– Thud.

The blonde crown prince collapsed powerlessly to the floor.

He had just taken a big bite of the Sanguinaccio Dolce made from veal calf that Ariadne had handed him moments ago without suspicion.

It was the result of trusting her.

Ariadne nodded, handing over custody of Crown Prince Alfonso to the waiting soldiers.

Just like that, the kingdom’s ruler changed hands so anticlimactically.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness.”

Ariadne murmured softly. She knew it wasn’t the right thing to do. But she had someone she needed to protect.

Ariadne walked through the palace as if it were her own home and entered the king’s bedroom. No one stopped her as she roamed the palace.

He was in the king’s bedroom. The object of her blind love and worship, her perfect fiancé.

Cesare de Como.

The king’s illegitimate son. The king’s son who couldn’t become a prince. He cried out in an impatient voice.

“How did it go?!”

“…We’ve secured custody of Crown Prince Alfonso. He’s been handed over to the soldiers of Pisano.”

Hearing those words, the tense look on Cesare’s sculptured face disappeared, replaced by a bright smile.

It felt as if all the candles in the room had been lit at once, raising the brightness of the world and warming the temperature.

Yes. This was enough.

Cesare jumped down from his father’s throne where he had been perched and grasped Ariadne’s hands. Feeling his body heat, Ariadne shuddered as if his joy and affection were contagious.

“Well done. Once we take that bastard’s life, I’ll make you the noblest woman in the kingdom.”

“Cesare…”

“Father is on his last legs. It wouldn’t be strange if he passed away any day now.”

Now that the old king was bedridden and Prince Alfonso had fallen from grace, there was no one left who could stop Cesare de Como.

“This marks the beginning of our era.”

She had no interest in the new era. It was enough just to be by his side if it made him happy.

* * *

Cesare de Como, the Margrave of the Etruscan Kingdom and ‘cousin’ of Prince Alfonso, immediately raised troops from the border and occupied the royal palace when King Leo III fell ill. The pretext was that Prince Alfonso had attempted to poison Leo III.

No one believed those words, but no one dared to voice complaints in front of Cesare’s private army that filled the royal palace. Then, like lightning, Prince Alfonso’s corpse was hung on the walls of San Carlo Castle in the capital. According to Cesare’s side, he had been caught at the border while trying to defect to the enemy kingdom of Galico.

“Behold! Prince Alfonso was a vicious traitor who conspired with the enemy to poison His Majesty the King and ascend to the throne! I, Cesare de Como, no, Cesare de Carlo, have taken the position of regent to protect the Etruscan Kingdom and guard the king. The people should trust and follow me!”

* * *

Even after the coup succeeded and he became regent of the Etruscan Kingdom, Cesare spent nine years solidifying his position.

During that time, Cesare needed a woman to rule the palace by his side. Since King Leo III’s queen had passed away long ago, the highest-ranking woman in the kingdom was Cesare’s fiancée, Ariadne.

When Ariadne first entered the royal palace, her reputation in high society was terrible.

– “I heard she’s only twenty-two?”
– “They say she grew up on a farm. She has no refinement.”
– “I saw her at a party and she couldn’t even dress properly. That’s what happens when you grow up without class.”

Ariadne was the symbol of everything unjust. The woman of the king’s illegitimate son who had ousted the rightful prince. Herself the illegitimate daughter of a cardinal, a clergyman. She wasn’t yet officially married to Regent Cesare, and her own refinement was lacking.

She devoted herself entirely to Cesare, but even that was ridiculed as a woman with nothing to boast about desperately clinging to a man. Naturally, the mockery towards the regent only grew.

On a day when the disrespectful atmosphere reached its peak, an incident occurred at the regular tea party she hosted.

An elderly countess from an old family in the capital loudly gossiped about the secret of Cesare’s birth. This was a story well-known among the central court nobles, but not widely known among the provincial nobles who had settled in the borderlands.

“Is it true that Regent Cesare is not actually the prince’s cousin, but King Leo III’s illegitimate son?”

The central nobles had disliked Ariadne and Cesare from the beginning.

But loudly discussing Cesare’s story within earshot of Ariadne was going too far.

Her hand gripping the fan tightened.

“Is it true?”

“I’ve heard that story too.”

“An illegitimate child is the product of an unholy union not blessed by the gods…”

They had completely turned their backs on Ariadne’s seat at the head of the tea table. All Ariadne could see from her seat were the ladies’ backs. It was a formation centered around the countess, treating Ariadne like she was invisible.

Their attitude was shouting:

Even if we don’t like it, what can you do about it, you half-noble illegitimate daughter of a cardinal riding on the back of this unjust power?

“Surely that can’t be true. How could we serve someone like that as king if it were?”

