“Edith, you must never become like me. Do you understand?”

‘Mother, perhaps I might be able to live as an ordinary person, not as a shameful existence like a mistress.’

Edith was moved. Alone in the tent, she recalled her mother who had treated her kindly.

“You resemble me a lot. No, you’re much prettier than me. If a woman as pretty as you had been born into a noble family, you would surely have lived a smooth life. But if born as a commoner…”

Her mother cried. Blood still lingered on her breath from having coughed up blood earlier, but Edith didn’t find it repulsive at all.

“I didn’t choose this life from the beginning either. I wanted to marry a baker. He was someone I could talk to very well.”

A sad look flashed across her mother’s face, particularly evident that day.

“But when a powerless woman is born with excessive beauty, life tends to go awry. I was cleaning a count’s mansion when I suffered a terrible fate and was forced to become the count’s mistress for a while.”

Though she didn’t explain in detail, young Edith knew her mother must have suffered something terrible that she couldn’t even imagine.

“But a man’s love doesn’t last long. As soon as I gave birth to a baby boy, the count’s wife sent the child to an orphanage and sold me to a brothel. The count didn’t help at all.”

“Does that mean I have an older brother?”

“No. That child didn’t survive.”

Her mother sobbed.

“I’m sorry, Edith. For passing on this appearance to you and leaving you with the name of a courtesan’s daughter. I’m truly sorry. No matter how hard I try, I don’t know how to make you happy in your future life.”

“It’s okay, I’m content just being with you, Mother. I’m already happy.”

Edith looked up at her mother’s beautiful purple eyes and embraced her. A warm feeling enveloped the mother and daughter.

“I’ll become someone you don’t need to worry about. I’ll definitely survive magnificently. So don’t cry, Mother.”

And a week later, her mother, already dying, entrusted Edith to Duke Köhler. Along with all the wealth she had saved.

**

“The assassins were captured? Alive?”

Crown Prince Joachim spoke in an irritable voice. His already fierce temperament had grown even rougher since fleeing from battle.

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“Currently? I assume they committed s*icide?”

“That’s… where we have a bit of a problem.”

Emilhart, the Crown Prince’s subordinate, unconsciously bowed his head. Unable to continue speaking, he just kept his head down, watching for reactions.

“Why are you hesitating? Answer me quickly, what are you doing?”

“Well… they didn’t commit s*icide.”

“Why not? Are they being tortured with gags in their mouths?”

“Well, you see…”

Why did he have to be the one delivering this news? Emilhart inwardly cursed Lofen, who had won their bet, grinding his teeth in resentment.

“It seems… I don’t know if it’s the prince’s mercy, but currently the captured assassins are receiving good treatment in regular tents rather than prison.”

“What? Are you saying they surrendered?”

Understanding the situation, the Crown Prince immediately drew his sword from his waist. The sharp blade pressed against Emilhart’s neck.

The sword, meticulously polished daily by servants, created a thin red line across his subordinate’s neck.

“My not cutting off your head right now is mercy. Surely they received proper mental training, coming from the assassin guild?”

“Well… the prince has a mistress with him, and somehow that woman is going around persuading the assassins to testify.”

Perhaps wanting to make it clear this wasn’t his fault, Emilhart mentioned the woman while explaining why problems had arisen.

“A woman? Are you saying they betrayed us just because they slept with a woman? Even knowing what would happen to them if they did?”

“Well… I heard she’s such an incredible beauty that the prince takes her to bed every night. Perhaps because of that woman…”

The Crown Prince, grinding his teeth, withdrew the sword pressing against the man’s neck. As the blade left his neck, the subordinate exhaled in relief.

“Send additional assassins. We need to deal with those traitors before they return to the imperial city. And have them kill that woman too. We may not be able to kill the prince, but disposing of a mistress should be easy enough. Understood?”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Emilhart quickly bowed his head, accepting the Crown Prince’s orders.

Though the Crown Prince had fled the battlefield, in private settings he always drew his sword as his mood dictated. He might not kill an important subordinate like himself, but Emilhart knew losing an arm or leg wouldn’t be surprising at any moment.

The Crown Prince was indeed cornered, but as long as Duke Sachsen, the Empress’s father, lived, he wouldn’t be easily deposed.

And before the Crown Prince could be deposed, it was questionable whether the Second Prince would survive unscathed.

**

“Finn, have you been well?”

Edith visited Finn once a day, bringing high-quality cheese and other treats.

