The evening sunset streaming through the window cast a lattice pattern on the carpet spread across the floor.

As soon as they were out of the nobles’ sight, Kasallin, who had been pushed into an empty room, heard Shallen’s thunderous shout.

“Have you gone mad!”

Kasallin, who had been shoved against the wall by him, frowned at her aching joints.

Shallen seemed to have misinterpreted the meaning of that expression.

“In all my life, I’ve never met a woman like you. I’m so dumbfounded I don’t even know what to say first.”

“Perhaps you should start by apologizing to me, then curse me out or slap me as you please.”

“I should apologize to you? Why?”

Shallen let out a hollow laugh with a genuinely puzzled expression.

Not a trace of guilt or remorse could be found on his face.

“I nearly died because of Your Majesty. No, I should say I died and came back to life.”

“I know. That incident in the carriage was indeed my mistake. I’ll acknowledge that.”

Kasallin doubted her ears.

“…A mistake?”

“Yes. A mistake. But what you did this time wasn’t a mistake. Don’t tell me you came back just to show off over some minor injury? If that’s what you thought, you’re mistaken.”

Kasallin ground her teeth and strode toward him, boldly lifting up her skirt hem.

Deep bewilderment crossed his face.

“How improper…!”

Though Shallen said that, his eyes faithfully traced down her legs.

When the scars clearly remaining from knee to ankle were revealed under the light, he momentarily lost his words and closed his mouth.

“Do you see it? This is the ‘minor injury’ caused by Your Majesty’s mistake.”

“…It is more severe than I thought. So what?”

“So what?”

“I suppose you seized the opportunity to cling to Emperor Parnes and enjoyed all sorts of luxuries. Don’t tell me you had some intention from the beginning?”

Her eyes grew hot.

She could feel tears welling up from her tattered heart, but Kasallin gritted her teeth and held back.

“Be honest. Did you seduce the Emperor by asking him to look at your injured leg? Or perhaps you’ve already formed an inappropriate relationship.”

A single moment is enough to understand a person.

Didn’t Parnes say that once before?

“The reason you appeared before me today, shall I guess? Emperor Parnes disappointed your expectations. He couldn’t give you the Empress position. So you had no choice but to return to the Khan Kingdom. Am I wrong?”

Perhaps she had been caught up in vain hope all this time.

That with just a little effort, he might change for the better.

But now she knew.

Parnes’s words that a single moment is enough to understand a person also meant that humans don’t change easily.

“I will resign from my position as lady-in-waiting.”

There was nothing to be gained from continuing this meaningless argument where no conclusion or agreement would be reached.

When she brought up the main point without delay, Shallen’s eyes twitched and narrowed.

“What?”

“I intend to quit serving Her Majesty the Queen and settle all affairs in the Khan Kingdom. I returned briefly to discuss this and go through the related procedures.”

“Returned briefly, what do you mean by that.”

“I’m thinking of immigrating to the Lenel Empire. I request approval for a change of citizenship.”

Shallen quietly blinked with his mouth slightly open, then let out several hollow laughs as if he had heard an amusing joke.

Toward the end, he burst into loud laughter as if finding it utterly ridiculous.

“Immigration? Change of citizenship? Kasallin, are you saying this in your right mind?”

“By now, unfavorable rumors must be spreading through the mouths of the capital’s nobles, and if I continue to remain here, Your Majesty will also suffer from various gossip. Think carefully about what path would serve the honor of the Khan royal family.”

“Unfortunately, you seem to have forgotten that changing citizenship is only possible when marrying someone with that citizenship, except in special cases.”

As if mocking whether she had made plans without knowing even that, Shallen’s lips twisted upward crookedly.

When Kasallin answered with meaningful silence, the smile on Shallen’s face gradually began to change to suspicion.

“…What is that strange silence?”

“……”

He muttered “surely not” quietly and shook his head.

“Don’t tell me that when your approach to Emperor Parnes didn’t go as planned, you promised to marry some other noble man from the Lenel Empire? That’s not it, right?”

“Who knows. What might have happened.”

“That’s impossible. That too must be part of your plan.”

“I am a woman of marriageable age. It wouldn’t be strange for me to meet someone anywhere and promise marriage.”

“Could it be those knights who always followed the Emperor like shadows? Did they say they would help with your plan? Not content with the Emperor, don’t tell me you’ve been secretly meeting with them too?”

He seemed to be referring to Sir Antonio and Sir Vincent.

Among the many gentlemen she had become acquainted with during this social season, those two were the ones Shallen was most wary of after Parnes.

