Upon seeing the intact half of the deposed prince Clad’s face and then Dreycup, Regina suddenly began to perceive Dreycup as truly horse-faced.

‘Impossible. Have I really been trying to allure such a man all this time?’

Just last night, she was overjoyed at the thought of deceitfully becoming engaged to Dreycup Trelloni, who would bring land to her, contrasting Louise and Yuan’s marriages to a monster…

‘It’s so unfair.’

What would Yuan Peliesse think, seeing herself beside Dreycup Trelloni?

Clad Euphris, even with half his face hidden, seemed more enigmatic and intriguing!

Regina’s views on the deposed prince had drastically shifted from the first to the second day in the mansion.

‘No, that can’t be right.’

As Regina despaired, comparing Clad and Dreycup endlessly, she locked eyes with Yuan’s uneasy gaze, feeling a surge of combative energy.

She aggressively forked the breakfast foods, swallowing them down.

‘No matter how beautiful, he’s still just half a man.’

Dreycup, without a title and unable to leave without a mask, was incomparable to Dreycup.

Regina tried to convince herself as she did yesterday.

Upon reflection, the ugliest was Yuan Peliesse, sweating profusely in her ill-suited bright dress, a crow out of place.

Despite the discomfort, she had to accompany Dreycup Trelloni to the debutante ball’s entrance.

Perhaps a better man, inspired by Dreycup, might approach her.

Temporarily setting aside the debutante issue, Regina focused on her parents, glaring at her as if to kill Yuan.

Her father’s refusal to disclose why they needed Yuan or what she had stolen was infuriating.

And her mother, subtly longing for Yuan’s return, was incomprehensible.

Regina’s irritable gaze swept from the deposed prince’s couple to Prince Bolonico near the Emperor.

And then…

“!”

Frozen for a moment by his intense gaze, Regina was met with Prince Bolonico’s warm, welcoming smile.

To Regina, who had only received nods from horse-headed Dreycup, it was like a ray of light.

After breakfast, about 50 horses neighed at the mansion’s entrance, thanks to Prince Bolonico’s suggestion for a hunting game.

Those curious about the infamous black mansion, dressed appropriately, headed towards the entrance, followed by Clad, who appeared at the back of the group.

Clad, wearing a mask as he did when welcoming the Emperor yesterday, presented his waxen face to the public, unmarred by last night’s chaos.

As soon as Clad mounted his horse, the Emperor spoke.

“Enjoying the honeymoon, Clad?”

“…….”

“The servants heard embarrassingly intimate noises all night long.”

“…….”

“Even a crow like you, it seems, is still a man.”

As tiny cracks appeared on Clad’s delicately icy face, the Emperor burst into laughter.

Those unaware of Clad’s disrupted demeanor, namely those who hadn’t heard the previous night’s torment, praised the Emperor’s witty joke and followed him on horseback.

Clad, limp like a puppet on his horse, only then recalled the dawn incident – cornering Yuan against the wall, scolding her, and the warmth of her embrace as she apologized.

‘Embraced her in that situation?’

The wild deposed prince, Clad Euphris, hosted numerous guests and spent a scandalously warm night with his ninth wife.
As Clad rode through the cold winter forest, whispers around him relentlessly began to shake him. Engulfed in the shame he experienced all night and the self-loathing that struck him since the morning, he gritted his teeth. He was belatedly aware that his body felt surprisingly light compared to the miserable night and his confused mind.

It was clear that he had taken Yuan Peliesse’s medicine and desired her.

While riding, Clad faced his uncle who had aimed a grotesquely twisted monster-hunting arrow at him, but he could not fathom why. He only remembered the previous night, the moment when he pulled his uncle’s shoulder as he tried to prey on his wife, and the brief distortion of his uncle’s eyebrows.

Amidst the vicious sound of the arrow slicing through the wind and voices shouting, “Your Majesty! Your Majesty! Not that way!” Clad stood firm. It was an arrow he neither could, wanted to, nor intended to avoid.

“The Emperor has gone mad!” Countess Priscilla Peliesse’s frantic scream filled a corner of the black mansion’s garden.

Upon seeing the appalling state of the deposed prince, Clad Euphris, brought along with the hunted animals, Priscilla hid trembling behind her husband Frederick.

“How could they treat him like this?”

“Quiet, Priscilla.”

“Honey! Why didn’t you stop them when you followed all the way there? If it was a hunt, they should’ve hunted animals, why, why did this happen!”

“Do you think I didn’t try to stop it?!”

The Count, watching the Emperor dismount with a remorseless face and Clad being carried away on a stretcher, lowered his voice further.