The capital’s streets were bustling with people everywhere.

Gabriel and Hariel had long since abandoned the idea of returning to the baron’s residence.

They were too angry about the humiliation they suffered from the princess in Ecclean, and they thought it was unfair that only Celiya was living comfortably in the imperial palace.

Perhaps due to their extravagant spending, the money they had on hand quickly ran out.

“Mother, why don’t we just go to the imperial palace at this point?”

“As much as I’d like to, what right do we have to enter the imperial palace when we’re not even one of the three dukes?”

“We are Celiya’s ‘family’, aren’t we?”

Gabriel kept trying to persuade Hariel.

Hariel had no choice but to take Gabriel to the imperial palace.

The palace gatekeeper at the entrance looked them up and down.

“What brings you here?”

“We are Celiya’s family. We came to the palace thinking Celiya might miss her family,”

Gabriel said with a slight smile.

The gatekeeper pulled out a list from his pocket.

“May I ask your names?”

“This is my mother, Hariel Brillian, and I am Gabriel Brillian.”

“…”

After rummaging through the list for a while, the gatekeeper spoke.

“You’re on the list. Please proceed.”

Gabriel and Hariel were surprised that they could enter the palace so easily.

As they passed through the gate, they exchanged glances with each other.

“If I had known we’d get through so smoothly, we should have come to the palace sooner. Celiya is useful at times like this.”

“Indeed.”

The two entered the palace with delight.

However, as soon as they entered, they felt that the atmosphere in the palace was very chaotic.

“Somehow, it seems different from the banquet, doesn’t it?”

The two looked around the palace in broad daylight.

The gold-covered palaces were all magnificent, splendid, and beautiful, but the roads were so wide that it was difficult to tell where was where.

They secretly hoped someone would guide them, but neither maids, knights, nor even gardeners seemed to pay any attention to the two.

Eventually, Gabriel approached a gardener first.

“Excuse me, I was wondering if I could ask for directions.”

The gardener who was pruning a mulberry tree turned his head slightly.

“I don’t recognize your face. Whose guest are you?”

“…Celiya Brillian’s.”

The gardener stopped pruning and answered.

“She’s not here right now. She disappeared overnight, and His Highness the Crown Prince is looking for her as we speak.”

“…”

Gabriel frowned at the unexpected situation.

“Perhaps, could you tell us where we might go? We’re worried about her.”

“Where you might go?”

The gardener thought for a moment, then pointed to a fountain with a lion statue and said,

“If you go straight that way, you’ll come to Duke Calypso’s mansion. For some reason, His Highness the Crown Prince seems certain she’ll be there.”

“…”

Gabriel’s expression hardened. Of all the places, it had to be Duke Calypso’s mansion?

She felt her blood boiling.

Gabriel and Hariel left abruptly without even thanking him.

As the two walked away, someone emerged from the garden near the gardener, as if they had been waiting.

The person who appeared was Ileon. The gardener bowed his head and said,

“It happened exactly as you said, my lord.”

“Lower your voice, and keep watching.”

Ileon spoke in a gentle tone and then fluttered his white sleeve.

A golden mask inside the loose sleeve reflected the sunlight and shone.

“I must go comfort His Highness the Crown Prince.”

Armored knights surrounded Dietrich’s mansion in a circle.

Celiya was sick of Jeremy, who wouldn’t give up on her and wouldn’t leave her alone.

‘Can’t I just use my ability to snap his neck off?’

But if she did that, all her carefully laid plans would go to waste.

The real targets for her ability were the three dukes.

When all three dukes gathered in one place. That would be the perfect opportunity to use her ability and kill them all at once.

So Celiya decided to go along with Dietrich’s ‘strange’ plan.

“I just need to go out and do as you said?”

Dietrich nodded at Celiya’s question.

As the mansion door was flung open, intense sunlight poured down on their heads.

The knights’ faces were clearly bewildered, as they had come reluctantly at Jeremy’s command, but didn’t actually know Celiya was really in Dietrich’s mansion.

One of the dumbfounded knights carefully called out to Dietrich.

“Duke Calypso, Your Grace.”

Dietrich naturally wrapped one arm around Celiya’s waist.

“What’s the matter?”

“…”

The knights momentarily forgot what to say, as the hand around her waist seemed so natural.

“What business do you have with me?”

At Dietrich’s repeated question, the knights’ dazed minds returned.

‘What on earth is going on here? Is this a love triangle?’

The knights rolled their eyeballs to look at Celiya.

Celiya, half-embraced by Dietrich, was incredibly beautiful.

Her silver hair, as if freshly spun from silver thread, sparkled in the sunlight, and her emerald-green eyes exuded an otherworldly mystique.

Within her small, white face were features so distinct that one could only describe them as perfect.

Eyes beneath lush eyelashes, a nose as if perfectly sculpted by God, and plump red lips.

The beauty that made one’s heart ache just by looking at it captivated the knights’ souls.

The angel of Brillian, everyone’s first love.

