Even long after Duke Amaterasu departed for the imperial capital, Lindsey stayed closely by Trinity’s side, unwilling to leave her.

Lindsey’s behavior was understandable.

She nearly died today, and not long ago, she had wrapped a silk cloth around her neck to try to summon Cabelased.

In fact, the reason Jieselgrante had caused such an extreme commotion was indeed to summon Cabelased.

She seemed to believe that this was necessary to protect the Amaterasu Duchy in the coming storm.

Currently, the Amaterasu Duchy supported Cabelased as the next emperor.

This was because he also had the right to succeed the throne.

Of course, he was several ranks behind Trinity, who was first in line, and Prince Joshua, who was second.

Nevertheless, the main reason why several influential families besides the Amaterasu Duchy supported someone outside the imperial family was due to Trinity’s father, the current Emperor of the Pises Empire.

He was a tyrant.

Trinity, who had experienced him up close, could also agree with this.

The reason she had invested time early on to prepare to become emperor was also due to the emperor’s tyrannical rule.

However, in the future Jieselgrante saw, Cabelased condemned the Amaterasu Duchy.

It was never Jieselgrante’s own will, but because she was Joshua’s partner.

For the Duke of Amaterasu, it was no different from having his daughter held hostage by the imperial family, but Cabelased saw it as a betrayal.

He showed no mercy even to Mikhail, the young Duke of Amaterasu, with whom he had maintained a long friendship.

He was that ruthless of a man.

So Jieselgrante made the extreme choice to summon Cabelased to the Amaterasu Duchy.

Of course, he too would have sought out the Amaterasu Duchy after much calculation.

Now that Jieselgrante was not engaged to Prince Joshua, the alliance between the Amaterasu Duchy and Cabelased still stood.

So it wouldn’t have been too difficult for him to come visit Jieselgrante, who had made an extreme choice because of him, to save face for the Duke of Amaterasu, who had a daughter.

“You must have been pleased to meet and talk with Duke Kardia in person after a long time,” Lindsey said with a bright smile as she gently rubbed Trinity’s shoulders with a sponge full of foam.

“Indeed.” She smiled faintly and lowered her gaze, fiddling with a dried rose petal floating on top of the bathtub.

“But what did you talk about? He stayed for quite a while instead of leaving right away.”

Lindsey made quite a fuss, and naturally, her conversation alone with Cabelased came to mind.

‘I wonder if the proposal he made to me then is still valid.’

Asking if it was still valid meant that she was willing to accept Jieselgrante’s proposal.

‘Is it really a good option to join hands with Duke Kardia as Jieselgrante wishes?’

Trinity’s brow furrowed slightly as she became engrossed in thought.

Lindsey then hurriedly poured out her words.

“Ah, I see. It seems I asked too presumptuous a question…”

“…?”

Before she could answer, Lindsey quickly changed the subject.

“Then Prince Joshua will become the next emperor now, right?”

But unfortunately, the name of her half-brother Joshua, which Lindsey brought up, made her feel even more uncomfortable.

It reminded her of her own death again.

‘To think that I died at the hands of Baroness Oppenheimer…’

Baroness Oppenheimer was one of the maids who was strong-willed and stubborn.

If one were to plan the assassination of a princess, it would have been a little easier to use other maids besides her…

Jieselgrante’s brow narrowed distinctly. Seeing her reaction, Lindsey pressed her lips tightly and focused on her task.

“Young Lady, could you lift your arm slightly?”

Trinity deliberately tried to appear bright before entering the bedroom.

Otherwise, it seemed Lindsey would not leave her side easily.

“Good night, Lindsey. Sweet dreams,” she mumbled sleepily, rubbing her drowsy eyes as she lay in bed.

That way, Lindsey could also leave the bedroom with peace of mind.

“Sweet dreams to you too, Young Lady.”

Fortunately, Lindsey left the bedroom without much suspicion.

After lying still with her eyes closed for a while after Lindsey left the bedroom, she soon sat up.

And she carefully closed the curtains. So that the light inside the bedroom would not leak out.

With a small light lit on the table, she took out Jieselgrante’s diary.

And she slowly reread the parts she had skimmed over.

“Princess Trinity, who was killed by maid Baroness Oppenheimer before the coronation ceremony… It’s exactly the same as reality.”

The same situation as today. She thought that the contents written in the diary might not be just Jieselgrante’s excessive delusions.

It made sense that way.

If it wasn’t that Jieselgrante had the ability to see the future, the contents of the diary could not be explained.

“But is this really… possible?”

Even assuming that Jieselgrante had been deliberately pretending to be stupid all this time.

Trinity slammed the diary shut.

Soon a long sigh burst from her lips.

“Haa…”

According to the diary, she had nowhere to return to now. Because she, Princess Trinity, had really died.

After ruminating on her own death for a moment, she switched her thoughts.

