“I apologize. I was traveling abroad, so I’m late to my own funeral.”

The funeral site for Katharine, which had been filled with sighs of regret and tears, was suddenly enveloped in a chilling silence.

As Katharine’s unveiled face was clearly revealed under the dazzling sunlight, people were momentarily stunned, unable to comprehend the situation.

Lauren, who had grown gaunt since they last met, alternated between staring blankly at Katharine and the coffin, silently shedding tears.

Then someone.

“Kyaak!”

The terrified scream became a signal, and the funeral site turned into complete chaos, as if heaven and earth had been flipped upside down.

“What’s going on? Isn’t that lady clearly Miss Katharine Roberfon?”

“Then who on earth is the person sleeping in the coffin?”

“Anyway, the important thing is that she’s not dead. How fortunate!”

The fact that Katharine had not died and appeared alive at her own funeral spread like wildfire among the crowd.

The talkative and suspicious nobles efficiently played the role of fanning the flames.

“Your Highness, are you alright!”

At this moment, Charlen, who had been standing on the platform, lost his balance and sat down.

He had an expression of fear and shock, as if he had seen a ghost.

He pointed a trembling finger at Katharine, then tightly closed his eyes and shook his head.

“Haha… I haven’t been able to sleep lately, now I’m seeing things. This can’t be real.”

Similarly, Rose, standing next to Charlen, couldn’t utter a word.

She knew she had to give a plausible explanation to the nobles who were gradually fueling the rumors, but she couldn’t speak a single word.

“This can’t be. How can elder sister…?”

Katharine silently lifted the corners of her mouth, revealing a faint smile.

Katharine had decided to return home to put an end to her miserable connection with Charlen and to settle everything in the Khan Kingdom.

She was still a person belonging to the Khan royal family.

Although her funeral was being held in grand fashion, she was still officially the queen’s lady-in-waiting, and her status could not be ignored under any circumstances.

Of course, she needed to find out the meaning of Aster’s words, “Charlen and Rose have been betraying you for a long time.”

She planned to reveal Charlen’s misdeeds to everyone and use the resulting uproar as a stepping stone to formally resign from her position as lady-in-waiting.

Of course, Farnese had said.

“Why choose such a difficult path? With the power I have, I could make you a person of our Renel right away.”

He said there was no need to return to a place full of painful memories, nor to struggle alone.

He said he would take care of everything if she just rested comfortably.

He said he could make everyone bow their heads at her feet without her lifting a finger.

But Katharine didn’t want to wear the crown of empress under the absolute power of her husband-to-be, without giving the people time to understand and accept, as if being carried in a comfortable carriage.

She wanted to end the path she had walked with her own hands.

“I thought something was strange from the beginning! There’s no way Miss Katharine, who had always been of upright conduct, would have died for such a ridiculous reason!”

Amidst the nobles who were still buzzing, not knowing what was going on, one man raised his voice.

The noblewoman next to him nodded in agreement.

“That’s right. Besides, it was a bit strange that they didn’t open the coffin and kept it covered. I wondered why, but it turns out there was no body in the coffin to begin with.”

With Katharine’s sudden appearance, the atmosphere was completely reversed, as if heaven and earth had been turned upside down.

The nobles all crowded around the condolence money boxes, starting to take back their share of gold coins.

Some people left quickly, saying they wouldn’t take it back because they were displeased.

“Katharine!”

Charlen’s shrill cry filled the garden.

He staggered slightly as he approached Katharine one step at a time.

It seemed he had finally accepted that Katharine was not an illusion but had really returned to the Khan Kingdom.

Charlen’s first words upon reuniting with Katharine, who had miraculously appeared alive, were neither an apology of remorse nor a joyful greeting.

“You were alive?”

“Yes.”

“Where, how?”

“I was in the Renel Empire. His Majesty Farnese found and rescued me.”

“Wh-what. Now…”

Charlen’s face, which had been dull and lifeless, returned to its original brazen expression.

With his face turning red and blue, he could only swallow hard, unable to control his anger.

“How. How could you not say a word to me. You’ve been deceiving me all this time with the emperor?”

“How did it feel when I was dead, even if it was for a short while?”

“You call that a question!”

“Yes. I am asking a question. Did you feel even a little guilty? Or did you feel like apologizing to me?”

Katharine quietly waited for his answer with a cold face, showing no sign of excitement.

Charlen’s eyes rolled back, and he shouted with veins popping on his neck.

