When dancing, Ophelia didn’t say anything to Idren. She didn’t want to show that she cared about her partner.

She also disliked his attitude.

“I’ll let you know when the time comes.”

Ophelia didn’t like his habit of speaking like that. Idren kept trying to make her wait or expect something. It seemed like he was trying to keep her attention and make her conscious of him.

What she disliked even more was that she couldn’t help but fall for it even though she clearly knew what he was doing. Ophelia glared at the man gently holding her hand. Their eyes met immediately since Idren had been looking at her already.

His sharp golden eyes didn’t look fierce. Rather, they shone transparently as if he was playing the good guy.

Seeing this, Ophelia’s mood soured even more and she frowned.

Idren, who had been staring down at her, asked:

“Is something bothering you?”

“No.”

His attitude and the color of the clothes she received in the morning were bothering her so much that she couldn’t notice anything else.

A surge of indignation rose within her. Ophelia thought about stepping on his foot. Seeing him so calm while he was the one who made her upset, she wanted to express her twisted feelings somehow.

While she was contemplating whether to actually step on his foot pretending it was a mistake, the first dance ended. The music faded to allow time for changing partners or leaving the center. That’s when Idren asked:

“Shall we dance one more?”

“No, thank you.”

If she did, she might really stamp on his foot with emotion.

Idren didn’t ask a second time and led her to the edge of the floor. Still holding hands, he moved to one side of the hall and asked:

“Shall we have that talk now?”

She didn’t want to give a pretty response to a question that sounded like he was coaxing a child. Instead of agreeing, Ophelia asked:

“Here?”

“…Please wait a moment. I’ll bring something, then we can move elsewhere.”

Ophelia ignored his words. If he could sulk and make up as he pleased, so could she.

When she didn’t say anything, Idren lowered his gaze and stroked the back of her hand once with his thumb. With that gesture that seemed like he was trying to curry favor, he released her hand and left through a passage only royalty could use.

Ophelia watched until his figure completely disappeared, then turned away. With the extra time, she thought it wouldn’t be bad to check on what Sianna was doing. Sianna, who had stayed only in the castle since Gilord’s exile, should have also attended this banquet.

However, when Ophelia turned around, she faced not the heir of Lerk, but the prince of Leden.

“Sister.”

“…Elder brother.”

Ophelia’s expression hardened upon seeing Mahanas’s young and glossy face. Though it was fine to meet him since he was allowed in the castle, seeing him without warning upset her.

The man, whose features were handsome but whose expression was fixed in a vile manner, said with a grin:

“I have something to tell you. Is there a quiet place where we can talk?”

Ophelia looked her elder brother up and down.

Idren had clearly asked her to wait for a moment. She hadn’t agreed to his words, but he seemed to have taken her silence as consent.

But come to think of it, wasn’t that just his own misunderstanding?

A hint of mischief rose within her. Having made a decision, Ophelia said:

“Follow me.”

The place she took Mahanas was the inner castle’s library. The reception room was too good for him, and the lounge near the banquet hall was not appropriate as it was too close to eyes and ears.

When they arrived at the library, Mahanas went in and sat on the sofa without permission. Ophelia wasn’t surprised by this rude behavior. She could tell just by looking at herself that the etiquette education of the Leden royal family was ineffective.

After dismissing everyone including the guards, Ophelia closed the library door. From behind her, Mahanas spoke:

“You seem to be living quite well? To decorate a room with such precious things.”

She turned to look at her elder brother. Mahanas was fiddling with an ornament on the table. It was the porcelain ornament that Idren had touched before.

Realizing that she was thinking about that capricious man again, Ophelia frowned deeply. She couldn’t understand why she kept paying attention to him when he was just pretty.

Sure, he might be good-looking, but isn’t the inside what’s important? His inner self was surely narrower than a washbasin.

Holding the ornament in his hand and looking around, Mahanas turned to her. Ophelia felt his gaze slowly sweeping over her.

“…And you’re wearing such fine clothes too.”

It looks like Shefor silk.

Ophelia didn’t respond to his words and sat on the sofa opposite to where he was sitting. Perhaps it was an unexpected reaction, as Mahanas raised an eyebrow.

“Did you not receive the letter I wrote?”

“I did.”

He frowned deeply.

“Then why didn’t you write back?”

“You were going to come here anyway, so why waste paper?”

