If you thought you could brush it off as a joke, you were wrong.

It was because of his so-called joke that I ended up here.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Anette.”

No apology was needed. I never intended to accept one in the first place. I coldly turned my back on him.

“It’s fine. I was never Your Highness’s person to begin with.”

“Anette! You’re getting married just to spite me, aren’t you?”

My body whirled around. He had arbitrarily grabbed me. The person who just apologized was now trying to toy with me as he pleased. For a moment, my teeth clenched.

“Let go. There are many eyes watching.”

“Let’s talk privately.”

I spoke firmly.

“The only thing I had to say to Your Highness was the wedding invitation. I don’t want to say or hear anything more.”

“You’re being forced to marry because of me, right? Isn’t that so?”

“No? What kind of misunderstanding are you having?”

Even if that were true, Serdis and I weren’t close enough to care about each other’s marriages.

“Tell me honestly!”

“Won’t you lower your voice?”

Attention was focusing on us. The gazes of others looking at Serdis and me began to change. It was the perfect timing for misunderstandings. I don’t know how dull and stupid one must be to act shamelessly in front of others like this.

“There are many eyes watching, let go.”

I tried to pull my arm away, but he showed no intention of releasing me. His sharp gaze seemed determined to settle this here and now.

As always, he was a man who couldn’t understand even when spoken to moderately. Just as I was about to rack my brains on how to avoid becoming tomorrow’s gossip with this man.

“Well, well, look who’s crossing the line.”

A deep male voice was heard from a sofa in one corner of the dress shop. The newspaper that had been covering his face was roughly removed.

“Your Grace, Duke of Blandiché…?”

Hertian, with his long legs crossed, tilted his head askew. Hertian had been here. Surprised by his sudden appearance, I barely had time to react before his dark eyes, which had quickly turned ominous, moved rapidly. Towards the offending hand that was holding me.

“Won’t you let go of that hand?”

A murderous intent that seemed capable of severing the hand with just a glance was palpable.

Serdis’s face, upon discovering him, contorted miserably. It was a well-known fact that the relationship between these half-brothers was not good. As if to prove this, their sharp gazes towards each other were taut.

“What’s a brute who should be rolling around on the battlefield doing here so elegantly?”

“I came to see our Anette?”

Wow.

For a moment, I was almost touched. Appearing at just the right moment with such a line.

His tone was so skillful that it felt like a national loss that he claimed to have no interest in women.

“What? Our what?”

“Do I have to report every detail of why I came to see our Anette? Your Highness, the Prince.”

He had approached before I knew it, forcibly removing the hand and switching to formal speech politely. But it sounded more sarcastic.

“Go about your business. Come, Anette.”

“This bastard… How did you manage to win over Anette?”

“I didn’t win her over. I fell in love at first sight and begged her to marry me.”

It was an embarrassing statement even for me listening to it. He said it without batting an eye.

“They say the brave win the beauty, don’t they? It seems you couldn’t even muster that much courage.”

The corners of his red lips curled up mischievously.

“You…”

Since it was all true, Serdis couldn’t even make a decent excuse. It was a perfect victory for Hertian.

“Now it’s time for our Anette to try on her dress. It looks like you’ve bought a lot of gifts. If you don’t want to hear about squandering the national treasury, why don’t you make a donation somewhere?”

“You bastard son, what do you know…”

Just as he was about to reveal his ugly side, I blocked Hertian’s path.

“Stop it and let’s go inside. Darling.”

His mouth, which had been spouting roughly, closed at this secret weapon.

There was no reason for Hertian to hear such talk, nor was it worth responding to.

“D-Darling?”

“Yes, our darling.”

I giggled and playfully hit Hertian’s thick arm. The quick-witted Hertian soon changed to an affectionate expression and played along with me.

“Now that our honey has even sent out wedding invitations, what is there to be hesitant about?”

“What? Honey?”

He lifted me up in his arms. My body suddenly floated in the air. Before I could be surprised, Hertian spoke. Everyone was watching a scene of romance with dumbfounded faces. The embarrassment was theirs to bear.

“Please spread it widely to the other nobles as well. How deep and genuine our relationship is.”

Unlike his ambition, his touch was careful. He carried me into the fitting room inside the dress shop. As soon as he closed the curtain, he put me down.

“Did I do well?”

He looked worried despite having given a perfect performance. He already looked handsome, but today he seemed especially dashing.

“I thought we’d become the protagonists of the romance of the century. Did you see the expressions of the others? Even if Prince Serdis doesn’t believe it, the others must have thought we were real lovers?”

I gave him a thumbs up. Only then did he relax his expression and smile as he asked.

“But, does the young lady dislike the prince?”

“Should I say I dislike this… I have circumstances that make me not want to get involved. I guess that’s why I naturally react with rejection. Even though I know I shouldn’t dislike people.”

“I dislike him. So please dislike him too, young lady.”

His honesty smoothed out the frown between my brows.

Where did such a perfect man suddenly drop in front of me?

Not only handsome, but also perfect at acting.

“Hertian. Let’s never become enemies.”

