CHAPTER 010
As they passed by the open-air dessert café, people's gazes were drawn to the couple sitting at a corner table. To be more precise, their eyes were glued to the young man sitting there with his long legs elegantly crossed, his broad rectangular shoulders and inverted triangle upper body perfectly poised without a hint of slouching. He seemed indifferent to the attention, his intelligent and noble ruby-like eyes solely focused on the woman in front of him.
“Is it delicious?”
In response to the Emperor's question, Arabelle, experiencing the delightful sensation of the whole strawberry inside the chocolate gelato melting in her mouth, nodded.
Arabelle placed a round chocolate truffle from the three-tiered tray into her mouth, showing a happy smile as the chocolate's sweetness spread across her palate. Her pink cheeks puffed out adorably as she savored the treat. Seeing her relaxed demeanor, the Emperor's lips curved into a smile.
He generally disliked sweet foods and didn’t eat chocolate, but watching her enjoy it so much made him curious. He picked up the same creamy chocolate ball she had eaten and put it in his mouth.
As expected, he didn’t enjoy the sweetness. The Emperor frowned slightly, forcing himself to swallow the chocolate down.
“When you get to the Imperial Palace, you can have dessert like this every day. It should help you gain weight.”
Maxwell felt confused and even startled by his uncharacteristically undignified words. He sounded like a sly suitor trying to woo a village maiden with promises of treats if she followed him to the capital.
‘She needs to gain at least twenty pounds to handle my weight…’
As he thought about why she needed to gain weight, the Emperor’s mind inadvertently recalled her soft body, prompting him to quickly down a hot cup of Earl Grey tea.
“Ah…!”
The hot tea scalded his mouth and throat, causing him to groan in pain. Arabelle, startled, handed him a handkerchief and asked with concern.
“Are you alright?”
“I-I’m fine. I just choked.”
Embarrassed, the Emperor stuffed the chocolate mousse cake she had been eating into his mouth and chewed vigorously.
‘It’s only natural to be concerned about her health because it’s tied to my curse. That’s all there is to it,’ he rationalized to himself.
At a table in the opposite corner, two burly men, out of place in the cozy café, sat squeezed into tiny chairs, watching the Emperor and Arabelle.
One of them lifted a delicate tea cup decorated with roses to his lips and spoke.
“This is the first time I’ve seen His Majesty take such a long, unplanned break… and certainly the first time I’ve seen him enjoying dessert at an open-air café with a young lady like other men his age. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it.”
“He’s often gone incognito to monitor the local lords, but I’ve never seen him take personal time like this,” said Jacob, who had served the Emperor since he was the Crown Prince.
Both Jacob and Peter, his loyal knights, were witnessing a rare scene they had never seen before. Although the Emperor insisted it was a secret mission to better understand the regions away from the capital, he had brought only Arabelle along, not his usual guards.
Dressed as ordinary provincial nobles, the Emperor and Arabelle resembled a courting couple getting to know each other, rather than being on a state mission. Without the chaperone usually accompanying young women, their outing seemed more like a lovers' date.
“His Majesty’s eyes are smiling,” Jacob observed quietly.
Peter glanced at the Emperor’s face discreetly. “His lips have smiled before, but his eyes never did. Now they truly look happy.”
Many believed that Emperor Maxwell was born without emotions to ensure his perfect intellect and judgment for the Empire’s prosperity. But his loyal knights knew better. They knew he had suppressed his emotions to survive the palace's political machinations.
From a young age, the Crown Prince faced constant assassination attempts and learned betrayal and hatred before love and trust. Maxwell had been close to his uncle Gustav and his aunt, Grand Duchess Caroline, seeing them as parental figures. He even trusted his grandfather's wife, Natalie, the Dowager Empress, as his grandmother at one point.
Surrounded by sycophants using his deceased father and kidnapped mother’s names to win his favor, Maxwell had learned early on that emotions were his greatest enemy.
As the plates on the table emptied, the Emperor reluctantly opened his mouth.
“Shall we return to the camp?”
Arabelle nodded without hesitation, despite expecting her to ask for a tour of the town.
Feeling inexplicably low-spirited, the Emperor began to rise when Arabelle spoke hesitantly.
“Um, Your Majesty,”
“Yes, go ahead. Don’t hesitate. We still have plenty of time. We don’t need to return immediately,” he quickly interjected, hoping she would ask for more time.
But once again, she surprised him.
“Your Majesty, you have chocolate on your lips.”
With a slightly embarrassed expression, she handed him her handkerchief. The Emperor's lips twitched. Defining his current emotion as annoyance at having chocolate on his lips, he grabbed a napkin and wiped his mouth haphazardly.
“There’s still some left,” she pointed out.
“Where? Here?” he asked, wiping another spot.
