Her soft lips touched his chest. After leaving a kiss on his n*pple, they slowly slid down along his abs. Each time a hot breath touched his skin, blood rushed to his lower body. His lower half responded purely instinctively.

Her lips reached his navel. Her hot hands gently caressed his blood-filled lower body, then suddenly gripped his aroused member. A pair of skilled hands rubbed the tip where fluid had started to leak.

At this, Liam barely managed to move his disobedient hand. When he caught her delicate wrist, she tilted her head.

‘Why?’

You’re my sister…

‘But you wanted me. You desired me.’

Still, I can’t embrace you like this.

When he appealed to the last bit of conscience remaining somewhere, the lilim in her form giggled.

‘Don’t be ridiculous.’

When she slightly twisted her body, the curves of her feminine form were fully visible. Her round br*asts swayed softly. That pink peak he wanted to bite, lick, and suck right away. The enchanting thing he had imagined for so long…

‘I know best what you want.’

When he squeezed his eyes shut at the outline that shouldn’t be peeked at, afterimages remained in the black world. Filled with the real her.

‘Acting like this when you’re still lusting after me.’

A dream─ mocking him like that.

After waking from the dream, Liam sat on the bed for a while, just breathing heavily. Though his nights were always accompanied by nightmares lately, today, he couldn’t distinguish between dream and reality. Reality felt like a dream, and the dream felt like reality.

Then Marchioness Archambault came with a message from Amaryllis. Finally organizing the hallucinations from his dream, Liam could start his day.

Marchioness Archambault led Liam to the imperial greenhouse. Colorful cyclamens proudly displayed their blooming forms.

Amaryllis, sitting at the tea table, greeted Liam.

“You’ve come?”

“Yes. What matter requires my presence so early this morning?”

To Liam’s question, Amaryllis only showed a gentle smile on her pale face. Silence settled in.

Sitting familiarly before her, Liam reached for a teacup. Just as he was about to pour and drink the tea as if it were natural–

“Liam?”

At the gentle voice calling him, Liam stopped his action. The teacup stopped in mid-air, and red tea splashed from the recoil.

Amaryllis whispered, still with a smiling face.

“Don’t drink it.”

At that gentle warning, Liam raised his head. He finally had the presence of mind to observe his surroundings.

Behind Amaryllis stretched a wide lawn. Dozens of ornamental birds kept by the imperial family lay on the ground, trembling with bloody foam at their beaks.

The poor ornamental birds struggled to move their weak wings. Flutter, flutter… It was such a pitiful and sad sound. Though they managed to move, their wings that couldn’t float to the blue sky only left a few feathers in the air.

Their unblinking eyes trembled. Like those who died unjustly.

Even Liam couldn’t help but be horrified at the sight.

“Lily. What is this…”

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

Amaryllis, who had committed this horrific act, truly smiled as if it were nothing. A flash of madness crossed Amaryllis’s bright red gaze.

Her pretty fingertips moved. She snatched the teacup still held in Liam’s grasp. Amaryllis tilted the cup with exaggerated, dance-like movements. The red tea poured down onto the grass like rain.

Sizzle, though it shouldn’t be possible. It seemed like the sound of grass burning could be heard.

“After thinking about it carefully…”

Amaryllis released her grip. Thud, the poor teacup lay on the yellowing grass.

“I realized I hadn’t erased all traces of Madame Marguerite.”

“…Pardon?”

“I uprooted all the roses in the greenhouse and planted cyclamens…”

As she said, the greenhouse that was once full of the fragrance of roses was now blooming with colorful cyclamens. The place that had shone brilliantly all year round had become a space where winter’s special sparkle caught the eye.

“The birds she raised, feeding them and stroking their heads, I couldn’t bear to touch them out of pity.”

Amaryllis held back a hollow laugh.

“Because they move alive. Because they sing with pretty voices. Because they fly over and rub their beaks when fed. Just that, just that made me pity them.”

“……”

“It wasn’t fair. Yes, it wasn’t fair. Looking back, whether plants or animals, traces of that woman remained all the same.”

The words ‘Are you crazy? There was no need to do this’ lingered in his throat. Liam struggled to swallow the words rising to the tip of his tongue.

