“Sister?”

Lumière quietly furrowed her brow. It wasn’t the proper way for Bastian to address Valentine.

Facing Bastian, Lumière’s eyes curved beautifully. A good idea had occurred to her.

“You shouldn’t call Belle that. She could be your mother, you know.”

“Huh?”

“Your Highness! What are you saying!”

The maid momentarily shouted at those shocking words. Instantly, Lumière’s fan moved sharply. With a crack, it struck the maid’s hand mercilessly.

“How impertinent.”

“Eek!”

A sharp cut appeared on the maid’s hand. The sudden pain made her eyes well up.

“Tsk tsk, like mistress, like maid. You and the Empress are equally ill-mannered. This would have been unimaginable when Mother was alive.”

She’s essentially suggesting that the Empress couldn’t properly manage her maids, the maid immediately defended her mistress.

“…Her Majesty is not that kind of person.”

“Oh? Then are you disrespecting me because I’m an unmarried princess without a title?”

“That’s not…”

“How dare you raise your voice before me?”

She seemed determined to pick a fight. The maid, knowing that quiet acquiescence was the quickest way past moments like this, bit her lip.

But the princess continued.

“Soon your mistress will be at most a countess. When I become the Duchess of Blumir, you won’t dare act this way, will you?”

“…What?”

The maid sharply raised her head at those words. It was something that made her doubt her own ears.

“Seeing your reaction… I didn’t realize you were too stupid to even understand human speech. Well, I suppose that’s about the Empress’s level.”

With a huff, Lumière turned her head while fluttering her fan. Behind the fully opened silk fan, her blue eyes flashed.

“Well then, go on.

Go tell Amaryllis everything you just heard.”

* * *

“Ma-Madame Sehera.”

Bastian’s maid, having fallen for the provocation, ran straight to Amaryllis. Amaryllis, having finished her private conversation with Liam, was brewing tea.

“Yes? What is it, Brielle?”

“It seems His Majesty… may have discussed something with Her Highness the Princess.”

Amaryllis lowered her eyes. Since Lumière was still the most senior member of the imperial family, it wasn’t strange for her to be consulted on important matters.

Even if it hurt that he wasn’t discussing things with Amaryllis.

“Is that so? What was it about?”

“She said His Highness would soon be called Count.”

“Count…”

Though they had dreamed of Pendragon.

Still, Count wasn’t shameful for a first title. Wasn’t Amaryllis’s family also of Count status? Though it couldn’t be compared to Amaryllis’s family, many nominal royals were counts.

So it’s fine, it’s fine… After reassuring herself, Amaryllis lifted the teapot.

“Also, she mentioned something regarding Blumir.”

Amaryllis paused while pouring tea into the cup. It was completely incomprehensible.

“Blumir? What do you mean all of a sudden?”

“Her Highness said she would soon become the Duchess of Blumir.”

“What… nonsense is this? Is she saying she’ll marry Liam?”

Amaryllis couldn’t help but laugh mockingly. It was an impossible dream unless Liam had gone mad.

It didn’t seem likely that Liam, who’s still living in his fantasies of that woman, could envision a future with anyone else. In fact, he was ignoring all marriage proposals.

The maid’s voice became urgent.

“No, not Duchess consort, but a female duke!”

“A female duke?”

Amaryllis raised her eyebrows. Becoming the duke of Blumir, in other words, giving Blumir to Lumière…

Throwing merely a Count title to Bastian as if he’s doing him a favor, while giving Lumière a ducal title? And Blumir of all places, which already had an owner?

“And… and…”

The maid swallowed hard. Though unsure whether this should be relayed or not, she spoke anyway.

“About His Highness… she said that woman could have been His Highness’s mother…”

“…What?”

Amaryllis jumped up from her seat and struck the table with both hands with all her might. The teapot screamed, spitting out red tea like blood.

Though she knew it was provocation, it was an infuriating statement that made her blood boil.

“That…!”

The teacup rolled and fell to the floor. Crash! Through the sound of breaking porcelain, Amaryllis’s near-scream rang out.

“That old vixen!”

Amaryllis clenched her fist tightly. The tablecloth crushed in her grip wrinkled mercilessly.

Amaryllis would never let anyone take what was hers. Whether it was Bastian, Cassian, or Liam.

Never.

“Ha…!”