She needed to keep watching Finn to ensure he didn’t betray them, and Edith also felt comfortable visiting him. Here, Finn was in a very similar situation to her own.

“Edith.”

Edith and Finn called each other by name. The man’s face flushed red to his ears as soon as he saw her.

“I brought some wine today. It’s very good quality since it’s what His Highness drinks.”

In truth, Edith had rarely tasted fine wine herself and couldn’t distinguish what made wine good quality.

Gulp. The man slowly accepted the wine Edith offered and took a sip.

“Do you drink wine at the assassin guild?”

Edith naturally asked about the assassin guild. The place the man described was as isolated as her room in the ducal residence where she had grown up.

“The assassin guild doesn’t deal with things like wine. We eat plenty of meat, vegetables, and bread at every meal, but the focus is on nutrition rather than quality or taste.”

“I see. I could only eat unseasoned vegetables. They said men wouldn’t pay high prices if I gained weight.”

Nutrition based on necessity rather than taste or happiness. The way Edith was raised wasn’t much different from the children in the assassin guild.

“At what age do people usually enter the assassin guild?”

“Most enter around eight years old, but I was quite good at running, so I entered when I was about… this tall.”

The man raised his palm to indicate a height about level with an adult woman’s b*ttocks.

“Were there no children with parents there?”

Finn shook his head. He had never seen such a child. Just as she thought…

“Looking back, many children died during training, so having parents would have been very troublesome. And practically speaking, His Highness the Crown Prince acted as a father figure, so we had no choice but to offer absolute loyalty to him.”

“I see.”

Edith sighed heavily. Though the Crown Prince supposedly played a fatherly role, he merely occasionally rewarded and praised outstanding assassins.

To control the lives of children with so many deficiencies with just that…

“Are you… are you doing alright? Staying like this?”

Finn looked at Edith with worried eyes. He seemed to feel sorry for Edith, who was acting as a man’s mistress.

“I’m fine. Thanks to you giving your testimony, I was able to avoid a major crisis. You’re like a benefactor to me, Finn.”

When Edith looked at the man with kind eyes, Finn couldn’t meet her gaze and looked away.

“Thank you, truly. I’ll visit again tomorrow.”

Though Edith visited Finn daily, she couldn’t spend much time talking with him. The prince had told Edith that meeting daily was fine, but conversations shouldn’t exceed an hour.

After Siren signaled to Edith that it was time to return, she followed him back to the prince’s tent.

“What did you talk about today, Edith?”

Edith relayed what she had learned from Finn that day.

After conversing for a while, the prince clapped his hands to summon a maid. The maid arrived carrying a large box. She opened the lid in front of Edith.

“What is this?”

“A reward.”

“Pardon?”

“Though you work under me, I should give rewards for good work. Since you’re publicly my mistress, having clothes wouldn’t hurt.”

What the maid brought was an extraordinarily beautiful dress.

It was an open dress suitable for the hot climate of the Sper region, revealing the shoulders, with smooth red silk creating a tight bodice contrasting with a voluminous skirt below the waist.

The rubies densely embedded between the softly folded pleats of the skirt made even Edith, who knew little about dresses, realize this was an extremely expensive garment.

“It’s very beautiful, but would I have occasion to wear such clothes?”

“You will. When we go to the imperial palace, you’ll need to attend parties.”

“Parties?”

At the mention of parties, Edith’s face instantly hardened as she looked at the dress.

“What’s wrong, Edith?”

Edith suddenly felt nauseated. No matter how expensive the clothes, she would surely be ridiculed among the high noble ladies.

“It’s just, I never thought I would be joining noble society…”

“Don’t worry, Edith. Though you’re a mistress, the moment you appear at a banquet in my arms, no one except the Emperor will be able to dismiss you. Though they might curse you inwardly.”

“Would I need to go around persuading nobles there? Would they even listen to someone like me?”

“If you stripped and threw yourself at them, it might work on men. But there’s no need for that.”

“There is one woman at the banquet you should be careful of, besides the Emperor.”

“Who might that be?”

“You’ve probably heard the name. Violet of the East. Currently Joachim’s wife, but she’s harbored feelings for me for a long time, so she might cause trouble for you.”

Edith felt dizzy for a moment. Violet of the East was the current Crown Prince’s wife.

“How do you intend to use me?”

“I can’t tell you that, Edith. Your acting without knowledge is also part of my plan.”

“I understand.”

The man raised his wine glass high.

Edith had no choice but to pick up her wine glass and respond to the man.