6 a.m.
Heavy silence and intermittent groans were all that drifted through the Empress’s bedchamber.
“Ugh……”
Luan tried to crawl out of bed like a zombie, only to grab his waist and collapse right back down.
Full-body muscle pain.
All because that Emperor bastard who’d fed him meat had continued bringing stacks of documents the next day and the day after that — the price of processing hundreds of pages while locked in a single rigid posture was brutal. At this rate, the chronic ailments from his past life — forward head posture and a herniated lumbar disc — were going to take root in this body too.
“I’m going to die, seriously……”
His lower back felt like it was about to snap in two. His wrists throbbed. His eyes were dry and gritty. This body was hopelessly frail — it couldn’t withstand this kind of labor. A strike. He needed to go on strike.
Just then, the door connecting to the adjacent room opened and Kirian walked in. The infuriatingly industrious Emperor had already finished his morning training and even showered. He toweled off his dripping wet hair and looked down at Luan sprawled across the bed with an indifferent gaze.
“Still sleeping?”
“……I’m awake.”
“How unusual.”
It’s just that my body refuses to move. Luan muttered into his pillow.
“I think I’ve developed full-body muscle paralysis. I’m in urgent need of a vacation.”
“Stop being dramatic. You worked for just a few days and you’re already like this.”
“Your Majesty may have the constitution of steel, but I am a paper doll. If you push me too hard, I’ll tear.”
Luan pressed his trembling hand against his lower back.
“A pain patch…… no, please bring me a hot towel. I think my back has given out.”
“Ha.”
Kirian clicked his tongue, yet approached the bedside nonetheless. It wasn’t out of concern. It was simply that a tool which had been working so competently had broken down after only a few days — and that irritated him. The tool needed to be in proper working order if it was going to earn its keep.
“Roll over.”
“Pardon?”
“I need to see the state of it before deciding whether to call a physician.”
Kirian roughly grabbed Luan’s shoulder and turned him over. Luan flopped lifelessly. Through the thin silk of his nightgown, the prominent ridges of his spine were visible. Kirian pressed his fingers along the line of the vertebrae with a slight furrow of his brow.
“Here?”
“Ow! P-please don’t press so hard!”
“The muscles are knotted up. Lack of exercise.”
Kirian put force into his hand and pressed into the bunched muscles. It was nothing like the delicate touch of a professional masseuse — it was the blunt, probing hands of someone checking a broken machine to see what was wrong.
“Agh! It hurts! Gently, please be gentle!”
“Hold still. You won’t be able to move until it’s loosened.”
“This isn’t treatment, this is torture!”
Luan writhed in pain and clutched the bed sheets tightly.
“Be quiet.”
“Ugh…… you’re pressing too deep!”
Luan’s nightgown had shifted, exposing a pale white shoulder, and sweat-dampened strands of hair clung to his cheek. To anyone watching, it was a strangely intimate scene — exactly the kind that invited misunderstanding.
And then, right at that moment.
Bang.
The heavy door swung open without so much as a knock. It was Kael — the Emperor’s shadow, the Captain of the Escort Knights.
“Are you here, Your Majesty? A report from the Northern Knight Order has arrived——”
Kael’s words died in midair. His pupils trembled as though struck by an earthquake.
On the bed — the Empress, face down and disheveled, letting out moans. On top of him — the Emperor, pressing down on the Empress’s lower back and pinning him. And filling the room, the sounds of “it hurts,” “please be gentle,” “you’re pressing too deep.”
Kael froze. He was a sharp-minded knight, with keen eyes for reading situations.
……Surely not.
Kael’s gaze locked onto Luan. A pale face. A faintly trembling body. Reddened eyes. The Empress who had been drawing cold, clear lines only until yesterday was now showing such a defenceless side of himself in the bedchamber.
A honeytrap.
A chill ran down Kael’s spine. Duke Requies was a cunning man. He had tried to use his second son to blind and deafen the Emperor. But the Emperor had always been an ironclad lord who kept his distance from such indulgences. And yet — this seemingly fragile Empress had, in just a matter of days, broken through the Emperor’s defenses and taken hold of the very bedchamber?
“……Kael?”
Kirian turned his head and frowned in evident displeasure. Kael snapped back to his senses and lowered his head. But his eyes, turned toward Luan, flickered with open hostility.
