Translator: Nox

60

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I had been thinking it was strange all along. Aileen was puzzled whenever she encountered the emotions that Cesare subtly revealed. Emotions that were incomprehensibly heavy. There were many times when his words and actions felt unfamiliar.

She wanted to know what had changed him.

However, asking Cesare directly for the reason was never easy. Unlike Aileen, who was trembling with tension, Cesare was endlessly relaxed.

He lightly shook Aileen's hand, which was holding him. Aileen was startled and let go of his hand. But Cesare immediately grabbed her wrist.

Compared to his large hand, Aileen's wrist was not even a handful. Aileen recalled that he could easily grasp both of her wrists with one hand.

Cesare, who firmly gripped her wrist to prevent Aileen from escaping, spoke casually as if nothing had happened.

"Weren't you curious about the scar?"

"That too… I'm curious about that too."

The reason she asked about the wedding ring first was because she felt she had to. She couldn't explain it clearly, but she had a feeling that the reason the scar disappeared and the wedding ring were intertwined.

Aileen steeled herself and looked up at Cesare. She really wanted to hear an answer from him, but as soon as she met his red eyes, her firm resolve melted away like snow.

Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain. It was because Cesare was gripping her wrist too tightly. Aileen whispered softly to him.

"It hurts……."

Even to her carefully delivered words, Cesare did not release her wrist. After staring at Aileen for a while, he very slowly loosened his grip. He rubbed the red handprint left on Aileen's wrist with his hand and opened his lips.

"I read your diary."

Cesare whispered, curving his eyes like a crescent moon.

"It was cute, Aileen."

Her heart dropped at the words that he had read her diary. Aileen's diary contained everything trivial. Of course, her feelings for Cesare were all recorded without exception.

Not only her love for him, but also her resentment…….

The diary was like an outlet for Aileen's emotions. She had scribbled it down haphazardly, so she didn't even remember what she had written properly. Aileen was the type to memorize botany books but forget the diary she had written herself.

The thought that everything had been exposed to Cesare made her want to run away immediately. But she suppressed the impulse and thought calmly. Cesare's words were physically impossible.

"But… you didn't have time to do that."

When she carefully pointed out the error, Cesare smiled even more deeply for some reason. A dark red light swirled in his eyes. Aileen bit her lip as she looked at his sunken eyes.

'Those eyes again.'

Eyes filled with heavy and deep emotions that she could not fathom.

Cesare did not answer Aileen's question. Instead, he buried his lips on the wrist where he had left his mark. He pressed his lips firmly and opened his mouth.

"The scar on my hand."

An ambiguous answer fell upon Aileen.

"It was just paying the price. Just as you paid the price of becoming the Grand Duchess to avoid the death penalty, I also had to pay a reasonable price."

She didn't understand even after hearing his words. No, from the beginning, it wasn't an answer given with the expectation that Aileen would understand.

After hearing the answer, she was even more convinced. Cesare wanted her to know nothing.

The feeling of flying in the sky until just now plummeted to the ground and crawled along the floor. Covered in dirt, Aileen blankly thought.

'I became the Grand Duchess, but I am still just a receiver.'

Far from relieving him of his responsibilities, she was just a cumbersome burden. It was only natural that Cesare couldn't rely on her, but her heart still stung. It was as if someone had pricked her with a needle and awakened her from her sweet dream.

The sharp reality was painful. But Aileen did not give up and mustered her last courage.

"...I don't know what you mean."

She looked up at Cesare and asked carefully.

"Could you explain it in more detail?"

She must have had desperate eyes. But Cesare cut off Aileen's request with a single stroke.

"Not now."

She didn't want to, but encountering a direct rejection from him made her feel quite distressed. She felt as if Cesare had publicly confirmed her uselessness. Aileen moved her lips for a long time before answering quietly.

"Yes……."

