“Is this what you’re looking for?”

In a dimly lit room. At the plainly echoing voice, Cynthia, who had been rummaging through drawers by moonlight, stopped moving.

Cynthia slowly turned toward the source of the sound.

There stood Rozenne, leaning casually against the doorframe with her arms crossed and an expressionless face.

“I asked if this is what you’re looking for.”

Rozenne removed one hand from her folded arms and held up something. Between her slender fingers was a letter envelope that gleamed even whiter in the moonlight.

Seeing it, Cynthia visibly panicked and said,

“T-that’s……”

Cynthia’s voice cracked miserably, unlike her usual self.

Pale, flustered complexion, trembling eyelashes, shaking hands clutching at her skirt.

Rozenne slowly savored the sight of the obviously panicked Cynthia.

“So that……”

Cynthia kept moving her lips, searching for words to say. Her darting eyes betrayed her racing thoughts.

But even after all that, she seemed unable to find an excuse, merely opening and closing her mouth repeatedly.

Yes, what could she possibly say?

It was a letter containing an enormous plan and conspiracy to brand me a traitor and have me killed.

What’s more, the one who ordered this death was her own fiancé, Harrieus. Both the handwriting and signature in the letter were undeniably his.

Harrieus….. That name felt like grains of sand in her mouth.

The one I loved enough to throw everything away for. The printed words of his command to kill me, even detailing the method, swirled chaotically in my mind.

“T-this wasn’t written by me! Someone else is trying to frame me! It, it must be someone from Wolfhard. Those people, trying to drive a wedge between you and me! Falsely…!”

“Really? Is it truly false?”

Cynthia, unable to give a proper answer, hurriedly nodded her head.

Ha. Like a bursting air bubble, a sigh-like sneer escaped from Rozenne’s lips.

“False. You say it’s false…. So you say……”

There was a time when she had believed in Cynthia.

The woman who came here for her sake, becoming her double. She had believed, sympathized, and felt guilt and indebtedness toward her. Truly.

“I see.”

But now she could completely see the truth in those eyes. Even in this moment, calculating how much had been discovered.

Rozenne slowly examined Cynthia’s appearance with her eyes. The golden hair curling in gentle curves, the contrasting emerald eyes. A look that had originally been her own.

Gazing steadily into those eyes, Rozenne opened her firmly closed lips.

“It seems it’s time for us to return to our true selves.”

At those words, Cynthia jerked her head up and fixed her widened eyes directly on Rozenne.

Simultaneously, her scream-like thoughts flowed into Rozenne’s mind.

‘No! This is mine! My face! My hair!’

Cynthia lunged toward Rozenne with fiercely upturned eyes like a madwoman, reaching out her hands.

But Rozenne was faster, pulling a glass vial of magic potion from her bosom.

Before Cynthia could grab it, the vial fell to the floor and shattered with a sharp cracking sound, sending fragments flying in all directions.

Instantly, a colorful, billowing cloud-like smoke enveloped both Rozenne and Cynthia.

Then the golden hair that Cynthia had coveted so much gradually began turning red.

“Ah, no……”

A voice filled with despair. Even the lips uttering that voice began twisting this way and that, and soon the clear pink lips returned to Cynthia’s own captivating red ones.

Cynthia, with everything restored in an instant, was devastated.

“Huk……! Uk!”

And unable to withstand the tremendous shock, she collapsed on the spot.

Rozenne watched that withered figure with an expressionless face.

Though things had gone as she wished, she felt no joy whatsoever.

Rather, she felt empty. As if the center of her chest had been hollowed out, letting a desolate wind blow through her lungs.

Her beloved Harrieus. To think that her childhood friend and fiancé had actively sold her out to Wolfhard. Moreover, that he had planned all this with Cynthia, with whom he’d maintained an unwholesome relationship for years.

Who had she been believing in and relying on all this time?

A dry laugh escaped her parched lips.

She felt incredibly stupid for having shared all her secrets and plans with those who had been waiting for the opportunity to stab her in the back.

Just then, a spine-chillingly low voice came from directly behind Rozenne.

“Finally back to normal.”

How long had he been there?

Upon recognizing the man’s presence, she thought he must have been watching her for quite some time, holding his breath.

“How does it feel? To learn the truth.”

Truth. At that single word, Rozenne’s eyes involuntarily squeezed shut.

Is this why you made me know the truth? To frustrate me and easily get what you want?