“My deepest apologies. You made no sound, and as it was an urgent matter, I committed a discourtesy.”
“I believe I told you to leave reports in the office.”
“I judged it to be a matter requiring a direct verbal report.”
Kael answered with forced composure, though inside, every alarm was sounding. Luan lifted his head and looked over at Kael.
Heavy-lidded eyes. Disheveled hair. To Kael, it looked like the ease of someone who had accomplished his objective.
“……I will take my leave.”
Kael retreated, stepping backward. Just before the door closed, his eyes met Luan’s. Kael’s lips moved without sound.
Don’t let your guard down. I’m watching you.
Bang. The door shut. Luan stared blankly at the closed door.
“……He just glared at me like he wanted to kill me and walked out.”
“Don’t mind him. His eyes have always looked nasty.”
Kirian lifted his hands from Luan’s back without a second thought.
“Either way, things are about to get noisy outside.”
Kirian stepped down from the bed and put on his robe. Without glancing back at Luan, he straightened his appearance in the mirror.
“There’ll be a rumor going around that you kept me up all night clinging to me.”
“……Pardon?”
Luan gaped in indignation. Kept him up clinging to him? Who kept who? I’m the one who was exploited for labor — so why do I feel like the perpetrator?
“That’s a misunderstanding. Please correct it.”
“Why bother? It’s not a bad thing.”
Kirian answered drily without turning around. But the expression reflected in the mirror looked rather amused.
“Duke Requies will be thrown into confusion when he hears this. He’ll think his second son has the Emperor wrapped around his finger. It’s not a bad rumor for throwing the enemy into disarray.”
“……And my reputation?”
“Does the rumor of an Empress receiving the Emperor’s favor damage one’s reputation?”
Kirian slowly turned and looked at Luan. The corner of his mouth curved up at an angle.
“You’re within my domain either way. A rumor that you enjoy my favor would even help you break free from the Duke. Why do you look so horrified?”
Kirian had half-expected it — that Luan would say “Even so, being by Your Majesty’s side is better” or at the very least show some sign of relief.
But instead, Luan’s brow only furrowed further. He let out a sigh, as though deeply troubled.
“It won’t help. It’ll only get in the way.”
“In the way?”
Kirian’s eyes narrowed sharply.
“Because I have to get a divorce.”
Luan patted his lower back and added matter-of-factly,
“Didn’t we agree to a clean separation in six months? If rumors like ‘the Emperor’s favor’ start circulating, it’ll only complicate the divorce proceedings later.”
“……”
“If we’re splitting up on the grounds of incompatibility, we need evidence that there’s deep emotional distance between us — so a rumor that we’re on good terms is disadvantageous.”
The smile faded slowly from Kirian’s face. There was no fondness for Kirian in Luan’s eyes, no trace of reluctance. All that filled them was pure calculation — weighing the legal advantages and disadvantages for a clean divorce.
Right now they were sharing a bedchamber (open the door and it was practically one room), eating the same meals, and had even made physical contact (a massage, but still). And yet the only thing occupying this man’s mind was thoughts of leaving.
“……Ha.”
Kirian let out a short, hollow laugh. His mood sank in a way he couldn’t quite place. It was rather like thinking you’d tamed a cat, only to find it had eaten its fill and was already plotting its escape over the garden wall without so much as a backward glance.
“You really…… never let go of that divorce talk for even a single moment, do you.”
“You gave your permission. I take mutually agreed-upon terms seriously.”
Luan answered flatly and buried his face in his pillow again.
“So please handle the correction yourself.”
Kirian fell silent. There was nothing to refute. It was all true. They were nothing more than a couple soon to part ways.
And yet — why did it feel so……disagreeable.
“……Be quiet.”
Kirian yanked the belt of his robe tight and snapped at him.
“I’ll handle the rumor myself. You stop worrying about things that don’t concern you and straighten out that back.”
Bang. The door closed louder than usual. Luan startled and lifted his head.
“What’s wrong with him? Is he going through menopause?”
Luan tilted his head, looking thoroughly baffled.
Outside the door, Kirian stood staring at the closed door for a long while. There was a gnawing feeling in his chest. A very significant one.
“What’s wrong with him? Is he going through menopause?”
l o w b l o w. I choked on the melon seed okay