Henrietta had hair that was nearly blood-red. It was healthy, flowing, and beautiful.

Most people with Koeller family bloodlines were born with red hair. And very rarely, sometimes women with pink hair were born.

There were quite a few people with red hair in the Empire besides the Koeller family. But among the countless people in the Empire, there was absolutely no one born with pink hair who wasn’t from the Koeller family.

So when a girl with pink hair was born into the Koeller family, they would make a fuss about her receiving divine blessing.

“Stop it, Henrietta.”

Only after Duke Koeller personally intervened did Henrietta stop pulling out Edith’s hair. But she had already pulled out more than a handful, causing Edith’s scalp to tear and bleed.

From her first day at the ducal residence, Edith had to endure days stained with pain.

That’s why she didn’t particularly like it when people talked about her appearance.

**

“We’ll be camping tonight, Edith.”

“Understood. Then where should I…”

There wouldn’t be any women in the camp, so would she still need to pretend to be his mistress there? Edith tilted her head and looked up at the Prince.

“Where else would you go in a place full of starving men? You’ll stay in my tent.”

“Understood.”

Edith’s manner of answering somehow became more rigid.

‘I wish I could be separated from the Prince for a while.’

She recalled the Prince’s knight who had been staring at her continuously until just now.

From what she could tell, Ludwig hadn’t brought her along out of a sense of justice.

‘When I mentioned Neil, he found it amusing.’

Ludwig’s expression had been far from sympathetic; he had looked quite excited.

Though Ludwig had taken her away, there was still a possibility that he might sell her back to Neil.

That’s how Edith felt.

‘If one of the Prince’s subordinates wants me, might the Prince give me as a gift to him rather than to Neil?’

Perhaps because they had been living in a barren land without women for a long time, the men could hardly take their eyes off Edith.

If the Prince were to send her to a knight he favored among those men giving her burning glances, at least she could avoid being sold back to Neil.

“What are you thinking? Your answers are so curt.”

“Nothing.”

Once again, a stiff reply escaped from Edith’s lips.

“Do you hate spending the night with me?”

“……”

Edith couldn’t bring herself to answer the Prince’s confident question.

“I thought you said you were attracted to me.”

The Prince laughed mockingly at Edith as she hesitated to answer.

“Beautiful things are meant to be appreciated with the eyes, that’s all.”

Edith hesitated. Could she tell the truth?

“Actually, I…… To be honest, I’m afraid to say more because you might be angry that I’m having presumptuous thoughts.”

Edith slightly bowed her head and let out a shallow sigh.

“Speak. You seem like an amusing woman. I can usually laugh things off.”

“……”

“As long as you don’t lie, I won’t get angry. I promise.”

The Prince leaned in toward Edith, who was just fidgeting with her fingers without answering, and made his promise.

The man’s sharp nose bridge came so close it almost touched the woman’s.

“Well…… Your Highness has absolutely no interest in someone lowly like me.”

“And?”

The Prince didn’t deny it. Given his response, Edith decided to honestly convey what she was thinking.

“So you want to sleep with one of the knights, is that it?”

Just as she was about to open her mouth, the Prince cut off her words with a rather vulgar expression. For someone skilled with a sword, his way of speaking was rough, like a mercenary.

“Not exactly…… I was just thinking that I’d like to have a man who would formally marry me, even if he’s a commoner……”

“Marriage?”

The man’s lips twisted. Though his tone was friendly, his expression became quite fierce.

“I left behind a golden carriage to buy you. Do you think there’s a knight who has that much wealth?”

Edith bit her lip at the Prince’s words.

Until now, the man before her had shown positive reactions whenever she spoke honestly. But she couldn’t be honest anymore. She had thought he might give her away for free to a knight he trusted.

It was impossible for Edith to escape across the border alone to flee from Neil.

It would be good to have a companion. A man who would love her even without money and live with her abroad as a mercenary if necessary.

Surely Neil wouldn’t pursue her if she had children with another man and was living elsewhere.

With luck, the Prince might even tell Neil she was dead.

But she couldn’t possibly hope for such things from the man before her. He was sharp and cold. Though beautiful, he was a man who wouldn’t do anything that might cause him loss.

“I was being presumptuous. I apologize.”

In the end, Edith swallowed her words and tried to conclude with an apology.

“If you wanted a formal marriage, why did you choose me instead of the Marquis? If you had gone back when I refused, you could have married him.”

“First of all, I couldn’t disobey the Duchess’s orders under any circumstances. And the Marquis…… is old and has many sons. I heard he doesn’t keep women by his side once they pass thirty. They say he either kills them or sends them away with a pittance……”

These were facts Henrietta had told Edith mockingly, but they were true.

“Haha! You’re a calculating woman.”

Edith could only affirm the Prince’s words. Approaching and clinging to the Prince had all been calculated actions.

“If a knight appears who can bring two carriages full of gold for you, I might consider it. Until then, you can’t repay your own price, so stay by my side and do as I tell you. Understood?”

“Yes.”

Two carriages of gold. No knight could possibly possess such wealth. The greatest knight who had achieved military glory was the Prince himself.

Edith couldn’t help but look sad. She wondered if the Prince might eventually return her to Neil in exchange for two carriages of gold.

As if he saw her as something other than a woman—a maid or an inanimate object—the Prince casually stripped off his clothes in the tent.

Edith had no choice but to watch with open eyes as she attended to the Prince.

“Edith.”

