“As an Imperial Princess, do you plan to stay by my side…… in the Imperial Palace from now on?”

“Perhaps that’s how it will be?”

“I see.”

At her answer, Emperor Ferus’s expression softened a bit. His deeply furrowed brow relaxed, even when he had said the meeting was a success.

‘His reaction is a bit strange?’

Litania’s eyes narrowed.

Previously, Ferus, who had been as sensitive as a needle tip, was comfortably sighing like someone who had a sore tooth pulled out and leaning back against the backrest.

“Your Majesty. There is one thing I would like to ask.”

“What is it?”

Just like the King of Sermo, in Rumor and Dipamo, there was a strong air of looking down on the new Emperor of Veriverium. It must be because his position was not yet solid.

The Emperor’s age was twenty-six. Even for a noble coming-of-age ceremony, it would not be strange to get married at that age, but it was certainly unusual that he did not even have a fiancée.

Marriage was the most powerful means to solidify power. Wasn’t it ultimately for the previous Emperor to utilize the power and status of the Divine Dragon that Litania had married Orbis?

“When will you get married?”

“What……?”

Come to think of it, it was strange that I, the third prince after the Crown Prince, got married first.

For the sake of Veriverium, the national marriage should have been held as soon as possible. Ferus must have known this, having been educated and raised since he was the Crown Prince.

“…… Your status is that of an Imperial Princess. Have you forgotten that you are recorded as my younger sister?”

“I think as a younger sister, it’s something I can sufficiently ask.”

“Speak sensibly! How could I possibly with you……!”

For a moment, Ferus, who was about to shout with a reddened face, shut his mouth tight.

“Pardon?”

“…….”

His reddened face turned pale in an instant, and he suddenly started spewing words at a fast pace.

“I’ve just been putting it off because I’m busy taking care of state affairs, but marriage proposals have been continuously coming in. It’s a matter that needs to be carefully decided, so opinions are being gathered.”

“Your Majesty. What you were about to say just now…….”

“It seems the conversations got mixed up because I haven’t been able to sleep properly for the past few days. You’ve worked hard going as an envoy, Litania. You may go back now.”

“You couldn’t have possibly misunderstood that I was asking when you would marry me…….”

“There are many things to take care of. How long are you going to keep taking up my time?”

Ferus abruptly stood up and glared at Litania with a frowning face. A tense expression with a lot of force. His tightly closed lips, tense with nerves, were trembling slightly.

‘Could it be that when he said he didn’t think of me as a younger sister…….’

Persistently asking what kind of relationship she had with Orbis, and promising to have her divorced once he became Emperor, was not simply because he disliked Orbis.

‘But why?’

Why would Ferus have feelings for her? The two of them had no meaningful interactions.

‘Our first impression was a disaster.’

From the beginning, he seemed to dislike Litania. Just like Herna.

‘……Just like Herna?’

The moment suspicion turned into certainty, chills ran down her spine.

“Your Majesty.”

“You may leave now.”

“Do you remember the past?”

“……!”

At Litania’s question, Ferus’s gray eyes shook greatly.

In that moment, she realized. It wasn’t just Herna who remembered the past before Orbis turned it back.

Ferus also remembers the past. Though it’s uncertain to what extent.

“So you know as well.”

“The memories left to me are only very fragmented.”

Most of them were torn out and scattered by Orbis before she died. If anything, Herna, who swallowed them, would have more specific memories of the past.

It must have been a painful memory, so she had no desire to retrieve it. Ferus must have also suffered a terrible fate at the hands of Orbis, so he wouldn’t want to recall it.

“…… Do you still resent me?”

“Pardon?”

“I was the one who first sent you to that monster.”

The gray eyes darkened. A sticky, indelible guilt seeped from his grim face.

〈Although he is called a dragon, I heard he usually takes the form of a human man. Then wouldn’t it suffice to just send a woman?〉

In the earliest memory, it was Ferus who said those words in front of his father and the ministers.

He thought he had come up with a very clear solution.

Until he faced the pink-eyed girl dragged in by the search party.

〈Please help me…….〉

The completely disheveled brown hair, the pleading voice looking up at him with tearful eyes asking for salvation, would not be forgotten even in dreams.

A younger sister whose existence he didn’t even know. A lowly status that he didn’t even want to consider as the same blood.

But when he heard that the child he had turned away and sent off had finally been killed by the dragon’s hands, Ferus felt deep regret for the first time.

“It was my mistake.”

“…….”

“I wanted to make it right.”

Even in the lives he thought were dreams, whenever he saw Litania looking at him, he felt a strange feeling as if his heart was being pierced. It was a feeling of inescapable guilt choking his neck.

