Killian had chosen to give up his own marriage in exchange for the North’s future.

But that was only possible because the other party was Ines. More precisely, he had accepted the arrangement because the other party was a half-princess with no maternal family, no backing, nothing.

‘If the other party had been the First Princess, my lord would never have agreed to the arrangement.’

Words she had once heard from one of Killian’s close aides. So if she were gone and the marriage became impossible, the Emperor would lose a very powerful card.

But if she died and the marriage fell through, would the Emperor abandon his plans?

‘……Of course not.’

Ines could answer that with confidence.

The eyes she had seen on the Emperor before her death had been full of greed. Those eyes did not belong to someone who would stop before achieving his goal.

Then only one option remained for Ines.

‘……Killian.’

By any means necessary, she had to warn Killian that the Emperor was targeting him and Rupert.

Even now, the Emperor was surely preparing to strike the North. He had used Ines to secure his justification, and with the power he had long been building, he had brought Rupert down in an instant.

Even if Ines refused to cooperate with the Emperor, what he was preparing could never be taken lightly.

Fortunately, Ines had a good memory, and she remembered every person who would betray Killian in the future, and every event that would work against him.

In the past, that useless memory had driven a knife into Killian’s back. But now it was the opposite. Everything Ines remembered would be used to stop the Emperor’s ambitions, and to make Rupert stronger and more prosperous.

So Ines had to go North.

‘……Apologizing and leaving can wait until he and Rupert are safe.’

She felt sorry for Killian, who would once again have to enter a marriage he did not want, but no matter how she thought about it, there was no other way.

If only she had been a capable person. If only she had been wise and clever, she might have found a better path.

Ines steadied her sinking heart as best she could and kept walking.

She arrived at the detached palace where the luncheon was to be held.

“What. Why are you here?”

A high, sharp voice struck her ear. Ines’s shoulder flinched almost imperceptibly.

Unlike the bedroom of the princess’s palace, which had felt familiar and yet strange, this was a voice etched so deeply into her body and mind that it had never faded.

She had been so focused on the future ahead that she had overlooked something. What she had been within the imperial palace before leaving for Rupert’s estate.

Ines relaxed her stiffened body and looked toward where the voice had come from. But the other person reached her first.

“Have you gone deaf now too? If you heard me, you should answer.”

“……Leila, sister.”

The one glaring at her with vicious, upturned eyes was Leila.

Leila von Delcarion.

Born of the Imperial Consort, who hailed from a marquis family and held formidable power, and unlike Ines, a princess who had inherited the full name of the imperial family.

Ines Delcarion was only a half-princess.

She carried the blood of the Emperor, yet had never been granted the middle name that was the mark of imperial lineage. A half-princess.

That was because Ines had been born of a maid of lowly birth.

Her mother, a low-ranking maid in the Imperial Consort’s palace, had caught the Emperor’s eye by chance.

A mere commoner maid had no way to refuse the Emperor’s advances, and after countless violations, she had conceived Ines. It was the beginning of misfortune.

Carrying the Emperor’s child alone, with no family or faction to protect her, life in the imperial palace must have been a daily ordeal.

The one person who could have been her support, the Emperor, quickly forgot her once her pregnancy made it impossible for her to give him physical pleasure. Ground down day by day by *buse that only grew harsher, she had finally passed away the very day Ines was born.

Misfortune passed down easily.

All that remained for the newborn Ines was the status of an illegitimate princess, the Emperor’s indifference, and the contempt of the imperial family led by the Empress. An imperial palace filled not with affection but with indifference, scorn, and mockery slowly ate away at Ines.

The one who had tormented Ines most viciously of all was Leila.

“I asked you a question. Why are you here?”

Leila extended a finger and pressed hard on Ines’s shoulder. Ines was about half a head taller than Leila, but she was so pitifully thin that even that forceful shove sent her stumbling.

That rough touch was one of the reasons Ines had feared Leila her whole life.

But now was different. Leila no longer frightened her. Because she knew now that what was truly frightening was not something as trivial as a rough shove or bullying.

Ines straightened herself and spoke.

“Father called me to the luncheon, so I came.”

The answer that came out was remarkably calm and smooth.

“……Father called you?”

“Yes.”

A short reply, and Leila’s expression twisted. Ines knew what emotions were written on that sharp face.

Contempt, anger, and a faint trace of envy.

From a very young age, Leila had despised Ines being included among the imperial family. From something as small as the occasional shared meal to something as large as a state ceremony.

She had not understood the reason until she was somewhat older.

Leila hated Ines for having the imperial coloring that she herself lacked. Not the deep gold hair and dark green eyes, but platinum blonde and eyes like a mist-filled forest, yet belonging to the same family of colors in the end.

Ines had never been able to understand it. Ines, who had the imperial coloring, was nothing more than a half-princess who had not even been granted a middle name, while Leila, with her red hair and violet eyes, was the legitimate princess of this country, lacking for nothing.

She would probably never understand Leila, not in a lifetime. Nor did she have any desire to.

“……May I pass now?”

Ines asked, deliberately dropping her gaze.

Ordinarily, Ines had always been cowed in front of Leila.

She had spoken calmly without thinking just now, but there was no need to make Leila notice something was off and start watching her closely. Ines needed to leave this imperial palace safely and make her way to Rupert.

“You……”

Just as Leila was glaring fiercely at her, a voice slithered between them like a creeping insect.

“What could our dear sister possibly find so disagreeable this time?”

A voice thick with unpleasant slipperiness. This too was etched clearly in Ines’s memory.

“I told you not to talk like that.”

“So prickly.”

She turned slowly to look, and saw Leila bristling with irritation and a man smiling lazily as he dealt with her.

The Second Prince, Diosel von Delcarion, with dirty blond hair and the same violet eyes as Leila.

At the sight of him, Ines’s eyes flickered almost imperceptibly. The emotion that flashed through those strangely colored eyes for just a moment was revulsion.

“God, this is so annoying.”

Leila, who had snapped at Diosel, spun around. Their gazes crossed briefly and intensely, then she moved away.

Ines steadied her uneven breath and took a natural step forward. But she had not gone far before her arm was grabbed.

Thwack.

Even though she had resolved to play the weak, timid twenty-two-year-old, she pulled her arm free by instinct, because instinct had overridden reason. At twenty-seven, she felt more disgust than fear at Diosel’s touch.

“That’s a new reaction……”

Ines pressed her lips together tightly, and Diosel murmured with a cold smile.

Facing Leila was better than this. She would sooner hear Leila’s contempt-laden tirades a hundred times over than endure this revolting gaze.

“Have you grown shy from not seeing me for a while? Hmm?”

He closed the distance she had put between them in a single step, and his hand seized her shoulder.

That grip was not rough like Leila’s, and for that very reason it was more horrible. The meaning carried in the thumb that slowly moved against her was not contempt but something else entirely.

“Let go.”

“Why. We’re heading the same way anyway, aren’t we? Let’s walk together.”

Diosel brushed off her words and pressed his shoulder against hers, the corner of his mouth curling up crookedly.

Every hair on her body stood on end. His hand, his arm against her shoulder, it all felt like insects crawling over her.

‘……Disgusting.’

Without realizing it, she had been biting the inside of her cheek, and the faint taste of blood spread across her tongue. At the same moment, Ines recognized that her agonizing had been pointless.

Diosel did not behave this way when others were watching. Just as he had not even glanced at Ines when Leila was present a moment ago.

Diosel only reached out with those revolting, insinuating hands when no one else was looking.