In her previous life, Ophelia had somewhat humored Mahanas because everything was new then.

At that time, Ophelia thought her elder brother was a tyrant who ruled over all. It was a misunderstanding because everyone was beneath him in the Leden palace, which was her entire world.

But when viewed from beyond the palace, Mahanas was like a sandcastle on the beach. A worthless man who would crumble with just one wave.

She was too unsettled now to humor an elder brother she could kick away at any time.

Of course, her brother, who had no sense of reading the situation, didn’t consider her circumstances at all.

“Is this how you behave after getting married…!”

As her brother immediately reddened and tried to get angry like in the Leden palace, Ophelia gestured towards the closed door. Realizing there were people outside, Mahanas lowered his voice.

He spoke in a more subdued tone:

“Do you think you could have come this far without me? How dare you act so ill-mannered when it’s all thanks to me that you married well?”

Ophelia’s expression hardened at his words that seemed to dismiss the murder she had committed as nothing. She rolled her eyes and looked around. It was an instinctive action done without awareness.

Not noticing the change in his sister’s expression, Mahanas said:

“This time when I go back, I’ll need to take some gold coins.”

When Idren returned to the banquet hall with a box made of ebony, Ophelia was not there.

Flustered, he quickly looked around the hall. Not only Ophelia, but Hazel who should always be with her was also missing.

Penrel, who was standing guard as the captain of the king’s direct knights, approached him. Idren asked the knight who would have been watching the situation in his place:

“Where’s Ophelia?”

“She left the banquet hall with the prince of Leden, sir.”

Idren frowned at those words. He had been irritated by Mahanas all along.

Ophelia seemed to be in a bad mood on such an important day like today. Idren thought it must be because of that stupid man.

He regretted not taking care of it at his level to prevent them from meeting. But the Leden prince was already in his castle. Trying to salvage the situation even now, Idren asked Penrel:

“Did they go to the lounge?”

“I believe they went somewhere more private, sir.”

“They must be in the reception room or the library then. I’ll go check.”

He had something to say to Ophelia today anyway. If he let Mahanas worsen Ophelia’s mood further, his own plans might go awry as well.

Leaving the banquet hall, Idren crossed the castle corridors with hurried steps. A servant he met on the way said that Ophelia had taken the prince to the library, not the reception room.

Hazel was standing in front of the door of the queen’s library. The knight who noticed him bowed slightly. Since she wouldn’t voluntarily leave Ophelia’s side as a guard, it seemed Ophelia had given her a separate order.

He was irritated that she ignored his words to never be apart from the knight. Idren knocked on the library door impatiently.

That’s when the sound of something breaking was heard from inside.

The first sight that greeted the surprised Idren when he opened the door was the Leden prince with his hand raised.

Upon discovering Ophelia in front of him, Idren hurriedly grabbed Mahanas by the scruff of his neck and pulled him away from his wife. The prince rolled on the floor with a dull thud.

Although the sound was louder than intended due to poor control of strength, the prince’s condition didn’t register. Idren quickly approached Ophelia and grasped her shoulders. They were frail shoulders compared to the body he had just thrown.

“Are you alright? What happened?”

Ophelia, who had been staring blankly somewhere between the floor and the space in front of her, finally raised her head. Her blue eyes, which had been unfocused, slowly regained their usual sharpness.

After instructing the knight who had followed him in upon hearing the commotion to detain the prince, Idren realized that his wife had injured her hand. A thin line of blood was rising on the soft palm of her right hand.

He lifted her hand to examine it more closely.

“What did the prince do?”

Judging by the shape and depth of the wound, it seemed to have been scraped by something small and sharp. Idren ordered the servant who had entered behind Hazel, who was carrying out the Leden prince:

“Go and bring what’s needed to treat a scratch wound.”

Then Idren looked around the room to find out what had cut the woman’s hand. He noticed fragments of a porcelain ornament scattered on the floor.

Instinctively realizing that was the cause, Idren narrowed his brows.

The sharp fragments were scattered more towards the opposite side from Ophelia. As if someone standing there had been hit by the ornament.

Then a small but clear voice came from near his chest.

“…It wasn’t Mahanas who did anything.”

Idren turned to look at the woman behind him. Ophelia shivered once as if she were cold. She shifted her gaze to the fragments strewn across the floor.

“I did it.”