DMEC | Chapter 2

In that moment, the Emperor snapped his thumb and forefinger, and the previously closed door swung open.

As the doors at the front and back of the room opened simultaneously, the waiting chamberlain, the Emperor’s lawyer, the Pope, and the knight commander, Alexander, entered.

As those who were completely on the Emperor’s side poured in, the Queen was startled and instinctively nestled into the Emperor’s embrace, clutching his garment and whispering softly.

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“Your Majesty, what do you mean by witnesses?”

The Emperor’s mood, previously displeased by the word ‘divorce,’ seemed to improve with Lute’s childishness, and he smiled.

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Lute, seeing the old lawyer adjusting his glasses perched on his nose, whispered in a timid voice to the only ally he had here, the Emperor.

“Y-Your Majesty. If you were going to bring a lawyer to finalize the divorce, you should have told me. I could have hired a lawyer too…”

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The Emperor placed both hands on Lute’s shoulders and looked at the lawyer leaning on a cane as he asked.

“Esther, after today… No, precisely after this afternoon, will the divorce be immediately finalized?”

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“Yes, if you file with the court, it will be an immediate divorce without asking for grounds.”

“I see.”

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The Emperor nodded. As a smile slowly spread across Lute’s face, the old lawyer’s eyes sparkled. Even with his ebony-black hair neatly combed down, a tiara adorned with diamond flowers, and a veil covering his face, the beauty of the empire’s most stunning person could not be concealed.

Nestled in the Emperor’s embrace, he seemed even smaller—lovely and enchanting, just like a fairy, exactly as the Emperor had said. And somehow, it made the Emperor seem like a thief.

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At this point, it seemed granting the divorce was the right decision. Esther thought so to himself.

“My dear.”

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The Emperor grasped Lute’s veil with both hands and lifted it. Slowly, his red lips were revealed. Above his cute, rounded nose, large, clear blue eyes—reminiscent of a deer’s—gazed at him.

He placed his left hand over Lute’s left hand and cupped Lute’s cheek with his right. Then, as if about to kiss him, he leaned in and parted his lips.

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“My dear, I formally request.”

He brought Lute’s left hand to his lips and smiled with the corners of his mouth lifted.

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“Today, let us formally consummate our marriage, I, Joel Ragnus, and you.”

Lute’s eyes widened in shock. The words of the knight Melik, who had muttered, “The Emperor doesn’t seem like he’ll let the Prince go so easily…” echoed like a devil’s song.

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When Lute shouted, “No!” the Emperor’s people glared at him. Speaking informally to the Emperor was a grave offense.

Even the Pope and the lawyer were present. Before Lute could shout again—“No, no! This is absurd!”—the Emperor cupped his small face with both hands and kissed him.

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Lute’s widened eyes remembered the day it rained. Joel, maintaining eye contact with Lute, smiled with his eyes and slowly closed them. Following him, Lute also closed his eyes and lowered his arms to embrace his waist.

Ah, what a foolish thing this was. The maid Anna had been right. She had warned him not to be deceived by the Emperor, a master of tricks and lies.

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“Mm…”

As his lips were released, Lute’s face turned bright red. Everyone had witnessed him and the Emperor kiss. Overcome with shame and embarrassment, Lute instinctively murmured, “Joel…” and leaned into Joel’s embrace, causing the chamberlain’s eyebrows to rise.

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“How dare you call His Majesty by name. Before being a couple, he is Your Majesty. You must correct this.”

Then Joel raised his hand to silence the chamberlain and stroked Lute’s head, who had buried his face in his embrace, as he spoke.

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“It can’t be helped.”

The Emperor shamelessly acknowledged reality and comforted the sniffling Lute, adding,

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“Lute is a child I raised with care and love for eight years.”

The expressions of the Emperor’s close aides gradually twisted.

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Wait a minute, isn’t the Emperor just a complete thief? With a twelve-year age difference, he had raised a child from four to twelve, and now—just half a day before the divorce—he planned to consummate the relationship to prevent it?

The chamberlain shut his eyes tightly, overwhelmed by dizziness, but he couldn’t fight the rising blood pressure and staggered. Meanwhile, the lawyer, his face blank, adjusted his glasses perched on his nose and spoke calmly.

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“Well, it’s not unheard of. Many couples consummate the marriage to put out the immediate fire and prevent a divorce. But the bigger problem is…”

“Esther, that’s enough.”

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The Emperor placed a finger to his lips and smiled, his eyes gently folding. The lawyer, quick to catch on, immediately shut his mouth and stepped back.

