Prologue. The Emperor of the Northern Empire
Even the city at the southernmost tip of the continent boasted a chilly air—the Northern Empire.
In the center of the capital, Arin, stood a sturdy black castle that overwhelmed all who beheld it. In reality, it was gray, yet coated to look so blackish that it earned the nickname “Black Castle.”
I, Yuseniel Hardrant, crossed the castle interior—which was as heavy and silent as its color—without a shred of fear.
“Are you insane?”
No one stopped me from crossing the castle, much less the Hil Palace, the emperor’s own bedchambers. Not the chamberlain stationed at the entrance, nor even the knights.
Creak.
I opened the familiar door to the emperor’s bedchamber.
Seeing no one in the achromatic room, I headed for the office attached to the bedroom.
There, a tall man stood leaning against the window.
A single book rested in the large hand of the man dressed in matching black from head to toe. Though he did not stir in the slightest as I entered and appeared entirely absorbed in his book, I knew.
That all of this was an act he had orchestrated.
Long eyelashes, a sleek philtrum leading down from a sharp nose, and red lips—his side profile alone was enough to captivate any gaze.
Looking at that face that so perfectly suited my taste, I opened my mouth.
“Tes.”
“…Yuseniel?”
As if surprised only now to hear himself called, the emperor—my childhood friend—turned his head toward me. At that, his black hair rustled softly.
Even the soft hair I had once loved felt hateful in this moment.
“To think you would come to see me first, Yuseniel.”
With a soft thud, Tes set his closed book down on the solid wood desk, his eyes curving gently as he approached me.
“I’m happy.”
His slightly trembling voice sounded genuinely moved, but I was not fooled.
“I missed you, Yuseniel.”
A hand colder than most came up to cup my cheek.
“You, just what are you trying to pull?”
“What do you mean?”
“The matter of Count Gilber’s son.”
“You come all this way only to speak of another man?”
The smiling Tes’s voice sank heavily. His black irises darkened another shade.
“I don’t like that.”
Tes slowly lowered his head, and soon his high nose touched the tip of mine. I could almost feel hot breath on my skin.
“If you came to see me, then look at me, Yuseniel.”
“Tes.”
An intoxicatingly sweet scent wafted into my nose.
“Don’t talk about others. Tell me what you’re curious about regarding me.”
That low, sunken voice scratched at my eardrum in a tone impossible to read as either threat or plea.
As always, before things could descend into confusion, I shouted.
“Stop joking around!”
“But I’m not joking.”
A faint squishing sensation pressed against the tip of my nose. At this rate, our lips would meet, so I shook off the large hand cupping my cheek. Then I grabbed Tes by the collar.
“Cut the nonsense and talk. What are you scheming this time? What did I do to make Count Gilber come begging to me? And this isn’t even the first time.”
“Ahh, the son is a fool, but the father is perceptive.”
“Tesvalun Noisville!”
Even though I called him by his full name—a thing I only did when truly enraged—my childhood friend merely smiled. Rather, he grasped the wrist of the hand gripping his collar, and just as I thought he would pull it away, he interlaced our fingers.
“Why, Yuseniel?”
“A death sentence out of nowhere—it’s strange, isn’t it?”
“Why?”
When Tes tilted his head, his well-groomed hair slid down smoothly. I felt the urge to fix it for him, but I forced myself to focus on the conversation.
“I’m talking about the count’s eldest son. I was told you ordered that man executed. Count Gilber is someone who works tirelessly for the nation. Why would you suddenly do this?”
Count Gilber’s son might have committed a crime. Yet his usual conduct was far too upright for that.
Moreover, unfortunately, my childhood friend was someone who, on any given day, might suddenly issue commands like, “Cut off his head!”
“That guy did something wrong.”
“What crime does he have? Did he conspire to rebel? Did he embezzle taxes?”
“No.”
“Then what?”
“It’s not that sort of crime… but he certainly deserves punishment.”
What on earth was he trying to say?
Tes slowly traced the back of my hand with his fingertip, and at the heat rising so inappropriately for the situation, I bit my lip hard.
You always try to gloss over things like this.
I tried to tug my captured hand free, but it wouldn’t budge, stuck like glue. I briefly considered using force, but I knew he would just grab it again, so I left it.
Instead, I glared into his black eyes. In those jet-black eyes that seemed to swallow even light, I was reflected.
Me, wearing an expression that showed how much I despised him right now.
“What crime? Tell me.”
“He proposed to you.”
“Huh?”
I furrowed my brows at the incomprehensible statement.
“Count Gilber’s son—he proposed to you, didn’t he?”
“…How did you know?”
It hadn’t been a grand public proposal; the count’s son had merely asked me quietly to marry him.
Instead of answering, my friend curved his red lips into a smile.
