Annecy, who had been quietly listening to Goyo’s words, looked down at her.
Before he knew it, the faint smile had disappeared from his face.
Though his face was expressionless, just the lack of a smile made his long, slanted eyes look as cold as a blade, making anyone who stood before him feel a chill.
After a moment of silence, he asked back, “What I want, you mean?”
“What I want is power.”
“Is that so.”
“I want a firm and cruel power where I don’t have to be chased by anxiety, don’t have to worry about losing what I have, don’t have to hide anywhere, and no one can dare to whisper when I plunge a blade into the neck of those who oppose me.”
Annecy turned his head. The sound of ripples hitting the boat’s side was split by the wind.
Looking at the Orion River, which reflected the night sky, he continued in a calm voice.
“A middling power, where I act as a puppet for a ruler on my back, is not enough. If there is someone above me, then it’s no longer my power. A power where no one can dare to command or expect anything from me. Even if that someone is the Emperor.”
Even if it’s the Emperor. His low voice sounded strong nonetheless. Goyo was a bit startled, but she didn’t show it.
“Of course, I’m not saying I’ll start a rebellion. The position of an Emperor carries a lot of obligations. Like you, I don’t love this country enough to bear all those responsibilities.
If there’s an obligation I have to answer, it’s to the one person who pulled me out of the mire.”
Annecy continued.
“I’ve lived for that. If I didn’t try to achieve everything and only lived by force, I would have achieved it easily, but I’ve poured my efforts into what others would call unnecessary.
Beheading thousands, covered in blood, gagging, having nightmares, and eventually getting used to it so that even being called a murderer wouldn’t shake me.”
I might be the only one who thinks such efforts are meaningful.
Annecy’s voice dropped even lower. If you weren’t listening carefully, it would have been a sound buried in the sea.
“And finally, I crawled up to here.”
The wind that caressed the river blew a bit stronger, tangling the hair of the two people as it passed.
The cold-faced man’s words were exceedingly dangerous, but strangely, Goyo seemed to see something she recognized in the mirror on his face.
A gray expression that skillfully hid an endlessly tired face, occasionally flashed on the man opposite her.
Then, suddenly, Annecy Bethelgius squinted his eyes.
The coldness that filled his face vanished in an instant, and the unfamiliar man’s face turned back to a somewhat familiar expression.
“…What would you do if I said that, Goyo?”
“Pardon?”
“I’m joking. I don’t have such grand dreams, and if I wish for something now, it would be that our marriage goes smoothly.”
Annecy shrugged and tightly fastened the coat he had placed on Goyo’s shoulders.
“It’s cold. I think you should go inside soon.”
“It will come true, soon.”
Goyo, who had been staring at him, took a sip of champagne.
Yes, Annecy Bethelgius’s dream would come true. In the future she saw before returning to the past, he cut off Rubiette’s head.
One of the two dukes under the Emperor’s throne, Alte and Rubiette, collapsed, leaving a vacant spot. That spot was filled by a much more powerful owner in just a few years, without anyone else coveting it.
Annecy Bethelgius, who was instantly made a marquis due to his brilliant achievements on the battlefield, swallowed Rubiette and obtained the title of Grand Duke.
He, known to be of common birth, became a Grand Duke eligible for the throne because his lineage was publicly recognized by then.
“Really, your dream.”
He was the illegitimate child of the late emperor, Malato II’s third son, Annecy Bethelgius. His lineage was more than sufficient to become a Grand Duke by sacrificing Rubiette.
The current emperor publicly acknowledged him as the child of the late empress, who had died before becoming the empress dowager.
It was a flimsy excuse, claiming he was kept hidden because he was born with a weak constitution in the empress’s later years. However, no one could openly refute this.
Rubiette disappeared, Alte remained a loyal right hand to the current emperor, and the newly made Grand Duke Bethelgius, who destroyed Rubiette, was formidable enough to be a terror with his power alone.
Furthermore, before attacking Rubiette, Annecy Bethelgius gathered the aristocrats, ruling as their leader, and collected all sorts of weaknesses behind the scenes.
Although the entire nobility of Solaris knew he was an illegitimate child, it was a truth no one could dare speak out loud.
Ultimately, he was recorded in history as a legitimate prince of the Solaris imperial family.
Annecy Bethelgius formally received the title of Grand Duke about six months before Goyo took her own life.
At that time, Goyo was almost in seclusion, so she wasn’t well-informed, but it was such a significant event that even in her isolated state, she heard about it.
Perhaps it was because she was still a Rubiette, and someone made sure she heard it. But at that time, Goyo Rubiette, whose heart was already dead, didn’t care about the news.
So, for Goyo, the title of marquis was still more familiar, but he eventually became a Grand Duke, reaching a position higher than anyone else.
Formally, he was a subject of the emperor, but given that he ruthlessly ousted Rubiette, who had long been loyal to the imperial family, and that the emperor publicly recognized an illegitimate child as legitimate, it wasn’t hard to guess that the emperor also had some weakness.
Unlike Goyo Rubiette, who couldn’t even achieve her meager dreams, Annecy Bethelgius ultimately achieved his dangerous dream.
“Well, that means I can interpret your words as expecting a happy married life with me, right?”
