When she met those glinting bright red eyes, her body trembled without fail.

It was proof that her fear of the beast who’d cruelly broken her wings still outweighed her poisoned resolve.

While Laurencia struggled to suppress her trembling, Jedrian blatantly scanned her appearance as he slowly approached.

Soon, stopping right in front of her, he whispered with eyes gleaming like a predator who’d found prey.

“Is the reason you dressed up so pretty because of that b*stard?”

Without giving her a chance to answer, he bent forward and mercilessly trampled her pride.

“I told you to play with the scraps I give you, but now you’re trying to pick up your own food. The noble princess has no dignity.”

Her golden eyes instantly froze cold.

Even knowing the words weren’t worth refuting, her red lips twitched with rising anger.

Finding her reaction amusing, a voice filled with k*lling intent—contrasting with his expression—soon flowed from his widely split grin.

“What, already tired of that slave b*stard’s c*ck? Then you should’ve said so earlier. Swapping out one dog is nothing.”

Her heart dropped and her complexion turned pale.

At the same time, an ominous premonition flashed through her mind.

‘There’s a traitor.’

The first time she’d been intimate with Ashar, she’d somehow held back her sounds. To keep them from leaking outside.

Seeing this, Ashar had assured her she didn’t need to worry about that b*stard finding out since the knights guarding outside had been replaced with his own men.

Yet Jedrian knew about her relationship with Ashar.

Which meant someone had reported that fact.

‘Who.’

“Come to think of it, today’s the last day of the banquet, and we haven’t danced even once?”

Jedrian, who’d been staring at her completely frozen form, suddenly bent at the waist and politely extended his hand.

“Would you grant me the opportunity to dance with you?”

Laurencia barely pulled her shaken mind together and responded with a forced calm expression, placing her fingertips on his hand.

“Of course.”

The man smiled brightly, seemingly pleased, then firmly grasped her hand and suddenly tucked it into his arm.

When she looked at him with flustered eyes at the unexpected action, Jedrian curved his eyes beautifully and whispered in an unprecedentedly affectionate voice.

“Let’s dance in my room, just the two of us.”

* * *

Seduce him.

Somehow seduce him, no matter what.

She had to seduce him by any means necessary.

Throughout the walk to Jedrian’s room, Laurencia steeled her resolve again and again, but the poisoned determination she’d built kept crumbling.

Perhaps because she’d been bitten badly once, her expression froze without fail whenever she stood before him. That reaction seemed to have become an incurable chronic condition.

Still, if it were any other time, she would have at least desperately tried to seduce him somehow, but the problem was that she’d attacked him just two days ago.

In that situation, how could she act even more shamelessly here?

Most of all, the problem was that despite her firm resolve, her complexion changed first whenever she was cornered by unexpected situations. 

Even if she quickly recovered her expression, he caught her inner thoughts every time, so now she hesitated to even open her mouth.

With such complicated feelings, she couldn’t even manage her expression, let alone seduce him.

Her steps walking down the corridor dragged like a beast being led to sl*ughter. The closer they got to his bedroom door, the more her fingertips trembled and her heart pounded.

Whether he knew her feelings or not, Jedrian gently tickled the back of her hand that he’d gripped tightly the entire way, even humming a tune.

His face was filled with a pleasant smile, seemingly delighted about something.

Walking lightly like that, Jedrian suddenly stopped right in front of the bedroom door.

Then he said something out of the blue.

“I prepared something for you today.”

At the sudden statement, Laurencia’s already uncomfortable expression darkened further.

She didn’t know what it was, but she didn’t welcome anything.

What he prepared was always nothing but torment for her.

The man immediately noticed her lukewarm reaction and raised the corner of his mouth with a smirk.

Soon as Jedrian turned around again, a waiting knight opened the door to his bedroom that she didn’t want to enter.

As the large door opened, the man arrogantly lifted his chin and entered confidently like a groom walking toward the altar.

