"Why are you saying nonsense that my wife is not in pain? Didn't you see when I brought her here how much she screamed in pain?" Darius angrily spoke.
"No, I don't think you can do anything, doctor. I think someone more knowledgeable should take your place. You are fired," he commanded immediately to the kneeling doctor on the ground.
"Your Highness, I am telling the truth. There is nothing wrong with it. You can be sure because I have been the royal doctor of this place for many years. Your father kept me in this position for a long time, so your grandfather. You will not do this to me," he was begging.
"Guard!!!! Drag him out of the empire, or dump him in the prison until he tells how he entered into the palace with this lousy skill," Brought the outside guards on—duty by Darius.
"Spare me, Your Highness. Spare me!!! To pay children, I have to feed them, please spare me," he pleaded, though nobody would listen to him while Elian took hold of me, seeing the scene cruelly enacted for him.
"There, there, nothing happened, baby," I said while patting his back.
"You can now take Elian to his room," He commanded the maid.
"As you wish, Your Royal Highness," bowed before him the maid and exited with Elian.
"Where are you taking my baby? Bring him to me now!!!" I shouted.
"Calm down, Madam!!! She took him to his room so that he could freshen up. He can be met any time. He saw something he shouldn't have seen; that's why I sent him there," he said gently, sitting beside me.
"And who made him see such a scene, Your Highness? Me or you?" I asked glaring at him.
"I don't care if you waste your time worrying about me or whatever, but I can clearly say that you are not worried for us at all. You worry only about your image. You are a tyrant everyone calls you. You know, simply to show your power. You know that much. You can kill whoever you want, that is in your power, not us. That's why you dragged me like a criminal, searching me all over when I have never met you once in my life," I said and looked away.
"You have never met me?" he asked.
"As I said, I was married to a hunter and he helped me conceive!" I said, smirking.
"Madam!"
The shout thundered through the chamber again, the same as a moment ago. His voice cracked with something between fury and desperation. I had touched a nerve he despised, though I wasn't even sure how.
But then, a realization twisted in my chest. Why am I calling him Darius inside my head so casually? As if his name had always belonged to my thoughts. No. This cannot continue. This must stop. Remember, Aria—he is the emperor, and you are merely one of his subjects. There is no bond, no relationship. He is not your husband… not until you regain Aria Lumiere's true memories, the ones that belong to this body you now possess.
"Scram!" The emperor's voice cut through the silence, sharp and commanding. The courtiers scattered instantly, leaving only the two of us in the vast, echoing room.
My chest tightened. Alone with him.
"Say it once again, Aria." His words were a growl, his teeth clenched as if he could barely contain himself.
I tilted my chin, refusing to look away. "What? What do you want me to say again, your highness, the emperor?" My voice carried deliberate defiance, like oil spilled into fire.
He stepped closer. "Aria, don't get under my skin this way. You don't even let me touch you, and yet I feel you everywhere. You cling to me—not in the way I want, but in the way you demand I feel you." His face hovered close to mine, his breath brushing my lips, heavy with frustration.
My stomach twisted. "I don't understand what you're trying to say." I forced my legs to move, pushing myself upright from the bed. Every instinct screamed at me—this was not where I should be, not how I should be. Alone with a man like him was dangerous.
"Stay, Aria! Stay!" His voice cracked, desperate now. "I'll accept whatever you want me to feel. Anger? Then I'll bear it. Pain? I'll endure it. But I will not let you leave. I know you're furious I vanished without a word. But now, seeing me, can't you understand? I had no choice. I am the emperor's firstborn. The throne became my burden the moment my father died. I didn't want to leave you—but I had to."
His words stabbed at my ears, and I pressed my hands against them, pretending not to hear.
"Your highness," I forced my voice steady, "you shouldn't tell me these things. I'm not interested in hearing them. Who told you I wanted to make you feel anger? Or pain? Why would I, a commoner, try to make the emperor feel anything at all? You are not my father, not my mother, not my friend—nothing to me but the ruler of this empire. And I will never burden the sun of this empire with my personal woes."
I swallowed, my heart pounding. "Whatever sorrows I have, I will share them with my husband, Darius. And though I don't know when he will return, I will wait for him."
His expression darkened, pain and fury clashing in his eyes. Then, in one swift motion, his hand clamped down on my shoulder. The grip was harsh, bruising, stealing the breath from my lips.
"Aria," he whispered, voice breaking, "can't you recognize your husband?"
"Your highness, I've told you a dozen times today—I am not your wife." My voice trembled, though I tried to mask it with steel. "I'm sure… well, even I've begun believing what your maids whisper—that you have no concubines. Only a wife. But perhaps she shares my name, just as you…" I hesitated, then corrected myself stiffly. "Just as the emperor shares the same name as my husband."
His eyes narrowed. "Oh? So you think I wouldn't recognize my own wife?"
Before I could step back, his hand pressed against my shoulder, shoving me down onto the bed. My breath caught in my throat.
"How could I know, your highness," I said quickly, my words sharp but trembling, "whether you can recognize your wife or not? But I know you are not my husband. Everything about you screams otherwise. Everything feels different from what my memories whisper of him."
I bit my lip. It was a lie. Every word.
"So," his voice dropped low, hunting through me, "what does your husband look like in those memories, Aria?"
My heart raced.
"Tell me," he pressed again, his voice deep, relentless.
I forced a smile, brittle. "My husband looks…"
But the words never came.
Suddenly, images spun through my head like reels in motion—faster and faster, overlapping until I couldn't breathe. Not the reels of a modern world, but something older, heavier, as if they belonged to another life.
"Tell me!" His shout barely reached me, swallowed by the storm inside.
"Aria! Aria! Aria!"
The voice inside my head echoed endlessly, calling me by name.
I saw nothing of his face, only fragments. One moment he laughed, calling me Aria with sunlight in his smile. Another, his voice cracked with fear, begging me not to disappear. And then—another flash, another agony.
I was on the ground, dirt caked across my dress, hands clutching at his legs. My voice—my own voice—was raw with despair.
"Don't go! Don't go! I can't live without you. Please… don't go!"
My body shook, and I pressed my palms against my skull, desperate to silence the overlapping truths.
Why? Why would Aria beg Darius not to leave, when in the memory I remember, he never returned from that hunting trip? When I remember her—me—crying alone on that small bed, Elian's cries mingling with her sobs? How can the same story exist in two different shapes?
My lips moved before I could stop them. "How can one memory hold two versions?"
His hand found my chin, strong fingers forcing my face upward. His eyes burned into mine.
"Aria… can't you even remember what your husband looked like? Or is this your way of punishing me—for something I did not do?"
I glared at him, my voice steady though my body quivered. "Then let me ask you one thing, your highness."
He leaned in, his breath brushing my skin. "What is it?"
I met his gaze without flinching. "If you truly loved your wife… if you truly believe I am her… then why have you never once spoken of being royal?"