‘A butterfly trapped in a greenhouse’

This was the recent nickname secretly used by the nobles to refer to Katharine.

Born with large wings to freely roam the wide world, but ultimately destined to be merely ornamental.

A life of serving as eye candy for the owner when shining most beautifully, then being shoved into a shaded corner to meet an unknown death when vitality wanes and appearance deteriorates.

“I hear a new greenhouse has been completed in the east garden. Let’s have a cup of tea there to commemorate it. We can also have a candid chat about things we haven’t discussed yet.”

“Are you serious about leisurely drinking tea at a time like this?”

“Rose seemed to want to meet with you. I’m deliberately arranging this meeting. I trust that as her elder sister, you won’t ignore her feelings.”

Katharine couldn’t help but chuckle in disbelief as she walked towards the greenhouse.

Normally, a king would prefer his queen and mistress not to encounter each other.

They know that when two pitiful women forced to live under the same roof due to one man’s selfish desire meet face to face, a storm is bound to brew.

But he seemed to believe that Rose and Katharine could maintain a balance and get along well simply because they were sisters.

For his own peace of mind.

In short, he was trying to reconcile the two women to enjoy a satisfactory daily life between them.

‘Rose seemed to want to meet me?’

As if she would.

Far from wanting to meet, she would likely be sick at the mere mention of Katharine’s name.

Of course, Katharine wasn’t heading to the greenhouse unaware of this fact.

The reason she set out today.

The letter and cryptic words left by a man named Astor.

It wasn’t the look of someone lying or boasting.

Katharine had to endure, if only to know the truth of what it meant that she had been deceived and betrayed for a long time.

In the grip of Charlen, reeking of a loathsome stench.

“Excuse me.”

Katharine entered the greenhouse where rainbow-colored sunlight was shattering from all directions.

As expected, Charlen and Rose were sitting side by side at the round tea table.

Charlen, who was placing sugar cubes in Rose’s coffee cup with his own hands, looked up at the sound of someone approaching.

“You’ve come. Sit there.”

Katharine nodded slightly and sat down in the empty chair.

Rose silently stared at Katharine with eyes that seemed ready to drip icicles at any moment.

Though she knew in her mind that she should manage her expression in front of Charlen, it didn’t seem to be going as intended.

“Did Your Majesty the Queen sleep well last night?”

As Katharine greeted her first, Rose’s fingers gripping the edge of the teacup tightened.

Charlen was watching from the side.

Though he seemed to be merely sipping his black tea oblivious to everything, in fact he was keenly reading the subtle currents flowing between the two sisters.

“Yes. Of course. You look well too, elder sister.”

A faint look of relief could be seen crossing Charlen’s face.

It seemed he had been secretly anxious that they might start fighting out of jealousy and envy as soon as their eyes met.

He truly was a shameless iron mask.

It should have been something he couldn’t do carelessly, if only out of consideration for Rose’s feelings, but it made one wonder if he really respected her as his wife.

“Excuse me for a moment.”

At this point, Charlen stood up asking for leave.

He pretended to go attend to some business and purposely left the greenhouse, and for a while, a heavy silence settled over the tea table.

As the two people, each lost in different thoughts, neither opened their mouth first.

“Resenting me won’t leave you with anything. Rose.”

Katharine muttered while repeatedly pushing and pulling the hot coffee cup precariously to the edge of the table.

“Now that you’ve become the queen of a country, look around with a broader perspective. Deep down, you must know that the one you should really resent now is not me, but Charlen, right?”

“…Elder sister, you’re crazy.”

“I guarantee, this is just the beginning.”

Katharine reached across the table and firmly pressed Rose’s eye area.

Rose’s grass-colored eyes, subtly darker than her elder sister’s, rolled towards Katharine’s fingertips.

“When wrinkles form around your eyes and your slender body starts to gain weight, Charlen will begin to bring in mistresses as young and pretty as freshly bloomed flower buds, one by one.”

“That’s nonsense!”

It seemed she had properly touched on the biggest anxiety hidden deep in Rose’s subconscious.

Rose opened her eyes wide and reacted angrily.

“Wasn’t it ‘impossible’ until just recently that Charlen would take me as a mistress and abandon you? But look. It actually happened.”

Katharine took a sip of the still steaming coffee, put it down, and continued speaking.

“So come to your senses now. Before it’s too late.”

Rose was about to say something but stopped, her gaze caught by Katharine’s fingers.

To be precise, it was the sapphire ring ostentatiously worn on her middle finger.

Only when Rose’s puzzled gaze fell on it did Katharine realize she was still wearing the ring Charlen had put on her arbitrarily.

Katharine sighed belatedly and removed the ring without hesitation.

