Patricia was unable to move under the Emperor’s binding gaze. Her body froze as if molten iron had been poured between where they touched. A thick masculine scent spread from his rough exhaled breath.

“Harchen, are you angry?”

“Yes, very.”

“I didn’t mean to make you angry.”

“I’m not angry at you.”

He wanted to lock away this wet, glistening woman somewhere and have her all to himself. Especially, he wanted to gouge out the eyes of that bastard whose Adam’s apple was bobbing as he flashed red eyes.

“I’m angry at myself for going crazy with possessiveness.”

“If you’re not angry at me, can I ask you something I’m curious about?”

“Go ahead.”

“After the sword duel with Emperor Kazan, who was it that stabbed a dagger into the lungs of the vile emperor who swung his sword at your back as you turned away?”

“Eden Patterson.”

The Emperor’s voice was hoarse and tight.

“What happened to him now?”

“He’s probably in Nyx Prison, I imagine.”

Patricia raised her upper body that seemed about to collapse onto the desk and grabbed Harchen’s firm arm.

“Harchen, I need to meet Eden. Let’s go to Taner.”

Dark green eyes lowered their gaze. Following his gaze, Patricia lowered her head and her collarbone below quivered. Harchen wiped away the damp moisture below her collarbone with his ungloved hand.

This woman’s little heart is full of that bastard.

No matter how much she tried to cover and hide it, it was finally revealed. The time to uncover the concealed truth and face it was bound to come sooner or later.

Patricia.

“Now that your memories are back, are those special moments with him so dear that you’d cling to me like this?”

“Harchen, you’re misunderstanding something… I just think I need to meet him before he’s likely sentenced to death.”

“Your expression is too desperate, as if you’ll die yourself.”

If she were in the aide’s office now and told that the man who just passed by was Eden Patterson, she’d run there in that state. She would purely shake his hand in gratitude or give a light hug.

But him? If they were alone with no audience? He’d desperately suppress and endure his desires, afraid of losing her.

But that doesn’t mean the essence of desire would disappear. Both that bastard and I know that.

“Alright, we’ll leave for Taner early tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you. But morning is impossible, let’s leave in the afternoon after I stop by the poorhouse.”

If I ever have to pay the price for this time of concealment, I’ll gladly pay it. But right now, I had to protect my suffocating love.

“Then for now, seduce me as payment.”

Harchen pulled her hand and walked backwards towards the bedroom door.

“Is that necessary? You’re already sufficiently…”

She followed him, her left hand held by his, then lowered her gaze and blushed, pretending to cover her eyes with her right hand.

Harchen impatiently yanked her into the bedroom. He sat her on the bed, knelt in front of her, and removed her muddy, rain-soaked shoes. Patricia chuckled as he took off her wet stockings.

“Harchen, that man we met in the office.”

His hands stopped for a moment.

“What about him?”

“This might sound a bit rude, but a purple jacket with a pink cravat? It’s flashy, but even to my untrained eye, it looked a bit tacky.”

“Well, that’s…”

How delightful.

After removing the silk stockings, Harchen kissed her damp, delicate knee with its protruding bone. A smile spread across his lips, touching the concave bone.

*

Julia came wearing a purple cape today. Inside the densely spaced double row of gold buttons was a silver ice pick.

She reached into her cape and gripped the wooden handle of the ice pick. As she grasped it, her nerves, which had been on edge, hardened with hostility.

She glared at Patricia, her eyes gleaming with murderous intent.

Yesterday, Julia had tried to avoid Bark but encountered his brutish subordinate Bee in front of the carriage. Startled, she got into the carriage.

On the way to the duke’s residence, it didn’t seem wise to flee temporarily. She had the carriage turn towards Epi Street.

She went to Arteum on Epi Street and up to the second floor that Bark used as an office. She knocked several times but no one answered. Julia leaned against the hallway wall and wrote a note.

She wrote that she would do as he wanted, so he should deal with her directly. She folded the paper in half and slid it under the door.

To ease her anxiety and impatience, she went to Secret Lady.

An employee standing in front of the central round table dressed the doll in underwear and attached accessories as directed by the ladies.

Julia carefully examined the doll dressed in lace underwear.

Seeing the eyes heavily made up in blue made her want to cry. The silver chain around the slim waist, the three silver chains hanging down the middle of the bra instead of lace, made her want to destroy it.

Above all, seeing the bright yellow curly wig flowing down to the waist made her want to kill.

A watching lady asked the price for the full set, and the employee answered. It was easily over ten times the price of the set displayed next to it. Groans of suppressed desire and resignation were heard here and there.

“This chain decoration around the waist is expensive. The end decorations here are ruby and diamond. You can also use it as a neck choker by wrapping it around the neck. If we remove this, the price goes down considerably.”

The employee carefully lifted the doll to remove the chain around the waist, then set it down again.

“Don’t remove that, pack up the full set. Oh, and that doll too.”

Oh, who?

The ladies turned with sighs of envy and jealousy.