She couldn't bear to meet his eyes any longer, so she lowered her gaze. Then Cesare immediately cupped Aileen's cheeks with his hands. But he didn't force her to lift her head. He just gently stroked her cheeks and continued to speak.

"You were crying when we first met, and you were crying at the end too."

"……."

"I want to postpone making you cry as much as possible now."

Aileen put strength into her tingling nose and said.

"I, I feel like I'm going to cry now too……."

"Crying this much is okay."

How much crying would be okay with him? Anyway, it would be best not to cry. As Aileen bit her lip to hold back her tears, he kissed her.

The comforting kiss was soft yet somehow coercive. He parted her lips so she couldn't bite them anymore, and licked every inch of her even teeth and soft mucous membranes.

He gently caressed Aileen so that she could feel enough pleasure, but he also grabbed her fleeing tongue and dragged it back, tormenting it as he pleased. He licked up the saliva pooled in her mouth and took his lips away.

Aileen quickly inhaled her insufficient breath. Cesare looked down at Aileen, whose chest was heaving rapidly, with a bright red gaze, and said quite kindly.

"Either way, I'll have to make you cry a little, Aileen."

It happened when Aileen was 12 and Cesare was 19. When Cesare heard the story that a child had been kidnapped, he immediately headed to the capital. It was something he did clearly recognizing that it was desertion.

Cesare's knights followed his will as always, and five of them were labeled as deserters side by side.

But it didn't matter. Because he could save the child.

"To commit such an act even though you know that I cherish you and am proud of you!"

Cesare, who had taken off his top and knelt, silently received the Emperor's wrath. The Emperor mercilessly wielded the whip that the Chamberlain had brought. The Emperor, who had commanded the battlefield in his youth, was still strong even in his old age. Every time he wielded the whip, flesh was torn and blood splattered.

The Emperor regarded Cesare as if he were his own alter ego. Even though the only similarities were his large physique and fierce eyes, he always boasted everywhere that Cesare resembled him exactly. When Cesare won on the battlefield, he would brag as if it were his own achievement.

The Emperor could not accept the sight of his so proud prince reduced to a deserter because of a mere child. Therefore, in order to educate his cherished prince, the Emperor personally executed the whipping.

Even while being beaten until his whole body was covered in blood, Cesare did not let out a single groan. The Emperor, who was whipping him as if venting his anger, stopped his hand for a moment. He lowered the whip, from which blood was dripping, and asked.

"Did she become your woman?"

Cesare, suppressing a hollow laugh, forced his lips open.

"That child is only 12 years old."

The Emperor chuckled at the first voice he had heard since the whipping began. He looked down at Cesare and asked in a rather softened tone.

"It's a little early, but she's old enough to get married. Has she had her first period?"

Cesare did not answer for a moment. He swallowed the blood pooled in his mouth before answering.

"...I believe she hasn't yet."

"Okay, let's see. Should I assign her as your sex education partner?"

Cesare, who had been lowering his eyes throughout the execution of the punishment, finally raised his gaze. The Emperor was wearing a gruesome smile.

He drew a line for Cesare. That child could never be your marriage partner, so he warned him to just take her body if he had any feelings for her.

"I was just concerned because she is the nanny's daughter."

Cesare continued slowly, meeting the Emperor's eyes directly.

"You know well that I grew up without a mother."

The nanny's daughter, who was the only one who was kind to the prince who had been abused by his birth mother and had nowhere to turn. That plausible shield protected Aileen once again. The Emperor, who quickly felt better, burst into a hearty laugh.

"It's good for superiors to be clear about their favors and grudges. But son, you must also know how to make your inferiors do things."

The Emperor's eyes scrutinized Cesare as if piercing through him. He sternly warned.

"There must be no such thing next time. Do you understand?"

The Emperor recognized Aileen's existence. Cesare, realizing this fact, inhaled the stench of blood deep into his lungs. And then he slowly smiled and replied.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

It was the moment Cesare decided to kill the Emperor.