“It seems His Highness Charlen intends to make elder sister Katharine his mistress.”

Rose, who needed someone, anyone, to pour out her sorrows to, began to share her troubles with Aster.

Aster listened to her words with an intentionally serious expression.

“I can’t believe it. How could His Highness make such a decision? Now it doesn’t matter what happens to someone like me. I’ll be pushed out of His Highness’s attention and end up relegated to doing paperwork in a cold, dark back room!”

“Surely not. His Highness Charlen wouldn’t make Lady Katharine his mistress because he likes her. There must be some other important reason.”

“I don’t know. I didn’t hear everything they were saying. But what does it matter what the reason is? My elder sister might soon steal my position!”

“The position of queen is not something that can be so easily taken or lost. It will be alright.”

Rose shook her head, bursting into tears she had been holding back.

“Elder sister Katharine is more than capable of doing so. Since childhood, she has greedily taken everything from me. Father’s love, the neighbors’ attention – she monopolized it all. I was left isolated and lonely. In social circles, they didn’t even remember my name. I was just ‘Katharine’s younger sister’. Can you understand how much I suffered growing up?”

Rose used every expression she could to make her situation seem even more pitiful and desperate.

Aster, who had been listening quietly, went beyond simply comforting her and willingly expressed anger alongside her.

“It seems I wasn’t wrong about Lady Katharine after all. To have endured such unfair treatment and still grown up so properly. I couldn’t have endured it.”

As Aster responded seriously, Rose let out a relieved sigh, as if some of the resentment stored in her heart had been released.

“Actually, I too have a painful past similar to Your Majesty’s.”

“You do?”

“Yes. I was greatly betrayed by someone I trusted and became penniless. Though I managed to stand on my own and barely climb up to where I am now, hearing Your Majesty’s story, I simply cannot stand idly by.”

Aster knelt at Rose’s feet.

“I want to help Your Majesty.”

“Help me?”

“Yes. Please keep me by your side and make use of me. Of course, I’m not asking you to trust me from the start. I just want to protect Your Majesty from falling into the same trap I did.”

Seeing him pledge his loyalty while revealing even his shameful past, Rose could not hide the overwhelming emotion she felt.

She did find it strange that he would go this far upon first meeting.

But Rose, who had become mentally unstable after seeing Charlen propose to Katharine to become his mistress, desperately needed support now, and her desire to create an ally, anyone at all, was stronger than ever before.

So she took his hand.

“Alright. Do what you can for me.”

“Really? Is it truly alright?”

“Though temporary, I’ll make you my attendant. Of course, I won’t trust you from the start. I’ll watch to see if your words about wanting to protect me are truly sincere.”

“It’s an honor. I will serve you with all my heart.”

Aster bowed his head and kissed the back of Rose’s hand, smiling meaningfully.

[This is the timeline separator]

“Become my mistress.”

The sensation of Charlen’s hot breath flowing into her ear was still so vivid that the goosebumps all over her body showed no signs of disappearing.

Katharine was not so innocent as to not understand what it meant to become a mistress.

She also knew that the wealth he promised as compensation for becoming his mistress was no different from payment for services rendered.

‘If he were a man with a conscience, he couldn’t do this to me.’

Wandering the garden without realizing how dark it had become, Katharine found herself in an unfamiliar place and looked around anew.

Here, where peach-colored rose vines elegantly wrapped around the colonnade pillars, and small fish vigorously leapt between the aquatic plants in the vast lake.

Although the Renel Imperial Palace was a foreign land to Katharine, for some reason she felt more at ease here than when she was in her home country.

It was as if the olive trees that gently surrounded the garden were telling her that this was truly her home.

Katharine looked down at the lapis lazuli hair ornament that shone lonely in her palm.

[ Wear that to the ball. I have something urgent to tell you. ]

Katharine, who had forgotten the short letter written on the note until now, suddenly stood up and rushed breathlessly towards the ballroom.

The clock tower’s hands had just passed ten o’clock.

Farnese would be waiting.

With words he desperately wanted to convey held in his heart.

‘What could he want to tell me? Could it be related to this lapis lazuli?’

Somehow, she felt that if not now, she might never see him again.

Forcibly suppressing her strangely swelling heart, she was just a few steps away from reaching Farnese, who was standing in front of the banquet hall as if waiting for someone.

“…!”

Suddenly, a dark shadow pounced on her from behind.

Before she could identify who it was, her vision was blocked by a black cloth, and when she tried to scream, her mouth was immediately covered.

The mysterious assailant dragged the struggling Katharine into a corner.