Sir Antonio and Sir Vincent were gallant, held excellent positions, and were even handsome, so it wasn’t strange that Shallen would think of them first.

Shallen seemed unable to even imagine that she might have received a marriage proposal from Parnes.

“You’re completely wrong. I am…”

What had she come here to tell him, why their persistent ill-fated relationship had to end soon.

Just as she was about to open her mouth to personally inform him who knew nothing.

“I’m sorry to interrupt your conversation. Her Majesty the Queen has collapsed from shock and is lying down. You should come see her.”

One of the servants who had followed Shallen like a shadow since his crown prince days rushed in to speak.

His name was probably Alonzo Laugel.

Looking back, these two shared even the most secret information, such close companions.

Kasallin looked at Shallen’s face, red with excitement, and judged it would be better to step aside for a moment so he could regain at least minimal composure.

Saying “Actually, I’m to marry the Emperor” here like shooting a catapult at bare ground would only fuel his rage.

“I’ll go see Her Majesty the Queen. I have things to tell her, and Her Majesty probably has much she wants to say to me as well.”

After Kasallin withdrew, the servant Alonzo Laugel crossed the room and approached Shallen.

Shallen was still breathing heavily with anger, fiercely wondering whether Kasallin had really become engaged to someone, whether she really had inappropriate contact with those men like Antonio or whatever their names were.

“The rumors are already spreading uncontrollably.”

After a brief silence, Alonzo opened the conversation.

“Thanks to the soldiers’ diligent work, the funeral scene has been cleared up, but the nobles seem to want the royal family to directly clarify the truth of the incident.”

“I don’t know what to do anymore, Alonzo.”

Shallen spoke pleadingly, showing the weakness he usually wouldn’t reveal even in front of his wife Rose, openly before Alonzo.

Alonzo’s gaze toward him was complexly mixed with affection for a long-time friend and loyalty toward his lord.

“Someone once said that no matter how skilled a hunter is, trying to catch two rabbits at once leads to mistakes.”

“……”

“What is more important to Your Majesty? Giving up Miss Kasallin and regaining the nobles’ trust, or completely possessing Miss Kasallin even if it leaves some stain on the royal family’s honor?”

Shallen’s eyes glittered with red light reflecting the sunset.

For someone carrying the heavy burden of being a nation’s king, he didn’t contemplate long before giving his answer.

“That’s a meaningless question, Alonzo. Kasallin was originally my possession.”

“Then there’s only one way.”

Alonzo continued as if he had long expected Shallen to give such an answer.

“The fastest way is to cover an incident with another incident.”

“Why didn’t His Majesty Shallen come, but you came instead, sister?”

As soon as she entered the Queen’s bedchamber, a pillow flew at her face.

Between agitated breaths, Kasallin quietly picked up the pillow that had struck her face and fallen helplessly to the floor.

In the time they hadn’t seen each other, Rose’s atmosphere had completely changed.

Her hair, which had been a deep almond color, had turned black as if dyed, and her characteristic cheerful smile that always seemed to view the world brightly had disappeared.

She didn’t know the detailed reasons, but she could sense that many aspects that made up Rose as a person were changing in less than favorable directions.

“Have you eaten?”

Kasallin placed the pillow on the sofa while glancing at the food tray that had been left untouched and cold without a single bite taken.

A scoffing laugh flowed from between Rose’s teeth.

“Playing the servant now? What, did your plan to catch scraps beside the Emperor fail?”

“You must have been planning to properly profit from my death, so I’m sorry for appearing so tactlessly. Still, don’t get too worked up. If you do, instead of just pretending to collapse like today, you might actually collapse.”

She had merely stated the surrounding situation and truth as it was, but Rose must have thought she was being sarcastic, as she tightened her grip on the blanket with both hands.

She must have been so infuriated that thin blood vessels could be clearly seen standing out on her forehead.

“Listen, what makes you so confident, sister? I’m the queen of this country, and my husband is the king of this country. If I wanted to, crushing someone like you would be nothing. Don’t you think that we’ve always been forgiving you out of magnanimity?”

“Then how about showing that magnanimity to the end this time.”

Kasallin placed the documents she had prepared by stopping briefly at the administrative office before coming to the Queen’s palace on the table beside her.

The words “Resignation Request” written in neat, dry handwriting on the white paper filled Rose’s black pupils.

“Since there no longer seems to be the timid coward who wouldn’t dare set foot in a party venue without you by her side, I will lay down my assigned duties and withdraw.”