Synopsis and Starting Chapter Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90 - Light And Shadow>
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112 - The Morning Comes>
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118 - After The Storm
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
Chapter 121
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
Chapter 125
Chapter 126
Chapter 127
Chapter 128
Chapter 129
Chapter 130
Chapter 131
Chapter 132 -
Chapter 133
Chapter 134 - Epilogue 1.3
Chapter 135 - Epilogue 2.1: Traces Of Life
Chapter 136
Chapter 137 - Epilogue 2.3
Chapter 138
Chapter 139
Chapter 140
Chapter 141 - Epilogue 4.1: Ever After>
Chapter 142 - Epilogue 4.2
Chapter 143 - Epilogue 4.3
Chapter 144 - Epilogue 5.1>
Chapter 145 - Epilogue 5.2
Chapter 146 - The Most Romantic Weekend>
Chapter 147 - Short Stories 1.2
Chapter 148 -
Chapter 149 -
Chapter 150 -
Chapter 151 -
Chapter 152 -
Chapter 153 -
Chapter 154 - Short Stories 3.1: Unexpected Things Happen>
Chapter 155 - Short Stories 3.2>
Chapter 156 -
Chapter 157 -
Chapter 158 -
Chapter 159 -
Chapter 160 -
Chapter 161 - Short Stories 5.1: The Man Behind The Mask>
Chapter 162
Chapter 163
Chapter 164 -
Chapter 165 -
Chapter 166
Chapter 167 - Short Stories 6.2
Chapter 168 - Short Stories 6.3
Chapter 169
Chapter 170
Chapter 171
Chapter 172
Chapter 173
Chapter 174
Chapter 175
Chapter 176
Chapter 177
Chapter 178
Chapter 179
Chapter 180
Chapter 181
Chapter 182
Chapter 183
Chapter 184
Chapter 185
Chapter 186
Chapter 187
Chapter 188
Chapter 189 (End)
Categories Genre: All, Completed, Fantasy Status: Completed ______
Total Chapters in book: 189
Estimated words: 290059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1450(@200wpm)___ 1160(@250wpm)___ 967(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 290059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1450(@200wpm)___ 1160(@250wpm)___ 967(@300wpm)
______
LIST OF LAST 10 CHAPTERS:
Page No. 189 Page No. 188 Page No. 187 Page No. 186 Page No. 185 Page No. 184 Page No. 183 Page No. 182 Page No. 181 Page No. 180 Page No. 179 Chapter 23
Chapter 23:
The date for the emperor’s coronation was decided much quicker than expected. The castle became busy with the preparation.
Normally, the coronation of the new emperor took place within 3 months from the death of his father, but this time, Lucretius ordered it to be done within the month. The plan was to have a simple minimal ceremony. He also ordered to include our official wedding service to take place at the same time instead of having it as a separate ceremony.
It was obvious why the emperor was in such a hurry. The dowager empress was still as powerful as ever. She also remained in the empress’s living quarter instead of moving out as the tradition dictated.
After the coronation, the dowager empress would not have any valid excuse to stay in the empress’s place. The empress’s room was right next to the emperor’s room, and Lucretius felt unsafe in his own bed. The dowager empress had to go.
Rushing the coronation was a logical decision on his part.
I became very busy in preparing myself. Since Lucretius didn’t have an empress, I had to attend in her place during the coronation as his first and only wife. I couldn’t wear the empress’s crown or sit on her seat, but I still had to be part of it. I sighed worriedly.
The whole process would take a week. It included the official coronation ceremony and several congratulatory parties afterward. I was expected to change my dresses at least twice every day for the eight days of festivity. That meant I needed to have sixteen dresses made. In less than a month!
It was an impossible task!
So far, we had three dresses completed. To save time, it was decided that the seamstresses will reuse the dresses and jewels of the former emperor’s first empress, who was Lucretius’s birthmother. Even though this made it quicker and easier, I still had to spend a lot of time being a human mannequin so the dresses could be adjusted to fit me.
There was something I haven’t thought of when I first learned of the coronation plan. Whenever such a big event took place, important figures from other countries were invited. Small, weak colonies of Cransia, such as Aeal, had no right to refuse such an invitation.
The day before the coronation, Duke Aeal and his family arrived at the castle. When I heard this news, I dropped my bread on the table in shock.
What the hell!
Samantha took away the dropped bread without question.
The emperor, who was sitting across from me and eating a bread himself, said to me as if I was being foolish, “How could my only wife be so careless…”
“If you are so unhappy with me, then I can give up being your wife.”
He shook his head. “That’s not possible. An emperor needs to have at least one wife at all times. If I didn’t have any wife, I don’t even want to think about what the noble families would do to me.”
He was smiling as if joking, but his voice sounded strange. He was hiding something from me.
I didn’t know why, but I felt like his voice sounded expectant.
Expectant of what?
I tried to analyze what he had said so far, but nothing came to mind.
I buttered my new bread Samantha handed to me and asked, “…Do you know something that I don’t?”
“Know something? I know a lot of things, but I don’t know what my sweet wife is talking about.”
Bastard!
He had been calling me many cutesy pet names, including variations of “my wife,” “your highness,” and “my lady wife.” I didn’t like it at all.
Now, he was making fun of me!
I chewed my bread angrily like my life depended on it. I pretended the bread was the emperor. They were both very pale. The difference was that the bread gave me nutrition while this man was harmful to me. Both my mind and body.
He came to my room again last night so I couldn’t get much sleep. Unlike his promise of visiting my bedroom three to four times per week, he had been coming to my chamber pretty much every night.
Thanks to him, it had been like hell. My virginity was still safe, but he used me like a human hot pack. Every night, he hugged me tight and fell asleep.
Because I hadn’t been sleeping very well, my dark circles became huge, and I often fell asleep during the day. What I hated the most was that people interpreted my tiredness as something else entirely. When I yawned, usually around lunchtime, they looked at me knowingly and proudly and prepared me for a nap. They also often got me food that was known to be good for stamina.
I wanted to scream at them that it’s not like that. I wanted to tell them I was still a virgin, but of course, I couldn’t.
A rumor started that the emperor was madly in love with his wife, and that was why he spent every night with me.
However, at least, my effort to protect my body worked. On the second night we spent together, the emperor promised me he won’t do anything until I said yes.
How did I manage it? I dared him.
I asked him boldly, “Aren’t you confident in yourself?”
“Confident?”
“That you can make me want you… Aahhh!”
Before I could finish my sentence, the emperor pulled my wrist and practically threw me on the bed. He then came close to me.
Close enough to kiss me.
He grinned. Oh man. It should be illegal for a man to look this beautiful.
I knew the real him though. The real Lucretius made me anxious. Especially when he smiled like this.
“I will go along with it.”
“What?”
He rubbed my lips with his finger and whispered, “I will wait till you beg me for it. Until then, I won’t do anything.”
Yes! My plan worked!
That was a month ago. At the time, I thought I won the battle, but I was terribly mistaken. If I could go back in time, I would stop myself from being so stupid.
I dared him to keep myself safe, but he took it as a personal challenge.
It was a challenge to seduce me.
Total Chapters in book: 189
Estimated words: 290059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1450(@200wpm)___ 1160(@250wpm)___ 967(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 290059 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1450(@200wpm)___ 1160(@250wpm)___ 967(@300wpm)
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