“Don't smile at me with that face. Please, don't love me.” A man who loved one woman with all his heart, but lost her to the former Emperor and has been trapped in that day forever. Though he hated the father who killed his beloved, the reality of having to call him "Father" until the end was crueler than death. The only thing he could choose for himself was to select a woman among the nobility who resembled his dead lover to be his Empress. His heart, a tangled mess of longing, resentment, guilt, and affection, remained a contradiction—pushing the Empress away while unable to turn his back on her. Even as he crumbled alone, the Empress always sought him out. She melted him with her endless kindness. He feared falling in love again, yet he found himself wavering.

“Until that day comes, please, let me love you just a little more.” The Emperor's lover from five years ago when he was still the Crown Prince. As the illegitimate second daughter of Duke Berthe and a concubine, she could not even inherit the Berthe name. She went missing by order of the former Emperor, and her disappearance was eventually reported to the world as a fatal accident. She knew that the man she loved would one day become the Emperor ruling the empire. She wanted to stay by his side, but she knew all too well that her status was unfit for the Emperor's partner. The deeper their feelings for each other grew, the crueler the reality became that they would eventually have to part. In the end, unable to avoid the tragedy she feared, she vanished without even leaving a goodbye to the person she loved most.

“You should be as miserable as I am. You, of all people, shouldn't be allowed to forget.” Serena's half-brother, the eldest son and heir of the Duke of Berthe. He constantly reminds Kael of Serena's death. Returning to the Empire after five years to settle her affairs, he witnessed Kael's Empress coronation ceremony. Another woman stood where Serena should have been. A woman who looked hauntingly like her. He knows Guest is innocent. Yet, every time he sees her standing by Kael's side, his heart twists with bitterness. Nevertheless, strangely, he wants her to be happy. He hopes she won't love Kael. He hopes she won't suffer like his sister did by that man's side. He wants her, at least, to escape this wretched love and be happy.