“Don’t you know what lapis lazuli means in the Renel Empire?”

Katharine quietly furrowed her brow.

She couldn’t understand why he was asking so excitedly.

“No, I don’t. Is there a problem?”

“This is truly astounding.”

“If you’re done looking, could you return it now? It’s something I need to take to next week’s ball.”

Shalen tossed back the headdress he was holding as if throwing it.

He glanced at it with a dissatisfied expression as it barely landed in Katharine’s hands, then began muttering to himself.

“Next week’s ball… Surely not…”

“If you have no further business, I’d like you to leave now. I need to change and go see Her Majesty the Queen.”

Shalen, who was slowly turning his back while lost in his own thoughts, looked at Katharine with narrowed eyes.

“Katharine, do you think only Emperor Parnes came to rescue you during the hunting competition?”

“What do you mean by that all of a sudden?”

“I also spent the entire night searching for you. I, the King of the Khan Kingdom, searched for you getting soaked in the rain and stuck in the mud.”

Katharine’s mouth gaped open.

So what?

Is he saying he wants recognition for his troubles?

“You went through unnecessary hardship. What if you, who bears the future of ten million Khan Kingdom citizens, had slipped and fallen?”

“Is that all you have to say?”

“What else should I say to you?”

Shalen clicked his tongue and turned his back.

“I was a fool to have felt sorry for you even for a moment.”

As she watched his retreating figure, Katharine felt an inexplicable ominous feeling enveloping her entire body, but she dismissed it as a mere mood.

Surely it was because she still had lingering effects from her cold.

“Your Majesty!”

Rose, passing through the corridor, spotted Shalen walking from the opposite direction and waved her hand happily.

“Perfect timing. If you haven’t eaten yet, would you like to join Rose…”

Shalen, who would always smile gently no matter how busy he was when their eyes met, oddly passed by Rose without acknowledging her.

He was muttering something to himself and his face was contorted as if he couldn’t contain his rising irritation.

Rose, surprised, followed after him.

“Your Majesty?”

Shalen entered a nearby room and leaned on the desk with both hands, taking deep breaths for a while.

Then suddenly, he swept the items on the desk with his arm and shouted.

“She truly doesn’t know what that lapis lazuli means? This is ridiculous!”

The glass lamp shattered with a crash, and the black ink in the bottle stained the floor in splotches.

Rose gasped in fear.

It was the first time she had seen Shalen, who always maintained a gentle and generous demeanor, so angry.

“Your Majesty, what happened? Tell Rose everything.”

“It’s about Katharine.”

“…What about elder sister Katharine?”

“It seems she’s gone mad over Emperor Parnes and can’t think straight. She’s on the verge of proclaiming herself his mistress. I’m deeply concerned that she might betray our Khan royal family. I worry that her actions might tarnish the honor of the royal family.”

Rose quietly rolled her eyes.

She had been anxious that His Majesty Shalen might be jealous because he had been so displeased with elder sister Katharine being close to Emperor Parnes.

Was it just anger at the thought that she might betray the Khan royal family?

‘Right. Of course. There’s no way His Majesty Shalen would harbor other feelings for elder sister Katharine now.’

Rose’s face brightened with a faint sense of relief and a glimmer of hope.

She nodded calmly as if she understood completely and naturally took Shalen’s hand.

“I’ve been so worried about elder sister Katharine lately too. Why doesn’t she understand Your Majesty’s feelings at all?”

“You’ve been thinking the same, my Queen?”

“Yes. Actually, since coming to the Renel Empire, she hasn’t been doing the tasks I’ve asked her to do well, and she disappears somewhere whenever she gets the chance. I tried to understand, thinking she might need rest too, but I was troubled because she seemed to have changed.”

As Rose let out a sigh filled with concern, Shalen shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it.

“You should have told me every time that happened. I didn’t know she was being so unreasonable.”

“I was afraid she might come to hate me. I’m sorry. I guess I’m not fit to be queen.”

“What are you saying? Where else in the world could one find a woman so kind, compassionate, and capable of making her husband happy? No matter what anyone says, you are my eternal queen.”

“Really? Will you truly love only Rose forever?”

“Of course. It goes without saying.”

Shalen responded adequately to Rose’s melting coquetry while glancing out the window.

In the distance, Emperor Parnes was walking somewhere, having a serious conversation with Duke Ludwick.

At that moment, as if struck by a firm resolution, Shalen pushed Rose away and said,

“Then, my Queen, promise me one thing.”

“Anything.”

“That you will respect and follow whatever decision I make from now on. You, being so generous, can do that for me, can’t you?”

Rose nodded without a moment’s hesitation, with utmost joy.

Not imagining how that small nod of hers would bring about such a great wind in the distant future.

“Your Majesty the Queen. A guest requests an audience.”

As Rose sat at her dressing table fixing her disheveled hair for dinner with Shalen, a maid suddenly came and spoke.

Thinking it must be the noblewomen she had befriended at the last party coming to pass their idle time, Rose waved her hand without even looking at the maid.

“Those ladies? Tell them I’m asleep and politely send them away.”

“No. He says he’s the temporary gamekeeper who has been managing part of the imperial hunting grounds and forest recently. He says he has a brief report about the recent hunting competition and asks for a moment of your time.”

Gamekeeper.

