“Because from now on, I’m thinking of using you once.”

Aster was momentarily gripped by a strange feeling, his face flushing.

Like this, Katharine would often penetrate deep into people’s hearts with unexpected words at unexpected moments.

Aster, who had come expecting to receive a contemptuous gaze from her, felt somewhat bewildered.

And he felt a strange sense of relief welling up in a corner of his heart.

“Use me once… I have no idea what you mean.”

“I mean exactly what I said. Aster, you’re the type of person who will do anything as long as you get the reward you want. I’ll give you the best reward. If you do what I tell you properly, that is.”

A light, incomprehensible laugh escaped from between Aster’s teeth.

“Interesting. You’ve perfectly analyzed what kind of person this Aster is in such a short time. But there’s no basis.”

“Basis?”

“Yes. Young lady Katharine, you are currently detained in prison, and are destined to lose all your rights soon. It doesn’t seem like someone like you could give me the best reward?”

Aster spoke in a voice that somehow didn’t seem sincere, as if he was testing something.

Katharine replied without hesitation.

“What if I become the empress of the largest country in the western continent?”

“…Pardon?”

“If that happens, wouldn’t it be fine to no longer act like an obedient dog at the feet of Charlen or Rose?”

“…Empress.”

Empress. Empress.

Aster, fixated on just one word, rolled it around in his mouth for a while, and soon began to understand what she wanted to say.

She says she doesn’t resent him, who is practically her enemy.

She doesn’t even show fear in this situation, instead boldly shining her eyes and racking her brains.

Even to the point of a reckless attitude of preferring to burn to death rather than bowing her pride.

The moment he suddenly thought what a strange woman she was, Aster realized the identity of what had been unsettling his heart all this time.

Without any seemingly important trigger.

Like a huge bolt of lightning suddenly striking his head.

‘Do I perhaps like this woman?’

Aster scratched his neck in bewilderment.

Feeling anxious when watching from afar, feeling pity, feeling somewhat sorry, regretting every night wondering if he had made the wrong choice.

And wanting to see a bright smile appear on that cold face at least once.

Isn’t this undeniably a one-sided love?

‘My goodness, I can’t believe this.’

If it was going to be like this, he should have realized it sooner.

After doing all sorts of things he shouldn’t have done, now he realizes this belatedly.

Aster ruffled his disheveled hair irritably and glanced at Katharine with narrowed eyes.

There she was, blinking her feathery eyelashes with an expression of incomprehension.

“What’s wrong?”

“Even if young lady Katharine hadn’t specifically proposed a deal to me, I might have ended up helping you anyway.”

Aster stood up with a solemn expression.

Katharine’s head followed him.

“I’ll look for a way to prove young lady Katharine’s innocence.”

“Are you serious? This easily?”

When Katharine’s eyes widened in surprise, Aster unknowingly let out a foolish laugh before forcing a serious face.

He scratched his head sheepishly.

“I don’t know. It’s just… I guess I’ve felt something like regret since you were confined in the tower.”

“Regret?”

“You really don’t get it, do you? In other words, to put it crudely, I’ve come to want to side with you, young lady Katharine, and give His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen a good smack on the back of the head.”

That was actually my real purpose for approaching the Queen in the first place.

Aster quietly swallowed the rest of his words down his throat.

The underground prison where Katharine was confined became so cold at night that her teeth chattered.

But Katharine herself, unaware that her toes were freezing in the cold, was calmly mulling over what Aster had just said before leaving.

Seeing her like this, the guards clicked their tongues, saying she was no ordinary woman.

“Is she in there?”

At that moment, the entrance from the outside opened with a clang, and a familiar voice echoed through the cold corridor.

As the king himself had come to such a shabby place, the guards stopped talking and straightened up.

“We greet Your Majesty the King. How did you come to such a rough place?”

“I’ve come to see if there are any signs of repentance on the thick face of this heinous criminal. Where is she?”

“She’s in that room over there. We will escort you…”

“That’s enough. I have some final advice for her, so don’t interfere and leave.”

The guards exchanged strange glances before withdrawing without a word.

Heavy footsteps approached across the musty, dust-filled corridor.

Finally, a man’s shadow stretched long through the black bars.

“Katharine.”

Charlen was looking down at her with a face colder than a desert night.

But that was just him wearing an ill-fitting mask of pretending to be calm.

