3

The first thing he did upon barging into the room was demand that she speaks.

“I beg your pardon…?” Selene asked.

She was sitting on the bed in her robe, her long golden hair undone. She looked up at Lucan, startled.

“I heard that you said that you were going to have a word with me. So, tell me what it is that you wish to say.”

“Oh… Your Majesty, it’s just—”

“Do you realize how I feel about your family?”

His question cut her off, not allowing her to finish her sentence. Lucan’s face was icy, but he was calm and so was his voice. Yet, there was a distinct hint of rage in it.

Selene sat there and looked up at the man who was now her husband for a long time. Lucan met her eyes and gazed back, waiting patiently for her response.

“I do.” Selene’s reply finally trickled past her lips. Her voice was lower

than expected.

Lucan found her knowing answer ridiculous and scoffed despite himself.

“You do? So, you know that I despise the Dreadmoor’s and would get rid of everyone in the empire with that name if I could?”

Their conversation was very heated for a newlyweds’ first night together. Any other normal newlywed couple would be exchanging a different kind of heated conversation. But Selene didn’t seem to mind, answering peacefully,

“Can you?”

“What?

“I asked if you can get rid of the Dreadmoor’s as Your Majesty so wishes.” Her tone was dry and emotionless despite her delicate appearance. Lucan snorted in disbelief at her formal tone and mocking question. It was an all too familiar sight.

Selene gazed at Lucan as he boiled with fury. Then, she looked away, unfeeling. “If you cannot, then it wouldn’t be so bad to produce an offspring with me. That would be enough to please Father.”

What she meant was that he might as well acknowledge their marriage if he couldn’t do anything about the Dreadmoors. Lucan ground his teeth, humiliated. Selene didn’t particularly seem to care. She simply brushed her hair, then continued, her expression suggesting that he should face reality.

“I’m not so foolish that I came here hoping for love from Your Majesty. It is no secret that you hate my family. Even if we do not have children, it would be appropriate to pretend to be on mildly good terms. If anything, it would be a gain for Your Majesty, not a loss.”

Lucan knew this in his head. The duke’s greed would be satisfied if Lucan married his daughter and appointed their offspring as his heir. He knew that the mad old man, hungry to become the king, just might be satisfied with having his grandson rise to the throne instead.

But Lucan couldn’t stand it. Dreadmoor had killed over half of Lucan’s family. He had even tried to kill Lucan himself. Lucan didn’t want to grant that insane man what he desired.

He couldn’t have that old man’s blood rise to the throne. He would rather see the continent fall than let that happen.

“You take after the duke’s despicable arrogance, why would I have a heir with a useless Luna such as you?” Lucan asked.

“I am saying this for your own good as well, Your Majesty.”

“Then let me say this for your own good, my queen. This is not the mansion of Duke Dreadmoor where you used to live, know that you will lose your head should you try anything reckless,” Lucan spat, biting out every word.

His wrath was evident from his sudden harsh declaration. Lucan turned away from the queen.

“Your Majesty,” Selene called out to him in a soft voice, but he didn’t turn back around. “I have taken the name Ashborm now. I am no longer a Dreadmoor” She seemed to be referring to Lucan’s comment that he wished to get rid of everyone with the Dreadmoor name. Lucan snorted.

“Fine. Let me correct myself. I wish to kill everyone who has Dreadmoor’s blood.”

Upon hearing that, Selene no longer tried to stop him from leaving. After all, how could she deny that she had that abhorrent duke’s blood running through her veins? Lucan had to hold himself back from sneering.

“You may be this empire’s queen by name, but that will be the end of it.”

Those were Lucan’s last words to Selene on the first night of their wedding. And his words became law.

After the wedding, the queen was excluded from all duties in the palace. Not being able to see the king was the least of it. She couldn’t engage in any palatial affairs, not that it was hard to exclude her from performing her supreme Luna duties seeing as she had no wolf Lucan was able to exclude any participation she might have in the kingdom on the premise that she had no worth to add, the only thing she could control was a hundred servants that she had brought from her own household. That was it.

But the queen must have found some joy in just spending time with her own servants. She didn’t wander around outside and continued to live her everyday life as if she hadn’t expected anything in the first place. Seeing the queen’s attitude, the people whispered amongst themselves that she was doing just fine.

The queen’s maids didn’t seem to pay any mind to the fact that Selene was a poorly treated queen, holding their heads high with the utmost eagerness and sincerity. No one could deny that their satisfaction with their position seemed much too high.

All of this only aggravated Lucan hatred even more. The king couldn’t even stand to look at the queen’s face for more than five seconds. He always brought a new woman to any palace event that required the two to tolerate each other’s presence, ignoring the queen completely.

“Lucan.”