At Jedrian’s excessive behavior, unusually excited today, Laurencia’s expression stiffened even more anxiously.

The man who’d seated her on the sofa sat in the head seat instead of beside her, for once.

Not in his usual crooked posture, but sitting solemnly as though he’d been noble from birth, he gazed at her.

At the banquet hall, he’d threatened her like he wouldn’t leave her alone once they entered the room, but now he seemed to have no intention of pouncing at all.

Unable to discern the vile man’s intentions, Laurencia’s mouth went dry.

Nevertheless, she maintained a calm expression and obediently waited for the words that would come from his mouth.

Finally, his mouth opened.

“Lauren, I’ll give you a choice.”

His uncharacteristically calm voice grated on her ears, but Laurencia focused on the word Jedrian had uttered.

A choice.

She didn’t know what she had to choose, but none of it seemed like a good situation for her.

Laurencia, who was about to ask what choice he meant, kept her mouth shut for now.

Gazing at her face, flushed pink with tension, as though it were lovely, he released just one more hint to this riddle-like conversation.

“There are two men. You have to choose one of them.”

‘Two men?’

Someone immediately came to mind.

Ashar.

But she was confused about who the other one was.

Whether it was Rubid or Jedrian himself.

Though curious, Laurencia remained silent this time too.

“Now then, choose.”

Her expression, which she’d barely been maintaining, crumpled sharply.

Telling her to choose just one without even saying who they were.

Finally, her patience reached its limit.

“Who am I supposed to choose?”

“The person you want to protect.”

Her brow furrowed further.

Three people came to mind.

Jedrian, Ashar, and Rubid, the King of Morzen.

However, among these three, there was no one she wanted to protect.

Continuing the meaningless staring contest, she opened her mouth again.

“There’s only one person I want to protect. You should know that well.”

“Exactly. So choose.”

“Jedrian, what exactly are you trying to—”

“I’m saying I’ll accept your proposal. I’ll take you as my wife. Of course, I’ll let you meet His Majesty too. But.”

His eyes gleamed dangerously.

An even more ominous premonition than before assaulted her entire body.

As her golden eyes trembled finely, he raised the corner of his mouth in a smirk and revealed the true purpose of this conversation.

“I can’t stand the sight of my wife having a lover. So choose. Will you abandon your lover and choose me, or will you keep that lowly b*stard by your side?”

A hollow breath escaped through her slightly parted teeth.

It was an easy choice, ridiculously so compared to how tense she’d been.

There was nothing to ponder.

This was exactly the kind of situation she’d hoped for when she’d made that risky move, even staking her succession rights that day.

Even if Jedrian fulfilled all the conditions, everything would become void if they ultimately didn’t receive the emperor’s approval.

And right now, the emperor was unconscious.

Even if they wanted his approval, they couldn’t get it.

Even if the emperor regained consciousness, he would never pass the throne to Jedrian, who’d betrayed him.

So unless it was usurpation, Jedrian couldn’t get his hands on the throne no matter what he did.

Laurencia hadn’t devised this plan to bring him down immediately.

She’d planned to buy time—time to spirit her father away.

Throw the throne he desired most as bait, officially announce their marriage, then spirit her father away while Jedrian let his guard down.

Once the emperor woke up, the emperor faction nobles who’d been crouching low and waiting for their chance would step forward on their own, so bringing down Jedrian was something she could plan afterward.

And now he’d finally taken that bait.

As the moment she’d so desperately wished for arrived, her heart pounded.

Laurencia maintained her expression and was just about to answer.

“If.”

At the voice so filled with k*lling intent it raised goosebumps, her expression froze again.

However, no matter what threats he made, there was only one answer.

As she was affirming this to herself, Jedrian carelessly placed one person’s life on the scales of her heart that had already tilted to one side.

“If you say you’ll abandon that b*stard, I’ll get rid of him right now. You know me, right?”

Jedrian split his mouth wide in a grin.