For his sixth proposal, he sent a sword forged by the greatest blacksmith in the Empire.
For the seventh, he sent a carpet that released fragrance with every step.
For the eighth, he sent ruby earrings known as God's Blood Drops, a masterpiece said to be unrivaled in the age.
Kwon Minseong returned every single gift to the Imperial Palace.
Thus, Tillio became the first Emperor in history to have eight marriage proposals rejected.
The endless humiliation of the Emperor became excellent entertainment for the people.
Some worried about the fate of the proud doctor.
After all, no matter how blinded by love someone might be, being rejected eight times would wound anyone's pride and inevitably breed resentment.
And if the rejected party happened to be the Emperor, could the doctor really expect to survive unscathed?
That was the sort of speculation people loved to whisper about.
So when, fourteen days after sending the first proposal, the Emperor summoned Kwon Minseong to the palace, the public reached the same conclusion.
This time, surely, the Emperor had chosen a sword instead of a ring.
Yet Kwon Minseong remained completely unaware of the Imperial decree until night had fallen and stars filled the sky.
He had spent the entire day drowning beneath an endless stream of patients.
By the time the Imperial messenger finally gave up after waiting eighteen hours and returned to the palace, Kwon Minseong's workday had only just ended.
"Ugh... I think my back is about to explode..."
Kwon Minseong collapsed onto the stairs and pounded his lower back.
He didn't even have the strength to press the button.
Just as he was deciding he might as well spend the night sleeping on the stairs, Ian pressed the control panel and activated them.
The number of patients who had visited the hospital that day had reached one hundred and fifty.
Even with Ian helping, it had been impossible to manage alone.
After treating one hundred and fifty people in a single day, Kwon Minseong was completely drained.
Only half of them had actually needed medical care.
His hospital was no longer simply a clinic for Male Omegas.
Pregnant or not, Omega or Female Beta, people occupied every seat in the reception room, sipping tea and chatting.
Kwon Minseong's hospital had become Elunem's newest social hub.
And Kwon Minseong was the center of it.
"Why do people come to a hospital... and ask me to choose next summer's fashionable color...?"
He buried his face in his arms and pretended to cry.
"This is only natural now that you've become the center of high society."
"There is absolutely nothing natural about that."
"We've arrived. Please get up."
"I can't. I'm going to die here."
"I would like to go home. Please stand up."
Well.
Ian deserved to go home.
Kwon Minseong began crawling down the second-floor corridor on all fours.
"The floor is dirty."
"Crawling is good for your back."
Sniffling dramatically, he stubbornly continued crawling toward his room.
Ian followed at a leisurely pace and glanced out the window.
"The Imperial messenger waited here hoping to escort you to the palace."
"Yeah... I vaguely heard something about that earlier. He made it sound terrifying because it was an Imperial order, but he was surprisingly polite."
"Should I tell them not to come again?"
If the Emperor lost interest, hospital revenue would probably decline.
The fake patients who came merely to gossip were loud and exhausting, but they paid consultation fees without requiring actual treatment.
There was no reason to stop them.
"Do you like His Majesty?"
That was a dangerous question.
If he said yes, rejecting eight proposals would make no sense.
If he said no, Ian would almost certainly chase future Imperial messengers away.
While Kwon Minseong was trying to think of an answer, Ian helped him onto the bed.
"His Majesty is not sincere."
Kwon Minseong blinked in surprise.
The entire Empire had fallen for the Emperor's performance.
Yet Ian had seen straight through it.
"Really...? How can you tell?"
"The clothes."
Kwon Minseong looked down at the trousers he had been about to remove.
"These clothes?"
"The clothes His Majesty gifted you."
"Ah... the ones in that huge box?"
"You never touched the box, so you wouldn't know. His Majesty sent a red uniform."
"Red..."
Kwon Minseong frowned.
Ian nodded as though he had expected exactly that reaction.
"Yes. A color you dislike."
"That's true. I've never really liked red... Wait."
He tilted his head.
"Did I ever tell you that?"
"No. It was obvious to anyone paying attention. You never wear red clothing."
"Sharp."
"And the shoes did not fit your feet."
"Oh. He sent them without knowing my shoe size? That's pretty careless."
Kwon Minseong replied absentmindedly while concentrating on removing his sock garters.
"All of the gifts that followed were equally inadequate. His Majesty had someone else perform the songs of courtship. He sent poems he neither wrote nor composed himself. There was a lack of sincerity. That is not how one courts another person."
"Yeah, yeah... You're right. What was he even thinking?"
"Sending a painter also demonstrated a lack of consideration."
"That one was nice, though. The patients enjoyed it."
"Do you know how strong the smell of painters' pigments is? Did you consider what effect those odors might have on sensitive pregnant patients?"
Kwon Minseong found himself speechless.
Ian was completely right.
That was precisely why he had removed every flower from the hospital grounds when he first established the clinic.
"The sword sent with the sixth proposal was the same. It may have been a treasured possession to an Emperor who spent his life on battlefields along the frontier, but to you..."
Ian pointed toward a table piled high with food.
Chocolate.
Fruit.
Candy.
Long loaves of bread.
Small loaves of bread. Follow the newest chapters on g.com.
Round bread.
Square bread.
Bread stuffed with sausage.
Bread filled with vegetables and cheese.
Fruit tarts.
Chocolate tarts.
Fried pastries.
The table groaned beneath the sheer quantity.
"It is worth less than that food."
The observation was so accurate that Kwon Minseong could not argue.
"The carpet that releases fragrance with every step is one of fewer than ten in the Empire, but like the paints, it is unsuitable for a hospital. And since you do not have pierced ears, even earrings made from priceless gemstones are useless."
Halfway through removing his left garter, Kwon Minseong unconsciously touched his smooth earlobe.
"I do not understand love."
Of course not.
A machine wouldn't understand something like that.
"They say that people in love can recognize their beloved even by the shape of their shadow. Yet His Majesty knows almost nothing about you. Nor does he seem interested in learning. Therefore, his feelings cannot be called sincere."
"Wow. You're right. What a jerk. Going around saying he likes me that much..."
Already losing interest in the topic, Kwon Minseong began pulling the cords attached to the wall to fill the bath.
Ian fell silent as water started pouring into the tub.
There was more he could have said.
But his employer was clearly no longer interested.
And after a day spent being tormented by patients, Ian did not want to bother him with a conversation he did not care about.
"We're having dinner together, right?"
Kwon Minseong asked while pulling off his shirt.
"No. I already have plans."
"You've been busy lately. Dating someone?"
The thirty-five-year-old man living inside Kwon Minseong briefly resurfaced.
"I have dinner plans with Reiner."
"I was only joking. Be careful on your way."
"I've prepared a late-night meal in the kitchen for His Grace. I'll see you on Monday."
Kwon Minseong was exhausted.
Every joint in his body felt as though it were cracking apart.
His head burned with feverish heat.
He was barely conscious.
Had he not spent the day dealing with one hundred and fifty patients, he would have noticed that Ian had referred to the VVIP on the second floor quite specifically as His Grace.
But he was far too tired to catch it.
Kwon Minseong was not someone who spent a long time bathing.
To be fair, he had never timed other people, so he couldn't say for certain where he ranked compared to the average person.
Still, he doubted he was unusually slow.
He could spend more than three hours over a meal without noticing.
Yet he had never spent longer than forty minutes in a bath.
Today was different.
It took him an hour and twenty minutes to finally emerge from the bathroom.