The truth had brought her nothing. She now had neither people left nor a place to return to. Truth was far more cruel than falsehood.

Rozenne, mocking her situation that was no better than Cynthia’s, slowly turned around.

The fleeting thought crossed her mind that it was similar to how Cynthia had turned to face her just moments ago.

And when she opened her eyes, she saw a massive, boulder-like man blocking her entire field of vision.

In that moment, she felt she had been trapped.

Not just any trap, but one tightly woven to fit her body, one that would prevent her from moving an inch.

Indeed, there was something about him that made resisting impossible through the intimidation exuded by his physique alone. Moreover, the man’s personality was more solid and thorough than any prison wall.

Is it all over now?

As Rozenne behaved like someone awaiting execution, the man took one step closer from where he stood at some distance.

Rozenne flinched but did not retreat.

“I’ve waited too long for this day. The day I meet the real you.”

The man who approached close enough to almost touch her emanated a dangerously intoxicating aura.

Rozenne stood rooted to the spot as if nailed there, not backing away from the man, fully receiving his gaze filled with desire.

What would come next was crystal clear.

Becoming this man’s woman.

That was the reason she came to this land, the condition of the agreement between the two countries. She had been sold to this place as little more than a prisoner for that purpose.

All that remained was to endure and accept it.

Despite having anticipated this, an instinctive revulsion rose from deep within her heart.

“What shall we do?”

Rozenne, who had been unable to meet the man’s intense gaze and had fixed her eyes only on the tip of his chin, slowly raised her eyes.

“It seems you have no more excuses to delay.”

The man raised his hand and languidly traced the contours of her face. Then he lightly grasped her delicate, slender neck. His large hand could encompass her entire neck with just one span.

Though he applied no pressure, Rozenne’s breath naturally contracted.

Tonight this man will possess me. Can I endure it? The shame and humiliation.

Rozenne shook her head inwardly.

No. If I think of it as enduring, I won’t be able to bear it. So I must make it not that he possesses me, but that I possess him.

But could she really do that? While she hated the deceitful Harrieus, she also intensely despised this man who had shattered her world. She resented him.

Though she rationally understood that not all of this was this man’s fault, Rozenne, who had just experienced the betrayal of a lifetime, had no mercy left to consider such things.

Just then, the hand that had been holding her neck moved to the back of her neck and gently pulled her closer. Rozenne allowed herself to be drawn in. When their noses touched and their lips nearly met, she closed her eyes.

And in her mind, she recalled the first day she had come to this place.

The day that should have been her wedding day.

⁕⁕⁕

“Oh my, look at that, Lady Rozenne. It’s the High Priest!”

The Kingdom of Sohara was bustling with a festive atmosphere throughout the entire country for the young king’s wedding.

Among all places, the bridal waiting room prepared in the Queen’s Palace was more crowded and busier than ever with wedding preparations.

Most of them were noblewomen serving as ladies-in-waiting to attend to Rozenne, who would become the king’s bride.

“I heard His Majesty the King sent a personal letter for today’s wedding, and it seems he’s come to conduct the ceremony.”

The Viscountess who had been styling Rozenne’s hair exclaimed while looking out the window, pausing her busy hands.

At those words, Rozenne rose from her vanity and approached the window.

Stretching her waist and neck, she looked outside to see the wedding reception venue decorated with white cloth, jeweled ornaments, and sky-blue hydrangeas, the national flower of Sohara.

There, the High Priest was entering the building where the wedding ceremony would take place, accompanied by several priests.

A small smile bloomed on Rozenne’s lips.

A married life beginning with the High Priest’s blessing seemed like it would be filled with only happy things.

Just then, she heard other noble ladies chattering behind her.

“Ah, there’s Duke Decart too!”

“Duke Decart? Where?”

A noblewoman’s finger extended past Rozenne’s face, pointing out Duke Decart.

“Look there, he’s greeting his nemesis, Marquis Gramaldi!”

“So he is! I thought he wouldn’t attend, using the excuse of traveling abroad!”

“Congratulations, Your Highness. Today’s wedding will be an occasion for all the families of the kingdom to unite in harmony. It’s all thanks to your grace.”

At those words, Rozenne turned toward her ladies-in-waiting.

The eyes of the noblewoman who had spoken last were filled with respect and reverence.

There was a good reason for this.

It was Rozenne and her family, House Dyer, who had placed her fiancé Harrieus, the King of Sohara, on the throne.