Cassian asked in disbelief. Veronica turned away without replying.

She didn’t look back at the shouts behind her. Her face, visible through her disheveled hair, was frighteningly hardened.

Returning to Hardness House, Veronica headed straight for her bedroom.

As soon as she entered, she threw everything she could get her hands on. Chairs fell over, ornaments shattered, and drawers broke.

She kicked a chair, grabbed a pillow, and beat it everywhere. Unable to withstand the impact, the pillow burst, scattering its feathers all around.

As the feathers floated down gently, Veronica screamed.

“Aaargh!”

She threw the burst pillow and pounded the bed with both fists.

Outside the room, the servants stood nervously.

Harry, who had rushed over hearing the commotion, opened the door. He was startled to see the state of the room in such disarray.

What shocked him most was his daughter, standing like a madwoman with her hair in complete disarray.

“Ve, Veronica. What’s going on?”

“It’s nothing, please leave, Father!”

It was his daughter’s fierce shout, unlike anything he had ever heard. The force was so threatening that even Harry, who had conquered future battlefields, flinched.

Feeling the ominous aura from his daughter’s back as she stood rigidly, Harry said, “Let’s talk later,” and left the room for now.

The presence of those lingering outside the room faded away. Left alone in the room, Veronica trembled with clenched fists.

“Cassian Theron Diastara.”

Humiliation, frustration, anger, and accumulated discontent flowed out coldly. Not strangling Cassian to death on the spot earlier was her last act of restraint.

Her eyes, roaming the floor, caught sight of an object. It was a dagger of suitable length. It was something Harry had given her for self-defense.

Veronica picked up the dagger. Pulling it from its sheath, her cold face was reflected in the gleaming blade. Her crimson eyes were filled with murderous intent.

“I’ll kill him. I’ll kill that man.”

And I’ll start over.

In her dreams, Veronica killed Cassian dozens of times.

She stabbed him to death, hacked him to pieces, drowned him, threw him from a height, and strangled him. All the things she had done to Asher.

Facing those sharp blue eyes writhing in pain, Veronica laughed with ecstasy.

Her laughter scratched at her ears and engulfed everything around her.

In fact, meeting Cassian wasn’t difficult at all. There was no need to dig through memories to find an appropriate time to visit him.

Even if Cassian rejected her, the two couldn’t avoid seeing each other.

They were publicly engaged, and they were in a state of monopolizing His Majesty’s most special attention. He would place Veronica by Cassian’s side every chance he got.

Veronica made a lunch appointment with the Emperor. Just one letter.

Saying she hadn’t been able to give New Year’s greetings yet and wanted to have a separate meeting, the Emperor immediately sent a carriage.

It was the first time she was grateful for the Emperor’s existence.

As soon as she entered the palace, the Emperor had already called for Cassian, who was already seated.

After spending time facing each other, eating meals, drinking tea, and engaging in trivial conversation, the Emperor ordered them to spend time alone.

This time it wasn’t a suggestion, but an order.

“The weather is nice, it would be good to set sail.”

“A boat ride sounds wonderful, Your Majesty.”

And so, a boat was launched on the vast lake inside the imperial palace. Veronica and Cassian sat side by side in the boat decorated lavishly with flowers and curtains.

As the boatman rowed, the boat moved. Crossing the waves gently, the boat advanced towards the center of the lake.

She smelled the water mixed with the wind. The transparent curtains shimmered in the light. In the midst of it, Cassian sat askew with his arms folded.

Veronica, sitting across from him, opened her mouth.

“Even if you want to run away, it will be difficult. His Majesty’s attendants are watching.”

From the end of the meal until they came for the boat ride, the Emperor’s attendant had stuck close to the two of them.

He watched them board the boat and start moving, and was still monitoring from afar. Knowing this, Cassian couldn’t run away either.

“Are you going to keep acting like this?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m saying don’t come looking for me as you please. I might have other appointments or be with other people, so why are you being so forceful?”

“I see you were with your precious brother again today.”

“……”

“Oh my. Why are you suddenly looking at me like that? You’re brothers, so you can be together often.”

“I wasn’t looking at you in any particular way.”

“Is that so.”

It was a reaction that said he didn’t care either way. Cassian felt uneasy at the bland response.

