As Evie couldn’t contain her joy and chuckled while biting into a cake, Dius scolded her, looking somewhat worse.

Of course, Dius thought it was extraordinary.

After the Count’s declaration, the way hadn’t been clear at all, yet to seize this opportunity and turn the tables was indeed a brilliant strategy.

“It’s fortunate that the Count acted as predicted, but what if he hadn’t stepped forward?”

“I would have accepted ruin and destruction.”

To Dius’s question, Evie answered lightly.

At her sincere words, Dius looked at her with a creepy face, and Evie added with a clap of her hands.

“I was sure of it. That person, he looked desperate.”

The Emperor, desperate.

It was an unfitting expression, but Evie was sure nonetheless.

In Tienda, the Count had calmly and arrogantly announced his intentions.

But when he met in Bis, and when Evie talked about the ‘preciousness of everyday life,’ he laughed. Are you threatening me, he said.

And the next morning, he jumped up and fiercely warned just hearing the word saint.

To Evie’s eyes, this looked like a wounded beast hiding its pain.

“Besides, the way he dealt with the child was really like a true teacher.”

Though his bad temper remained.

So Evie was sure and cheered.

Ah, Zion Laurel, you arrogant Count.

If you have a weakness, you should hide it well, act like you don’t.

But perhaps because he had never felt like he had a weakness before, he even warned that if this was touched, there would be big trouble.

It was a welcome clue for Evie.

If you give a clue so blatantly, I must make good use of it on my side.

So Evie purposely sprinkled the salt of whether she wanted to be punished, then revealed the curse to the Count and moved him to divert the nobles’ eyes. That was her plan.

The spread of poison in the village and its collapse was not planned, but this too conveniently fell into Evie’s plan.

This was the result.

“We must toast indeed!”

Evie cried again, unable to contain her joy.

And a few hours later, more joyful news reached Evie.

Feeling his honor rapidly declining, Duke Zion stepped forward.

He announced the withdrawal of the Count’s previous declaration, promising that the border duty of Amaneser would continue to be carried out perfectly as it is now.

The Duke made no separate mention of Evie.

But the nobles all understood it like this.

Ah, that mistaken love has been resolved at the family level, they thought.

At the moment when Evie was substituting a toast with cake, Zion was suffering from unfamiliar feelings of humiliation and defeat.

“Zion, this matter is… No.”

His halfbrother started to say something, then turned away with a considerate face.

“Your Highness, I regret to say something so impertinent, but may I briefly report on the procedure of sending flowers and letters to a woman… No, I apologize.”

The deputy commander tried to inform Zion with pitiful eyes, but quickly retreated when Zion glared at him.

So Zion was nearly driven mad.

Evie Ariate controlled him with just a word.

Zion had to move as she intended, even knowing that it was Evie’s intention.

From then on, everything went on like a wellplayed joke.

Evie used Zion to avoid punishment.

As a result, Zion’s declaration against Evie lost its power.

Moreover, Zion Laurel fell into a very strange human being who was obsessed with women and indulged in whims and eccentricities.

Until now, Zion did not care what the people of Tienda thought of him. But now, for the first time, he wanted to explain something to the Tienda folks.

It was all Evie Ariate’s mischief.

Sitting alone in the study, Zion eventually banged his head on the desk.

It’s an act that His Excellency, the CommanderinChief, would never do, but now there was no other way.

It felt like he had been deceived by the whole world.

‘… Was she always like this?’

Zion moaned at the realization of Evie’s true nature.

He had always thought that Evie’s eyes were merely pitiful.

But looking back, what filled those eyes was not pity but determination.

Whether the sky fell or the ground crumbled, she would find a way to rise, a determination to pave her way.

And yet, he had taken her soft face for granted, that whatever was inside must be soft too.

Furthermore, he had simply judged the cursed Evie as a fool.

These two were Zion’s mistakes.

But realizing this now was too late.

Zion’s declaration, withdrawn by the Grand Duke Laurel, was his most powerful means to prevent Evie’s appointment as a saint.

There was no better alternative now that it was gone.

‘Damn it…’

Zion moaned, resting his head on the desk.

He had thought that coming to Tienda and paying off the debt would not be difficult.

Considering the power gap between himself, a noble, and Evie Ariate, a commoner, stealing the position of saint from her would be as easy as taking candy from a child.

Of course, it would be just as mean.

But instead of taking the candy she was holding, Evie poked his eye with the candy stick, called people over, and buried him, saying, “Look at this shameless guy.”

Zion let out a hollow laugh at what he had suffered.

But the laugh stopped shortly.

It was no laughing matter.

With this, the most certain way to protect Evie was gone.

If things continued as they were, Evie Ariate, who was not at all naive, would surely become a saint.

Zion felt his head cool down again and got up.

Then he recalled the words of that man, Evie’s astrologer.

“Evie is strong. She’s strong, smart, bold, quickwitted, skilled, eloquent, and she works very hard…”

“And she’s an amazing person who never gives up, more than anyone else. Really.”

He thought until recently, where’s the greatness in that, isn’t it all a distortion of memory?

But having been treated like this, he had to admit it.

He could understand, even a little, why that man loved and respected Evie Ariate so much.

If he had known this a little earlier, things would not have come to this.

As if to scold Zion, who regretted too late, the astrologer’s last request came to mind.

“So this time, please protect her to the end.”

Zion intended to do just that, of course.