Even after all the events had concluded, Melissa couldn’t bring herself to leave her seat for a while.

She hadn’t noticed it when she wore her shabby hunting clothes, but once dressed up, the princess looked quite presentable. To be honest, she had a peculiar charm that kept catching Melissa’s eye.

‘She’s bothering me.’

Melissa had never failed to get what she wanted in life. She was born into immense wealth, power, beauty, intelligence, and even skill in swordsmanship.

Moreover, she possessed a natural tenacity that ensured she achieved whatever she set her mind on.

She had started learning swordsmanship as a child out of rivalry with Kai. Back then, it didn’t matter that Kai was a prince or a man.

Her parents, who never bowed their heads to anyone, would lower them only before Kai and his father.

That made her angry and frustrated, and she resented Kai for no reason. So, she studied and practiced swordsmanship intensely, wanting to outshine him.

However, the more time she spent with the sword, the more it felt like her destiny from the start.

For a while, nothing triggered Melissa’s competitive spirit. At some point, Kai was no longer someone she wanted to defeat but someone she wanted to possess and embrace.

She wanted to be the only woman he held close. Melissa was confident that no one but her could stand beside Kai.

Even as princesses as beautiful as flowers flooded into the empire, Kai never gave them a second glance. But then…

“A purple-horned lizard…”

She couldn’t forget the face of the woman who smiled so brightly while holding a purple horn. There couldn’t have been anything special between them, but the fact that Kai looked at her again was significant.

“Sen.”

When Melissa whispered, her bodyguard, who stayed by her side like a shadow, approached silently. He was a tall and large man, yet he moved as lightly and quietly as a breeze.

“Yes, Marchioness.”

“Find out about Stella Oberlite from Amalrune. What she usually does, and if she’s ever met Kai alone.”

Sen was slightly surprised when Melissa mentioned the Emperor’s name, but he quickly composed himself and nodded. By the time Melissa stood up, there was no trace of Sen.

Melissa relaxed her serious expression and headed to Kai’s tent. The gazes of the noble ladies and princesses, filled with envy, jealousy, and awe, followed her as she entered the Emperor’s tent without hesitation.

Melissa fully enjoyed their piercing stares as she boldly pushed aside the thick tent flap covering the entrance.

“Kai.”

Kai was facing away, wiping his sword. During this hunting festival, that longsword had sliced through the heads of over a hundred beasts.

Covered in hot blood, Kai looked more like a beast than an Emperor. Melissa loved even that side of Kai.

Sensing Melissa’s presence, Kai glanced back before returning his focus to cleaning his sword.

She liked how he accepted her presence as if it were the most natural thing in the world. It felt like a privilege only she could enjoy.

“You always do it yourself? Without having someone else do it?”

Melissa asked casually as she approached.

“I prefer doing it myself. What’s up?”

She didn’t want to share this time talking so freely with Kai with anyone else. She couldn’t allow even the shadow of another woman in Kai’s beautiful eyes.

Melissa planned to casually mention Princess Stella, who had won the Rose Hunting Festival, pretending she wasn’t interested.

But when she noticed the handkerchief tied to Kai’s scabbard, her trivial questions vanished like smoke. She had never seen a handkerchief tied to his scabbard, which was always at his waist.

“What’s… that?”

Melissa tried to ask as calmly as possible, but her voice was sharper than she intended.

Noticing the change in Melissa’s tone, Kai turned around and realized what she was curious about.

“A handkerchief.”

Kai’s voice was devoid of any emotion.

“Who gave it to you? Did one of the princesses embroider it?”

She asked lightly on purpose. Until now, it didn’t matter whose handkerchief Kai tied to his scabbard.

The handkerchief he had tied ceremonially at the start of the hunting festival had disappeared at some point, and Kai hadn’t bothered to look for it. But today was the end of the hunting festival.

In other words, Kai had tied that handkerchief to his scabbard from the first day of the festival until now.

“Maybe?”

Melissa felt somewhat relieved by Kai’s indifferent response, but for some reason, it still bothered her.

“This time, it’s been tied up for quite a while. What kind of handkerchief is it…?”

Just as Melissa reached for the scabbard with a smile, Kai’s hand swiftly blocked her path before she could touch it.

