“Let’s see, my daughter.”

It was a miracle that today’s dinner at Duke Ostaine’s townhouse wasn’t canceled.

Duke Ostaine examined his beloved only daughter carefully, feeling relieved. He had listened in detail to the report from Jenny, who had brought the merchant ship back, about how his daughter was doing after going through a big ordeal in Lucenford.

He had also read the letters sent by Kaella and Peon thoroughly, and had seen his daughter at the welcome banquet held this afternoon. However, none of that could compare to the time of having an affectionate conversation, holding hands once, and embracing her.

“How’s your health?”

The father, who always nursed her personally and stayed up all night whenever she was sick, cared most about Kaella living a healthy and happy life.

“I’m fine. How are you, Dad? You must have been surprised today, right?”

“Whew, just between us, I nearly had a heart attack.”

Throughout dinner, Peon didn’t interject into the conversation between father and daughter, quietly watching his smiling wife. Yet when Duke Ostaine asked questions, he answered smoothly without hesitation. Duke Ostaine, who was listening, was impressed.

“Your eloquence has really improved.”

“You flatter me.”

Kaella’s eyes met her husband’s, who answered modestly. Wearing clothes she had specially ordered today, he looked just as impeccable as when they left the house.

‘He must be uncomfortable.’

This morning, her husband had openly shown her how he changed clothes. So Kaella knew well how many garters he had wrapped around his body and how tightly he had tied his cravat.

Perhaps due to the Empress’s influence, Peon always maintained a neat appearance, but Kaella didn’t think he particularly preferred that style.

Before regression, she had seen Peon several times loosening his cravat or tie with a frown, pulling at it irritably.

After regression, whenever he spent nights by her side, he wore just a shirt and pants. He dressed so simply it seemed he might be cold. So wasn’t Peon feeling very uncomfortable right now?

‘Why?’

Their eyes met. The violet eyes smiled brightly. The corners of his handsome lips curled up refreshingly. But the firm arm deliberately draped over the armrest, the large hand, the masculine thick neck, all twitched whenever her gaze touched them.

This habit of unrequited love just wouldn’t go away. Observing the person she liked closely, and quickly lowering her head when caught. Kaella bowed her head and berated herself.

‘It’s creepy. Stop it already. Why do you keep staring when you don’t even like him anymore? Don’t you know shame? Constantly observing others is really embarrassing.’

The criticizing words had become identical to Beatrice’s mocking tone. There wasn’t a single normal thing about her.

Kaella knew well why this habit had become ingrained. At first, she kept looking at Peon because she liked him, and as she became interested, she was desperate to know more.

Then before she knew it, she observed and observed again, full of fear and trying to read the mood. She was afraid of being ridiculed for not even being able to properly support her husband when she had married above her station.

She was most afraid of Peon despising her. The habit of fearfully observing didn’t easily disappear.

“Kaella.”

Kaella quickly raised her head at the call.

“…was very surprised. And she must have been very uncomfortable having to be with Duchess Schroze, Your Majesty.”

Peon, who had deliberately spoken slowly so his wife would look at him, pointed to his wife’s plate with his eyes.

Just one more bite.

It was something he always said at every meal, coaxing and pleading, so she knew just by looking at his eyes. Kaella unconsciously picked up the fork she had put down. She picked it up and then hesitated.

‘I tried so hard to be the good little sister who always listens well, and now I really do listen well. Better than a military dog. At least I’ll live as much as a dog.’

Reflexively, another sarcastic remark scratching at her flashed through her mind.

“I see. You must have been tired. Did that lady say anything else? Ah, eat first. Eating comes first.”

When Dad even gestured for her to eat quickly, Kaella brought the food to her mouth again.

‘Despite being so shameless that you readily rushed into his arms, why are you suddenly being sarcastic? Stop it. I never had any pride to begin with, remember?’

She really never had any pride. It seemed that way now that she had lived this far. Whenever she realized how weak she was, she hated herself so much she wanted to die. There were so many reasons to die everywhere.

“Is it delicious?”

