About 2 weeks had passed since then.

It had been quite some time since the imperial family sent out invitations, and nobles from prominent families had all arrived in the capital.

Many were eager to make a good impression on Admund, rushing due to the tight wedding schedule.

Perhaps because of this, the Crown Prince’s palace was recently filled with congratulatory gifts sent by the nobles.

The quantity was so great that the storage rooms were full, and separate spaces had to be found to store them.

“These letters are all so touching.”

“You don’t have to read them if you don’t want to. None of them contain any sincerity anyway.”

While Admund was checking the list of received gifts, Clea was reading the letters addressed to her.

Clea’s expression remained calm as she read through the letters.

The contents were all exactly as she had expected.

They were sorry for what happened before, they had misunderstood, Aria was the bad person and not her, and so on.

Everything was written just as she had anticipated.

Admund, suddenly curious, quietly came to Clea’s side to look at the letters.

“Some of them used to cling to Aria.”

These letters provided a clear picture of how the atmosphere had shifted.

Aria’s supporters had begun to turn away from her. Even those who had been willing to do anything to support Aria.

‘I wonder what expression you’d make if you read these letters.’

Clea was curious.

Aria had been hiding her true nature since their academy days.

Would she remain calm after reading these letters?

Knowing Aria’s personality well, Clea could confidently say no.

This was the woman who had not only cursed her but also wielded a knife against her.

It was obvious she would be furious, demanding to know what was going on.

Meanwhile, as Admund skimmed through the letters, he frowned and said,

“These people who switch sides so easily are truly disgusting.”

“But they’re just trying to save their own lives, what can we do?”

Clea also agreed with Admund’s words.

It was unpleasant to see how those who had acted as if they would give Aria their hearts and livers suddenly changed their attitude when the tide turned.

Moreover, their actions had been a case of many people ganging up to bully one person.

“It’s more offensive that they try to dismiss the pain you felt with just a few lines.”

Clea set down the letter she was holding.

Admund then asked her, as if he had been waiting for this moment.

“How about we return the favor to them? The exact pain you felt.”

Clea thought his words sounded like a joke at first.

Among those who sent letters, there were quite a few who, while not directly participating in bullying Clea, had condoned it through their inaction.

And there were also families with long histories, though not as prestigious as the Hershers.

His proposal to inflict pain on all of them seemed unrealistic.

But thinking about it, was it really unrealistic?

Clea looked at Admund instead of the pile of letters.

There was a smile on his lips, but his eyes weren’t smiling at all.

It seemed like he would grant her wish immediately if she said yes here.

“Do you want to become a tyrant?”

“If that’s what you want.”

“Then not now.”

“Didn’t you want it before?”

She remembered too. That she had once said such things.

But Clea shook her head.

“It’s different if you become a tyrant because you want to, versus because of me.”

Imagining him with blood on his hands because of her made her feel uneasy.

When she had said those things to him back then, she didn’t mean for him to do it for her sake.

“I wanted to say that if the burden becomes too heavy, you don’t need to obsess over being a good ruler.”

He was human too.

How could he always be perfect like a well-programmed machine?

But given his position, people naturally expected perfection from him.

While others might hope to live in the palace for even a day, from a modern perspective, Clea sometimes felt that Admund was trapped in the palace.

“You’re the first and last person to say such things to me.”

Admund thought about Clea’s words.

He wondered if anyone had ever said something like that to him in his life.

But not even once.

As Clea thought, if she wished it, he was truly willing to become a tyrant.

He would thoroughly reject those who hurt her, and return fitting pain to those who crossed the line.

An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth – that was his intention.

So he waited for just one word.

That she wished for revenge.

But Clea said neither that she wanted revenge, nor that she wanted him to become a tyrant for her sake.

“Let’s focus on our wedding for now. We need to be happy too.”

Revenge was one thing, but their own happiness was also something to pursue.

Clea didn’t want to miss the happiness right in front of her because of revenge.

Her wedding with Admund.

She couldn’t afford to miss the sights of the person beside her at such an important moment, distracted by unnecessary things.

“Then tell me anytime. If you change your mind.”

“I will.”

Admund continued his work next to Clea. He was checking the gifts sent by each family.

“May I take a look too?”

“Feel free.”

“Then I’ll just take a quick look.”

Clea became curious.

While there were many items addressed to Clea, she wondered what kind of items other families had sent to Admund.

