The carriage came to a stop in front of the stairs after circling around the three-tiered fountain with multiple streams of water shooting upwards.

“I just remembered. I also have an appointment with Julia tomorrow.”

“I see.”

Patrick got out of the carriage and extended his hand to her. Carolina took his hand and climbed the stairs lined with pots of red geraniums.

“But about that prior engagement…”

Knowing she shouldn’t cross the line, Carolina couldn’t suppress her curiosity and asked.

“Who is your prior engagement with?”

“I’m leaving for the Kingdom of Torun tomorrow morning. I’ve decided to accompany Patricia on her wedding journey.”

“Ah!”

‘Patricia.’

For a moment, Carolina recalled their image dancing the waltz, intimately entwined, wearing matching white clothes as if planned. She felt her heart grow cold.

‘What exactly are twins? Are they allowed to cross boundaries so freely?’

It was incomprehensible to Carolina’s common sense. She couldn’t even imagine accompanying Harchen on his wedding journey.

‘Patricia, Patricia… How annoying.’

Carolina felt dizzy from the light pouring over the white marble stairs. After climbing the stairs, Patrick pressed his lips to the back of her lace-gloved hand. As he bowed his head, his golden hair rippled.

It was so identical that it would be indistinguishable if intertwined with Patricia’s hair. Even such an objective fact made Carolina’s anger rise.

Patrick straightened up and descended the stairs. Carolina walked briskly towards the arched door of the palace, which a servant was holding open. In that brief moment, as the sunlight pierced her black hair, her emotions boiled over.

Entering the palace, she was enveloped in cool shade. Yet her emotions still hadn’t cooled.

There are people you dislike for no reason. A being full of light, one you want to push to the extreme of darkness. Princess Patricia. No, the Empress of Karsik.

‘Patricia, now I even have a clear reason to dislike you.’

Carolina went to her chambers. After bathing and changing clothes with the help of her maid, she drank strong tea in the reception room to clear her mind. She tapped her thumbnail with her teeth.

As she bit her nails, she spread her fingers neatly and examined the bones on the back of her hand. Just as Patrick had done, she pressed her right middle finger bone firmly with her left middle finger.

He had promised to send a marriage proposal in a month.

It was what she had wanted. She was more drawn to the cold gaze of the Crown Prince than to Prince Ralph’s clingy affection. But she felt subtly uneasy.

She had her maid bring flower shears and went to the grand garden. After cutting and arranging a light pink peony, she went to the Empress Dowager.

“The light pink peonies are blooming abundantly. They reminded me of you, Mother.”

“Lina, how beautiful. Thank you.”

Mother, what are twins? My heart is burning black.

Carolina bit her red lips tightly.

“Lina, my lovely child. What’s the matter?”

Carolina believed her jealousy-fueled emotions were love. I think I’ve fallen in love with him.

But she couldn’t confess to her mother.

She had been drawn to him since first seeing him in the Notos Palace library. Those blue eyes that seemed indifferent yet persistently stared at her wouldn’t leave her mind.

“There’s something bothering me, but I’ll be fine soon.”

Empress Dowager Diana knew that the person troubling Carolina was the Crown Prince of Tane.

Diana had also witnessed them dancing the waltz together at the wedding reception.

After sending the newlyweds to Aster Palace and leaving the banquet hall with Emperor Kazan and the kings of other kingdoms, Diana secretly instructed the head servant to have a shadow follow the Crown Prince of Tane.

This morning, upon receiving reports of various incidents that occurred overnight, she realized her ominous premonition had become reality.

Diana deeply regretted not opposing until the end the marriage of her son Harchen, like the sun in the sky, to his twin Patricia, though she hadn’t approved from the beginning.

Too many unsavory incidents had occurred since their fated connection, starting with the diamond poison soup incident and culminating in the assassination attempt on the Tane Emperor, which would go down in history.

Diana observed Patricia sharply as she hesitated at the Grand Minister’s marriage vow questions during the wedding ceremony.

At a glance, she was a flawless beauty beyond reproach. However, when viewed through layers of prejudice and hatred, Patricia seemed somewhat different.

When she raised her seemingly indifferent downcast eyes, her sapphire blue eyes rippled. A strange aura flowed that made viewers involuntarily gasp.

Her expressionless face rarely smiled, which made her smiles all the more attention-grabbing.

She lowered her gaze from midair and smiled faintly, narrowing her eyes. Aegyo-sal appeared under her eyes, and her thick eyebrows fluttered and curved like flower petals.

What would a man feel seeing such eyes up close? Remembering anew that the man was her son, Diana frowned deeply.

And now, following Harchen, even Carolina had fallen for the twin.

Diana had received reports of Carolina’s unbelievable behavior after she first went out to the terrace where the Crown Prince was. Determined to at least stop Carolina, she was in the midst of devising a clever plan.

Though Carolina had a reputation for being haughty due to her cold appearance, she was like a sensitive girl hidden behind the solid wall she had built.

She feared becoming an adult and was less mature compared to her peers. She was also somewhat overshadowed by the flashy and greedy Isabella.

That’s why she had hoped for a connection with a childhood friend or a much older, comfortable man.

