Hearing those words, Siana thought she might burst into tears. It felt like someone understood the painful days she had spent in her father’s house.

As she barely swallowed the tears welling up, the queen commanded.

“Raise your head.”

As the queen ordered, Siana lifted her gaze that had been fixed downward the entire time.

And she noticed that the queen draped in blood-red cloth was different from what she had imagined.

When she had been presented as a wedding gift, the queen had seemed like a noble princess from a sunny place, but now she looked like someone born in the Kyrios Mountains. It seemed as if cold would be embedded in every joint of her fingers.

The queen’s blue eyes slowly looked her up and down. Siana thought those large, clear eyes were like an ice sea. They were so cold that she couldn’t easily meet them.

After examining her without a word as if inspecting her, the queen spoke.

“Would you take off your clothes?”

The tone had somehow softened, but Siana felt her blood run cold the moment she heard those words.

Take off her clothes.

Apart from that request being abnormal, Siana couldn’t undress in front of the queen. It would be the same in front of anyone.

There would still be bruises on her body that hadn’t faded yet. They were from the corporal punishment she had received not long ago.

When a flustered Siana hesitated, the queen said as if understanding.

“Ah, you can’t take them off alone. I’ll call a servant.”

And she gestured to the servant standing against the wall. Come here and help Siana Nebel undress. At those words, Siana unconsciously grabbed both her arms and said to the queen.

“Y-Your Majesty. I apologize, but the c-clothes…”

“Why not?”

And the queen set down her teacup with a thud. Because something like displeasure seemed to emanate from that snow-white hand, Siana froze in place. It seemed the queen might throw her out of the castle at any moment.

According to her father, that’s what should have happened, but Siana didn’t want to go back home. At home, every day was painful for her.

When she couldn’t say anything and just lowered her head, the queen said in a cold voice.

“The servants in your father’s house must have undressed you as they pleased. Even those who weren’t your masters did so, yet you won’t obey the order of me, your master?”

There was nothing wrong with those words. After all, her father had offered her to the queen, hadn’t he?

As Siana couldn’t refute, the servant who had approached said to her. Young lady, please turn around so I can undo the laces on your back.

When she turned around as told, Siana realized she was trembling.

It was such strong trembling that even she could tell, but the servant undid the laces of her dress without a moment’s hesitation.

Finally, her upper body was completely bare except for her white undergarments. Looking at her with an unwavering gaze, the queen ordered.

“Roll up your sleeves.”

As if not expecting her to move in the first place, the servant beside her swiftly rolled up her sleeve. Siana unconsciously held her breath at the dark red and yellow bruises suddenly revealed.

But it seemed only she was surprised, as the queen looked down at her wrist with the same impassive expression she had been wearing all along.

It must have been just a moment, but Siana thought that moment felt like an eternity.

To her, shivering as if standing alone in a snowy field, the queen said.

“Your father did this.”

And the queen ordered the servant beside her. Put her clothes back on.

Though the pitch of her voice was no different from before, those words somehow sounded kind for an unknown reason.

Maybe that’s why the tears started to fall.

While the servant was tightening the laces of her dress again, Siana sobbed. And those sobs grew stronger, until she was almost bawling by the time she was fully dressed.

To her, clumsily wiping her face, the queen said to hand her a handkerchief.

Receiving it from the servant who gave it as ordered and wiping her face, Siana thought that now maybe the queen would allow her to stay in the castle completely.

The queen might completely separate her from her father, as she had done before. After seeing the bruises on her body like this, she seemed likely to do at least that much.

However, when she had somewhat cleared her blurry vision, Siana could see what expression the queen was making.

The woman sitting with her back straight had a cold face as if she hadn’t seen anything.

She spoke in a voice still beautiful yet cold as frost.

“Now go back to your father’s house.”

Late in the morning, Idren heard the news that Ophelia had summoned Siana Nebel to the castle. He learned this fact from the list of nobles entering and exiting the castle that was reported to him, without having to ask specifically.

