Time flew by quickly, and the swordsmanship tournament was now just around the corner.

As it was a major event of the Empire, the imperial city streets were already filled with a festive atmosphere, bustling with visitors who had come to the Empire to participate in the tournament. From various inns to restaurants, taverns, weapon shops selling weapons and armor crafted by blacksmiths, to all kinds of general stores—not a single place was empty of people.

But while everyone was enjoying this time, Iella alone couldn’t be completely happy.

“Vanessa, I think I must be seeing something wrong.”

“……”

“Right?”

To this question, asked for the sixth time already, Vanessa immediately shook her head. Then, as if telling her to finally face reality, she placed the card on the table into Iella’s hand.

Iella, who had thrown the card onto the table as soon as she read its contents after opening the envelope, reluctantly took it back. Even so, she kept hoping inwardly that the content inside would somehow change.

{ See you at the swordsmanship tournament opening ceremony. }

Of course, no such thing happened.

‘Why…? Why? I clearly said I wouldn’t go to the swordsmanship tournament?’

Helios’s name was elegantly inscribed in the bottom right corner. Iella’s eyes trembled as she stared at it intently.

As the swordsmanship tournament approached, Helios’s summons had abruptly stopped, perhaps because he had become busier. For her, whose head and heart were already complicated by the night she spent with Aster, this was welcome news.

She did experience the strange event of the chief chamberlain from the main palace visiting the secondary palace to express Helios’s regrets at length, but that was something she could tolerate.

‘Thanks to that, my daily life had become unbelievably quiet.’

She hadn’t encountered Allen since fleeing from the corridor, and the Grand Duke hadn’t contacted her for some unknown reason since returning first after their outing together.

It was as if they had all coordinated to become quiet at once.

At first, this situation made her a bit anxious. She had been caught off guard by a similar calm before the storm in the past.

But that didn’t last long. As Aster secretly sent someone to relay messages from Nix, Iella’s attention turned completely toward Ailexia.

Nix, who continued tracking Ailexia, had informed her that Ailexia, who had been constantly moving, had recently been staying in one place for a long time. This meant that Ailexia had arrived at the place where she had enshrined her mother.

So, hoping that this quiet would last like eternity until Ailexia returned, she remained quietly in the secondary palace. She didn’t even go out for walks beyond her bedroom. Because it would be very soon now.

‘I should have known. I wondered why things were going as I wished. Of course they wouldn’t.’

Iella put the card down again and let out a deep sigh.

It seemed like everything she worried about always happened. The back of her head felt numb from the blow.

“But I really don’t understand why….”

She had clearly told him at the tea party. That she had no intention of going to the swordsmanship tournament this time, so he shouldn’t worry.

Helios didn’t seem to particularly believe her words, but he didn’t express any other intention either. Rather, he had sneered, telling her to do as she pleased.

‘So why is he doing this?’

“Hmm, maybe he wants to keep you by his side to monitor you?”

Vanessa said, hearing Iella’s muttering.

“Although his behavior has suddenly changed 180 degrees recently, before that, he monitored and hated Ailexia for a long time. Actually, I’m suspicious of the emperor’s change too. I think he has some other intention.”

“But his attitude now is so different from when he said he had no intention of putting in effort for Ailexia. If he still hates Ailexia, wouldn’t he have no reason to suddenly spend time and money?”

“He might be trying to make you let your guard down. Apart from your efforts since entering Ailexia’s body, many things have happened and changed, right? He might be doing this to dig up everything, or to check how different you are from Ailexia’s previous self.”

“I see……”

Vanessa’s words weren’t completely wrong. Helios had monitored Ailexia for a long time while neglecting her, and simultaneously hated her.

Such negative emotions couldn’t disappear in a short time. So as Vanessa said, it made more sense that he had such intentions.

“You told the emperor you wouldn’t go to watch the swordsmanship tournament, but considering Ailexia up until now, he probably thought it was a lie. So rather than monitoring you causing trouble somewhere out of sight, doesn’t it seem like he intends to keep you by his side to watch you? That’s how it looks to me.”

The more she thought about it, the more Iella’s thoughts aligned with Vanessa’s opinion. Indeed, thinking about it, it didn’t seem likely that Helios would invite her to watch the swordsmanship matches together in harmony.

“Anyway, the important thing is that since I received this card, I can’t refuse……”

Another deep sigh escaped through Iella’s lips. She could easily imagine what would happen if she ignored Helios’s card. He would certainly come to her bedroom to fetch her himself.

The image of him kicking open her bedroom door every time she refused his summons overlapped with her thoughts.

“Oh, by the way, I heard Duke Calver is also participating in this swordsmanship tournament. That’s why the imperial palace and streets are in such an uproar.”

