“It’s troublesome if you act too innocently.”

Aidan muttered as he unrolled another scroll as if nothing had happened. As she furrowed her brow, unable to understand what he meant, he continued.

“Even if there were no thoughts before, it makes me want to touch.”

The latter part of his words stuck precisely in her ear. Reflexively, she turned to look at him, wondering if she had heard correctly, and then paused. Aidan had been staring at her intently, though she wasn’t sure since when. As a result, their eyes met directly.

“When you see a blank white canvas, don’t you want to make at least one dot?”

The conversation jumped incomprehensibly. Wondering what on earth he was trying to say, she tightened her lips while maintaining eye contact with him.

“When you see clean water, don’t you want to dip your feet in?”

“……”

“So, if you act too innocently, it makes me want to tease you more, you know?”

Aidan’s eyes curved gently. Enchanted by that unexpected smile, the meaning of his words registered a beat late.

To hear words about wanting to tease Karina Hewitt coming from Aidan’s mouth. It was truly a case someone could only see once they’ve lived long enough… no, once they lived again. This was the same person who had been quick to avoid her as if she was the one tormenting him just by making eye contact until now.

“You seem to have a lot of free time. I wish you’d use that time to memorize one more face instead of having such useless thoughts.”

A sigh of exasperation nearly escaped. He clearly didn’t understand the situation he was in. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be so relaxed as to make such unnecessary jokes.

“I’ve already memorized them all.”

At his nonchalant reply, Karina’s eyes widened and then narrowed. It was an absurd claim. Not much time had passed, and during that time, Aidan had only briefly glanced at the unrolled portraits.

“You don’t believe me.”

Aidan, who had been watching Karina’s expression, chuckled and pointed to one of the portraits scattered on the bed.

“Duke of Richmond.”

She checked the portrait he pointed to with his confident answer. It was indeed the Duke of Richmond’s portrait. Could it be a coincidence? Or maybe he remembered it because he had just seen it last.

She picked up one of the portraits that had been looked at earlier and was now buried underneath, and held it up in front of Aidan.

“Who is this person?”

“Marquis Belmont.”

The answer came without a second of hesitation. It was correct again. Karina showed him another portrait.

“Lloyd Griffith. Seeing the name, he must be the child the Emperor had from an affair. The First Prince or something.”

Aidan smiled an indecipherable smile as he looked at Lloyd’s portrait. His eyes, which held the portrait, sparkled with a strange light.

“He’s my enemy. This one.”

Just from Lloyd’s name, he accurately defined him as an ‘enemy’, adding to the situation he had heard so far.

“Did you really memorize all of this?”

Aside from his judgment about Lloyd, it was surprising that he had already memorized dozens of portraits. He had really just glanced at them, and in the meantime, he had even thrown unnecessary jokes at Karina. He didn’t seem to be concentrating at all, so how could he have memorized all of this already?

“I’ve always had a good memory. I’m also good at recognizing people’s faces.”

Aidan answered casually as if it was no big deal.

“More importantly, what about the book I asked for?”

He pushed the portraits aside as if he was no longer interested in them and mentioned the book he had talked about yesterday.

“Bernice will bring it soon.”

“Bernice?”

“Bernice Russell, my lady-in-waiting. She’s the eldest daughter of Viscount Russell.”

“You seem quite close. Must be good for her to have come all the way to this imperial palace with you.”

At his meaningless words, Karina unconsciously clenched her fist tightly. To her, Bernice was like a friend and family. As the Russell family’s fortunes declined, the Hewitt ducal family had been sponsoring Bernice and her siblings to receive proper education as nobles. Among them, Bernice, being of similar age to Karina, had stayed with her in the Hewitt ducal house as her companion, and when Karina and Aidan’s marriage was decided, she came to the imperial palace without hesitation.

It was because of Aidan, because of the child he had from an affair, that she had been stabbed to death by Lloyd’s sword right in front of her eyes. It was something she never wanted to experience again.