His blue eyes, filled with wariness, slowly scanned Veronica before stopping at one spot.

Inside the round bag next to her was an object he hadn’t seen before.

“Why did you bring that?”

“Who knows when something might happen to a weak woman. Besides, I have to protect myself since there’s no one to help me.”

“……”

His displeased gaze lingered for a while on the dagger barely visible in Veronica’s bag before falling away.

Cassian looked up. Veronica had been smiling constantly since the lunch meeting.

But looking at her face, he found himself swallowing dry saliva without realizing it.

The person in front of him was a woman smaller and weaker than him, but if he felt a strange sense of pressure from her, was it just his imagination?

Cassian tried to shake off the thought by looking around at the scenery. Veronica coldly stared at his profile.

“What’s your reason for meeting me today?”

“I was simply invited to His Majesty’s lunch.”

“Don’t pretend. There’s no way you’d come here without a reason.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“… Did you come to talk about what happened that day?”

His heavy voice brought up the uncomfortable situation from last time.

Veronica didn’t particularly refute. There was no reason to refute.

Cassian faced her. This time, Veronica turned her head. At her uncharacteristic silence, Cassian spoke again.

“Miss Veronica Hardness.”

“Yes, speak.”

“No matter how excited you were, calling me a bastard, apologize.”

Veronica faced him again.

“Apologize for your rude words that day.”

“……”

“Then I’ll apologize too.”

Veronica burst into laughter. Her cheerful laughter echoed, fitting well with the cool breeze.

Cassian narrowed his eyes. He knew the laughter now was mockery.

“It’s not hot enough to get heatstroke, is it?”

“Yes, it’s a warm and pleasant day.”

“Did His Majesty order it? To make up since we seemed to have fought?”

“His Majesty doesn’t know about that day.”

“That can’t be. He must have had plenty of eyes and ears around.”

There was no way there weren’t watchers in this palace. He was the Emperor after all.

He wasn’t foolish enough to simply ignore and neglect this good opportunity when he desired connections with the Hardness ducal family.

Wasn’t his intention to constantly place her by Cassian’s side obvious enough?

The reason Cassian didn’t act out in public wasn’t simply because he was conscious of the gazes around him. Even at the last banquet, Veronica had raised her voice.

Though they quickly left the place, some people might have noticed something was amiss. Rumors might have spread.

“I didn’t receive orders from His Majesty.”

“Then are those words now your true feelings?”

“……”

“What if I don’t want to apologize?”

“Miss Veronica Hardness.”

“I don’t want to apologize.”

Veronica smiled brightly. Her radiant face matched well with the sparkling waves.

“Just as Your Highness has no trust in me, I too lost my trust in you that day. As you said, we were never in a relationship to have trust in the first place. Still, I tried. But Your Highness not only ignored my efforts but treated me like a vulgar woman.”

“… That’s what I’m trying to apologize for now.”

“Ah, I didn’t tell you then. I didn’t realize it, but Your Highness truly resembles His Majesty. In not protecting your woman, that is.”

“What did you just say?”

Unable to contain his anger at her last words, Cassian expressed his fury.

Veronica knew very well that he would be displeased at being told he ‘resembled the Emperor’.

While a child might be happy to resemble their parent, he was not. He hated the Emperor’s irresponsible debauchery.

Normally, she would avoid directly touching his sore spots, but the current Veronica had nothing to lose. This life would end at this moment anyway.

Now she would stab that man to death with the dagger and die herself, returning to being 16 years old again.

“You don’t have anything more to say, do you?”

“You……”

“……”

“What exactly do you want to do with me?”

“I’ve told you every time. What I want to do with Your Highness.”

“Forcibly, you mean.”

There was no rebuttal to that either. Her face showed no sign of apology whatsoever.

Feeling frustrated, Cassian looked around at the surroundings again. It felt like just a very brief moment.

Turning his head back with an uneasy feeling, he found Veronica suddenly standing in front of him.

His blue eyes widened in surprise before narrowing sideways.

He barely held back a scream that almost burst out. Why is she standing like that… She was standing dangerously in the moving boat, looking down at Cassian quietly.

He didn’t notice that she was holding something in her hand.