“What will you do, Sir Whitney?”
“……”
“This is a very rare opportunity.”
Now, with his shirt completely unbuttoned, the emperor whispered in a low voice as he looked at me, frozen in place.
“Having your own blood become the ruler of the empire.”
“……”
“In ancient history, so many dreamed of it that it led to bloody power struggles and conspiracies, even shaking entire nations.”
Yes, whether in my previous life or this one, it’s common for blood to be shed in the pursuit of power.
But I never imagined I’d get caught up in it.
“However, you don’t need to go through such storms.”
“……”
“You just need to spend one light night with me here and now.”
Even more unimaginable was that I’d get dragged into this as a reproductive tool — a seed bearer — to solve the emperor’s infertility, a condition tied to her fate as the Demon King’s successor.
“Are you worried about consequences? Don’t be. Nothing will happen to you.”
Thanks to that, my expression had been pretty twisted for a while, but the emperor, watching my face carefully, seemed to completely misread the reason.
“The child will be treated as illegitimate, but since I’ll personally carry and give birth to it, no one will be able to deny it has royal blood.”
“…Have you never thought that might actually be the problem?”
“What do you mean?”
“Um… the fact that the child will be considered illegitimate.”
Honestly, I didn’t even know where to begin correcting the emperor’s warped thinking, but I decided to start with the basics.
“So what’s the problem with that?”
“Oh, do you perhaps want to be treated properly as the child’s father?”
But hearing what the emperor said while tilting her head made it clear she didn’t even understand that most basic point.
“In that case, I can acknowledge you as my official consort. How’s that?”
“That’s not what I meant…”
“Why not? You’re only ‘engaged,’ aren’t you?”
Or perhaps, since it didn’t align with her goal of creating a successor with royal blood, she felt no need to understand it.
“If you can tolerate a bit of social criticism, a ‘promise’ like that is nothing — it can easily be broken for the position of second-in-command in the empire.”
Listening to the emperor continue, it became clear that this must be the correct answer.
She truly didn’t care whose blood made up the other half of her heir, as long as it included hers.
“Sorry, but I’m just not into someone like Your Majesty.”
“Hmm?”
In that case, I had to clearly state my opinion now.
“Rather than immediate gain, being with someone I can love for the rest of my life is what brings me happiness.”
I couldn’t throw away so much, especially my promise to Lady Meredia, just to provide the emperor with genetic material.
“For life, huh. Is that really so?”
But when the emperor’s lips curled slightly into a sneer at my words, a sense of foreboding began to rise in me.
“From what I know, that ‘life’ of yours might ironically be very short.”
“You really do know everything, don’t you?”
“…It’s not for nothing that I’m the ruler of the largest continent in history.”
As expected, the emperor was already aware of Meredia’s curse.
Well, she was the one who set a trap using Lady Meredia’s curse during the Talent Selection ceremony last time.
Just how deeply is she involved with black mages to have such information?
“Yes, truly impressive, Your Majesty.”
“That aside, your tone’s gotten a bit impolite, hasn’t it?”
As I finally stopped hiding my hostility, the emperor was quick to point it out.
“It’s kind of ridiculous to care about that in this situation, isn’t it?”
“Heh, is that so? You really are a fascinating one.”
Replying with a slightly annoyed voice, the emperor chuckled softly and crossed her legs.
“So, when will you answer my proposal?”
“Obviously, I refuse, Your Majesty.”
“And why is that?”
“I’ll twist what I said earlier just a little for you.”
Since the emperor still had a composed look on her face as she asked, I replied again, hoping that expression would finally crack.
“Your Majesty simply isn’t my type.”
“……”
“Maybe if you were a villainous noble lady my age, I’d have been swayed. Haha…”
The good news was that the emperor’s thin smile, which she had kept up the whole time, finally cracked just a little.
“…I’ve never been told I lack charm, you know.”
“Let’s call it intra-species aversion.”
“Hmmm…”
The bad news was that her eyes, slightly opened now and staring at me, had shifted to those of a lioness eyeing her prey.
“Fine, I suppose there’s no other choice then.”
Remaining alert to her change, I watched as the emperor suddenly narrowed her eyes and spoke.
“I had hoped we could do this consensually for your sake, but since the situation isn’t favorable, there’s no helping it. Kihihihi…”
At that moment, the emperor clapped her hands lightly, and the teddy bear that had been leaning against the wall and staring up at me began to grin unsettlingly again.
“Puppeteer. You know what to do, don’t you?”
“Oh dear. How indecent.”
“Don’t hold back. I’m counting on you.”
Listening closely to their conversation, I asked the emperor, fearing the worst.
“You’re seriously going to force it?”
“Hmm, I’m sorry. But it’s for the peace of the empire, so there’s no other way.”
And, as expected, my fears were right.
“Don’t worry. I may have no experience with men, but I’ll try to be as gentle as I can.”
