My First Spouse (3)
"My true identity is that of the last princess of the Elf Kingdom, which fell into ruin in the distant past and whose very name has been forgotten by the world."
The bombshell hit like a slap to the eardrums and my brain completely shut down.
"...Huh?"
A dumb noise slipped out before I could stop it.
"Wait... you're not the Empress? For real? What the hell?"
At my frantic questions, she tilted her head with wide, innocent eyes.
"The Empress? After my kingdom was destroyed, I've never once left this empty castle in my entire life. How could anyone give me such a grandiose title?"
Her expression was pure, unfiltered confusion without a trace of deception.
What the actual hell is going on?!
A loud alarm started blaring inside my skull.
Did I skim the lore too carelessly?
No, this was definitely the highest-rarity Legend character Erna, the one whose appearance and name had brutally emptied my wallet.
The official in-game codex had clearly labeled her as the Bloody Empress.
Developer error? Or some hidden piece that wasn't in the game?
The knowledge I had from the game and the reality before my eyes began crashing violently into each other.
"Ugh..."
I clutched my head, spiraling into a swamp of confusion while my pupils shook like crazy.
She stared up at my face for a moment, then spoke again, this time very carefully.
"By the way, Hyun-woo. You... are human, yes?"
What? Where did that random question come from?
I blinked stupidly and patted my cheeks and jaw, checking myself over.
Did I get my race changed when I crossed over to this world or something?
I quickly swept my hands over my ears, but they were still the same familiar, rounded human ones. No pointy elf ears in sight.
"Uh... well, at least appearance-wise, yeah?"
"...Hmm?"
My bizarre answer that didn't even sound confident about my own species made Erna narrow her eyes slightly in suspicion.
Realizing my mistake, I quickly waved my hands and scrambled to fix it.
"Ahahaha! Just kidding, just kidding! Of course I'm an ordinary human. What else would I be?"
I nodded vigorously to hammer the point home.
"One hundred percent pure human, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. Yes ma'am."
"I... I see."
Only then did Erna's strangely doubtful expression soften, and she gave a small nod.
She still looked a little out of it, but she seemed to accept that I was, in fact, human.
She fidgeted with the hem of her dress for a moment, hesitating, before finally glancing at me with those blue eyes and asking in a tiny, hesitant voice.
"Then... you're not afraid of me?"
"Me? Afraid of you? Why would I be?"
When I answered with genuine confusion, widening my eyes, Erna looked even more flustered and darted her gaze around.
"Well, because... I'm not an ordinary human like you, and I have this strange red hair..."
"Come on, what are you talking about? What's wrong with red hair?"
I shrugged without a single second of hesitation.
"It's actually really beautiful."
"...Eh?"
"And you don't seem like the type who'd hurt me, so what's there to be scared of? I'm seriously not scared at all, so don't worry."
At my firm, nonchalant answer, Erna's eyes widened ever so slightly.
She let out a small sigh of relief, then lowered her gaze with a slightly more dejected expression and carefully revealed what was on her mind.
"The truth is... the humans outside seem to fear me terribly."
"The humans fear you...?"
At my question, Erna smiled sadly and nodded.
"Yes. It was a long time ago... around five hundred years, I think. The knight order from the human kingdom outside came all the way into this forest to subjugate me."
"A knight order? But why? You were just staying quietly inside the castle!"
At my heated voice, Erna bit her lip as if deeply wronged.
"It was... something truly absurd and heartbreaking for me. One day, I heard a child's terrible scream coming from deep within the forest."
Her blue eyes wavered sadly as she recalled the past.
"I rushed over in surprise and found a human child being chased by a ferocious magic beast. The child had gotten lost in the woods and was being brutally torn apart."
"......"
"I quickly cut down the beast and held the blood-soaked child in my arms, but..."
Erna's voice began to tremble faintly.
She bit her pale lips hard and continued with great difficulty.
"The wounds were already too deep. In the end, the child drew their last breath in my embrace."
"...No way."
"Yes. Right at the moment the child's breathing stopped, the kingdom's search party and knight order—who had been combing the forest for the child—burst onto the scene."
Erna's voice trembled again.
"It turned out the child was of the human king's bloodline. What the knights saw was... a strange red-haired monster holding the blood-covered royal child in her arms."
"Haah..."
A deep sigh escaped me without thinking.
The tragic scene from that day seemed to play out vividly before my eyes.
"The truth that I had tried to save the child from the magic beast didn't matter to them at all. In their eyes, it was simply a horrific scene of 'that red witch brutally murdering the king's child.'"
An absurd and heartbreaking truth.
As she dug up the old wound, tears began to well up in Erna's blue eyes.
The moment I saw that wronged, pitiful face, anger surged through me and I clenched my fists tight.
Returning kindness with enmity? That's going way too far.
She had tried to save a pitiful child only to be branded a horrific murderer.
And then she'd been forced to live alone in this dark, empty castle for hundreds of years, holding her breath the entire time.
