Annette gazed with satisfaction as the gardener planted the golden peony. Among the deep purple peonies, the golden one seemed to foreshadow her future self, adorned with a golden crown over a purple dress.

“It’s really beautiful. But don’t you think Princess Stella is quite sly?”

Caitlin, standing beside Annette, admired the golden peony and suddenly remarked as if a thought had just struck her.

Annette, who already harbored negative feelings towards Stella, perked up at the mention of Stella’s name alongside unpleasant words.

“What do you mean?”

Keeping her gaze on the peony, Annette asked as elegantly as possible, trying to appear uninterested.

Although she believed such crude words were beneath her, hearing someone speak ill of Stella secretly pleased her.

“That peony. Princess Stella knew from the beginning that it would turn golden if she just waited a bit. Yet, she acted all innocent, pretending to take a withered flower. She’s really cunning. You know what? The Verdura servants gossip that Princess Annette was given a peony that was about to wilt.”

“No way.”

Though she replied with words she didn’t truly believe, Annette thought Caitlin was right. She felt she had almost been deceived by the clever Stella.

The servants there, too, were frivolous and didn’t know their place, just like their mistress. Fortunately, she had reclaimed what was rightfully hers before it was too late.

“It’s really fortunate it returned to its rightful place.”

Annette said, relieved, like a mother who had found her lost child. Repeating it made it feel like the truth.

However, Annette’s satisfaction turned to shock in less than a week.

The flowers, which had sparkled golden even when they were being replanted, gradually lost their luster over time. By the seventh day, they had reverted to their previous lifeless, sickly color.

Standing before the now brown flowers, Annette trembled with rage and began to shout, unable to contain her anger. She couldn’t tolerate such a sight in front of her, even if it was just a plant.

“What is this!”

Annette, voice filled with venom, yelled as she nervously tore at the brown clumps of flowers.

The gardeners, who had devoted themselves day and night to the rare flower they might never see again, bowed their heads like criminals under Princess Annette’s wrath.

“What kind of gardeners are you if you can’t even handle this? What are you going to do about these flowers?”

Eventually, Annette even struck the gardener standing in front of her with the uprooted peony. It seemed the change in the flower’s color was the gardener’s fault.

Why did such incompetent people have to come to her castle!

Blood trickled from the gardener’s cheek, scratched by the rough stem, but Annette paid no attention.

Still not satisfied, Annette uprooted even the healthy peonies and the purple ones, throwing them to the ground. Her anger unappeased, she stomped on the flowers lying on the ground.

The servants bowed their heads quietly, not daring to breathe while Annette rampaged. Normally, she would never act this way, wanting to show only her best side to her maid, Sarah.

This incident felt like a significant failure to Annette.

Having never experienced failure in her life, she thought coming to the Credion Empire was just a step towards soaring even higher.

It was also why Annette never uttered the word ‘hostage.’ She was destined to become the Empress of the Credion Empire, no matter what anyone said.

“Maggie!”

After venting her anger on the plants for a while, Annette called out irritably, breathing heavily.

“Yes, Princess!”

Maggie was the maid Annette had brought with her to the Credion Empire. Watching Annette’s outburst nervously, Maggie quickly responded, bowing her head to avoid catching the brunt of Annette’s anger.

Knowing Annette’s true nature, Maggie understood that she shouldn’t meet the princess’s eyes at times like this.

Maggie bowed her head as much as possible, using her entire body to convey that she was attentively listening to the princess.

“I’m going to write to Father. Tell him to send some very expensive and rare flower seeds. Ones so beautiful and precious that they make those yellow peonies look like nothing! And ask him to send a gardener with skills far superior to these fools!”

The gardeners listening to Annette’s words flinched. Being attached to Müiget Castle, finding work at another castle was impossible.

If they were dismissed like this, they would have to live without income for several months. The gardeners’ faces darkened with worry and frustration.

Annette, indifferent to her subordinates’ plight, glared at them as if her eyes could kill and spoke sharply, “If I had known you were this incompetent, I would never have hired you.”

She was certain her father would find a way to send her rare and precious flower seeds.

“Yes, Princess, I will prepare everything.”

As Maggie replied, she quickly ran back to the castle. Behind her, she could still hear Princess Annette berating the gardeners.

Maggie felt incredibly relieved to be heading into the castle instead of staying in the garden.

