Around the time Erina and the delegation were preparing to depart for the empire after successfully concluding the coronation ceremony, Connie heard shocking news.

Hedton, who had tormented her to death in the Trumto Kingdom, had been expelled.

In the Trumto Kingdom, the majority of nobles, led by her father, the King of Trumto, were hoping for Rose’s comeback.

The King of Trumto had been building his own faction even before Rose regained her prophecy.

He spoke of the descendants of the fairy of the Risky family as if they were gods, dreaming of a new country to be established someday.

The faction created by the King of Trumto was so solid that it did not budge at the slightest outcry.

Moreover, their devotion to Rose was so blind that their worship was almost like a religion.

It was said that Hedton had openly insulted Rose in such a place.

The King of Trumto removed Hedton from the royal family for defiling Rose, who was no different from his god, with his foul mouth.

He stripped him of his royal title, demoted him to a commoner, and expelled him from the Trumto Kingdom.

What was even more shocking was that the one who took the position of the second prince after Hedton’s expulsion was none other than his aide.

The aide, like Connie, was an illegitimate child.

The King of Trumto had an excessive fondness for women and wine, resulting in dozens of illegitimate children.

Among them, only those whose mothers were of high status or those who resembled the King of Trumto too much, like herself, lived in the palace.

The aide was the former.

His mother was the second daughter of a marquis family and a widowed countess, who was the King of Trumto’s hidden mistress.

He did not resemble the King of Trumto at all, which raised many questions, but his somewhat similar hair color and his mother’s status took care of everything.

That’s why he was so confident.

Despite being in the same situation, he severely tormented her, using the fact that he was recognized by the king and his mother’s background.

Even though he was recognized by a king with dozens of illegitimate children, he was merely the aide to the second prince, yet he treated Connie with utmost contempt.

The ones this aide could not treat carelessly were the crown prince and the princes.

Not only could he not treat them carelessly, but he also saw them as thorns in his side, blocking his path.

He must have been waiting for the time when he could get rid of them.

It was undoubtedly his work that Hedton was expelled as well.

No matter how much Hedton insulted Rose, he wasn’t tactless enough to have his status stripped and be expelled from the kingdom.

There must have been someone pulling strings behind the scenes.

“So he’s been expelled.”

Whether someone pulled strings or he was expelled for being stupid, Connie didn’t care.

If only suffering awaited him on his path ahead, that was enough for her.

Connie finished communicating with the Trumto Kingdom and sat at her dressing table, looking in the mirror.

Even after coming here under orders to remain as a spy for the Asilium Empire, she couldn’t escape Hedton’s clutches.

Far from escaping, she was always in pain from the increasingly severe abuse every time they met.

But now, Hedton was in a position where he could no longer lay a hand on her.

The face of the woman in the mirror was beaming with a bright smile.

Connie was surprised to find herself smiling and rubbed her upturned corners of her mouth with her hand.

She even tried laughing out loud on purpose.

“Ha, haha.”

For the first time, she realized that she could laugh in this damn world.

More than half of the painful things in Connie’s life were Hedton’s doing.

The fact that such a person had disappeared was unbelievable and made her heart race.

But as if the world wasn’t on Connie’s side, a maid urgently knocked on her door.

“My lady, my lady!”

The urgent voice sounded more than a little suspicious.

Connie hurriedly got up and opened the door, asking the knocking maid.

“What’s the matter?”

“Well, a guest has come saying…”

“Connie! Come out, Connie Trumto!”

At the familiar and hateful voice, Connie’s body froze involuntarily.

It was an unmistakable, unforgettable voice.

“He’s causing a commotion like that no matter how much we tell him he can’t come without an appointment.”

As the maid spoke, stomping her feet, Connie’s face hardened in an instant.

Her body trembled, unable to gauge how much more she would have to suffer, how much more pain she would have to endure.

Then she remembered the content of her communication with Trumto.

‘Hedton has been stripped of his royal status and expelled from the Trumto Kingdom without possessing anything.’

At that, Connie’s trembling body began to calm down as if by magic.

He was no longer in a position to harm her.

“Guide him in.”

The maid opened her mouth to try to stop Connie with an anxious face, but then forcibly moved her reluctant feet.

The maid who served Connie closely wanted to stop her, knowing how Connie always suffered after meeting Hedton.

Unable to stop Connie, who seemed almost solemn, the maid swallowed a sigh and moved.

“Stop it!”

“If you keep doing this, we’ll call the guards!”

A knight staying at the mansion and the servants were struggling to hold back the flailing Hedton.

Since only the Trumto royals knew that Hedton had been expelled, the knight, believing him to be the second prince of the Trumto Kingdom, was flustered and unable to subdue him.

