DMEC | Chapter 4

Did he cry because I’m too ugly? They say everyone in the fairy world is pretty and handsome. Thinking about it, I suddenly wanted to enter the fairy world and kick out all the fairy men.

Or did they find out I was lying?

But if I suddenly said, ‘I am the Emperor, Joel Ragnus,’ I thought they might run away.

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Run away.

Muttering that word, the Emperor lifted his head and looked up at the sky.

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“This is… the palace where the Queen is trapped.”

The abandoned palace—more precisely, the forsaken residence where the young Queen was imprisoned—stood at the heart of the Emperor’s grand palace, completely surrounded by its towering walls. A powerful magic spell bound the Queen alone, ensuring he could never leave.

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An invisible shackle clung to his ankle, an unbreakable curse tethering him to this forest. If he were ever forced beyond its borders, his very body would ignite and perish in agonizing flames.

“As expected…”

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The Emperor mumbled while stroking his chin.

“A fairy, huh.”

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Even as he said it, it sounded ridiculous, and he let out a hollow laugh, touching his lips as he mumbled.

“Did that child really grow up to be as pretty as a fairy?”

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✮⋆˙

He forgot me. Joel doesn’t remember me.

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‘There’s no way His Majesty forgot the Prince. He raised the Prince himself for eight years, how could he forget?’

Anna, who was trapped in the palace with Lute for the crime of insulting the Emperor, comforted the anxious Lute with the same words for ten years.

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‘How could His Majesty forget the Prince when he raised him himself?’

Anna, older than him, spoke in a wistful voice, saying she still couldn’t forget the puppy Ro she took care of as a child.

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As a child, Anna lost her parents in the war and entered a noblewoman’s mansion as a young maid to take care of a puppy. Fortunately, the noblewoman was kind and entrusted Anna with the easiest task of taking care of the puppy.

Anna remembered everything about Ro, the noblewoman’s puppy, from how soft its fur was, how its black eyes sparkled, how much it liked her, and how well it jumped, and she whispered to Lute with love.

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‘If someone forgets the Prince’s adorable childhood, they’re a very stupid, no, pathetic and deserving-to-die human. You’re still so cute and lovely now, but you were really, really pretty when you were young, weren’t you? Our cute Prince.’

With Anna hugging him tightly and the escort knight Melik casually patting his head, Lute endured ten years, waiting in this lonely abandoned palace for Joel to come see him.

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It was all a lie. Joel forgot him, didn’t know who he was,

And to even lie about being the Emperor? Knight Commander Alexander? How could he utter such a blatant falsehood?

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Joel was a man with striking golden hair that shimmered like sunlight and jewel-like emerald eyes. Though his gaze was sharp and his speech rough—giving him the air of a delinquent from the back alleys rather than a dignified ruler—even his own mother had never denied his handsomeness.

His face, now more mature and rugged than before, was undeniably that of Joel Ragnus. His once-refreshing voice had deepened into a rich, resonant timbre after turning thirty, and even his hands and feet had grown larger, matching his towering height.

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Seeing him become more manly in so many ways, Lute’s heart pounded—not with admiration, but with resentment.

As he ran frantically, sharp branches and thorny underbrush tore at his skin, leaving his feet, cheeks, arms, and back scratched and bleeding. But the pain in his chest was far greater—so overwhelming that he had no time to register the stinging wounds on his body.

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“Sob, sob…! Sob…!”

You locked me up here for ten years.

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“Sob…!”

How could you forget me so completely? Ten years, twenty years, you shouldn’t forget!

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‘When you grow up, you must marry me, okay? You promised, right?’

Even though we made a promise!

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“Waah…!”

Joel—the one who had met him at four and raised him until he was twelve. And after a two-year gap, when his country fell, he had come here at fourteen, disguised as his sister, Loue, to marry him.

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Since then, exactly ten years had passed, with just a month remaining.

Lute gritted his teeth and sprinted toward the Water Palace, quite a distance from the lake.

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In the field before the palace, Anna and Knight Melik were harvesting potatoes when they caught sight of Lute rushing toward them, his cloak billowing behind him. Startled, they immediately approached.

“Oh my, Prince! What… what happened to you? You look like a drowned rat!”

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Anna’s eyes widened in shock as she took in Lute’s appearance—his drenched and pallid face, his arms and hands streaked with blood, dirt, and leaves, his feet cut and bruised. The moment she realized the extent of his injuries, a short scream escaped her lips.

