Chapter 15 – Take Me
Kaien treated Erun’s kiss on the back of Gloria’s hand as if it were a serious injury rather than a scratch, and her throat began to ache.
‘Why now?’
Why did he show such behavior when she was determined to kill all human emotions and become a monster?
Barely holding back her tears, Gloria laughed unconsciously as she looked at Kaien, who had become unexpectedly menacing.
“Pfft!”
“Why are you laughing?”
Raising an eyebrow, he looked at her with a disapproving face.
‘I feel like I want to drop to the floor the hand Erun had kissed, but you’re laughing?’
However, Kaien’s grim expression loosened and his displeasure melted like snow in the sun as he looked at Gloria’s bright face.
Gloria thanked him with a sincere smile.
“Thank you, Duke.”
Kaien closed his eyes, hearing the soft voice of a woman doing her best to control her sorrow. He pressed his lips together tightly, feeling a hot sensation he had never experienced before, not even in his past life.
Coming to her senses in the awkward but warm atmosphere, Gloria invited Kaien for a walk. She was uncomfortable under the scrutiny of the court ladies still peering through the door, but the focus of Diana’s sparkling eyes on them was on another level of discomfort.
Tap, tap, tap
A small garden road where the only sound was the footsteps of two people walking side by side.
“I never thought I’d be walking in this garden with the Duke. To think I lived to see such a thing.”
Relaxing after avoiding all the eyes fixed on her, Gloria spoke to Kaien in her usual tone. Noticing her calm, he said, looking at the rose vines that climbed up the structures on either side.
“I’m grateful Your Majesty invited me to such a beautiful garden.”
“It’s nothing, so there’s no need to be so grateful.”
A bit embarrassed by his praise, Gloria opened her fan and fanned herself. She didn’t mean to receive that answer, but she still closed her mouth because anything she said might sound like an excuse.
Unaware of Gloria’s thoughts, Kaien kept glancing at the colorful, stunning roses blooming greedily everywhere. From white roses like snowflakes to bright red roses like rubies. Different flowers were blooming splendidly, showing off their colors all for them.
It was a beautiful garden maintained by the best gardeners, but it seemed it wouldn’t remain in his memory for long.
Kaien glanced at Gloria walking next to him and abruptly turned his eyes forward again. His face was oddly stiff. The subtle scent drifting from her hair to his nose, the slight touch of her hand on his forearm, and the gentle grazing of his arm against her chest at every step, made him catch his breath. Kaien clenched his fists as a wild desire threatened to erupt from below.
Beside him, Gloria continued to walk oblivious to the intense desire buried in his heart. The way he walked while holding on to the ivory coat he wore without a single smile resembled a soldier heading into battle.
‘Will he…’
Gloria bit her lip feeling impatient.
‘What will your answer be? I said I’ll give you time but I wish you could answer me right now!’
He was a cruel man who schooled his handsome face into a cold expression, making it impossible for anyone to know what he was thinking or feeling.
‘Every time you saw me you glowered so why is your expression okay now?’
Gloria grimaced as she glanced at Kaien’s expressionless face. Of course, she could tell that much, since he was a man who had a frown on his face every time he was near her.
Duke Kaien Ludenberg hates Emperor Gloria Blake.
Gloria clenched her shawl tightly as she felt a troublesome sensation in her chest. Eventually, she stopped walking,as the handkerchief tied on her hand became more uncomfortable than the sensation in her chest.
“Your hand?”
Hearing his query, Gloria silently stared at Kaien with deep, dark blue eyes.
“Duke.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“What’s your answer to my question?”
A sharp, intense gaze probed Kaien as she asked that question.
‘Even though I’m trying to hide my nervousness, why is my voice shaking?’
Her voice shook as a wave of weakness threatened to flood Gloria’s mind, but more focused on Kaien’s response, she intensified her focus.
“The answer…”
‘Wait, what happened?’
Instead of answering the Emperor’s question quickly, Kaien showed a relaxed attitude and swiped his chin with his hand. Bewildered by Kaien’s behavior of tilting his head slightly and slurring his words, Gloria’s eyes widened.
‘What- what is this man trying to say?’
Kaien smiled as if pleased with her mouth slightly open in surprise, looking at him as if she couldn’t understand what was going on. At his attitude, her eyes opened wider, puzzled by the sudden smile on his lips.
The Duke spoke with a troubled expression.
“I don’t think I can recall the question you a–”
“Duke!!!”
“I am truly sorry, Your Majesty.”
At Kaien’s shameless apology, Gloria couldn’t hide her astonishment.
