The moon was exceptionally bright tonight.

Katharine washed her body with ice-cold water that felt like it would split her head, then changed into a thin chemise dress and went out onto the balcony.

The night air was chilly.

It felt as if sharp icy needles were flying and piercing her entire body.

If she didn’t push herself into such distant pain, it seemed impossible to maintain her sanity even for a second.

“His Majesty the King has arrived.”

The sound of the door bursting open echoed through the room, as if there was no need to wait for a response to enter.

He was always like that.

Without understanding people’s hearts at all, he always put his own emotions first and barged in without warning.

“Please leave. I want to be alone for a moment.”

“Nevermind that, from today just follow one thing.”

Charlen ignored Katharine’s words completely and continued speaking imperiously.

“Stop treating Rose like a younger sister. Do you understand?”

“…I asked you to leave because I have things to think about alone.”

“That person is my one and only lawful wife and the queen who will soon give birth to the crown prince. She is not someone you can just stand by watching clean up broken teacups or someone you can lecture as you please.”

“Her Majesty the Queen ordered me not to touch the teacup and to stay still. I was simply following Her Majesty’s instructions.”

“Of course you did. Rose has such a tender heart and is afraid of you as her elder sister.”

“Her Majesty is afraid of me?”

“Yes. How much authority as an elder sister must you have asserted while staying at your family home for the queen to be so terrified she can’t even make a peep?”

Not even knowing who was really trembling in fear right now.

Katharine tightly clenched her fist gripping the railing.

“Even in this situation, the queen desperately defended you. Do you know what she said to me before I came here? Please don’t scold my elder sister. My sister did nothing wrong. That’s what she said. So I won’t reprimand you any further.”

Charlen took a step closer and grabbed Katharine’s hand.

It felt like her hair was standing on end.

“I’ve decided to embrace even that side of you generously.”

“Don’t touch my body carelessly. It’s unpleasant.”

Katharine snapped sharply as she twisted her hand away.

Charlen looked down at his own hand left suspended in the air for a moment before putting it in his pocket.

“A mistress telling the king not to touch her. Someone might faint if they saw this.”

“A person touching another’s body without permission is violence in itself. Regardless of status.”

“Well, thank you for informing me. I learn something new from the clever Miss Katharine every day.”

I’ll withdraw for now, so cool your head.

Charlen turned around leisurely and left.

It was obvious what thoughts were running through his head as it gradually disappeared down the corridor.

‘No matter how much you resist and try to climb up, you’re already my possession in my hands.’

Charlen probably couldn’t even imagine in his dreams.

That it wasn’t her who seduced Farnese, but Farnese who proposed to her.

But just once.

Even for a brief moment, couldn’t he have put aside other emotions and said “I’m sorry” just once?

At first, she only wanted to hear his sincere apology.

She didn’t want anything else.

“I thought you were crying.”

Katharine was genuinely startled by the sudden voice from behind and collapsed with a thud.

The identity of the black shadow climbing up from under the balcony railing with a grunt was none other than Baron Aster.

His red hair, as long as most women’s, fluttered like flames with the round moon behind him.

As their eyes met, his eyes, cunning as a snake’s, creased gently.

“Hello, beautiful lady. It’s a lovely night.”

“Lord Aster, why are you in a place like this!”

“Shh.”

Aster brought his index finger to his lips.

“Quiet. Lower your voice. If we’re caught like this, I’ll be in big trouble.”

“You seem to know it’s an action that will get you in trouble. Leave immediately before I report you to the guards. Or I might push you off myself.”

“Don’t be like that. The moon is so pretty, why don’t we chat over a glass of wine?”

He pulled out a bottle of what looked like quite expensive wine from inside his coat and shook it playfully.

“It’s a rare one smuggled in from the Hismaria continent by the Black Butterfly Merchant Guild.”

“If it’s from the Black Butterfly Merchant Guild, it must be contraband. Thank you, but I’ll decline. I don’t accept gestures from people whose intentions I can’t discern.”

When Katharine flatly refused, Aster, who had already comfortably perched on the railing, let out a hearty laugh.

“This is why everyone goes on about Miss Katharine, Miss Katharine. You’re like a diamond in a glass case.”

“…A diamond in a glass case?”

“It was once a secret way people in high society referred to you. It means a treasure that shines brilliantly but no one can touch.”

“First of all, being in a glass case also means being a spectacle for all to see. It’s an unpleasant nickname.”

Aster quietly curled up the corners of his thin lips.

“I knew Miss Katharine would return to the Kingdom of Khan.”

“Because you urged me to.”

