Celiya pulled her wrist away.

“Your Grace, Duke Gredrik.”

Celiya met Ileon’s gaze.

She spat out each word as if chewing on them.

“I am not Dietrich’s person.”

“You expect me to believe that?”

Ileon grinned as he stroked Celiya’s hair.

His lips were smiling, but his eyes were not. He looked down at Celiya with calm, sunken eyes.

“Lady Celiya. Is becoming the Crown Prince’s mistress truly what you desire?”

“No.”

Celiya swatted away Ileon’s hand that was braiding her hair at will, making a smacking sound.

“I do not want anything.”

“You have no desires?”

No, there was something she wanted.

Celiya had so much she wanted to say if she ever met her true enemy.

Was it really you who destroyed my kingdom? Why did you kill every last person? Why did you not stop at destroying your own kingdom, but annihilated the allied principality of Inata as well?

However, the moment she faced the Emperor, all thoughts of asking such questions completely vanished.

Celiya killed the Emperor who was lusting after her body in one breath.

Was Ileon really the one who destroyed her kingdom, as Dietrich had said?

While it was true that Ileon was skilled at concealing his true intentions, it was difficult to conclude he had destroyed her kingdom for such a trivial reason alone.

Celiya did not trust either Dietrich or Ileon.

“From my perspective, it seems you do have a desire.”

Ileon lifted Celiya’s chin with his index finger. Looking directly into the blue eyes under his straight eyebrows, Celiya was reminded of what her parrot Popo had said long ago.

−The princess loves blue eyes! The princess loves blue eyes!

What had happened to the guard knight Dylan who taught Popo those words? Not long after he was dismissed from his position as a guard knight… the kingdom was destroyed.

Dylan’s eyes were blue, and Ileon before her also possessed deep blue irises.

At this moment, for some reason, Celiya desperately wanted to see Dietrich with his red eyes.

Celiya herself could not understand why. Had she unknowingly come to depend on Dietrich?

‘On a man who tried to use me? Me? Why?’

Celiya’s eyes widened.

No matter how weak she had become, to depend on a mere man.

Was it because of how he wiped bread crumbs from her mouth with an annoyed look? Or how he would silently wait when she said she was in pain?

When he took her hand with an indifferent face, her heart would strangely calm down.

‘When Dietrich held my hand, intertwining our fingers, my mind and body would relax and my heart would feel at ease…’

“Ah!”

In that moment, Celiya had an enormous realization.

She finally understood that Dietrich possessed an ability.

Why had she thought she was the only one with an ability? Dietrich had been acting as a sedative, stabilizing Celiya’s mind and body.

Thinking about it, there were many strange points. The fact that Dietrich knew about the existence of abilities, and that her ability did not work on him alone.

Celiya’s ability worked very well on men, but not on those who had abilities like herself.

Because everyone except herself had died, she had not even considered the possibility that Dietrich might have an ability.

That very thought itself was a trap. Looking back, it suddenly occurred to her that Dietrich too might have survived thanks to an ability.

Celiya grabbed Ileon’s hand firmly. Ileon’s body stiffened at the sudden contact.

“Thank you! Thanks to you, I’ve gained a great realization.”

“…?”

Ileon blinked, his expression showing he did not understand.

“May I ask what realization you’ve come to?”

“It’s a secret.”

Celiya had not the slightest intention of telling the suspicious Ileon what she had discovered.

Ileon lifted one corner of his mouth, provoking Celiya.

“You’re about to become His Highness’s mistress, yet you can still smile?”

“It’s not like the situation will improve if I’m sad, is it?”

Interest flickered in Ileon’s eyes.

“How, do you have some way to escape this situation?”

Instead of answering, Celiya smiled brightly.

Her lovely emerald eyes crinkled beautifully. Her silver hair, brighter than Ileon’s, shone dazzlingly under the dim moonlight.

The woman was beautiful. An overflowing beauty befitting her reputation as everyone’s first love.

Ordinary men would not be able to resist coveting her.

Ileon’s perspective differed from other men.

