“Mother?”

When Yurisien asked, Hiscliff visibly jumped, sealing his mouth as if struck by lightning.

In a moment of powerful force, Hiscliff pulled away from Benjamin’s grip and began to backtrack. This behavior looked quite strange even to Daisy, who was scattering papers on the bedroom terrace.

“Your Highness, the person who was trying to marry me to Count Hopgrand is—”

As Yurisien tried to confirm, Hiscliff’s pupils wildly quivered. His voice grew louder.

Why wouldn’t it?

The news of Yurisien’s rushed marriage to Count Hopgrand had created a big stir in both the noble society and social circles.

Even though Count Hopgrand might be remarkable, the great Windsor family was far from lacking. Why marry an old man nearing fifty? Moreover, wasn’t Yurisien Hiscliff’s publicly recognized lover?

Apparently, the royal family was behind all this.

The person who tried to discard Yurisien to an old man was none other than her lover’s mother!

“The Empress really is going too far. There’s virtue in eliminating enemies.”

Someone muttered softly. Hiscliff’s pupils shifted toward the direction of the mutter. The nobleman who had spoken hastily hid. At the same time, the other nobles quickly weighed their options. Whose side should they take? They needed to decide now.

Is it Hiscliff, the Prince backed by the formidable Empress Greta?

Or is it Benjamin, the Crown Prince who had lost both the Emperor and Empress and had just returned from sanctuary in a temple?

The choice wasn’t difficult.

“Of course. If I don’t kill, I’d be killed. Isn’t that politics?”

“Who could argue? Since when was central politics ever easy?”

“Moreover, even social circles are places where one kills one’s rivals. What more could there be?”

Everyone sided with the Prince. Then, they started talking nonsense, completely unaware of the implications of their words. As their voices grew louder, Hiscliff slowly began to calm down.

‘Yes, this is natural.’

Even though they were lovers, Windsor had always maintained a position of neutrality. Wasn’t that even more deplorable?

Therefore, Hiscliff thought that walking down the path of domination was not strange. Yet, Benjamin and Yurisien had anticipated this as well.

“So you’re saying…you wanted to marry the Princess not to suppress the Windsor family as your enemy but to make her marry Count Hopgrand?”

Benjamin pinpointed the issue once again.

At those words, the mouths of the nobles who had been framing Hiscliff as a man who subdues his enemies sealed shut.

“You clearly said earlier—”

“…”

“My mother said I should do this to get married.”

Hiscliff’s body stiffened. Benjamin glanced down at Yurisien, who took a step forward, releasing Benjamin’s hand.

“It’s strange. The person who tried to marry me to Count Hopgrand was my stepmother…ah, we’re now divorced. It was Kendal. You surely couldn’t be unaware of how much suffering she’s caused our Windsor family, Your Highness.”

“I, I…”

Hiscliff backpedaled. Benjamin waved his hand once behind him. The grass tangled right behind Hiscliff’s heels.

“Ugh!”

Tripping over it, Hiscliff fell, staring blankly up at Yurisien while sitting on the ground. The sky was indeed beautifully blue, the clouds pure, and the blowing wind clear. However, the woman looking down at him was not so.

Her jet-black hair seemed to clump like ominous dark clouds, and her vivid red eyes shone like a chilling blood moon.
Yurisien bowed her head toward Hiscliff, her black hair cascading like a curtain.
“I was… I was unknowingly devoted to His Highness the Prince.”
Her quivering voice seemed choked with emotion. She was truly the tragic heroine, affecting enough to dim the faces of the nobility around her.
“While proposing, while obeying his command for a kiss, I begged His Highness the Prince to spare me, even though he had already informed me of our breakup…”
Yet Hiscliff knew, forgetting even to blink, how dry the face was of Yurisien whom he stared at.
“Somehow, he wrapped up our 15-year relationship with just a single letter.”
How terrifying and ominous Yurisien looked as she cursed Hiscliff!
“Could it be that he heard everything?”
It was as if he’d learned from Benjamin that I was not his savior. Not knowing what to say, Hiscliff licked his lips. The words he eventually found blamed her.
“But still, how could you in front of everyone…”
Just then, Benjamin kicked a stone on the ground. The stone rolled and lightly touched Hiscliff’s finger. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t a stone.
“…A magical tool?”
The spell on the transparent, round bead was none other than a silencing spell.
“!!!”
At this moment, Hiscliff realized his mistake.
“It was a trap!”
The two had caused this commotion to distribute a letter unknown to Hiscliff to everyone. They deployed the silencing spell to ensure no one else saw or heard, then brazenly trembled with rage in front of him.
To provoke me, to draw me here, to announce that Yurisien and Hiscliff had broken up!
Hiscliff tried to speak, but Yurisien beat him to it.