The women chattering beside the emperor suddenly stopped speaking and watched his reaction.

The emperor nodded obediently without losing his smile.

“Withdraw.”

Yuan saw, for a very brief moment, Clard’s icy blue eyes flashing with malice.

One should not do anything that might irritate the emperor’s eyes…! Yuan thought she wanted to scold Clard for why he did that.

But before she could finish that thought, an incident occurred.

As they were about to move away from that difficult place and briefly stand side by side to wait for the ball to begin.

A familiar red-haired figure ran over, bumped into them, and sprawled out alone.

“…Regina?”

“Oh, oh. I’m, I’m sorry! I was rushing to the lounge!”

The murmuring crowd around them suddenly fell silent.

Yuan then saw Regina’s smoothly upturned lips and the malicious green eyes glinting above them.

She looked in turn at Regina, the owner of those eyes, and Clard’s mask which Regina had quickly snatched.

Regina had deliberately collided with Clard, almost rolling on the ground herself, to knock off his mask.

Yuan looked up at Clard in shock.

Regina also lifted her chin towards the numerous gazes that must have followed her, with a triumphant smile.

See?

‘How hideous a face is hidden under the mask…’

Mocking the girls who stood with their mouths gaping open, not even thinking to cover them, Regina turned her gaze towards the former crown prince, who must be flustered.

“!”

“Did you leave your eyes in the lounge?”

The man who frowned in annoyance and snatched back the mask was heart-stoppingly beautiful.

After brushing up his slightly disheveled golden hair, the now perfectly neat former crown prince showed off flawless, clear skin.

His beautiful and noble purple eyes sparkled as if they had absorbed all the light from the chandelier.

The statue-like former crown prince, who was about to put the mask back on, muttered something low when it didn’t work well and tossed it carelessly onto the tray of a servant who was serving something like champagne glasses.

Whenever Clard acted like that, it seemed as if time flowed slowly around him, as if someone had deliberately stretched it out.

The silence that had been muffled as if underwater was broken thanks to the orchestra members preparing for the first dance tune in the distance.

As the sound of instruments being tuned for a light dance tune began to ring out, people farthest from the former crown prince couple started to murmur in groups with their partners to prepare for the first dance.

Regina, frozen like a pillar of salt, followed with her gaze the former crown prince who was advancing towards the center of the hall holding Yuan’s hand.

‘It can’t be.’

She had clearly seen his hideous face that couldn’t be fully hidden even by the mask just a short while ago.

She had certainly seen his miserable face being hunted by Emperor Igor and carried away with beasts on a cart.

The face of a monster under the half-removed mask, cursed beyond imagination!

“Lady Regina. What is this commotion?”

Regina raised her dazed face to look up at the force pulling her.

“You didn’t cause this commotion hoping Boloniko would give you the first dance, did you?”

Seemingly conscious of the attention somewhat focused on them, Boloniko roughly shook off Regina’s arm and gritted his teeth.

But Regina couldn’t shake the feeling that the reason he was glaring with such rage in his eyes might not be because she caused a commotion, but because of the gazes directed at the former crown prince.

That’s how it felt.

“Go. It’s punishment. Go over there and have the first dance with that horse-faced Dreykup, Lady Regina.”

She finally snapped back to her senses when Boloniko disappeared from her sight, his splendid cape fluttering.

Regina raised a bewildered hand, stretched it out meaninglessly, then quickly flinched at the mocking laughter piercing her ears and turned around.

The girls standing facing each other with their partners in the hall were clearly giving Regina looks mixed with mockery.

‘No.’

No, this can’t be happening.

Regina shook her head in a state of panic.

…There’s no way this worst debut could be mine!

“Are you alright, Your Highness?”

“What?”

“Your face—.”

“Why? Should I cover it?”

Yuan almost nodded.

That was because the gazes pouring onto Clard’s face felt too intense as they walked to the center of the dance hall.

He must have worn the mask despite having a normal face because he expected this.

“I’m sorry.”

“Why you?”

“Regina. She probably bumped into you on purpose because of me.”

“Regina?”

He furrowed his brow naturally as he assumed his position.

He seemed to be recalling the face of the woman who had collided with him.

“That redhead is Regina?”

“Yes. My cousin.”

“My wife has many enemies.”

“!”

With the sudden start of the music, Yuan stepped forward without time to dwell on the words ‘my wife’.

The music wasn’t even audible.

With each twirl, the dress that tailor Michelle had poured her soul into billowed and contracted like flower petals.

“Am I your wife?”

Yuan quickly asked as he mechanically gripped her waist and lifted her lightly.

The warmth of the large hand holding her seeped through the fabric to her skin, wrapping around her waist and stomach.

When his perfectly shaped lips remained tightly closed without an answer, she pressed.

“Yes?”

“…What else would you be.”

Forced to suddenly become family.

A small existence that reminds him of his dead younger sister.

Not that, but ‘my’ wife.

At those words, a smile like spring flowers bloomed on Yuan’s lips.

Neither the tall ceiling of the huge dance hall, nor the splendid chandelier hanging from it.

