Chapter 1

The man's pace remained steady as he walked inside the Palace.

His eye-catching physique drew the gazes of the court ladies at first. However, the chilly aura oozing out of him quickly made them turn their eyes away.

Whether he realized the women's gazes or not, Ethan stopped following the eunuch and stood still.

"Inform him."

Hearing his cold, emotionless command, the young eunuch announced his arrival and shakily opened the closed door.

The emperor sat at the seat of honor, and the woman preparing tea at his feet bowed down.

"Have you come?"

"I, General Ethan, have come to offer up my greetings to you, Your Majesty."

The woman's gaze lingered on Ethan. Seeing this, the emperor flashed a warm smile.

"It looks like Consort's face is glowing now that her son has returned victorious from war."

"Y-Your Majesty."

The woman blushed as she lowered her head. Despite the harmonious atmosphere, as the person in question, Ethan remained calm and collected.

After the death of the empress, the Consort was the only one who received the emperor's affections. Although he was the Consort's son, Ethan did not flaunt it. Actually, he kept his head down. His skills spoke for themselves.

"Good work on this war as well. You've conquered two foreign cities, and it looks like we'll be receiving tributes from these countries within five years. This is more than satisfactory. You've accomplished something big."

Ethan lowered his head at the emperor's praise. As he stroked his long beard, the emperor looked at Ethan and then turned his eyes to the Consort brewing the tea.

"I would like to speak in private with the General. I understand your heart of wanting to see your son, but this won't take long, so can you give us some time alone?"

The Consort lowered her head and quietly exited the room.

Once any trace of the Consort's presence had disappeared, the emperor picked up his teacup and took a sip. After breathing in the comforting fragrance of the tea, the emperor let out a satisfied sigh. He leaned back into his chair.

"I heard this war was a lot more fierce than the ones before. You must have gone through a lot."

"I merely did what I was supposed to do."

He was a man of few words, but his speech also held little warmth.

If Cedric, the Crown Prince, had taken after Ethan by half, he wouldn't have been so foolish.

"I feel that the nation of Gideon is secure thanks to you."

"You praise me too much, Your Majesty."

"And so I am thinking of giving you another Imperial decree."

Hearing this, Ethan could not help but feel offended. Seeing as how he was giving him the Imperial decree in private, Ethan didn't have a good feeling about this.

He was merely the son of the consort that received the emperor's affections. To Ethan, the emperor was no different from poison.

"Please speak, Your Majesty."

"Marry the daughter of the Scarr Family."

Ethan raised his head without realizing it and stared at the emperor.

Everyone knew that the 'Scarr Family' the emperor spoke of was Scarr's family. The emperor had wiped out the whole family a few years ago.

The problem was that before the family had been annihilated, the daughter was chosen as the Crown Prince's future wife.

"Are you planning on making me walk the same path as my father, Your Majesty?"

The emperor's eyes flinched at this straightforward question. Uncomfortable, he clenched the edge of the table. However, Ethan remained absolutely still.

The Gideon emperor's most favored consort as well as the most influential woman in the Palace. Min Jing was the emperor's consort, and now she was the mother of General Ethan, the man who had won the war.

After getting married, she gave birth to Ethan. However, instead of staying by her husband's side at the head of the clan, she reached out her hand and entered the emperor's embrace.

"And will this maiden become just like the Consort after becoming my wife?"

"Such insolence!"

Hearing the emperor's roar, Ethan hunched his body into a bow and closed his eyes.

After losing his wife, who had been his first love, Ethan's father was unable to pick himself back up and continued to fall. Letting go of his only son as well as his clan, he drank himself to oblivion. Ultimately, he let go of his own life.

Having witnessed his father's death after being abandoned by Consort Min, Ethan was left all alone. He lowered his head and bided his time. He repaid the ones who looked down on him for being the son of a fallen noble family, and he steadily took back all the things that his father had lost.

"I know what kind of woman the future Crown Princess was to the Crown Prince."

The Crown Prince had seen Scarr's daughter while standing at the top of a pagoda and had fallen in love at first sight. After he found out that Scarr's wife and the Consort were childhood friends, he passed her through the Crown Princess Selection and raised her as his future Crown Princess.