“Why? Can’t I touch it?”

Melissa’s question brought a fleeting look of confusion to Kai’s face. Noticing even this subtle change in his expression, Melissa’s brow furrowed deeply.

“Don’t touch it.”

“Why? Is it something special?”

Even as she asked, Melissa felt a darkness closing in around her.

It was the first time Kai had refused her. Or was it the second? Melissa recalled the shabby golden teacup that had been brought as a hostage. She had felt exactly like this back then.

Melissa’s gaze remained fixed on the handkerchief tied to the scabbard, staring at it as if it were an enemy.

“It’s not special.”

“Then why can’t I touch it? I’m really curious.”

Melissa asked, feeling as if she were walking on thin ice. If she heard another refusal from Kai, she feared she might fall through.

“It’s stained with Seculus blood.”

“Oh…”

Seculus blood contained a small amount of poison. Now that she looked, she could see the dark red blood splattered across the handkerchief. What she had thought were embroidered red flowers from a distance were actually bloodstains from the Seculus.

Understanding why Kai had told her not to touch it, Melissa finally smiled brightly.

“I can handle that level of poison. Don’t worry.”

Melissa didn’t try to touch the handkerchief any further, not wanting to cause Kai any concern. It just so happened that it had been attached to the scabbard until now.

The moment she left this place, it would disappear into the flames, a tainted object to be burned away.

“Oh, by the way, you’re going to give me the Seculus fangs, right?”

When Melissa asked as if it were a matter of course, Kai gestured with his chin toward a box he had set aside on the table.

Melissa’s face lit up with a bright smile as she opened the box with an excited expression. Inside were two Seculus fangs, cleaned and with the poison removed.

However, contrary to Melissa’s expectations, even after returning to the castle, the handkerchief in question was neither discarded nor burned. Kai sighed deeply as he looked at the blood-stained handkerchief on his desk, then irritably crumpled it and shoved it into a drawer.

‘I made one for you too, so you wouldn’t get hurt.’

He remembered the confident smile of someone who had handed him a handkerchief embroidered with clumsy stitches.

‘What are you thinking?’

A faint smile crossed Kai’s lips as he glanced at the closed drawer.

* * *

As soon as Stella returned to Verdura Castle, she let out a joyful exclamation at the sight of the sprouts that had grown so much. It had only been a week, yet the tender green shoots had sprouted beautifully, like little fingers.

Looking at the newly grown sprouts, Stella’s eyes softened as if she were gazing at adorable babies.

Stella gently caressed the soft leaves with her fingertips.

“How did you grow so much? You’ve worked really hard over the past week.”

Stella didn’t hold back her praise for Doodle, Darren, and Lianne, who had come out to greet her.

“I didn’t do much. The soil is so good that they grew well on their own.”

Doodle scratched his curly hair, embarrassed by the princess’s generous praise.

What Doodle said was true. Though he had grown many plants before, he had never seen or heard of crops growing as rapidly as these did. It was almost miraculous to simply attribute it to good soil.

As soon as she arrived in Verdura, Stella spent a long time examining the crops without even changing her clothes, and then suddenly stood up as if she had remembered something.

“Brynn, where’s that pouch?”

“Oh! It’s right here!”

Brynn immediately understood what Stella was looking for and retrieved a pouch from the luggage.

The three people who had stayed in Verdura looked at the pouch Brynn brought with curious eyes. Whatever was inside made a clattering sound, suggesting it was something hard.

Their curiosity was soon satisfied. Stella took out purple horns from the pouch and gave one to each of them as a gift.

“These are purple-horned lizard horns. I hunted them all myself, so I brought them as gifts.”

The three people, holding the horns in their hands, were so surprised they couldn’t close their mouths.

The horns in their palms varied slightly in size, but they shone beautifully in the sunlight, like purple jewels.

“Princess, this is…!”

“To think you would give us something so precious.”

While Brynn and Darren were at a loss for words, Doodle’s eyes darted around, unsure if he should accept such a gift.

“I didn’t realize I had quite the talent. I’m thinking of honing it further.”

Milla, hearing Stella’s serious words, looked at her with disbelief and asked, “Princess, are you thinking of learning swordsmanship?”