Christine was devastated.

She just wanted to quietly resolve several issues.

‘The tragedy of the Franche royal family’ was still on people’s lips. Meanwhile, Lucas married Elise, who had been the Franche princess’s best friend. And Elise’s wanton behavior was becoming another topic of conversation.

The Pelur royal family’s honor had fallen beyond rock bottom and was becoming a laughingstock.

The starting point was Elise Hailis. Elise Hailis, whom she wanted to chew up and kill.

If Elise had died on the spot, that poisoning could have been pushed as ‘revenge for the Franche princess’. Without needing to make a big deal of it, it would have been enough to instill that perception in the people gathered there.

Floyd would try to protect his fiancée, and Christine had no intention of fighting greatly with Floyd. She planned to finish things by pouring out some criticism, coming to an agreement with plausible conversation, and then having Gania leave.

But nothing went according to Christine’s wishes.

Elise survived, the person who poisoned her was revealed, and Floyd took the evidence, saying he would find out the source of the poison.

The people present would guess it was the queen’s doing, but they would all keep quiet about it. They would try to pretend not to know.

But Floyd was not like that. The moment he finds out the source, he would go around blabbing about it everywhere. It was not good for the truth that the queen tried to poison her son’s wife to become widely known.

“Say something! Give an explanation!”

As if her head wasn’t throbbing enough, Lucas was also pressing her, and Christine couldn’t bear her rising anger.

Who is this all because of? Who is this all for?

“How could you try to kill so cruelly a woman carrying my child!”

“Well, Crown Prince. Is what’s inside her belly really the Crown Prince’s child?”

“What do you mean by that? Of course it’s my child!”

“Ha!”

Christine snorted.

“It seems the Crown Prince hasn’t heard the rumors going around. Well, I suppose it would be too embarrassing to talk about in front of the Crown Prince himself.”

“What are you talking about!”

“Crown Prince.”

At that moment, the bedroom door burst open. Christine did not scold Elise, who dared to barge into the queen’s bedroom without knocking. Christine stared intently at the pale-faced Elise and said,

“Even the street children in Kingteren know the story of how the Crown Princess brought countless men into her bedroom. Only the Crown Prince doesn’t know.”

“That’s not true!”

Elise cried out sharply.

“It’s not true, Mother! How can you believe such rumors? It’s just rumors created by people who want to slander me, how can you believe such false rumors? You believe rumors from who knows where without even asking me once?”

“Well, if I had asked, would you have answered honestly?”

“Of course. I don’t tell lies. I only have eyes for the Crown Prince, and I even went to Kingteren for the Crown Prince’s sake… I really tried, how can you treat me like this?”

Lucas looked back and forth between Christine and Elise with confused eyes.

“People can make up anything. They can gossip about anything. Even lies can become truth if many people say them. They could make someone a criminal that way. But you shouldn’t believe those lies and doubt me, Mother. I’m family…”

“Family? The reason you became family was because of your pregnancy, but if what’s growing inside isn’t of Pelur royal blood… Well, Elise. We wouldn’t be family, would we?”

Elise stopped her flowing tears and glared at Christine. She had no intention of taking it anymore from Christine who was openly attacking her.

“Do you have witnesses?”

“What?”

“If I brought so many men into my bedroom in Kingteren as you say, Mother, you should be able to bring some of them as witnesses. Tell me their names. Just who in Kingteren supposedly saw my bedroom?”

When asked to name names, she was at a loss for words. Seeing Christine unable to answer, Elise twisted up the corners of her mouth.

“Go ahead and speak, Your Majesty.”

Lucas watched with strange eyes as Elise coldly snapped at his mother. He had always thought she was a fragile woman who seemed about to collapse and dull-witted, but the sight of her cornering his mother was chilling.

“Well.”

Christine smiled faintly.

“It seems you brought in so many that you can’t even remember who they were. I didn’t look into it in detail because it would dirty my ears, but would it be better if I investigate thoroughly and tell you again? If I use people to dig deep, there’s nothing we can’t find out…”

“Yes, Your Majesty. Please investigate well. Please dig into every detail.”

“I will do so. Ah, and there’s something I want to ask… Is there a reason why you prevented our royal doctors from being involved in your childbirth?”

For a moment, Elise’s eyes wavered.

