One of Sabina’s strengths was her unique ability to influence Yuri Esrenche.

But now, she felt that power slipping away.

Sabina’s voice trembled.

“How could Yuri… No, he shouldn’t even be at the Magic Tower right now…”

Rosemary Morphe gave Sabina a bright smile, despite her confusion.

“My close friend is the Grand Mage’s lover. I think she might have persuaded him to attend.”

Close friend, lover, bouquet.

None of these words could be ignored.

The word that struck Sabina the hardest was ‘lover.’ Her face twisted in disbelief.

“There’s no way Yuri has a lover. I don’t know who your friend is, but they’re lying.”

Rosemary responded to Sabina’s denial in a relaxed tone.

“You can find out if it’s a lie on the day of the wedding. My friend is attending to catch my bouquet.”

She added a pointed remark.

“By the way, it seems you weren’t informed about any of this, Princess?”

Sabina clenched her skirt tightly. Her hands turned pale, trembling with the effort to hold back her emotions.

She couldn’t fathom how she managed to endure until the end of the meal.

As soon as she returned to the palace, Sabina threw her shoes and made a mess of her room.

“Why on earth!”

Until recently, she had been the most prominent figure in the royal palace. Yet, overnight, her status plummeted, and she couldn’t believe it.

And now, even Yuri was getting on her nerves.

She had never heard that Yuri had a lover. Could it be true? If so, why hadn’t she heard about it until now?

Foolishly, she realized too late that her relationship with Yujin, who used to be her confidant, had soured.

“Argh!”

Unable to contain her anger, Sabina grabbed and threw whatever she could find in her room. Nothing was going right.

After a long fit of rage, she finally calmed down, panting heavily.

‘No, Yuri having a lover? There’s no way Yuri could love someone.’

The Yuri Sabina knew wasn’t someone who would give his heart to anyone.

He was cold even to his family, so how could he have a lover?

‘Yes, it must be a lie to provoke me. The idea of him having a lover is ridiculous, let alone that lover being Rosemary’s friend. Does that even make sense?’

She should have dealt with that girl Rosemary before she became untouchable as the future Crown Princess.

She wanted to get rid of her immediately.

But now, Rosemary was beyond her reach. Besides, everyone in the palace seemed to rally around Rosemary.

‘How did she manage to charm Father? Did she use some strange potion?’

Sabina bit her nails nervously, then nodded as if she had come to a conclusion.

‘Yes, she must have used a magical potion. Otherwise, there’s no way everyone would act so strangely in unison.’

Though it was purely her speculation, it became the truth in Sabina’s mind. And this delusion justified using the potion Autumn had given her.

“This is the only way. I don’t have to make her drink it, right? I can just put it in something like perfume and let the scent subtly affect them.”

Fiddling with the vial Autumn had given her, Sabina pondered for a moment.

How could she expose Rosemary to the potion naturally while also dealing a critical blow to the Crown Prince?

The conclusion came quickly. Sabina smiled and called for the head maid.

“Go to Her Majesty the Empress and tell her I want to make the wedding bouquet.”

“The bouquet?”

The thought of spending her precious time on that detestable Rosemary’s wedding twisted her insides. But for the greater good, sometimes sacrifices had to be made.

Although she trusted the head maid, using a potion on royalty was a grave crime, so she needed to be cautious.

Thus, Sabina crafted a plausible excuse, feigning a pitiful demeanor.

“Yes. I can’t just stand by while my brother gets married. I need to reconcile with the future Crown Princess eventually…”

“You’ve made a wise decision, Princess.”

But the head maid’s overly enthusiastic response irked Sabina. She glared at the head maid with sharp eyes.

‘Whose side is she on, anyway?’

Anyway, the message had been delivered, and the Empress had readily given her permission.

Having completed her preparations for revenge, Sabina was able to smile brightly for the first time in a while.

It was an innocent smile that didn’t match her dark intentions.

***

Yuri, muttering that everything was his fault, buried his face in his hands and sat quietly for a moment.

Sensing the tense atmosphere, I stayed quietly by his side.

Meanwhile, the fierce wind that had been threatening to break the window subsided. As the storm passed, the dark sky filled with clouds revealed itself.

Around that time, Yuri removed his hands. Finally, our eyes met, his beautiful blue gaze locking with mine.

I asked cautiously, “Yuri, are you okay?”

“Oh, yes. I’ve shown you an embarrassing side of myself.”

“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”

His awkward smile froze on his lips. Yuri bit his lip nervously and then lowered his head again.

“No. It’s embarrassing. I’ve become too sensitive…”

“Come to think of it, you said you couldn’t use magic because of your mood, right? Is it related to that?”

“Well…”

His blue eyes trembled slightly. After a brief moment of contemplation, Yuri spoke in a serious tone.

“Promise you won’t laugh when you hear this.”

“Okay.”

Despite my confident reply, Yuri hesitated for a long time before speaking in a very small voice.

“Honestly, I’ve been anxious ever since I heard Yujin proposed to Titi.”

“What?”

I blinked, not understanding at first.

Why was Yujin’s proposal to me coming up here?

That proposal was a suggestion to help with revenge, wasn’t it? And I had clearly rejected it.

‘If he was shaken despite knowing all that, then…’

“Yuri, are you bothered by Yujin?”

Yuri’s face turned as red as a tomato in an instant.

Seeing his expression, I couldn’t help but laugh. Yuri squinted his round eyes at me in protest as soon as I chuckled.

“You promised not to laugh!”

“No, I’m laughing because it’s so unexpected. I won’t laugh anymore.”

I hadn’t intended to tease him, so I quickly stopped laughing. Yuri pouted and continued in a small voice.

“Titi said yesterday she wanted to go on a boat.”

“She did.”

I nodded, unsure why he was suddenly bringing this up.

“So, while Titi was asleep, I tried steering a boat once.”

“You did?”

It was a bit surprising that Yuri was so concerned about an offhand comment.

“It didn’t go well. It was difficult.”

Sure, even a genius mage couldn’t steer a boat skillfully on the first try.

But that was where the ordinary ended, and what he did next was anything but ordinary.

“So I thought, if I could control the area with magic and make it my territory, I could control the waves too. Then, even without knowing how to steer, I could move the boat freely.”

“Wait, wait, wait! Why would you come to that conclusion? Normally, if it doesn’t go well, you’d study more, give up, or find someone to help, right?”

At my reasonable question, Yuri averted his gaze and kept his mouth shut.

His pride must have been hurt to admit he couldn’t do it.

“…It sounds simple, but making an entire area my territory wasn’t easy. I had to draw a huge magic circle and plant magical conduits everywhere.”

I didn’t fully understand, but it seemed like a very difficult process.

I just nodded.

“So?”

“So, it was too successful. The weather changes with my mood now.”

“…What?”

Is it possible for someone to control the weather?

I instinctively looked out the gloomy window and confirmed again.

“So, the rain and sunshine right now are because your mind is unsettled?”

“Yes… but only within the area visible to Titi.”

“Isn’t that incredible just by itself?”

I gaped. Even when flying above the clouds, I thought mages were on a different scale from ordinary people.

Wanting to move a boat freely and ending up controlling the weather…

“It’s my first time using magic on such a large scale on natural elements, so I poured in too much magic. Soon, my magic will run out, and things will return to the way nature intended.”

“You… No, are you okay physically? You’re not overexerting yourself and getting sick, are you?”

“I’m fine. I’m not feeling anything wrong. At least, not physically.”

He implied that something other than his body wasn’t okay.