Knight Commander Alexander, still intent on stopping the Emperor, moved forward—but the Emperor’s hand was quicker.

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“Everyone heard, right?”

Lute’s face turned pale. Unknowingly, he clutched the Emperor’s garment, shaking his head with tear-filled eyes—but the Emperor’s hand flipped the unmoving hourglass. Bright yellow sand, like stardust, poured down.

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As Lute watched, his pupils sparkled as if filled with stars, widening in awe.

“Joel, every time I see this, I think of you. You must think of me every time you see this too. You must never forget me, okay?”

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Unable to take his eyes off the stardust-like sand cascading down, Joel whispered as he kissed Lute’s long hair.

“Lute, my dear. You can never divorce me. Unfortunately, there’s nowhere you can escape to on your own two feet. The only place you can stand is the marital bedroom. The only place you can sit… is on my face.”

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At those affectionate yet chilling words, Lute’s head snapped away from the hourglass, his gaze locking onto the Emperor. But before he could react, the Emperor cupped his cheeks and kissed him deeply.

Everyone who witnessed the scene instinctively knew.

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Even if the Queen were truly a fairy, the Emperor would have torn off his wings to make him his own.

After finishing the kiss, the Emperor slowly pulled away from Lute, gently caressing his flushed cheek as he spoke in a soft, coaxing voice.

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“Now, my dear, shall we formally consummate our marriage? We had quite a good time back then, didn’t we? People just don’t know.”

His hand slipped inside the fleece Lute was wearing, fingers deftly unbuttoning it. With a pop, the buttons came undone, falling away to reveal Lute’s outfit beneath.

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Of all things, he had chosen a light pink, knee-length ensemble paired with black shorts—an outfit suited for sunny weather.

“…Sigh.”

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A quiet sigh escaped the Emperor’s lips.

“Our baby, still in pink? Or is it red… because I washed it so much?”

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At the Emperor’s teasing words, everyone in the room sighed.

In fact, they all knew about the private relationship the Emperor and the Queen had under the guise of a hunting competition. Only the Queen was unaware of the confinement that had begun.

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Part 1. Just One Month Until Divorce

Emperor Joel Ragnus returned after four years. Not only did he arrive with his knights, but he also proudly carried the head of a ferocious dragon.

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The dragon’s head was unimaginably large, secured inside a massive iron-barred cage, pulled by the four strongest horses in the country. It was so enormous that even those tireless steeds had to stop midway at a territory to be swapped out, delaying their return.

Waaaaaah!

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Unlike past emperors, people cheered at the sight of Emperor Joel Ragnus, sitting gallantly on a white horse, wearing armor and waving his hand.

Indeed, His Majesty the Emperor is different! Yes, he is!

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He was the only great magician who had forged a blood pact with a unicorn—the guardian of the purgatory and the human realm, standing between the celestial and demonic realms—to obtain Peridexion, a sacred tree imbued with the spirit capable of slaying the king of demonic beasts, Basilisk.

Even 300 years ago, no one had achieved what the genius great magician and magic swordsman, Joel Ragnus, had accomplished. Not only did he turn the Basilisk into a grilled snake with a sword crafted from Peridexion, but he also captured a man-eating dragon, elevating both the fame of the great empire of Killen and the honor of Emperor Joel to the heavens.

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As a result, the cheers and support of the people soared, as if piercing through the celestial and demonic realms themselves, while confident smiles graced the faces of the knights following him.

However, Emperor Joel Ragnus himself found the cheers of the people gathering around him boring and tedious.

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I want to return to the palace and rest quickly. The dragon subjugation operation, which I thought would end easily, took longer than expected.

Unfortunately, like when I killed the Basilisk, the dragon was mating, so it held out quite a bit.

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But if you kill a mating dragon, the gold it hoarded doesn’t just double—no, it triples, or even quadruples. Thanks to that, the royal treasury was now overflowing with enough gold to sustain the empire for decades, without needing to ask any family or country for aid.

I got my revenge on Synthsis as I wanted, revived a dying country and made it a great empire, killed a dragon, and filled the treasury with gold from the dragon’s nest… so why is it all so boring and tedious?

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The praises and cheers directed at him were as loud and bothersome as fireworks. When Joel waved a hand with a half-hearted smile, the women squealed in delight, convinced he had looked at them.

“No, he looked at me!”

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“No, he didn’t!”

Jealous whispers spread like wildfire.

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Joel wanted to say that he wasn’t looking at anyone—just the distant mountains—but his horse had long since carried him past the women, steadily moving toward the palace. It was just that Emperor Joel’s ears were sharp enough to catch their foolish chatter.