Seeing Julia, the ladies standing nearby bowed their heads in greeting, while those across the round table nodded in eye contact. In a place like this, formal greetings would be rather rude.

“My lady. This doll is not for sale.”

Julia tilted her head and smiled sweetly.

She took out the House of Leak’s checkbook from her dainty little handbag. She tore out two blank checks and gave them to the employee.

“Write the full set price on one, and half that price on the other. The second is for the doll and your tip, so keep it.”

“Oh my, my lady. That’s too much, thank you so much.”

“Hmm, I came from volunteer work at the poorhouse today, so I couldn’t bring my maid. Please have this wrapped and given to my coachman.”

“My lady. Do you often volunteer at the poorhouse?”

The ladies who had just witnessed Julia’s generous spending gathered around.

“I run a learning center with Her Majesty the Empress’s blessing. His Majesty the Emperor also supports it, and we’re currently constructing a building for the learning center.”

“How wonderful, how admirable, Lady Leak.”

“We look forward to the participation of ladies who have time to spare, and above all, those with generous hearts.”

Julia used formal speech for the last sentence.

She got into her carriage, seeing off the ladies who showed their respect and goodwill.

Even to her own mind, it was an impressive and admirable speech.

Her ability to move even ladies who come to buy such intimate underwear to volunteer at the poorhouse proved she was born to be an empress.

Julia arrived at the duke’s residence and headed straight for the bedroom.

She laid the doll on the bed. She looked around and went to the cocktail bar by the window in the reception room. She picked up the glass tongs from the crystal bucket on the console.

She picked up the silver ice pick. She went to the bed, raised the ice pick above her shoulder, then stabbed it into the cloth doll’s heart area.

Empress Dowager Diana had said:

“Pure bloodlines are important. The House of Leak is the only family left to maintain a dignified bloodline. Bear an heir, a crown prince. Then everything will be forgiven and resolved, Julia, remember that.”

If only Patricia would disappear. The Emperor would turn back to her anyway, if only for an heir to succeed him.

“It’s because of you, he was a kind man before you appeared.”

Julia imagined Harchen turning to look at her with a smile. The embraces, kisses with him that she had imagined hundreds, thousands of times and acted out in hallucinations. And even more intimate acts.

“Die.”

Julia ripped off the silver chain dangling around the cloth doll’s waist and stabbed it repeatedly with the ice pick.

The muslin covering the doll’s body tore. Cotton batting, white as snow, scattered everywhere.

Julia lay face down on her bed, pressing down the doll’s head with one hand while stabbing and mutilating it with the ice pick.

*

Jessie’s knees weakened at the sight of the princess’s frighteningly gleaming eyes. Not just Jessie, but most of the poorhouse children watched the princess cautiously.

It’s different from usual, the princess is upset.

The poorhouse children were quick to notice. After the morning assembly ended and self-study time began, they would casually linger around Julia.

Julia always carried a dainty handbag with her. Inside the bag that held cosmetics, a mirror, and a jeweled hairbrush, there was another bag filled with gold-wrapped chocolates and sugar flower cookies.

There were also pouches of gold coins for older girls and boys with thicker hair than Jessie.

Princess Julia gives us chocolates secretly from Teacher Patricia, and gold coins too. But it’s a secret. If the teacher or poorhouse staff find out, they’ll take them away. The princess won’t be able to give us any more either.

The children whispered these secrets by moonlit windows at night like a dream, but kept their mouths shut tight in the bright morning.

Today, Julia didn’t bring her dainty handbag. Instead, she wore a cape.

It’s different from usual, Jessie thought.

Five noble ladies she had never seen before came to volunteer.

They weren’t as splendid as Jessie’s princess, but they wore expensive dresses and left a nice fragrance as they passed by.

The staff member in charge said, “The supply exceeds the demand, I see.”

Jessie didn’t know what demand or supply meant. But there were only twenty-three children in total who needed to learn the imperial language at the poorhouse.

No matter how pretty those ladies were or how nice they smelled, Jessie had only one princess.

When she unfolded the gold foil, the rich chocolate scent rose and made her heart flutter.

When she picked up the chocolate with its elaborate design on the surface and put it in her mouth, slowly looking up at the sky, tears came to her eyes. Because she was so happy.

Only the princess shared this heavenly taste equally among the poor children. She thought she was an angel who only gave to the wretched poorhouse children.

Until yesterday when she hit her arm with a fan. Until she saw her rushing at her with gleaming eyes.

Jessie, who had been persistently following Julia’s hand, saw something sharp and pointed gleaming silver as the cape fluttered. The back of her neck stiffened.

Patricia approached the round table and, seeing Jessie, knelt down in front of her.

“Jessie, how’s your arm where you got hurt yesterday? Are you okay? It must have hurt when water touched it.”

Patricia rolled up the sleeves of her loose dress.

Julia, who had been sitting next to Jessie, put her hand into her cape as she stood up. She stood right behind Patricia and raised the silver-gleaming ice pick in the air.

“Die!”