Dad asked again, as he always did when Kaella was young. Kaella nodded with a smile. At times like this, the reasons to die faded a little.

“Eat a lot. You’ve been through so much in Kraine without even getting to rest.”

“No, I enjoy the work.”

“Yes, the work is fun. It’s always the people that are the problem.”

Peon quietly watched Kaella’s smiling face. Is she smiling well? Yes, as long as she’s smiling. That’s enough for today.

He kept recalling Kaella standing on the imperial palace terrace, staring blankly down below.

He had desperately called her name three times, holding back the urge to snatch her away immediately, but she didn’t hear. Another unforgettable scene was added to his memory.

Whenever he thought of Kaella’s empty eyes that couldn’t hear him, the tight cravat and garters he deliberately tied all over his body became unbearably stuffy.

But if he didn’t put on a leash himself, he felt like he would set fire to the imperial palace right away, emperor or not, and lock Kaella up in his lair, so he endured and endured.

But if he were to see such a scene again like he did today, would he be able to hold back then?

It was becoming increasingly tiresome to put on a human mask and pretend to be a person for Kaella’s sake. This wasn’t right. Kaella would hate this.

‘She mustn’t hate it.’

But it wasn’t right. Since when did he dare to hope for Kaella to like him? He didn’t hope for such a thing. No matter how crazy he was, he knew it was impossible for her to have any affection for him. What he hoped for was…

“…Actually, the Duchess didn’t understand what had happened.”

Peon turned his gaze at Kaella’s voice, chattering away well in front of her father, cutting off his train of thought.

“I thought so. Don’t tell me you even tried to make her understand?”

“No.”

I wonder if Dad knows about the incident where Duchess Schroze made Kaella kneel and slapped her cheek? Since the Crown Prince intervened and made everyone keep their mouths shut, he probably wouldn’t know unless the Emperor told him.

Kaella shook her head. No matter how naive and stupid she was, she wasn’t kind enough to gently teach someone who had slapped her. More accurately, she didn’t have the strength to do so. So she just sat quietly on the terrace.

“You did well. I know you’re kind, but people take advantage of kindness. I’m always worried about that.”

Duke Ostaine’s expression darkened for a moment as he watched his daughter eat.

“It’s a harsh world.”

It was a cruel world where people who tried to live righteously and kindly were helplessly crushed.

“Both of you, be careful.”

Those who had faced the monster’s garden in early winter last year never forgot that they had almost died. Only those who have unexpectedly come face to face with death at their throats know that terror.

“I always keep that in mind.”

Peon answered quietly. In fact, it would have been fine to say “Don’t worry.” He really had the ability to keep Ostaine and Kaella from being harmed even a hair. So it would have been fine to give an honest answer that wasn’t overconfidence.

That would have suited the prideful dragon’s nature too. But he could never act as he used to in front of this father and daughter.

Peon had caused Kaella the greatest pain. If he had just properly acted as a husband, no, if he had at least treated the imperial princess like a human being, Kaella wouldn’t have been broken.

So as the cause, he didn’t dare say “Don’t worry.” Rather, “I’ll keep it in mind and won’t do that again” was the right thing to say.

“Just between us, I was really anxious all winter.”

He knew the Emperor wasn’t in his right mind, but to pull the trigger on his half-brother so casually. Adeo felt dizzy at the thought of what would happen to his only daughter if he died.

“I thought it would be fine if you two got married and lived well, but seeing today, that’s not the case either.”

Lowering his voice again and again in case the Emperor’s ears might reach here, he cautiously brought up the contents of today’s meeting.

“His Majesty said he would change the regency law.”

Kaella wondered for a moment what the regency law was.

“What?”

In the Krania Empire, the only being above the law is the Emperor. So the Emperor can amend laws. But what is he doing?

“He says he’ll create a regency committee. And change the qualifications for people to be on the committee.”

“Who does he want to put in?”

“There aren’t many people to put in from the imperial family.”

Then Kaella’s father, Adeo, was automatically confirmed. Since there weren’t many, they had to at least include Adeo.

“He says he’ll put me and our son-in-law in. Your name is there too.”

