How to Tame That Gentle Male Lead - Chapter 5.5
“It’s alright, Your Majesty. Seducing the young lady is only possible if she shows interest in me, so it’s not something that can be done by my or Your Majesty’s suggestion. And I find it interesting to newly encounter someone who has so little interest in me. I don’t want to distort this form of feeling, so I plan to approach it at my own pace, leisurely.”
“Hmm…”
The Emperor suddenly thought of Empress Emeril, who had left him for heaven.
When she was alive, the Emperor was carrying out his own good governance. But after she died, having fallen ill just two months after giving birth to Eldis, the Emperor lost his enthusiasm for state affairs.
After that, until Eldis turned ten and ascended to the position of Crown Prince, he accepted all gifts that came to him, and even went so far as to occasionally frame wealthy families with treason, exterminating them and coveting the wealth they had accumulated. He knew that the nobles sometimes mocked him behind his back, calling him a rotten emperor, but he pretended not to know.
However, when Eldis was fourteen and started showing prominence in state affairs as the Crown Prince, the Emperor could no longer behave as he had before. After all, Eldis seemed so much like himself when Empress Emeril was alive before he gave up on state affairs.
“…Eldis.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The Emperor stroked his beard and continued speaking.
“I don’t want you to have a difficult love. But even if I say this, you won’t be convinced until you try it yourself. So, do as much as you can. If it really doesn’t work out, ask me for help.”
“Your Majesty.”
“Before I fell deeply for Emeril, I too thought I would lead my love life in my own way. But after Emeril rejected my proposal, I went to the late Emperor and got a firm promise to push for my marriage to her. Of course, this was possible because Emeril didn’t have any man in her heart until then.”
“…”
Seeing Eldis close his mouth, his father smiled kindly.
“So, Eldis. Don’t put too much meaning on receiving my help. Whatever the trigger, it doesn’t matter as long as you can capture her heart. Sometimes, it’s necessary to charge forward like that.”
“Your Majesty…”
“It sounds good to call it a considerate heart. But if you just go along with what the other person says, you’ll end up being swayed without your own strategy and won’t achieve results. At that time, show her your sincerity by any means necessary. Then she too will be unable to turn her gaze away from you.”
Indeed, the words of lovers who had a burning romance and got married were different.
Eldis felt grateful towards his father who was giving him sincere advice.
Of course, he had no intention of forcibly binding Resena’s heart to him.
But the Emperor’s words make plenty of sense too. There will surely come a time when he needs to confront her with all his sincerity.
For the first time, this heated feeling of wanting to approach a woman… The time when he must show it all, like countless falling meteors.
‘Resena…’
Thinking that he shouldn’t miss that moment, Eldis placed his hand on his chest.
“Thank you. I will deeply engrave that advice.”
“Good.”
The Emperor stroked his beard with a satisfied smile. Glancing briefly at the wall clock hanging inside the audience chamber, he saw it was already almost 6 PM. He stood up from his seat.
“Let’s have dinner soon. I want to eat together today, so let’s go to the dining room together.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The Emperor watched his son with an affectionate expression. With a slight resentment towards the young lady who had rejected his son, who was perfect as a Crown Prince in every way.
‘But if it’s Eldis, he should be able to capture her heart.’
Whether it’s as Eldis or as a sculptor who shakes the world.
The Emperor smiled at the corners of his mouth.
‘Eldis, you should be able to handle this well. I’ll postpone my help until the very end.’
My help… I’ll save it for the absolute last.
‘I believe in your will and drive. Since you were 10, you’ve never made a mistake in anything you said you’d do.’
The Emperor looked down at the setting sunlight slanting through the corridor.
The sun never fails to shine its light on the world, regardless of what people say.
And Eldis was the rising sun of the empire.
“I’m looking forward to it.”
“Yes. I’m looking forward to dinner as well.”
The Emperor quietly smiled.
The warm sunset light was settling on their backs.
***
Resena was letting her body sway with the train’s movement. The passing scenery entered her view, but it couldn’t interrupt her thoughts.
‘To think His Majesty the Emperor would show interest in chasing dark mages.’
The unexpected identity of the dark mages, which she had reported to her father, Duke Arnasus, by letter, had also been made known to the Emperor.
It seemed that her father, surprised by what she and Renard had discovered, had immediately entered the palace to report to the Emperor.
‘Well, I suppose no one among the empire’s high-ranking officials could have imagined that priests would become dark mages…’
The temples receive donations from high-ranking nobles and the royal family.
As such, no matter how many priests there are, they are exempt from basic labor. They only need to focus on praying with sincere faith, treating patients, and occasionally executing heretics.
‘To think that such priests would suddenly turn into dark mages due to the corruption of the temples. This wasn’t even mentioned in the novel.’
Of course, the novel often described the corruption of temples… but Resena had never encountered such a birth of dark mages in her many regressed lives.
Therefore, seeing the priests of the Earth Lumine Temple being caught, identified as dark mages, and eradicated was unsettling, even if she had already suspected it.
‘Moreover, there were over 20 heretics from the Earth Lumine Temple…’
Recalling the splattered red blood, she felt her mood plummet. Resena turned her head to fill her view entirely with the scenery. But unlike usual, Renard’s unusually quiet figure was also reflected in the glass.
The train was already approaching the capital. As it ran along the cliff-top rails and over the blue lake, the beautiful scenery etched itself clearly onto her retina. But Resena was thinking about the Emperor’s order for her to enter the palace.
‘…In my past life, the Emperor was nothing but a mad tyrant who even branded my father, who had brought his wealth to him because of me, as a traitor and confiscated his property.’
But he is also the father of Eldis, who is showing favor towards her.
‘Sigh… I wanted to avoid getting involved with the Emperor…’
Resena hadn’t had the luxury of harboring uncomfortable feelings towards the Emperor until now. But as things were being sorted out one by one, she found time to sort out her feelings towards the Emperor as well.
‘The Emperor is a greedy person, so if I, the biggest troublemaker in the Arnasus family, get imprisoned, he’ll confiscate all of my father’s property, who would do anything for me.’
Although she had visited the guild to cancel the plans, preventing assassination attempts on Eldis and Lorona, and other incidents… her reputation was still buried in a deep pit, far from being highlighted in a positive light.
‘Even though Eldis visited the Arnasus house once to meet me and Renard, the notoriety that the previous Resena had built up won’t all disappear just because of His Highness the Crown Prince’s reputation.’
If anything, it might just pique more interest.
What kind of person must she be? For Eldis to come looking for the infamous Lady Arnasus.
That kind of interest would surely spread useless rumors far and wide. Moreover, if Crown Prince Eldis were to be moved by those rumors and decide to make her his Crown Princess, she could end up in a situation where she has to marry someone she doesn’t love.
‘Even if the male lead Eldis falls in love with me, the world’s destruction might not happen…’
