Payne didn't know either. The day will come when he will be alone with Dylan.
"Charlize?"
As soon as he saw Dylan, Payne asked urgently. Although it was uncomfortable to wear the mana restraint like a shackle around his ankle.
He was more worried about Charlize.
Seven people of the Alperier were locked up in separate rooms.
It was hard to be sane. Isolation drives people crazy.
But Dylan went inside indifferently and responded.
"I'm the only one who can call that name."
As if the emperor alone had monopolized Charlize by the name. Payne felt a sense of murder and instinctively lowered his gaze.
Because he didn't want to die.
"Is, is the leader doing well…"
He heard Dylan pulling a chair.
He sits down.
That alone was an overwhelming presence. Payne's words could not be concluded.
Payne glanced up. It was as if he was being interrogated.
A languid voice was heard.
"I'm the only one who asks questions."
Dylan said.
Payne stopped breathing for a moment.
"Or Alperier may have two lives."
Dylan, who smiled briefly, was very attractive even for the same man. But just as predators and dangerous creatures are the most beautiful. Beauty is just a warning sign in nature.
Payne was nervous because he was told to cooperate if he didn't want to die.
He doesn't know what he wants.
However, he quickly moved his lips, wondering if there was any misunderstanding.
"Excuse me, I…"
"Talk informally."
"Pardon?"
"Are you going to use honorifics for me after talking informally to my Master?"
Payne was dumbfounded.
Dylan was about to kill.
Considering that the hierarchical order was so thorough, Charlize's mutiny was no joke.
Payne obeyed with his eyes down without saying anything.
"Ye, yes. That's not a big deal. I, I used to say that you, you, you and Charlize. Oops, no, when I said you were dating the leader.. I congratulated both of you by giving you a bouquet of flowers. It's not grand. Anyway, uh, congratulations."
Although Payne stuttered heavily.
Dylan had no expression on his face.
"So, in the last three years, nothing has happened. Between us. I. I was just the leader's subordinate! You know, subordinate?"
"Do you think Master will glance at you? I already know even if you don't explain it."
Thinking about it, Payne was right.
'Of course, she couldn't look at him because I was her lover.'
He felt oddly bad, but he was more afraid of Dylan.
At that moment, Dylan smiled brightly.
He was a handsome man who captivated the gaze of the same man, Payne. Even the expression of beauty looks natural.
"If you cooperate with me, I won't do any harm."
Even this change in attitude seemed to be Dylan's calculation.
Payne's eyes became sharp as the fists clenched with tension were released.
'He's a decent opponent.'
What kind of monster did you raise? Charlize Ronan.
Payne muttered to himself.
Depending on the occasion, according to the intention. He could be indifferent and cruel, but there was also a scene that eased people's alertness like a boy.
Dylan laughed.
"In your opinion. Why do you think Master left me?"
It was a complicated psychological warfare.
At first glance, he seemed to be talking to himself, but he seemed to know that Payne recruited Charlize in Alperier.
Dylan already knew a lot to deceive. And he said, 'please cooperate'.
"…I recruited her."
"Is that all?"
"Yeah. I don't know, but it was easy to recruit her because she seemed to want revenge."
It's not wrong. Payne was also careful about subtle changes in facial expression.
Of course, if he had to answer more precisely.
He should answer.
'Charlize only came over after hearing the information about Ehyrit's real piece.'
"But why?"
When Payne asked the question, Dylan responded indifferently.
"Isn't the Alperier the original Kiera project failures?"
Have you already figured it out so far?
Payne hardened for a while.
As the emperor said, the Alperier is. It's just a legendary secret organization that studies Ehyrit.
The new conditions are humans who have been experimenting with the Kiera project.
"What did you see in Charlize and decided to ask her to join?"
It was a question he knew would come up.
While he was in prison, Payne knew Dylan would ask about his lover.
"Because she's strong. No one is that strong."
"Well."
Strangely for a moment, Dylan laughed.
"Wasn't my dear Master an experimenter of the Kiera project?"
Payne paused. With limitations unknown, he was momentarily frightened.
As a child, Charlize had no record of going out of the Grand Duchy. That's why he thought she would have been tested, at least as a child. But the more he thought about it, the more it was a mystery.
To have the energy or state of Charlize, you have to feed it from the time you were a newborn baby.
'Since she's a real piece, she must have all the genius regardless of experimentation.'
Said Payne, hiding his true intentions.
"If you become an experimenter at a young age, you will die because you can't stand the magic of the pieces. Charlize Ronan came to you at the age of 15, and if she had experimented before that, she was already dead."
"Well, that's true."
Dylan agreed.
"The existence of the leader itself proves that there has been no experiment. Because there is no possibility other than that."
He's not lying. So his facial expression, naturally.
Payne muttered to himself and looked at Dylan. But even if he had that kind of laughter, he was a tyrant who didn't know when to raise his sword.
"So, you don't mean to say it."
Dylan seems a little unpleasant, or he doesn't even care. After frowning for a while, he casually passed it over.
Dylan put a document on the table.
"What is this…"
"Your sister was an experimenter for the Kiera project."
It was a fact that even Charlize did not know. Because Payne has been hiding it.
