“No, Princess Lariessa!”

Count Levien threw himself over her dress, clutching her legs.

“You must never sign this!”

“Let go of this!”

Princess Lariessa kicked out roughly. Count Levien took a fullblown kick to his forehead, rolling on the floor.

Despite the painful groan of Count Levien, Lariessa, without batting an eyelid, vented her anger on him.

“Shut up Levien! Stop telling me what to do! What benefits have I gained from listening to you so far!”

Princess Lariessa gritted her teeth, recalling the advice Count Levien had given the day she first fought with Prince Alfonso in the corridor of Taranto Star Palace.

“Levien, what did I say! That day I said, ‘Maybe Prince Alfonso is cold to me because he has another woman,’ you said, given Prince Alfonso’s temperament, there was no way, and told me to focus on gaining the prince’s favor!”

Enraged by her past humiliation, Lariessa’s anger flared up.

“I listened to you and farted in front of Prince Alfonso like a fool! ‘Please meet me, please look at me, please walk with me, Prince Alfonso!’ How much…. how much….”

Lariessa began to sob.

“How ridiculous must I have looked……. how stupid……. and foolish…….”

Princess Lariessa was selfflagellating, starting from the wounds of her childhood when she had to live as an inferior being, hidden in the shadow of her sister, Suzanne.

The younger sister inferior to Suzanne, a slightly lacking but good child. The words and gazes thrown by the nanny and court ladies at her mother, ‘Suzanne is fast but Lariessa is a bit slow, it’s because she’s the second,’ were vividly replayed in her head.

Count Levien was lying on the floor, holding his head and groaning. It was unclear whether he was even listening to Princess Lariessa’s words.

Duke Mireille, with the kindest smile he could muster, handed a quill dipped in ink to Princess Lariessa, whose eyes were a mess from tears.

“Now, princess. It’s your chance to take revenge.”

Princess Lariessa signed her name on the contract handed out by Duke Mireille, her eyes tightly shut.

Duke Mireille chuckled heartily, blowing on the ink to dry it. He found the princess’s seal on the desk, melted some wax, poured it and handed it to her.

“This too.”

Having already signed, Lariessa went all in. She pressed her seal firmly on the ‘contract’ offered by Duke Mireille. The Duke, a grin spreading across his face, rolled up the contract with Lariessa’s signature and tucked it into his bosom.

“A promise is a promise. To remove a horn, strike while it is young, how about today while that wench is in the palace?”

Lariessa bit her trembling lips and said,

“The sooner, the better.”

“Good. You’re straightforward, miss.”

“Keep your promise.”

“Say no more. Within three hours, I’ll deliver a message to the princess.”

Duke Mireille left Princess Lariessa and the rolling Count Levien in her quarters, leisurely departing. He already had a plan in mind on how to handle this.

“Duke, did your talk go well?”

His confidant followed Duke Mireille as he emerged from the princess’s quarters.

“It went very well.”

“What’s your plan now? Now that you have Princess Lariessa’s weakness, wouldn’t it be prudent to retreat……?”

“No. There needs to be actual trouble for the second daughter of Cardinal de Mare for this to be a real scandal for Princess Lariessa.”

Duke Mireille chuckled ominously, licking his lips.

“Why, haven’t we done such things from time to time at Duke Mireille’s place? We’ll do the same for this. Get a royal carriage. Along with a coachman’s uniform.”

The confidant asked Duke Mireille as if it were a familiar task,

“Who will you send as the executor?”

“I’m a gentleman. I have to keep a promise made to a lady. I will do it myself.”

The confidant seemed a bit tense. He cautiously tried to dissuade Duke Mireille.

“Your Highness… What we were doing originally was very basic… it was kind of a game. Here is the palace of a foreign kingdom, and the opponent is too great to rush into recklessly. If we make even a slight mistake, there will be serious repercussions.”

Ariadne was not only the daughter of Cardinal de Mare, but she was also the flower of San Carlo’s social circle, and her piety was so high that she was once known as a saint. Moreover, if she caused trouble within Palazzo Carlo, it would escalate into a diplomatic problem.

However, Duke Mireiyu was annoyed by the prudence of his subordinate.

“Just don’t get caught! How much can a little girl rebel that you’re all so nervous! Are you going to accomplish anything big with that attitude?”

He added a malicious smile to the flinching subordinate who was shrinking his head in fear.

“And, a woman who suffers like this cannot open her mouth.”

“Eh? Weren’t we supposed to attack with a knife?”

“Tsk, tsk. You are so naive. Read the contract carefully. I said ‘kill or harm,’ but I didn’t specify how to harm.”

“……!”

“Isn’t it just to lower the product value in the marriage market? The method is up to me. Isn’t that right?”