“If you were going to handle it so clumsily, it would have been better not to start at all.”

At the cold rebuke, Lloyd looked at her with an expression of injustice.

“I didn’t…!”

“Are you saying it wasn’t your doing?”

Before he could finish speaking, the Empress caught the tail end of Lloyd’s words. Lloyd couldn’t deny it outright and just chewed on his lips. At this reaction, the Empress clicked her tongue in further displeasure and turned her head away.

“If you didn’t have the confidence to deny it to the end, you shouldn’t have started in the first place.”

She was muttering to herself, but at the clear criticism directed at him, Lloyd couldn’t say anything and just hung his head low. The Empress didn’t add any more scolding and just looked at her son with a cold gaze before letting out a long sigh.

“What was the reason?”

At her voice, now calmer and less icy than before, Lloyd carefully raised his head to meet her gaze.

“Even if we had left him alone, he would have been branded as a beast worse than an animal who enjoys secret meetings with other women right after the wedding ceremony, becoming a subject of controversy.”

Lloyd frowned at the criticism that things had gone wrong because of the attack.

“If it had been said that he was attacked on his way back from enjoying a secret meeting, abandoning his bride on the first night, he would have been criticized without any room for sympathy.”

If Karina hadn’t acted differently than expected, if Aidan hadn’t thrown out Kate Spencer when she came to visit, things would have gone as Lloyd said. However, the Empress’s coldly frozen face didn’t soften at all.

“Rather than that, didn’t you want to have the Hewitt family’s young lady before she fell into his hands?”

Lloyd flinched at the Empress’s question.

“No. How could I do such a thing for mere personal feelings…”

Lloyd, who was trying to absolutely deny it, swallowed his words at the Empress’s piercing gaze. The Empress was a person quicker than anyone when it came to reading situations. With that perceptiveness, she had become the Emperor’s lover and eventually secured the position of Empress. Clumsy lies didn’t work on such a person.

“Now that the wedding is over, there’s nothing good in holding onto lingering feelings.”

At the Empress’s rebuke, Lloyd bit his lower lip and lowered his gaze.

“I failed this time, but next time I will surely…”

“Prince.”

The Empress cut off Lloyd’s words again.

“Don’t forget that there are listening ears everywhere.”

Her gaze turned towards the entrance of the reception room. Although only the Empress and Lloyd were inside the reception room, numerous attendants were waiting in the corridor outside. Despite believing without doubt that they were perfectly loyal to the Empress and Lloyd, she still cautioned him to be careful with his words. Only when Lloyd nodded did her gaze return to its original position.

“The Hewitt ducal family will make a move.”

The Empress continued in a calm tone as she poured tea into another cup.

“Now that they have officially become Aidan’s backing, they won’t sit idly by this attack either.”

She filled the cup almost to overflowing and held it out to Lloyd.

“Surely you didn’t leave any traces?”

Lloyd frowned as he took the teacup she offered.

“It should be fine.”

He answered that way because there wasn’t anything particularly concerning, but the Empress’s expression contorted.

“Should be? Are you answering with ‘should be’ right now?”

Her voice rose, seemingly displeased with the uncertain answer. As Lloyd bowed his head deeply, tense as if expecting more scolding, he heard a long sigh instead of reprimands.

“I’ll send Marquis Belmont, so receive his help.”

Marquis Belmont was like the Empress’s right hand. His connection with the Empress began when her family was nearly ruined and she married the older Marquis McCoy. It was also Marquis Belmont who took her to the imperial palace’s banquet and introduced her to the current Emperor after she inherited all the wealth when Marquis McCoy died in just a year. Marquis Belmont had been by her side for nearly half a lifetime and was the person she trusted the most.

“Why Marquis Belmont…?”

When Lloyd asked, unable to understand, the Empress’s gaze turned cold.

“We need to prevent any possible unforeseen situations. Nothing related to that incident should be left behind.”

