Dimitri, the third Imperial Princess’s concubine.

The man who’d slammed the door on her this morning entered the room with the same enthusiasm. He cast the doors wide open to the dismay of the out of breath maid that was chasing after him.

He stood stiffly, not even bothering to hide his hostility. His dishevelled appearance from this morning was gone, replaced by immaculate formal attire. His attractiveness was even more apparent now, though he also looked more severe.

But this was no time for her to be drooling over him. As both the former prince and the princess locked eyes with one another. One prim and proper, the other panting and coated in sweat. The latter folded and quickly panicked, grasping the bedsheets to cover herself, failing miserably.

“You’re acting strange, well stranger than normal.” Dimitri’s eyes glossed over the naked princess’ body and the position her **** had found themselves in, by now he was far too desensitised to even care.

The opposite was true for the maid, waiting in the doorway of the princess’ chambers. She gawked at the debaucherous scene, no doubt only having heard rumours and far too inexperienced to find it anything but shocking.

This was made painfully appearant by the poor girl's crimson face and nervous fidgeting on the hem of her maid uniform. “Please, forgive me your highness, I tried to stop him but...”

Before the maid could utter whatever excuse she could mention to save her job, the panicked princess interrupted, “Yes, it’s fine! Just get out!” too embarrassed to care as she shouted without thought.

The maid’s eyes shot up from off the floor in surprise to her princess’ reply and instantly regretted it as she was once again greeted with the naked sight. “R-really?! I mean sorry! I mean yes of course your Highness!”

‘Why is he still standing there?’ After the maid left the room, she still sat face to face with the former prince. His glare could burn a hole right through her. ‘Please go away already aren't I your boss or princess?!’

Her recuse came from the oddest of saviours. As if he sensed her panic, the **** crept from the comfort of the bed and the warmth of her thighs and stood in-between the both of them. Still naked and with the princess on his lips, he glared up at the prince who stood at least a head taller. “You’re interrupting her Highness and me.”

The **** looked like nothing more than a chihuahua going up against a greyhound but spoke with such directness it could have been mistaken for courage. “How dare a **** talk to me like that?”

“**** or not we are both concubines of her princess.”

“Don’t compare yourself to me!”

As the **** directed the prince’s anger it was much easier to pull the bedsheets around her once the young man’s weight had left the bed. Once covered she regained herself and looked at the pair. “Enough. What do you want Dimitri?”

His name from the princess’s lips caught his attention, even though he despised it he was still her prisoner and that still had weight to how much he could act out in front of her. However today he looked supremely confident. ‘Was this what was left of his pride?’

She guessed Alexandra had permitted this behaviour of his. While she waited for his answer she calculated him silently.

In her eyes, he seemed like he was lashing out in desperation. Like the kind of thing one did when they had reached the end of their rope, and there was nothing else they could do.

“Haven’t you had your fill? Don’t you ever get tired of this?” His answer surprised her as without context it made no sense, but she hadn’t forgotten it wasn’t her but Alexandra’s actions he was addressing.

She supposed Alexandra found this side of him amusing. She must have enjoyed the never-ending cycle of riling him up just to crush his pride in bed.

“I understand.”

She readily assented.

“What?”

“You’re free to do whatever you want.”

Her answer shocked the former prince completely leaving him speechless.

“Why, are you sad that I’m letting you go?”

“You’re insane.”

She laughed and watched his face crumple up once again which only worsened his temperament. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry and settled on a face in between before she had an idea. “I’m going to bestow a fief to you tomorrow.”

Both prince and **** looked at the princess with surprise. ‘Why are you two looking at me like that? Wait! That is something I can do right?! I’m a princess, it shouldn’t be a problem giving away land.’

“What?”

“Leave this palace as soon as possible.”

“What- .”

“I don’t have any hidden motives. Ah, that’s right, I’m fine if you want to take someone from my palace with you.”

“What?”

“A lover, for example.”

Before she could blink, he had grabbed her by the throat. Her breath was cut off in one swift move.

“You….!”

“Is putting your hand around my neck supposed to do something?”

He shook her roughly with the hand around her throat. She waved off the surprised **** who tried to approach after being pushed aside.

“However, you can’t return to your country. Forget the past and just live out your days with that person. This is the most I can do for you right now.”

Although it was realistically impossible for him to start a rebellion, she also couldn’t just let someone who posed a risk to the empire go free.

Dimitri spat his next words out through clenched teeth. “Don’t touch her.”

She chuckled. ‘Could the princess have been unaware of their relationship?’ Alexandra was many things but she wasn’t oblivious to the ongoings of the people she held a certain infatuation for, she had spies for that.

“You know me well, don’t you?”

“……”

“Then tell me. Have you known me to say anything I didn’t mean?”

It seemed that wasn’t the case since he was unable to respond.

“If I had wanted to kill that girl… I would have, you know, brought her here and killed her. In front of you. That’s the easiest way, isn’t it?”

She did her best to keep her voice even. Dimitri tightened his grip on her throat.

“I’ll kill you!”

“If that was possible, you would have done it by now.”

Poor darling. The thought suddenly crossed her mind. ‘Richard… This is all too familiar.’

“You know nothing.”

“…..”

“She’s different from you! I pledged myself to her.”

With that, he released his hand from her neck. She choked out a few raspy coughs to clear her throat. Looking her squarely in the eyes, Dimitri slowly dropped to his knees before her. “I beg of you, spare Mina, if you’ll only do that, then I…”

‘Mina.’ She recited the name in her head. Not that she had to after all she had followed Mina’s story ever since page one of the novel. It was her story and Alexandra was her enemy.

“… I won’t care if you kill me.” The man knelt beside her bed muttered.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to do anything to you.”

“What about her!”

She couldn’t help but feel sympathetic; she remembered what type of genre the novel was correctly, ‘Mina would never be satisfied with Dimitri alone; she was like Alexandra in that sense if only more humble.’ It was a reverse harem romantic novel.

She stole a brief moment for her cringe of a type of novel she enjoyed passing over.

But this man didn’t even know anything and was eagerly laying down his life.

“Do you want to know why?”

“……”

Under the circumstances, she couldn’t tell him the truth.

“I’m tired of you.”

“……”

“It happened faster than I thought. I suppose it’s normal to lose interest the moment you finally get that toy you really wanted.”

She heard the sound of his jaw clenching.

“Are you truly that deaf to the screams of all of the innocent souls who died before their time?”

He cursed her while glaring at her with bloodshot eyes.

“Just wait and see, you will get what you deserve. For sacrificing innocent lives for your entertainment, for treating human lives so insignificantly! I swear I’ll expose the truth of the disgusting greed hiding behind that pretty face, and execute…!”

“Shut the hell up!”

She knew in her head that she wasn’t the target of his fury. But the one reflected in his eyes right now, the one who had sat here listening to every pointed word wasn’t Alexandra.

In the end, she also exploded in genuine anger.

‘Did I do that to you? I’m also a victim here. You might have lost your country but I lost my whole world. I lost myself. Why do I have to die?!’

Finally, after a struggle to hold herself together a sudden panic attack struck her, she knew of course it was the scene she had read over and over until she knew the words by heart. Alexandra will die by her lover's hand.