What Became of the Tyrant After the Pregnant Empress Left - Chapter 77
Kazhan had imagined this moment over and over.
What should he say when he reunited with Ysaris? How should he open the conversation, lead the discussion, and eventually win her heart back?
Would Ysaris even be willing to change her mind?
Despite having rehearsed countless scenarios, none of it mattered now. Standing in front of Ysaris, the only words he could summon were simple.
“I missed you.”
‘I missed you so much that it drove me to the brink of madness. You can’t even begin to imagine how much, how deeply.’
‘Whether my eyes were open or closed, you were all I could think about. You haunted me in my dreams, leaving me no escape.’
‘This isn’t longing—it’s torment. I suffered because I couldn’t see you, because living in a world without you felt unbearable. It was that painful.’
“It’s good… to see you again.”
But how could words like “good” even begin to express it? Only now did Kazhan feel truly alive. In the bleak, colorless world he had been living in, Ysaris had appeared, bringing color back.
No, he had found her. His persistence had finally been rewarded with life itself.
Though Ysaris surely wouldn’t see it that way.
“Please, let me go.”
Kazhan’s prediction had been accurate. For Ysaris, this moment felt nothing short of a nightmare.
Her plea came out instinctively, without any thought or care for how it sounded. Kazhan wasn’t physically holding her, yet she begged as if he were. The very question of how he had found her in this place was quickly overshadowed by the far more pressing question of why.
‘He came to take me away. To drag me back to Uzephia and use me like a toy again.’
‘Because of his obsessive, unnatural attachment to me.’
“There are many women in the world, Your Majesty. I know you have some fondness for my body, but there’s no need to be so fixated on me….”
“Do you think this is about your body?”
“Isn’t that what you’ve always said?”
Kazhan opened his mouth to argue, but no words came out. She was right—he had said that, more than once.
<You said I only held your attention because of my body, mocking me.>
<That’s not untrue. Your body is certainly tempting.>
That time, when Ysaris had been preyed upon by the nobles.
<All I expect is for you to offer your body obediently, as you always have. That’s your only value.>
That moment in his office, when he had heard about her physical state.
<Didn’t realize you liked my body enough to shield me.>
<Your only worth lies in that body of yours, didn’t I say that?>
<…I won’t feel guilty for your injuries, Your Majesty.>
<I didn’t expect you to. I did it for myself.>
That time when they had been stranded together.
Countless moments from the past wrapped around his throat, choking him. They ridiculed him, mocking him for daring to deny it now.
‘Why did you do it then? You should have been better from the start.’
Even though the Ysaris in front of him remained still, her voice echoed in his ears. He felt nauseous, dizzy.
But Kazhan wouldn’t succumb to it. He had come too far to be stopped by mere memories of the past. He had tracked her down—he couldn’t let those memories hold him back.
And so, with great effort, his lips parted, and a cracked voice emerged.
“I… not for a single moment….”
The next words took longer to form. After carefully tending to the emotions he had held for so long, he finally allowed them to surface.
“I have never stopped loving you.”
Looking back, it had always been true. Even during the times when he had been consumed with misunderstanding and resentment towards Ysaris, he had still acted for her.
The first thing he had done was fill her surroundings with everything she liked. Not just in the empress’s palace, but even along the path to the emperor’s quarters, he had arranged her favorite things to greet her.
Whenever they shared meals or attended banquets, he made sure to order food that catered to her taste. Knowing how much she despised Uzephia, he always drew the curtains in the carriage to block her view, and he selected only the finest guards from the empire to protect her.
Even when he had set traps for her to manipulate her, whenever he meddled in Pyrein’s politics, he ended up steering things in a direction he knew she would want. He remembered their long-ago conversations, and fulfilled small, insignificant hypotheses they had once discussed.
Even in bed, he had always prioritized her pleasure over his own. After indulging once, he would take what he wanted, but he had never inflicted only pain.
If he had truly hated Ysaris, he wouldn’t have done any of that. He wouldn’t have kept her close, ensuring no one else could touch her, even as she despised him.
