Khail

The emperor grasp Liana's chin and raised it so they'd face each other.

Amber eyes looked at her as if staring right into her soul.

She slowly gulped.

It was also that time where everyone kept their heads bowed down including the duke and duchess.

They all knew that if the emperor doesn't say so, they cannot lift their heads just yet. They might even remain in their position until the emperor leaves the estate.

The duchess gritted her teeth. They're nobles how can he treat them like this?!

It's a common knowledge among the nobles that the emperor and Liana does not have that kind of relationship. Which is also the reason why after years of marriage, an heir is still yet to be born.

Maybe he finally realized that he likes her? the duchess thought.

She grinned to herself silently. Her hard work to keep Liana on the throne was finally bearing its fruit. She'd let go if this bowing issue for now.

After a moment, the emperor removed his hand from Liana's and quickly turn to walk back to the carriage. He made a small wave to call on a knight who immediately ran to Liana.

"Your Majesty," The knight held out a hand to Liana to help her step on the carriage's entrance.

Liana held her breath thinking that she has to spend a ride with that intimidating man. She shut her eyes briefly before exhaling.

I can do this. For the tower.

With her chin up, Liana confidently walked to the carriage the emperor disappeared to.

The inside of the carriage was wide and spacious. The emperor was seating on the seat beside the window so Liana immediately chose to sit on the opposite side of the wagon that is far from him.

The knight shut the carriage door close and that made Liana gasp in panic.

"Seri-" she suddenly let out so the emperor looked at her.

He tilted his head slightly to the side as if asking her to repeat what she just said.

"M-my maid, Seri..." she started almost stuttering, "She was supposed to come with me."

The emperor stared at Liana for a moment as if studying her carefully before giving a small nod.

"She should be riding at the carriage behind us." he said while making a small glance outside the window.

Liana also looked outside and saw a smaller carriage following theirs. It must be the carriage for the servants. She thought so she visibly sighed in relief sagging comfortably on the soft seat of the royal carriage.

Liana smiled to herself in gladness when her eye caught the emperor yet again staring at her so seriously.

gods.

The intense stare of the emperor made her quickly look away.

She clenched the fists on her lap. Damn it. He's not planning to do something weird is he?

Liana's thoughts were interrupted when she heard the emperor's voice.

"You were smiling." he said sounding so fascinated.

Liana slowly moved her eyes to look at the emperor and found him with a small smile that did not reach his eyes. His hand was also reaching out to her cheek almost touching it but he suddenly stopped midway.

"I-is there a problem with that?" her voice stammered.

Liana thought she saw the emperor's eyes widen for a moment.

huh?

The emperor let out a low chuckle. "This is the first time you've ever looked at pme in the eye to talk."

"Your Majesty...?" Liana called out but it came out as a whisper.

"Khail."

"Wha-"

"Call me Khail." he finally said.

And then Liana felt a strange force pulling her upward and then down which reminded her of roller coasters.

"Ahh!" she shrieked in surprised.

"What-what-is-" she tried to ask the emperor but the repeating feels of waves of pressure pulling her body upward and downward made her eyes shut close.

The repeated loop of falling and rising was making her stomach churn. It was like a never ending roller coaster.

"Breathe." a voice in her ear gently said. She could've swore his lips even touched her ear as though a light kiss.

gods.

Liana did not notice when she started holding her breath but when she heard his voice she was suddenly gasping for air.

And then in an instant, the rising and falling sensation stopped.

Liana opened her eyes.

She was still inside the carriage but she was now sitting on the emperor's lap. His arms were around her waist.

Liana jumped in surprise and then straight off fell on her knees.

They were like jelly that gave in out of exhaustion.

Large warm hands held Liana up from the waist and supported her to stand.

A knock sounded on the carriage's door. "Your Majesty, we have arrived at the royal palace."

Liana quickly looked at the emperor without trying to hide her shock.

The emperor replied to her with a worried look, "This must be an effect from the accident. Get some rest. I'll call for the royal physician."

"What just happened?"

"We went through a magic portal." He said before guiding Liana out of the carriage with his arms still around her to help her walk.

