The capital streets were bustling with people no matter where one went.
Gabriel and Hariel had long given up on returning to the viscount’s manor.
They were still furious about the humiliation Gabriel had suffered at the hands of a maid in Eclairean, and resented that Celia alone was comfortably staying in the palace.
Perhaps because they had spent extravagantly, the money they had quickly ran out.
“Mother, what if we just go straight to the palace now?”
“As much as I’d like to, what right do we have—mere commoners—to enter the palace?”
“But we’re Celia’s ‘family,’ aren’t we?”
Gabriel kept persuading Hariel.
Hariel had no choice but to take Gabriel and head toward the palace.
The palace guard at the entrance scrutinized the two from head to toe.
“What brings you here?”
“We’re family of Celia. We thought she might miss us, so we came to the palace.”
Gabriel said with a sly smile.
The guard pulled out a list from inside his coat.
“May I have your names, please?”
“This is my mother, Hariel Brillion, and I am Gabriel Brillion.”
“……”
After flipping through the list for a long while, the guard finally spoke.
“You’re on the list. You may pass.”
Gabriel and Hariel were astonished—they hadn’t expected entry to be this easy.
As they passed through the gate, they exchanged knowing glances.
“If I’d known it’d be this smooth, we should’ve come to the palace sooner. Celia’s actually useful after all.”
“You said it.”
The two entered the palace joyfully.
But the moment they stepped inside, they sensed the palace atmosphere was unusually chaotic.
“Hmm, it feels different from during the banquet.”
They looked around the palace grounds in broad daylight.
The golden-clad buildings were all majestic, splendid, and beautiful, yet the pathways were so wide it was hard to tell where anything was.
They secretly hoped someone would guide them, but maids, knights, and even gardeners seemed to pay them no attention at all.
Finally, Gabriel approached a gardener nearby.
“Excuse me, could I ask for directions?”
The gardener, who had been trimming alder trees, slowly turned his head.
“First time seeing your face—whose guest are you?”
“…Celia Brillion.”
The gardener stopped pruning and replied.
“She isn’t here right now. She disappeared overnight, and even His Highness the Crown Prince is searching for her.”
“……”
Gabriel frowned, caught off guard by the unexpected news.
“Do you happen to know where she might have gone? I’m worried.”
“Where she might have gone?”
The gardener paused in thought, then pointed toward a fountain adorned with a lion statue.
“Go straight that way, and you’ll reach the estate of Duke Calypso. His Highness the Crown Prince seems certain, for some reason, that she’s there.”
“……”
Gabriel’s expression hardened. Out of all possible places, why Duke Calypso’s estate?
A boiling rage rose within her.
Without even thanking the gardener, Gabriel and Hariel swiftly left.
As the two walked away, someone emerged from the nearby garden as if waiting for the moment.
It was Ileon. The gardener bowed his head slightly and spoke.
“It happened exactly as you predicted, my lord.”
“Lower your voice. Keep observing.”
Ileon spoke gently, then flicked his wide white sleeve.
A golden mask hidden within the loose sleeve caught the sunlight and shimmered.
“I must go calm His Highness the Crown Prince.”
[This is the timeline separator]Armored knights surrounded Dietrich’s estate in a tight circle.
Celia was utterly fed up with Jeremy, who refused to give up on her and wouldn’t leave her alone.
‘Can’t I just use my ability to snap his neck?’
But doing so would ruin the carefully laid plans she had made.
The true target for her ability was the Three Dukes.
When all three dukes gathered in one place—that would be the perfect opportunity to kill them all at once.
Thus, Celia decided to go along with Dietrich’s ‘strange’ plan.
“I just go out and do as you told me?”
To Celia’s question, Dietrich nodded.
As the estate door swung open, strong sunlight poured down from above.
Though they had come under Jeremy’s orders, the knights had no idea Celia was truly inside Dietrich’s estate, and their faces showed clear bewilderment.
One of the knights, standing dazed, cautiously called out to Dietrich.
“Duke Calypso, Your Grace.”
Dietrich naturally wrapped one arm around Celia’s waist.
“What is it?”
“……”
The gesture was so natural that the knights momentarily forgot what to say.
“What business do you have with me?”
Dietrich repeated his question, snapping the knights back to their senses.
‘What on earth is going on? Is this a lovers’ quarrel?’
The knights exchanged glances, staring at Celia.
Celia, half-leaning against Dietrich, was breathtakingly beautiful.
Her silver hair, like freshly spun silver thread, shimmered in the sunlight, and her emerald-green eyes radiated an unearthly, mystical charm.
Her delicate, pale face held features so perfectly defined that only the word “flawless” could describe them.
Her eyes beneath thick lashes, her nose sculpted as if by divine hands, and her full, crimson lips.
Her beauty was so intense it seemed to ache the heart just to look at her, stealing the knights’ breath.
The Brillion Angel, the first love of countless hearts.
Even those grand titles felt meaningless before her overwhelming beauty.
The knights’ throats twitched as they gazed at her.
“I asked—what business do you have?”
“His Highness the Crown Prince ordered us to bring his concubine.”
The knight finally managed to speak, panting as if his throat were being crushed.
Even after speaking, he was overwhelmed with self-loathing.
How could such a woman—whose mere presence felt like a purification of the eyes—be the concubine of that grotesque prince?
“Concubine?”
Surprisingly, the reply came from Celia.
“It was His Highness who forcibly made me his concubine against my will.”
“……”
“The one I truly love is…”
Celia trailed off, looking up at Dietrich.
Her eyes sparkled with unmistakable affection, and her red lips curved into a gentle arc.
