Achilles, still sitting across from her, didn’t immediately respond. When he did, his voice carried a hint of disapproval.
“Such matters are simple enough,” he said, settling into the sofa with a slight shift, his gaze never leaving her.
“After all the chaos today, who would dare propose to the Princess without knowing their place?”
The golden carriage of Cassandia, once a symbol of opulence, had reportedly been reduced to ash in a ruthless fire. Rumors spoke of the Crown Prince of Cassandia’s utter defeat at the hands of Grand Duke Nemertor. Such whispers would send most people scattering in fear.
But Ketrisia merely shook her head.
“My thoughts differ.”
Her voice was calm, but her words carried an edge.
“The King of Cassandia won’t dare to speak a word. He failed to uphold his trade agreement with the empire.”
The Emperor had given Ketrisia no explicit instructions regarding her marriage, a move meant to allow him to feign ignorance when the situation inevitably spiraled out of control.
“When the trade route was established, as a reward, I received a decree from His Majesty regarding my marriage,” Ketrisia continued, her tone betraying no emotion as she retrieved a scroll from the artifact space. She unrolled it with precision.
At the time, the Emperor had seen only her as his successor. Even when Ketrisia had been struck with an incurable illness, he had held onto the hope that she would recover, that she would be the perfect heir to the empire. She had been everything the Emperor had ever wanted.
And so, he had given her everything in return.
Ketrisia’s fingers brushed the scroll as she spoke again, her voice steady. “If I write the name, that person becomes my husband.”
The parchment unfurled, revealing the Emperor’s decree. The only blank space was where her future husband’s name was meant to be.
The date on the document was years old, yet the Emperor’s consent was timeless. From the moment it had been issued, the marriage was valid. No Emperor, past or future, could change that.
That was why Ketrisia suspected her father had made a deal with Cassandia—offering her as the prize to the one who could break her and bring her back.
“Cassandia broke the terms,” she mused, her voice dropping slightly, though still unwavering. “They were given an opportunity. But they failed to honor it.”
Her father, though he had discarded her as his daughter, had not failed to recognize her value. As a princess, Ketrisia was a commodity to be sold at the highest possible price. It had always been this way, especially now with the Emperor’s iron grip on the empire.
The empire was an absolute power—unyielding, unchallenged. Her contribution to building it, though immense, had been laughable in the face of its might.
Even someone like her father would find his world crumbling if he didn’t rise to the Emperor’s level.
“Now, as for Cassandia,” Ketrisia continued, her gaze steady. “They had no choice but to comply. The benefits of becoming a blood-related ally to the empire were too great to ignore.”
Achilles was watching her with detached interest. When he spoke, his words were blunt, cutting through the air with their sharpness.
“With your blood and value, you’re like a prized stallion to be sold to the highest bidder.”
Ketrisia’s lips twitched in a barely concealed sneer. “You really have a talent for making everything sound so unpleasant.”
Achilles wasn’t one for soft words. He rarely tempered his thoughts with anything resembling kindness, but Ketrisia knew his indifference well.
What she didn’t expect was the bitterness she sensed now—a bitterness aimed at her, not in cruelty, but in a desperate attempt to hurt her before she could escape.
“I was merely stating the truth,” he replied, his tone casual, as if nothing were more natural than this exchange. “If it sounded unpleasant, that’s because you took it that way.”
Ketrisia’s eyes narrowed, but she refused to let him draw her into another round of pointless sparring. She had no time to waste on this back-and-forth.
“So,” she said, cutting through the tension, “there’s something I need you to do for me.”
Achilles didn’t miss the sudden shift in her demeanor, but he made no attempt to stop her. Ketrisia wasn’t interested in the games he liked to play with words.
“You, come to my bedroom tonight.”
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