She could make some excuse to Lucas, but it didn’t seem like it would work with Christine.

“The royal doctors are the most skilled doctors in this Gania, but I don’t understand why you insist on only the doctor you brought, just because you feel at ease.”

“I… just…”

In an instant, the attack and defense had reversed. The sight of Elise stumbling over her words raised heavy suspicion in Lucas.

Come to think of it, it was too suspicious.

What had Elise said when he offered to assign royal doctors?

−”This doctor is someone I really trust and rely on. I only need him. If there are others, I think I’ll be more scared and nervous. This is my first time, so…”

He had brushed it off then because he was happy about the pregnancy, but it was hard to believe that Elise had a ‘trusted and relied upon doctor’ in this Gania to begin with. How long had it been since Elise came to Gania, that she would have a doctor she trusted more than the highly skilled royal doctors?

Seeing doubt settle in Lucas’s eyes, Elise clung to his arm.

“Your Highness, surely you’re not doubting me? Your Highness, I was even prepared to give up everything and leave for your sake! You must remember that!”

“Of course… you did.”

Lucas said in a hoarse voice.

“I don’t want to doubt you either, Elise. But there’s no smoke without fire.”

“There must be a reason, Your Highness. The people of Gania dislike me. They look down on and despise me. How annoying and hateful must it be for someone like me to become the wife of someone as noble as Your Highness? So they spread such rumors to tarnish me. But if even Your Highness doubts me… then what am I and this child to do…”

Lucas’s heart wavered at the sight of Elise clutching her swollen belly and speaking desperately. But he couldn’t completely remove his doubts.

No matter how he thought about it, it was hard to understand why Elise had refused the royal doctors.

“If you’re so innocent, then from now on it should be fine for the royal doctors to examine you.”

Elise felt as if her heart had stopped, but in this situation, being stubborn would only invite more suspicion. She had to get through this crisis first.

“Of course, Your Highness. I refused because I didn’t want to show my body carelessly to just anyone, not because I had anything to hide. If showing myself to the royal doctors will clear your doubts, I’ll do so.”

Lucas’s expression softened a little, but Christine still sent a cold gaze before saying,

“It would be best not to wander around too much until you give birth, Elise. Who knows what other false rumors people might spread about your movements?”

That was impossible.

Elise had set up many things to take care of outside the palace. She couldn’t bring the money she borrowed from loan sharks or her investments in the dye business into the palace.

But before Elise could protest, Lucas said firmly,

“Yes, that would be best. From now on, stay with me, Elise. I’ll have them prepare a room for you in the Crown Prince’s palace.”

+++

When she returned to the mansion, Lion was nowhere to be seen.

While it was known in Torkan that the owner of the giant gray wolf was Roxiana, it wasn’t so in Gania, so she was worried it might be spotted by people and hunted down.

Hexten said he would send out knights to search, but still feeling uneasy, she was pacing the mansion garden when Lion returned with Niss on his back.

“Lion! Niss!”

As soon as she saw Lion jump over the high wall to enter, Roxiana ran over to check on the condition of the two beasts. Lion and Niss swallowed sighs at her worried attitude.

Only after threatening the two fearless beasts to never go out again and saying she would have knights guard the mansion did Roxiana let them go.

The wolf, trapped in the room with no way out, heaved a deep sigh.

“This is a big problem.”

“Yeah, it’s a big problem. It’ll be hard to search for Lanian with Roti worrying like this.”

“What should we do about this.”

“Why don’t we just reveal our identity to Roti at this point and move around freely? Finding Lanian is urgent.”

The wolf lowered his head.

“What if Roti then tries to beat up even the devil for our sake?”

“That is a problem…”

Having watched over Roxiana since she was young, they could anticipate how she would react. Roxiana, who had received help from spirits all this time, wouldn’t be able to pretend not to know the situation the spirits were in.

The wolf didn’t want to burden Roxiana’s heart.

“For now, let’s leave it to Mine and move when Roti is asleep.”

The otter rolled on its back on the floor.

“Ah, having a body is really annoying! Annoying! It’s so annoying I could die!”

The wolf felt the same as the otter, so he also lay on his back on the floor and twisted his body this way and that. Just then, the door opened and Petria entered. Seeing the two beasts writhing, Petria said kindly,

“Is your back itchy? Wait, I’ll brush you.”