I pulled my hand back from the cool, carved wood of the door. I didn't knock. I pressed the handle and pushed the door inward.
As I wanted to eliminate my presence. I closed the door softly, plunging the room into a contained intimacy that felt dangerous. And rested my forehead on closed woods with my eyes tightly shut, in an attempt to delay facing reality as long as possible.
The chamber was overwhelming, saturated with the scent of those cursed lilies and the faint, expensive perfume of a stranger. And a sharp cold sensation behind my neck felt like a pointed... Knife!?
"Your Majesty, Empress Seraphina!?"
There was no reply to my call, instead a trembling calm silence razoring the cold settled. Earlier at the wedding, she definitely seemed normal. But I wonder what she's thinking right now as I am unable to see her facial expressions.
"...Your Majesty? Your Majesty, the Empress? Empress Seraphina!?"
She wouldn't reply to my multiple calls. I sighed, letting the formality drop as I tried to lighten the atmosphere.
"Hahaha! How unexpected of you! I believe there's some misunderstanding here."
"You speak of a misunderstanding, Your Majesty? There's no such thing," she replied coldly.
Such a certainty she carried in her words had me fall into deep thoughts of our previous encounters. I believe we hardly ever crossed paths before. But then a sudden phrase the maids kept whispering in the hallway struck my head!
"The first night?"
As soon as I blurted that out, she flinched. The atmosphere became deadly silent, that cold and sharp object behind could be felt much better through my skin. Gulp—
"...Sorry to disappoint you, but that won't be possible."
"Is that so, Your Majesty," she asked in disbelief.
I suppose she was being vary of me because she thought I was here to... Ha! Afterall, what kind of image do I have? I-I t-thought I had a pretty d-decent image?!
"I'm not that kind of a man," I tried to clear myself.
"Every crab says that!" Her words sliced.
"C-crab!?"
She has been treating me like a pervert since I entered. And now she's calling me a crab? A c-crab? —Shing —I can sense the sharp object pressing against the back of my neck as I fell silent for a moment. Then words just slipped out of my mouth in a hurry.
"I'm not lying!"
"..." But there was no reply.
So I made a declaration to clarify things, "There's only one woman in this whole world for whom I can ever harbour such thoughts."
She paused and asked plainly, "And... who might be that woman?"
But even for a split second, I sensed a spark of interest in her tone. And the atmosphere became a bit breathable as she loosened her grip on the knife.
I wanted to talk this out peacefully. Unexpectedly, this is how I had to reveal the truth.
"Aurelia!"
"...Oh! Then.. you surely must have had a love story?"