Everything is because of that savage monster. Even if he repeated to himself that it wasn’t his fault, whenever his eyes met Litania’s, the earnest expression of the disheveled girl looking at him resentfully would come to mind and become unbearable.

It was a past that no one remembered. If he just forgot about it, he could make it as if it never happened from the beginning.

However.

〈Elder brother. I remember the ‘past’.〉

At Herna’s mockingly delivered words, Ferus felt like the ground beneath his feet was collapsing. Herna’s goal was not Ferus but Litania’s downfall, but to him, those two things didn’t feel different.

‘The child I drove to death with my own hands, once again.’

He was a person with strong pride. Repeating the same mistake was an insult to himself. So in order to save Litania, he decided to forcibly divorce her.

To keep Litania alive, and to prevent Herna from laying hands on her any longer.

To make up for his mistake, and to no longer be tormented by the terrible memories.

But despite that, Litania disappeared. So he searched for her like a madman.

His younger brothers and ministers criticized Ferus for that. He himself became unable to discern what was right.

It was when he was exhausted and about to give up on everything that Litania appeared before his eyes again.

That night, for the first time, he was able to fall asleep without having nightmares.

“Litania. Do you resent me?”

Ferus’s face looking down at Litania was like someone awaiting a death sentence.

Pity and sympathy, guilt, shame and anger at his own mistake, pain from the wound, the unforgettable terrible final moment.

A desperate expression as if wanting to put an end to everything that had been tormenting him.

“I don’t resent you.”

“…….”

“But that doesn’t mean I forgive you, Your Majesty.”

Litania didn’t like keeping negative emotions inside. She was already too exhausted to look back on regrets and lingering attachments.

She wanted to live in the present. She wanted to hope for a future that could be changed, not a past that couldn’t be fixed.

That was the only truth she believed in, having broken through repeated despair to survive.

“I, to you…….”

Ferus’s words scattered like a sigh. Like a person with a parched throat, he couldn’t continue his words and closed his eyes tightly.

“You may leave now.”

Perhaps because Ferus had arranged the palace while Litania was visiting neighboring countries as an envoy, the Glass Palace she had used before became available for use again.

‘It’s a bit unpleasant being right next to Herna’s Rose Palace, but……’

Litania had already divorced Orbis, and Herna was still under house arrest. So they wouldn’t run into each other for the time being.

With mixed feelings, Litania headed to the Glass Palace, guided by the head court lady.

And there, she encountered a welcome face.

“Snow!”

“Lady Litania!”

A small boy with a face as white as snow discovered Litania and came running over.

“Snow. How are you here?”

“As soon as I heard the news that you had returned, I rushed over.”

“Ah.”

No wonder only Snow was nowhere to be seen when she went to the Dragon Castle. She couldn’t bring herself to ask, feeling like she would be acting as the mistress of the house.

When she was heading to the Dragon Castle, Snow was leaving the Dragon Castle and heading to the Imperial Palace, so they must have missed each other.

“Did Orbis send you?”

“It’s not by the Master’s order. I came here because I wanted to serve you, Lady Litania.”

Normally, he would have immediately jumped into Litania’s arms, but Snow fidgeted two steps away from her.

“Will you…… allow me to serve you again?”

The boy seemed unable to approach her due to the wrongdoing of deceiving her. That sight made her heart ache for no reason.

“Snow. You’re the one who protected me until the end. How could I push you away?”

“Lady Litania…….”

As Snow looked up with a tearful face, Litania approached him first and embraced Snow. Her small first friend was still as soft as a rabbit.

As the neighboring countries withdrew their border garrison troops, the people living in the border areas were finally able to escape the threat of war.

Although the capital’s winter was fierce, thanks to the distribution of wool and firewood obtained by selling the jewels and silk Litania brought back, they were able to spend a milder winter than usual.

“As soon as Princess Litania returned, life became better.”

“I heard it was also Princess Litania who eliminated the border conflicts?”

“She brings down rain during droughts, there’s nothing she can’t do.”

Unlike the nobles, Litania’s background was not a flaw to the commoners, so her popularity soared day by day.

Thanks to that, even the fact that Emperor Ferus had desperately tried to find Litania was beautified, with a plausible backstory attached that he had searched for her so anxiously because she was a person the country needed.

‘It’s good that they see it positively, but…… why is the embarrassment my share?’

Litania had no way to control the rumors, and since it was helpful to both her and the Imperial Family for once, there was no need to stop the words that made sense, so she decided to endure the embarrassment for a while in the Glass Palace.