Connie approached Hedton, who was causing a commotion in front of the wide-open mansion door.

“Let him go.”

The gazes of the knight and servants trying to restrain Hedton turned to Connie as she approached.

“My lady!”

People welcomed Connie as if they had seen a savior.

Hedton’s face contorted grotesquely when he saw Connie.

“Hey, Connie!”

Hedton’s face, neither smiling nor frowning, was eerie.

Connie approached, deliberately ignoring her racing heart from anxiety.

“What brings you here?”

“Do I need a reason to come here? Quickly get rid of these people!”

Connie quietly observed Hedton as he shouted, struggling to break free from the knight holding his arm.

Perhaps due to his hasty escape, his appearance was shabby.

The clothes of Hedton, who used to change three times a day, hating even a speck of dust, were as dirty as a street beggar’s.

His teal hair, which he used to trim short daily, was unkempt and had grown unpleasantly long.

Connie found herself looking at him from head to toe again, wondering if this was the same Hedton she had known.

Hedton, perhaps noticing Connie’s gaze, said with a fierce scowl.

“What are you doing? I told you to get rid of these people right now!”

Watching Hedton shouting and gnashing his teeth, Connie asked back with an indifferent face.

“Why should I?”

“What?”

Hedton, surprised by Connie’s response, couldn’t continue speaking, his face looking as if he had been stabbed in the side.

Connie felt an indescribable thrill at his expression.

To see such a stupid look on the face of someone who always looked down on her from above!

“Did you just ask me why?”

“Yes.”

“You, right now…”

He trailed off, his face shocked, stopping even his flailing.

Hedton’s mind went blank at the sight of the being who always used to grovel and tremble at his feet now looking down on him.

His eyes turned bloodshot with the anger welling up inside him, and all the thoughts that had been occasionally turning in his mind came to a halt.

As it was, Hedton had fled here after being expelled from the kingdom without a penny to his name, experiencing a life he had never even imagined.

“How dare you!”

“How dare I, you say.”

Connie stood in front of Hedton, deliberately ignoring her pounding heart from ingrained fear, and said.

“You’re nothing now, aren’t you?”

“You!”

When Hedton shouted loudly, thinking he had been found out, Connie flinched out of habit.

Noticing Connie’s trembling, Hedton’s lips curled into a sneer as he continued to yell.

“Ha, shit! Even if I’ve been expelled from the kingdom, someone like you…!”

At his voice, shattering like thunder, Connie clutched her dress tightly, trying desperately to suppress her fear.

Faced with Hedton spewing incomprehensible curses right in front of her, Connie’s whole body shook violently.

She wanted to escape.

She didn’t want to be unhappy anymore after escaping from the hell that was Trumto.

She wished the demonic thing in front of her would disappear right now.

Instinct overcame fear.

Connie swung her hand with all her might towards Hedton’s face, who couldn’t straighten his bent waist as both his arms were held.

‘Slap!’

As Hedton’s head whipped to the side and his mouth closed, silence fell.

“You, you.”

To Hedton, who could barely string words together from the shock and was glaring at her with his creaking neck turned, Connie swung her hand once more.

‘Slap!’

When she was young and felt unjustly beaten for no reason, she had once thought that she wanted to retaliate against Hedton when he came to vent his anger.

But as the abuse grew more severe day by day, the desire for revenge had completely disappeared.

She had to forget it due to the pain that gnawed at her brain.

But the thirst for revenge she thought she had forgotten hadn’t disappeared.

It was just hidden in a place no one could know, thinking it was impossible.

Connie bit her lip hard and swung her arm with all her might once more.

‘Slap!’

“Ugh!”

No matter how weak a woman’s swing might be, it would still hurt when hit in a defenseless state.

Especially when both hands were held and he was in a miserable physical state after fleeing the kingdom without sleep for days.

He felt blood trickling down as if the corner of his lip had been split.

“You bitch not worth spitting on!”

“Lock him up.”

At Connie’s words, Hedton’s resistance was so fierce that even the knights holding his arms flinched.

“In the coldest and dirtiest room, chain him up and don’t give him a drop of water.”

“You bitch, really!”

“And gag that filthy mouth too.”

“Understood, my lady.”

The knight and servants forcibly led away the strongly resisting Hedton at Connie’s order.

Hedton’s shouts echoed throughout the mansion as he was dragged away.

Connie stood there, looking down at her hand.

Her palm, red from the friction, was trembling.

Yet she felt like she could fly.

It was hard to calm the excitement that was as heightened as her trembling hand that couldn’t even make a fist.

It was the most thrilling day of her life.