Ultimately, when it became known that she had passed through the Crown Princess Selection so haphazardly, inadvertently insulting the Consort, her whole family was razed to the ground. However, the Crown Prince was unable to forget her.

"That child will never be able to enter the Palace as the Crown Prince's wife."

The emperor spoke with determination, but Ethan wasn't so foolish as to believe the words coming out of the emperor's mouth.

"Please take back your Imperial decree, Your Majesty."

"I knew you would be against it. That is why I made it an Imperial decree. Accept it."

Ethan suppressed the curses that threatened to burst out of his throat. Although he knew that he had no choice in the matter, he couldn't help but boil with rage.

To Ethan, women were creatures that hypnotized men with sweet words. And once they received what they wanted, they betrayed and abandoned. He didn't need a woman in his life, and he definitely did not want a wife.

If the emperor wanted to marry the daughter off so that the Crown Prince would curb his stupidity, he could have married her off to countless other men instead of Ethan.

When Ethan came to his conclusion, he furrowed his brow.

"Don't you treasure the Consort?"

The emperor's lips curled into a faint smile at Ethan's question.

Back when he was the Crown Prince, the emperor had fallen for the Consort at first sight. However, the Consort's family lacked the influence required of a Crown Princess, and the previous emperor did not approve of her.

His passionate love for her was quashed under the order of the previous emperor.

Once he came into power and sat on the throne, Scarr's wife set them up to meet once again. He was surprised to learn that the love he thought had cooled was burning bright once more.

But they had met too late. She already had a husband and a son. She couldn't bring anything of use to him, who was now the emperor.

"I do treasure her. Although I cannot put her in the deceased empress's seat, I only treasure your mother in a sea of countless women in the Palace. However, favoring her is one thing. Sharing my authority is a completely different matter."

Even though he didn't want power, even though he wasn't greedy for more, because of his accomplishments in war, Ethan had created a following.

The emperor shared no children with the Consort. To the Consort, Ethan was like a shining light that grew brighter and brighter. There was no way she would accept his marriage to the Scarr Family's daughter.

"Don't you know what that family means to me?"

"The family's wife introduced the Consort to me."

The one who introduced Consort Min to the emperor gained immense power. She was the main culprit who had set up a married lady with the emperor. And because of that, Ethan's family was ripped apart and his clan collapsed with a whimper.

If Consort Min had not gotten irritated by the family's gradually increasing influence and made the first move, Ethan would have been the one to strike that family down. He could barely endure the fact that they were living underneath the same sky. Therefore, taking his enemy's daughter as his wife was impossible.

"That father was greedy for power, and his wife was terrible, but the same does not go for the daughter. I did tear down that family for political reasons, but the child is such a waste. While the father has probably lost his mind beyond repair, I want to save the daughter. I would like for you to marry this child."

"No one knows whether marrying me will be her redemption or her poison."

The time that would have passed for others was a deep scar that remained with Ethan. 

If his father's final request at his deathbed wasn't one that asked him to refrain from taking revenge, Ethan would have bared his teeth at Consort Min and the emperor and fed them the most painful poison.

"Please take back your Imperial decree for my marriage. Even if you order me to marry her, I will not marry her. Even if I have to kill her."

Ethan's determined and menacing remark caused the emperor's eyes to widen. However, after a moment, the emperor let out a hearty laugh. The emperor liked how relentless Ethan's behavior and speech was. It was so unlike the Crown Prince.

If Ethan had been his own son, how nice would that have been?

"Consort Min is looking into finding you a wife right now. Her pick will probably be from one of the Three Excellencies[1], so you will probably receive a large amount of support even if you don't wish it. And that strength will only serve to endanger to the Crown Prince's position."

"..."

"I know how you feel, but I really like having you as my loyal vassal. So what else can I do? Before my precious consort moves her hand, I must move first."

"I don't plan on getting married. I will not move according to Consort Min's wishes. And definitely not to a woman from the Scarr Family."

"You will. I will make it so."

The emperor's firm voice caused the edge of Ethan's eyes to twitch. As the emperor observed Ethan's openly displeased expression, his eyes grew soft.

"Go back and prepare for your wedding."