If she hadn’t brought her to the imperial palace, maybe Bernice wouldn’t have died. No, if she hadn’t married Aidan in the first place…

Thinking it wasn’t right to blame the man in front of her, she quietly suppressed the anger that was about to boil over and let out a long breath. At that sound, Aidan turned to look at Karina.

“Please sign this.”

Karina held out an envelope she had prepared in advance. Aidan looked back and forth between the envelope in Karina’s hand and her face with an expression that seemed to ask what it was.

“It’s a written agreement. An agreement stating that Your Highness will keep the promise you made to consent to divorce after half a year.”

People’s words could change at any time. So it needed to be made clear.

“Ha!”

Aidan let out a laugh and opened the envelope to take out the paper inside. After scanning it with his eyes, he chuckled again.

“I really like you.”

At his incomprehensible words, Karina frowned and watched him. He found a pen on the bedside table, signed the bottom of the paper, put it back in the envelope, and handed it to Karina.

“Please stamp it with your seal as well.”

“Seal?”

“There should be a seal that Your Highness uses on all official letters.”

“I don’t know where it is.”

It should be somewhere in the study or bedroom, but Aidan really seemed not to know.

“When you find it later, please stamp it then.”

An agreement without a seal was likely not to be recognized. She didn’t want to leave even the slightest possibility.

“Okay.”

After hearing Aidan’s answer, Karina turned around, saying her business was done. Aidan, who had been watching her leave the bedroom without a moment’s hesitation, smiled broadly after the door closed.

“The more I see her, the more charming she is.”

As he muttered to himself, his eyes fell on the portraits of the Emperor, Empress, and Lloyd. Slowly, the smile disappeared from his face. His dark brown eyes, which held the portraits, sank coldly.

*

There was a small garden on the path from Aidan’s palace to Karina’s palace. The flowers and tree leaves bathed in warm sunlight were more vivid in color than usual. Perhaps because her emotions had been in turmoil like a storm over the past couple of days, Karina’s steps unconsciously slowed as she saw the calm scenery of the garden. Standing still and looking around, everything that had happened over the past few days felt like a dream.

How nice it would be if it really was a dream. In this seemingly peaceful palace, someone was still targeting others’ lives for power. The fact that Aidan was attacked on the very first day of their wedding was proof of that. In her previous life, Karina had easily overlooked this fact, her pride hurt by Aidan’s infidelity, even though she knew about it.

This time…

Her thoughts were abruptly cut off when she spotted a man walking towards her.

Lloyd Griffith.

The moment his name echoed in her mind, her face unconsciously hardened. The chilling sensation she felt when his sword touched her neck vividly came back to life, and her heart seemed to burn with anger. However, she reminded herself that at this point in time, she didn’t have many points of contact with Lloyd. Before the marriage, the number of times she had encountered Lloyd could be counted on one hand, and she had only exchanged words with him a couple of times.

He was clearly approaching her, not just passing by. As the distance between them narrowed to about three steps, Karina slightly bowed her head towards him in greeting. Lloyd also returned the greeting with a light nod and stopped in front of her. His gaze turned to the direction Karina had come from, behind her.

“Surely you’re not coming from visiting Aidan?”

Surely. Was it just her imagination that that word seemed particularly emphasized? No, it wasn’t. Lloyd was clearly looking at Karina with an expression that said it was absurd.

“That’s correct, I’m coming from visiting His Highness Aidan.”

She deliberately answered in a clearer voice. Lloyd’s face turned serious.

“The man who enjoyed a secret meeting with someone else right after your wedding ceremony?”

This wasn’t surprising as she had expected him to react this way. Not just Lloyd, but most of the imperial palace was disgusted by Aidan’s misconduct, and they were surprised that she was still visiting him despite this. Karina was well aware that while some might say they were surprised, most were whispering about whether she had no self-respect. The few people who wanted to somehow stand on Aidan’s side and put a positive spin on things were praising Karina’s tolerance and understanding.