Finally, the misaligned gears in my head clicked perfectly into place.
How must that day's events have been recorded in the human kingdom's history? A terrifying red monster that slaughtered the king's bloodline without mercy or tears and then hid away in the forest.
So that's why the official in-game codex had that brutal modifier Bloody attached to her. It was all from the humans' one-sided misunderstanding and distorted perspective.
I was just about to nod when a fundamental question suddenly flashed through my mind.
...Wait a second. Witch or murderer I understand, but why Empress?
Why would a single kingdom refer to her with that grandiose, overwhelming title meant for an emperor?
I was just about to seriously dig into that contradiction when—
"...!"
Erna flinched when she saw my face harden.
As if trying to somehow salvage the heavy atmosphere, she suddenly cleared her throat and straightened her back.
"Ahem! B-but!"
"...Yes?"
At the sudden loud voice, I looked up to see her puffing out her chest with a flushed face and declaring boldly.
Having made her declaration, Erna let out a pleased little "Hmph~" and tightly linked her arm with mine, giving me an adorable eye-smile.
Boing—
The soft, heavy sensation pressing firmly against my arm made my shoulders twitch involuntarily.
"Let's put the depressing old stories aside. I want to hear more about you and build more memories together. It's cold outside. Come, let's go back in."
She finished speaking and began pushing my back, guiding me into the room.
But perhaps because of the heavy question that had crossed my mind and the lingering aftertaste of her past, my head wasn't fully processing the sudden mood shift and I ended up dragging my feet.
"Hm? Your steps are awfully slow."
At my lukewarm pace, Erna tilted her head slightly.
Then, as if saying it can't be helped, she let out a light sigh and suddenly reached out with her slender arms.
"Eit—!"
"W-whoa?!"
In an instant, my body floated up into the air.
At the same time, my vision flipped completely, and the wide blue sky spread out above the terrace came rushing into view.
What the hell is this situation?!
Where was that absurd monstrous strength hiding in such a slender body?
Erna had lifted me—a fully grown adult man—in what's commonly called a princess carry, as easily as if I were a feather.
She strode briskly off the terrace and headed straight into the bedroom without hesitation.
* * *
Erna gently set me down in the middle of the bedroom and lightly snapped her fingers in the air.
Snap—!
With a crisp sound, warm flames simultaneously lit up the candles and the fireplace.
Humming a pleasant tune, she skillfully brewed some tea, carefully placed the steaming cup on the table, and gracefully took a seat across from me.
Soon, her eyes sparkled with curiosity as she asked.
"By the way, Hyun-woo. I... I mean, I've placed a powerful barrier around the castle, so I would know immediately if anyone entered. Just who are you, and from which country, that you could sneak through my barrier?"
Her blue eyes shone with pure innocence.
In that moment, a powerful sense of déjà vu struck me like lightning.
...Wait a second!
That's right—when I had first opened my eyes here!
In that hazy vision where I couldn't tell if it was a dream or reality, there had definitely been a red-haired silhouette on top of me, swaying her hips seductively.
The overwhelming volume pressing down on my chest and the sticky, beast-like panting breaths.
It definitely hadn't been some random wet dream.
I hadn't snuck through the barrier and entered secretly—I had already been inside, gone at it hard, and then passed out!
Clatter!
The teacup rattled loudly as the liquid inside sloshed violently.
With my eyes wide open, I blurted out.
"W-we... already did it, right?! I mean, we slept together! Or rather, we went at it pretty intensely, didn't we?!"
For a moment, silence fell so heavy it seemed even the white steam rising from the teacup froze solid.
Erna's face, which had been sparkling with curiosity, instantly flushed bright red as if it would explode.
Slap—!!
"H-how... how incredibly rude!!!!"
No matter that we were bound as husband and wife, it was far too explicit and vulgar to say directly to the face of a noble elf princess.
"Ouch!"
When I clutched my stinging, reddened cheek, Erna herself seemed even more shocked by the slap. She hurriedly wrapped her arms around her body.
Pat pat pat!
In the blink of an eye, Erna had fled to a corner of the room.
It seemed my crude words had brought back the sticky memories of that day—when she had been flushed with heat, straddling me and passionately rolling her hips.
"S-sorry for hitting you..."
Soon, she was crouching behind a bedpost, only peeking out with her eyes, and apologized in a voice as quiet as a mosquito.
She looked like she wanted to dig a hole and crawl into it right then and there.
"Tsk..."
I rubbed my numb cheek in a daze and swallowed a small groan.
But right at that moment—
Whoosh—!
"W-whoa?!"
Completely against my will, my legs kicked off the floor and stood up on their own.
As if I had become a marionette controlled by invisible strings, my body stood upright in place, elegantly placing one hand over my chest.
Then, horrific flowery phrases that I would rather bite my tongue and die than say began automatically pouring from my lips.
"Hik...!!!!"