The emperor stood by Liana up to the Crystal Palace where previous empresses originally resided before servants took her away to guide her into her personal quarters.

"I'll see you later." the emperor said in goodbye while his palm gently grazed her cheek before walking away with his knights and aid.

Liana tried to remember if the emperor was this affectionate in the book.

Fuck. Of course, she won't know, she didn't get to read Serena's stupid book.

When Liana reached the empress' quarters, she couldn't help but be in awe. Her luxurious room back in the Taviano duchy looked like a dog house if compared here.

Her amazement were cut short when she heard quick shuffles out of her room. It was the servants who accompanied her to her room and they seemed to be in a hurry to go out.

Liana was going to ask the last maid to walk out of her room where Seri is but she just glared at her looking so annoyed.

Liana scoffed. Unbelievable.

She was going to call that maid again and maybe give her a light scare when the door to her quarters opened and revealed a very exhausted Seri. She looked so tired that she almost crawled all the way just to reach her bed.

Seri plop down on the bed with her arms wide open.

"Argh!" Seri grumbled.

Liana was so confused with the way Seri's acting. Her personality seemed to have made a 360° turn.

"THIS IS AWESOME!" Seri then happily whispered shout so Liana finally ran to her.

"What in the world? S-s-seri?"

Seri looked at Liana with the biggest grin on her face. "It's me, Li."

Liana's eyes widen in surprise when she heard the nickname her best friend always called her come out of Seri's mouth.

"S-Serena?"

Seri nodded excitedly.

Serena arrived inside the novel a few days before Liana did. Unlike Liana, Serena woke up to be inside the novel after the bus she's riding to get home crashed into a speeding truck. Upon realizing where she is, Serena believed that her body may currently be in a coma or worse, she may be dead by now. Anyhow, she considered this her next chance in life and she'll make the best out of it by fan girling as much as she wants. As an avid fan of the book, she was quite content to be there as an extra character. Just seeing both the places and characters from the book brings tears of joy to her eyes.

One day, while waiting for the female lead, Liana, to arrive at the Taviano estate as per her usual schedule in the novel, news of the empress' accident spread throughout the duke's castle and that's where Serena realized that the timeline of the book was already at the ending. She mourned for the lost of the female and male lead. She wasn't even able to see Liana's beauty that was blessed by the gods or the male lead's handsome face at that. But then rumors started circulating that Liana survived the accident uninjured so Serena must see if for herself. She sneaked in inside her room and to her luck, she found Liana alive and awake.

Tears started forming in Liana's eyes. "How did you know that it was me? How did we got here? Why are we here?" she asked questions one after another.

Seri sat up on the bed and shrugged, "Calm down, girl. Anyway, you acted like a thug, how would I not know?"

"I did not." Liana defended herself while wiping her tear stained cheek.

"Yes you did. I caught you so many times If I hadn't interfere you would have murdered the duke or the duchess." Seri explained to her friend while looking at her nails nonchalantly. "You didn't act like my Liana so I suspected that some person must be inside her body and it's you!"

"No, seriously. How did you know and why did you pretend that you didn't knew me?"

Seri grinned, "I just also recently found out that it's you. Anyway, one, you snore. Two, you sleep talk, and three, you turn too much when you sleep." Seri started counting with her fingers, "-You curse like a gangster and eat-"

"I do not snore."

"Uhh...Yes you do. You've slept over at my place so many times." Seri told her as a matter of fact.

Liana stared at her friend for a moment before bursting into fits of laughter.

Seri's eyes widen in surprise and quickly ran to cover her mouth."SSHHH." she shushed her. "You're not supposed to laugh that loud right now. Want me to get killed?"

A loud sound coming from the empress' room might be mistaken as an assassination attempt.

Liana immediately shut her mouth, "sorry.." she whispered while moving her fingers to her mouth as though zipping it close. "I'm just really happy that I didn't ended up being stuck here alone."

Seri rolled her eyes. Oh, this is her best friend alright. No doubt about it.

"So, what's our plan?" Liana asked her friend before sitting down beside her.

