“I’m sorry, but this man is mine.”

For a moment, Admund felt his heart sink at Clea’s answer.

They had already kissed several times, and even done more than that.

But now, his face was flushed just from a kiss.

He wanted to look at her, but his eyes wandered, finding it difficult to meet her gaze.

‘I’m really showing an uncharacteristic side of myself.’

Clea found Admund’s behavior adorable.

She had thought that, true to his cold impression, he wouldn’t feel embarrassed by any of his actions.

“By what right are you standing beside Admund!”

“If you love someone, you can stand beside them.”

“You already have a fiancé to begin with!”

“Oh my, haven’t you heard the news? My relationship with him ended long ago.”

It had come to an end.

From the moment the head of the family, Grit, had declared for her to leave the house, Clea was as good as excommunicated.

There was no reason for her relationship with Lloyd to continue once she was free from the family’s constraints.

She had become completely free and could proudly say the relationship was over.

“I haven’t heard anything about this!”

But Aria refused to accept it.

She openly showed an attitude of complete rejection towards the current situation.

With a face full of discontent, she started questioning Clea instead of Admund.

As if she couldn’t accept the relationship between her and Admund.

“Well, now you’ve heard it.”

But Clea didn’t care whether Aria made such expressions or not.

Even if she went back and spread this news, trying to deceive others.

For Clea, who was facing death, this was no different from any other day, and she had no intention of giving up her relationship with Admund just because of a little more criticism.

Rather, the female lead might face trials, but she had no intention of leaving him just because of some criticism.

‘Unless you choose to leave first.’

Looking at him still quietly caught by her collar, she felt the urge to pat his head.

However, Aria still seemed unable to accept it and approached Clea.

Clea didn’t avoid the gaze of Aria, who was aggressively approaching her.

“What did you say?”

“Logically speaking, what business is it of yours if we like each other?”

“Admund and I are close friends!”

“Is that so?”

She snorted at the mention of being close friends.

Clea found it absurd that she was talking about marriage and such while being merely close friends.

“But what can we do? I’ve already taken him.”

It was a statement made to provoke Aria further. It seemed to work as her face turned unusually red.

With a displeased expression, she looked like she might pounce on Clea at any moment.

Then Admund called out to Aria.

“Aria.”

“Admund, tell me it’s not true. This doesn’t make any sense, right? Right? You were supposed to marry me!”

“That’s enough.”

“A-Admund?”

Clea, who had been quietly watching the scene, now furrowed her brow.

Admund seemed completely unaware of anything related to the claim about getting married.

Even if Admund had really planned to do so, Clea wouldn’t have cared.

On the other hand, the more Admund heard Aria’s words, the more his insides burned.

Thanks to someone briefly cooling him down, his anger had subsided a bit, but it hadn’t completely cooled off.

“When did I ever say I would marry you?”

“If not me, then who are you going to marry?”

“That’s not for you to decide, Aria.”

In the past, he wouldn’t have said anything else when she came to him.

He too knew that Aria Hersher was the best choice.

But now it was different.

No matter how much Admund could gain from marrying Aria, he no longer cared.

What he truly wanted was right in front of him. It was someone who wouldn’t be swayed even if offered the entire empire.

“You’ll regret your choice today.”

Tears began to flow from Aria’s eyes.

If it were others, they would have already caused a commotion at the sight of Aria shedding tears, but unfortunately, there was no one here to take her side.

She glared at Clea once more.

Clea, slightly taller than her, looked down at Aria with a smile.

Seeing that smile, Aria bit her lip and roughly opened the door, stepping outside.

“She’s such a child.”

“She was raised very preciously.”

“But that’s no reason to overthrow the Crown Prince’s palace.”

Admund sighed as he looked at the place where Aria had left.

She had always been willful.

She was the type to think that if she liked something, others would like it too, without asking for their opinion.

What would he have done here normally?

Admund tried to predict his usual way of handling things.

‘I would have immediately contacted the Hersher family. Asking what kind of rudeness this was.’

Even if they were loyal to the imperial family, they were still subjects.

A duke’s family? Certainly, it was a family that could exert considerable influence in the empire, but this was a one-sided rudeness.

Especially from a family aligned with the imperial faction, it was absolutely unacceptable rudeness.

However, Admund didn’t feel as bad as he expected.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m more worried about your feelings than mine.”

“Me? I rather feel good since I said everything I wanted to say.”

For her, who had wanted to give Aria a taste of her own medicine at least once, she actually felt good.

Although she felt a bit upset by the harsh words Aria had spat out in the middle.

Still, the fact that she had given Aria a good comeuppance remained unchanged.