At his awkward joke, Goyo smiled silently. She was about to add something but eventually, Annecy sighed deeply and stood beside her again.
“…I don’t expect you to believe it, but I have goodwill towards you. Even if I can’t love you, I will respect you as much as possible.”
“Okay.”
Goyo replied indifferently. It was a half-hearted response, and she didn’t hide it, so it sounded insincere to Annecy as well.
“Even though I said it, it makes me sad that you really don’t believe it.”
Knowing our end, what can I believe?
Goyo thought cynically. His words seemed laughable to someone who knew the truth. Suddenly curious, Goyo called him. Annecy.
“Have you ever truly loved someone while interacting with many people?”
“You’re not assuming I’ve never had any relationships.”
“That was the dullest joke I’ve ever heard.”
“It’s sad that all my jokes so far have been dull, but this one isn’t a joke.”
Goyo, looking at Annecy with disbelief, tilted her head as a thought crossed her mind.
“Oh, so you mean you’ve only shared physical intimacy without emotions…?”
“Don’t speak as if you understand. I haven’t shared physical intimacy either.”
Annecy protested with a disgruntled voice. He felt somewhat wronged by how Kolabe and Goyo perceived him.
“The first person I kissed was you, Goyo.”
“At the wedding earlier?”
“No.”
Annecy, standing beside Goyo, turned his body to face her. He then gently gripped the railing on either side of her, leaning closer.
Adopting the same posture as when they were on the terrace of the ballroom, he smirked mischievously.
“At the ballroom.”
‘Would the lady accept my proposal?’
Ah, Goyo let out a small exclamation. Indeed, she impulsively kissed him at the ballroom.
Recalling this felt a bit surprising. Despite being in the same posture now as then, Annecy’s scent didn’t seem unpleasant. Perhaps she had become accustomed to it after seeing him a few times.
However, there was no tension or excitement that one might expect in such a situation.
To Annecy Bethelgius, who was accustomed to people reacting familiarly just by making eye contact and smiling, this was a very unfamiliar and somewhat disappointing experience.
“I’ve noticed before, but you don’t seem nervous at all.”
“Do you want me to be nervous?”
“Not exactly….”
Annecy trailed off. He knew well that his appearance was notably striking, perhaps unmatched anywhere in the world.
Throughout his life, his looks had been advantageous to him, though they had also occasionally put him in danger. He had used his appearance to his benefit countless times.
Of course, not everyone lost their reason over his looks, but such calmness as Goyo’s was a first. He was genuinely puzzled.
Bracing for a rebuke, Annecy asked.
“Have you ever thought that I’m handsome?”
“No, you’re very handsome. The most handsome person I’ve ever seen.”
But what he received was not a rebuke but a straightforward answer. Annecy’s ears reddened slightly with embarrassment. Goyo looked at him curiously.
“Annecy, despite appearances, you seem to be quite shy.”
“Me, shy…? I thought you were quiet and composed, but you’re rather quick-tempered and impulsive.”
“If you’re talking about the ballroom, it was your fault for joking when we were supposed to discuss something important. And I don’t impulsively talk about appearances. My impression of you has always been consistent.”
“…Alright, let’s stop talking about that then.”
He felt he couldn’t win against Goyo in this conversation.
Annecy Bethelgius, who had never heard someone speak so earnestly about appearances, felt embarrassed by Goyo’s words. He could feel the heat rising in his ears, intensified by the cold wind.
Annecy let out a long sigh.
“My wife is more difficult than I thought.”
“Wife?”
“Yes, wife. Since we’ve completed the wedding, you are legally Goyo Bethelgius.”
Goyo’s eyes widened. A small flutter stirred in her heart, which had been calm all along.
‘Wife…’
It was a term Goyo had never heard before. Although she loved Terio and became Goyo Alte, he never called her that.
Yet, it wasn’t the term itself that pained her, but the reason behind it, so she never thought she wanted to be called that.
But hearing the word now, Goyo felt a slight tickle in her chest.
A little, just a little, enough to ignore.
Annecy, interpreting Goyo’s surprised face, continued playfully.
“So, there’s no escaping now. I tend to be a bit obsessive.”
“Capturing someone you don’t even love, you truly are a bad man. But it doesn’t matter.”
Goyo finished the remaining champagne in her glass and set it down. The cool breeze from the river seemed to caress her cheeks, flushed from the alcohol.
“From the moment I decided to become Goyo Bethelgius, I resolved to die as Bethelgius. So running away was never an option.”
Though Goyo’s words were clear in their literal meaning, they sounded quite different to Annecy Bethelgius, who, no matter how competent, could not read others’ minds.
Annecy’s eyes fixated on Goyo, who was looking at the river. Her dark brown hair fluttering in the wind and her face glowing in the moonlight made Annecy’s mouth go dry.
Goyo noticed his gaze and turned her eyes toward him, their gazes entangling.
The sound of his pounding heart pushed him into action, and Annecy’s hands soon cupped her beautiful face.
Through the strands of her long hair, he kissed her. Slightly surprised, Goyo soon closed her eyes, and silence fell between them.
The breath that passed between their lips felt especially warm, likely due to the cold wind, or so they both thought.