Late into the night, Helsion sat at his desk, attending to official duties.

Having won the civil war and ascended the throne only recently, it was no exaggeration to say that his workload piled up like a mountain.

Though he had formally received the throne from the former emperor, everyone who knew better understood the truth—he had essentially usurped the imperial seat.

Buried beneath countless documents, someone approached him.

“Your Majesty, Count Atreus is bringing Lady Brellof toward the Calua Empire.”

The man reporting to Helsion spoke in a low voice.

His name was Carter, commander of the First Imperial Knights and Helsion’s long-standing, utterly loyal retainer.

Helsion halted his review of documents and looked up at Carter. His eyes gleamed with surprise as he murmured softly,

“I deliberately assigned him a mission bound to fail—yet he succeeded even at that.”

Rumors about Tanashia had spread throughout the entire empire.

If she took no liking to you, no contract could be made; even if fortune smiled upon you and a contract was struck, it was only ever a temporary loan of weapons.

Weapon merchants typically acted for profit, yet strangely, Tanashia valued other factors far more than monetary gain.

Privately, Helsion considered Tanashia eccentric.

Regardless, among all existing empires, none failed to covet Tanashia.

Knowing she would never willingly leave her laboratory, Helsion had deliberately ordered Ascan to bring her to the Calua Empire.

Of course, success would have been welcome—but Helsion issued the command fully aware it was likely impossible.

Lost in thought, Helsion absentmindedly stroked his chin, then smiled wryly and murmured,

“Ascan doesn’t know the meaning of failure. No wonder I find him even more desirable.”

Hearing this, Carter clenched his fist tightly, unseen by others.

“We won’t know for certain until Count Atreus arrives. Who knows? Perhaps he’s bringing Lady Brellof here by kidnapping her…”

Helsion chuckled softly. Considering Ascan’s character, Carter’s speculation wasn’t entirely off the mark.

“I did tell him to bring her here by any means necessary—he might very well have done just that. We’ll have to ask him once he arrives at the imperial palace.”

Neither man yet knew the truth—that Ascan had indeed attempted to forcibly bring Tanashia.

Of course, if Ascan alone remained wholly loyal to him, Helsion feared nothing—not even turning Tanashia, the continent’s greatest weapon merchant, into an enemy.

Having spent many years alongside Ascan, Helsion keenly understood just how powerful the former human weapon truly was.

Carter’s eyes darkened as he spoke.

“Is it true you promised to release Count Atreus upon successful completion of this mission?”

“Yes. It was our agreement from the start—he pledged to assist me only until I became emperor.”

Bringing Tanashia to the Calua Empire was, in fact, the final mission Ascan had undertaken.

Many misunderstood: Ascan was not Helsion’s subordinate.

Long ago, they had struck a bargain over the imperial throne—Helsion would grant Ascan anything he desired in exchange for aiding his ascension.

Indeed, even the title of Count Atreus was legitimately earned through that very transaction.

Suddenly, Helsion recalled their final exchange during the title-bestowal ceremony.

─You don’t truly intend to end our deal just because you’ve become emperor, do you?

─It no longer matters whether it’s me or not.

─Ascan. No—Count Atreus. I wish our arrangement could continue indefinitely. Won’t you remain as captain of the Imperial Guard?

─I want to rest.

Ascan was no longer the boy who had left the laboratory with nothing. He now possessed far more than commonly known, and if he wished, he could soar even higher.

To think he should be satisfied now that he had wealth and power was to profoundly misunderstand human greed.

Humans, by nature, desire more the more they obtain.

Thus, Helsion had never met anyone as inscrutable as Ascan.

He had offered him wealth, honor, power, even beautiful women—anything Ascan desired—but Ascan only ever repeated that he wished to rest.

Nothing could capture Ascan’s interest. In truth, he sometimes appeared as though something inside him were broken.

Somehow… it felt as though a void resided within him, an emptiness nothing could ever fill.

He seemed to be waiting for something—yet even he appeared unaware of what it was.

Cautiously, Carter asked,

“So… you truly intend to release Count Atreus?”

Helsion smiled enigmatically.

“…Who knows.”

To date, Helsion’s survival against assassins sent by the former emperor owed more than anything to Ascan.

When surrounded by hundreds of soldiers and convinced his end had come, it was Ascan who had pulled Helsion from certain death.

Even now, Helsion vividly recalled Ascan’s flat, emotionless gaze as he asked,

─If I save you here, what will you give me in return?

At the time, Helsion had been angry, mistaking the question for a joke in a dire moment—but Ascan’s words held not a trace of jest.

He could never forget the power Ascan displayed that day.

As stated, humans desire more the more they possess—and Helsion was especially greedy.

Smiling faintly, Helsion murmured,

“I’ve never even considered the idea of honoring my promise to Ascan.”

The midnight ambush was swiftly resolved. Thanks to Tanashia’s explosives, the Imperial Guard suffered minimal casualties.

The following morning, as the sun rose, Ascan, the Imperial Guard, Tanashia, and her entourage resumed their journey toward the Calua Empire as scheduled.

This was possible only because nearly no injuries had resulted from the previous day’s attack.

Ascan rode his horse at a distance, his gaze fixed on the carriage carrying Tanashia.

He hated to admit it…

But she kept occupying his thoughts.

Perhaps it had begun the moment their eyes first met in the laboratory.

Jet-black hair contrasting with pale skin, glistening blue eyes, trembling red lips.

The sight of a stunningly beautiful woman gazing at him with tender affection stirred something strange within him.

It felt as though he had found something long lost.

─Ascan, if you’ve returned, say something. How have you been all this time?

Upon hearing those words, Ascan realized it was no mistake—he had not imagined it.

