“Ending things like this… Do you really think this makes any sense, Evelyn?”

Alexis snapped at her, looking utterly incredulous.

Evelyn let out a quiet sigh.

Before long, whispers began spreading throughout the coffeehouse.

“I think I just heard her say they were ending things…”

“Yes. I heard that too…”

Jason, Kassian’s aide, had just tied up the horse they had ridden and was walking toward him when he glanced toward Evelyn and Alexis.

“What do you suppose is going on, Your Highness? Are they having a lovers’ quarrel?”

Kassian offered no answer.

He simply stared at Evelyn.

“How could you do this to me?”

Alexis’s voice rose another notch, his emotions clearly getting the better of him.

“Your Highness, I’m not sure if we shouldn’t intervene…”

Jason sucked in a quiet breath, stealing another glance at the two of them.

That was when Kassian suddenly rose from his seat.

Without hesitation, he strode toward the entrance.

Naturally, everyone inside the coffeehouse shifted their attention from Evelyn and Alexis to Kassian.

“You’re blocking the way.”

“I believe you’re the one in the way.”

Alexis made no effort to hide his irritation at being interrupted.

“If I’m in your way, then I apologize.”

Kassian gave him a faint smile.

For a moment, Jason had thought he was stepping forward to mediate the situation.

But when Kassian backed down so easily, Alexis let out a derisive snort.

He was just about to turn back toward Evelyn when…

“Would you mind moving aside? I’d like to get through.”

As he spoke, Kassian crooked a finger at him.

His words were perfectly polite, but everything about his body language said otherwise.

His gaze was slightly lowered.

Granted, that could be attributed to the difference in height between him and Alexis. But the cold expression on his face, combined with the threatening glint visible beneath the brim of his hat, was anything but reassuring.

“……”

“……”

Their eyes locked across the space between them.

The air around them seemed to turn cold.

Jason sensed immediately that the situation was taking a dangerous turn and hurried to step between the two men.

But before he could…

“I don’t believe I’ve seen you before. Which family are you from?”

Alexis spoke first.

Jason’s face went pale at the blatant condescension in his voice.

As expected, Kassian’s jaw tightened with a quiet grind of his teeth.

“Please go on ahead, Your Highness. I’ll take care of this.”

Jason quickly lowered his voice so that only Kassian could hear him.

“Come now, let me through. I have somewhere urgent to be…”

But Alexis, apparently thoroughly offended by now, remained planted in front of the door with no intention of moving.

There was no denying it now.

They were in a difficult situation.

If the two of them got into an altercation in front of everyone inside the coffeehouse, it would be the end of everything.

Their cover would be blown, and everyone would discover that Kassian was traveling incognito.

All because Jason had suggested they stop and rest for a while.

‘I should never have said anything.’

Jason was silently cursing himself when…

“Does your attitude toward me depend on which family I belong to?”

Kassian responded to Alexis’s provocation.

Jason’s expression immediately filled with horror.

‘Surely he isn’t going to reveal that he’s a prince here…?’

“Ha. Seriously… What kind of day is this?”

Alexis gave a short laugh as he ran a hand through his bangs.

But the amusement vanished from his face the very next moment.

He glared at Kassian as though he wanted to kill him and growled,

“…People really will pick a fight over anything.”

“……!”

Jason was speechless with shock.

‘H-How dare he speak to His Highness the Imperial Prince like that! And to think some mere count’s son would have the audacity to be this disrespectful! Forget going incognito. Should I just turn everything upside down right now?!’

Jason had gotten that far in his thoughts when Alexis stepped toward Kassian.

He moved so close that their faces were nearly touching.

“Go quietly on your way while I’m asking nicely. Unless you want to humiliate yourself.”

“……”

The man who had suddenly inserted himself between Alexis and Evelyn and interfered with them said nothing.

He simply stared at Alexis.

Alexis assumed his warning had worked.

Or perhaps the man was simply quick to read the situation.

Since Alexis was disguised as an ordinary customer, it would have been difficult to notice at a glance, but he was not actually alone in the coffeehouse.

Several of his men were scattered throughout the establishment, disguised as customers as well.

Among them were particularly skilled knights from House Osment.