“Aster?”

At that moment, Vanessa, suddenly remembering what the kitchen maids had been talking about, clapped her hands together and spoke. Surprised by the unexpected news, Iella opened her eyes wide and asked again.

“Yes. They’re saying he’s considered a strong contender for the championship. It’s not wrong either, his track record is quite impressive? Because of that, there’s some criticism too. Saying he’s taking away opportunities from desperate people.”

“……”

“Certainly, if you were to face off against the duke, defeat would be a foregone conclusion, so I understand why they say that.”

Iella’s face grew quite serious. The intelligent Aster couldn’t have failed to anticipate the criticism that would come his way. Yet the fact that he still forced his participation meant he had a good reason.

“His reason for participating?”

“Nobody knows. Because of that, there are various speculations going around…, not all of them good. There are knights from the duke’s household participating in the tournament too, but they’re keeping silent.”

[“When I said I came to get you, it wasn’t just talk.”]

Why was that statement suddenly coming to mind?

It felt like his sincere voice and face, without a trace of falsehood, were flickering before her eyes.

‘Surely, there can’t be a connection.’

Even while thinking this, for some reason she couldn’t shake the thought that it was for her sake. Suddenly, a doubt that had been bothering her resurfaced.

‘Could it have been Aster?’

The person she had desperately clung to with her hazy consciousness when her entire body felt as if it was engulfed in flames.

‘It could be.’

He had said he came to help her. Perhaps that’s why he didn’t reject her when she clung to him, struggling in unbearable heat and desperate to live. After all, they had even ended up being intimate.

But there were several ambiguous and uncomfortable aspects to that theory.

‘If it was Aster, why didn’t he tell me? And why was he outside the bedroom? Because I was asleep?’

However, he wasn’t the type of person who would leave someone alone who might show the same symptoms and suffer again at any moment.

‘Moreover….’

[“…xia.”]

The muffled voice fragment remaining in her memory was most likely someone calling Ailexia. Hadn’t they even lightly tapped her cheek to wake her?

But Aster had already come knowing her true identity. Then, like when she had staggered, he should have called her “Iella.”

‘But if not Aster, there’s no one else I can think of.’

Fleetingly, she wondered if it could be Allen? He had a history of visiting her bedroom uninvited when Iella had just entered Ailexia’s body.

However, that assumption was quickly erased from her mind. Allen had been quietly staying only in the harem since their meeting in the corridor.

‘Besides, if it was him, it’s strange that he’s being so quiet. He should have come to confront me about deceiving him again. The emotional rift was so serious that he wanted to k*ll Ailexia.’

Then, who could it have been? She didn’t know. But one thing was certain—that person was a man.

Iella briefly tried to think of others before giving up. She thought that eventually, the person himself would come to tell her.

All the men entangled with Ailexia had no particular reason or thought to hide such a fact from her. It was just a matter of when.

‘Anyway, what’s important now is the swordsmanship tournament.’

Ailexia had said she would return during the swordsmanship tournament period. She just needed to get through this. Then finally, everything would find its proper place.

Iella stared at the card Helios had sent with a determined look in her eyes.

* * *

“Waaaaaaah!”

A thunderous cheer erupted, seemingly striking Iella’s ears. Feeling a ringing sensation, she covered one ear with her hand.

‘Maybe I should have come early and stayed somewhere out of sight.’

Although she had decided to accept Helios’s invitation, she had no intention of sitting in her seat from the beginning of the opening ceremony. That would have instantly made her the subject of people’s gossip.

So she aimed for after the opening ceremony procedures were all finished and the preliminary matches had begun. By then, everyone would be more focused on the matches than on the emperor’s appearance and congratulatory speech, which was something they might see once in a lifetime.

However, as she crossed the stadium filled with crowds and was exposed to the cheers coming from right beside her, she felt some regret.

“This way, please.”

At the attendant’s words who was walking ahead and guiding her to her seat, Iella quickened her steps to follow.

She was currently using the passage connected to the nobles’ seats. This was because Ailexia was not a member of the imperial family and thus couldn’t use their passage. She had thought it would be different with Helios’s card, but that wasn’t the case.

At this point, Iella briefly wondered if Helios was toying with her. The heat emanating from the nobles’ seats was no joke, almost as intense as from the commoners.

“Please enter here. The seat is to the right of His Majesty.”

Eventually, after ascending from the nobles’ passage to the path connected to the imperial family’s seats, they arrived in front of an arch-shaped door with a curtain drawn down. Following the attendant’s instructions, Iella lifted the curtain with her hand and entered.

Helios, who had been leaning against the railing, turned his body, sensing her presence.