This extreme beauty had invited her misfortune.

If she had not been beautiful, she would not have entered the Emperor’s bedchamber, nor caught the Crown Prince’s eye to fall to the position of a mistress.

Everyone likes beautiful things. Given a choice between the ugly and the beautiful, no one would choose the ugly.

However, beneath this beauty, everything else becomes meaningless.

Until now, men had been so intoxicated by her beauty that they had not even tried to know the real Celiya.

Even the fact that Celiya had killed the Emperor was overshadowed by her beauty.

‘So this is why the Empress made such a request of me.’

Ileon chuckled at the Empress’s viciousness.

The reason Ileon attended the palace banquet was partly to see Celiya, but also because the Empress had sent him a separate letter.

−Duke, could you procure a poison that ruins one’s face?

Ileon fingered the vial hidden in his sleeve.

The Empress, Erphia, no longer held any value for Ileon.

‘I commend you for becoming Empress despite being the illegitimate child of the previous Duke, but that’s all.’

Without his help, she would have long since been removed from her position as Empress.

Jeremy, who was to become the next Emperor, also did not satisfy Ileon.

‘Perhaps… I should just become Emperor myself.’

Long ago, due to a covenant made between the three Dukes, it was strictly forbidden for them to arbitrarily seize the throne themselves.

In the early days of Abelon’s founding, the three Dukes had once fought each other to claim the throne. At that time, most of the territory’s people were caught up in the fighting and died, and the rivers were dyed red with the blood of corpses.

The war of succession lasted for over three years. The three families lost more than half of their military forces and also lost the people’s trust.

There was nothing gained and only losses piled up in that fight.

The three Dukes made a covenant in front of all the people of Abelon, declaring that such a thing would never happen again, and just in case, they placed the youngest remaining member of the royal family on the throne as Emperor.

The three Dukes swore loyalty to the Emperor on the surface while working tirelessly behind the scenes to recover their lost family prestige and dignity.

There were several attempts to eliminate the three Dukes. However, it was not the three Dukes who disappeared, but their opponents.

When the three families that had once crossed swords formed an alliance, no other family could stand against them.

Thus, after several hundred years, the three Dukes came to completely reign over the Emperor.

Though they were higher than the Emperor, they were not actually Emperors themselves.

Ileon was dissatisfied with this.

Why should he suffer because of a foolish covenant made by his ancestors?

Among the three Dukes, Balt was a Swordmaster but could not control his anger, and Arthur Cervantes, another Duke, shut himself up in his territory and had no intention of coming out.

Dietrich was a Duke, yet not a Duke.

His title of Duke was merely an empty title that Ileon had bestowed as if giving alms.

What kind of Duke has not even a single territory of his own?

‘By the way, why did Dietrich save and keep this woman alive?’

It made no sense that he would save and keep Celiya alive simply because she was beautiful.

Ileon felt interest in Celiya as he fiddled with the vial of poison. The poison inside the vial would melt one’s face horribly just by ingesting a small amount.

“Lady Celiya.”

“Yes.”

“Will you become my person?”

At Ileon’s words, Celiya softly laughed and removed her hand that had been holding onto Ileon. The moment the warmth disappeared, Ileon felt a sense of regret.

“No. I refuse.”

Celiya met Ileon’s eyes. Her fresh green eyes twinkled like stars in the night sky.

“I am no one’s person.”

As Celiya finished speaking, fireworks burst in the sky with a bang. Ileon stopped touching the vial and looked up at the night sky where colorful fireworks were exploding.

“That was a very appropriate answer, Lady Celiya.”

Ileon placed something in Celiya’s hand. A small vial the size of a finger joint contained a transparent liquid.

When Celiya gave him a questioning look, Ileon smiled faintly and answered.

“This is a gift I’m giving you. If anyone asks, say it was given by a very important person.”

“…”

“When you’re in danger, this will be of great help.”

“Why are you giving this to me…”

“Well.”

Ileon tucked Celiya’s hair behind her ear and said plainly.

“I suppose I rather like people with convictions.”