“Duke Calypso, no—Dietrich who stands here.”
Finishing her sentence, Celia rose onto her tiptoes and, without hesitation, kissed Dietrich on the cheek.
A sharp intake of breath echoed among the knights.
No matter how beautiful a woman she was, the man in question was Dietrich.
Who exactly was Dietrich?
A man who never so much as blinked when countless women tried to seduce him.
Even when women approached him first to dance at banquets, he had never once accepted.
Knowing full well it was considered rude, Dietrich never allowed a woman’s hand to touch him.
Noblewomen, beautiful women, wealthy women, clever women—even princesses from other nations—had desired him, yet none had even caught his gaze.
The knights expected Dietrich to push Celia away.
Even seeing his arm still around her slender waist, they still believed that.
But Dietrich completely shattered their expectations.
He looked down at Celia, who had just kissed his cheek, with a tender smile.
There was no doubt.
Had the perpetually expressionless Duke Calypso ever looked at someone with such warmth before?
The knights were thrown into confusion.
The two looked like the perfect couple.
Yet Celia was the Crown Prince’s concubine.
To have her as a lover was a direct challenge to the Crown Prince’s authority.
That was tantamount to treason.
Dietrich could clearly see what the knights were thinking.
Reading their minds, he spoke first.
“It was His Highness who recklessly made Celia his concubine while she was under suspicion for the Emperor’s assassination.”
“But if His Highness finds out about this, surely he will…”
Dietrich cut the knight off.
“Is the one who harms the innocent truly worthy of being your lord?”
Dietrich continued, scanning each knight’s face.
“One who takes lives, who causes a knight to lose the leg that is as vital as life itself… If he behaves so poorly while merely Crown Prince, what would become of Abelon if he were to sit on the throne?”
“……!”
Dietrich voiced aloud the very thoughts the knights had only dared to harbor in silence.
His words struck deep.
The knights had assumed that because Dietrich once served the late Emperor, he would never betray Jeremy, the Emperor’s son.
But they were wrong.
“I, Dietrich Calypso, in the name of Captain of the Imperial Knights, hereby declare.”
Dietrich’s voice carried undeniable authority—the kind that compelled others to follow.
It was this power that had brought Dietrich, who had neither patron nor background, to this position.
In that moment, the knights decided which side they would now take.
—Bring my concubine before me today, or you’ll end up like that.
That was what Jeremy had said today, after cutting off a knight’s leg.
If loyalty to the Crown Prince meant enduring such wretched treatment, choosing another path was better for them.
“It is my duty to correct what is wrong. The crime of harming the innocent simply because one’s face is disfigured is so heinous it cannot even be spoken of.”
Dietrich continued solemnly.
“From this moment onward, I, Dietrich Calypso, no longer recognize Crown Prince Jeremy Basilisk as a member of the royal family.”
No sooner had Dietrich finished his declaration than the knights knelt on one knee, as if by prior agreement.
Among them were knights who had once served under Dietrich before joining Jeremy, as well as those who had long served Jeremy.
“We shall follow you as our lord.”
Once known as the Emperor’s mad dog, Dietrich had now rebelled against the Crown Prince.
All in the name of restoring justice to the royal household.
Though his true purpose was to protect Celia, the knights did not know this.
With his arm still around Celia’s waist, Dietrich headed toward the Crown Prince’s palace.
At that moment, two pairs of eyes happened to witness the scene.
“Mother, what exactly am I seeing right now?”
“……”
“Mother? What is that? Why is she—the Crown Prince’s concubine—walking with Duke Calypso?”
Gabriel felt as if her breath had been cut off.
“Gabriel, calm down.”
Hariel shook her head.
“That light-minded girl must have seduced him. Don’t take it too hard.”
“Mother! I’m so furious! I wish that damn X would just die already!”
Gabriel spat out a curse in her rage.
Hariel spoke soothingly to her daughter.
“Don’t worry. Before I sent her to the Emperor, I slipped something into Celia’s food. It would be troublesome if she went around the palace revealing what happened at the viscount’s estate. I gave her something very effective.”
“Really, Mother? What did you put in?”
“That’s…”
Hariel smiled darkly.
An Indifferent Woman is the One Men Desire the Most
One-line summary: The female lead is actually cold-hearted and extremely rational. She has stage-by-stage relationships and won’t two-time, but there will always be someone who secretly likes her.
This novel has the following triggers, so if you’re sensitive to these, please don’t read:
1. The female lead has had many relationships, but she treated each one seriously and broke up properly.
It’s just that the men unilaterally pestered her incessantly. For the female lead, when she doesn’t like someone anymore, she simply doesn’t like them.
(This applies to her relationships with Male Lead 1, 2, 3, and 4 as well, but she’s loyal in each 1-on-1 relationship!)
2. In this novel, Male Lead 2 and the female lead kiss in a car, and Male Lead 1 sees it and beats up Male Lead 2.
The female lead calls the police and sends both Male Lead 1 and 2 to the police station! Male Lead 1 begs the female lead not to break up with him.
3. Male Lead 1 has a gentle appearance but an obsessive personality.
Male Lead 2 has a delicate and soft appearance, slightly green tea-like (two-faced).
Male Lead 3 is a youthful college student and a smart person who has secretly liked the female lead for a long time.
Male Lead 4 is the female lead’s father’s special assistant, a business elite with deep, hidden thoughts.
4. At the beginning of this novel, the female lead has already broken up with Male Lead 1 (Chapter 4) and gotten back together with Male Lead 2 (ex-boyfriend).
5. Enter with caution if you have triggers!!!