“You deceived me, the king, saying you were dead, while you were perfectly alive behind my back, waiting for an opportunity? Not knowing this, I mourned and missed you, spending every moment in hell. How could you do this to me!”

“How much of a hell do you think it was for me, who fell from a distant cliff and crossed the threshold of life and death several times because of you, Your Highness?”

Charlen’s eyes widened as if they would pop out.

He didn’t seem to have expected her to spill everything in front of people.

But Katharine had decided to put aside her unconditional loyalty to the royal family and her noble patriotism for her country for a while.

She thought it wouldn’t be so bad to live for herself, just a little bit.

Ironically, it was the emperor of the neighboring country, whom she had never met until recently, who made her realize this important fact.

It felt like she had torn down one of the high walls she had been keeping herself in for a long time.

“Katharine. What are you saying now.”

Charlen sent a signal with his eyes, red with anger.

It was a warning that he would truly not leave her alone if she said anything more.

“If you don’t remember, I’ll recite it for you. Previously, Your Highness made an impure proposal to me, your sister-in-law, to become your mistress, and when I refused, you had mercenaries forcibly take me away.”

“Be quiet, be quiet, Katharine.”

“When I resisted, Your Highness pushed me, telling me to die if I wanted to, and I fell down a cliff, truly on the verge of death. As proof, all the scars remain on my body.”

Feeling the cold sweat running down his spine at the successive voices of shock erupting from all directions, Charlen felt a chill.

At this moment, a man came running, pushing through the boiling crowd.

“Katharine!”

As the familiar voice she had forgotten for quite a while drew closer, Katharine turned around to find its owner.

Her late father’s younger brother and Katharine’s godfather.

It was Baron Kalman Roberfon, who was residing in the Ram Kingdom as a diplomatic envoy from the Khan Royal Court’s Department of State Affairs.

He had been living in the Ram Kingdom for work, so they had only been exchanging occasional letters to keep in touch.

It seemed he had hurriedly returned home after hearing the news of his niece’s funeral.

A deep shock was evident on his face, unable to accept any of what had just happened, including the revelations that had just come from Katharine’s mouth.

“Uncle?”

“What’s all this about? I truly thought you were dead. I was so busy with work that I couldn’t look after you, and I wondered how I could face your father in the afterlife…”

“It’s alright. It’s not your fault, Uncle. There were some complicated circumstances.”

“You poor thing. How hard it must have been, losing your parents at an age when you should have been spoiled. I shouldn’t have left you alone and gone to a foreign country!”

Katharine and Kalman embraced each other.

Kalman closely examined Katharine with an expression that could hardly calm down.

A sense of relief that she was alive, along with a sorrowful emotion as if demanding to know how she had become so gaunt, simultaneously crossed his face.

Before being assigned to the Ram Kingdom, Kalman had urged Katharine to send a letter anytime if she ever had any difficulties.

But Katharine didn’t want to worry her uncle, so she didn’t tell him anything.

Kalman knew that Katharine had been struggling because of her relationship with Charlen, but every letter was always filled with good news, so he thought it was at a manageable level.

But he never imagined the situation was this serious.

He had no idea that his niece, entrusted to him by his deceased brother, had been suffering such injustice.

“How could you do this to my niece, Your Highness!”

Kalman raised his voice as he turned towards Charlen.

“I, who have sworn to bury my bones for the royal family, cannot let this matter pass! Not only forcing her to become your mistress but also forcibly taking her away! God will not forgive this!”

“Lord Roberfon, I understand your feelings, but let’s be careful with our words, shall we?”

As Kalman became overly excited and seemed about to cause trouble, the surrounding soldiers began to surround him and try to calm him down.

Charlen, who had been unable to utter a word, took advantage of the commotion and said,

“Katharine, if everything you say is true, let’s go inside and calm down for now. No matter how long you’ve been receiving mental treatment, if you make up such lies, won’t people misunderstand?”

Rose, who had briefly exchanged glances with Charlen, gave a slight nod and quickly moved to support Katharine.

“That’s right, elder sister. It’s understandable if you’re unwell. You’re safe now that you’ve returned. We should end this for today.”

“No, so what’s the truth here! What exactly happened? Your Majesty! Your Highness!”

The nobles’ resentment didn’t subside but grew even stronger.

Kalman struggled while being held by the soldiers, while Charlen and Rose hurriedly retreated into the palace, pretending not to hear the flood of questions.