Wicked Reign

The Never-ending Plot

Standing behind Tori's chair, Emperor Corean Shuia Eckrett sneakily took his lover's hand and held it with a tight grip—not before he drew circles at the back of her palms with a gentle smiling face.

"A noble's words are equivalent to heaven's law. Have you heard of that passage, Lord Bormish of Rozenreff Dukedom?"

"Oh. So that's your name, huh?" Tori languidly said, not caring if the person she was pertaining could hear or not. As if remembering something, she looked at the man who was smiling gently at her vassals. Somehow, she felt for the old fools. Had they followed her instructions, they could have died a lot more peacefully compared to perishing under Cory's hands.

She remembered how his gentle-looking face remained smiling as he swung the dull blades of an axe. Five times did he hit Sabina's neck in front of Tori. The blunt blade made Sabina's suffering all the more painful... and long. Tori remembered how she had to bite the insides of her cheeks just to make herself stand still without wobbling. It was at that moment that a realization dawned upon Tori. The man who loved her and saved her was a beast hiding from his weak-looking gentle façade.

Emperor Corean Shuia Eckrett was a monster and he was the monster that Tori had tamed and accepted with all her heart—morals be damned.

"E-Emperor! Blessings to the Empire's Sun, Emperor Corean Shuia Eckrett."

"Blessings to the Empire's Sun, Emperor Corean Shuia Eckrett."

After the vassals and the handmaidens bowed along with Lilian, Tori finally stood. She bowed down in front of him while her teasing eyes remained locked with intense ones. With her nightgown barely covered by her maroon-colored robe, with his stature, Cory was able to see Tori's cleavage that she intentionally showed by arching her back excessively. "Blessings to the Empire's Sun, Emperor Corean Shuia Eckrett."

Tori yelped.

The next thing she knew, Cory had already pulled her waist to his warm body. His firm arms embraced her small body, her back against the vassals who were secretly gnashing their teeth after witnessing how smitten that emperor was to the Duchess they deemed useless!

"Behave," whispered Cory into Tori's left ear. "Or I will have to stake my claim in front of these people. I am a possessive bastard. I might not spare their eyes, my love."

Heat filled Tori's cheeks which later on reflected on her ears, earning her a kiss on her head.

"Take them away." Cory's cold voice was the exact opposite of his calm face.

It was too late for the vassals to know what had struck them when multiple shadow guards appeared from nowhere.

"Let me go! You can't do this, Your Majesty!"

"What will the people do when they learned of this? Huh? You will be crucified as the emperor who bends the knee for a woman! A spineless emperor!"

"Let us go! And I-I promise to never speak about this event! Never ever! I swear, Your Majesty, Duchess!"

Rather than answering the wailing vassals, Cory guided Tori outside the indoor garden while whispering sweet nothings in her flushed ear—though his eyes reflected nothing but death to the vassals he condemned merely because they talked inappropriately in front of his beloved.

It was at that moment that Tori's beloved black roses which she was grooming inside the greenhouse had received a hefty amount of bloody fertilizer.

PLUCKING THE PETALS of the black rose she was holding, Tori languidly leaned on the Willow tree while her legs were being used as a pillow for a certain someone who ran away from his duties.