As soon as she heard that word, Rose’s fingers, which had been curling her hair, stopped.

The image of her elder sister slipping down the mountain valley due to a momentary mistake during the hunting competition flashed through Rose’s mind.

Rose granted permission for the audience and instructed the maid to dismiss everyone.

And a moment later, overwhelmed by an indescribable feeling, as if the stench of sewage was rising through the cracks in the floorboards, she strode forward and flung open the door.

An unfamiliar man was standing there.

“Who…”

“Hello?”

A yellowed front tooth peeking through his darkly grown beard.

The leisurely yet unpleasant smile seemed somehow familiar.

“To think that my long-forgotten daughter has become Her Majesty the Queen. What a joyous occasion is this?”

She suddenly realized that his smiling face resembled her own.

.

.

.

“My, this is quite the sight.”

The strange man who had been spouting incomprehensible words kept touching the luxury furniture and vases in the room, constantly expressing admiration.

Rose wanted to immediately chase away this man who, despite being a mere gamekeeper, dared to show no courtesy, but she barely held back due to an inexplicable feeling of unease.

Rose sat on a sofa, staring at the man without blinking.

Looking at him, she felt as if she was missing something important.

“You said you’re the temporary gamekeeper? A person who should be busy with their duties outside the palace, what business brings you to me? I see no reason to meet someone I don’t even know.”

“Why wouldn’t there be a reason to meet? Think carefully. What could I, who knows everything that happens in the hunting grounds, have come to see you about? And why did you dismiss everyone and fling open the door in such a hurry, as if you had something weighing on your conscience?”

Rose almost completely lost the expressionless facade she had been maintaining to hide her true feelings.

But she couldn’t rashly respond because she couldn’t grasp what he knew, how much he knew, or what his exact purpose was.

“And I told you just now. You are my daughter.”

“You’re talking nonsense. My father passed away a few years ago. He was a renowned scholar known throughout the Western Continent.”

“Hmm…”

The man was leisurely admiring the splendid room as if he had something to rely on when suddenly he clutched his lower abdomen.

Soon after, a rumbling sound emerged from his stomach.

The man, showing his protruding teeth, said,

“I’m hungry, bring me something to eat.”

“…You really are a madman. I’m going to call the guards right now, so stay right there.”

It was just as Rose was about to ring the bell connected to the lower floor.

“How is your mother, Elizabeth, doing?”

Rose’s hand, which was reaching for the bell, stopped in mid-air as if blocked by an invisible wall.

Rose turned her now pale face to look at the man.

“How do you know my mother’s name…”

“Her nickname is Beth. Her childhood name is Grevet. Her hometown is Saint Field. Right? If you want, I can recite other information too. I know everything about her.”

“I asked how you know my mother!”

“Now, don’t get angry. How about we have a meal first and slowly catch up?”

Rose tilted her head towards the ceiling and took a patient deep breath.

She pulled the rope, ringing the bell, and after glancing at the man and hesitating for a moment, she finally asked for a meal to be brought.

Soon after, a table full of food was prepared.

The man, who quickly took his seat, couldn’t close his mouth, like a pirate who had discovered treasure.

From juicy meat to colorful fruits, fragrant red wine, and fresh fish dishes that looked like they might start moving at any moment.

“They say the nobles and royals complain even when they eat such abundant food?”

“I’ve given you what you wanted, so now you should give me the answer I want. How do you know my mother? You didn’t do anything improper to her, did you?”

Rose still couldn’t accept that the man before her was her father.

In fact, she knew his face resembled hers more than anyone else’s, but she refused to acknowledge it.

The moment she admitted this fact to herself, she would fall from being the daughter of a noble and wealthy aristocrat to the daughter of a lowly beggar.

Rose desperately ignored the truth that had fallen at her feet.

While doing so, she firmly believed that this man was spouting nonsense.

“Wow, the meat just melts in your mouth.”

“Answer me quickly!”

“My, why is Her Majesty the Queen in such a hurry and keeps getting angry?”

The man wiped his greasy mouth with his sleeve and downed a glass of wine in one go.

An expression of utmost satisfaction appeared on his face.

“You asked how I know? It’s nothing special. We just met briefly and had some fun. Your mother was longing for a man’s embrace, and I wanted to hold a woman. So we gave each other what we wanted. I’m quite good at that sort of thing, you know?”

The man laughed vulgarly, making an extremely crude gesture.

Feeling like she might vomit, Rose turned her scrunched-up face away abruptly.

“Anyway, in that process, oops. You were conceived. But the really bad thing about that Elizabeth girl is that she abandoned me and suddenly disappeared somewhere overnight. I expected she might have married another man, but I couldn’t find her anywhere. At that time, I didn’t know much about her except for her nickname, Beth.”

“Stop talking nonsense. I am the daughter of Baron Roberfon. I don’t know a beggar like you who licks the streets of the slums!”

“You don’t know? Then can you still say you don’t know after seeing this?”

He took Rose and stood in front of a mirror.

Despite the vast difference in social status, the image of two strikingly similar people was clearly reflected in the cold mirror.

“Do you understand now? Just because you turn a blind eye doesn’t mean it never happened. The fact that my blood flows in your veins is an unchanging truth.”

Call me Nelson. We’ll probably be meeting often from now on.

He grinned and greeted her.