Along with her deep resolve, an incredulous laugh burst out. She couldn’t simply laugh off such mere words confidently.

She had sensed it the moment Lumière first appeared with that woman. That the day she would grow close to that legal sister would never come.

Now she hated everything about that damned old fox. She could almost hear that characteristic snicker.

Lumière, Lumière de la Fleur.

Perhaps because of what she had endured all this time. She was someone who knew too well where to strike to hurt, how to make people react like they were having a fit.

Just imagining that woman who looked like Madame Marguerite standing beside Cassian made her blood boil. She was nearly in tears from anger.

“How… how could she say such things about someone who looks exactly like the former emperor’s maîtresse-en-titre… I simply cannot understand.”

The maid voiced her grievance. Her mistress’s humiliation was her own. Moreover, Lumière’s words suggested that the Empress could be driven out because of that woman.

Amaryllis de la Sienne was neither a foreign princess nor a recognized nominal royal of her country. She was merely a noble of Sehera. With no conflicting national interests, removing her wouldn’t be difficult.

So those words sounded like a threat to drive out the Empress and push that woman to the Emperor’s side.

But at the maid’s words, Amaryllis suddenly realized.

‘…Right.’

While Amaryllis was on edge because of Cassian and Madame Marguerite’s relationship, others merely thought of the era when Astaire ruled.

Few people knew that Cassian and Madame Marguerite had been lovers in the first place.

Almost no one knew the truth about that day of rebellion. No, perhaps few even cared to know.

The truth wasn’t important. Whatever happened, the rebellion succeeded, Astaire and Madame Marguerite died, and the ruling imperial family changed.

In the midst of it all, people only thought Madame Marguerite had poisoned Astaire III because of Liam. Either following her brother Liam’s will, or Liam had framed her for the emperor’s murder.

Though everyone kept quiet about it, the latter rumor had solidified among the nobles.

In any case, in such a situation, Cassian wouldn’t suddenly speak the truth now.

That he was lovers with his nephew’s maîtresse-en-titre. Moreover, that woman was someone he himself had given to oust his nephew.

That cold man wouldn’t give such an excuse to others. Even if it was Lumière.

Therefore, Lumière, who knew nothing about the ‘truth,’ must have another reason for making such painful provocations. She knew exactly what would trigger Amaryllis most sensitively.

Taking a deep breath, Amaryllis finally managed to mutter calmly.

“I suppose Her Highness simply doesn’t like me that much.”

“Her Highness is being too much. What on earth has Your Majesty done wrong?”

“……”

Amaryllis fell silent for a moment. What had she done?

Strictly speaking, on Lumière’s first day back, she had dragged and tormented her maid. She had picked fights using Gwenael and committed rudeness trying to drive out an eyesore.

Though it might seem trivial when viewed generously, it was enough for Lumière, who had spent so long living in submission, to think she was being challenged.

Perhaps she was reaping what she had sown. Pressing her temple once, Amaryllis looked at the maid.

“Brielle.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Did His Majesty make any definitive statements?”

At Amaryllis’s question, the maid slightly bowed her head.

She couldn’t bring herself to say that the Emperor, who had appeared with Lumière, had followed that crying woman when she disappeared, and thus she hadn’t heard anything from him.

“I’m not sure about that.”

“I see…”

Amaryllis closed her mouth. She needed time to calmly settle her complicated thoughts.

Soon she spoke,

“Whatever the case, it seems it’s just Her Highness’s words in the end.”

Though Amaryllis could be hasty, she wasn’t a fool. She knew best that Lumière had made an excellent provocation, and she had instinctively reacted to it.

“Really… when Bastian becomes a Count, it won’t be too late to take action then.”

The position of count.

Though a high noble rank, it was ambiguous. Hadn’t the imperial firstborn traditionally received a ducal title? Though Cassian cherished Bastian, this treatment showed where he stood in the hierarchy.

‘…..’

A bitter taste suddenly filled her mouth.

Until hearing about Blumir, she tried to comfort herself that it would be fine as long as Bastian received any title at all.

If Cassian was discriminating between Lumière and Bastian, if by any chance he was persecuting him for being Amaryllis’s bloodline, it would be unbearable.

Still, watching and waiting was the right path for now. There wasn’t much she could do at the moment anyway. But if Bastian really received the title of Count, that would mean…

‘That the Princess’s words were true.’