Tanashia already knew him.

Suddenly, a long-forgotten gap in his memories resurfaced.

‘Could she know about the time I’ve lost?’

He had once wondered what he’d done after escaping the laboratory, but lacking any means to uncover the truth, he’d abandoned the question.

Meeting someone who recognized him in such an unexpected place was curious—but that was all.

Even if she invoked a past he couldn’t recall, he had nothing to offer in return. So he deliberately pretended ignorance.

─I never permitted you to call me by name. I don’t know how you learned it, but never call me that again.

Moreover, he drew a clear line, forbidding her from approaching him further.

Though he had never cared for others, he now actively avoided her.

He assumed she’d understood—but that was Ascan’s mistake.

─Lady Brellof, I don’t know your intentions, but you should know your limits.

─Looks like you’ve noticed I’m interested in you.

Tanashia refused to give up. Far from being intimidated like others, she stood boldly defiant.

Staring into her direct, blue eyes, he felt himself being drawn in—yet her gaze carried emotions tied to a past he did not know.

He detested being entangled in things he couldn’t comprehend.

Clearly, that should have been the end of it…

─If anyone so much as touches a single hair on Ascan’s head, know that I will kill them all with my own hands.

He was grateful for the mask he wore—if not, he could never have concealed the expression on his face.

A woman like Tanashia… he had never encountered her like before.

No one had ever approached Ascan so boldly.

Normally, the slightest hint of displeasure would make others turn away—but she saw obstacles not as reasons to hesitate, but as things to overcome.

To claim he hadn’t noticed her gaze would be a lie.

Yet the moment she tried to take an arrow meant for him, the indifferent detachment with which he had observed her from afar crumbled entirely.

He couldn’t understand why. A rage beyond his control surged from deep within his chest.

She had nearly been hurt.

Because of him.

A single arrow could never scratch his steel-hardened body—yet she had recklessly placed herself in danger to block such a trivial attack.

It was absurd.

At first, he intended to ignore it—but now he grew curious. What kind of past had they shared, for her to act this way?

─You were my page. A slave of the Brellof family.

A noble lady and her slave?

It defied all common sense.

As Tanashia explained the past, her eyes grew dreamy and distant—it was obvious she longed for those days.

For some reason, it irritated him.

Her affection wasn’t directed toward the man he was now.

It was a blind devotion offered to the version of him lost in memories he couldn’t recall—a feeling the present him could never claim.

Under normal circumstances, that should have been the end.

There was no reason to look back further.

Yet…

‘I don’t know why I suddenly thought this.’

The problem was—if her feelings were directed not toward the past, but toward the man he was now… then the story might change slightly.

Until now, because he shared no memories or emotions with her, Tanashia’s affection had felt like something that didn’t belong to him.

But imagining it becoming wholly his…

He didn’t dislike it.

‘Is it because I’ve never experienced anything like this before?’

Ascan was strong. He knew it well, and everyone around him knew it too.

Thus, no one had ever tried to shield him.

His body could harden into steel—he rarely suffered injury, and since anyone intercepting an attack he couldn’t dodge would suffer worse harm, no one ever stepped forward.

But Tanashia was different.

From her actions, he sensed she believed it far better for her to be hurt than for him to suffer even a scratch.

It wasn’t because she was Lady Brellof of Arwen Empire’s high nobility, nor because she was the continent’s greatest weapon merchant and a genius in magical engineering, that he felt drawn to her.

It was her straightforward, unwavering heart toward him that kept nagging at his thoughts—even to the point of absurdly feeling jealous of his own past self.

Lost in such solitary musings as he gazed at her carriage, one of the Imperial Guard approached his side. The tall, burly man’s name was Carlton.

“Captain, we still have quite a distance to the village—how should we handle lunch?”

Only then did Ascan realize how much time had passed.

He turned to survey the surroundings. Plenty of tree shade and flat ground made it a decent spot for a brief rest.

“Let’s pause here and eat something light.”

“Yes, sir.”

At Ascan’s command, the long procession halted.

The Imperial Guard and Brellof retainers unpacked simple provisions they had brought.

Tanashia, seemingly due to her sprained ankle, remained inside the carriage. The Brellof servants would surely attend to her, yet something nagged at him.

He recalled her recent complaint from inside the carriage:

─This carriage is so uncomfortable. The cushions seem dead after just a few days, and sitting like this nonstop is making my whole body ache.

The conversation had ended vaguely, without any solution or resolution.

‘Is she still… uncomfortable?’

Once the thought surfaced, it refused to leave his mind.

Though Tanashia’s injury wasn’t technically his fault, he still felt somewhat responsible.

He had moved too hastily, fearing she’d be struck by the arrow—if he’d remained calmer, she might not have been hurt at all.

Intending only to glance at her from afar to check how she was doing, he approached the carriage…

Only to lock eyes with Tanashia, who happened to be looking his way.

Ascan’s face was currently unmasked. His previous masks—worn due to the former emperor—had all been destroyed during the laboratory struggle and yesterday’s floor-rolling scuffle.

Moreover, with Helsion now emperor, there was no longer any need to conceal his face.

As Ascan turned to look away, Tanashia deliberately exposed her bandaged ankle and whined loudly, as if demanding his attention,

“Ugh, it hurts so bad I could die.”

Without realizing it, Ascan looked back at her—and saw her beckoning him closer.

Last night, he had told her he wouldn’t refuse her attention, as long as it had nothing to do with the past.

It had been a difficult admission for him—but honestly, he hadn’t expected her to summon him like this within a single day.

‘What on earth is going on inside that tiny head of hers?’

He found himself wanting to understand her more and more.