When her resistance didn’t stop, he struck the back of her neck hard, and Katharine lost consciousness in an instant, like a candle being extinguished.

[This is the timeline separator]

The sound of hooves striking the dry ground and leaping forward woke Katharine from her hazy consciousness.

When she opened her eyes, she was lying crumpled in a shaking carriage.

The sky visible through the window was pitch black without a single star, indicating that it was deep into the night.

Still unable to grasp the situation, Katharine blankly stared at the ceiling of the rattling carriage before hastily sitting up.

‘I’ve been kidnapped!’

Thinking this, she looked down at her body, but there were no particular injuries, and her hands and feet were not tied.

Finding it strange, she raised her head.

Across from her, Charlen sat with his legs crossed, leisurely reading a book.

“You’re awake?”

No matter how much she racked her brain, she couldn’t understand and stared at him for a long time.

Feeling her gaze, Charlen spoke while flipping a page.

“You look like you need an explanation.”

“What is this… all about? Why am I here? Where are we going?”

“Don’t worry and sit down. We’re on our way back to our homeland, the Kingdom of Khan.”

Only then could Katharine fully understand the situation.

That he had planned this from the beginning, and intended to leave the palace so that she couldn’t meet Farnese.

By now, Farnese would be misunderstanding that she had coldly broken her promise and left.

“You’ve crossed a line you shouldn’t have.”

“What’s the problem with me taking my person back to our homeland? Of course, I used slightly rough methods, but if I hadn’t done this, you wouldn’t have followed me obediently.”

“Don’t delude yourself into thinking you can possess me by doing this. I have no intention of going along with your plans.”

Katharine fumbled along the wall in the darkness and pushed hard on the carriage door handle.

But it didn’t budge from this side, as if locked with a special device.

“I anticipated that and took precautions. It’s useless, so sit down quietly. You’ll fall.”

No. Even at the cost of her life, she had to escape this carriage.

If she gave up here and returned to the Kingdom of Khan with him, she would be trapped in the palace forever, never able to go out into the world again.

This mad man would be capable of that and more.

‘There must be a way. A gap to get out of here…’

As Katharine carefully surveyed the inside of the carriage in the darkness, what caught her eye was a relatively poorly made window.

It was quite large, and if she used all her strength to crash into it with her whole body, she might be able to break it and get out.

To do that, she first needed to make him let his guard down, even for a moment.

“Seeing how quiet you are, it seems you’ve finally decided to give up. You’ve thought well.”

Charlen leisurely turned a page and continued speaking.

“If you behave, I’ll provide everything you need for a luxurious life. A comfortable palace, servants to attend to you, gifts and pocket money. Anything you want.”

“Really, anything?”

“Yes. What a comfortable life it will be. Let’s forget the past and make a new start. We can be good friends.”

Taking advantage of the moment when Charlen closed his eyes and indulged in disgusting fantasies, Katharine quickly got up.

And she hurled her body towards the window.

“What are you doing now!”

The impact shook the carriage violently.

The startled horses neighed and reared up on their hind legs.

Equally surprised, Charlen threw away the book he was reading and urgently reached out to Katharine.

“Katharine, are you mad!”

“I told you! I’d rather become a ghost wandering this world than live in luxury as your mistress!”

Veins bulged prominently on Charlen’s forehead.

In his anger, he roughly pushed Katharine’s collar.

That small action was the beginning of everything.

“If you don’t even have the real courage to die, yet your mouth runs… If you want to die so badly, then…!”

Charlen’s words were never completed.

The moment he pushed Katharine, the impact caused the poorly made window frame to collapse and the glass to shatter, creating a space large enough for a person to pass through.

The dawn wind blew in like a gust.

Katharine, who was already leaning as far as possible towards the window with her body tilted back, lost her balance and was helplessly flung out of the carriage.

It all happened in 2 seconds.

No, in the blink of an eye.

“Ah, no. No!”

Charlen immediately reached out, but it was already too late.

Katharine gazed at Charlen, who was screaming towards her, with vacant eyes as she disappeared over the cliff faster than the wind.

They say that time slows down before a person dies and all the moments they’ve lived flash by like a single scene, and that saying was exactly right.

The memory of attending her first debutante party holding her father’s hand.

The memory of graduating from the royal school at the top of her class and smiling brightly, anticipating the hopeful future ahead.

And the day she first met Farnese under the flowering tree.

She had no regrets since there were many happy moments, but just one thing.

It was a little disappointing that she couldn’t see Farnese’s face again.

‘Farnese.’

Katharine closed her eyes tightly, reciting his name in her heart.

“No! Katharine!”

Charlen’s voice, filled with despair, scattered into the air.