Chapter 61
Waiting
“This man seems to only know one thing about me.”
Lasilia let out a small sigh inwardly.
“If that’s the case… what should I do?”
Lescale muttered, frozen stiff.
“It’s not like that,”
Lasilia said gently, having to clarify yet again.
“Really?”
Lescale cupped her face in both hands and asked again.
“Truly? The young duke has nothing to do with you. It was Cartagena who made him her lover, right?”
“Yes… and please let go of my face. It’s uncomfortable.”
Uncomfortable wasn’t quite right—distracting was more accurate.
The way he held her face in both hands felt oddly like he was about to kiss her.
“Do I really have to let go?”
She was almost surprised it took him that long to say it.
Lasilia stared back at him expressionlessly. Lescale, looking dejected, finally let go. Lasilia didn’t yet realize it, but that stern look of refusal left a deeper wound in Lescale than she intended.
“You are my mate…”
Lescale murmured, head lowered.
Before, those words might have been meaningless to her. But Lasilia’s heart had softened considerably now.
“Your Majesty.”
Lescale immediately raised his head. His eyes, telling her to say anything, were a little overwhelming.
“I don’t know how I became the Empress. I thought I was dead, and then I woke up here.”
“I see…”
Lescale, having already forgotten the request not to touch her face, cupped her cheeks again.
Since it seemed to be a reflex triggered by hearing she had died, Lasilia let it be.
“So I truly don’t know. Why I have to be Your Majesty’s mate. How I can be. I don’t feel the certainty about this that you seem to.”
“Ah…”
“If I truly am your mate, then something must have gone wrong from the start—just as you said.”
Lescale shook his head without breaking eye contact.
“It doesn’t matter if something went wrong. We can fix it.”
“Yes. But I need time to fix it.”
“Again with the same words…”
Lescale sighed softly. His expression was so gloomy that Lasilia unconsciously reached out and touched his cheek.
“It may be the same words, but they have a different meaning.”
Lescale’s eyes widened.
“How so?”
As he asked, he quickly grabbed her wrist and pressed her hand back to his cheek, afraid she’d pull away.
“Before, I needed time to push you away. Now it’s the opposite.”
“The opposite meaning is…”
“If I can find out how I became your mate, I believe I’ll be able to accept you as my fate.”
“…”
A small sigh escaped before he spoke.
“You keep making me wait.”
“I know. But… things that went wrong won’t just fix themselves without effort.”
Lescale’s lips twitched.
She was right, so he couldn’t argue—but he hated waiting. Still, he couldn’t bring himself to ignore her words.
“Then let me ask for something while I wait.”
She was used to this sort of request from him.
“I’m listening.”
It meant: Go ahead, say it.
Lasilia noticed Lescale’s gaze linger on her lips.
‘He’ll ask for a kiss again, won’t he? He always does… I’ll have to refuse.’
Lescale had a habit of kissing—her cheeks, her forehead, all over. She’d gotten used to that.
But when it came to her lips—it was different.
He didn’t know when to stop. If she just let it happen, there was no telling where it would end. It frightened her, a little.
“May I ask your name?”
But it wasn’t a kiss.
“No—wait, what?”
She had been ready to refuse him, but his request caught her off guard.
“Your name. Can I know it, if it’s alright to tell me?”
“Ah…”
Even though he was speaking sensibly, his eyes were still fixed on her lips. The thirst in them was so intense that it made her throat feel dry.
Then he said:
“Lasilia, then.”
“Lasilia.”
He repeated it slowly, and somehow, it sounded like a completely different name.
“Would you like me to call you that?”
“I’m not sure… won’t it be confusing?”
Maybe it would be more comfortable to just return to being herself, rather than pretending to be an empress.
But right now, she was the empress. With this same face, becoming someone else wasn’t so easy.
“It doesn’t matter. What you want is the most important thing. If you don’t want to use the Empress’s name, you don’t have to. We can make the Empress’s absence official, and you can become the new one.”
“But to everyone else, we look exactly the same.”
