The Mind-Reading Mate: Why Is the Lycan King So Obsessed With Me?!

Primrose thought the happiness her husband gave her would last all day, but the moment Sevrin stepped into the library, all of that joy and blossoming feeling instantly evaporated.

She was once again facing the devil from hell.

"Sir Dorne," Primrose greeted.

Sevrin hummed, then returned her greeting with a slight nod. "Your Majesty." He placed a stack of papers in front of her and said, "I didn't expect your short break to turn into such a long one."

Primrose bit her lower lip and clenched her fists under the table.

Just a while ago, she had deliberately taken off her ring and placed it inside a box so Edmund wouldn't be able to spy on her.

However, to keep her husband from worrying or suspecting that something was wrong with her class, Primrose had given him the excuse that she couldn't focus if she knew he was always watching her.

Although Edmund was reluctant, he didn't forbid her from doing so.

But the truth was, she really couldn't focus if she knew her husband was watching her while she studied.

It was because every time she was near him, she had the tendency to break down whenever she was under pressure, as if her mind and body naturally longed for Edmund to take care of her.

If she kept behaving like that, she might truly never survive being apart from him.

Primrose sighed quietly. It seemed like she needed to make an agreement with Edmund, something like setting boundaries or hiding away the spying things whenever they needed a break from each other.

What a pity.

She wanted to be with her husband all the time, but at the same time, she also needed to learn how to stand on her own so she wouldn't always need to be near him.

"What can I say, Sir Dorne? We can't predict fate after all," Primrose said with an awkward smile. "The most important thing is, I'm ready to resume my lessons."

Sevrin let out a sigh, looking as if he was already tired of her. "Do you even realize that you could forget everything I've ever taught you if you don't study it again after such a long break, Your Majesty?"

[I've already asked His Majesty to allow me to send Her Majesty some lesson materials during her bed rest, but he kept refusing.]

Sevrin groaned inwardly. [How can this kingdom run properly if the King spoils his wife this much?!]

He sounded deeply frustrated, as if he truly believed the Noctvaris Kingdom would collapse if the King continued to love and pamper his wife excessively.

And … he actually had a point.

The kingdom did fall after she died.

"I do, Sir Dorne. I truly do," Primrose said, then pushed a notebook toward him. "I've been trying to review all the lessons I've written down these past few days."

Even though there were some things she couldn't remember, at the very least, she was able to recall the key points.

Sevrin took the notebook and opened it. His expression gradually shifted from annoyed to slightly satisfied.

"You didn't forget everything after all," he muttered under his breath, flipping through the pages. "Still, if you had spent even half the effort you put into being His Majesty's precious wife into your studies, we might've finished this section weeks ago."

Primrose smiled sheepishly. "You flatter me, Sir Dorne. But don't worry, I'm determined to catch up now. You won't be disappointed."

She honestly hadn't expected Sevrin to say those words out loud.

His tongue was so sharp, after all.

He usually lashed out with sarcasm instead of offering praise, so the fact that he even acknowledged her efforts—however begrudgingly—was practically a miracle.

Maybe he did have a heart buried somewhere beneath that mountain of scorn.

"Very well, let's begin," Sevrin said, snapping the notebook shut. "But don't expect me to go easy on you just because you've only just recovered."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Primrose replied, suppressing a grin.

As the lesson progressed, Primrose scribbled down notes with intense focus. She didn't want to give Sevrin any more reason to scold her, not just out of pride, but because she genuinely wanted to understand everything he was trying to teach her.

Sevrin also gave her an additional task: to complete the weekly financial report for the palace. He handed her a thick ledger filled with numbers, notes, and confusing scribbles that only a seasoned official could understand.

"I want this done in full detail," Sevrin said, adjusting his spectacles. "No shortcuts. I expect accuracy down to the last silver."

Primrose held her breath and closed her eyes for a moment. Just looking at the numbers for even a short while was already making her head spin.

But she didn't have the luxury of rejecting the task.

For the sake of the kingdom and her own dignity, she had to endure the nausea and push through her aversion to anything even remotely related to financial reports.

"Alright," Primrose nodded with determination. "I will try my best."

Sevrin simply hummed in response and returned to his desk, continuing the lesson for another hour.

By the time two full hours had passed, the library had grown unusually quiet. She lifted her head to glance at the librarian sitting near the door.

Unlike usual, he looked drowsy as he flipped through the pages of a thick book, his eyelids drooping lower and lower until his head finally slumped forward, as if he had accidentally dozed off.

Primrose shrugged, thinking maybe he was just bored of reading all day or perhaps he was simply tired.

She turned her attention back to the financial report, rubbing her temples as the numbers began to blur on the page.

But her fingers stopped moving her ink pen the moment she heard something in the library.

Tap … tap … tap.

The soft sound of footsteps echoed between the towering shelves of books.

It wasn't loud. In fact, it was so faint that someone less alert might have brushed it off as nothing.

"Sir Dorne." Primrose broke the silence between them. She leaned toward him and whispered, "Is there someone else in the library?"

Sevrin furrowed his brow. "It's just us and the librarian, Your Majesty. Besides, this is your personal library."

Maybe it was only a mouse?

The footsteps had sounded so light, so it was hard to say they belonged to a person.

But even so, uneasiness gnawed at her.

Was she the only one who heard it?

Shouldn't Sevrin have sharper hearing than she did? He was a beast, wasn't he?

Though, now that she thought about it, maybe he wasn't part of a strong beast lineage. Perhaps his hearing wasn't as enhanced as Edmund's.

Still, even if he was weaker, it didn't make sense that she, a human, would be hearing something he didn't.

She glanced toward the shelves again, trying to shake the growing chill crawling up her spine.

If someone was there, shouldn't she be able to hear their thoughts?

Or maybe … maybe they were simply too far away. The footsteps could've come from the farthest corner of the library, hidden behind the tallest shelves where the dustiest tomes were stored, places she rarely even visited.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Sevrin's voice.

"Why does the library suddenly smell strange?" he asked, wrinkling his nose in irritation.

"Sir Dorne … I think something isn't right," Primrose whispered, her voice barely steady as she instinctively reached for the box and pulled out her ring.

The moment her fingers touched the cool metal, a sense of grounding washed over her, like finally holding on to something real in the middle of a nightmare.

At the same time, Sevrin suddenly stiffened.

His ears perked up slightly, and his eyes sharpened. It seemed like he was finally hearing the footsteps.

[Wouldn't it be funny … if we could kill the King and Queen at the same time?]

Primrose widened her eyes the moment she heard someone's thoughts, someone other than Sevrin and the librarian. At almost the exact same time, the footsteps grew faster and heavier.

Sevrin immediately got up from his chair, his hand flying to the dagger at his waist. His eyes locked onto the darkened corridor between the shelves, but he couldn't find anything there.

[Silly. I'm up here.]

The voice echoed inside Primrose's head, calm and mocking.

She instinctively looked up and nearly had a heart attack.

There he was, a man dressed entirely in black, standing effortlessly atop the tall bookshelf just a few feet above her head, balanced like a predator ready to strike.

The man bent his knees and leapt down toward her with terrifying speed, and at that moment, her instincts kicked in.

She dove under the table just in time as a blade slashed through the air where her neck had been a second ago.

Clang!

The dagger struck the floor, sending sparks flying.

"Your Majesty!" Sevrin roared, lunging toward the attacker, but the man threw a cloud of green powder into his face, causing Sevrin to lose consciousness within seconds.