As Ophelia looked out the window of the carriage, she was lost in thought.

As expected, Mahanas did not want to let her go easily. Her elder brother, who had been waiting in the reception hall, demanded as soon as he saw her, as if he had been entrusted with her.

“You try to persuade the knight of Aglante. Tell him you want to stay with your family longer.”

Of course, it was nonsense, so Ophelia did not agree.

“No, why should I?”

“Are you really crazy?”

“Are you the one who’s crazy, elder brother? I was almost kidnapped by the second prince, and you say such things?”

Of course, the truth was a bit different, but was that her concern?

There was no Netepel left to argue against her.

Ophelia knew well that the dead were silent. Starlet had been, and so had Anika.

If she could have heard testimony from the dead, the wife of Lord Rohos would not have knelt before her in her past life.

Thinking of the fine head she had thoroughly crushed, Ophelia said to Mahanas, who would never know the truth in his lifetime.

“I can’t stay in Reden even out of anxiety. I’m going to Aglante.”

“Do you think it will be better in Aglante?”

“At least it’s better than here, isn’t it?”

It wasn’t speculation or bravado, but a fact.

Aside from the fact that Idren was in Aglante, wasn’t it better to be the queen of a duchy than the princess of a crumbling kingdom?

Unless the throne was hers, Ophelia had no interest in the current Reden.

“Why, you said it yourself, didn’t you, elder brother? That the Grand Duke is so smitten with my face, he’ll treat me well.”

In fact, Mahanas had once uttered such nonsense to her when she was heartbroken over losing Haslen. At that time, Ophelia had almost twisted the mouth of her blood relative.

It ended up being just an attempt as the servants around intervened.

“You really…!”

“Want to hit me? Go ahead and try. I’m curious too, how Penrel Soar would react if the princess who entered the reception hall came out with a swollen face.”

At that, Mahanas flinched and lowered his hand.

Sneering at her elder brother who always seemed to choose the worst options, Ophelia turned her gaze to King Dares sitting on the dais.

Mahanas’s opinion didn’t matter anyway.

Although he strutted around as if he had already ascended to the throne, Reden was still ruled by King Dares.

While King Dares was not interested in politics due to his focus on luxury, it meant, conversely, that he was keenly responsive to his own interests.

So if negotiation was needed, it was better to do it with Dares than with Mahanas.

Ophelia passed by Mahanas, who was fuming in front of her, and approached Dares.

“Father, I must go to Aglante.”

Dares looked her up and down, then blinked slowly. His clouded eyes and darkened, sagging skin were noticeable. It was the typical appearance of people living soaked in drugs and alcohol.

It wasn’t particularly pleasant to see someone who looked like they had been pulled out of an opium den, after living among people who were healthy in body if not in mind.

Eventually, the old man’s wrinkled lips moved.

“If you stay here, the Grand Duke of Aglante will pay more money.”

“That may be so for now. But what about after I become queen?”

Do you think that man will care about Reden then?

At those words, Mahanas raged, asking if she dared to threaten them, but Dares pursed his lips and remained silent.

Ophelia let her aged father weigh her worth. In any case, the scales were bound to tip in her favor.

“The Grand Duke of Aglante didn’t write a proposal because he liked Reden. He wrote it because he liked me.”

Saying that to drive the point home, Ophelia thought herself a bit ridiculous. She remembered how many times she had told Idren to abandon his feelings for her.

And now, she was doing everything from murder to negotiation to follow him.

If she had known it would come to this, she wouldn’t have made him cry with unnecessary words back then. Such a thought suddenly occurred to her, but what’s past cannot be changed. The only option left for her was to do well from now on.

So what, he said he liked me and now I like him too. Having thus resolved her own contradiction, Ophelia asked Dares.

“Do you need more time to think?”

As she expected, Dares was better at understanding than Mahanas.

“I will send you to Aglante. But there’s a condition.”

And when she heard what Dares had wracked his brain to come up with, Ophelia almost burst out laughing.

“When you meet the Grand Duke of Aglante, tell him to lower the fees for the Saha Canal.”