Wouldn’t people find it strange?
“It doesn’t matter. I would never ask you to live as someone else for the rest of your life just because of that.”
Lasilia slightly moved her fingers still resting on his cheek. Lescale flinched in response.
But then he took her hand and gently pressed it to his furrowed brow. Just like that, his expression softened.
“You feel like someone who was always meant to be here. Maybe something went wrong and brought you late, but still.”
Listening to him speak, it became impossible to believe she wasn’t truly his mate.
‘Will I feel the same one day?’
Once she found the reason she had become his mate.
Then maybe… she could believe that she had come here just to meet him.
That this new life, no longer as a prophet, could truly be hers.
‘Maybe.’
It might not be such a bad thing.
‘I died once already.’
So maybe starting a new life was the right thing to do.
As the Empress of this empire.
“Then… ah, but wait.”
“What’s wrong?”
Suddenly, a thought she’d never had before popped into her head.
“What happened to the original Empress?”
She had died and woken up in the Empress’s body. So then, what happened to the real Empress?
Surely she didn’t die—if she had, people wouldn’t have reacted so nonchalantly when Lasilia first woke up.
“Nothing.”
Nothing happened? Then…
“If you and the Empress switched bodies, that would mean the Empress died.”
“Ah…”
She didn’t know how their souls switched, but that explanation made the most sense.
Her soul had replaced the Empress’s at the moment of death, and vice versa.
It was an unsettling thought.
To Lasilia, this was a new life—but to the Empress, it was a life stolen.
“The sorcerer the Empress summoned might know something.”
Lasilia’s eyes widened in shock.
“You knew about that too?”
“Dekkan has sharp ears.”
He said it like it was no big deal, but it was.
It had been an important secret. The Empress and the young duke of Pielion must have taken great care to keep it hidden—especially from the Emperor.
Now, she realized how pointless it had been to keep secrets from him.
“My guess is the soul-swapping has something to do with that sorcery. That’s what you wanted to know, wasn’t it?”
“Maybe so.”
“Then we just need to find the sorcerer.”
Lescale suddenly smiled.
The sudden flash of a smile had a strange effect. Her heart skipped a beat.
‘What’s wrong with me… it was just a smile.’
Lescale touched his forehead to hers.
She worried he might hear how fast her heart was pounding.
“You don’t love the young duke. You don’t want a divorce. So all we need to do is find the sorcerer.”
“…”
Now she understood why her heart had fluttered.
‘Because he’s happy. Because I’m the reason.’
He was visibly delighted. And the only reason… was her.
That realization was starting to shake her.
“I’ll press Dekkan harder.”
Which meant Dekkan was already searching for the sorcerer the Empress had summoned.
Before she could stop him, Lescale pressed his lips to her cheek.
“Ah…”
But then he stopped, lips still touching her skin.
“Why did you stop?”
“I was going to summon Dekkan, but…”
“But?”
“I don’t want to leave.”
Lescale’s gaze drifted lazily.
“I should go back… but would it be alright if I came again later? I won’t stay long.”
That sounded odd.
“Didn’t you come because your day was over, and you were going to sleep?”
“It’s not over yet. It’s not bedtime. Wait—did you think I came to sleep here?”
Lescale suddenly leaned in, too close. Lasilia flinched, leaning back.
“Yes… like before, in the next room.”
Lescale quickly interrupted.
“You’re the one who sent me away.”
“Yes, that’s…”
Back then, she’d pretended to be angry to create distance between them.
“Did you forget?”
“No, I thought… you’d forgotten.”
“You mean, if I forgot, it wouldn’t count anymore?”
“Not necessarily…”
…Although maybe that was true.
There was no reason to be angry anymore. No reason to keep pushing him away.
And Lescale, with sharp instinct, saw right through her hesitation.
“Then you can forget that I ever felt unfamiliar to you.”
Before she could ask what he meant, Lescale wrapped an arm around her and cradled her chin with his other hand.
The next moment, his lips were on hers.
