Charlen and Rose walked side by side towards this direction.

Charlen, with a faint frown, alternately looked at Katharine and Farnese, then suddenly grabbed Rose’s hand demonstratively.

Rose was momentarily bewildered, then smiled brightly at Katharine.

“Wow. We meet in a place like this? This must be a revelation from the goddess for all of us to take a walk together. Isn’t that right, sister? How are you all?”

Rose asked excitedly, but except for her, the other three people didn’t even respond as if they had made an agreement.

“Katharine. Who is the person behind you?”

Charlen asked, glancing at the man standing behind Katharine.

Katharine realized a beat late that they still didn’t know the emperor’s face.

“Oh. Let me introduce you. This is His Majesty the Emperor.”

Katharine politely spread her palm to indicate Farnese.

Charlen and Rose’s eyes widened simultaneously.

However, there was a very subtle difference in the emotions contained within them.

While Charlen had a look of wariness characteristic of encountering a natural enemy, Rose couldn’t take her eyes off Farnese’s face as if enchanted by something.

“Ah… I didn’t recognize you at all.”

Charlen quickly surveyed Farnese, then armed with a brighter and more sociable smile than ever before, he offered a handshake first.

Surprisingly, Farnese gladly accepted his handshake.

“We meet in a place like this.”

“Yes, indeed. It’s even more pleasant to see you outside. By the way, it seems you met Katharine… ‘by chance’?”

For some reason, Charlen particularly emphasized the word ‘by chance’.

At that, a sneer flashed across Farnese’s face for a very brief moment.

“No. We were taking a walk together.”

“A walk… together, you say?”

Charlen quietly rolled his eyes, glancing at Katharine.

“Why are you so surprised? It’s not impossible for me to walk side by side with this woman.”

“Well, that’s true. But it’s just unexpected.”

Charlen’s hand clenched into a fist, then slowly opened.

It was his old habit that emerged when things didn’t go his way or when he was upset.

Katharine thought it must be because of her behavior.

He must be internally criticizing her severely for standing so boldly in front of the emperor, not knowing her place and being disrespectful.

“Well then, enjoy the rest of your walk. If there’s nothing more, we’ll take our leave.”

Farnese said that and then hurried his steps again.

If ‘we’ meant herself as well, Katharine wondered.

As she was about to move, following Farnese with an uncertain heart, it was Charlen’s slightly hurried words that stopped her feet.

“If it’s alright, may we join you? As leaders of our respective countries, there are many topics I’d like to discuss.”

Charlen made a plausible excuse while naturally sending Katharine to Rose’s side.

And he himself stood near Farnese.

As the Roberfon sisters slowly followed behind, Farnese and Charlen walking side by side were talking about something, but even when they tried to listen, the distance was too far to hear.

“Do as you were doing. That way, I can at least alleviate some boredom thinking about how I’ll punish you in the future.”

If there had been a little more time to continue the conversation, she might have understood the meaning of those words.

Somehow, she felt a bit regretful.

“Sister. What are you thinking about so deeply?”

“Nothing.”

“Hmm.”

Rose lowered her head and stared intently at Katharine’s face.

“What is it?”

“Just. I was thinking how pretty you are.”

“Suddenly…?”

“It’s not sudden. I always think you’re pretty. With your jade-white face, big cat-like eyes, luscious black hair, and slender figure. Completely different from me.”

Rose muttered, touching her own face.

“Look at this. My hair is dry and dark brown. I have freckles on my face and my lips are too small, making me look petty. My face is gaunt like a child from the slums. That’s why I’m so envious of you, sister. You were born pretty, so you easily get along with people. Even taking a friendly walk with that supposedly scary Emperor.”

“The reason I was with His Majesty is not because of that…”

“You’re so lucky, sister. If I were just a little prettier, I could have lived an easy life like you.”

Katharine stopped walking near the stream and quietly looked at Rose.

While the two men engaged in conversation were slowly moving away, Rose tilted her head as if she couldn’t understand.

“What’s wrong, sister?”

“Since it’s just the two of us, I’ll speak freely. Do you really think that all my success so far has been purely because of my looks?”

“No. I didn’t mean it in such a bad way. But I think it’s somewhat true. You received a lot of pocket money from relatives, monopolized Dad’s attention when he was alive, attended the expensive royal school, and received all sorts of gifts and even marriage proposals from young noblemen. It’s also true that I grew up overshadowed by you.”

“Rose.”

“Of course, I absolutely don’t resent you for it. I respect you as family and as a lady-in-waiting.”

Katharine crossed her arms slowly with an expression that suggested she didn’t know what to say, as if dumbfounded.

The sound of the stream flowing below her ankles resembled Rose’s tactless chuckling.

Rose refrained from speaking for a moment, kicking small stones by the stream with the tip of her shoe.

“But you know what? It seems that life is about falling even when things are going well. Don’t you think?”

