The Tyrant Won’t Let Me Go

“Your Majesty!”

Tekarke said in a trembling voice. He dropped his glass on the floor.

Princess Maronheim, who was looking at Cedric, was also pale and didn’t know what to do.

‘I ignored them and approached Cedric.’ (Ciel)

“Your Majesty, the wine…”

“It’s okay, Count Minerva.”

As if his face had never been distorted, Cedric smiled brightly.

Immediately, from where he came out, the two attendants rushed to Cedric and quickly pressed a white towel on Cedric’s face.

Nevertheless, his clothes soaked in the smell of wine reek through the surroundings.

“I’ll change my clothes later. I have something to say.” Cedric said, looking down at Tekarke coldly.

No one dared to open their mouths at Cedric’s cold gaze that seemed to be staring at something worse than an insect.

“Your Majesty… I have sinned.” Tekarke, lying flat on the floor, spat out frantically.

“You must know that you’ve sinned enough to die, don’t you?” (Cedric)

“It’s not like that, Your Majestyㅡ!” (Tekarke)

“You really don’t have the ability to learn.”

Cedric cut Tekarke’s words in a sharp tone, as if his words weren’t even worth listening to.

“I told you before. The act of insulting the Emperor’s teacher and those protecting him was an act same as insulting the Emperor.” (Cedric)

“I’m sorry. Please, I beg youㅡ”

“Take him out.”

At Cedric’s nod, the staunch servants forced Tekarke to stand up, and held both his arms and dragged him while crying.

“Your Majesty! Please, give me one more chance!”

As if ignoring his cry, Cedric said in a harsh voice.

“Brian Tekarke. The empire would retrieve your title ‘marquis‘ for insulting the Emperor.”

“Your Majesty, I was wrongㅡ”

“And…”

Cedric’s cold voice resounded, interrupting Tekarke’s words.

Who would dare to open their mouth to that overbearing voice and cold red eyes?

No one would be able to refute those eyes with wrath as brutal as blue flames.

“How dare you defile the Emperor’s body.” Cedric said in a low voice and growled.

His thick hand, with bulging veins in anger, pointed to the sinner.

“I would cut off that frivolous hand and banish you from the Deamant Empire forever.”

Brian, who was trembling and staring at Cedric, eventually lost his mind.

Watching him limp being dragged away, Princess Maronheim covered her mouth with her hand in disbelief.

“Princess Maronheim.”

When Cedric called on Princess Maronheim, who had also lost her composure, she quickly erased her bewildered expression and smiled elegantly that she had shown in society.

Perhaps the other nobles who watched Tekarke being dragged didn’t notice her absurd expression she had earlier.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” (Kernia)

The princess, who answered with an elegant voice and blushing cheeks continued her words in a succinct manner.

“It’s an honor for your Majesty to remember my name.”

To be honest, it was a lovely smile that even a woman would fall in love with.

Who wouldn’t be moved when they saw that bright beauty like a fresh blooming flower?

“I couldn’t help but remember.”

At Cedric’s response, the princess couldn’t control her joy and twinkling eyes.

“Your Majesty, such an honorㅡ”

“Of course, every day you don’t get tired of sending a marriage proposal.”

However, Cedric’s following words were cold.

The face of the princess, who was shining with joy, also froze in an instant.

Looking at her, I sighed inwardly.

‘It would have been better if she had come alone to get Cedric’s attention.’

In a situation where the confrontation between the aristocrats and the pro-imperial faction was heavy, when one has a close relationship with Cedric, who was no less than the most powerful in the Empire.

Unfortunately, from that point on, the opportunity to win Cedric’s heart had already been lost.

“Anyway, the servants have a lot of work to do, but they struggled a lot to read your proposal.”

I wondered if red eyes resembling the color of hot blood and passionately blooming roses could shine such a cold light.

“Your proposal would never be opened in the future, so I hope you stop sending it.”

Cedric blew heavy words and turned around, and the princess, whose hands were trembling, couldn’t stand it anymore and covered her face with both hands.

Her long blonde hair shook as she ran out of the banquet hall.

It would have been either she couldn’t stand shame or shed tears.

Or it could have been both.

“Count Minerva.”

While staring blankly at the princess’ back, I suddenly came to my senses at Cedric’s call.

He was standing in front of me before I knew it, and with a smile on his lips, he wrapped his arms around my left hand.

The eyes, which were engulfed in anger, were shining softly like a camellia that bloomed neatly in winter.

“My true knight whom I trust the most.”

A warm voice whispered in my ear.

Then he kissed my ring finger exactly with the mark of the oath that turned green.

“Would you like to dance to a song with me?”

How could his hair look so beautiful even though it’s wet with wine?

Eyes sparkling like rubies, I don’t know why they look more fascinating today.

Suddenly, my face started to heat up and feel a little dizzy.

‘Why are you doing this?’

I managed to endure the dizziness and spoke to Cedric.

“…Was that an order?”

Cedric’s eyes widened at those words.

But then, the corners of his eyes curled into a crescent shape, and shook his head gently.

“No.”

And he lowered his gaze toward my left hand and added in a low voice.

“You could do whatever you want.”

The people around us began to buzz.

Wasn’t it romantic?

At a banquet, a young emperor kisses the hand of a knight who has served him for a long time and asks for a dance.

Unsurprisingly, all the twinkling eyes of the young girls were on me.

But I couldn’t afford to worry about that.

‘The wine smell was too strong!’

What the hell was that bastard Tekarke drinking?

If I continued to smell the wine from Cedric, I felt like I was going to collapse in the middle of the banquet hall.

“No one would say anything to you.”

Finally, unable to bear Cedric’s words, I shook my head and pulled myself away from him.

It was only when I covered my mouth and nose with my hands that felt like I could live again.