Suddenly, a particular family and item caught her attention.

‘Why is this written here?’

Clea was puzzled. An item that shouldn’t be on the gift list was recorded there.

She looked at Admund.

“Why? Is there something you want?”

“…No, I want to return it.”

Seeing his calm reaction, Clea became a bit more certain.

Admund didn’t know much about this item listed here.

The family that caught Clea’s eye was none other than the Percy Grand Ducal family.

She had been wondering how Lloyd was doing, and his family’s name stood out.

And the gift sent by the Grand Ducal family was Lysander’s ring.

Lysander’s ring.

It made sense that Admund wouldn’t know what this ring was.

‘Because even the Grand Ducal family had lost it for quite a long time before finding it again.’

That ring was the family heirloom that Clea had previously helped find.

At the time, the Grand Duke hadn’t informed Lloyd about finding the ring.

Since it was a ring with special meaning, he believed that if Lloyd found out, he would surely do anything to obtain it.

The ring had been a kind of token that the successive Grand Dukes had only passed down to their heirs since ancient times.

But during the previous generation, there was a dispute over succession rights between the eldest and second son.

Although the eldest son was clearly designated as the rightful heir, the previous Grand Duke simply watched the succession battle unfold.

He thought that whoever won the fight would lead the family better.

After a long struggle, the heir, the eldest son, lost the fight.

Defeated and stripped of his succession rights, he hid the ring, the token, so that people would never find it, refusing to give it to his younger brother.

After that, despite efforts to find the ring, it was never found, and its existence gradually faded from memory.

Only the current Grand Duke, who inherited this unfinished task from the previous generation, felt at a loss.

In the original story, Lloyd had found the ring by chance.

Clea didn’t want to give Lloyd the opportunity to find the ring as in the original story.

So Clea, remembering where Lloyd had found the ring, found it herself and returned it to the Grand Duke.

When she returned it, the Grand Duke was overjoyed and said he would reveal the ring’s existence and present it along with announcing Lloyd as his heir.

But he soon changed his mind.

He decided to keep the fact that the ring had been found a secret until the day Lloyd inherited the Grand Duke title.

He was concerned that Lloyd might become complacent, relying solely on his bloodline and the ring.

‘The fact that such an item has now been gifted to Admund means…’

As various intentions crossed her mind, Clea stood up.

Admund’s gaze fell on her. It was a silent question asking where she was going.

“I’m going to meet Rupia.”

Clea answered his unspoken question.

There was no lie. At this moment, she was indeed going to meet Rupia.

To this, Admund said with a smile,

“You must have a lot to prepare too, so go ahead.”

As soon as Admund finished speaking, she left the office.

Watching Clea leave, Admund briefly looked at the list she had been examining and let out a sigh.

“As expected, you noticed right away.”

In fact, Admund knew what she had seen and why she reacted that way.

It was easy to understand if one considered the origin of Lysander’s ring.

It was the very ring that the founding emperor had given to the Percy family for their great contributions in establishing the empire.

Even now, it was common for founding contributor families to pass down items bestowed by the first emperor to their heirs.

In that sense, it was easy to guess how the Grand Ducal family might have used this ring.

“I want you to have everything, Clea.”

He turned towards a ring case placed on one side of his desk.

Opening the case, there was a ring with an ice-blue jewel and the seal of the Grand Ducal family engraved on it.

Admund wanted to give everything to the person who had become most precious to him.

While people might think giving her the position of Empress was more than enough, for him, that alone was not sufficient.

‘You will have both the Percy family and the Odoi family.’

It might seem like he had taken everything from Lloyd, but Admund’s thoughts were different.

None of it had originally belonged to Lloyd.

Rather than seeing Lloyd wear clothes that didn’t suit him, he’d prefer to see Clea inherit the Grand Duke title.

Moreover, he thought Clea was fully qualified to inherit the Odoi family, given that her bloodline was originally Odoi.

His goal was to pass down these families to their children afterwards.

One child to inherit the imperial throne, one to inherit the Grand Duke title, and finally one to inherit the Odoi Ducal family.

Of course, anything related to children would have to be agreed upon with her.

‘How will you react?’

On the other hand, Admund was curious. He wondered how Clea would react to the titles she would receive in the future.

Whether she would like it or not was entirely up to her.

That’s why he let her go without asking.

He wanted to give her time to find out for herself by going to the Grand Ducal family.