In her past life, Idren had lowered the canal fees, but Mahanas and Dares had died before they could fully enjoy the benefits.

So of course, she couldn’t help but find those words amusing.

What’s the use of bringing it right before your eyes, if you can’t grasp it?

“I’ll do as you say. But I need something too for that task.”

“What is it?”

“Give me the title of princess.”

In Reden, one needed an appropriate title to claim the right of succession to the throne.

It was a rule that didn’t need to be followed if all the royals died, but in this life, Ophelia intended to sit on the throne in front of Mahanas.

It would be worth seeing the frustration of a man who always thought it was his.

It would also be more helpful for Idren to have a wife with the title of princess.

This time, Ophelia had no intention of letting people say he had made a losing marriage.

The title of princess was the cornerstone for obtaining what she wanted.

Dares pretended to contemplate for a moment but soon agreed.

“Alright. Two islands in the south should be enough for your territory, right?”

In her past life, she had been satisfied with that much, but not this time.

Once she decided to fleece them, she had to strip them from head to toe to maintain her dignity.

Ophelia said to her father, who was showing his miserly nature even to his child.

“Would I be anything but a laughingstock if I went with just those rocky islands? I should at least take the mines my elder brother has.”

That was about the only useful thing in Reden.

Dares frowned at those words, but eventually agreed.

“I’ll transfer two mines that belonged to the prince’s territory to your name.”

“Father!”

“Be quiet. Isn’t it land that was originally shared among the royal children? You’ve been monopolizing it all this time, so it’s time to give some up.”

The conversation ended there.

Leaving the reception hall, Ophelia informed the knight waiting for her that she would be leaving Reden.

Penrel, seeming to desire the same thing, brightened at those words.

“It might be difficult right away, but I’ll have everything prepared for you to leave tomorrow morning.”

And the knight kept his word.

As soon as dawn broke the next day, Ophelia received news that the carriage was ready. The decree conferring her title and property arrived a little later.

Attending the breakfast table, Ophelia had her last meal in front of her elder brother, who had clearly spent the night sick with worry. It was the most palatable meal she had eaten in the Reden palace.

After ordering that all the jewelry that had been coming down as the princess’s share and all the valuable furniture she had originally used be packed and sent across the canal, Ophelia boarded the carriage Penrel had prepared. The carriage traveled the now familiar road and arrived at the canal.

While waiting in the carriage for the boat to be prepared, Ophelia thought about what she should say first when she met Idren.

First, she needed to be angry.

She couldn’t let it slide that he had acted without consulting her. Honestly, she felt like all her anger and irritation might dissipate once she saw his face, but if she didn’t point out the mistakes, there was a high chance the same thing would happen again.

And after getting angry… she needed to say the words she couldn’t say before.

In her last remaining memory, on Idren’s birthday, Ophelia had words she wanted to say to him. Words that the man probably desperately wanted to hear, words she had tried to say by scraping together all the courage within her.

But it had been thwarted when she opened her eyes and found herself in the past.

Because she didn’t remember that night clearly, Ophelia didn’t know exactly what had happened to her.

So she needed to discuss that part too…

As she was thinking about this and that while looking out the window, her eyes fell on a cart loaded with candy.

Come to think of it, in her past life, Idren had bought candy from there and given it to her.

Without her saying a word, just because she had been looking, he, a king no less, had bought street candy.

He should have refrained from such acts, if only for the sake of dignity. As she grumbled to herself with an aching heart, there was a knock on the carriage door.

“Your Highness, the boat is ready. I will assist you in disembarking from the carriage.”

At the sound similar to words she had heard before, Ophelia tore her gaze from the window she had been looking out of.

“I understand.”

Getting down with Penrel’s help, Ophelia said to the knight with black hair resembling his master’s.

“I’d like to take a bottle of candy they’re selling over there on our way.”

The knight, knowing nothing, smiled as if he thought she was interested in snacks.

“I’ll tell a servant to go buy a bottle.”

See, even the knight knows it should be done by a servant.

I should say something about this point too. Thinking that, Ophelia stepped onto the plank connecting to the boat. In any case, Idren would be there after crossing this canal.