The Empress used the word ‘thing,’ but Lloyd understood her meaning clearly. Mobilizing Marquis Belmont meant that no one who could be a witness should exist. In other words, it meant to kill and eliminate everyone who attacked Aidan and anyone who knew about it.

“The one who carried out the task is a subordinate I trust.”

“And?”

“……”

The words to ask if even such a person needed to be dealt with didn’t come out. The Empress, who had been quietly looking at Lloyd, smiled kindly as if to soothe him.

“Trustworthy subordinates can be gained again. There are many people.”

In the end, it meant they should deal with everything without leaving anything behind. Lloyd, who had been chewing on his lower lip, nodded faintly before he could finally stand up from his seat.

*

“This is the list of people who knew that Your Highness left the palace that day. Of course, I am included as well.”

Kai, the captain of Aidan’s guard knights, handed over a paper with the names and positions of people written on it. Aidan scanned through the list he received from him and then passed it to Karina, who was sitting beside the bed.

As soon as Aidan heard from Karina that they needed to catch the culprit who attacked him, he said they should first check the list of everyone who knew about his outing that day. It was literally a secret meeting, and if he was attacked on the way back, there must have been an insider. Karina thought so too, but she couldn’t rashly investigate the people of the prince’s palace on her own.

“Can you investigate all the people on that list?”

Aidan asked Karina after sending Kai out. Karina looked at him with a slightly surprised expression. It was fortunate that he agreed to the investigation, but she didn’t expect him to entrust the investigation to her. Aidan didn’t trust her 100% either. Because she had judged so, she thought he would be somewhat wary of her as well.

“There’s definitely an insider, so investigating from within wouldn’t be meaningful, right?”

Aidan added, seemingly having read Karina’s thoughts from her expression.

“Besides, I’m in this state right now.”

He glanced down at his stomach. Although he looked fine on the surface, it seemed he still couldn’t move much. Moreover, Aidan had been short on time just trying to build up basic knowledge about the Griffith Empire recently. Even now, thick books that could be a span high were piled up next to his bed. It was amazing that he was reading all those books all day without a single complaint.

That wasn’t all. If there were missing parts in the books or inadequate explanations, he would astoundingly point them out, check them, and then ask Karina separately when she came. To answer all those questions, Karina had been spending almost all day, every day in his bedroom, acting as his tutor. Because of this, rumors full of misunderstandings and misconceptions that the two were becoming closer were spreading.

“Is it completely impossible for you to move?”

Instead of answering his question, Karina asked a different one. Wondering why she suddenly asked such a thing, Aidan stared at her blankly instead of answering right away. She took a short breath at his gaze.

“Her Majesty the Empress will be holding a banquet soon.”

“A banquet?”

“I hear it’s to celebrate Your Highness’s and my marriage.”

“In this condition?”

Aidan let out a laugh of disbelief. Karina, also agreeing with his sentiment, simply swallowed a groan without saying anything.

“Interesting.”

She thought he would say something like ‘What nonsense are you talking about?’, but instead, Aidan’s eyes were like those of a child who had found an interesting toy.

“If we attend the banquet, we’ll have to move around whether we like it or not, and of course, we’ll have to dance.”

She added this to remind him that it wasn’t something to laugh about, to make him realize how serious the situation was, but he remained relaxed.

“Then we’ll just dance, what’s the problem?”

At his overly simple answer, Karina stared at him, at a loss for words.

“Holding a banquet while knowing I’ve been attacked and bedridden, it’s like saying ‘go ahead and be humiliated in front of everyone,’ right?”

It seemed he wasn’t completely oblivious after all. That was exactly the Empress’s intention. Having been attacked while returning from enjoying a secret meeting, if he couldn’t dance properly at his own wedding celebration banquet, he would be ridiculed by the other nobles.

“So we should dress up even better and go out there to dance splendidly for all to see.”

Unlike the troubled Karina, Aidan was full of confidence.