“I will. I’ll absolutely prevent him from coming. How dare he touch you!”

It was the first time he showed such anger. The Duke had always thought fondly of Prince Ian.

The Duke who wanted to form a marriage alliance with the imperial family and join the royal family.

For him, the prince was another card he could use if he couldn’t connect with the crown prince’s side.

So when Ian was very young and had no one to rely on, he was the only one who gave him a friend.

That friend was Sesenia. He chose Sesenia to avoid even the tiniest blemish on his eldest daughter, Elzere.

The stigma of Ian. The stigma of being the prince’s friend.

Because those could become issues if Elzere were to become empress, the Duke chose his second daughter, Sesenia.

For a very long time, Sesenia was nothing more than a substitute to the Duke.

Even though making Sesenia Ian’s friend could cause problems later, he was only busy pursuing his own greed.

“Come to think of it, he’s quite a lecherous man.”

“Lecherous?”

“Yes. You’re not enough, so he tried to persuade your sister too. I told her to keep her distance from Prince Ian, but she got angry at me instead.”

“Sister did that? That’s really strange.”

“Yes. Your sister, who’s never done such a thing before! She’s such a pure child!”

At the Duke’s words about purity, Sesenia quickly covered her mouth with her hand. How could he not know his own child at all?

In Sesenia’s memory, Elzere was a free love advocate. In the empire, most people were betrothed to someone from another family at a young age, and they usually married that betrothed person.

Free love was supposed to be impossible. But Elzere had done that amazing thing.

After Sesenia became engaged to the Crown Prince and Elzere made her splendid debut in society, Elzere’s actions were quite something to see.

She lived doing whatever she wanted, so much so that even an unbridled colt would seem less free.

Enough for the Duke to give up.

‘For someone like that to be called pure. At this point, I wonder if he’s been bewitched.’

The more time passed, the more that thought intensified.

That the Duke must indeed be bewitched. Of course, this time it felt strangely less intense than before.

Rather than feeling less intense, it was different in that she seemed to be watching her own behavior.

“I’m really disappointed. Prince Ian… I didn’t think he was like that.”

“So please ban his entry for the time being.”

“I will. So you won’t have any difficulties. I’ll do that. I thought there wouldn’t be any problems since he was still your friend and you got along well.”

The Duke grumbled as he looked Sesenia up and down.

“So, are you feeling alright?”

“Why wouldn’t I be alright? You said you’d prevent Ian from coming. That alone makes me feel better.”

“That’s good. Ahem. Uh… Sesenia. This father of yours was too busy to come.”

“Busy?”

“More than that, I thought of you and prepared this.”

It was flowers again.

They were a bit different from the previous ones.

While the flowers Ian brought were just big and showy, these flowers were closer to inanimate objects.

“What is this?”

“It’s a flower that’s popular these days. Glass flower or something. They say it’s perfect for making strange comments.”

It was something she had heard of before. Not in the present, but in the past. That glass flowers had been popular.

Was it around this time? She hadn’t been particularly interested, but because of the Duke forcing her attention, Sesenia responded quietly to his words.

“What kind of comments?”

“That the person you love is trapped inside. Please save them with your beautiful heart. They say people make comments like that. Take a look inside.”

At those strange words, Sesenia furrowed her brow and looked inside.

Then she saw her own image in the glass flower. Because all the petals were made of glass, it looked like there were dozens of her overlapping.

“Ah… so that’s what it is.”

“Isn’t it amazing?”

“Yes. So the person trapped inside is the one who received this flower.”

The Duke smiled brightly at Sesenia for understanding his meaning.

The Duke had never given Sesenia gifts other than what she had said she wanted.

And Sesenia had hardly ever said she wanted anything.

Because Elzere was sick, because he was busy taking care of Elzere, he expected young Sesenia to grow up on her own.

He didn’t let her act spoiled. Perhaps because of that, Sesenia found it quite difficult to say she wanted something.

‘He seems pleased.’

Knowing this, he still didn’t give her gifts. Because he was exhausted just taking care of Elzere alone.

So the Duke was pleased to see Sesenia looking at his gift with interest.

“I’ve always bought things like this for Elzere, but never for you… I hope you like it.”

