Chapter 35

Briseyes frowned at Callisten’s words. No matter how she thought about it, this seemed like a bad dream.

“I’m joking. Going further would be problematic.”

“Why?”

“I should do it when Bri is in her right mind. What’s the point of doing it when you don’t even know if this is a dream or not?”

Callisten said this with a slight smile.

She felt strange seeing his expression that appeared somewhat shy.

“Even for a dream, this is really terrible. The worst.”

She muttered this to herself and turned her head to the side. He then took her hand and wiped it with the cooled towel.

“What are you staring at?”

“You’re pretty. I’m trying to remember.”

He said this while carefully wiping Briseyes’s small hand. He was meticulously wiping between her fingers while being careful not to tangle the IV.

He stared so persistently as if trying to imprint it in his mind. Then he wrung the towel again and wiped her other hand.

“I want to touch you, Bri.”

“You are touching me now.”

“I want to touch all of you, not just your hands.”

“Go away. I want to wake up from this dream.”

At her words, he laughed happily again and wiped the hand that didn’t have the IV.

“I won’t. I would never do anything you hate.”

“Go away.”

“Do you hate that I’m restraining myself well?”

“Yes.”

He said this while rebuttoning the two buttons that had come undone on Briseyes’s clothes.

Seeing his behavior, she unconsciously blurted out again:

“You really are like Callisten.”

Perhaps because of this side of Callisten, Briseyes felt the dream seemed too much like reality. In fact, it wasn’t a dream at all.

This was the kind of person she knew him to be.

Someone who wouldn’t touch her if she wasn’t in her right mind.

“Can I sleep beside you?”

“Go away.”

With that, he exhaled heavily and lay down beside her again.

She thought this dream was really strange, but thinking it was just a dream and he would be gone when she woke up, she let her mind drift in the haziness.

Even in a dream, perhaps because it was Callisten, he didn’t show any suspicious behavior. And even in a dream, she remembered that the key to his chastity belt was in her room at the Mays Grand Duke’s residence.

But her strongest thought was that even if this was a dream, the Callisten Ethan Cropus she knew, whom she had known since childhood, was neither the type to force himself on her nor to force her to do things she hated, which gave her a sense of relief.

Her body still hurt, and she felt dreamy as if in a dream, but she didn’t find this dream as nightmarish as she had expected.

“Cal.”

“Yes, Bri.”

As he approached her, his breath touched her nape.

“Thank you, even if this is a dream.”

She found it strange that him wiping her face and hands and nursing her seemed to weaken her heart.

Neither her husband Demian, nor the people of Marquis Philia’s household who knew she was hospitalized.

None of them had come, but only he came every day to check on her condition.

Strangely, she felt grateful yet sad about this.

“Bri, can I hug you?”

He said this when he felt her sobbing.

“Tell me if you hate it. I’ll take it as permission if you don’t refuse.”

Since she didn’t answer, he embraced her waist as if to comfort her.

⁕⁕⁕

Callisten was dreaming.

At that time, he was only six years old.

Back then, Callisten’s mother was still alive.

“Mother, why did you marry someone like Emperor Father?”

Callisten didn’t like his father much from a young age. The Emperor was always making his mother suffer.

He didn’t know then, but now he did know the reason.

“Why are you curious about that?”

He now knew that the reason his mother was always made anxious was because of Emperor Father’s womanizing.

Unlike courtesans who were casually brought to bed, it was around this time that he had extended his hand even to other men’s wives.

“If I were Mother, I don’t think I could love Emperor Father.”

Callisten answered honestly. At this time, he was quite a child who depended on his mother.

“I have never once loved your father.”

He strangely felt relieved at those words. Perhaps he thought that if she had married Emperor Father because of that emotion called love, he too might be abandoned someday.

He thought that it might be severed not because of his fault, but because of the Emperor’s.

“I was the most desired object of the most supreme being in this Empire. My family, the Duchy of Pendleton, had an invincible military power that no one could approach.”

At that moment, he realized.

That one must become the supreme being to get what one desires.

Just as his father had become Emperor with the help of his mother’s power.

“So you too should become more supreme than anyone else. So that no one can rise above you.”

He met his mother’s eyes, seeing her benevolent yet stern expression.

“And give your leash to what you truly desire. As I did.”

“What did Mother desire?”

“I desired power. Power so that no one could treat me carelessly.”

Callisten understood yet didn’t understand those words.

After all, when he saw Briseyes at the age of five, he thought that what he desired and what his mother desired were somewhat different.

“How do you give a leash?”

“Show loyalty. Prove that nothing else matters except that.”

What his mother desired was overwhelming power and authority that even the Emperor couldn’t approach.

In reality, his mother had achieved that and made even the Emperor tremble. But even his mother eventually got caught up in a power struggle and passed away.

Her place was taken by the current Empress, whom Emperor Father loved to madness.

Callisten realized. That even with power and authority, there was something more valuable.

Only after losing his mother could he realize this.

⁕⁕⁕

“You, what are you doing?”

Briseyes pushed him away as soon as she opened her eyes. Callisten, without opening his eyes, seemed to come to his senses and embraced her.

“I nursed you yesterday.”

At his husky voice, Briseyes suddenly came to her senses. Even that bewitching dream she had yesterday.

“What did you do to me?”

“I told you, I nursed you.”

She had trouble speaking, perhaps because of the shameful memories. And because Callisten was embracing her with his upper body undressed, that dream strangely seemed real.

“You…… Tell me the truth.”

“Did you have a good dream?”

Callisten opened his eyes casually and smiled at Briseyes.

In that moment, Briseyes realized that everything she had experienced wasn’t a dream.

“Get out right now.”

Seeing her expression, Callisten smiled with relief and said:

“I really want to have you, Bri.”

“Then why……”

She found his words strange too. If he wanted her so badly, why didn’t he take her?

Yesterday, she was in such a weakened state that he could have easily taken her by force if he wanted to.

“How can you say that while wearing a chastity belt?”

“As you know, this can be cut with a knife. I’m choosing not to.”

He said this while looking at the scabbard dangling near his coat.

“I really want you so much, Bri.”

When Callisten spoke in a plaintive voice, she felt even more wary. Yet it was so like him.

“Go quickly. What if someone sees us?”

“If they see, I’ll take responsibility.”

“Who would take responsibility for me?”

“You should take responsibility for me. For devouring an innocent Crown Prince?”

At his words, Briseyes’s face strangely felt very hot. Whether from shame or embarrassment.

“Can I stroke your hair?”

She should have said no.

Perhaps the drug’s effect was still lingering, or perhaps she was swayed by his expression.

Or maybe her heart had softened because his claim of nursing her all night was true.

She couldn’t explain her state with any of these reasons.

“Do as you please.”

She unknowingly gave permission.

As soon as she said this, he began stroking Briseyes’s hair. When she felt his warm hand pressing firmly on her head and stroking it carefully, her heart felt strange again.

It must be because of the effect of the painkiller Arpen, she thought.

She then bit her lip hard as if coming to her senses.

He grabbed her lips with his hand and said:

“Don’t bite.”

At his words, she stopped biting her lip.

“Are you feeling a bit better?”

When he spoke in an uncharacteristically gentle voice, Briseyes felt really strange.

She even had the odd feeling that she should respond kindly as he wished.