Princess Anesa raised her handkerchief to wipe away the tears flowing down her face.

“H-how could this happen!”

With a face that seemed to have gathered all the tragedies of the world, Princess Anesa leaned back on the sofa. The Crown Prince, who had been watching her with a cold gaze, opened his mouth to speak.

“It can’t be helped. I did my best.”

Anesa bit her lip tightly and hastily rebutted.

“If I had known I would be married off like this…!”

The paternity test trial had the greatest impact on Anesa’s life. It was because Matthias Mirmod, who had a private audience with the Emperor, revealed everything Princess Anesa had done until now.

‘Matthias Mirmod, how dare he.’

It seemed that His Majesty had taken into account everything, from the Princess frequenting the Mirmod family to torment Sien, to even conducting the paternity test.

“Now that His Imperial Majesty has already pushed for your marriage with a foreign prince, I don’t think there’s anything that can be reversed.”

“…Ha.”

She knew what the foreign prince His Majesty had paired her with looked like.

He was an ugly man, fat and pot-bellied. Although he was the only legitimate heir, he was quite lacking in appearance.

It was literally a not-so-good marriage for the sake of friendship between kingdoms.

Recalling this fact, Anesa roughly wiped her eyes with her handkerchief.

The Crown Prince looked at Anesa with a bored expression and said,

“It was a marriage that would have happened anyway. We could have delayed it, but that’s all.”

“Brother!”

Anesa cried out as if spitting blood, but the Crown Prince’s expression remained hard.

“Anesa, there’s no way I can help you.”

“Yes, so neither you, nor Saint Melodia, nor the Pope can help me, is that what you’re saying?”

It was then that Princess Anesa, who hadn’t expected to be suddenly married off like this, made a vicious face while blowing her nose.

Melodia, who had been silent all this time, smiled a beautifully melancholic smile. Even in this situation, Melodia’s appearance was extremely beautiful. So much so that Anesa stared at her, blankly moving her lips.

However, unlike Anesa, Melodia no longer looked at her. Despite having built quite a friendship with Anesa until now, she only stared at Anesa as if seeing her for the first time.

It seemed as if she had lost interest in Anesa now. Sure enough, without answering Anesa’s words, she lifted her teacup and whispered,

“Your Highness, it seems Matthias Mirmod finally made his move.”

The Crown Prince looked at her with a honey-dripping gaze, unlike how he had been looking at Anesa.

“Yes, Melodia.”

She smiled softly and continued,

“I heard he had a conversation with His Majesty. I wonder what kind of conversation it was.”

The Crown Prince bit his lip tightly as he looked at Melodia, the saint who was said to be leaving for the ‘Path of Light’.

It was easy enough to guess what kind of conversation had taken place. The Emperor had called him and the Princess and scolded them harshly.

Not only that.

He had thundered at the Princess to find a marriage partner and leave for a foreign country.

“He’s handing over the Mikel mines to Mirmod.”

He gritted his teeth.

The Crown Prince had always disliked his father’s tendency to be wary of the Mirmod family.

Look at how he immediately cowered when Matthias Mirmod put pressure on him this time. The imperial authority had sunk into the mud.

At that moment, Melodia took a sip of tea and whispered,

“Seeing you so angry, it seems that’s not all, is it?”

“…That’s right.”

If that had been all, he could have understood. But his father had put forward another strong move.

He said he could no longer trust the Crown Prince, and that he needed a new stimulus for him as well.

‘He still thinks of me as the heir, but he spoke as if he could change it at any time.’

Was it because he had bitten his lip in anger? Blood trickled down the corner of his mouth. Melodia extended her soft hand to wipe away the blood flowing from his mouth and said,

“What is it, Your Highness?”

“Ha! What, you ask? He said he would call that half-wit Duke Selvastian to the capital. Does that make any sense?”