“What?”

“Everything depends on luck, I mean. Look, I became happy like this because luck finally came to me. These days, His Highness Charlen cherishes me a lot.”

“Rose, stop it. I don’t want to hear any more of this talk.”

Katharine said, trying hard to suppress the sorrow and anger welling up from a festering wound.

But Rose stubbornly followed, as if she no longer wanted to hide her own happiness.

Water splashed up from under Rose’s shoes, which were polished to a glossy shine.

“Why do you always avoid it when I bring up happy topics, sister?”

“Rose. Your sister is a bit tired now. Let’s talk later.”

“Come to think of it, it seems like you’re still caught up in the past and even feeling jealous of me now. Don’t you think so?”

Finally, sparks flew from Katharine’s eyes.

Katharine took a big step forward and raised her voice.

“Know your limits. There’s a limit to how much I can tolerate!”

Rose was startled when Katharine, who rarely lost her composure over trivial matters, clearly showed her anger.

But unfortunately, the mossy pebbles under her feet were the cause of trouble.

Unable to keep her balance, Rose slipped and fell into the water without even having time to react.

“Ah!”

For a moment, Rose’s childhood flashed through her mind, when she would cry and call out “Sister, sister” if she took her eyes off her for just a moment.

Even then, though we weren’t on good terms, we were at least sisters no worse than strangers.

How on earth did it come to this?

“Rose, take my hand!”

The sound of guard knights rushing over after hearing the commotion could be heard, but she couldn’t just stand there doing nothing.

Katharine jumped into the water and reached out her hand to Rose.

However, what Rose grabbed was not Katharine’s hand.

“My goodness, Queen! How could this happen!”

Charlen, who had rushed over hearing the commotion, ignored Katharine and quickly pulled Rose out of the water first.

Rose, though clearly conscious, slumped in Charlen’s arms pretending to be half-unconscious.

“Rose. My queen. Are you alright? Can you hear my voice?”

“Your Highness…”

Rose, who had no particular injuries except for a slightly pale complexion, whimpered and hugged Charlen tightly.

While quickly patting her back, Charlen looked around with an expression that seemed somewhat ashamed.

“It’s alright. You just fell into the water. If you’re not hurt anywhere, that’s fine.”

“How can you say it’s just falling into water? I could have died.”

“Yes, yes. You must have been very shocked. But everyone is watching us. As a queen, you shouldn’t lose your dignity as well.”

“Yes…”

Charlen was a man who valued appearances.

To the extent that it was more important for his queen not to show a crying face in front of numerous guards than to comfort her.

Rose got up with Charlen’s support, sniffling and holding back tears.

Katharine, who had been blankly watching the two, tried to get up on her own but ended up sitting down again.

Since her miscarriage after the carriage accident, her legs would occasionally give out.

Charlen, who neither knew nor cared about this fact, began to reproach Katharine outright.

“What kind of disgraceful behavior is this in a foreign country? I saw you from afar, it looked like you were angry and shouting. You didn’t push her into the water, did you?”

“In the world, what sister would push her younger sister into water? Unless she’s out of her mind.”

“Right. That’s true. But even if Rose fell in by accident, Katharine, it’s your fault. As a lady-in-waiting, you should have taken proper care of the queen. If you weren’t Rose’s sister, you would have been disqualified from the position of lady-in-waiting.”

Katharine tightly grasped her damp skirt.

Her eyes grew hot.

She felt utterly miserable, sitting on the gravel like a drowned rat and being scolded.

“Come on, stop pretending to be hurt and get up. A lady-in-waiting is like the face of her mistress. You should think of the queen’s dignity.”

“You’re truly cruel.”

Charlen narrowed his brows as if he couldn’t understand.

Right. You’ll never know.

No matter how much I explain this rotting heart day by day, how could you possibly understand?

Katharine stretched her trembling legs.

Thinking that nothing would be more unsightly than falling once more here, she gritted her teeth.

That’s when it happened.

“Ah…!”

Suddenly, her body was lifted into the air and strong arms wrapped around her shoulders and the back of her knees.

Katharine looked up in surprise at the man who had picked her up as lightly as a feather.

It was Farnese.

He examined Katharine’s slender ankle this way and that, then clicked his tongue softly.

“You’ve sprained it. Didn’t you know you were hurt?”

“Y-Your Majesty. You don’t have to do this. I can walk on my own.”

“Don’t struggle and stay still. Or should I carry you over my shoulder like a sack?”

Katharine, held in his arms like a child, didn’t know what to do and eventually lowered her head.

At that moment, Charlen approached with a particularly hardened face.

“She’s right. We can’t possibly trouble you. I’ll have our servants take care of Katharine…”

“No. Rather than entrusting her to a petty man who won’t even lend a hand to an injured woman, it would be better for me to take her myself. Everyone, stand aside there.”