“I heard you’ve been staying in your room lately, but you were alive. I was so worried, thinking you were dead.”

With those words, Evenel noticed the mocking eyes and the tone filled with scorn and decided to listen to what was being said.

They said you were a bastard, and it was clear how you were treated and raised before.

“What do you want to say?”

“You should think it’s an honor to go to Karies for Aodin, shouldn’t you? Normally, you would have become an old nobleman’s concubine. Well, it’s a pity to lose a good marriage position that your mother found. So be good until then, as you should, sister.”

Evenel coldly slapped away the hand that Serina tapped on her shoulder. The unexpected retaliation left her stunned, but she quickly regained her composure.

“You.”

“Don’t touch other people’s bodies indiscriminately. It’s disgusting.”

“What did you say?”

At Evenel’s chilly remark, Serina doubted her ears. Wasn’t she the one who obediently listened with her head bowed, no matter what was said?

Evenel brushed off her shoulder where Serina’s hand had touched, as if something filthy had touched her. She would have just let it go, but listening to what was being said, she couldn’t.

“Are you crazy? Or have you gotten even stupider?”

“The stupid one must be you. You judge well.”

“What are you saying…”

She took a step closer to Serina, her voice dropping noticeably to convey her mood.

“If I really go crazy and run away, who will go to Karies?”

“That is.”

“The royal family will send someone else from the Istella ducal family. Then, of course, you will have to go.”

Evenel had decided not to do anything, but that didn’t mean she would tolerate such an argument. There was no reason to avoid it since she would be leaving soon anyway.

“If you can’t handle it, just shut your mouth and stay still. In case you want to return only your head if you have to go.”

Her always lifeless red eyes flashed bloodred, and Serina felt as though the air had been sucked out of the room.

Is this what it feels like to be a herbivorous animal in front of a predator?

“And don’t call me sister. You’re not my sister or anything.”

That title was reserved solely for Aran, and she did not want to hear it from anyone else’s lips.

Leaving the frozen Serina behind, Evenel walked away without hesitation. It wasn’t until she had completely disappeared that Serina took a deep breath.

“What was that…”

She didn’t want to admit that she had been frightened by the insignificant Evenel, but she didn’t have the courage to face that gaze again.

“No, this is not the time.”

To prepare for any possibility, Serina hurried to the main house to tell her father to thoroughly monitor the annex where Evenel was staying.

(This is a time separator.)

Evenel finished recalling what had happened at the Duke of Istella’s residence and slowly opened her eyes. She shook her head lightly and straightened her posture.

As she moved north, she felt the air getting colder. The landscape passing outside the window had completely changed as well.

“We will arrive at the Imperial Palace soon.”

Evenel didn’t even respond to the escort knight’s words, and the restless Lia, who had been unable to settle down, finally called her.

“Miss Evenel.”

At that call, Evenel looked at her sitting opposite with a look that asked why she had called her.

“Don’t worry too much. I’m with you. If anything happens, I will protect you.”

There was still one unresolved question for Evenel since she woke up in this body.

While others were desperate not to be involved with her, why did this child follow her so much?

There was no benefit to be gained by being nice to her.

“Why are you so kind to me? You’ve come this far because of me.”

“Do I need a reason? It’s because you are you.”

“But others don’t think so?”

“What others say doesn’t matter.”
The eyes that showed complete trust in the other person overlapped with Aran’s for a moment. After all, her younger sibling had always looked at her with those eyes.

Every time she saw Aran’s face in Lia, she could not face it directly. It felt as if the remaining guilt was suffocating her.

‘After all, I’m not the one who has to hear that.’

She was not Evenel in the first place, and now that the end was approaching, she didn’t want to maintain a deep trust relationship with Lia.

For her sake too.

Soon, the carriage carrying the two slowly stopped as they arrived at their destination. The voices of the escort knights talking to someone were heard outside the window.

“This is the carriage in which Lady Evenel Istella is riding.”

“No one other than Lady Evenel is allowed to enter the imperial palace.”

At that firm voice, Evenel obediently stepped out of the carriage. As soon as she got down, an endless wall and a door that appeared as the entrance filled her view.

She couldn’t even guess what scenery would unfold beyond that door.

Lia, who followed Evenel out of the carriage, quickly draped her coat over her.

“Karies is chillier than Aodin, Miss.”

When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem

This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Synopsis:

“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”

Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.

Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.

While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the  Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…

Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.

_____

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