"Did you have a secret meeting with me in my absence?"
Despite clearly seeing and hearing his gaze, words, and actions, Kasalyn couldn't comprehend them at all.
When his fingers, coiling around her lower jaw like a thin snake, began to caress her lower lip, the urge to flee the room became a certainty.
Kasalyn pushed him away forcefully and ran out of the room.
She ran blindly through the darkness, the cold night air filling her lungs but unable to cool her flushed cheeks.
'I don't want to go back to that room.'
Kasalyn walked on, regulating her breath and looking up at the night sky sprinkled with sugar powder-like stars.
Occasionally, guards watched her carefully but didn't say anything, recognizing her as the Queen's maid of the Khan Kingdom.
She stopped by a small pond.
Scooping up the frigid water in her hands, she splashed it on her face, especially scrubbing where his fingers had touched her lips.
Feeling the late chill and wiping the water dripping down her chin, she suddenly heard a groan.
It came from the inner garden, dense with bushes.
Drawn by the pain-laden moan, Kasalyn cautiously approached.
There, she found the same man from before, his handsome face now contorted as if in a nightmare.
'Could he be a favored servant of the Emperor?'
Duke Ludwig's warning about not entering the Emperor's area flashed through her mind, but she approached him, thinking she should wake him up from such a tormented dream.
"Excuse me."
She called out softly, fearing to startle him, but his long, elegant eyelashes didn't move.
Almost unconsciously, she placed her hand on his burning forehead.
"Everything's okay. It's just a dream."
Her soft voice seemed to calm his labored breathing as if by magic.
'What am I doing for this arrogant man whose name I don't even know?'
'Perhaps this is unnecessary meddling.'
Just as she was about to stand up, fearing discovery by the guards, the man suddenly opened his eyes and grabbed her waist harshly.
He pinned her down on the grass, trapping her in his arms.
His eyes, now open, blazed fiercely.
"Did you see?"
He spoke in a voice half-drowned, like a growling beast.
His aggression was overwhelming.
It made sense to be startled by a stranger at one's bedside upon waking, but his reaction seemed excessively intense.
"What did I see..."
"Did you see me writhing in pain?"
Kasalyn, trying to ignore her wildly beating heart, nodded calmly.
"Yes, I saw."
No sooner had she spoken, the man violently tore open his shirt, revealing a sword hidden inside.
The blade, reflecting the moonlight, shone pale like winter frost.
He grasped her throat with one hand.
YOU ARE READING
How the Abandoned Queen Made That Man Kneel
Roman d'amour*Content Introduction* Let's break off our engagement. How can I make you a queen when you can't bear children? Casalyn, once the perfect lady, was destined to be the perfect queen. That was until a tragic miscarriage left her unable to conceive. "D...
