Chapter 17
Iver, a descendant of the Costeria family that had brought the Macaras Dynasty to an end.
Hundreds of years had passed since the fall of Macaras. It was ancient history now, and Annerose tried not to dwell on it.
But now that she remembered, the more they spoke about it, the narrower the distance between those two worlds became.
A dull ache spread through her chest. It grew harder to breathe, as though she were slowly suffocating.
“Even now, I’m thinking I could grow my hair out and try to look a little more like your ideal type. Then maybe you’d look at me a little more.”
“……”
“Annerose, answer me.”
Annerose looked at Iver with sad eyes before turning away.
She quietly plucked a rose from the flowerbed beside the pond. If she could at least breathe in the scent of roses, perhaps this aching in her chest would ease a little.
As she searched for the right words, she heard the sound of Iver approaching through the water behind her.
Startled, she tightened her grip, only to prick her finger on a thorn. Blood trickled down, dripping into the pond and spreading in ripples across the water.
Annerose closed her eyes and let out a small sigh as she felt Iver’s warmth behind her, his arms wrapping around her.
Still embracing her from behind, Iver lifted Annerose’s injured hand, pressed a light kiss to the bleeding finger, and gently licked the blood from it.
The soft sensation of his tongue traveled from her hand up her arm, to her chest, and then to her neck. His warm tongue brushed against her neck before lingering there, leaving a red mark behind.
Gradually, he squeezed her against him tighter. When Annerose shifted slightly, trying to free herself from Iver’s embrace, he only pulled her closer.
Each time Annerose moved, the splashing of the water echoed throughout the conservatory.
When Iver’s hand moved toward Annerose’s chest, she abruptly caught his hand and stopped him.
“I have no intention of forcing you. Do you dislike it?”
“…It’s not that I dislike it. But don’t you have to go to your office again tomorrow? You’d be better off returning to your bedroom and getting some sleep instead of fooling around here with me. Unlike me, you can’t keep doing this every day without wearing yourself out.”
“Ha, what an adorable thing to worry about. Annerose, I’m confident in my stamina. Enough to make you feel good several times over.”
The sound of their skin brushing against each other and Iver’s hushed voice in her ear felt far too suggestive, and Annerose’s face flushed red.
“G-get away from me…!”
“I want to stay like this a little longer. Is that not allowed?”
Iver’s pleading voice was so earnest that Annerose found herself softening.
She quietly looked down at her hand. The wound from the thorn had already disappeared without a trace.
Unlike her, whose wounds and strength recovered in no time, Iver did not possess an immortal body. For his sake, Annerose had to push him away even more firmly.
So that he would not neglect his duties after becoming consumed by mere lust.
“…No. You have work tomorrow.”
“I thought you might say that, so I took tomorrow off.”
“Hm? Is that really okay? You said you’ve been busy lately. Are you sure you’re actually keeping up with everything?”
A day off? With the Emperor absent as well, Iver should have been buried in work every day.
Annerose turned around in surprise and promptly took his face in her hands.
“…There’s no need to worry. Rive helps me, so I always finish my work quickly. I’m not as inexperienced as you think I am, Annerose….”
“Still, you can’t. You’re the Crown Prince who will rule the empire. You need to attend to your duties properly. Otherwise….”
Annerose suddenly faltered as she found herself lecturing Iver. Wasn’t it precisely because the queen had failed to properly govern Parozera Kingdom that the revolution had taken place?
And even during that brief time when she had held the throne herself, hadn’t she been merely a ‘good royal’ rather than a ‘great queen’?
She had become so consumed by a man that she had nearly brought disaster upon her own country. If not for Larre’s cold, rational assistance, she could have ruined the kingdom in an instant.
“Right. Who am I to lecture you about anything?”
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