Chapter 468: Justice Served On The Bed

Before she could find her voice, Mika spoke.

"Hold on, Nadia." His voice was calm, measured. "I think you’re misunderstanding the situation."

"Misunderstanding?" Her eyes narrowed. "I just watched you sleep with another man’s wife. The empress of an entire realm. What is there to misunderstand?"

He didn’t flinch. "I did sleep with her. I won’t deny that. I had my fun, and she had hers." He paused. "But I won’t accept the label of someone who ruins happy relationships."

She stared at him. "What are you saying? I just saw—"

"You saw me having sex with her, yes. But what if their relationship wasn’t as happy as you think"

"What if there was disharmony?"

"What if one party was completely unfaithful long before I ever entered the picture?"

She went still.

"What if the husband was holding secrets that would destroy everything you think you know about their ’perfect’ marriage?"

Her mouth opened. Closed. Opened again.

"What are you saying, Mika?" Her voice was barely a whisper. "What are you getting at?"

He leaned closer, his eyes dark and serious.

"I’m saying that before I ever touched the empress, her husband had already broken their marriage in ways you can’t imagine."

"I’m saying that the beautiful love story you’ve romanticized in your head is nothing but a lie."

He held her gaze.

"The question isn’t whether I seduced another man’s wife. The question is—was there ever really a marriage to ruin in the first place?"

Nadia felt the shape of the truth forming in her mind, and it was horrible. Even so, she found it nearly impossible to believe.

The story of the elven empress and her commoner husband was legendary—a fairy tale that had inspired countless romances across multiple realms.

To hear that it was all built on lies seemed almost blasphemous.

Mika decided to enlighten her.

"The truth is..."

He said, his voice calm but cutting.

"...everyone thinks their marriage is happy. Everyone thinks their love story is pure and beautiful. But that’s the last thing the truth actually is."

Nadia’s breath caught.

"Their entire relationship was built on lies. Lies orchestrated entirely by another party."

"Another party?" She repeated, her voice barely a whisper.

He nodded. "The empress’s brother."

She gasped. The pieces began to click together, even as she struggled to accept them.

"The elven society is matriarchal." Mika continued. "The crown passes to the daughter, not the son. And the princess was always a far better ruler than her brother could ever hope to be. The people loved her."

"The brother knew he couldn’t defeat her in open conflict, so he chose more...underhanded methods."

He leaned back, his expression hardening.

"He found a man. A commoner with nothing to lose and everything to gain. Mr. Velhor. He fed him information—everything about the princess. Her likes, her dislikes, her dreams, her fears."

"He orchestrated their first meeting in the elven forest, made it look like an accident. He planned every subsequent encounter, every conversation, every carefully timed coincidence. And he instructed his pawn to seduce her."

Nadia’s gaze drifted across the room, landing on Mr. Velhor.

The handsome elf was still surrounded by sycophants, smiling, nodding, playing the part of the devoted husband.

But now she saw him differently.

The tenderness she had once perceived in his eyes now seemed like calculation. The charm now felt like manipulation.

"And it worked." Mika said. "She fell for him. Fell hard. Believed it was fate. Believed she had found her true love."

His voice dropped, becoming almost gentle.

"For years, she lived in that illusion. They married. Had a daughter. Built a life. And then...the truth came out. Slowly at first, then all at once. She discovered what her brother had done. What her husband really was."

Nadia’s hands clenched in her lap.

"But by then, it was too late. Exposing the truth would have destroyed the hierarchy of the elven realm. It would have given her brother exactly what he wanted—chaos, instability, an excuse to seize power. And she couldn’t do that to her people. To her daughter."

"So she stayed. Smiled for the cameras. Played the part of the happy empress. While inside, she was dying."

Mika looked at Nadia, and there was something almost vulnerable in his expression.

"When I first approached her, my intentions were...not pure. I wanted revenge for you. For the way her husband had treated you over the years."

"I thought seducing his wife would be the perfect punishment."

Nadia stared at him in dismay. He said it almost like it was a good deed.

Mika laughed lightly, a little embarrassed.

"With that intention in mind, I went after the Empress. And I succeeded pretty decently at first. On the second time we met, we were having lunch together and having quite a good conversation."

He paused, letting the weight of his words settle.

"But I think I got a little too close. She started talking about her worries. She was hesitant at first, but I wanted more, so I coaxed it out slowly...and she actually admitted everything.

"She talked about how they would constantly fight in private, how she didn’t want to break up the marriage for her daughter’s sake, and so many other painful things. Honestly, in that moment, seeing her in tears...even I felt bad for her."

He rubbed his forehead like he was getting a headache just remembering it.

"Not to mention..." He quickly added. "I don’t think I would have gone through with what I originally had in mind. I don’t think I would have done anything with the Empress at that time."

Nadia was surprised.

"Why, Mika? You aren’t someone who would give up halfway through something. Even though what you’re doing is...morally wrong, I don’t believe you would give up so easily."

"So why exactly did you think of stopping?"

Mika looked at her with a thoughtful gaze, then smiled softly. "It’s because of you, Nadia."

