“Elder brother, what are you saying all of a sudden?”

“Didn’t you say you couldn’t attend today?”

“Lord Caland, didn’t you attend the meeting where the imperial delegation had an audience with His Majesty? What happened?”

When even Duke Bersi asked, Caland looked at me and answered.

“The Empire invited a member of the royal family and specified one person.”

Finally.

I thought they would demand it soon since I got divorced.

Caland’s brow furrowed as he looked at me.

“You’re not surprised. Did you know?”

I didn’t answer.

I heard that Caland, who is eleven years older than me, was very fond of me when I was born. Saying he finally had a younger sister after having two younger brothers.

I only heard that story in my third life.

Even when I was called an ominous being and denial of God at the age of five, Caland treated me quite kindly.

“Other people misunderstand. You’re such a lovely child.”

“Our Ormia, just be patient a little longer. Mother will soon realize too. You’re my sister after all.”

That affection gradually cooled over time and the distance between us grew.

The look in Caland’s eyes when he saw me became mixed with a hint of guilt and discomfort, and eventually disappeared.

“Was it your doing? What are you plotting?”

“What ability do I have to plot anything?”

“That’s right, elder brother. Did the Empire invite Ormia? They can save face with the Empire and we can get rid of a nuisance.”

“Shut up. I’m talking to Ormia right now.”

Although Caland was usually calm, he had never spoken so strongly before.

Even Alian stepped back in surprise.

Caland’s strong gaze was directed at me, and his determination to get an answer somehow was evident.

Just then, Count Rebler, the king’s aide, approached.

“Princess.”

Leticia and I both looked towards Count Rebler.

“Princess Leticia, His Majesty is calling for you. You should go now.”

Alian interjected.

“Count, why is His Majesty calling for Leticia?”

“The person the Empire invited is Leticia.”

Caland answered while still glaring at me.

There was a time when I didn’t want to disappoint this person, and would listen to whatever he said, reminiscing about the affection I remembered from that time.

“What? Why Leticia?”

“Because she’s an adopted daughter. Because she’s an illegitimate child. The delegation suggested that the Empire could save face and Glishia could protect its true royalty.”

“Ha, what nonsense.”

“Leticia is royalty too!”

“How dare they so impudently demand the princess? The entire Windsor ducal family opposes this! Absolutely not!”

Duke Windsor, responsible for Leticia’s blessing, spoke vehemently with a grim expression on his face.

“Don’t worry, Princess Leticia. We, the Windsor ducal family, will protect you.”

“Leticia, don’t worry. We’re by your side. We won’t send you to the Empire.”

“Elder brother…”

“There are useless royals who only bring shame to the royal family, so why should you go?”

“Let’s all go to His Majesty together. We can’t let the princess go alone like this.”

“Thank you. Surely I won’t have to go to the Empire, right? Ah.”

As the dukes and royals surrounded Leticia to reassure her, she collapsed.

“Leticia!”

“Princess!”

“I’ll take her to the court physician.”

Duke Windsor, the largest in stature, picked up Leticia and ran down the corridor.

“Let’s protest to His Majesty.”

“Don’t worry. The Empire only invited her, His Majesty hasn’t given permission yet.”

“He won’t allow it!”

“We must go and strongly express our will.”

Agitated, they headed to the reception room to have an audience with the king. Caland was about to follow them but stopped and turned to look at me.

He left without asking me anything more about the situation.

“Prince Caland is keeping an eye on the princess’s movements.”

“I know. He’s uselessly sentimental and not cold enough, yet weak.”

Caland’s ambiguous attitude used to trouble me.

“I told them to request Princess Leticia as per the princess’s plan.”

“Lord Benum moved according to your wishes.”

“We also expected the King of Glishia to just stall for time.”

Liam, who should have been most urgent, was calm.

“I came to Glishia hoping there might be even a glimmer of hope.”

Liam looked at me with narrowed eyes, as if looking at dazzling sunlight. In fact, he shone in the sunlight coming through the window.

“Princess Ormia, I met you.”

* * *

Liam recalled Ormia’s words as he rolled the amber wine glass in his hand.

The corridor where everyone had disappeared at the news that Leticia had been invited by the Empire.

Ormia spoke of the subsequent events in a flat tone as she looked in the direction where the princes and dukes had gone.

“His Majesty won’t send Leticia. He’ll want to give up the troublemaker I’ve become for Leticia’s sake. The denial of God, disliked by all, and even divorced, causing a commotion in the royal family, a thorn in everyone’s side.”

Her gaze didn’t waver.

“But he won’t choose readily. Sending an outcast to the Empire is a different matter. It won’t be easy to break precedent.”

“Will the king allow it?”

“It will happen that way. His Majesty will end up asking to take me instead of Princess Leticia.”

Ormia spoke nonchalantly about a father abandoning his daughter. There was no expression of sadness or disappointment at all.

Seeing Liam’s gaze, Ormia asked.

“What is it?”

“Are you alright?”

Ormia opened her eyes wide in surprise, then narrowed them again and smiled. There was no vitality in her smile.

“You’re so kind, though I knew that. I’m not bothered at all.”

It was the first time in Liam’s life that he had been called kind.

To the Wilboyers, the Beltoa family is the enemy.

Knowing what would happen to the Wilboyers if they were excluded from Glishia, they drove them into a corner and eventually made them go to the Empire.

