It Was Mine, I Told You
“You don’t seem to think for a second that you’ll fail the exam, do you?”
“Well, isn’t that obvious?”
Regina stared straight at Conrad, her eyes wide. Conrad, who rather liked the sight of himself reflected in those long blue eyes, curved his lips into a dark smile and reached out. He caught the hair that spilled down her back all the way to her waist, then pressed his lips to the ends of it.
“Looks like you received some rather impressive training in the Ferman Empire.”
“It wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but...”
Regina lowered her gaze.
Every bit of imperial instruction she had received had been at the will of Her Majesty the Empress of Ferman. No one had been able to stop her when she insisted that Regina should receive the same education as Hereis so she would never fall short as a member of the imperial family. Not even the emperor had been able to bend the empress’s will.
Thanks to that, Regina had learned how to think, speak, and act like royalty.
I used to wonder why in the world they were making me learn all this...
She never would have guessed it would come in so useful.
Regina’s blue eyes darkened.
Lost in thought, she didn’t notice Conrad lean in until he was right in front of her. Slightly irritated that she still hadn’t realized he was there, he bit lightly at her lip.
Regina’s eyes flew open, and there he was, filling her blue gaze. Only then, seeing the startled look on her face, did his mood improve a little.
My mood improved?
He tilted his head at the unfamiliar feeling, and Regina’s reaction drew his attention again.
“W-What was that supposed to mean...!”
She drew back and covered her mouth with a hand. Conrad’s brows lifted slightly.
At her look, as if he were some shameless rogue, he gave a quiet snort.
“Is there a problem with me kissing my empress?”
“Th-That’s not the point!”
It’s not like I’m lacking mana, so why is he doing this?
Thrown into confusion, Regina glanced around helplessly. Conrad’s attitude was brazen in the extreme.
“What exactly is wrong? We’re husband and wife, aren’t we?”
He wasn’t wrong, exactly.
Regina only opened and closed her mouth soundlessly. Her mind was a tangle, and she couldn’t think of what to say.
Conrad’s expression changed as he watched the white of her cheeks flush pink.
The glimpse of red flesh between her parted lips made his throat dry and his fingertips tingle for no good reason. He wanted to shove his tongue deep into that warm softness and savor her however he pleased right this instant.
If Regina hadn’t been so startled, he would have done it without hesitation. But her unusually flustered state today made him suspicious.
Could it be because of the conversation over the communication artifact earlier?
Some man had been planning to gift her a cravat, and now she felt awkward about receiving my kiss?
His thoughts wandered off in an increasingly absurd direction, but Conrad couldn’t stop them. Regina’s rejection of him felt like a knife twisting inside his gut.
He had believed that, though their relationship had begun with a contract, they were moving toward something beyond that.
Had that been nothing more than his own delusion?
“Say it. What bothers you?”
When he fixed her with narrowed eyes, Regina looked away.
“I-I was just surprised, that’s all.”
“Why?”
Regina bit her lip and answered carefully.
“I didn’t expect it.”
“Expect what?”
“We have enough mana, and there’s no need to pretend to be lovers, so all of a sudden...”
“I’ll kiss my empress and hold her hand and pull her into my arms whenever I please.”
Conrad tilted his head as he spoke.
Regina opened her mouth, then closed it again, over and over, as if searching for the right answer. Conrad patiently pressed down the impatience he was used to wrestling with.
He could push her now, but if he did, he suspected he’d never get the answer he wanted.
“But we’re only bound by a contract.”
At Regina’s hesitant words, Conrad swallowed the sigh that nearly escaped him. He clenched his fist and endured.
“We’re married. We’ve even spent our first night together. We’ve done everything else—so now a simple kiss is off-limits?”
“Ah...”
At last, some understanding seemed to dawn in Regina’s face, and Conrad pressed his advantage.
“At this point, shouldn’t you be able to take this lightly?”
