Aurelian could no longer keep himself together.
It was almost midnight, and still, sleep would not come. The chill of the night crept into his bones, but the storm inside his mind burned hotter.
He had drunk more than he should, several bottles of wine, each meant to calm the nerves he never used to have. He knew he needed a clear mind for what tomorrow might bring. And yet here he was, restless, haunted, because he had yet to speak with her.
With each passing hour, the weight on his chest grew heavier.
So, against his better judgment, knowing full well she might hate him for it, Aurelian made up his mind.
He teleported directly into her bedchamber.
The room was bathed in soft sapphire light, the glow of the blue moon seeping in through the sheer curtains. And there she was, Ceres, asleep in the large canopied bed, her breathing even, her form untouched and alone.
Aurelian exhaled slowly, relief washing over him. He had braced himself for the worst, for the sight of Legion lying beside her, but the gods, it seemed, had spared him that torment tonight.
Silently, he walked across the marble floor, each step a whisper.
He sat gently at the edge of the bed, eyes never leaving her.
She looked divine. Ethereal. Fragile, even, in the vulnerability of sleep.
He couldn't help himself.
Aurelian reached out and touched her cheek, the brush of his fingers so soft it could've been a dream, and it was enough to stir her awake.
Ceres's lashes fluttered, her golden eyes glazed with sleep and confusion.
"...Duke?" she asked, uncertain. The only illumination was the blue moonlight casting shadows across her delicate features.
"Empress," he whispered in return. But on his lips, the word was no longer a title.
It was an endearment.
Ceres sat up slowly, eyes still half-lidded. The thin strap of her nightgown slipped from her shoulder, revealing the soft swell of her breast. But she didn't move to cover herself. She barely even noticed.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, voice low, thick with sleep and exhaustion.
But Aurelian didn't answer her.
Instead, he leaned forward and kissed her.
Her eyes widened, caught off guard, but she didn't push him away. On the contrary, she kissed him back.
And in that single moment of surrender, Aurelian's world shifted.
He deepened the kiss, pouring into it the longing and torment that had clawed at his chest for days.
When their lips finally parted, both breathless, their foreheads remained pressed together, their eyes locked in the moonlight.
"Are you angry with me?" he murmured.
Ceres's brow furrowed, as if not fully understanding the question.
"I'm not," she replied softly.
"But you've been avoiding me," Aurelian said, the pain raw in his voice. "Since yesterday's meeting. You wouldn't even look at me. Why?"
A silence stretched between them.
Her golden gaze did not flinch from his amethyst eyes, but it was clear she was torn. Then, she sighed.
"I'm not angry at you," she said again, voice quiet. "It's just…"
She hesitated.
She didn't know if she should tell him the truth. Not all of it.
"What you did to Celestria yesterday," she finally said. "Holding her arms like that so I could strike… I didn't like it. I can fight my own battles, you know."
It was a half-truth. And Aurelian knew it.
His gift, True Hearing, let him feel it. Her voice trembled just slightly on the lie.
"But that's not the whole truth," Aurelian said gently.
Ceres looked away.
And then, he asked the question he hadn't meant to ask. The one he knew would wound him.
"Did he do that to you, too?" he asked. "The man named Zeus. Did he ever hold your enemy still… so you could destroy them?"
Her silence was louder than any scream.
She didn't answer. Her gaze remained fixed on the window, on the silent light of the blue moon outside.
But her silence was not empty.
Because in her golden eyes, a tear was forming, one she fought not to shed.
It was enough.
Aurelian leaned in and kissed the tear away with reverence, tasting the salt of a sorrow she hadn't dared to voice.
Then, softly, almost brokenly, he asked the one question he had never dared to ask before.
The question that haunted every dream, lived at the bottom of every nightmare, and whispered in the silence between them.
"What is your real name, Empress?" he whispered.
Ceres's eyes snapped toward him.
She froze.
Her instinct was to lie.
But she couldn't.
Not when he looked at her like that, like she was the only truth left in his world.
Not even when she knew that whatever she said would resonate as truth to Aurelian's innate ability, his True Hearing.
So she gave him the only thing she could.
"Ceres Evadne Monteverde," she said, voice steady.
"Monteverde?" Aurelian echoed, frowning. "I don't know a house with that name."
"That's because… it's not from here," she said quietly.
"Not from Aquilonis?" he pressed, his gaze narrowing slightly.
Ceres shook her head slowly.
"Not even from this world," she said plainly, holding his eyes without flinching.
"Not from Solmara. It's from a place called Earth."
Aurelian's brows furrowed in confusion.
"Earth?" he repeated slowly.
She nodded.
"A different world. One without magic. No dragons, no holy beasts. No summoning glyphs or celestial contracts. Just… science. And technology. You could call it another kind of magic, but there, anyone can wield it."
Her lips curved slightly in a small, wistful smile. The kind that carried longing and loss.
"How did you get here?" Aurelian asked after a beat.
"And what happened to the real Empress? To the… other Ceres?"
Ceres exhaled, then spoke with the quiet cadence of someone who had carried the story alone for far too long.
