The one who instigated the poisoning was the First Prince Boloniko.

The terrible truth pierced and wedged itself firmly into Yuan’s heart.

Yuan tightly covered her mouth with both hands to hide the sound of her rapid breathing.

At the same time, Boloniko’s eyes shone very keenly.

“I think I heard something. Are you sure there’s no one here?”

“Everyone is on their way back from watching the body searches at the party hall.”

“A rat might have gotten in.”

When Boloniko spoke irritably, Duke Kompani demonstratively kicked the cabinets and consoles around Yuan.

He even opened some doors and smiled widely.

“There’s no one.”

“What about that cabinet?”

Yuan hurriedly averted her gaze when she met Boloniko’s icy blue eyes, full of suspicion, through the crack in the door.

Since the cabinet her uncle had dragged her into was in a place without any light, there was no guarantee that Boloniko had seen her black eyes even if he had made eye contact.

Yuan clutched her wildly beating heart in time with Duke Kompani’s approaching footsteps.

‘Please. Please…’

-Bang!

The sound of kicking the cabinet once wasn’t too violent, but Yuan felt as if that kick had struck her heart.

“It’s locked. There’s no way someone could have gone in and locked it from the outside.”

“Be careful in everything, Duke Kompani. You’re always sloppy with your finishing touches. Get rid of that bad habit of doing things half-heartedly.”

“I’ll stab it with a sword. If someone’s inside, there’ll be a sea of blood underneath.”

“How barbaric.”

Boloniko said this, but couldn’t hide the laughter in his voice.

Terrible conversations ensued about how if several people were to die anyway, no one would notice if they added one more body to the pile.

Yuan held her breath and listened as Duke Kompani pulled a decorative sword from the wall.

-Crack!

The blunt sword that split the wood passed over Yuan’s crown and stuck into the wall.

If a man had been standing, the sword would surely have pierced his heart. Yuan froze completely at the chilling sensation of the metal.

As the merciless blunt sword was pulled out, light seeped in through the hole in the cabinet.

Duke Kompani prepared to thrust the sword three or four hand spans below that position, taking a deep breath.

“Hyaap-!”

“Your Highness! Your Highness!!”

At that moment, an urgent voice cut through the battle cry in the VIP lounge.

“The Emperor has beheaded two of our people.”

“Tsk.”

With the sound of Boloniko clicking his tongue, several footsteps left the VIP lounge.

Count Peliesse, who had been hiding outside, snuck in like a mouse, locked the door, and unlocked the padlock on the cabinet door.

When the damaged cabinet door opened, Yuan tumbled forward.

Her uncle was shocked for a moment at Yuan’s pale face covered in cold sweat, but then red blood flowed from between her fingers covering her mouth.

“Yuan!”

Cough. Cough-.

Blood clots that had been held back with her breath spilled onto Yuan’s hands and her uncle’s palm, who had hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief.

“Your condition is progressing much faster than your sister’s.”

Her uncle gritted his teeth, recalling Louise who would cough up blood with just a little stress or overexertion.

Yuan glared at her uncle while cleaning up the blood.

The count, receiving that gaze, snorted in disbelief.

“I’m worried about you right now. No one wants to save you more than I do. You look at me like that? Since you don’t trust me so much, I have no choice but to tell you things you’d be better off not knowing!”

Her uncle, as if he had been very patient until now.

He glared at his niece who was leaning against the cabinet, already exhausted, still glaring at him.

“Do you even know what’s happening outside right now? The Emperor is grabbing innocent people and cutting off their heads.”

Yuan covered her mouth, feeling nauseous.

The count frowned, recalling the chaos he had just witnessed.

“This country is on the brink of collapse. The Emperor is that kind of madman, and even Boloniko isn’t in his right mind. You heard it clearly too, right? Shall I guess? The one who instigated the poisoning was Boloniko, wasn’t it? Am I wrong?”

Yuan’s silence was as good as an answer.

“Boloniko hasn’t been appointed Crown Prince even at that age, just being tested. Even if he’s a deposed prince, would they let a man with royal blood in his veins live? Who else but that madman Boloniko would try to kill a deposed prince who’s already a lost cause! Well, isn’t this uncle right?”

The more excited he got, the more he lowered his voice as he crept towards Yuan who had slumped to the floor.

“Do you really think your sister died of natural causes?”

“!”

Facing Yuan’s suddenly stiff face, her uncle hissed through gritted teeth.

“Don’t be happy living in ignorance, tucked away in the countryside in the arms of a deposed prince who doesn’t know when he’ll die, Yuan Peliesse.”