“You!”
“There is nothing I don’t know about Yuseniel.”
I nearly retorted to ask if that was something to brag about, but I decided to remain focused on the urgent matter at hand.
“You’re killing him because he proposed to me?”
“Yes.”
“Just because he proposed to me?”
“That’s precisely why he must die.”
His black eyes sparkled.
“How dare he propose to Yuseniel.”
“What…?”
“The crime of daring to propose to Yuseniel without knowing his place.”
I was left speechless.
“That is his crime.”
Which meant, ultimately, Count Gilber’s son was dying because of me.
Given my age, it was only natural for proposals to come in. There was nothing strange whatsoever about the count’s son sending a proposal to me, who had no partner.
In this way, you corner me. You erase every hole I might escape through.
Unable to storm out of this place to save Count Gilber’s son, who would die because of me, I was trapped.
“Tes.”
“You’re going to marry me anyway.”
The way he spoke and smiled, Tes truly seemed to believe that.
“What nonsense.”
“But we decided that when we were children.”
“I never agreed.”
Tes, who as a child had always decided things by himself without my permission, continued to insist with that same old habit.
“You have to marry me. Or could it be…”
Suddenly, Tes opened his eyes wide and whispered sharply.
“You intend to marry him…?”
“That’s not it.”
“I should have killed him sooner. Before he proposed to you. I didn’t like the way he looked at Yuseniel.”
Contrary to his smiling lips, dense killing intent pooled in his eyes. Afraid he might behead an innocent man then and there, I grabbed the hand of the man trying to pull away from me.
“Why, Yuseniel?”
As if to ask when he had ever harbored killing intent, Tes curved his eyes into crescents and began to stroke my cheek with one hand.
“Yuseniel.”
My friend’s voice cracked.
“Yuseniel, let’s get married. Okay?”
He carefully freed the hand I had been holding, then wrapped his arm around my waist. My childhood friend whispered by my ear.
“Then we could wake in the same bed, share the same space…”
A sweet-scented heat tickled my ear and the nape of my neck.
“We could see each other at any time. Okay?”
The hand at my waist began to draw large circles. As if the flame that had rested upon the back of my hand had migrated there, my lower back began to burn.
“Look only at me, Yuseniel.”
I felt as though I might succumb to that seductive touch.
I tried to step back, yet like sinking into a sticky quagmire, my feet would not move. Though invisible, I felt bound to this spot.
“Look at me, Yuseniel…”
In the end, I shook off the large hand holding me. At that, the touch that had been climbing from my ankle up my calf vanished.
“Yuseniel?”
Calmly pushing aside the hand trying to seize me again, I began to fix Tes’s bangs, which had bothered me since earlier.
At that, Tes obediently lowered his hand and instead began to relish my touch. His long eyelashes, long enough for raindrops to rest upon, trembled softly.
“I love you, Yuseniel.”
He whispered low and pulled my waist tight against him.
My hand, which had been touching silk-like hair, brushed past his shapely ear and stretched into empty air. In the end, my arm went over a solid shoulder, and my hand found purchase on a broad back.
The childhood friend who had once been smaller than me was now a full head taller, and his small frame that had merely clung to me had broadened enough to pull me into his embrace.
Truthfully, Tes’s hair had not originally been this pitch-black color. His eyes were the same.
The direct line of the Northern Empire’s imperial family was born generation after generation with bright blond hair and blue eyes. No, only those who possessed such features could qualify to ascend to the throne.
“Tes.”
“Hm?”
“How… did you change your hair and eye color?”
In my memory, the six-year-old child had exuded the imperial lineage with his entire being. The child with pure golden hair and sapphire-blue eyes had been like a bright sun.
But now he had sunken deep and dark, transformed into a man who embraced me so tightly it was suffocating.
“Want to know?”
“Yes.”
“If you know, you have to marry me.”
“Then never mind.”
“Why, show a little more curiosity.”
Normally he would have explained on his own even without my asking, but seeing him press his lips shut, it seemed this was truly a tremendous secret even for Tes.
“I would like it if you had many things you were curious about regarding me, Yuseniel.”
I should have run away long ago.
“Because it’s proof that you are very interested in me, Yuseniel.”
Just when should I have run away?
When I was six, and my thoughtless childhood friend said he loved me and wanted to marry me? Or when I saw you transformed like this?
Or, at any given moment.
“You’re not curious why I changed my appearance like this?”
“I’m not.”
Despite my blatant display of disinterest, Tes answered arbitrarily, letting my words go in one ear and out the other. At the corners of his mouth hung a smile both childishly innocent and seemingly meant to seduce.
“It’s because this is your preference, Yuseniel.”
I could not say a word.
“Because it’s the appearance you like, Yuseniel.”