“What, what! Aren’t you going to let go?”

Melanie cried out, swatting away the hand that Catherine had gripping her chin.

“Listen well. A broken gold coin can be melted down and reused. A gold coin is a gold coin. It’s of a different class than a silver coin.”

Catherine spoke in a chillingly arrogant voice.

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

The tension in Melanie’s voice filled the bridal waiting room.

“Felicity, who is by your side, seems to understand, but you don’t seem to get it?”

Felicity, who had been standing nervously amid the tense standoff between the two women, shuddered at Catherine’s piercing gaze.

Just as Catherine said, Felicity understood what she meant right away.

This meant that Catherine’s position was now different from Melanie’s.

“What’s with her?”

Melanie whispered, poking Felicity in the side.

“That, that is…..”

Felicity trailed off, glancing at Catherine.

Observing this, Catherine took a step closer to Melanie, sizing her up.

“Melanie, I’ll explain it simply so you can understand.”

“Huh?”

“I’m the first concubine. You’re the second. You’ve understood that much, haven’t you?”

Melanie couldn’t refute this, even though it made her angry, because it was a strict fact.

Melanie just clutched the hem of her wedding dress with both hands, trembling.

“Even if I had a falling out with His Majesty, now I have the chance to mend things. So, someone like you is not even a contender from the beginning.”

“What, what did you say?”

“From the start, our values were different.”

As Catherine spat out these venomous words, the atmosphere in the bridal waiting room quickly chilled.

“Catherine! It seems like you think you’re the empress because you became the first concubine!”

Melanie grabbed Catherine’s arm as she turned away, yelling in frustration.

At that moment, the door to the bridal waiting room opened.

“The ceremony will begin soon.”

It was Raphael, the emperor’s secretary.

Raphael, who relayed this message to the concubines, felt the tense atmosphere in the bridal waiting room.

“Please prepare for your entrance, Madam Concubines.”

“Understood.”

Catherine responded to Raphael with a relaxed smile.

“Yes, then I will…”

Raphael left the bridal waiting room, and a few minutes later, the sound of the organ started to echo from the chapel.

“Melanie, could you lighten up a bit? You look worse than the empress with that frown.”

Catherine flicked off Melanie’s hand, which was still gripping her arm, and sneered.

Melanie’s eyes widened, and she trembled with her lips quivering.

Catherine burst out laughing as if she was satisfied with Melanie’s anger.

“Shall we go now?”

Catherine said to her attendant.

She was the first to walk towards the door of the bridal waiting room, then looked back at the other concubines.

“From now on, it would be good to show some respect to me, the first concubine. Unless you want to find out how harsh my hand can be.”

Catherine warned, looking at the three concubines in turn.

‘Sigh, everyone’s not easy. I’m worried about Her Majesty the Empress.’

Rosie Adelrid was quietly observing the chaotic situation from one corner of the bridal waiting room.

She was the last selected concubine, following Catherine, Melanie, and Felicity.

Moreover, she was one of the maidens chosen as the empress’s maids, just like Melanie.

Rosie was simply a maiden who liked to read books all day in her room at the Adelrid Earl’s estate and study healing magic by herself.

But after seeing the empress’s face for the first time at the emperor’s wedding, she decided to become a maid of the empress.

Rosie worked in the potion making room of the ‘Proud Night’ clinic run by healer Vic, keeping her noble identity a secret.

She made various magical potions besides the stamina potions sold at the clinic.

On the night before the emperor’s wedding, she was working in the manufacturing room.

The clinic of the magician Vic had a door leading to the potion making room, and that door had a small window.

Through the small window in the middle of the potion making room door, Rosie first saw the face of Empress Zelda who came into the clinic.

And the burn scar on her right side as well.

Rosie was greatly surprised when she saw that burn scar.

She had once seen a similar picture in a book about wyverns written in the ancient language of the southern continent.

She didn’t know what the symbollike picture meant because she didn’t know the ancient language of the southern continent, but it was certainly related to the wyvern.

Moreover, the energy she felt from the empress was certainly special.

Though she was not yet perfect, Rosie had gained the ability to sense the energy of others while studying healing magic.

The empress possessed an energy that was not felt from ordinary people.

So far, in the Raphion Empire, only one person Rosie had met exuded such strong energy.

Emperor Rinel Gideon Edipa.

Now there was one more.

And they became a couple.