She blinked, caught off guard.

"I kept thinking about you at that time." He explained, voice warm. "What you taught me over the years, how you yourself have so much power yet you always reined it in and played fair according to the rules."

"All your years of teaching me to be a gentleman just pushed me away from the thought of destroying another woman’s happy relationship just because I didn’t like the person she was with."

"Because of that, I realized I didn’t want to do that at all. I was actually thinking of completely pulling away."

Nadia hadn’t expected that at all. The words filled her with a warm, safe glow—like she was looking at a young disciple who had truly taken her lessons to heart. It made her proud and happy in a way she couldn’t quite describe.

But then Mika’s grin suddenly turned evil again.

"Of course, that all changed when I heard the Empress’s side of the story. At first I felt bad for her, pitied her, consoled her, and thought about giving her some advice and not doing anything else."

"But then I realized it was an opportunity—not just for her, but for me as well—to get proper revenge against her husband. She really hated him at that point. All the love she had for him was completely gone once she realized the truth, so she quite disliked him."

"I used that to my advantage." He snickered.

"Through some carefully formulated words and a few suggestions here and there, I made the Empress realize exactly how she could get her revenge. And of course, the Empress was already quite fond of me, so she immediately agreed."

"That’s how our relationship got so hot and spicy."

He looked rather proud of himself for the decision he had come to with the Empress.

Nadia was quiet for a moment, thinking. Then she asked, voice soft.

"When exactly did this relationship begin, Mika?"

"About four years ago or something."

Hearing this, the pieces clicked instantly in Nadia’s head.

She had known the elven Empress for more than twenty years.

And about ten years ago, the Empress had suddenly become much more withdrawn from the world—refusing to meet people, and even when she did, she would force a smile, but there was always a hidden sadness in her eyes.

People had speculated endlessly about what was going on, but no one could put their finger on it.

Everything on the surface had seemed fine.

Now Nadia understood. That must have been when the Empress realized her husband was a fraud and the entire relationship was fake.

And then, four years ago, the Empress had changed again.

The light had returned to her eyes. The vibrancy had come back. She seemed almost like her old self—laughing more, engaging more, living more.

Nadia looked at Mika.

He had done that. Her son had brought the Empress back to life. Not just through the physical intimacy—though that was clearly part of it—but through genuine connection.

Through being someone she could trust. Someone who understood her pain and didn’t judge her for it.

"So, tell me, Nadia." Mika’s voice was quiet, almost challenging. "Are you going to tell me I did something wrong? That helping a woman escape her misery, giving her a reason to live again—that’s bad?"

Nadia thought about it for a moment and finally shaking her head.

"No, Mika. I can’t say that."

She reached out and took his hand.

"Before, I was disappointed. I thought you had ruined someone else’s relationship. I thought you had acted against everything I taught you. But now..."

She looked down at their joined hands, then back up at him.

"Now I realize that not only did you have regrets about what you were doing, but you also helped another woman heal. Gave her a way to release her sorrow. Gave her something to hold onto."

A small, embarrassed smile crossed her lips.

"I mean...the way you did it was certainly unconventional. But I really don’t mind. You seem to have genuinely helped her. And I know you’re a good person, Mika. So I don’t think much of it."

He smiled, but her expression grew thoughtful.

"That said...about four years ago, the crown princess faction took a massive hit. Their support scattered under mysterious circumstances."

She looked at him with narrowed, suspicious eyes.

"Don’t tell me that was also you."

Mika looked away, suddenly interested in a spot on the far wall.

"Maybe. Maybe not."

She waited.

"Someone once told me that injustice should not go unpunished." He said. "So I decided to stick with that philosophy. And maybe I did something. A little something."

Nadia’s eyes widened in surprise. That was exactly something she had said to him years ago.

She realized, even now, after everything, he was still thinking about her, still trying to act in the direction she had taught him.

She was still disturbed, of course. Her son had become a playboy.

A seducer of married women. A man who used his body as a weapon and his charm as a tool.

But she couldn’t deny the results. And she couldn’t deny that he had done it all without a guilty conscience, so there was really nothing she could say.

But just as Nadia was beginning to feel relieved—almost proud, even, that Mika had channeled his rage into something that resembled justice for suffering women—he opened his mouth again.

"Honestly?"

He leaned back, a thoughtful look crossing his face.

"After going on that first...excursion, I got a taste for it."

She jerked upright, turning to stare at him.

"Not the taste of playing around with another man’s wife." He clarified, waving a hand. "That’s its own thing. Its own...flavor."

Her face heated. She hated how her body reacted when he said things like that—the casual way he talked about sex, about other women, about things a mother should never have to hear from her son.

But she couldn’t stop listening.

"What I mean is, I got a taste for helping women. Women who were clearly suffering because of their husbands."

"Whether it was cheating, or making decisions behind their backs, or—in some cases—outright abuse."

His expression darkened.

"Among your political enemies, there were plenty of men who weren’t treating their wives properly. And I decided that if no one else was going to bring them justice, I would."