Larinne hurriedly pushed against Libehi Winterd’s chest.

She narrowly avoided his lips touching hers. Even so, his face remained close.

“You’re too close.”

“Does it displease you?”

“……”

No, it didn’t.

Whenever her fiancé touched her, she would usually feel disgusted.

Yet, for some reason, she found herself strangely tolerant of him.

‘Is it because he resembles that child?’

A deep thirst tightened around her throat.

‘…Another pointless thought.’

To cut off the distracting thoughts threatening to spiral out of control, she forced herself to attach a convenient explanation.

‘This must also be a strange symptom caused by the companion dream.’

She did not realize how forced that excuse was.

‘Don’t forget what you came here to do, Larinne.’

She steadied her mind, repeating the reminder to herself as if hypnotizing her own thoughts.

Turning her head away with effort, she spoke.

“I need information about the griffins.”

“….”

As Libehi Winterd straightened from the posture in which he had been leaning toward her, the warm breath brushing the back of her neck disappeared.

“I didn’t expect that something so trivial… would matter more to you than our current situation.”

His voice tilted slightly to the side, almost sounding mocking.

In an instant, the heated tension surrounding them dissipated and the atmosphere shifted.

Larinne tensed again, but for a different reason this time.

‘It must be because it’s a sensitive topic.’

The griffin was a top-tier magical beast that had greatly contributed to the Kingdom of Lirmen’s rapid rise to power.

In other words, it was one of their core military strengths.

“I know it’s a difficult request. I’m not asking for it for free.”

“Are you proposing a negotiation?”

“If possible, I would like that.”

“So you’re curious how we managed to tame griffins.”

“Controlling magical beasts, like magic itself, is tied to one’s lifespan.”

‘As far as I know, the most powerful magical beasts can never be tamed by humans.’

With the body of a lion, a griffin was three times the size of an ordinary warhorse.

Its long, serpentine tail was venomous, enabling it to easily fend off enemies approaching from behind.

With the wings of an eagle, griffins excelled in both ground and aerial combat.

‘After spreading your name across the entire continent within five years of founding your nation, it must have been an ability that both irritated and tempted you.’

By comparison with the vast Eastern Empire, the Kingdom of Lirmen was tiny. The Empire’s arrogant ministers dismissed it as nothing more than a mere kingdom. However, the Emperor thought differently. He was wary of Lirmen’s growth.

‘A single soldier riding a griffin can easily face a thousand enemies. And they control the upper reaches of the Pacto River—the very source of the sand-covered Eastern Continent.’

Given what they had achieved in the five years since the kingdom’s foundation, it was clear that their influence would only grow in the future.

The Emperor intended to use Larinne to steal Lirmen’s military secrets. He gave this order because he knew Libehi Winterd was interested in her.

Even now, she was nothing more than a tool to her fiancé.

She did not feel angry.

It had always been this way.

It seemed that Libehi Winterd had realized this as well.

“I don’t understand why you would take the hand of such a man.”

“I’m simply trying to protect my people.”

“What is so precious?”

His voice had dropped to a low rumble, and the anger in it was unmistakable.

It felt strange.

The person growing angry on her behalf was the envoy of an enemy nation. Yet he had the face of a child. A foreign sensation stirred in her chest, as if her heart had been buried under a pile of sand.

“Is it truly worth that much—something precious enough for you to endure such humiliation?”

“If the negotiation with you goes well, I plan to ask His Majesty to withdraw the order forbidding the treatment of Lirmen people.”

“You could treat them while avoiding the eyes of the guards.”

“That may be true. But I want to restore what should have been their rightful claim in the first place. The right to receive treatment whenever they are ill—without needing anyone’s permission. Because all humans are equal.”

She turned her gaze toward the direction of the Grand Temple and added quietly,

“If fortune favors us, we may even be able to retrieve the bodies of the Lirmen people who were sacrificed there…”

“Once a soul has departed, it is no different from the sand of the desert.”

“Even if it is only a handful of that sand, there are those who spend every night in tears wishing they could hold it.”

She herself had once been one of them.

When the news of that child’s death had come without warning, there had been no consideration for the one left behind.

“…I’m sorry.”

Sorry for what?

His troubled expression, as though he were the one in pain, only served to confuse her further.

She searched for an appropriate response, her lips parting slightly. But before she could speak, a commotion erupted in the banquet hall.

“Lady Larinne! Lady Larinne!”

Chardi’s scream rang out from beyond the balcony window.

***

When had she last run like this since becoming the Emperor’s fiancée?

Larinne found herself moving farther and farther away from the banquet hall.

‘Lady Dius has taken Chardi’s younger sibling to the Lake Palace.’

The sudden cry for Larinne interrupted her conversation with Libehi Winterd.

When she returned to the hall, she found Chardi standing there, tears streaming down her face.

Chardi pleaded with her.

Her younger sibling was in danger of dying and she begged Larinne for help.

Larinne understood the despair of someone who had nowhere else to turn.

After asking Libehi Winterd for his understanding, she had no choice but to head towards the Lake Palace.

“You seem to have many things that are precious to you.”

The words he had spoken while holding her back suddenly resurfaced in her mind.

He had looked as though he still had more to say.

Larinne tried to push the image of him watching her with that unreadable expression out of her mind.

That wasn’t important right now.

“What should we do, Lady Larinne? If something happens to my sister, our mother might collapse again.”

“Don’t worry Chardi, it’ll be alright.”

Hurrying behind the sobbing Chardi and trying to comfort her, Larinne finally caught sight of the magnificent Lake Palace.