He had gritted his teeth while writhing in pain and hearing his brother’s screams.

Vowing not to let the Beltoas be.

But the Glishia he actually came to see was even more cruel. Even though she was also a Beltoa, Ormia was being ostracized like the Wilboyers.

Could he say it’s fortunate that she doesn’t feel the pain like the Wilboyers?

Liam knew well what kind of cruel act it was to rub salt in wounds.

“Now we just have to wait. Until His Majesty abandons me.”

“When will the decision be made?”

“Soon, there will be a ball for Her Majesty the Queen’s birthday.”

“The Queen’s ball?”

“After that day passes, suggest me as an alternative to His Majesty.”

Ormia spoke decisively, as if she knew what would happen that day.

Until she was twenty-two, she used to spout nonsense about knowing the future, but sometimes she spoke as if she really knew everything.

Ormia had offered to help Liam first, but he didn’t know what her true intentions were.

She said she wanted to leave Glishia, but was that really all?

For now, Liam didn’t ask. He had to save his brother first. Even if she had other intentions, she was just a frail woman.

“It’s hectic because of the Empire’s invitation, so let’s have tea next time.”

Liam gently held Ormia’s hand and kissed the back of it.

As he would with any noble lady.

“I’ll happily await that day.”

The court people who had been watching out of curiosity were shocked.

“Oh my.”

“How dare he, so fearlessly.”

“He must be from the Empire indeed. To do such a thing.”

The people of Glishia, whether royalty or nobility, all thought Ormia was ominous. They didn’t touch her and didn’t even go near her.

They avoided her as if misfortune might be contagious.

So Liam deliberately acted for them to see.

Ormia’s power that no one in Glishia knew about. That brilliant blessing.

Ormia’s hand in his grasp was small, thin, and light.

“I’ll invite you formally.”

Feeling the regret of her fingertips slipping away, Liam instinctively grabbed them and then let go.

“You’ve started first.”

Marx Benum sat down across from Liam.

Although he had an audience with the king, he arrived at the separate palace later than Liam.

“I hear there’s a meeting in full swing in the king’s reception room. Everyone’s in an uproar like a disturbed anthill. I wish you could have seen the king’s expression when I mentioned inviting Princess Leticia.”

Marx chuckled as he drank.

“As you said, I spoke strongly so they couldn’t stall for time anymore. I whined appropriately that we were also troubled by His Majesty’s orders.

And I emphasized that Princess Leticia is not of royal blood. In fact, that she’s not even the king’s illegitimate child but a commoner.”

The reason why the king took on the dishonor and adopted Princess Leticia as an illegitimate child.

It was to maintain the faith that the power of blessing could never manifest in anyone other than those of royal blood.

It was a concession to protect royal authority, but thanks to that, it became a card for the Empire to hold and shake.

“I threatened that if they couldn’t invite anyone this time, that information could be leaked.”

For the sake of balancing the ducal houses, and to protect the people’s faith, the king cannot send Princess Leticia.

She was the counterweight that maintained balance in place of the incompetent Ormia.

Knowing this, they drove her into a corner. To choose another alternative.

Ormia had proposed this plan first.

“Was Prince Caland there?”

“Ah yes. He left as soon as I withdrew.”

Liam recalled what Caland had said while glaring at Ormia.

“Because she’s an adopted daughter. Because she’s an illegitimate child. The delegation suggested that the Empire could save face and Glishia could protect its true royalty.”

Caland had concealed that Leticia was of common birth.

The dukes and princes closest to the king couldn’t possibly not know Leticia’s origins, so he showed caution with Liam, a member of the delegation, in mind.

‘His instincts aren’t bad.’

“Wilboyer, although I gave you permission to act freely when you joined the delegation.”

Liam drained his glass in one gulp at Marx’s following question.

“Why do you want Princess Ormia?”

He set down the empty glass with a thud. Marx hadn’t been told the plan, but he already guessed.

“The king won’t send us Princess Leticia who has the power of blessing. But it’s a troublesome situation to refuse because rumors that would shake the royal family’s power would spread. He has no choice but to offer Princess Ormia as an alternative.”

It’s a plan that becomes apparent if you look just a little more broadly. Both Liam and Ormia know this.

“She’s a princess who isn’t even treated properly as royalty in Glishia, being called ominous. Why Princess Ormia?”

Why do you covet Princess Ormia, who is of no use to you? Are you hiding something?

Reading Marx’s true thoughts, Liam didn’t avoid his eyes.

“The king will stall for time and make us wait anyway. We need to cause confusion and take something away.”

“It’s not because you pity her for being in a similar situation to the Wilboyer people?”

“Princess Ormia is also a Beltoa.”

Pleased with Liam’s answer, Marx didn’t probe further and leaned back in his chair, smiling.

“Hmm, for that, you were quite active. There’s a widespread rumor that a man who has never even held hands with the most prominent ladies in the Empire gave a kiss of reverence on the back of the princess’s hand first.”

“I’ll do anything that shakes the Glishian royal family.”

“Anyway, it’s amusing to watch. There’s soon to be the Queen’s birthday celebration, so let’s see how they react. I thought we’d be waiting boringly, but this is great.”

He recalled Ormia’s words.

“Soon, there will be a ball for Her Majesty the Queen’s birthday.”

“After that day passes, suggest me as an alternative to His Majesty.”

Liam’s eyes darkened.

‘What will happen that day?’