“……”
“…Or maybe you prefer it a little rough? Just say the word. I’ll do my best to meet your needs…”
With that sinister smile on the emperor’s face, my body automatically began moving forward.
“Now, don’t make that face. I could’ve just taken your seed if I really wanted, but I chose to embrace you myself out of the bare minimum of respect.”
“……”
“Besides, it’d be a little strange to be pregnant while still a virgin. It helps prevent needless rumors, you see.”
As the emperor shamelessly continued to reveal her twisted beliefs, my legs moved without hesitation toward her.
‘Lady Meredia… is still too far away, huh.’
I thought I could faintly sense Lady Meredia’s presence in the distance, but it was far too faint and far away.
I briefly wondered if I should’ve brought Parsha along, but it was clearly inappropriate to expose a child to such a degenerate place.
If Alfred — now missing — had known, he might have thrown away his dignity as a butler and grabbed me by the collar.
‘Looks like I really don’t have a choice.’
In any case, this is a complete crisis — surrounded with no escape in sight.
But that doesn’t mean I came here without any backup plan like some fool.
‘…I really didn’t want to do this unless I had to.’
However, the problem is that even I don’t really want to use the method that could resolve this situation.
“Hoo…”
Yeah, let’s be honest about this at least.
Based on all the testimonies and my own experiences, it seems my face does come off a bit scary.
But that’s only when people see my usual, everyday face.
In truth, I actually know one way to make my face go beyond just “scary.”
Because even when I was young, not just my strict father but even my ever-so-kind mother used to warn me constantly.
“Never open your eyes.”
“Huh?”
“Your Majesty, have you perhaps ever been told something like that while growing up?”
As I quietly recalled the dear faces that floated briefly through my mind, I smiled and asked the emperor.
“What’s this all of a sudden?”
Naturally, the emperor tilted her head at my sudden question and asked back, but that was enough of an answer.
“So I take it that you haven’t.”
That alone was enough to understand the power dynamic between her and me.
***
‘Don’t open your eyes—have I ever heard anything like that?’
The emperor, Lilia Winter Klaus, tilted her head slightly at Whitney’s sudden question, who had somehow closed the distance to her nose, and quietly looked back on her past.
‘…No, I don’t think so.’
Of course, no one had ever dared to tell her such a thing.
Not only because very few people even knew the secret of her eyes, but also because her hypnotic eyes were a power that only worked at full force when they were open.
The reason the emperor usually kept her eyes half-closed was because, outwardly standing on the side of light, she had to keep that power hidden from the masses.
Had she not been the emperor, and had she not stood for the side of light, the nickname “the Slitted-Eyes Emperor” would never have existed.
‘It’s truly laughable.’
All her childhood portraits had been burned, and it was for that very reason.
Ever since awakening her powers as a child, Lilia had never cowered in the face of any threat or crisis—only pushing forward and upward.
She also knew all too well that if she hadn’t awakened those powers, she never would have overcome her fatal identity flaw.
That’s why the emperor had never considered her eyes a complex or something to be ashamed of.
Of course, she had inevitably become entangled with the likes of black mages and those who thrived in darkness, but that was a price she was more than willing to pay.
Her eyes had given her too much to be dismissed with mere curses.
“Sir Whitney, are you nervous?”
“……”
“Why would you say something so ridiculous all of a sudden…”
And that… was Lilia Winter Klaus’s critical misstep.
“Please remember this well, Your Majesty.”
“…?”
“…?”
She had failed to realize the fact that in this world, there are things so cursed that just possessing them forces you to keep them hidden.
“And that not everything in life goes according to plan.”
And by the time the emperor realized that truth—far too much time had already passed.
“Ah…?”
The exact same expression that once came over her face the moment her older brother—the previous emperor—revealed the secret of her birth was now slowly beginning to appear once more.
“Ki… Ki-hik…?”
And at that very moment, the teddy bear controlled by the puppeteer, which had been manipulating Whitney’s body, began to flail its arms in a panic and retreat backward.
“…?”
Apparently, that was not the end of the anomaly.
Even Meredia, who had been storming through the shop in anger, now had cold sweat running down her face.
-Gooooo…
And beyond that, the entire pleasure district where the shop was located began to be swept up in a massive current, losing all its light and being consumed by darkness.
At the center of that storm stood a single man—his expression now hardened as he looked down at the emperor before him.
And then, the mask on his face began to slowly crack.
Crack…
The mask soon crumbled completely and fell at his feet.
And the face that was finally revealed had changed in only one way compared to moments ago.
“Why do you look like that, Your Majesty?”
Yet, that one change had overturned the entire situation.
“Unlike before, you’re making quite a cute face now.”
“…!”
To be precise, Whitney’s eyes—once always shut—were now fully open for the first time.
Cliche Novel 
king of the man meet King of the Demons
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