* * *

In the Verdura garden, new Golden Bloom shoots were growing sturdier by the day. Oton spent as much time as possible with the Golden Bloom, even naming each shoot and tending to them with care.

“Cutie, Pretty, Sturdy, Sparkle, Goldie.”

Oton, calling out the names of the five sprouting shoots like siblings, looked incredibly happy. It was a complete contrast to her usual grumbling and argumentative demeanor.

Lying on the ground, propping her chin with her hands, and smiling brightly at the shoots, she looked utterly adorable and charming.

The Golden Bloom, nurtured by the high-quality soil blessed by the goddess Terra, the love of the earth fairy, and Stella’s dedication, was different from other shoots right from the start.

It was lush with dense green, its thin stems appeared sturdy, and it emitted a fresh fragrance that invigorated the surrounding air.

“Do Golden Bloom usually smell this good even when they’re just shoots?”

Stella, equally attached to the Golden Bloom, checked on them first thing every morning.

Perhaps it was because she had gone through so much to obtain this plant. The thought that these adorable shoots would soon bloom into beautiful, golden flowers already made her happy.

“Usually, the scent isn’t this strong. It seems like it’s going to grow into a top-quality Golden Bloom.”

Ark, too, admired the sturdy Golden Bloom shoots.

“Don’t you think Sturdy will grow the biggest among them? And maybe Goldie will bloom with flowers that sparkle like real gold.”

Oton spoke tenderly to the shoots, uncharacteristically gentle and warm, as if she were in love.

“No way! I think Cutie will be the most impressive.”

Ark shook his head, pointing to the shoot planted at the very front.

“Hey, everyone! Hey!”

Esta, who had been frequently visiting Müiget Castle after the Golden Bloom was unjustly taken, burst into the garden in a flurry.

“What’s going on? Did something happen?”

Startled, Stella, who had been crouching in front of the Golden Bloom, stood up quickly. Esta, his face flushed, was panting heavily.

“They pulled them all out!”

Esta, having rushed up to Stella, blurted out breathlessly.

“What?”

Stella frowned and asked again, puzzled by the abrupt statement. Esta placed a hand on his chest, took a few deep breaths, then pointed towards Müiget Castle and shouted.

“The Golden Bloom! The ones taken to Müiget Castle! They’ve all turned brown! That ugly princess is causing a ruckus, screaming and everything.”

Although Esta’s words weren’t clearly organized, Stella understood well enough.

She didn’t care about Princess Annette’s tantrums, but she felt sorry for the Golden Bloom, which suffered from being with the wrong owner. If only it had stayed here, it would have bloomed beautifully.

“It should have just grown well here.”

Though, she thought, the princess wasn’t really ugly. It seemed that the earth fairies saw the beautiful Princess Annette as unattractive because of her unkind heart.

Stella couldn’t shake off a sense of schadenfreude as she patted the thriving little shoots. The breeze felt particularly refreshing today.

* * *

“Gasp!”

Kai woke up with a start, having dozed off. It felt like he had been running at full speed, his breath quick and shallow.

He couldn’t remember what dream he had. His heart was racing unpleasantly fast, and the cold sweat covering his body suggested it hadn’t been a good dream.

He must have dozed off while reviewing documents in his office. Starting to nod off like this was a sign that his insomnia was returning.

“Sigh.”

Kai frowned and rubbed his forehead with his hand. The lingering emotions from the nightmare seemed to press down on him, bringing a heavy headache.

As he took slow, deep breaths, scenes from the dream began to resurface in his mind like scattered puzzle pieces.

In the dream, Kai had struggled to save his brother from drowning, trained in swordsmanship with Melissa, and walked through a flower-filled place with his mother.

“Where was that?”

The place in the dream felt strangely familiar, but he couldn’t pinpoint where it was. If he had been with his mother, it was likely within the royal palace, but he couldn’t recall such a place there.

“Sigh.”

The headache that had initially pressed down heavily now stabbed sharply at his temples.

“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

A small, endearing voice suddenly interrupted his darkened thoughts.

Recognizing the owner of the voice, Kai opened his eyes. One of the tiny creatures, no bigger than a fist, was sitting on his desk, looking up at him with bright, curious eyes. Was its name Esta or Asta?

Meeting its clear gaze, the headache that had been heating his very eyeballs vanished as if it had never been there.

“Ah!”

At the same time, he remembered the place from his dream.

Verdura Castle.

The image of the castle in his dream slowly overlapped with the current, shabby and unimpressive Verdura Castle.