To think he would call Duke Selvastian, his half-brother who was guarding the capital. This could only be seen as an attempt to narrow the Crown Prince’s position.

‘Father has no desire to strengthen the imperial authority at all.’

It was then that the Crown Prince gritted his teeth. Melodia opened her mouth in her characteristic calm tone.

“Ah, Duke Selvastian, you mean Your Highness’s half-brother?”

“Yes!”

The Princess, who had been listening to their conversation while clutching her handkerchief, said in a mocking tone,

“It means he intends to split the succession structure, doesn’t it? Not only am I being sold off in marriage, but you, brother, have also taken quite a hit. To think you’re being threatened for the position of future emperor by a half-wit duke. How pitiful.”

“…Anesa.”

“What? Come to think of it, it was a mistake to mess with Mirmod. Why did I have such excessive greed? As if…”

Anesa, who had been staring at the Crown Prince, glared at Melodia.

“As if I was bewitched by something. Right, Melodia? Why did I follow your words? I don’t understand. Hearing that suggestion to attack Mirmod… It was too sudden, and strange, wasn’t it?”

At Anesa’s words, the Crown Prince angrily pounded the table with his fist.

“Melodia did not bewitch us!”

“I wonder. If Melodia hadn’t encouraged us, would we have made such a bad move trying to take down Mirmod? Think about it, brother. The reason I took the risk and tried to abuse and drive out Sien Mirmod was because of Melodia and you, wasn’t it?”

The voices of the Crown Prince and the Princess grew louder. Melodia just sipped her tea with a faint smile on her lips.

“Huh…”

She quietly exhaled, waiting for the Crown Prince and Anesa to calm down, and then put down her teacup.

Even Anesa, who had been about to attack Melodia, flinched at her graceful attitude.

Soon, Melodia, who had been observing the Crown Prince’s expression from beside him, gently patted his shoulder as if to comfort him.

“That’s right. In the end, we couldn’t deal with Sien Mirmod.”

The Crown Prince, who had been feeling an inexplicable sense of peace from her touch, suddenly flushed at the mention of ‘Sien Mirmod’.

“Yes, Melodia.”

“It’s a pity. But you did well, Your Highness.”

Melodia smiled brightly, her eyes curving upwards.

In fact, Anesa’s words weren’t wrong. The reason he had tried to deal with Sien Mirmod in the first place. It was because of Saint Melodia, the woman he had fallen in love with at first sight.

Because she had said that Sien Mirmod must be dealt with, he had tried to catch Mirmod using Anesa and the Yoter Guild. He had been willing to risk everything, like a moth flying into a flame…

‘Everyone said it was strange to try to find fault with the Mirmod family through a paternity test, but even in the midst of all the failures, listening to Melodia’s words makes it feel worthwhile.’

Just the fact that Melodia patted his shoulder and said he had done well made his anger towards his father and his sense of inferiority towards Matthias melt away like snow. He took Melodia’s hand that was comforting his shoulder and said briefly,

“…Melodia.”

“Yes.”

“I think it’s only you for me after all.”

He ignored the incredulous gaze of Princess Anesa.

To him, the woman he loved was more precious than his foolish sister who would be sold off to another kingdom to make the empire more prosperous.

Saint Melodia was his first love, and the only woman he wanted to give the position of Crown Princess to. He gazed at Melodia with deep affection.

Soon after, their clasped hands separated and Melodia looked back at him.

“Is that so?”

“Yes, then as we discussed before, the engagement…”

Melodia laughed briefly and waved her hand gently.

“I, I have to leave for the Path of Light now.”

“Melodia? Were you really going? When you said you were leaving for the Path of Light, I thought you were just going into seclusion?”

“Yes, Your Highness. Of course.”

The phrase ‘heading to the Path of Light’ was commonly understood to mean walking to the Lux Coast located at the southernmost tip of the empire.

A very long time ago, it was named so because it was said that there was a demon realm wrapped in dark light near the coastline of Lux Coast, but this was close to a delusion.