Yuan shot an icy glare at her uncle who told her not to be happy as if it were the most natural thing.

“Listen carefully, your sister…”

But Yuan couldn’t help but stiffen at the words coming from his greasy lips.

“She died in your place.”

“…What did you say?”

Facing Yuan, who had turned pale as if all the blood had drained from her body, her uncle began to mercilessly pour out the cruel truth.

“She didn’t die because her time was up.”

“No. Sister escaped from the mansion, and then her illness worsened-”

“Did you think you took her place because she died?”

Towards the black eyes wavering in confusion, eyes gleaming with the same color as hers continued to pierce Yuan’s heart with a truth they had been hiding.

“Your sister, from the beginning, was Yuan Peliesse.”

“…”

“She entered that dangerous mansion in your place.”

“What nonsense…”

“It wasn’t simply that she went pretending to be the only daughter of the previous Count Peliesse. The person the Imperial family requested was the daughter of the previous Count Peliesse, Yuan Peliesse.”

At her uncle’s final words, spat out with bloodshot eyes.

“It was you, Yuan Peliesse, from the very beginning.”

Yuan’s head began to spin.

Boloniko finally caught up with Emperor Igor, who was on his way back to the imperial palace, cutting through an endless field of severed heads.

Judging by the familiar faces, it was clear that several of the servants he had instigated to administer poison had committed suicide and been beheaded simultaneously.

“Father.”

Emperor Igor dropped his icy blue gaze on his son, passing by the people clearing away corpses and nobles holding their noses.

“My dear Boloniko.”

Grinning with both corners of his mouth stretched wide, he wiped his blood-spattered face clean with a wet towel brought by a servant, then gestured for Boloniko to come closer.

And the moment the tip of Boloniko’s pointed shoe was engulfed by the emperor’s shadow, a rough hand that was still not fully cleaned of blood gripped his son’s smooth chin tightly and pulled it close to his face.

The white skin pressed by the thick fingers turned red.

The icy blue gaze examined his son’s face as if to grind it to powder.

“My dear Boloniko. Surely this wasn’t your doing.”

It wasn’t a voice asking for an answer.

The emperor tightened his grip on his cheeks and chin as if to crush them, making it impossible for him to open his mouth.

“Clard Yufris. It’s fine to play with him, but killing him is out of the question.”

“Ah, fa-”

“Unless you’re planning to eliminate your brother Noel and even your deposed cousin in advance out of desire for your father’s throne.”

The emperor soon let go of his son’s chin as if discarding something dirty.

The force of the throw made Boloniko’s face turn sharply.

To Boloniko, who was trembling with humiliation, the emperor didn’t smile this time.

“I’m sure my son wouldn’t do such a thing, but if by any chance. If such an incident occurs in front of me again.”

In front of his son who was swallowing dry saliva, the emperor showed a cold and calm smile.

“Then I’ll really let you feel…”

“!”

“What it’s like to be overshadowed by your younger brother.”

The emperor licked the blood-soaked sword like a thug, then proudly smiled at his son, showing his blood-filled tongue.

Boloniko exerted all his strength not to frown at the disgusting sight, and very slowly and very humiliatingly bowed his waist and head in turn.

As soon as signs of the commotion beginning to subside appeared, Count Gerret Peliesse took Yuan back to the guest room assigned to her.

Since the servants drafted for body searches were not guarding the door, it was a piece of cake for him to enter the guest room.

“Yuan Peliesse. Seeing that name prominently placed next to the deposed prince’s name. What do you think your sister decided after hearing rumors about the monster deposed prince?”

Yuan staggered past her uncle and got into bed.

As she curled up under the covers, her uncle poured out facts he had known alone, like a dam bursting.

“She immediately begged me to let her go instead. In fact, there was no need for that. I was originally planning to send your sister as ‘Yuan Peliesse’.”

“I’m sure you were.”

A bitter laugh escaped her.

The time she had vowed not to believe everything her uncle said shattered into sharp fragments and began to move like assembled puzzle pieces.

If it was Louise, she would absolutely.

Because she was more than capable of being that kind of sister.

“Of course. Hiding my useful existence. You were going to send my sister to Rocksenhart. A niece who only eats food. Since you didn’t even consider her family. You probably didn’t hesitate at all. It’s disgusting, but not surprising.”

Count Peliesse was about to retort against the voice treating him like trash, but since time was of the essence now, he focused on choosing words to break Yuan down.

“Do you think she only decided to go in your place? She must have thought she might be discovered. She must have thought she would die because she was terminally ill? She wanted to eliminate all the risk factors for you and then die, right?”