‘Come to think of it, sister was always sensitive to trends.’

In contrast, Sesenia didn’t know much about trends. She only heard the name of this glass flower long after it had gone out of style.

Even if she had known about it when it was trendy, there was no one to buy such a thing for her, and she had no desire to buy it herself.

So nothing would have changed, but now it was different.

Thanks to the item the Duke brought just to look good to his daughter, Sesenia came up with a good idea.

‘Glass flower…’

After the founding anniversary banquet ended and spring came, Sesenia planned to buy food.

Even if Elzere interfered with this too, she would have to use other methods, but basically there was no change in the plan to buy food.

After that spring passed, a terrible famine was expected to come. She planned to buy food because of that.

‘Although made of glass, due to the poor glass craftsmanship, only one side of the flower’s surface is glass. More precisely, it’s close to a mirror, and the back is opaque. Befitting the name mirror flower.’

And this would be excellent for the locust swarm attack coming that spring.

An object that turns one existence into tens or hundreds.

‘This is it.’

With this, they should be able to safely overcome that famine.

The empire’s main industry was agriculture. And agriculture was carried out in two phases.

Especially, all the food produced in the empire came out in spring.

The crops that survived winter were strong and satisfying. Even when going to war, they deliberately took crops from spring.

So the crops of winter and spring were clearly divided in their uses.

Autumn crops were for surviving winter. Spring crops were for faring well throughout the year.

In the end, if all the spring crops were ruined, if they couldn’t be used properly, it meant they would struggle for a year.

But Sesenia had come up with a way, a way to overcome that.

“You like it that much.”

That’s when.

“Pardon?”

“I don’t remember the last time I saw you smile while receiving a gift.”

“Ah…”

She had smiled because she found a solution for when the famine came, but the Duke seemed to have quite misunderstood.

“I’ll bring you another gift next time.”

“Ah… yes. By the way, did something happen? If you had business, you could have called for me, but you came all the way to my room.”

Only then did the Duke seem to remember why he had come here. He smiled, even scratching his head awkwardly.

“Haha, actually, I came to ask if your meeting with His Highness the Crown Prince went well…”

“Ah.”

“I wanted to come right away, but there were so many things to do.”

The Duke must have been anxious the whole time. Afraid that Sesenia might come to him and say she wouldn’t get engaged.

So he probably waited all day without doing anything.

Seeing that obvious behavior, Sesenia slowly nodded her head.

“It went fine, of course.”

“Haha. But still… You haven’t changed your mind, have you?”

“No. I haven’t. I will get engaged to His Highness the Crown Prince. The conversation ended well. His Highness the Crown Prince turned out to be a much better person than I expected.”

“Right? Hah. I don’t know why your sister is making such a fuss without even meeting him. It would have been good if she had met him.”

The Duke clicked his tongue, still seeming regretful.

“Indeed.”

“Ahem. Well, that’s good. I was just worried because you didn’t say anything.”

“I didn’t say anything because nothing happened. But didn’t His Highness the Crown Prince say anything?”

“He did. He was very satisfied with you. But it’s not His Highness’s feelings that matter, is it? It’s your feelings that are important.”

“I see.”

Sesenia put the bouquet on the table without much emotion.

“So when did you decide to make the announcement? Your sister is still fasting, you see. These days she seems unwell, even finding it difficult to stand.”

“Not yet. I told His Highness the Crown Prince as well. We decided to make the announcement later. So even if sister collapses, you must absolutely not say anything. Understand?”

Even after hearing this, the Duke didn’t seem to have any intention of giving up.

“But still. I’m so worried about your sister.”

“Don’t worry, Father. In my opinion, I don’t think sister is actually fasting.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

The Duke furrowed his brows, seemingly unable to understand Sesenia’s words.

“It means exactly what I said. Isn’t it just the maids saying that sister is fasting and struggling?”

“That’s right?”

“Then investigate once. Secretly from sister. See if the meal portions of sister Elzere’s room maids haven’t increased recently.”

“Are you saying your sister is lying?”

Her head nodded slowly.

“Doubting your sister. This seems to have crossed a line.”

“Would I say such a thing without any reason, without anything?”

In fact, she was saying it without any reason.