Introduction to the Work:

“I have no intention of sharing my woman. It means I don't have a taste for sharing women.”

King Sybil Van Ricarlo, who left the throne due to his uncle's rebellion and hid in Lugdun, a secluded and barren territory of Trabasta. And the pitiful and beautiful young lady, Elze von Roathe, who enslaved him.

One rainy early summer. Elze, the young and fragile only daughter of the lord, acquires a beautiful boy from a slave trader who visited the castle.

Unaware that he is a young king fleeing from pursuit, Elze gives him the name 'Ian' and falls hopelessly in love with him.

However, he is...

"Do you like me that much?"

Her blood ran cold.

Elze looked at him with eyes that seemed about to crumble.

"You have to come tonight too."

It didn't matter anymore. She knows it can't be recovered now. Elze will never win his heart, and he will not love Elze.

Still...

"You have to hold me tonight too."

If it was a relationship with a set time limit, if it was a relationship with an end not far off, Elze was determined to cling to him desperately.

She was planning to take and extort him, even by force.

Then, she felt like she wouldn't have any regrets even when she died. Even if she died giving birth to a man's child she didn't even know well. She felt like she could live by caressing what Ian had given her until it wore out.

*** "Wh-Who..."

She didn't want to admit that the viridian eyes belonged to the man in her memory.

"Don't you really know who I am?"

It was a gentle question.

He grabbed Elze's chin, which was soaked in fear, and lifted it.

Elze awkwardly looked back at him.

"Doesn't Your Majesty really know who I am?"

She struggled to shake off the hand holding her chin, but her fingers were seized. It was a fierce force. Elze traced his face in the prison.

The contours, now more mature and hardened, were sharp as if they could cut. Tears flowed endlessly each time she blinked.

"I, I..."

"Kiss me."

The monotonous command cut off Elze's trailing words.

As Elze, unable to support her heavy body, staggered and tried to fall, a large hand reached out again and grabbed her.

'Baby... Does it make sense for you to be looking for your father now?'

Elze looked up at him. The baby in her belly seemed to be kicking.