‘No, maybe it’s for the better.’

The idiot of the Amaterasu Duchy.

Jieselgrante, who had a high enough status to aim for the position of the next empress, but was evaluated as never being able to rise to a high position due to her lack of ability.

People just enjoyed gossiping about her stupid brain behind her back and feeling a subtle sense of superiority.

In this situation, who would immediately suspect and be wary of Jieselgrante’s moves?

Trinity quickly accepted the reality.

From now on, she would live as Jieselgrante, the Young Lady of the Amaterasu Duchy.

And she decided to uncover the identities of those who had turned her painstaking efforts to become emperor into nothing, and kill them by draining their blood.

Jieselgrante hurried to prepare to go out as soon as the sun rose the next day.

It was to attend the upcoming memorial service for her past self, Princess Trinity.

As she was about to board the carriage with the escort of the guard knight to depart, Lindsey asked with a worried expression.

“Young Lady, will you really be alright?”

Jieselgrante glanced at the guard knight and put her foot, which had been placed on the carriage step, back on the ground.

And she turned her body towards Lindsey.

“What are you worried about?”

“Of course, in my eyes, Young Lady is only elegant and cool. But still…”

Lindsey sighed softly after starting to speak and stopping.

Since being greatly ridiculed in high society, Jieselgrante had not shown herself in the capital’s social circles for some time, using the excuse that it was difficult for her to mingle with the nobility.

“Are you worried that I will be laughed at again?”

“Ah, no. That’s not it…”

Lindsey shook her head with surprised eyes.

This made it a little more certain. That Jieselgrante had quite a meticulous personality.

The fact that even Lindsey, who attended to her most closely, was unaware of her inner self demonstrated her thorough personality.

“If they want to laugh, let them laugh.”

Jieselgrante’s red lips curved confidently.

“…Pardon?”

Lindsey blinked with slightly parted lips.

“I mean, that’s the attitude I have.”

“Ah… I see.”

Lindsey’s eyes darted around. She didn’t seem to understand her meaning well.

Perhaps she thought the stupid young lady was imitating something cool she had overheard somewhere.

“Thank you for worrying about me, Lindsey.”

Jieselgrante said that and reached out towards the guard knight.

Taking the guard knight’s hand, she soon elegantly boarded the carriage.

“…?”

Lindsey, who was quietly watching, parted her lips slightly.

The side profile of Young Lady Jieselgrante sitting with her back straight and chin slightly raised, looking straight ahead, reminded her of the late Duchess of Amaterasu.

The Duchess of Amaterasu was a role model even within the capital’s high society.

She was a master who was benevolent to her employees but never soft.

Everyone lamented her early passing.

If the Duchess of Amaterasu had been alive, the Young Lady of the Amaterasu Duchy would have also grown up bright and intelligent like her.

While Lindsey was briefly thinking of the late Duchess of Amaterasu, whom she missed, Jieselgrante’s soft voice rang out.

“Let’s depart.”

Only then did Lindsey hurriedly board the luggage carriage.

Soon the carriage smoothly left the grand and vast mansion.

Jieselgrante looked at the receding Amaterasu Duchy and thought,

‘It would be better to gradually change my reputation, right?’

It wouldn’t be easy to change hardened perceptions.

But easy or not, in the end, people’s evaluation of Jieselgrante had to be different from now.

Even if she uncovered the mastermind behind Princess Trinity’s assassination and presented the culprit and evidence, if the person who revealed the case was the current Jieselgrante, it wouldn’t be very credible.

In the Pises Empire, there was a saying that when a person suddenly changes, it means they are about to die.

It meant that a person’s innate temperament does not change, showing how difficult it was to change preconceptions once they took root in one’s mind.

Especially for the worse.

Wasn’t her reputation as a princess like that too?

When she was passionately studying the art of being a ruler day and night, the nickname that followed her was the bookworm of the palace.

And when she devoted herself to swordsmanship and archery, the reputation that her conduct was unwomanly stuck to her.

As if any noble would want to marry her when she was so headstrong.

Belatedly realizing that those were all due to the empress’s checks, she changed her method.

She decided to act like a ruffian.

As a result, Trinity’s reputation fell to a point where it couldn’t get any worse.

But there were also clear advantages to that.

When she showed herself attending parties and balls and playing extravagantly, the empress’s vigilance loosened.

Of course, it also became an opportunity for the emperor’s attention to completely shift from her to the First Prince Joshua.

Taking advantage of the empress’s loosened surveillance, Trinity persuaded influential nobles.

She told them that if she, Trinity, who had no interest in ruling, ascended to the throne, they could use her like a puppet.

The nobles welcomed this and willingly lent her their strength.

Saying that the next emperor should be Princess Trinity as planned.

‘I was just waiting for the coronation ceremony, using the opportunity I had gained that way…’