Erna's eyes, peeking from behind the post, widened to the size of watermelons in pure shock.
Sigh... Fine. Whatever happens, happens.
It wasn't like I could control this mouth anyway.
Half-resigned, I silently endured the rampage of this body that had been possessed by some terrible casanova, elegantly lifting its chin.
"H-how can you say such shameless things right to my face...!!!!"
Erna was horrified.
From the tips of her ears to her pale neck, she turned red like a perfectly ripened tomato.
The insane mouth wouldn't stop.
Before my skin-crawling recitation could even finish, Erna—who could no longer endure the embarrassing barrage—collapsed to the floor and buried her face in both hands.
A sob-like whimper leaked through her trembling lips.
"No... I don't like it... It's too embarrassing..."
Erna writhed in shame for a long while.
But then the trembling girl suddenly seemed to make up her mind and abruptly stood up.
She pressed her back against the wall and began inching toward me with cautious, shuffling steps, watching my reaction.
Slide. Sliiide.
After slowly closing the distance while flinching the entire time, she finally sat back down hesitantly in the chair across from me.
Her face still burning, Erna squeezed her eyes shut and pressed both hands firmly against her chest.
"Haa... Haa..."
After taking deep breaths like that for a while, Erna finally cleared her throat with a small "Ahem!" and deliberately straightened her posture with dignity.
But the heat in her cheeks hadn't faded at all, and her wandering gaze kept circling around me without settling.
Finally, with slightly teary, sparkling blue eyes, she glanced at me and spoke hesitantly.
"So... first, let me ask where you came from."
That clumsy attempt to maintain composure was almost cute.
I barely held back the laugh that almost escaped and answered.
"Ah, I'm from South Korea. I came from Korea."
"Korea? Ko... rea?"
Erna furrowed her brow slightly as she searched her memory.
"Hmm... I've been shut away in this forest for so long without going outside that this is truly the first time I've heard that name. Is it a nation that was newly established in the meantime?"
"A newly established nation? Um... probably not. It's not even on this continent to begin with. In other words, it's from a completely different world... Wait a minute."
I stopped mid-sentence as if struck by lightning.
Hold on. Erna just said she was the princess of the Elf Kingdom, right? Plus all that fantasy talk about magic beasts and knight orders...
I had definitely fallen asleep in my own bed, but when I opened my eyes, I was in the middle of some grand medieval-style castle.
And most importantly of all.
The person sitting in front of me right now was unmistakably Erna, a character from Empire Harem Chronicles.
The strange, fragmented phenomena that had been floating around in my head suddenly snapped together into one clear conclusion.
"Then this is what people call an isekai transfer?!"
"...Huh????"
When I suddenly clapped my hands in excitement, Erna's eyes widened like a rabbit's.
I started babbling enthusiastically.
"Exactly! The place I lived was a completely different world where magic and elves only existed in books and anime, right? But when I woke up after sleeping, poof! I was suddenly in this world!"
"I-ise... what? Poof...?"
Bombarded by unfamiliar words, Erna's blue eyes shook, unable to keep up.
She carefully opened her mouth, trying to somehow fit my nonsense into her common sense.
"Um... so, you mean you came from a very distant, different world... using some kind of high-level spatial magic?"
"Yeah, pretty much! Man, thinking about it again, it's seriously awesome."
"...?"
"Usually in these situations, you get dumped here completely naked—that's the standard trope. But my starting point is just too perfect. Hehehe..."
I leaned back deeply in my chair with a very satisfied smile.
With her dazzling red hair and mystical, beautiful features like a fairy, I gazed at Erna with the emotional eyes of someone admiring a brand-new limited SSR highest-rarity character fresh from the gacha screen.
To obtain a max-level beauty like this as my spouse right from the start.
Who knew my fate held such luxury?
"Ahem, ahem."
While I was nodding to myself in deep satisfaction, Erna noticed my persistent stare and began squirming uncomfortably in her narrow chair.
Finally unable to endure my sticky gaze, she whipped her head away and spoke.
"D-don't stare so intently..."
Having barely escaped my sticky gaze, Erna gave a small cough and quickly changed the subject, stuttering.
"T-then... does that mean you truly know nothing about this place?"
"Well... to be completely honest, it's like I just fell out of the sky yesterday. I really don't know anything."
"Eh..."
At my excessively honest answer, Erna let out a dazed sound.
A man who had just crossed over from another world with zero common sense or background knowledge.
I could clearly see the complicated calculations running through Erna's head.
With no common ground, she seemed to have no idea where to even begin the conversation.
As that awkward silence stretched between us—
"Ah!"
Suddenly, as if something had just occurred to her, Erna let out a small exclamation.
Then, with a face even redder than before, she clenched her fists and asked me hesitantly.
When you thought about it from her perspective, it was actually the most obvious and fundamental question.
A stranger who knew literally nothing about this world had—
"But tell me. Why exactly... did you choose me as your spouse?"