Not even the sunlight pouring through the tall, elongated stained glass windows as high as three or four grown men.

Not even the people in gorgeous clothes emanating fragrant powder scents, their eyes shining with curiosity at her.

Nothing entered her eyes.

Not even the mad emperor who had been giving unpleasant looks all along, nor Boloniko who made her uneasy.

Only Clard’s lips, calling her ‘my’ wife with a dry face devoid of any emotion, filled her eyes completely.

Clard acted as if he knew exactly where her gaze was directed without even looking at her.

“Stop staring, wife.”

“!”

“You’ll bore holes.”

He whispered without any fluctuation in emotion and lifted her up, spinning her around about seven times.

Count Gerret Peliesse, who was looking for Regina who had burst into tears and holed up in the guest room, stopped and watched Prince Boloniko as soon as he spotted him looking displeased.

First Prince Boloniko, who hadn’t danced with anyone, couldn’t hide his anxious look despite clearly knowing the gazes eagerly targeting him.

The usual Boloniko would have been busy enjoying those gazes.

The count followed Boloniko’s anxious gaze to where it ended.

“Yuan Peliesse—.”

Where Boloniko was looking was where the former crown prince couple was standing side by side enjoying finger food.

Although it was quite a secluded spot, even people on the opposite side from where Count Gerret Peliesse was standing were murmuring and glancing at that place.

In the hall, the girls who had finished greeting the emperor and the late-arriving empress were busy dancing, changing partners, and those who hadn’t yet greeted the imperial couple were lined up at the high seat, but they were all glancing at where the rumored former crown prince couple was.

“Wasn’t his whole body burned?”

“Oh my. Just like when he was young—. I feel like I’m going to cry.”

“That cleaning solution they sell at Lev Trading Company. I heard it’s excellent for erasing burn marks—.”

“Come on! Surely not on the face?”

“The timing matches perfectly. It hasn’t been long since that solution came out, and the former crown prince with such a flawless face—.”

“Perhaps he was actually hiding his identity because he was too beautiful? He announced that he withdrew voluntarily because he disliked the outside commotion.”

“But according to those who attended the wedding congratulatory party last time, the former crown prince was still—.”

“Then it really must be the cleaning solution!”

“Our mansion hasn’t used that solution yet, is it really that miraculous?”

“Of course. This time at my parents’ home—.”

Count Gerret Peliesse, who had been trembling like a fish on a skewer whenever the ‘cleaning solution’ was mentioned, raised his gaze from glaring at Yuan to scan the former crown prince with his alluring figure that seemed to captivate the audience.

As soon as he saw that straight and charming face that everyone was whispering about as exceptionally beautiful, the count frowned as if he had seen something filthy.

“Yuan… Unnecessary meddling…!”

That must also be Yuan’s work.

No, it’s definitely Yuan’s work.

The purple eyes brimming with health and even sensuality, and the transparent skin without a trace of shadow under the eyes, are clearly signs of his niece using her ability to remove fatigue.

The half-monstrous face becoming normal must also be due to some trick of Yuan’s.

‘Does that former crown prince know about Yuan’s ability?’

If he’s recovered enough to come out and walk around normally like that, it would be stranger if he didn’t know.

Count Gerret Peliesse knew the moment he felt the pain disappear cleanly when young Yuan put her hand on his twisted ankle, saying, “I wish uncle wouldn’t be in pain—.”

What his older brother Philip Peliesse and his father, the previous Count Peliesse, had hidden and hidden again.

That the secret of the family passed down only to each generation’s head was that power.

If the former crown prince had experienced that miraculous power by his side several times, he must have noticed. Where the fame of the Peliesse family came from.

That monster former crown prince knowing the value of Yuan who lays golden eggs like himself, making his maternal uncle create things like to make money. And with that money—.

‘Wait. Then, that bride price…?’

Ah.

Now all the puzzles were solved.

With no dowry to bring. No territory.

Taking a parentless girl as a wife and acknowledging her.

The intention of that former crown prince who paid the excessively demanded bride price in full.

‘Just take this and stay away, is that it?’

Count Gerret Peliesse glared at the picture-perfect couple with bulging eyes, his anger surging.

After a long while.

Count Gerret Peliesse, who had glanced at Boloniko glaring at the couple with similar eyes, vowed not to miss this opportunity to meet Yuan proudly and talk to her today.

And not long after he made that vow.

A scream erupted from the direction of that beautiful couple that people had been glancing at.

It was because the golden-haired former crown prince who had captivated the audience’s attention suddenly vomited both the champagne he had been sipping and blood at the same time.

Yuan was almost out of her mind.

As the party reached its peak and the music intensified, she naturally reached for champagne, and just took a random glass and put it to her lips.

As soon as Clard took a sip of champagne, he frowned, and then without even a choking sound, blood gushed out as if it were refluxing.

Yuan was so shocked that she froze without even having the presence of mind to cover her mouth with both hands.

Amidst the outpouring screams, Emperor Igor, who had watched his nephew vomiting blood, came rushing down from the high seat in a rage.