He was truly someone I wanted to keep as an ally.

“Of course.”

A new guest came before the Emperor.

It was his first son, Serdis, who looked exactly like him as if looking in a mirror. A child with an atmosphere completely opposite to his second son, who was born only a few months apart. A child like a greenhouse flower, raised gently in the imperial palace without a single scar on his body.

“Father. I beg you.”

The Emperor wondered what brought his immature son here, and sure enough, he had a favor to ask.

“I said no.”

“Anette is not suitable to be a Grand Duchess.”

And it was about preventing his brother Hertian’s marriage.

He knew the rift between the brothers was deep, but this was the first time he had directly requested to interfere with Hertian.

The Emperor burst out in anger at his son trying to block his own brother’s marriage path. He had indulged him as the precious legitimate son until now, but this was going too far.

“Enough! Whether she’s suitable as a Grand Duchess or not is for him to decide, not me.”

“Father, please.”

Hertian had already made this request. That he would settle down and get married. He couldn’t refuse the first and last request of his second son. Because if he couldn’t even grant this request after failing to be a proper parent all his life, he would have no face to see Hertian anymore.

“You should look for a princess consort before you get old. Or I’ll tell the Empress to look for one.”

“I don’t want that. I already have someone in mind.”

“Who is it?”

The Emperor looked suspiciously at his son who stubbornly refused to speak.

“Is it the same young lady?”

Anette Leanberia.

Even Serdis wanted the young lady Hertian had brought?

Serdis’s silence gave the Emperor certainty. The Emperor clicked his tongue and looked down at his son with a pitiful gaze. He was displeased with his son’s attempt to use power for a woman problem.

“Tsk tsk. You’ve lost to that boy.”

“If you won’t help me, Father, I’ll take care of it myself. Don’t try to stop me.”

He was determined to go all out. Because he was the prince and Hertian was a grand duke. Whether by succession order or anything else, there was nothing he couldn’t do.

“Couldn’t you yield just once?”

Just before Serdis was about to leave, the Emperor asked his son in a low, solemn voice. Because he felt sorry for his other son.

“I can’t yield when it comes to Anette.”

Serdis was determined not to give anything to Hertian, not just Anette.

“He’s a child who wandered the battlefields to avoid your mother. Can’t you yield just one woman to your brother who has never coveted this palace, family, or the position of prince?”

“Isn’t that the fate of a bastard?”

It had been like this since childhood. He had to steal or break the toys Hertian played with to feel satisfied, and he felt relieved only after expelling servants who were friendly with Hertian from the palace. It was exactly what his mother, who didn’t receive the Emperor’s love, did to the mistress.

“A bastard… is also my son.”

Knowing this well, the Emperor had never readily taken Hertian’s side. Because the more affection he showed towards Hertian, the more jealous Serdis and the Empress became. So he pretended to push him into war even more.

But this time it was difficult to ignore. Because it was the first time he had seen him desire something, and that unfamiliar appearance was fresh.

“If you cause trouble over this, I won’t let it slide.”

The Prince’s Palace had not had a quiet day recently.

“To think even Father would take that bastard’s side.”

Serdis had been in a foul mood throughout. And his arrows were aimed squarely at the attendants of the Prince’s Palace.

“You gave me false information and messed things up, so you must be prepared for punishment, right?”

“I’m sorry, Your Highness!”

Romance books that Anette was said to have read were strewn about the floor of the Prince’s Palace. It turned out they weren’t books Anette enjoyed reading, but ones the maid enjoyed.

“Is this what you do after eating my money? You can’t even find out one thing properly? You who work in the imperial palace?”

“I have committed a mortal sin, Your Highness.”

The attendant prostrated himself on the floor, burying his nose in it.

“Oh really? Then die.”

A cold sword blade touched the side of his trembling neck. Soon, the pain of the blade fiercely digging into his neck announced that death was imminent. The attendant rolled his head frantically, desperate to live.

“There’s another way!”

With that thought suddenly occurring to him, he hastily opened his mouth.

“I’ll give you a chance to speak, considering our long relationship.”

“Y-Your Highness is the most handsome and martially skilled in the empire, but doesn’t the Grand Duke have a special ability that you don’t?”

It was about Serdis’s paralysis ability. An ability he gained long ago after catching a magical beast while on a hunting festival with Violet.

“You’re not suggesting I use this to cure Anette’s illness, are you?”

He had already tried that method. He maximized his paralysis power when standing next to Anette, but Anette consistently rejected him.

“You didn’t show it properly, did you!”

“Properly?”

“The young lady has always lived with pain, so she must be accustomed to ordinary pain. That’s why she didn’t feel much need for Your Highness.”

Serdis gave a small response. It was evidence that his story had caught his interest.

“People never forget those who save their lives.”

The attendant seized that opportunity and spoke incessantly without pause.

“You mean make Anette sick?”

He had never thought of making Anette sick before. But knowing that if Anette wasn’t sick, he would be in more pain, he couldn’t help but be tempted.

“As long as it’s not too much for her body, wouldn’t it be alright?”

Soon after, Serdis’s eyes glinted.