[It’s fine to kill a woman.]

Thanks to the senior knight Siren joining the fray inside the tent, the assassins were dealt with smoothly. Not just Siren, but other knights quickly entered the tent as if they had been waiting.

It seemed such assassination attempts happened frequently.

‘But they didn’t warn me beforehand, nor did they try to wake me. Am I just going to die by a blade one of these days?’

The prince, with his keen senses, must have quickly noticed the assassins’ intrusion, risen, and grabbed his sword. Of course, he wouldn’t have thought to wake Edith, who was sleeping on the floor.

Though she had resolved to die just days ago, now that hope had appeared in her life, Edith didn’t want to die.

Fortunately, she hadn’t lost her life thanks to the prince’s swift handling of the assassins. But where the assassin’s blade had touched her neck, there was a small cut that bled and felt hot and painful.

‘It must be the Crown Prince who sent someone. He probably wants to kill the prince before he returns to the palace to secure his own position.’

After Neil had revealed his true nature, Edith tried not to listen to anything he said. But when he brought useful information, she would pay close attention.

Afterward, Neil often casually shared political stories from the palace that the ducal heir might have picked up.

Edith had listened carefully, hoping to escape someday.

Though confined to her room, Edith knew that the prince and the Crown Prince weren’t on good terms. She didn’t know why, though.

“It’s done.”

Siren looked at Edith with an awkward smile. His fidgeting suggested he was nervous. After the prince had dealt with the assassins, he had left the tent, and Siren, the senior knight, stayed by Edith’s side.

After glancing at Edith and noticing her wound, Siren brought bandages himself and wrapped them around the woman’s neck, his gaze fixed on her.

‘Don’t they have a medic here?’

Edith gave a half-shadowed smile as she watched the man treating her neck as if it were a fragile glass doll about to break.

Throughout the journey, Siren had often glanced at the noticeably beautiful Edith.

Siren was a knight with rough hands covered in calluses. But his movements as he wrapped the bandage were incredibly careful, and when his face came close to wrap the bandage around the back of her neck, he even blushed.

“Thank you.”

Edith expressed her gratitude to Siren. With the bandage wrapped around her neck, the hot sensation seemed to subside.

“I’ve provided emergency treatment, but since the wound hasn’t healed yet, you should avoid sudden movements like turning your neck sharply.”

Siren added in a kind voice.

“I understand. You’re a very kind person.”

Edith replied gently, meeting the man’s eyes.

Whatever her words stirred in the man, despite having finished wrapping the bandage, he remained sitting in front of Edith with his face flushed red up to his ears.

“Kind? That’s the first time I’ve heard that in my life… haha.”

The man scratched the back of his head, seemingly embarrassed. He tried not to appear awkward, but the corners of his mouth reached his ears.

“You two seem to be getting along well.”

It was clearly a sarcastic voice.

The low voice that had ordered her expelled from the table when Edith was first revealed to be a courtesan’s daughter.

Edith quickly looked toward the source of the sound and offered a formal greeting.

“Y-Your Highness.”

Siren hastily raised his large frame and greeted the prince. The prince calmly accepted the flustered man’s greeting.

Ludwig glanced sideways at Siren once and then at Edith before coldly ordering Siren. Though he was smiling, his voice clearly had an edge to it.

“Moritz will be looking for you. Go, Siren.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

The man quickly bowed to the prince and left the tent.

“Did you like Siren?”

The prince slowly stepped toward Edith and addressed her.

“……”

She couldn’t easily answer.

“I prefer honesty, so speak plainly. Perhaps I might grant your wish. Siren is one of my most valued subordinates.”

“Well…”

Edith studied the prince’s expression. He gestured for her to answer, looking down at her.

Edith spoke honestly, as if resigned.

“He’s not bad. I don’t know what he thinks of me, though. He just wrapped my bandage, that’s all.”

“He wrapped your bandage? That man himself?”

The prince’s gaze dropped from Edith’s face to her neck.

“Yes. Because I was bleeding.”

The blade hadn’t cut deep, but blood had flowed from where it had grazed her.

“Did you enjoy it?”

“Pardon?”

His attitude was contemptuous, as if suggesting a lowly woman would wag her tail at any man.

Edith closed her mouth, watching the prince’s reaction.

“Yes, he seemed like a good person.”

The prince was looking at Edith with a raised eyebrow. She had no choice but to give an honest answer.

“Well, you’re not the type to be picky. You’d throw yourself at anyone willing to make you their legal wife, wouldn’t you?”

It was close to an insult, but being insulted by those of high status was routine, so she could endure it.

Edith simply nodded.

“In my current situation, that would be the best path.”

Edith didn’t deny it. The man’s words were true, and her most urgent desire was to avoid returning to the Köhler family.

Though Edith answered calmly, the prince looked at her as if she were vermin.

‘If you had grown up in difficulty like me, Your Highness, you would understand that survival is more important than lofty dignity.’