"I died in an accident… saving a little girl. A truck was about to hit her, and I pushed her away. The next thing I remember, I was standing in the Hall of Celestial Beings."
Aurelian remained silent, his fingers flexing subtly over the sheets, absorbing every word.
"The first celestial I met… was Azrael. He told me it wasn't my time to die. But when I reached the Chamber of Judgment, where the Fates weigh your soul, they said the years I lived weren't enough. They couldn't decide whether I deserved heaven or hell."
She glanced down at her hands, voice softening.
"But they couldn't send me back to my original body anymore. It was… gone. So they searched for a world where a host body could accommodate my soul.
And then Lucifer, the same one you call Solmara, chose this one.
He placed me in this body. In her body."
She looked at him carefully now, as if expecting him to recoil.
"I don't know what happened to the host Ceres. But I was told that Lucifer offered her a choice.
Her soul was given a new beginning, a chance to live again, in a different world, in a life she deserved."
A long silence stretched between them, deep and unspoken.
Finally, Ceres looked up and whispered,
"How did you know?" she murmured. "How did you know I wasn't… her?"
She looked at him directly. "I believe… your True Hearing should have recognized my answers before as truth."
Aurelian smiled faintly.
He reached up, gently cupping her face once more. He leaned in and kissed her, not with hunger, not with fire, but with tenderness. A kiss meant to say thank you for being honest.
"Because I imagined it once," he confessed against her lips. "What I would've felt… if the Ceres I met on our wedding day looked like you do now."
"And I knew."
"I couldn't explain how, but I just knew. You were not the same woman."
His voice cracked ever so slightly.
"And yet… the love I feel for you now… I know I would never have felt it for her."
His hands found hers, lifting both delicately and pressing them to his lips.
"I don't love you because of your face, or your body. I love the soul that lives inside it."
"You."
Aurelian's violet eyes, usually cold and calculating, burned with quiet devotion.
"If I survive tomorrow," he whispered, his voice reverent and aching, "let me walk beside you. Let me help you accomplish your goal. Let me… be part of your world."
His words hung in the air, vulnerable, stripped bare, a vow wrapped in desperation.
Ceres looked at him, pain gleaming in her golden eyes.
"I can't," she murmured, sadness thick in her voice. Yet she didn't pull her hands away from his. Her fingers remained between his palms, trembling but still there. "If the demi-human Prince refuses my request to meet the Demon Lord… then I will travel to the other kingdoms. I must awaken the remaining Holy Beasts."
She drew in a shallow breath, her voice quieter now.
"And you can't come with me, Aurelian. The kingdom needs you."
"No," he replied instantly, with absolute certainty. "They don't."
His tone held no hesitation. Only truth.
"The kingdom needs you. And once the people find out you're leaving Aquilonis, I swear, they will follow. Because this land… it is no longer their kingdom. You are."
His gaze softened, but his intensity never wavered.
"Wherever you go, they will follow. That's how much they believe in you. That's how much I believe in you."
He reached up, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.
"And isn't it better," he added gently, "if you keep your title as Empress? Even if you leave… we can tell the public you're traveling as an envoy, to form alliances with other nations. That way, they won't worry too much. They'll know you'll return."
But Ceres shook her head slowly, her expression filled with quiet resignation.
"Aurelian… I can't return your feelings," she said. Her voice didn't waver, but her eyes did.
"I've told you this before."
"And I don't need you to," he said firmly.
There was no bitterness in his voice. Just truth.
Just devotion.
"Use me as much as you want, Empress," he whispered. "I will never ask you to love me. Not now. Not ever."
"But allow me this freedom, to love you. To serve you. To stay by your side."
His violet eyes searched hers.
"Even if I am not the only one. Even if I must share you with others. I won't mind. Not if it means I get to be near you."
Ceres had no words. Her lips parted but nothing came. She was caught in the storm of his devotion, unsure how to fight it.
And then he kissed her.
Soft at first. A quiet confession. A prayer, trembling against her lips.
"I swear," he murmured between breaths, "I will never ask for your heart."
"But please… accept mine."
And then the kiss deepened.
Ceres felt the warmth of his lips, the fire hidden beneath his restraint. Her mind told her to pull away. That this wasn't right. That it would be selfish to accept something she couldn't return.
But she had always been selfish.
And slowly… helplessly…
She kissed him back.
Passion poured between them like wildfire, devouring the silence, filling the space between grief and longing.
For the first time since she had come to Solmara, Ceres allowed herself to be claimed, not out of duty, not to restore her HP or gain a level.
But simply because this, this moment, this intimacy, was all she could give him in return for a love so selfless it shattered her defenses.
Bathed in blue moonlight, Aurelian worshipped her like she was both celestial and damned. He memorized every inch of her, each breath, each cry, reverent, careful, yet unyielding in his desire.
And he knew, this was not the Empress he had once rejected at the altar.
No.
This was Ceres Evadne of Earth, a soul torn from another world. A woman not born of Solmara's nobility, but forged through loss, sacrifice, and survival.
And he loved her.
Not for her title.
Not for her power.
Not even for the body that trembled beneath his touch.
But for the soul inside it.
A soul that, whether it ever loved him back or not, he would kneel to forever.