The whisper of the woman that Lucan had brought to the banquet was loud enough for both Selene and the head butler to hear. Tobias, the head butler, covered his mouth with his hand in shock. She had called the king by his name!

At least she hadn’t called him by his nickname. Had she done that, Tobias wouldn’t have been so lenient.

In Lycaria, not even commoners allowed just anyone to call them by their nicknames. In fact, there was a belief in Lycaria that if one repeatedly said an unrequited love’s nickname for a hundred days, their love would be returned.

Tobias wondered if he should be thankful that the king at least hadn’t crossed that line, then shot daggers at the woman.

But Lucan gazed at her with a soft, ethereal look.

“Is there anything you desire?” he asked her.

“Will you give it all to me if there is?”

Even as the king and one of his many women whispered sweet nothings to each other right next to the queen, Selene didn’t react. She hadn’t yawned yet, but from her expression alone, the queen seemed to be drowning in boredom. Seeing this, the people noted that it wasn’t only the king who was ignoring the queen.

“How grand it would be to try on the crimson moon just once!” the woman naively exclaimed right next to the queen.

Head Butler and the other butlers standing nearby all gasped in shock, but the queen didn’t even flinch.

The crimson moon was a royal heirloom passed down to the empire’s queens, but Lucan hadn’t presented it to Selene even though it had been a while since their wedding.

Tobias glared at the woman, his face so red that he looked like he could collapse at any minute. But Lucan only chuckled, amused.

“Well, I suppose it would be better for you to use it since it’s only collecting dust without a proper owner anyhow” he jested.

This wasn’t an appropriate thing to say right next to the person who should have been using it.

“Your Majesty!” a noble called out to him meekly, not able to stand it any longer.

But Lucan’s beautiful face only looked perplexed.

“What? The queen wouldn’t want it either, she knows she doesn’t deserve it or do you, my queen?”

Lucan turned his head slightly toward the queen. Selene’s face remained unchanged as she sat poised with her hand under her chin, her gaze unflinching.

The crowd around the queen suddenly fell silent to hear her response. But the queen gave no answer.

After a short, uncomfortable silence, an embarrassed maid next to her whispered something to the queen. Selene blinked as if waking from a dream. “What?” she asked, genuinely oblivious to what was going on around her.

She didn’t seem to have heard Lucan’s question at all. It was unclear whether she was even aware of Lucan’s existence.

Lucan snorted lightly like he hadn’t expected anything more from her. Then, he left the banquet hall with the woman he had brought. The maids admonished the queen, but she only rested her chin on her hand again, lost in thought.

As incidents like this continued to repeat, people no longer anticipated any sort of improvement between the king and the queen.

There were instances outside of palace events when the king and queen had to dine together once every month or two at the urging of their subjects. Every time this happened, the poor servants caught in the middle were the ones to suffer from their cold relationship, since the king and queen didn’t exchange a single word.

And whenever something like a conversation took place between them, it resulted in misfortune.

“I wish you would stop communications with the duke,” Lucan said in a low voice during their meal, having just returned from an exhausting confrontation with the duke at the council meeting.

Selene’s response came a beat later, as expected of a queen whose thoughts were impossible to read. She looked like she had just realized that Lucan was dining across from her.

“ok” she replied with her head down. It was questionable whether she even heard the request she was agreeing to.

“And refrain from calling him to the queen’s chambers.”

“ok.”

“At official events, your father always...”

“ok.”

“What are you replying to? I haven’t even finished my sentence,” Lucan asked.

Selene finally raised her head. There was a trace of surprise on her impermeable expression. She realized she had made a mistake.

Lucan had been growing angry, but then it dawned on him in disbelief as he noticed for the first time that the queen was capable of making an expression. His queen was ignoring him in a different way than Duke.

“I’m sick of your father confronting me regarding matters that should be between a married couple. Must I report to the duke how many times I eat dinner with you?” Lucan snapped.

“It was only a conversation between a father and a daughter,” Selene replied after a short pause.

“You mean scrutiny.”

“But it isn’t as if it’s a secret. Everyone in Highmoon Palace knows Your Majesty despises my very being and it is ok.”

Despite what she was saying, Selene’s face and voice were devoid of any criticism. Her tone was neutral, as though she was only stating facts. And it infuriated Lucan even more that she didn’t seem to feel any bitterness or displeasure with the fact that he detested her.

Even what she was saying was odd. The hatred between them was not one sided on Lucan’s part. It didn’t seem like Selene liked Lucan either.

This all reminded Lucan of the Duke, who had nitpicked every minuscule detail at the council meeting earlier. The exact opposite of his daughter, Lucan suddenly lost his appetite. He stopped eating and threw the cutlery onto the table, storming out of the room. He didn’t even want to look back.