When Regina still hesitated, Conrad leaned in even closer. He set his lips against hers once more and whispered,
“And besides, I told you this was mine, didn’t I?”
Regina’s ears turned red. She could feel the soft, heated press of Conrad’s lips moving just above her own.
The warm breath brushing into her mouth, the steady gaze locked on hers—it was all hot enough to make her pulse race. She didn’t hate the gentle softness of his lips against hers.
I’m nervous.
They had been together in body several times before, but she had always thought of it as something dictated by their contract.
This was the first time they’d touched without mana being depleted, and her heart pounded at the strange nearness.
The breathless edge of standing just before a line being crossed.
The instant their breathing met.
Conrad’s tongue wrapped around Regina’s and stole every bit of breath inside her.
“Mm!”
The wet sound of their tongues tangling echoed through the bedroom. Dazed by the unfamiliar noise ringing in her ears, Regina’s body grew hotter and hotter until she lightly slapped Conrad’s shoulder.
If this kept up, they might end up doing the deed right there on the desk piled with documents.
“...Why.”
His elongated silver hair draped low, and those blue eyes rippled with arousal as they fixed on Regina. The low, rough voice that scraped from his throat made her fingertips tingle.
Conrad never once looked away from Regina’s lips, glossy with saliva. He reached out, gently stroked her swollen mouth for a moment, then whispered again.
“Do you hate it?”
Regina’s body language said the exact opposite, but Conrad asked anyway.
He wanted to see her shake her head.
And sure enough.
At Regina’s embarrassed little nod, Conrad smiled like a well-fed predator.
With her head slightly bowed, Regina never saw the satisfaction in his expression.
“M-More importantly, there’s still something I need to tell you.”
The bright sunlight slanted across the bedroom floor. It was still daytime, and the thought of behaving like this before evening even fell made her mortified, so Regina decided to change the subject for now.
“Hmm.”
Regina forced a smile at Conrad, who looked disgruntled as he drew back. But she didn’t notice that her own cheeks and ears were red.
Just then, he pressed a light kiss to her cheek, then spun around and personally fetched a chair before sitting down across from her.
Regina, who had been brushing her finger over the place he’d kissed, straightened at the sudden change in his posture and began to speak.
“I’d like to move where I’m staying.”
“To where?”
“The Empress’s Palace, for now. It still needs some organizing.”
“And why?”
“Because I need to be in the Empress’s Palace if I’m going to control the social circle.”
That was exactly the answer Conrad had expected.
Once again, he felt satisfied, certain that the one fit to wear the empress’s crown was indeed the one sitting in it.
She was so capable it was almost a shame she’d been born a royal of the Ferman Empire.
If Regina had been a noble of the Fredericks Empire, he would have used any means necessary to make sure she never escaped his side.
No.
He could still do it now.
Crossing the magic barrier was no easy thing. Regina couldn’t return to the Ferman Empire until her mana seal was resolved.
The reports are annoying, though.
The knights who had come over from the Ferman Empire.
He couldn’t say for certain whether they were exactly the ones he suspected, but Conrad was sure of it. If it was a magical empire powerful enough to maintain the magic barrier, then naturally it could scheme in other ways too.
Especially if it’s Hereis Ferman. He’d be capable of it.
The one who had used Regina so cruelly and then discarded her.
The one so petty he hadn’t even recognized a talented blood relative and, consumed by jealousy, had thrown away the best piece he’d had.
The more highly Regina was evaluated, the more Hereis sank to the bottom in comparison.
“The social circle is truly important.”
At Regina’s words, Conrad pushed away his thoughts.
“It is. For now, though, the Grand Empress still controls it all.”
There were nobles in the political sphere who didn’t rely on Grand Empress Chloe, but the social sphere was different.
If you fell out of Chloe’s favor, you couldn’t survive in society, so the noblewomen didn’t dare defy her.
“So I’m thinking of using this chance to shift the center of the social world.”