘What am I doing to myself? It’s just a curiosity that doesn’t need anything anyway.’
The question boiled over and quickly cooled.
“Oh, …… why do you have that deathly look in your eyes again?”
Tamon mumbled, the edges of his eyebrows lifting lazily in disapproval. Yet, the edge of his mouth was slightly raised in a smile.
It was hard to tell if he was smiling or frowning.
Tamon Krasis.
He was always like that.
He was the kind of person who could make a scowl in an advantageous situation and smile with ease in a disadvantageous one.
So it was always difficult to read his expression.
But then again, that was the difficulty when you wanted something from him.
Roselyn didn’t want anything from Tamon.
She just wanted to die.
To go after the people she loved and apologize to them.
To atone for her inability to protect them properly.
And to get out of this painful life.
That was the only thing she wanted to do.
But Tamon was standing in her way.
Roselyn narrowed her eyes and stared at Tamon.
The heat in the bathroom stood between them like a hindrance.
Roselyn’s gaze slid over his shoulder to take a quick look at his clothing on the tub railing. A glinting weapon was visible.
She quickly lowered her eyes so that Tamon wouldn’t notice her intentions. Then she looked up with a small sigh.
“You made the wrong choice.”
Because Tamon was holding Roselyn’s waist, the distance between them was too close together. Her muffled voice was powerless. Tamon lowered his voice to match hers.
“‘I will decide if my choice is right or wrong.”
‘….arrogant.’
He was a good talker anyway.
Roselyn snarled at him in her mind without saying a word. His gaze was too close. Roselyn subtly changed direction, pushing him with her powerless hand.
Trying to turn her back to the other side……
Then she took a few cautious steps backwards under pressure that he was too close to her.
Tamon didn’t take his eyes off Roselyn for a second.
It was a difficult situation.
He was still too close.
She wasn’t energetic, and she wasn’t fast. At such a close distance, he must have caught her at once.
A little nervous, Roselyn bit her lower lip.
Tamon’s gaze touched her red lips, where all the crack and dry skin were all gone and now had new flesh on them. She gulped involuntarily.
She could feel his gaze moving from her lips to her neck and along her thin collarbone.
Tamon was by no means irascible.
His gaze did the same over and over. He stared at her lips, her neck, her collarbone, but then he looked into her eyes again. He smiled spontaneously, and licked his lips.
Roselyn’s face flushed even though he hadn’t done anything.
All he did was licking his lips and smiled spontaneously, but it felt like he was reaching out, grabbing and touching her.
He was truly a debaucherous man. A subtle sense of danger tightened around her that she didn’t feel when she saw him at the spacious table in the huge banquet hall. Roselyn backed away spontaneously.
“What is your purpose of bringing me here?”
“Purpose?”
Tamon asked back, slowly savoring her with his eyes.
The droplets of water that had collected on her chin fell. Her clothes were too thin and wet, showing nakedly where the water droplets had soaked into them.
Tamon’s gaze followed the droplet as it fell down the tub.
Goosebumps broke out inside her thin fabric that was sticking to her skin. A lovely drift rose up to show off her figure.
Tamon wanted her openly. Then his eyes narrowed and he licked his tongue.
Roselyn felt a rare sense of shame. She opened her shoulders wider, trying to not to shrink. She couldn’t help the reddening cheeks and earlobes, but that didn’t mean she was shy. She was in his eyes.
She glared at him with even more force.
“I didn’t expect Tamon of Amor could brighten up so much at the sight of a woman.”
He wasn’t fazed at all. Rather, he smiled as if he was glad to hear her sharp voice.
“Yes. I guess I didn’t know either….that I’m the kind of guy who would lust after the empress of an enemy country.”
He said as he looked at her as if he was chewing on her.
Roselyn had a thin, flabby body.
Even her slender waist was too thin. Nor did she have the voluptuousness of many women who boasted of their attractiveness to men.
In her appearance, she was as frail as a fawn.
Of course, if she bared her teeth, she had the steepest teeth of them all, but at least those big, beautiful purple eyes were seemingly harmless.
Tamon liked it.
There was no weakness to be found. He didn’t like the idea of women wobbling around, depending on others to hold on to life or live off of.
She had to be at least a little venomous.
That’s exactly what he saw in her.
Tamon looked Roselyn over thoroughly. Licking her with his eyes was more accurate. He looked like he was about to jump on her and bite her neck.
Roselyn stepped back once more, just enough to shrivel up.
Just a little more to go.
Roselyn was wary of him, trying not to be aware of the consequences.
There was also a sense of wonder.
What was with her shabby body, and why was this man drooling as if he was in front of such delicious looking food?
No one had ever looked at Roselyn with such a profane and lecherous gaze before.
No man had ever made eye contact with her and smiled so openly.
It was the first time someone had ever stared at her in such a strange or amused way.
“If you need a woman, find someone else. The women who want you must be plenty.”
“Of course. But those women aren’t you.”
Roselyn gasped.
“That sounds as if I’m the only one who wants you.”
Tamon laughed, not replying.