At the sound, Melik—who had been digging potatoes with a parasol tucked into his sword belt—instinctively drew his sword and scanned the surroundings.

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At that moment, Lute spoke, his gaze filled with determination. But his eyes, swollen and red from crying so much, made him look anything but intimidating.

“I’m definitely getting a divorce. It’s not a lie. I’m really getting a divorce! No matter what happens!”

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Anna, who was looking at Lute’s condition with a worried expression, replied.

“Yes, you said you would. But that’s not the problem right now. Your feet, Prince…”

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Lute, feeling wronged, closed his eyes tightly and shouted.

“I’m getting a divorce! I’m getting a divorce! Anna or Melik, go to the Supreme Court and get the divorce papers. There’s only a month left anyway, so we can fill them out in advance and submit them a day before! I’m getting a divorce! I want a divorce!”

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“Oh dear, why are you like this today? Alright, alright, let’s go to your room first. Melik, can you carry the Prince?”

Melik nodded indifferently. He untied the apron he had fastened to keep off the dirt, then reached for the parasol secured behind his belt. However, his muscular build made it difficult to retrieve, so he turned his back to Anna. Understanding, Anna untied the leather belt and pulled out the parasol for him.

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“Hmm.”

Now free of his armor, Melik cast a blank gaze at Queen Lute, who was covered only by a damp cloak. His wet black hair clung to his blood-streaked cheeks, and tears—clear as pearls or diamonds—pooled in his eyes. His lips were red and swollen from nervous biting, an unconscious habit when he was anxious.

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Melik, his gaze carrying a fatherly warmth, brushed Lute’s damp hair aside and asked,

“Did someone spy on you while you were swimming in the lake, Prince?”

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”……”

Lute remained silent.

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Anna’s eyes widened in surprise.

Melik, watching Lute’s tearful expression with a stern yet gentle gaze, placed his hands on the boy’s slender shoulders. At fourteen, Lute had come to this country disguised as a woman, offering himself to save his sister and his fallen homeland. As punishment for insulting the Emperor, he had been confined here for ten long years.

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Why was it ten years?

Reflecting on it, Lute recalled the imperial law that Anna had mentioned absentmindedly.

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‘Did you know, Prince? This country values the love between spouses very much. Unlike our Synthsis, it’s monogamous, and, um, you know? I went to the Imperial Library and read the imperial law.’

She already knew. The Emperor’s heart, why the Emperor had given a ten-year sentence.

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‘If a couple does not share love even after ten years from the day they are bound together, they may naturally seek divorce. A couple that has neither shared love nor remained close is no longer considered a couple.’

‘Thus, if one party submits a divorce petition to the court, the separation is finalized without any inquiry into faults. So, Prince, if you endure with us in this palace for just ten years, you will be free to leave and return to your family.’

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Anna had found the best—and only—way for him, a man shackled by magic and unable to escape the Emperor’s Forest.

At first, he denied it. Then he denied it again.

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Joel had become Emperor, just as he had desired, and he had avenged my country. I believed that he would forgive me, that he would let me go.

After all, I had accepted the punishment of being confined in the abandoned palace for ten years—for a crime not my own, but my mother’s, the former Emperor.

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And he liked me. Even though I was from the snake country Synthsis, even though the crime my country committed was enormous…

‘My lovely Prince, please grow up quickly and marry me. I don’t want to give you to anyone else. I want you to grow only in my arms, only within me. So that no one else can see your face… You like that too, right? Staying only in my arms.’

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It was all a lie. Saying he loved me, asking me to marry him, maybe it was all part of his revenge?

“Prince. Please tell us everything. If someone dared to touch you…”

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Just speaking about it made Melik’s hands, holding Lute’s shoulders, tremble with anger. His eyes showed the fury of ‘How dare some scoundrel touch my lovely Prince!’

At that moment, Lute suddenly hugged Melik, who was like a father to him, and cried out like a child.

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“Joel forgot me! He saw me and didn’t remember!”

“…What?”

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Anna and Melik asked simultaneously. Joel, as in the Joel they knew? Joel Ragnus?

Since only the Emperor could use the Emperor’s name, the Joel Lute mentioned must be him. Anna and Melik couldn’t hide their bewilderment.

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Why did he, who never visited Lute after locking him up here, suddenly come here? And just a month before the divorce?