However, she was concerned about the man in front of her.

“I’m more worried about you.”

Admund met Clea’s gaze.

Meeting her eyes, Admund wasn’t angry.

Rather, he too felt better, just like Clea.

“Are you worried about what she might do to me?”

“Of course.”

“Don’t worry about it. They can’t do anything to me anyway.”

Admund liked those blue eyes.

Those eyes that worried about him purely, without any other calculations or interests mixed in.

“More than that, you were bold. I was honestly surprised. I didn’t think you would say such things in front of others.”

“It’s not wrong to call my man my man, is it?”

“That’s true, but.”

“Even if Admund had been engaged to Aria from the start, I wouldn’t have cared.”

She said this still smiling, so it might have felt like a joke, but Admund thought.

That Clea wasn’t joking right now.

“I’ll try to finish work a little earlier today.”

“Won’t you be tired if you finish early?”

“I’m not that weak.”

“Alright, then I’ll look forward to it.”

With those final words, Clea kissed Admund’s cheek and went outside.

Admund silently watched her leave, taking in the sight until the end.

He felt completely different emotions from when Aria had left earlier.

‘It’s a shame. I wish we could have talked a little longer.’

He was the Crown Prince, and there were mountains of work to be done.

Admund sighed briefly, sat back down in his seat, and began examining documents.

But Clea’s words kept coming to mind, making it difficult to concentrate.

He smiled as her words calling him ‘my man’ echoed in his ears.

Meanwhile, outside the door, Oberon was pondering.

Whether he should belatedly reveal that Aria wasn’t the only person who had visited this place initially.

* * *

“Clea, I missed you.”

Not long after leaving Admund’s office, Clea had to face another unpleasant person.

Unlike when dealing with Aria, Clea openly frowned.

“Clea, wait.”

She tried to ignore him and walk to her room, but the other person, as if not allowing it, called Clea’s name.

Feeling disgusted from just his voice, Clea turned to face him.

“It seems there’s nothing left between us anymore.”

“Clea, how long are you going to be like this? Stop this now and come back home.”

As if not even thinking about the words he had spat at her recently, Lloyd appeared before her with a consistently confident attitude.

While Clea felt more irritated by this, she also found it strange how this person had entered the imperial palace.

‘Can anyone enter and leave the Crown Prince’s palace? Why do these people appear as if entering their own homes?’

She inwardly grumbled, but thinking that the other person was a duke’s son made her laugh.

Deeply worried about the future of the empire, she raised her head as Lloyd took a step forward.

“I was wrong, so now leave the Crown Prince’s palace.”

“What did you do wrong?”

Clea had no intention of conversing with him.

In the first place, conversation is something that happens when the other person is someone you can communicate with.

However, the person in front of her was just listing his demands and ordering her to follow them.

She was so dumbfounded that she asked him.

Did he know he was wrong and was spouting such words?

So she demanded that he spit out exactly what wrongs he had committed. Lloyd frowned.

“Are you really going to be like this?!”

‘See, when things don’t go his way, he immediately starts shouting.’

This was one of the reasons why Clea was sick of Lloyd.

Had he ever shown her a considerate side even once?

Since her possession, she had never seen such a side of him.

If he knew even a little that he had done wrong and was reflecting, Lloyd shouldn’t have spoken to her like this.

Her expression cooled as she realized from their first encounter that he wasn’t reflecting at all.

“So, what did you do wrong?”

“Clea!”

She had no intention of going back.

She looked at the back of her hand.

The clock drawn on the back of her hand doesn’t even tell her how much time she has left. It just flows.

Was there any reason to devote her precious time to figures she didn’t want to face?

She felt her chest tightening.

Feeling her condition rapidly deteriorating, she looked at the back of her hand.

She saw the clock on the back of her hand suddenly moving faster.

“You know what, Lloyd?”

To Lloyd, who was glaring at her, Clea said one of the things she had been holding back.

“I really regret spending my precious time on someone like you.”

With those final words, Clea quietly walked away without looking back.

“I said wait!”

“Ah.”

But Lloyd, who could no longer hold back, chased after Clea and grabbed her shoulder.

For a moment, Clea tried to shake off the hand touching her body but couldn’t.

“What on earth is this…!”

Both hands were busy trying to stop something hot coming out of her mouth.

Lloyd looked at her with bewildered eyes, but Clea, seeing the blood on her hands, sighed and said,

“Get out of my sight, Lloyd Percy.”

Lloyd called out Clea’s name as she walked away, but his body was completely frozen, unable to move due to the bright red blood staining the floor.