The man must have realized that Alexis was not alone after all and abandoned the idea of overpowering him by numbers.

There was another reason Alexis had deliberately stepped so close to him.

He had been concerned that a physical confrontation might break out and damage his dignity.

From a distance, his actions might have looked like an attempt to threaten the man.

But there was actually something on the left side of Alexis’s chest that revealed his identity.

A button exquisitely crafted with the crest of House Osment.

The man might have realized that Alexis belonged to the family of a count.

Whatever the reason, Alexis was pleased to see the man who had confidently stepped forward suddenly become so docile.

A victorious smile spread across his face.

“Let’s have a look at that pretty face of yours, shall we?”

Alexis reached out to remove the man’s hat.

That was when…

“I apologize for interrupting, but…”

“What do you want now?”

Already irritated by one interruption after another, Alexis whipped his head toward the voice.

A man who appeared to be the troublesome stranger’s companion spoke.

“Weren’t you speaking with that lady earlier?”

“I was.”

“She has already left.”

“…What?”

Alexis turned around with a slightly dazed expression.

It was true.

Evelyn was no longer there.

She had already left the coffeehouse.

“…Evelyn? Evelyn!”

***

Evelyn hurried toward her carriage.

Her mind was still filled with everything that had happened inside the coffeehouse.

When she remembered how Alexis’s attitude had changed the instant she declared their separation, she could only let out a hollow laugh.

Even when he had watched her drink the poison and slowly die in agony, his eyes had remained eerily calm, devoid of emotion.

She had never imagined that a single request to end their relationship would provoke such an intense reaction.

‘Now that I think about it, it really was strange…’

As Evelyn quietly revisited those memories, a thought occurred to her.

Was it really normal for someone to feel absolutely nothing while watching another person suffer and die right before their eyes?

Especially when that person wasn’t a complete stranger.

They had lived together.

She had been his wife.

Surely, that wasn’t normal.

If Alexis had fallen in love with Princess Camilla, and Evelyn had simply become unnecessary to him, he could have asked for a divorce.

Divorce was certainly not easy in aristocratic society, but at the very least, an ordinary person in such a situation would have chosen divorce.

The more Evelyn thought about it, the more unpleasant she felt.

She had simply realized that the man she had spent so many years with, the man who had once been her husband, was far from normal.

‘More importantly, that man earlier…’

Evelyn thought back to the man who had drawn Alexis’s attention away from her and then gestured for her to leave.

His hat had been pulled down so low that she hadn’t recognized him at first.

But she had soon realized who he was.

That man was Kassian, the third son of the Emperor of the Alyssium Empire and the First Empress.

He would later become one of the strongest candidates for the imperial throne.

That was because the first and second princes, both born to the late First Empress, had problems of their own.

After suffering an accident as a child, the First Prince had never appeared at an official public event.

The Second Prince was said to be in poor health and only appeared in public once in a great while.

There had always been a tendency within the Alyssium Empire to revere the imperial family and regard them as mysterious, almost untouchable figures.

But even taking that into consideration, the two princes had been absent for such a long time that strange rumors began to follow them.

People whispered that the First Prince had been crippled in an accident.

Others claimed that his face had been horribly disfigured, leaving him unable to appear before the public.

As for the Second Prince, rumors circulated that he suffered from severe social anxiety and could not bear being around people.

The imperial representative dismissed the rumors as baseless nonsense.

But the gossip refused to die down.

As a result, the young son of the Second Empress even began attracting attention as a possible future emperor.

At the time, Kassian, the Third Prince, was studying abroad in another country, leaving few other viable candidates for the throne.

But everything changed after Kassian returned and attended the imperial palace ball.

His intelligent eyes were an exact reflection of the Emperor’s in his younger days, back when the Emperor had roamed the battlefields.

Just looking at them made people imagine the prosperity that awaited the Alyssium Empire.

And his bearing, reminiscent of the First Empress, captivated the aristocracy almost instantly.

His overwhelming elegance, along with the polished habits ingrained in him from birth, were impossible to conceal no matter how hard he tried.

Evelyn had little trouble recognizing the man’s true identity.

Kassian, the Third Imperial Prince of the Alyssium Empire.

And there were even more clues.