“What’s that?”

“Charlen forcibly put it on me and left, but I forgot about it in the confusion.”

“Why do you have one exactly the same as mine?”

“What?”

“His Majesty gave me a ring exactly like that one as a gift. He said he had it specially made by a craftsman he knew well and that it was the only one of its kind in the world…”

Rose blinked her eyes as if doubting them.

Hearing her words, Katharine felt like an old memory buried in the sand was on the verge of coming to mind.

Rose picked up the sapphire ring and examined it closely, turning it this way and that.

Then she stared blankly into space for a while as if asleep with her eyes open, and suddenly dropped the teacup she was holding.

The teacup shattered, scattering sharp fragments in all directions as it hit the hard marble floor.

The tea, having lost its destination, wandered across the floor before being sucked into the carpet.

Katharine quickly stood up.

“Hey, what are you doing? Move aside.”

“Elder sister.”

Katharine, who had gone under the table to pick up the broken pieces, looked up.

Rose was looking down at Katharine with an expressionless face that had lost all vitality and turned ashen.

“By the way, why have you been speaking informally since earlier?”

“What?”

“I am the queen. The king’s lawful wife. A royal officially registered in the royal family tree. But elder sister, you’re just a mistress who receives some pocket money and puts on a smile. You should be more aware that normally, this is a relationship where you wouldn’t even dare look me in the face. Don’t be rude.”

“Rose, you…”

Something’s different.

Rose had changed even more recently.

Katharine’s keen intuition was shouting that it didn’t seem to be simply due to Charlen and the royal environment.

What could it be?

“Elder sister, stay there. You’ll hurt your hands. I’ll clean up the teacup I dropped.”

Rose suddenly softened her voice and began carefully picking up the scattered fragments one by one, sitting next to the broken teacup.

At this moment, the sound of Charlen’s shoes crossed the threshold of the greenhouse and drew closer.

“Ow─!”

At that moment, Rose tightly gripped the teacup fragment she was holding.

Red droplets of blood fell to the floor, forming round patterns.

Katharine blankly looked down at the strange scene she couldn’t understand at all, with eyes lacking any sense of reality.

“My goodness, Your Majesty!”

Hearing Rose’s cry of pain, Charlen rushed over in shock.

She shook her head calmly, hiding her wound.

“It’s alright.”

“Why are you cleaning up a broken teacup yourself? Your precious hands are hurt. It doesn’t seem like a minor injury. Couldn’t you have called a maid for such an unpleasant task?”

“I accidentally broke the cup, so I wanted to clean it up quickly before elder sister got hurt. That’s really all. I’m sorry.”

Rose sniffled as if about to burst into tears at any moment, breathing heavily.

Sensing something strange in her tone, Charlen raised his head and began scrutinizing Katharine closely.

“Katharine. Were you just standing there watching with your back straight while the queen was cleaning up something dangerous herself?”

“Your Majesty. Please don’t. Elder sister didn’t do anything wrong.”

The cup that had been still suddenly shattered, Rose kneeling on the floor hurriedly cleaning up as if to cover it up, and Katharine standing there with a coldly frozen face.

Charlen sensed an ominous feeling.

Could it be that Katharine had harshly vented her anger on Rose while he was away?

But Charlen knew that such hasty suspicions were not good.

Weren’t they sisters who had maintained their friendship and relied on each other for a full 20 years?

There must have been a misunderstanding, Charlen wanted to believe.

“Your Majesty. Don’t cry over something like this. You can be quite foolish sometimes. Hurry and get up. Let’s call the court physician to treat your injury.”

“Seeing the blood, my head…”

“How can you be so delicate and fragile? Can you walk? If it’s difficult, lean on me.”

After repeatedly refusing several times saying she was fine, Rose reluctantly leaned on Charlen as if she had no choice.

He gently kissed and patted Rose while giving Katharine a disappointed look.

“I’ll ask about the details later. Katharine, for now, return to your quarters.”

She couldn’t hear a word of what he was saying.

Katharine, left standing alone with the cooled black tea, had her attention completely drawn elsewhere at the moment.

Her eyes, filled with fear and shock, were fixed on the blood-soaked sapphire ring that had fallen to the floor.

A memory that she had briefly heard and soon forgotten long ago suddenly revealed itself.

If her memory wasn’t mistaken, that ring Rose mentioned was one she had possessed for as long as 4 years.

When asked where it came from, she had casually mentioned receiving it as a gift from a friend she knew and moved on.

She had completely forgotten about it until now.

“His Majesty gave me a ring exactly like that one as a gift. He said he had it specially made by a craftsman he knew well and that it was the only one of its kind in the world…”

4 years ago.

Before formally introducing Charlen to Rose.