“No, a bit lower… no, to the side…” she replied, her eyes fixed on his lips.
Though her gaze was not seductive, he felt his lips grow warm. Swallowing dryly, the Emperor’s eyes narrowed.
“I can’t see where it is, so you’ll have to help me. We must hurry back, after all.”
Contrary to his earlier statement about having plenty of time, he now claimed they were in a rush.
Perplexed, Arabelle looked at him, but his unwavering gaze prompted her to take the handkerchief and lean forward. She carefully wiped the corner of his lower lip, her heart pounding even though she wasn’t afraid.
As she finished cleaning his lips, she felt something hot and wet slide over her fingers. Shocked, Arabelle dropped the handkerchief, realizing the Emperor’s tongue had just licked her fingers.
His red eyes opened slowly, and he spoke with an unruffled tone.
“Oh, I mistook your fingers for the handkerchief since my eyes were closed. I just wanted to taste the chocolate on it.”
His crimson eyes captured her wavering brown ones, and his tongue traced his lips as if to demonstrate what he had done to her fingers. The sensation of his hot tongue was still vivid on her skin, and her heart pounded wildly. Arabelle clenched her fists on her lap, trying to calm herself.
She wasn’t the only one to drop something. The waiter bringing the chocolate box the Emperor had ordered, the young women peeking at him through the glass window, and his knights all stood with their jaws dropped.
***
“I’m so happy to finally see the ‘Mountain of Lakes’ I’ve heard so much about.”
On the way back to the camp set up in the mountains, Arabelle mustered the courage to speak. The Emperor, matching his stride to hers, raised his eyebrows playfully.
“I didn’t know the southern mountain of the Hilkingice Range was called the ‘Mountain of Lakes’.”
“It’s a name given by hikers. The trees are so tall and dense that when viewed from the neighboring peak, the lush leaves make it look like a lake. Seeing it with my own eyes, it’s truly beautiful.”
Arabelle, excited, began to chatter like a little bird.
The once shy and reserved Arabelle had completely transformed. With a bright and lively expression, she eagerly listed the names of the passing trees and plants, even explaining which animals lived among them.
“Our mountain is so rocky that it’s difficult for wildlife to build homes, but this place is ideal for them. A single beech tree can host a whole family of animals, including owls, squirrels, foxes, and badgers. It’s a forest that provides a wonderful refuge from hunters.”
What seemed like an ordinary, damp, and moss-covered dark forest took on vibrant colors and came alive with Arabelle’s stories.
Not only the Emperor but also the guards who had gathered nearby for the first time looked up and surveyed the surroundings of the forest.
Interestingly, as Arabelle spoke, previously invisible mystical plants and animals began to come into view. Now, the forest appeared more beautiful than the bustling towns in Count Laurel’s southern estate.
“I didn’t know that this tree, which I had rested under to avoid the sun on the battlefield, was called eucalyptus,” Arabelle said.
After entering the makeshift camp set up for her, one of the soldiers gathered around the campfire spoke up. The other soldiers nodded as they looked around the forest.
“I suddenly feel the urge to pick up a brush and paint this mountain, after so many years. Ha, ha.”
“Commander, Deputy Commander, His Majesty is waiting inside the camp.”
Kyle, the Emperor’s aide, relayed the message to the two knights, Jacob and Peter, who had been chatting with the soldiers.
When the two knights entered the camp, the Emperor turned his head to greet them, clad in armor covered with silver mesh.
Addressing the two astonished knights with a cold tone, he said:
“Tonight, we will set fire to the forest on the opposite side of the mountain. We’ll burn the lower forest to split the mountain in two and sever the path of the rats.”
“Rats? You mean...?”
“Didn’t you see them in the village earlier? Though they were disguised, they were certainly soldiers from the North-Western Allied Forces. We knew Count Laurel was aligning with the Allies to build up his military strength, but he was clearly bringing in new weapons. The blades hanging in the village’s mill and butcher’s shop were not ours.”
As the Emperor sheathed his long sword, he concluded:
“While Laurel’s army is preoccupied with the fire, we will simultaneously attack his fortress.”
The three men gathered in the camp stared at the Emperor in stunned silence. Each of them was one of the most renowned knights on the continent, but they were no match for the Emperor’s thorough intellect and animalistic instincts.
“So... half of the forest will be turned to ashes?” Peter asked hesitantly.
The Emperor turned his gaze towards him.
Gone were the playful, ruby-red eyes seen in the village. Instead, a chilling, merciless blood-red gaze appeared, sending shivers down their spines.
The low voice that lacked any discernible emotion dragged the air in the camp down to the floor.
“So, is that a problem?”
At the Emperor’s terse question, the three knights bowed their heads and prepared to follow his orders.
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