“No. Even if I hadn’t gone out of my way to urge you, Miss Katharine would have eventually returned. You must have been afraid… Because of the suspicion that Emperor Farnese would one day change like Charlen. Isn’t that right?”

Katharine glared at him with force in her eyes.

However, she didn’t want to go out of her way to correct the parts he had misunderstood.

“You made the right choice. Isn’t it better to remain in a state of having been abandoned once rather than being abandoned twice?”

“Do you remember what you told me in the Renel Empire? That Charlen and Rose had been deceiving and betraying me for a long time.”

“Yes, I said that.”

“How did you know about that?”

“I am a servant. I am like the shadow of Her Majesty the Queen. Her Majesty’s thoughts, words unconsciously let slip, even secret conversations with His Majesty the King. I came to know so many things without even realizing it.”

“Then those two really…”

Unable to say the words with her own mouth, Katharine’s lips just trembled endlessly.

Always expecting him to sneer with that characteristic smile of his, this time Aster looked at Katharine with surprisingly serious eyes for some reason.

“I think Miss Katharine herself knows best whether what you’re thinking right now is really the truth.”

“…I see.”

Katharine blinked her eyes slowly while tightly gripping the sapphire ring covered in dried blood and dust.

Ever since hearing the word betrayal from Aster, she had somewhat expected that perhaps a secret more enormous and terrible than she had imagined might be waiting for her.

But it seems she unknowingly wanted to believe in Charlen and Rose until the very end.

She knew they were people without hope for redemption, but she thought they would still have at least a minimum of conscience as former acquaintances and half-blood sisters.

‘But to think they had been meeting secretly behind my back for a long time…’

It seemed there were no words that could express this feeling.

The days she had done her best as a maid for Rose while hiding her personal feelings as much as possible.

The moments when she desperately tried to respect Charlen as the king of a country even though she hated him terribly.

The fact that all of those things had been completely pointless,

The fact that they had been satisfyingly enjoying themselves behind her back after making a sane person into a fool, made her heart feel empty beyond simple sadness and anger.

‘How often did they meet? Since when, and how?’

Did they secretly exchange glances and enjoy the precarious atmosphere whenever Charlen came to visit her at her family home?

Did they treat each other as just her sister’s lover and lover’s younger sister in front of her, but whisper secret words of love when she wasn’t around?

Did they secretly kiss in the back of the garden, under the wall, between secluded shrubs, feeling guilty yet thrilled by the fact that they were doing something they shouldn’t?

No. If they were humans capable of feeling guilt, things wouldn’t have come this far.

Charlen and Rose had simply acted on impulse like vulgar beasts without any common sense or reason.

“Ah…”

For a moment her head spun and her vision shook greatly.

Katharine exhaled a faint breath and staggered.

Aster, who seemed like he wouldn’t bat an eye even if someone collapsed right in front of him, was surprisingly flustered and grabbed Katharine’s shoulders.

“Oh, oh my. Hey, Miss Katharine. Are you alright?”

The day she first introduced Rose to Charlen and brought her to meet him.

She could still vividly remember how Rose had blushed and acted extremely shy and awkward when she first saw him.

At the time, she thought it was because Rose was still young and it was her first time meeting royalty.

“When I get married, he’ll be your brother-in-law. So get along well.”

“I understand, sister. By the way, His Highness Charlen seems like such a wonderful person. He has such a good personality too.”

It seemed there would be nothing more to wish for if the two of them could get along well like siblings in the future.

She had never even suspected.

That those two people had already secretly harbored special feelings for each other behind her back.

That they had continued to meet in secret without her knowledge, she truly had never imagined it.

“I’ve always been curious, why doesn’t Miss Katharine cry?”

Aster asked, unable to take his eyes off Katharine’s face, as if genuinely perplexed.

“Usually women shed tears like waterfalls at the slightest sad thing. But I can’t see anything like that from you.”

“Why do you think I don’t cry?”

Katharine looked up at him and asked back.

As their eyes met, Baron Aster hesitantly removed his hand that was still wrapped around her shoulder.

Then he kept fidgeting with his own hand as if he had been burned by hot fire.

Katharine continued:

“A person doesn’t have to shed tears to be crying, a man I know once said.”

“…”

“If what that person said is true, then I must have cried thousands of times by now.”

Aster looked at Katharine with a strange gaze, as if he had discovered a very rare creature.

Katharine stood up, straightening her trembling legs.

“I won’t bother to thank you for subtly informing me about Charlen and Rose’s relationship. I know it was out of misplaced sympathy.”

“Where are you going at this hour?”

Katharine paused for a moment before responding curtly:

“It’s none of your business.”