“But I heard from a reliable source… His mother…”

Ariadne bit her lip. Cesare was the purpose of her life and the object of her worship. He was noble, strong, and enduring much pain. She could tolerate someone insulting her, but she couldn’t accept anyone slandering Cesare.

“A clean birth record should prove whether one is of royal blood or not. Regent Cesare is of impure origins, unfit to become king.”

At the end of the conversation, the countess who had started the story in the first place concluded as if she were a chief justice.

Her firm commentary echoed through Ariadne’s reception room.

– Snap!

Ariadne thought she heard the sound of her patience breaking.

At that moment, she leaped across the table like a beast and grabbed the countess’s hair.

“Take it back!”

Ariadne growled like an animal, shaking the countess by her hair.

“You know nothing! Without any evidence!”

There must have been a way to win against the seasoned noble ladies of the capital using their own methods. But the young Ariadne in her early twenties, who had grown up on a rural farm mixed with maids without proper education, didn’t know those methods.

But she had to do something. She couldn’t bear to see her beloved Cesare become the laughingstock of such pretentious trash.

“Take back what you said about Cesare with that loose tongue of yours!”

“Ahhh!”

The countess let out a terrific scream with her disheveled hair. Dessert trays and snacks flew through the air. The greenhouse flower-like noble ladies who had been gossiping together froze like ice, just staring at the scene.

Ariadne shook the countess’s hair with both hands and shouted.

“Just because you have a hole in your face doesn’t mean you can spew whatever you want! Retract it and apologize right now!”

“Uncouth! How uncouth!”

The shrieks of both parties pierced the ceiling, but otherwise an icy silence dominated the reception room.

This situation was unprecedented. The noble ladies didn’t even dare to try to stop the hair-pulling incident in the heart of the royal social circle.

At that moment, suddenly the heavy sound of men’s military boots echoed throughout the room.

– Thump thump!

The ceremonial guards entered the reception room with disciplined movements and came to a halt. Behind them, an exceptionally handsome man in ceremonial uniform entered leisurely and stopped.

Tall but slender in build, with languid movements that exuded a sensual feeling, a man so strikingly handsome that he would naturally draw all eyes even if mixed among ten thousand people – it was Cesare.

“Cesare!”

A smile spread across Ariadne’s face. It felt like an army of thousands had appeared.

‘He came to save me in this situation.’

The timing was perfect. For the flawless prince descended from heaven to scold the enemy on behalf of his fragile woman who had devoted herself to him. To bring down the hammer of justice on the wicked crowd who had disrespected him and her.

She let go of the countess’s hair that she had been gripping tightly and scurried up like a squirrel to stand behind Cesare.

“They…!”

“What is going on here?”

Cesare turned to look at Ariadne, brushing his reddish-brown hair back.

An impossibly gentle and languid voice. But…

His lips were very cold and there was no affection in his eyes. A slightly exasperated look.

“Ariadne. Tell me. What is this commotion about?”

“Well, they were saying about you…!”

“My goodness. Countess Marquez!”

Cesare made no attempt to hide his surprise as he quickly, and at the same time gently, extended his hand.

“Countess, please take my hand and stand up.”

Even the countess herself, whose hair had been grabbed, didn’t expect the regent to take her side. The countess didn’t miss the opportunity that had rolled in. She looked Ariadne up and down and then took Cesare’s outstretched hand a beat late.

“Unlike that woman, the regent’s etiquette was indeed learned at the royal court.”

After standing up, the countess immediately shook off Cesare’s hand and patted the part of her dress where Ariadne’s hand had touched. Then she looked straight at Ariadne and snorted loudly.

“Hmph!”

Other central nobles gathered around the countess, asking after her well-being.

“Countess Marquez, are you alright?”

“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”

“The regent’s fiancée really crossed the line!”

Ariadne wanted to retort right away, ‘Who crossed the line first?!’ but she bit her tongue that was about to lash out at Cesare’s annoyed, no, angry glare.

Sure enough, Cesare gritted his teeth and hissed at Ariadne in a low voice.

“What are you doing to a central noble?”

He tried his best to lower his voice, but he couldn’t hide all the irritation dancing with anger.

“Don’t you know I need a support base? How could you lay hands on someone from the Marquez family? Are you in your right mind?”

‘Just because you grovel to someone who treats me badly doesn’t mean they’ll become your friend, Cesare.’

Ariadne’s thoughts didn’t make it out of her mouth. She just bowed her head, intimidated by Cesare’s force. In truth, if she talked back, he would surely throw a fit.

Ariadne didn’t want to show the scene of fighting with Cesare, no, Cesare treating her poorly, in front of all the noble ladies of the capital. But he mercilessly trampled on her hopes.

“That one lady is far more helpful to me than someone like you.”

His low, gritted voice resonated through the noise in the reception room. These words were clearly heard by everyone in the room.