“Mother, His Highness the Crown Prince of Tane has promised to send a marriage proposal in a month.”

How could this be after meeting so briefly? Are you saying that twin took you at Arteum last night, using the promise as bait?

“So please reject the marriage proposals from the Kingdom of Heya and others.”

“Lina, the proposal from Tane hasn’t arrived yet, has it? We can decide then, that’s plenty of time.”

Diana was displeased that her son and daughter had lost their senses and fallen for the twins. She couldn’t accept it.

The eerily identical twins dancing that sultry waltz at the wedding reception remained vividly etched in her mind, unforgettable. It confused those who saw it.

Diana took Carolina’s delicate hand and looked into her jet-black eyes.

“Lina, wise and prudent daughter of the Solar Empire. Remember, even in the darkest night, even on black walls, there are hidden eyes. Maintain the dignity of a princess.”

Her cheeks, like dewdrop-covered flower buds about to bloom, turned red. Carolina lowered her gaze and responded in a moist voice.

“Yes, Mother. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Clang clang clang clang!

“Hehe, Harchen, what’s wrong? Why aren’t you blocking?”

Patricia, with her left hand stretched out horizontally, drove her sword in her right hand towards the empty space below Harchen’s shoulder, then lightly tapped his side with the back of the blade. She then said cheerfully,

“Patricia, victory!”

“Huff, it’s not that I’m not blocking, it’s that I can’t block.”

“Why, can’t you block even this?”

Harchen, who had been languidly swinging his sword with his right hand while keeping his left hand in his pocket, tilted his head askew and said,

“I’ve only been using wholesome muscles, so my sultry muscles have stiffened.”

“If you keep treating swordsmanship so casually, you’ll regret it, Harchen.”

“I’m really dizzy and lightheaded. I’m thinking about how it would be if I knocked you down under that poplar tree over there.”

Patricia tucked her sword under her arm, untied the ribbon in her hair, then neatly tied it up again while laughing plainly.

“What are you saying, why would you knock me down? I’m so healthy. I’ve won twice now. Just one more win and it’s over.”

Is she now not even blushing or pretending not to hear such talk? Is this tacit permission to knock her down? Or has she lost interest in me now that she knows everything? While I’m still thinking only of such things.

“So what will you demand if you win?”

“Hmm. You tell me first, Harchen.”

“For me, sleeping together at White Palace every day even after returning from the wedding journey. What about you?”

“Making such decisions is too much. I’ll humbly request a sword match with Sir Calip.”

“What… What did you say? I thought we agreed you’d only cross swords with me?”

Harchen decided it would be better to end this quickly, abandoning his attempts at seduction.

“Come at me.”

He straightened his back, slashed diagonally through the air with his right hand, then struck upwards again, creating wind, and lightly tapped Patricia’s side with the back of his sword.

“Harchen, victory!”

The red sunset that had spread across the sky was gradually pushed back by darkness.

Clang clang.

“Harchen, victory! Right away.”

Harchen wielded his sword lightly as if swinging a thin paper sword.

Meanwhile, he appreciated her disheveled appearance, closed the distance as if to swallow every breath she exhaled, and lightly brushed the back of his sword against her waistline.

The sweet and savory scent of butter wafted through the air of the small garden from the Aster Palace kitchen.

“Harchen, victory!”

Patricia was momentarily frustrated by his brute force swordsmanship. She placed her hands on her knees and exhaled heavily.

“I won, didn’t I? You, keep your promise well.”

Patricia sharply turned her head and glared fiercely.

“Let’s do it again. That seemed a bit unfair.”

“What more is there to do? If you have energy left for that, use it on me in bed.”

Harchen lifted her up, brushed back her hair that was sticking to her with sweat, and as if unable to resist any longer, kissed her forehead and cheek.

“Speaking informally and glaring fiercely… It’s quite exciting.”

He picked her up and set her against the poplar tree trunk, pinning her with his outstretched hands.

Julia leaned against the damp wall. The cold rising from the wet floor crept up her spine. However, she paid no attention and smiled.

Empress Pamila was indeed a notorious villainess as rumored.

Julia had heard about the past conspiracies carried out by Empress Pamila through a conversation between influential dukes of the two empires. She heard about future collusion and plans.

She had been using poison on Crown Prince Patrick for a long time. For some unknown reason, the Crown Prince, who had recently regained his health, ordered the attack on the Emperor last night and threatened the Empress.

The Empress and Duke Parse were conspiring to eliminate the Crown Prince, and the Crown Prince, who had noticed this, announced that he would stay in Karsik for an extended period.

Unable to move in Karsik, the Empress and the Duke asked to be introduced to a spy who could shadow the Crown Prince.

Yes, there was such a method.

While Julia herself hated Patricia enough to kill her, she hadn’t thought of actually doing so. The incident with Princess Patricia’s poisoned soup at the banquet hall in Diarum was not Julia’s doing.

Although Carolina had questioned her quite suspiciously, at that time, Julia had been preoccupied with figuring out how to administer birth control pills.

She hadn’t even dared to think about killing.

Julia, you were quite naive.

Julia leaned against the dark corridor wall, her wet eyes shining as she smiled. Concrete malice welled up inside her body.