“Yes?”

“Did you find a knight you like?”

“Ah…… not yet……”

Edith shook her head repeatedly. After she had mentioned wanting to marry, the Prince, who had barely spoken to her, began teasing her.

“Why a knight specifically? Since you’ve been formally adopted into the ducal family, you could aim for nobility.”

“Well…… if we’re going to live abroad together, it would be good if he could fight well. And I’m only a noble in name, not truly one. I’ve already experienced enough mockery as a fake noble. I think a knight of common birth would be sufficient.”

“Going abroad? To escape your brother?”

Edith nodded. Even to herself, her plan didn’t seem very thorough. But what other choice did she have?

“You asked to be my mistress just days ago, and already you’re thinking of crawling into another man’s bed.”

“I have no choice if I want to survive.”

“You always have a good answer.”

The Prince chuckled and then entered the bath alone.

Edith helped the Prince change his clothes after he came out of the bath.

Afterward, the Prince slept on the bed, and Edith once again slept on the floor.

**

“The Duke of Sachsen still hasn’t returned?”

“No.”

The butler bowed his head to Crown Prince Joachim with a troubled expression.

For the past few days, the Crown Prince had been rushing to the Sachsen ducal residence whenever he had a chance, causing a commotion by demanding to know why the Duke of Sachsen hadn’t returned.

Before the Crown Prince, who wouldn’t even treat anyone below the rank of Count as human, the butler tried his best to carefully please the Crown Prince so he wouldn’t damage the furniture in the reception room during his outbursts.

“Why are you tormenting a powerless butler, Your Highness?”

Joachim, who had been pressuring the butler, leaned toward the source of the clear baritone voice.

Leonard Sachsen, the legitimate first son of the Sachsen ducal family, was looking down at the man. Though the same age as himself at twenty-three, he was half a span taller.

“Tormenting? Are you now slandering me based on a mere butler’s words, Leo?”

Leonard Sachsen, the young duke, was commonly called Leo within the Sachsen family.

Under the flickering candlelight of the night, Leonard gave Joachim the illusion of a sculpture that had come to life and started walking.

He was a person who made Joachim feel disgusted whenever he saw him.

“I just happened to see the sofa you damaged yesterday. The butler told me he accidentally knocked it over while cleaning, but I knew you had visited because I stopped by the imperial palace yesterday.”

“I’ll personally find my grandfather and tell him to receive Your Highness. He’s inspecting the territory but will return soon.”

Leo was always like that. Since childhood, he had been unusually kind to those beneath him.

Even now, after rebuking Joachim for bullying the butler and offering to personally bring his grandfather, Joachim couldn’t argue back despite being insulted.

‘If that guy had called for him, he would have come running immediately.’

The Duke of Sachsen’s love for his grandson was exceptional. The Duke hadn’t even liked his own son, Johannes Sachsen, who was Leonard’s father.

But Leo had something about him that made people around him shrink back from the moment he was born. He excelled at everything beyond others and possessed a noble dignity beyond that of aristocrats.

The Duke of Sachsen had praised Leonard Sachsen as God’s masterpiece, uncharacteristic of his taciturn personality.

The man who had unintentionally made surrounding men feel inferior throughout his life was once again being kind to those beneath him today.

Joachim couldn’t understand Leo’s fixation on lowly beings.

“Is that true?”

But Joachim needed the Duke of Sachsen right away. His maternal grandfather, who wouldn’t even acknowledge his summons, would surely come running at this grandson’s call.

“I’ll depart tomorrow.”

Leo gave a subtle smile.

Unlike Joachim with his brown hair, the most common color in the Empire, the young duke’s platinum blonde hair shone softly like the coat of an Akhal-Teke, a prized horse.

“Very well, then I’ll return for today. I trust you. Make sure you take responsibility for what you just said and definitely bring him.”

Trying not to be outdone by Leo, Joachim spoke in the deepest voice possible, as if giving orders to his subordinates.

But somehow, he didn’t quite feel like he had completely won.

‘I wish that guy would develop some weakness.’

In some circles, there were rumors that Leonard Sachsen might marry Princess Mirabella, Joachim’s sister, and become the next Emperor, but to Joachim, Leo seemed to have no desire for power.

Moreover, Joachim was too busy checking Ludwig to worry about Leo right now.

For now, he would eliminate Ludwig and leave the aftermath to the Duke. His maternal grandfather, the Duke of Sachsen, was capable and would surely handle things cleanly.

‘That guy has no interest in power, so I can just let him work at the Supreme Court for life like he does now.’

Joachim slowly lifted his foot to leave.

Seeing the man withdraw without resistance, the butler quickly bowed to the young duke in gratitude.

Watching this, Joachim returned to the imperial palace, thinking that Leo was merely a useful figure for inciting commoners.

**

“Gasp!”

She felt a cold sensation as if her throat would be cut at any moment. Only after seeing the men holding knives to her neck did Edith realize what was happening. Masked men had infiltrated the tent where she was staying with the Prince.

And they were holding knives to her throat.

The Prince was fighting with the men on the opposite side, sword in hand.

“If you scream, we’ll kill the woman.”

The masked men threatened the Prince using Edith’s life as leverage.

“She’s just a maid, so it doesn’t matter if you kill her, but I don’t intend to wake my sleeping subordinates just to kill the likes of you.”

After finishing his words, the Prince charged at the assassins with his sword.

The assassins hurriedly began to block the Prince rushing toward them.