Uncontrite despite his previous expression of regret, Kaien responded to her exasperated cry by continuing to inquire as to whether he had ever received a request from her.
“If you tell me what the question was, I’ll answer right away.”
Seeing the joy sparkling subtly in his eyes as he spoke, Gloria screamed silently. She had never seen him smile like that in her life, and it was the first time he had behaved that way before her so she was at a loss as to what to do.
Although different from the urge she felt with Erun, an uncontrollable desire to impale his shin with the high heels she was wearing filled Gloria’s mind.
However…
‘I know it will be my foot that hurts if I kick him.’
Gloria covered her face with her hands as she glanced at Kaien’s composed expression. His purple eyes were filled with mischief.
The offer he said he couldn’t remember echoed in Gloria’s mind.
“Be my Empress, Kaien.”
“Marry me, Duke. If you marry me, I’ll give you anything you want.”
“I’ll give you as much as you want.”
‘Oh. My. God.’
With the embarrassment of her previous overtures overtaking her, Gloria felt as if she had lost her mind.
‘Didn’t you threaten a young man with marriage after doing a kabedon?!’1
Gloria couldn’t believe she even spat out such libertine lines promising to give him whatever he wanted.
When the ‘scene in question’ came to mind, Gloria wanted to run away as soon as possible, feeling heat and shame rising from her toes.
Gloria, screaming internally in shame, turned red as a tomato, and Kaien observed such a face…
“Pfft–”
“You!”
Finally, he couldn’t hold his laughter.
Gloria’s eyes flashed with murderous intent, feeling the laughter coming from the man standing in front of her. Kaien erased the smile from his face as soon as he saw the killing glare, but he couldn’t hide his trembling shoulders. Gloria pierced his shoulders with her eyes and resentfully exclaimed.
“Knowing everything you ask such questions… are you trying to tease me right now?”
“Please forgive me, Your Majesty.”
At Gloria’s solemn words, Kaien bowed, asking for forgiveness.
She flinched but then became more brazen.
With her chin slightly raised, Gloria looked down at Kaien, still bowed before her, and asked.
“So, what’s your answer?”
“My answer is…”
“I kindly answered you despite your mean question. So now I guess you’ll give me the answer I want to hear?”
“…”
“Why aren’t you talking? Are you going to say no after playing with me like that?”
‘If you do, after I’ve finished Erun, you are next.’
Gloria’s deep blue eyes gleamed threateningly, staring intently at Kaien. His shoulders shuddered, but it was clear that the Emperor would be very angry if he laughed once again.
She might get so angry that her pretty eyes like the sea will be full of tears…
Shamed by the sudden image, Kaien smiled bitterly and raised his head. Then, his eyes caught and were caught by Gloria, shining brightly with her back to the sun.
He reached out to her and called her softly.
“Your Majesty.”
“…”
Gloria’s eyes blinked at the unexpected action, but as she was tired of feeling anger she held out her hand. A pale, beautiful woman’s hand rested on his long, hard fingers. Kaien looked at her hand quietly.
A small, fine hand betrayed by someone she trusted; and a mouth, which had never said a word of offense to anyone, shouted that she would get rid of everyone. The noblest woman of all, who once showed the brightest smile like the goddess’ statue in the temple, now wore a sad smile.
Because of one person.
Erasing the figure of a gently smiling blonde man in his mind, Kaien lowered his lips to the back of Gloria’s hand.
“…!”
Her eyes widened as Kaien’s soft moist lips pressed against her skin. Even though the kiss was a formal vow of his loyalty to her as his master, Gloria couldn’t withstand the heat and stimulation that crept into her palm and shook her heart.
Without leaving her hand, Kaien lifted his eyes and looked at her. Gloria gasped, unable to breathe properly as she met those dark, deep purple eyes full of unknown desire.
She tried to hold Kaien just to eliminate Erun.
‘But why do I feel as if I have been caught instead?’
At the sight of Gloria frozen speechless, Kaien asked with a satisfied smile.
“Did you ask me to be your Gukseo, Your Majesty?”
Unable to reply, Gloria just nodded. Kaien slowly placed his fingers on the Emperor’s hand. Her eyelids fluttered as she felt a large hand clasping her own, slowly caressing her wrist, squeezing her tightly as if to never let her go.
With a drowsy gaze and a seductive smile as if trying to bewitch her, Kaien looked at Gloria and gave her the long-awaited answer.
“Then I will give myself to you. Have me, Your Majesty.”
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1. [Kabedon (Kabe: wall, Don: the sound produced after hitting the wall lol) is a popular behavior on anime or manga where someone locks their love interest against a wall, usually with an arm on the side so the person can’t escape]↩