“That’s absurd.”

Adeo nodded heavily. That was precisely the problem.

“What about the Crown Prince?”

Dad couldn’t even answer, and her husband shook his head as soon as their eyes met. It meant no.

Kaella felt that what she had anticipated even before coming to Kraine was gradually becoming reality. Of course, the Crown Prince couldn’t take the seat that he should naturally occupy, and only the Empress’s illegitimate child was included.

‘The Emperor did it on purpose.’

*

“He did it on purpose.”

At that moment, Crown Prince Gregory was trembling and thinking the same thing as Kaella.

With only one properly grown son, instead of covering up the mistake that son made with tolerance and teaching, he inflicted all sorts of humiliation as punishment. An heir like the Crown Prince wasn’t that important to the Emperor.

He felt that the Emperor, who was always obsessed only with the Empress, was becoming less and less human. Is it human to only choose actions that prevent him from receiving the love he so desires, and then get angry when the Empress doesn’t love him?

The concept of family had long disappeared from the imperial family, but it had reached the point where people no longer seemed like people.

“How could he do this! I’ll go talk to him. No matter what, our Crown Prince is the heir. His Majesty the Emperor is just too angry right now, he’s not someone who doesn’t know that our Gregory is the heir.”

Beside him, Duchess Schroze kept stroking her grown son’s shoulders, unable to sit still.

“Don’t, Mother. His Majesty the Emperor is not someone who cares about an heir. Don’t you understand?”

If it had been important, he should have naturally included the Crown Prince in the regency committee. But what was the reason for blatantly excluding him?

“No, how can you say such nonsense when an heir is so important? His Majesty tried so hard to have you.”

Gregory raised his eyes, stained with betrayal and humiliation.

“That wasn’t an obsession with an heir, Mother.”

The Emperor had forced Gregory to confront the Empress’s faction that had forcibly created him. If you’re told to fight a war without weapons, you have to do it.

“He tried hard because he didn’t want to hear that there was a problem with his seed.”

“Gregory! How can you say such a thing!”

But in Gregory’s opinion, there was clearly a problem with the seed. He now slowly began to feel like proving that rumor that had circulated until several years ago to the best of his ability. So there was clearly a problem.

*

The Emperor, who had been angry all evening, returned to Soleil Palace in a furious mood.

“Useless fool. Making me do things for him because he can’t even take care of himself?”

He now hated his incompetent son who had to be given a separate model to learn from.

It was especially infuriating that Peon, the Empress’s son, was so decent while the Emperor’s son was lacking. The Emperor’s son should be better than the Empress’s son, what kind of situation was this!

Still, the Emperor thought he was naturally drawn to his own bloodline.

‘He has to overcome the big wall he created himself.’

The Emperor had built the wall of the Grand Duke of Lucenford. The Crown Prince had to study hard and later, after ascending to the throne, complete all his education by purging the wall he had overcome. That’s what an emperor had to do.

‘I have to teach that weakling this much for him to at least act like an emperor. But will he really act properly?’

It was becoming more and more doubtful. The Emperor stood still in the quiet corridor of Soleil Palace, narrowing his eyes and looking around.

What constitutes an emperor is the empress and a proper grown heir. As he got older, he was painfully realizing more and more that this was the ‘perfect picture’.

The thought also suddenly occurred that if he didn’t like the heir, he could just replace him. What was there that he, the Emperor, couldn’t do?

If something isn’t perfect, you just replace it with a perfect item.

“Your Majesty.”

As he entered, Beatrice, who had been waiting, bowed deeply at the waist.

“The eternal sun of the empire…”

“Enough.”

The Emperor waved his hand irritably. Today had been a very tiring day.

“How did things go with your trip to Abenro?”

Of course, it must have gone well for her to come so confidently. With her debt problem exposed externally, Beatrice was in the Emperor’s hands anyway. There was no one wealthier than the Emperor in Krania.

“Your Majesty, there were many mysterious things in Abenro.”

“That’s an evil city.”

“Yes. There was an evil presence.”

Beatrice nodded and smiled.