Amaryllis looked at the dying birds with gentle eyes and opened her red lips again.

“Liam.”

“Yes.”

“I’m afraid I have to make a difficult request.”

There weren’t many things Amaryllis would call a ‘request’ to Liam. Anxiety ran down his spine.

Especially hearing it near surrounded dying life, it felt more like a threat than a request. It sounded like saying she could kill him anytime too.

“What grand matter do you wish to discuss?”

“Could you give up Blumir to Bastian?”

For a moment, it felt like being hit on the back of the head.

She seemed disappointed after receiving Saint-Germain yesterday. But to ask for Blumir? Who would willingly let their title be taken while still alive?

Finally, he couldn’t hold back his words.

“Lily, have you lost your mind?”

“Of course not. I can say this because I’m being perfectly rational.”

“Because you’re being rational? This makes no sense.”

“No, the Blumir bloodline already ended with Madame Marguerite’s generation. And she committed crimes. The Marguerite duchy was reclaimed, but Blumir wasn’t, right?”

“The Marguerite duchy had no one to inherit it, so it’s not comparable. Blumir had me.”

Of course, when examining each point, her words weren’t illogical. Even if the Blumir duchy had been reclaimed, there would have been no grounds to dispute it, but it sounded ridiculous. Especially from Amaryllis, who had never once called Valentine Madame Blumir.

It was a strange obstinacy within Amaryllis. She likely didn’t want to acknowledge Valentine as Blumir’s true owner. She wanted Valentine to remain only as Madame Marguerite, that shameful name.

“You will receive another, Liam. A more suitable position.”

Liam closed his eyes for a moment. Barely suppressing his boiling emotions, he muttered.

“…Lily, do you also think I have no legitimate right of succession because I’m adopted?”

“Of course, Sehera recognizes adoption rights. I don’t think that law is wrong.”

Gwenael, with only his good bloodline, crossed Amaryllis’s mind. Liam was far more noble than the likes of that degenerate Gwenael. It almost made her feel sorry for comparing them.

“However…”

Trailing off, Amaryllis glanced away. The fallen ornamental birds no longer fluttered their wings. Like the dead Madame Marguerite.

But that dead woman still ruled over them.

“Liam, Mademoiselle Sehera said early on that Bastian would become a count. She said she had already discussed it with His Majesty.”

“And?”

“I was hoping he would at least receive Pendragon. If they had followed the Fleur dynasty’s tradition, they would have given Soner… but who cares about Soner?”

She didn’t even desire the symbol of the old dynasty, Soner. Rather, she didn’t want to give Bastian the name that Astaire once bore.

“Being the only prince, and the firstborn… I never thought they would give Bastian merely a count’s title.”

As she had told Liam then, hadn’t Cassian cared for Bastian in his own way? Moreover, given his fastidious nature, there was absolutely no chance of him having another child for at least the next few years. So naturally, there were certain expectations.

“But it was merely Saint-Germain. Just as the princess said.”

As she had resolved then, it was time to stop sitting quietly. But since she couldn’t go to Cassian and complain about a mere count’s title, she needed to persuade Liam first.

“That day, the princess said so. That she would soon become the Duchess of Blumir.”

Liam’s blue eyes sank darkly. So soon, Blumir would be reclaimed by the imperial family, and Lumière would inherit that title.

He couldn’t tell if those words were true or false. But if true, it was natural for Amaryllis to be anxious.

Lumière, the previous emperor’s princess, and Amaryllis, the current emperor’s empress. Lumière, the center of old nobility, and Sienne, the focus of new nobility. Whatever it was, they were bound to clash, given their positions.

But extending that conflict to Liam was a different matter.

“So you’re saying that instead of losing my title to the princess, it would be better to lose it to the prince?”

“It would be better for Bastian to hold it than for it to go to Lumière.”

“Did you never consider it might be best for me to keep it?”

“I told you, it’s already been discussed with His Majesty. How could we reverse that?”

“Lily.”

Rising firmly from his seat, Liam couldn’t help but keep noticing the drooping, motionless birds.

“People have things they cannot yield. For you, it was His Majesty. For me, it’s Blumir.”

“Originally… Blumir wasn’t yours either.”