Even those grand nicknames seemed like nothing in front of this overwhelmingly beautiful person in the flesh.

The knights’ Adam’s apples bobbed as they gazed at her.

“I asked what business you have.”

“His Highness the Crown Prince ordered us to bring his concubine,”

the knight who barely managed to speak out felt his throat tighten and gasped for breath.

He felt self-loathing even after speaking.

How could a woman so beautiful that just looking at her seemed to purify one’s eyes be the concubine of that hideous Crown Prince?

“Concubine?”

Unexpectedly, the answer came from Celiya.

“It was His Highness the Crown Prince who forcibly made me his concubine against my will.”

“…”

“The person I truly hold in my heart is…”

Celiya trailed off, looking up at Dietrich.

Her eyes shone clearly as if looking at something very lovable, and her red lips curved into a smile.

“Duke Calypso, no. Dietrich here.”

After finishing her words, Celiya rose on her tiptoes and kissed Dietrich’s cheek without hesitation.

The sound of the knights drawing in their breath could be heard.

No matter how beautiful a woman she was, her partner was Dietrich.

Who was Dietrich?

He was a man who wouldn’t even bat an eye even when seduced by countless women.

Even when women at banquets would ask him to dance first, he had never once accepted.

Even knowing it was rude, Dietrich did not allow women’s hands to touch him.

Women of high status, women with good figures, rich women, clever women…, even princesses from other countries desired him, but they couldn’t even get his attention.

The knights thought Dietrich would push Celiya away.

They thought so even after seeing Dietrich’s hand on her slender waist.

But Dietrich completely shattered the knights’ expectations.

He was looking down at Celiya, who had kissed his cheek, with an affectionate smile.

There was no room for doubt.

Could the usually expressionless Duke Calypso look at someone with such an affectionate gaze?

The knights were confused.

The two looked like perfect lovers.

But Celiya was the Crown Prince’s concubine.

Having the Crown Prince’s concubine as a lover was a challenge to the Crown Prince’s authority.

This was tantamount to treason.

Dietrich could clearly see what the knights were thinking.

Having read their thoughts, Dietrich spoke first.

“It was His Highness who arbitrarily made Celiya, who was embroiled in the suspicion of assassinating the Emperor, his concubine.”

“But if His Highness the Crown Prince finds out about this, surely…”

Dietrich cut off the knight’s words.

“Is your lord truly one who harms innocent people?”

Dietrich continued speaking, looking at each of the knights’ faces.

“Taking people’s lives, making knights lose their legs which are as precious as life itself… He’s like this even in the position of Crown Prince, what will become of Abelon if that person sits on the throne?”

“…!”

Dietrich spoke without hesitation the words the knights had only thought in their minds.

This resonated greatly with the knights.

The knights thought that since Dietrich had a history of serving the late Emperor, he would never betray Jeremy, the Emperor’s son.

But that wasn’t the case.

“I, Dietrich Calypso, command in the name of the Captain of the Imperial Knights.”

There was power in Dietrich’s words. The power to make people follow.

That was what brought Dietrich, who had no backing or background, to this position.

The knights decided at this moment which side to switch to.

− Today, you must bring my concubine before me without fail. If not, you too will end up like that.

This was what Jeremy had said today, after cutting off a knight’s leg.

If the reward for pledging loyalty to the Crown Prince was such a miserable end, it was better for them to choose a different option.

“If there is something wrong, it is my role to correct it. The crime of harming innocent people because one’s face was ruined is so heinous that I can hardly speak of it.”

In the solemn atmosphere, Dietrich continued speaking.

“I, Dietrich Calypso, from this moment forth, will no longer recognize Crown Prince Jeremy Basilisk as a member of the royal family.”

As Dietrich’s declaration ended, the knights knelt on one knee as if they had made a promise.

Among them were knights who had originally been in his faction before entering Jeremy’s service, and knights who had long been under Jeremy.

“We will follow Your Grace as our lord.”

Dietrich, once called the mad dog of the Emperor, had raised his banner against the Crown Prince.

Under the pretext of rectifying the imperial family.

The exact purpose was to protect Celiya, but the knights couldn’t know that far.

Dietrich headed towards the Crown Prince’s palace with his arm around Celiya’s waist.

At that moment, there were two pairs of eyes that happened to witness this scene.

“Mother, what on earth am I seeing right now?”

“…”

“Mother? What is this? Why is that Crown Prince’s concubine together with Duke Calypso!”

Gabriel felt as if her breath was choked off.

“Gabriel, calm down.”

Hariel shook her head.

“That loose-hipped thing must have seduced him. Don’t be too heartbroken.”

“Mother! I’m so angry! I wish that damned X would just die!”

Gabriel spat out a curse, so angry was she.

Hariel spoke as if soothing her daughter.

“Don’t worry. Before I sent her to the Emperor, I put something in Celiya’s food. It would be troublesome if she blabbed about what happened at the baron’s house once she got to the palace. I fed her something very good.”

“Really, Mother? What did you put in?”

“That…”

Hariel smiled sinisterly.