"I heard that she was already dead, and she didn't look very good when she died."
"…"
Payne's attitude, which seemed light at first glance, hardened and cooled down.
It was Dylan who was much more comfortable to deal with, so the Emperor relaxed and leaned his back deep into the chair.
"Tell me the information."
"What?"
"Everything you know."
Payne looked up slowly.
The documents detailed how horribly his sister died. The testimony is the people in the magic tower. His head turns blank.
A story that can't be recorded without an insider revealing it.
How the hell?
"You hid your sister's terrible death from your old parents. You even manipulated her handwriting and sent a false letter saying that she was living happily and well while studying abroad."
"…"
"The corpse. And the perpetrator parties. What would you do if I said I owned both?"
Of course, he wants to get it.
Because he hated the magic tower that carried out the Kiera project. He thought he wanted revenge.
When Payne came to his senses, goosebumps ran all over his body.
It was a proposal that had no choice but to be wielded.
'But I have to protect Charlize.'
If the real piece of Ehyrit is destroyed, Ehyrit cannot be revived. Only the evil god is revived.
'If that happens, I don't know what the world will be like.'
Payne thought.
Just imagining it made him feel tired and even hardened his vertebrae.
Dylan, who was looking at Payne that had stiffened, flicked his fingers for a moment.
"There's a lot of time."
Shadow, who appeared in the dark, put a cigarette between the emperor's fingers. Rattle. With fire.
Dylan put a cigarette in his mouth.
"For years, I only wondered why Master left me."
It's just a natural thing to do. It was a shock in itself.
White smoke soon spread from between the tyrant's red lips.
The smoke in the air is like a devil's figure.
'He's crazy.'
Payne realized firmly.
The tyrant chews on the tip of the cigarette. He laughed.
It was completely different from the image of the emperor that Charlize often portrayed.
'If there's a magic sword, Kiera. I'm sure it'll look like this.'
Dylan was evil.
Charlize and Dylan looked alike, but there was a crucial difference.
Dylan is. He could do anything for Charlize.
'Why did you leave?'
Dylan thought while smoking.
At the same time that Dylan was utterly insane, he was so rational and sober. He only wanted to own Charlize.
Charlize. Charlize. Charlize.
Being Dylan's everything.
So in order to hold her completely in his hand, he will find out everything. Dylan stared at Payne as if observing.
The tyrant's cold eyes resemble the indifferent and coercive eyes of the perpetrators who were once experimenting.
Payne's inner past was stimulated.
'Is it possible to drive people up here?'
Payne felt a cooling sensation down his spine. Because he knew that it was all perfect Dylan's calculations.
***
The Empress Palace of Charlize.
Mary and the maids told Charlize that she should only wear the best and enjoy the best.
It was such a busy day that she couldn't even feel Dylan's vacancy.
The maids wanted a deep conversation enough to overcome the three-year hiatus, and Charlize was sweet to the maids.
"Everyone sincerely follows His Majesty."
"We praise His Majesty for being the best wise king, regardless of the nobles and commoners."
"His Majesty has never paid any attention to any woman. As if you were only his lover, Grandmaster."
The part where Charlize felt alienated was Mary.
Oddly enough, Mary continued to lead the conversation.
'Were you a child with this kind of initiative in the first place?'
Before she could deepen her thoughts, someone knocked over the closed door. The Empress's Palace is no different from the off-limits to men area.
Except for the Emperor.
So, it's Dylan.
Charlize noticed. All the maids bowed their heads and said.
"We're going to step back, Grandmaster."
Charlize suddenly felt sick to her stomach and stood up. As she approached the window, her memories of her old days came to mind.
When taming Dylan, who was a boy. That day she sang a song to the piano melody that came from beyond the window. The Milky Way sparkled just as it was in the beauty of the night sky.
As time passes, everything changes and it is an illusion of eternity. The sky is always the same.
"How do you look at the sky, Master?"
Dylan approached and hugged Charlize from behind. A sweet yet obedient voice.
"Wasn't it Master who destroyed my memories of that day?"
"…Your Majesty."
Charlize abandoned Dylan, and that day also collapsed like an illusion.
Dylan laughed.
Even the sound of laughter was scattered in the distance and tickled her skin.
It was a dizzying and dangerous atmosphere. The first night of their reunion in three years at the Empress Palace.
Dylan naturally held hands over the back of Charlize's hand. Because if she touches his hand, Charlize will be swept away by the atmosphere without even realizing it.
'All day, Master.'
Dylan knew she had no contact with anyone other than her maids.
Charlize's unconsciousness must have kept looking for Dylan. Yeah, he was sure that she had been waiting.
The fact is. Dylan was very satisfied, and he was also numb.
"Just tonight, you have to stay with me."
Dylan kissed Charlize on the cheek.
"…"
Charlize quietly looked back.
The gaze that met in the air was dizzying. But the next moment, Charlize's eyelids fell strangely.
Her white hand stretched out.
Charlize grabbed Dylan by the collar.
And she kissed him roughly. The attractive eyes were provocative.
Taut tension.
But soon the burning fire.
Lust.
Passion.
They began to covet each other.