"Huh?"

"How do we get out of here?" she asked again.

"What?"

Liana narrowed her eyes in suspicion. "You're not planning on staying are you?"

Seri remained silent with a blank face.

"gods! you are planning on staying!"

"I am not." Seri finally answered.

"Ser, no! You have a family waiting for you. Think about your poor mother." Liana said trying to convince her friend.

Seri crossed her arms and pouted, "I know! I'm not planning to stay. I mean, you're here now so I can't stay anymo-"

"See! I knew it. You were going to stay!"

"Well I won't do it anymore so calm down."

Liana massaged her temples before sighing. "Okay."

"I have to see the captain of the white wolf knights first."

"Huh?"

Seri looked at her friend seriously and grab her by the shoulders. "I have to see him before we go. I can't go back without seeing him. I had the biggest crush on him when I was reading the novel. I've always wanted to meet him in my dreams but now that I'm here, I have to at least tell him my name before I die." she declared like her life depended on it.

"Fine." Liana agreed with a short nod. "Okay, on to the plan. So, while we were at the duchy, I remembered you mentioned that there's magicians in this story so I thought that maybe someone at the magician's tower could help us get out of here."

Seri stayed still thinking deeply. "I don't think teleportation is a common magic here. It's so uncommon that only the magicians blessed with great power could successfully use it. Like the male lead of this novel who is by the way already dead." she sighed.

"But we just used a magic portal to get here." Liana stated remembering the stomach churning ride at the carriage with the Emperor, Khail.

"Hey, you're right!"

Liana smiled proudly to herself.

"We must be travelling with someone who has pretty strong magic powers considering how that person was able to cast a large magic portal that could transport both the royal knights and carriages back to the capital at the same time." Seri explained while recalling how magic worked in the novel.

The male lead, Nero was a handsome young magician gifted with strong magical powers that earned him the position of Head magician of the tower at a young age of 20. He's supposed to be the only character with a strong magical power.

"-Was the emeperor always so affectionate to the real Liana..." Liana started mumbling to her friend.

Seri's ears almost perked up. Of course! The emperor also had magical powers! It's not very known around the empire but she remembered that it was revealed in the middle of the novel that the Emperor bears strong dark magical powers. But he almost never weilds it since his lifespan is shorten whenever he uses his magic. The stronger the magic spell casted, the bigger the toll on his life.

"Li, the emperor could help us. His magic may be strong as Nero's!" Seri excitedly announced.

When Liana heard the news the two of them happily held hands and started jumping in circles.

"-Who's Nero?" they stopped when Liana asked.

"The novel's male lead."

"Oh, you mean this body's boyfriend?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"He's dead right?"

"Yup, he's dead."

"So, we'll ask for the emperor's help?"

"If you want us to go back. Yeah."

"What if he kills us?"

"He won't."

"How can you be so sure?"

Seri stared at her friend like she's grown two heads. "You're his wife plus you're inside the body of the most beautiful woman in the empire."

She has a point still...

"-But how?"

"That's easy. Just seduce him into submission and-"

Seri's words were interrupted with Liana's light hit at the back of her head.

"Hey! Why would you do that?"

"Do you want me to get killed? He'll find me annoying for sure. I'd find that annoying if I were him."

"Li, he won't kill you I promise you that."

"But..."

"He likes you. I see it in his eyes."

"Really? You looked at him in the eye? When did you ever do that?"

"I just saw him, okay? Unless you don't want to go back then let's not go through with this plan-"

"Fine. I'll do it." Liana agreed. At the same time, a knock sounded at the door. The two quickly arranged themselves to look normal as possible with Liana sitting on the chair sipping some tea while Seri massaged her shoulders.

"The emperor would like to see you now, your grace." the emperor's aid announced with a short bow. He extended his hand to the door and waited for Liana to follow him.

Reluctant to go as their plan is still yet to be settled, Liana made a quick glance at her friend who had a big smile with her two thumbs up while mouthing, 'go get him, girl'.

Liana closed her eyes for a second before letting out a deep sigh. I'll strangle her later.