Lloyd paced the reception room after hearing that a princess from Icinia would come as the head of the delegation. After thinking deeply for a while, he sent a servant to find Kate Spencer.

“She is staying at the mansion Your Highness prepared.”

After being rejected by Aidan again following the banquet, he had barely managed to persuade and comfort her to stay at a mansion near the palace instead of returning to the Spencer family estate. He couldn’t let her give up and withdraw now. He planned to use the arrival of royalty from Icinia as an opportunity to damage Aidan’s image.

The impact would be different between the Griffith Empire’s ministers knowing about Aidan’s private life and showing an ugly side to a royalty from an allied nation. If Aidan were shown fooling around with another woman shortly after getting his consort, he could never become emperor considering future trust relationships with allied nations.

Moreover, if Kate Spencer happened to get lucky and conceive Aidan’s child, his relationship with Karina would be destroyed too.

“Bring Kate Spencer to the palace secretly. Tell her I’ll help her achieve what we discussed before.”

He planned to have the Icinian princess witness Aidan and Kate in a compromising position. With that, Aidan would lose both Karina and his right to succession.

*

The Icinian delegation arrived. Aidan and Karina greeted Princess Elena, the delegation’s representative, in the palace’s central hall. Lloyd was there too. Though he seemed reluctant to be there, frowning, he still greeted Elena with a smile when she arrived.

“Congratulations on the marriage of His Highness the Prince and his consort.”

Princess Elena lifted her dress slightly and bowed to Aidan and Karina. They returned her bow similarly.

“Thank you for making such a long journey. We appreciate you coming in person.”

Aidan treated her with the courtesy Karina had taught him beforehand.

“Welcome.”

Princess Elena turned to Lloyd’s greeting. Though she smiled gently in response, Aidan noticed how her gaze swept Lloyd from head to toe, which was different from how she had looked at him and Karina.

“I will guide you to His Majesty the Emperor.”

The Empress had previously instructed Lloyd to guide her. Thanks to this, Aidan and Karina parted from them after saying they would meet again at dinner.

“Is there a connection between Icinia and the Empress?”

Aidan asked after confirming that Lloyd and Princess Elena had passed through the central hall toward the Emperor’s palace. Karina looked at him, wondering what he meant.

“Just now, that princess was sizing up Lloyd, right?”

How did he notice such a thing in that brief moment? Karina hadn’t noticed at all. Lloyd seemed unaware of it too.

“As far as I know, there’s no connection.”

“Hmm.”

He seemed to have trouble understanding why Princess Elena would examine Lloyd so carefully if they had no relationship.

“Perhaps…”

Karina opened her mouth but hesitated. How much should she say? Given how perceptive he was, she couldn’t gauge how he would react to her words. A general guess should be fine. It was something that could be inferred from looking at the normal situation anyway.

“There might have been marriage talks between her and Lloyd.”

“Marriage talks…”

Lost in thought, Aidan drew out the end of his words.

“So they’re looking for a more powerful marriage partner than the Hewitt duchy.”

Karina stared at him expressionlessly as he muttered to himself after a long pause.

“Is this something we need to be worried about?”

He turned to Karina and asked. It was an important matter for Aidan. As he had told Karina when they first met, he might be killed by Lloyd and the Empress someday if he couldn’t become emperor.

“It should be fine.”

Though she wasn’t sure of the exact reason, Princess Elena had rejected Lloyd. If events unfolded as they had in her previous life, Elena would not have chosen Lloyd, nor would Icinia have become entangled in the Griffith Empire’s succession struggle.

“There’s that ‘should be’ again.”

Aidan caught onto Karina’s word choice.

“Because it’s not certain.”

Though she already knew what would happen, she had to answer that way. Aidan stared at her for a moment before letting out a long “hmm.”

“You say ‘should be,’ but why do I feel like you’re certain about it?”

His eyes narrowed as he gazed at Karina. Despite his penetrating look that seemed to pierce through her, Karina calmly met his gaze.

“Well, maybe I’m being oversensitive.”

He shrugged and turned away. Just as she let out a shallow breath, Aidan suddenly whirled back around. Startled, she swallowed hard.

“Perhaps…”

Had he figured it out? That just like how he had come from another world and possessed Aidan’s body in an impossible occurrence, she too had traveled back three years in time.

“Do you have some special ability? Like seeing the future?”

At his ridiculous question, she let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding.

“No, since this world is completely different from the one I know, I wondered if there might be people with special abilities here. Like mages.”

“There might be somewhere, but I’m not one of them.”

Mages. Karina too had only heard of them in fairy tales as a child. Though she didn’t believe they existed now, given how unrealistic her current situation was, she couldn’t completely deny their existence either.

“Really?”

Aidan responded, sounding somewhat disappointed.

“I thought if such beings existed, it might explain why I suddenly woke up here. The only thing in common between me and the prince who owned this body is that we were both stabbed in the same place. Why me of all people? I just had that thought suddenly.”

He always seemed too well-adjusted, almost too comfortable, but perhaps he had his own worries. Well. Even though she had returned through time, it was still her own body, and she knew and was familiar with the situation. But for Aidan, everything was strange. It was more surprising that he was adapting so calmly like this.

“I believe everything has a cause and effect relationship. An event occurs because there are preceding reasons for it. For example, if Lloyd tried to kill ‘Aidan,’ it’s because of the succession struggle. There’s no action without reason.”

Aidan explained his thoughts.

“There must be a reason why I entered this body too. I just became curious about that.”

While listening to Aidan, Karina also fell into thought. What was the reason she had traveled back in time? At first, she thought it was because she felt wronged by her death and those around her, to prevent those unjust deaths. She had thought the easiest way was to cut ties with the imperial family and had demanded divorce from Aidan.

But now she wasn’t sure. As Aidan changed, Karina’s choices gradually changed too. Yet situations similar to her memories continued to occur. Was everything flowing toward the same ending after all? If so, what would happen to this man? She would leave this palace in half a year, but Aidan had to remain here whether he liked it or not. Could he survive the threats from Lloyd and the Empress until the end and become emperor?

She thought she didn’t care… The wounds left by the Aidan in her memories were so deep that she only felt hatred for the current Aidan wearing his skin, but it seemed she had grown attached somewhere along the way. The thought that he might meet the same end as in her previous life and die by Lloyd’s hands made her chest tighten.

Don’t worry about it. There’s nothing I can do anyway. I just need to play my role as consort and leave this place.

Even as she tried to convince herself that whether the future would differ from what she knew depended on Aidan, she felt uneasy, perhaps because she knew the worst possible ending.

“Since we’re supposed to have dinner together, does that mean we can do whatever until then?”

Aidan’s question interrupted her thoughts.

“Surely they won’t suddenly call for us before then?”

“Since His Highness Lloyd will be guiding Princess Elena today, I don’t think there will be any separate summons…”

The Empress would try to pair Lloyd with Princess Elena, so there would be no reason to call Aidan to that meeting.

“That’s perfect then. While Lloyd is tied up with Princess Elena…”

Aidan smiled meaningfully.

“What are you planning?”

She felt anxious, wondering what scheme he had in mind. At the banquet, she had seen he could do quite unexpected things.

“Want to come along if you’re curious?”

Come along? Where? Before she could ask, Aidan grabbed Karina’s hand and began taking long strides forward.