Because Katharine could clearly see the conflict in his eyes in the darkness.

He whispered as he bent his knees to meet Katharine’s eye level.

“It’s just the two of us now. So tell me honestly. Why did you do something so unlike you?”

“What is like me?”

Charlen replied without hesitation to Katharine’s question.

“The Katharine I’ve known for a long time. A woman who is always calm, thorough in everything, and never does anything rash – that intelligent and devoted woman.”

“How unusual for you to praise me so. Why don’t you recite the criticisms of me that you always used to list as a side dish when you were with your precious friends and attendants?”

Charlen’s brow furrowed deeply.

“A man can make some jokes in private when drunk. Don’t you think it’s rather gloomy of you to eavesdrop secretly and harbor resentment?”

“Yes. Let’s say that’s true. Everything Your Majesty says is correct.”

Knowing well that it was futile to try to fix his mindset that was lacking somewhere from birth, Katharine gave up on dealing with him altogether.

Thinking he was being ignored, contempt became prominent on Charlen’s face.

“I personally came to this underground sewer of a prison with my noble body to give you a chance to confess your crimes, yet you kick away the path to survival on your own.”

“I have repeatedly sworn to God that I have committed no crime.”

“What a foolish and impudent woman.”

Charlen looked down at Katharine with a subtle gaze.

Even in this situation, she sat with her hair neatly combed and her posture perfectly upright, truly every inch a noble lady.

Her face was pale and her waist so thin it seemed about to snap, perhaps due to poor meals lately, but such a sickly appearance rather aroused Charlen’s dark desires.

A fragile beauty who seemed unable to take a single step without leaning on him.

Isn’t she too precious a work to burn to ashes?

“I beg you to please burn me completely from head to toe.”

Katharine spat out in a voice full of venom, as if she had seen through Charlen’s inner thoughts.

“Don’t try to act tough. No matter how harsh a woman you are, do you think you can maintain your pride until the moment death is at your doorstep? Not at all.”

“No. I’m serious. If my corpse remains intact in this world, who knows what Your Majesty might do to it? I don’t want to end up as a stuffed decoration on your bedroom wall.”

“What did you say…?”

Charlen’s face crumpled mercilessly.

Rather than pretending to be refined and proper as usual, which didn’t suit him, it was more like Charlen to reveal his suppressed nature unfiltered like this.

“You will regret those words bitterly.”

“We’ll see. Who will end up on their knees in the end remains to be seen.”

Charlen shook his head in disbelief.

“I must have been crazy in the past. To have sincerely loved a woman like you and tried to make you queen.”

“Don’t indulge in nonsensical self-pity. Your Majesty has never loved me even once.”

“You received all the expensive jewels and gifts, and now you say my feelings weren’t sincere?”

“It seems twisting facts is your specialty. It was Your Majesty who kept sending gifts against my will even when I said it was fine. And you.”

Katharine used all her strength to raise her legs that had no strength.

She stood up straight facing him through the bars.

“You only liked my face and body. Just like a beast left with nothing but instincts drools at the sight of a delicious piece of meat.”

“Don’t think of me the same as other men. All the countless sons of cardinals and grandsons of dukes who have sent you marriage proposals until now probably didn’t care at all what grade you graduated with from the royal school. They just want to take a pretty wife, have pretty children, and show off at parties like a medal. But I was different.”

“Then do you know what food I like to eat?”

Charlen opened his mouth to say something at the sudden question, but ultimately couldn’t continue.

“What flowers I like. In which season I’m most lively. What I played with as a child and how my friendships were. What my relationship with my father was like and what books I read that moved me. Do you know even one of these things properly?”

“…”

“See? Your Majesty is no different. You have not the slightest interest in my soul. You only care about how prettily I’m made up, how alluring my figure is, whether my skin has been tanned by the sun. Before you, I have never once been human. I was just an animal called a woman.”

A long silence followed.

She thought he might have some realization from this, but she realized it was a useless expectation when she heard his next reply.

“…Tomorrow morning, a public trial will be held to determine your sentence.”

“So that’s what you came all the way here to say.”

“If you show signs of repentance now and admit your guilt, the result might be a little different. It’s regrettable that this is the end for a lady who once ruled high society.”

It was the moment when the terrible fate between them was finally coming to an end.

No. At least at this time, I thought everything was over.