“Oh my, I couldn’t believe you’re rejecting His Majesty’s request to dance!”

“As expected, as they say she wasn’t normal.”

“That’s right, but the Emperor himself requested it-”

Apart from the people who quickly became noisy, Cedric looked as if he had lost the world.

I had never seen life disappear from those eyes, and he’s eyes literally looked soulless.

“I see. Ciel hates me so much…”

Seeing Cedric hardened while spitting out my first name, not my last, and in public, as if his soul had been really stolen, the servants who had just wiped Cedric’s face were at a loss for what to do.

“Oh, no. It’s not that, oops…”

I tried to defend by covering my nose and mouth harder.

“I’m really sorry, but I feel so dizzy because of the smell of wine from your Majesty…”

The crowd quieted at the cry of the loudest voice.

It was none other than Cedric who enjoyed the long silence.

“…Okay. I’ll change to get rid of the smell, and come back.”

The quick-witted servants who heard him ran like the wind and stood on both sides of Cedric.

“I’ll come back with something cool that you wouldn’t even remember the smell—”

Red eyes, as if determined to openly seduce me, gave an intense gaze.

“Don’t leave and wait for me.”

My heart began pounding again.

Perhaps this heat was not just because of the scent of wine…

I don’t remember how I danced with Cedric that day.

All I remember was that he looked breathtakingly handsome after returning from changing and that he smelled sweet like flowers, not wine.

The hem of the dress, which fluttered like a butterfly’s wings, and Cedric’s red cape fluttered gently as if wrapping the two of us.

And I vaguely remember the warmth of his hands that gently wrapped around my waist and my right hand.

However, the most intense was Cedric’s red eyes, which contained me throughout the dance.

It was filled with scorching heat that seemed to melt, and when it was darker than a rose in full bloom, it felt like I was going to be sucked into his eyes.

As much as those eyes, I couldn’t forget them.

That day, our dance was frequently talked about among people.

They said that the reticent Emperor, who had never expressed his feelings in public, was in love at that moment.

✿

The third day after the banquet to commemorate the founding of the country and the heat that swept away the Deamant Empire subsided.

A secret deal was taking place in a dungeon hundreds of kilometers west of the Deamant Imperial Palace.

A dull, humid prison without a single window.

“Well, this should be enough.”

The red-haired, gorgeous-looking man who was sitting in a luxurious chair that did not suit him there threw his sack and said.

A small man lying down under his feet did not raise his head and fumbled through the sack thrown in front of him.

When the hooded man loosened the strap of the handle with trembling hands, a pile of brilliant gold coins appeared.

“Oh…!”

The man rummaged through the gold coins, admiring them.

The man then buried his nose in the pile of gold coins, inhaled the scent, and began to kiss the gold coins.

The man, who looked at him with satisfaction, began to laugh aloud.

“Do you like it?”

At his question, the man, who was burying his head in the gold coins, paused.

Then he lifted his head and looked at the red-haired man with sullen eyes and stretched out his hands.

“I like it very much. So much…! You are giving me light, salt, or even more kindness than that!”

The red-haired man, who looked down at him with interest, bent his upper body and put his head forward.

He scornfully raised a corner of his lips to a smirk.

“Then, you should pay the price as much as I’ve given you, right?”

As he nodded, a man in a white robe, who was standing still by his side, walked silently toward the man.

He immediately handed something in the man’s hand, and returned to his place.

“This…”

In the man’s hand were three glass bottles of the same size.

It’s a glass bottle that’s small enough for no one to notice if you hide it in your pocket and move.

“If it’s that big, you won’t get caught…”

The red-haired man spoke arrogantly.

“So, keep it well and go.”

“Yes, yes. That’s a given.” The man answered, shoving the glass bottle into his clothes.

“If you ever get caught or failㅡ”

At the sound of his languid voice, two men in white robes began to approach the man.

It was a sharp spear that appeared behind their robes.

The man who was looking at the spear blade aimed at his neck in an instant knew what it meant and bit his lips.

“You know that your neck will fly off, right?”

“Of course…”

“As long as you know.”

At that, the men lowered their spears.

Looking at the men in white robes returning to their places, the man clutched the glass bottle in his pocket.

“Then I’ll put the two back together.”

The roaring voice of the prisoner-man echoed in the dreary dungeon.

“First, covertly attack the new emperor of Deamant on the day he speaks in front of the people.”

He said, raising one finger at the man’s face.

“Second, you should never be caught by the Deamant Empire or find out about this conversation.”

Then the red-haired man raised another finger and spoke.

“You just have to keep these two. Then we’ll take care of the rest.”

“Yes, I understand.”

The man tied the bag again and put his hand on his chest and answered.

“I would surely make that wish come true.”

“Oops, right. There was one more thing. I almost forgot.”

The red-haired man sitting in a chair squinted and crossed his legs with an arrogant face and said,

However, the man on the floor knew to some extent. It wasn’t that he had really forgotten that fact, it was that he was just saving his words to convey the most important words at the most appropriate moment.

“Could you do that?”

At the man’s question, the red-haired man smiled and spoke.

“No matter what happens, you have to put that life on hold. It means don’t kill it.”

At those words, the man frowned.

For a while, there was a death-like silence in the prison.

The silence felt as if time had stopped.

“…Does it really just have to stay alive?”

“Of course.”

When he said that, the man’s dark eyes shone with an evil smile.

“Then, would it be okay if at least one of her limbs was missing?”

Hearing the man’s words, the red-haired man looked at him with his golden eyes, as if surprised for the first time.

But soon after, he flinched as if he couldn’t stand it, and burst into laughter.

A maddening laugh echoed through the prison.

It was a terrifying laughter that made anyone shudder after hearing it.

“As much as you want.”

The man murmured, his eyes twitching with madness.