The isolated palace seemed to mock her.

She didn’t know how to calm the ominous feeling rising within her.

The Lady of House Dius, as Larinne knew her, was capable of anything.

“No matter what happens, I’ll protect your sibling.”

With that vow, Larinne stepped forward.

She walked through the palace’s open gates, which resembled the gaping jaws of a savage beast.

***

The dozens of annex palaces surrounding the main imperial palace were considered to be among the current emperor’s greatest achievements.

The Lake Palace, in particular, was the perfect symbol of his reign.

In a desert nation where water was scarce, who would have imagined building an artificial lake?

Ultimately, it was Seidon Varbel, the emperor’s fiancée, who used minority tribes as laborers to construct the vast artificial lake within the imperial grounds — an unmistakable display of the emperor’s power.

This grandiose project, which transcended luxury and verged on exploitation, was even praised by the nobles of the Eastern Empire.

Now, Larinne stood in that very place, built on the blood and toil of countless people.

With every step she took, the laughter of women grew clearer.

She had reached the chamber overlooking the lake.

“It seems your education is still lacking. Your gaze is insolent.”

The soft voice belonged to Lady Dius.

“You need to come to your senses.”

As soon as the command was given, the sounds of frantic gasping and desperate struggling echoed from the water’s edge—like someone being forcibly plunged beneath the surface.

“Kalon!”

Chardi screamed and her face turned deathly pale.

They rushed forward in panic and were met with an appalling sight: Kalon lay sprawled on the floor, his body bruised and battered.

Several prestigious noble families’ daughters stood beside Lady Dius, merely watching the scene unfold.

‘What on earth have they done…’

The marks of whipping were unmistakable on Kalon, who lay curled up, groaning.

The moment she saw him, Larinne’s body moved forward as if it had been released from a spring.

“Stop.”

All eyes in the annex turned toward her.

Lady Dius, who had been orchestrating this dreadful scene, gracefully opened her feathered fan.

At once, the two men restraining Kalon stepped back.

“Kalon!”

Chardi rushed toward her younger brother. But the men blocking her path prevented her from reaching him.

“What brings you here, my lady?”

Lady Dius’s gaze dropped to the ground at her feet.

“Surely it isn’t because of… this.”

There wasn’t the slightest hint of pity in her gaze when she looked at Kalon. Her eyes were cold and indifferent, as though he were just an object to be observed.

Larinne stepped forward and faced them calmly.

“I heard that my maid was caught touching food from the kitchen.”

“Let us be precise. She was caught stealing.”

“Then the maid should be punished. Why, then, are you doing this to her younger brother, who has nothing to do with it?”

“Are you certain it would be acceptable to punish someone who belongs to you, my lady?”

Lady Dius’s eyes curved gracefully as she smiled.

Larinne could see through the elegant mask she wore.

‘…What a cruel woman.’

Lady Dius had done this deliberately.

No matter how openly she usually ignored Larinne, laying hands on the maid of someone publicly known to be the Emperor’s fiancée would violate imperial decorum.

However, Lady Dius, a true noblewoman, knew exactly how to cause deeper sorrow in situations like this.

Touch what the other person cherishes most.

What could be more devastating than that?

And so Chardi’s innocent younger brother became the outlet for a spiteful noblewoman’s anger.

Knowing that Larinne would grieve alongside them only made the cruelty more deliberate.

In that sense, Lady Dius had not chosen wrongly.

Larinne felt her heart tighten painfully.

After all, it was only because of her that Chardi had taken food from the kitchen.

‘I should have brought the food to Pellet myself.’

Of course, she had not forced Chardi.

In fact, she had volunteered, saying that she wanted to repay Larinne’s kindness by paying her wages herself.

Whenever large events like this took place at the Imperial Palace, Chardi always helped out.

Thanks to that, Pellet, who received the kitchen’s leftovers, had been able to ease their hunger.

‘Nothing like this had ever happened before, so I didn’t expect it.’

Only now did she realize how careless that thinking had been.

She had to set things right before matters worsened further.

“I was the one who asked her to do it.”

“Ah. So you’re saying that Lady Larinne ordered the food to be brought from the kitchen, and therefore no crime was committed?”

“That is correct. Besides, every year the leftover food from the banquet is distributed to those who helped with the work.”

“That happens after the banquet has ended. Is disposing of leftover food the same as presumptuously trying to sit at the same table?”

“That is an excessive remark. To call it disposal…”

She could not fully control her expression.

She had always known that the nobles of the Eastern Empire were arrogant, but hearing such words directed at her made her frown involuntarily.

Larinne quietly clenched her fists as she watched Lady Dius and the other noblewomen whispering and stifling their laughter.

She could not react.

Lady Dius and her companions took pleasure in the suffering of those weaker than themselves.

“I have explained the matter, so please clear this misunderstanding and stop punishing an innocent child.”

“Then was it also your command to steal valuables from the Lirmen delegation?”

“…What?”

Stealing valuables?

The composed mask Larinne had maintained throughout finally shattered. What she had just heard was completely unexpected.

Under the criminal law of the Eastern Empire, theft was severely punished, as were those who ordered it.

Larinne caught the glint of malice in Lady Dius’s eyes.

It was clear that she intended to frame Larinne.

“When we searched his belongings, we found this.”

As though she had been waiting for this very moment, Lady Dius produced the evidence: a gold bracelet.

At first glance, the gold bracelet looked expensive.

It was clearly not an item made in the Eastern Empire.