Hearing this, he couldn’t help but recall the conversation he had with Ophelia yesterday.

Yesterday, he had told Ophelia not to get too deeply involved with Siana.

Though he had spoken indirectly, Ophelia would have understood it all. She was quick-witted in that regard.

To be honest, Idren didn’t like Siana Nebel being with Ophelia from the start.

Wasn’t it clear that Gilrod Nebel must have plotted something when sending his daughter?

Idren knew that Ophelia was having Siana go back and forth between her home and the castle. Since Gilrod wouldn’t have left his daughter coming and going to the castle alone, he must have surely whispered something in her ear.

Even if Siana Nebel herself had no ill intentions towards Ophelia, she would do as her father told her.

Of course, Ophelia wasn’t the type to just be taken advantage of, but Idren wished there were no unnecessary conflicts in her life.

It was also better not to get entangled with filth like the Nebels.

Hearing that Ophelia’s private meeting with Siana had ended, Idren went to the reception room where she would be.

The guards at the door tried to announce his arrival. Shaking his head, Idren knocked on the door himself and asked. May I come in?

Then a small answer came from inside the room.

“Come in.”

There was somehow a lack of strength in her voice, and when he entered the room, Ophelia was leaning back on the sofa with her eyes closed.

Idren realized she was wearing clothes made from the fabric he had previously chosen for her.

The red cloth suited her even better than he had known. To the point where he felt slightly regretful for not having seen it first.

Idren, having sent out the servants who were cleaning up the tea set in the room, sat down next to her. Ophelia, still with her eyes closed, asked.

“Why did you come?”

Idren cradled the woman’s uncomfortably tilted head, resting it on his shoulder, then said.

“I heard you met with Siana Nebel. I came because I don’t know what her father might have instructed her to do.”

In other words, he came because he was worried about her.

Ophelia leaned a bit more on the shoulder of the man who was elaborately saying she had done something unnecessary.

Idren, supporting her body, began to undo her hair ornaments one by one, perhaps finding them bothersome.

Ophelia didn’t tell him that someone had spent over half an hour this morning trying to create that hairstyle. Instead, she closed her eyes and recalled what had happened just before.

When she said she would send her back home, Siana’s face was clouded with despair and a faint sense of betrayal. Ophelia saw the already thin woman’s face grow even more haggard.

Ophelia knew what Siana had expected from her. Having seen her cry like that, she naturally thought she would take pity on her.

Looking at the woman’s tear-stained face, Ophelia unconsciously recalled a delusion she once had. In the past, she too had begged with such a face.

Mahanas had taught her that tears couldn’t buy anything.

Siana, who had a father similar to her brother, must have learned the same thing, so why was she looking at her with such eyes?

As that question arose, Ophelia recalled what Idren had said yesterday. Siana is different from you.

Perhaps he had been right, but Ophelia soon pushed that thought away.

She wasn’t trying to make Siana the same as herself.

Ophelia wanted Siana to see her as someone as cold-hearted as her father, or even more so.

There was one reason. That way, she would listen to her words better than his.

Ophelia drove the nail in to the woman who was looking at her with disbelieving eyes.

“Did you not hear me? Get up from your seat at once.”

At those words, Siana made an expression of incomprehension. She seemed to wonder how she could say such things after seeing all her injuries.

But since she had no intention of understanding circumstances that weren’t directly spoken, Ophelia looked at her without changing her expression at all.

Finally, unable to withstand her gaze, Siana slowly rose from her seat. Ophelia watched her move sluggishly, like an animal being led to slaughter.

Though she had managed to leave her seat, she seemed unable to take a step, hesitating repeatedly before Siana’s lips quivered.

“M-May I ask when you will s-summon me again?”

Ophelia read that those words, spoken with such intimidation, were the maximum courage she could muster.

And since that level of courage was utterly useless, Ophelia trampled on it with a nonchalant face.

“Well, I’m not sure. I can be quite capricious.”