Now, ‘walking the Path of Light’ referred to the process of walking endlessly along the southernmost coast of the empire for several years, like a pilgrimage, bestowing grace upon the people of the empire.

Because of this, it was sometimes called the Pilgrim’s Path instead of its official name, the Path of Light.

Although it was said to be a pilgrimage site that any pope, saint, or cardinal would visit, most visited it towards the end of their careers, just before retirement.

It was very rare for a young saint to visit the Path of Light. The Crown Prince frowned at this exceptionally unusual move.

“Why are you leaving for the ‘Path of Light’ already? You’re still young. You could leave after getting married.”

For a moment, Melodia’s eyes, which had been gentle and lovely, turned cold.

It was such a rapid change of expression that even the Crown Prince was taken aback.

However, as if that coldness had been completely false, Melodia gently raised the corners of her mouth and said kindly,

“The Pope and I have something to find on the Path of Light.”

“Something to find?”

“Yes. If we find ‘that’, I’m sure Your Highness will be able to ascend to the throne without any opposition from anyone.”

The Crown Prince bit his lip at her words.

Up until now, after meeting Melodia, everything had gone well when he listened to her words.

Although he had lost face in the paternity test incident with Sien Mirmod…

‘That was because I made a misstep while trying to work hard for Melodia, and she did nothing wrong.’

Melodia seemed to have thought that Sien Mirmod, who was only ten years old, needed to be kept in check.

“Alright, then when you come back, we…”

“Yes. That’s good. Let’s get married. If I return safely, that is.”

She brought her hand to the Crown Prince’s cheek and said gently.

It was quite a simple proposal.

Melodia wasn’t even smiling. But to the Crown Prince, who had fallen into a green love, everything about her looked good.

Anesa watched this scene with a cold gaze.

‘It’s not even funny.’

Even after losing everything, how can these lovers be so shameless?

She felt oddly upset.

‘Why did Melodia try to keep Sien Mirmod in check in the first place?’

Although Sien Mirmod was said to be intelligent, she was still a child.

She was just a young sprout, too young for the pure and kind Melodia to try to eliminate, so why did she try to make the Crown Prince get blood on his hands?

For a moment, she felt doubtful.

But suddenly, she felt sick to her stomach. Noticing Anesa’s uncomfortable expression, Melodia smiled kindly and spoke to her.

“Anesa, it seems your head hurts a lot. You should rest.”

As she said, Anesa could no longer continue her thoughts.

She massaged her throbbing forehead and leaned back on the sofa.

It wasn’t just Princess Anesa who was suspicious about why the temple side was trying to get rid of Sien Mirmod. Matthias Mirmod, who had solved all these incidents together with Sien, felt the same way.

Inside the office of the Mirmod family’s minor duke.

Matthias whispered while looking down at his desk with his chin resting on his hand.

“So in the end, the Crown Prince colluded with the temple to carry out this incident, is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes, that’s right. We can see it as a collaboration between the Yoter Guild, the temple, and the Crown Prince. However, it’s questionable why the Crown Prince and the temple stepped in.”

“They must have wanted to tarnish our family’s reputation.”

“But…”

“Yes. It’s too much. It was such an excessive incident that I’m curious about the reason why they did this just to tarnish the Mirmod family’s reputation.”

Matthias smiled with satisfaction after checking the report stating that all the elders of the Senate who had received bribes from the Crown Prince had been killed.

As expected, the assassins he had personally trained had never made a mistake.

“But come to think of it, I don’t think we need to worry about the reason.”

“Pardon?”

“The temple and the imperial palace attacked my daughter at the same time…”

Matthias’s eyes narrowed. His fingertip moved towards the map placed on the desk.

The imperial palace and the temple were located in the center of the map.

His fingertip was placed right in the middle between the imperial palace and the central temple.

“We’ll just have to get rid of both of them.”