Whether he despised her or not, Edith was satisfied as long as the prince didn’t interfere with her. After all, if she became someone’s wife, she would never see this man again.

**

Köhler ducal residence.

“That rat-like girl left with the prince?”

Henrietta threw the pillow supporting her waist at Marie as she spoke. Marie was merely a frightening presence to Edith, but to Henrietta, she was just a slightly favored maid.

It should have been herself, not that worthless girl, who had connections with the prince. Of course, she would have been the prince’s fiancée, not his mistress.

“Yes. His Highness left his golden carriage behind.”

“Really? What about Neil? What is my brother doing?”

The corners of Henrietta’s mouth twisted as she mentioned Neil.

“The young duke left, saying he was going hunting.”

“Hunting? Hunting? Kahahaha!”

Henrietta couldn’t contain her derision. Her brother Neil’s situation was as ridiculous as her own, hiding her heavily pregnant body in a dark room, waiting for the child to be born.

‘He wouldn’t have just gone hunting. He must have gone after that girl.’

If no one else knew, Henrietta had known for a long time. That Neil thought of that filthy girl as his woman.

From the beginning, Neil had shown interest in Edith, mentioning her frequently.

From the day Edith set foot in the ducal residence, men who saw her began to follow her around as if enchanted. But to think that even her own brother, with his noble bloodline, would do the same…

In public, Neil would insult and mock Edith as a courtesan’s daughter, perhaps to avoid displeasing the duchess.

But Henrietta had seen it. Neil always followed Edith with his eyes when she was flushed red to her ears from his torment. He never took his eyes off her for a moment.

After making Edith cry, Neil would look thoroughly satisfied, as if he had made the woman his personal toy.

Only ignorant servants thought Neil was bullying the duke’s illegitimate daughter. To Henrietta, it was the intense puppy love of an adolescent boy, full of passion.

‘That girl who ruined me… What’s so good about such a lowly creature…’

Attention shifted. Interest shifted. A mere illegitimate child, a lowly girl, stole people’s gazes and attention from her. She even made the title of “the West’s greatest beauty” meaningless.

A girl who was nothing.

Even when forbidden to bathe and forced to wash with water used for cleaning rags, Edith’s fine appearance remained unchanged.

Even when made to do all the things her mother had forbidden Henrietta from doing lest they ruin her appearance, it made no difference. Eventually, she was even scolded by her father.

“She’s already a sold girl, Henrietta. If seeing that girl troubles you, perhaps your father should move her elsewhere?”

“No, Father. Leave that girl as she is. I don’t want to lose to such a girl.”

Her pride was hurt. If that girl left the Köhler family, she would live in luxury, served by maids, despite being lower than a servant.

Afterward, Henrietta diligently sought ways to torment Edith without leaving marks. Later, she even found substitutes to punish in Edith’s place.

But whenever she discovered men looking at the lowly girl with admiration instead of herself, a noblewoman, Henrietta became furious.

If not for the anger accumulated over a long time, she wouldn’t have fallen so easily for the monk from the capital who said she was the most beautiful in the world. It was all that dirty rat’s fault.

“She needs to be flawless to be sold to the marquis. I’m planning to get rid of her on her coming of age day, so could you just bear with it a little longer?”

After failing to be selected by the Crown Prince, Henrietta often lost control when strangling. Originally, she would strangle moderately and release before the person fainted, but Edith had collapsed and nearly died.

The Duke of Köhler recommended that the rampaging Henrietta spend some time in a convent.

‘If that girl had just died then, I wouldn’t have had to go to the convent.’

Everything was Edith’s fault. So Edith should have been wallowing in misery as much as her own status had fallen.

‘I was relieved when I heard she would become the marquis’s fifth wife. But now things have turned out like this…’

Prince Ludwig wouldn’t marry that girl, so she would only be his mistress, but a girl who should have married a perverted old man ended up in a young man’s arms.

That fact alone filled Henrietta with rage. Edith should have been more miserable.

‘But when the prince tires of her, he’ll surely cast her out. Then I’ll capture her, make her as ugly as possible, and sell her to a brothel.’

She, the West’s finest lady, had been reduced to this state because of a rat-like girl.

Henrietta still had to prepare to give birth, confined in a sealed room. For confidentiality, she only had Medosa and Marie as her serving maids.

That Edith girl must suffer a much worse fate. For her to fall as far as Henrietta had fallen, shouldn’t she become a pr*stitute missing at least one limb? With her face slashed, her hair completely shaved…

Since she was already at the bottom, she would need to suffer at least that much for Henrietta’s wounded pride to recover somewhat.

“Ah, ah! Medosa… doctor! Call the doctor.”

Just as she was thinking about Edith, her stomach began to hurt.

As the doctor had predicted, watery fluid began to flow between Henrietta’s legs, perhaps indicating her water had broken.