Reborn as a Mind-Reading Empress
Chapter 80: You are the Only for Me [Bonus - ]

Chapter 80: You are the Only for Me [Bonus Chapter]

Thankfully, Ferdinand didn’t think she was acting weird. He didn’t get turned off either.

But she didn’t understand how he could call her cute and adorable when she had just woken up from a nightmare so her hair was probably a mess.

Her eyes were probably swollen and reddish from crying. And her face probably turned dark when she thought of Gulliver.

Was this the lens of love that she kept on hearing about?

"As you wish, My Love," Ferdinand held her hand and gave them a peck.

’My Love?!’ she flinched as he kissed the back of her hand again.

"I’d love to punish anyone who makes you furious."

"T-Thank you," she tried to free her hand but Ferdinand made a growling sound in his throat so she stopped.

"Don’t reject me. Please allow me to do this much. I at least want to hold your hand and kiss you even if we cannot consummate yet."

"Right. I’m sorry. I was just surprised."

Ferdinand stared at her again.

[Did she get terrified of the idea of consummating because of what she saw in Gulliver’s room? That bastard! I will mince him to pieces if he had traumatized my wife to never consummate with me.]

"I can just call you by your name, right?"

"Yes, of course. You told me to call you by your name, so please feel free to call me by name as well."

She rather preferred her name from ’My Love.’ It was too embarrassing to listen to since she wasn’t used to Ferdinand saying such things.

"Then, I’ll call you by your name from now on," Ferdinand kissed her hand again. "And you don’t have to speak so formally with me."

[All I want to do is embrace her tight in my arms and kiss her as much as I please until morning comes. But there’s so much work that has to be done. We have to talk too.]

"Arabella, I heard you witnessed the Marquess satisfying his carnal desires," Ferdinand suddenly said and she flinched.

"Y-yes. Just a bit," she looked away.

[It must have scared her so much if she even threw up and felt nauseous because of it.]

"Please don’t be afraid of me because of what you saw today. That was the Marquess’ personal taste. I will never hurt nor force you the way he did to his ladies. And I will never take you with other ladies or in front of anyone else," Ferdinand promised as he held her hand and cupped her cheek.

His eyes looked so sincere. She could tell he wasn’t lying. His thoughts were clear too.

"Thank you for being considerate of me. It makes me happy that you treasure me."

"You deserve to be treasured and treated well. I promise I will cherish as best I can. I might keep making mistakes here and there, but please do tell me whatever it is I do that displeases you. I have been quite a disappointment to you today, but please know I will do my best to resolve all this."

Arabella stared at Ferdinand as he spoke so directly and sincerely. She’s still not used to him being this talkative. But it was indeed so much better that they are communicating with each other.

"As I have said earlier, what happened in Prudencia was not your fault. Marquess Gulliver was the one who did it. Still, it was true that you should have sent some of your people to watch over things. Please be more careful in the future so this won’t happen again."

She spoke honestly too since Ferdinand was being so sincere with her.

"Yes. I will be more careful."

Arabella smiled. This was another step for their future.

"The people of Prudencia would be grateful that you care enough to get back the people taken from them."

"It was my duty to protect them in the first place. I have failed them so this happened. But I will try to keep them safe this time."

It was a surprise for her to see Ferdinand being critical of himself but she was glad he was not as full of himself as she thought in her previous life.

He seriously takes his duty and responsibility to the people of the Empire as their Emperor.

"I’m sure they would be happy and grateful. There may be things you need to improve and work on but I think you are doing well as the Emperor."

[Is she praising me?!]

"Thank you. I will work even harder so you’ll compliment me more," Ferdinand was happy to be praised by her.

He covered his mouth in embarrassment when he realized he said the next sentence which should have been just in his mind.

"I’m looking forward to it," she teased him a bit and his face turned red.

[This mouth! I should be more careful next time. How embarrassing! What if she thought I was just doing things to get her praise? What if she thought I was shallow?]

Ferdinand gave meaning to every little thing.

He embraced her and settled his chin on her shoulder so she wouldn’t be able to see his face.

’Who would have thought he easily gets embarrassed?’

She wanted to tease him more but felt bad so she decided to divert the topic.

"Regarding the punishment of the others involved with Marquess Gulliver, do you plan to execute everyone?"

Ferdinand was notorious for killing people he didn’t like. It would be no wonder if he wanted to execute everyone involved.

"Yes, I originally thought of executing them all. But the Marquess has hired quite a number of mercenaries. We are still thinking about what to do with the rest. I plan to have all the leaders executed while the others would be prisoners."

He instantly reverted to his usual poker face as if he wasn’t just blushing madly earlier.

"How many are there?"

"Marquess Gulliver had about two thousand mercenaries under him."

Arabella blinked. Just from the numbers, it was clear Gulliver had been planning things for a while before the war with Prudencia even happened.

Was he planning an uprising or a revolt?

Or something else entirely but another opportunity came to him after the war so he decided to use Prudencia instead?