Karina couldn’t take her eyes off her either. Aidan’s current question seemed to suggest he had never slept with her even once. Aidan had never slept with her? Really? Of course, the current Aidan could claim that. But she had no way of knowing what had happened between them before his soul was switched. So how could he be so sure?

After a long wait, Kate couldn’t continue. Tears just kept falling down her cheeks.

“You can’t answer. Because it never happened. Not even once.”

Everyone was shaken by Aidan’s answer.

“That’s nonsense! Aidan is lying to pin everything on me!”

Lloyd shouted, jumping up from his seat. The Empress also shook her head with furrowed brows.

“You answer! You must answer honestly, Kate!”

Count Spencer, feeling frustrated, grabbed his daughter’s shoulders and shook her. Though it would have been better for him if it were Lloyd’s child rather than Aidan’s, by this point, he was simply curious about the truth. It was quite shocking for him too, as he had suspected his daughter had a deep relationship with Aidan.

Kate, who had been just dropping tears, shook her head.

“With Your Highness… with Prince Aidan… sob.”

She couldn’t continue through her sobs.

“Kate!”

When Count Spencer pressed her, she bit her lip to swallow her sobs and opened her mouth again.

“Not even once. His Highness… never… sob… embraced me.”

Ha! The Empress’s exclamation of disbelief was audible. The Emperor too turned his head away with a long sigh. Lloyd looked at Kate as if he couldn’t believe it.

“How is that possible? Day after day, even on that bastard’s wedding night, he spent the night with you, didn’t he?”

Lloyd questioned accusingly. Kate lowered her head again deeply.

“It’s true we spent time together… but we never slept together…”

At her tear-filled answer, Lloyd collapsed back into his chair as if his legs had lost strength.

Karina turned to look at Aidan. He wore a composed expression as if he had expected this.

“May I take my leave now?”

Aidan stood up and helped Karina to her feet.

“My consort and I seem to have no further reason to stay here. The rest you can discuss with Lloyd.”

Aidan looked back and forth between Lloyd and the Empress, then smiled brightly.

“You must take responsibility. In the name of the imperial family. It’s precious imperial blood, isn’t it? Don’t turn away, resolve it like a man.”

After patting Lloyd’s shoulder, Aidan took Karina’s hand and left the conference room. Though Kate’s sobs grew louder inside, he continued walking without looking back.

“Wait, wait, Your Highness.”

After being pulled along for quite a while, Karina belatedly tried to free her hand from his grip. Instead of letting go, Aidan turned around with an expression asking what the problem was. His face looking at Karina was completely unabashed, thoroughly confident.

“How did you know?”

Karina’s thoughts were so jumbled that her question lacked coherence. Aidan tilted his head at the abrupt question.

“How were you so sure you never slept with Kate Spencer?”

It should have been impossible for the current Aidan to know. It had happened before he possessed that body, so he couldn’t have known. Yet Aidan had confidently declared in front of everyone that he had never slept with Kate. What basis did he have for such confidence? If he had been wrong, if Kate denied it and said they had slept together, it would have put him in a difficult position.

“Because there were no traces of use?”

She just blinked at him, wondering what he meant. Seeing her puzzled expression, Aidan burst out laughing.

“Is that… something you can know?”

She asked again, completely unable to understand, and Aidan let out an even louder laugh.

“I’m joking. Well, though that does show somewhat, it wasn’t what made me certain.”

Aidan continued lightly while taking Karina’s hand again and walking. She found herself being half-pulled along once more.

“Your Highness! Your… Aidan!”

When she called his name, he turned with lingering laughter on his face.

“Answer me properly. How did you know?”

She thought he wouldn’t act this confidently without any basis. Though sometimes reckless, Aidan only moved when he had clear certainty.

“‘Aidan’ told me.”

His playful answer was still incomprehensible. What did he mean ‘Aidan’ told him? Did he meet him in a dream? Was that even possible?

“He left a diary. Hah, that kid, doing all sorts of things. Well, it helped.”

A diary? There was ‘Aidan’s’ diary?

“It was in that safe we opened before. At first, I didn’t know what it was, but as I read, it turned out to be his complaints, like self-pity. Seems he started writing when he was quite young?”

That made sense for ‘Aidan.’ Being timid, it seemed quite credible that he would record things he couldn’t say aloud in private writings.

“How did that bastard survive in the palace? He was dying of anxiety every day, afraid of being murdered.”

Only their footsteps and Aidan’s voice echoed in the quiet corridor. Aidan heaved a big sigh. It seemed both contemptuous and sympathetic toward ‘Aidan.’

“After the previous Empress, I mean Mother, died, he was practically in an emotionally unstable state. He firmly believed the current Empress killed his mother — was there enough evidence for that?”

Karina couldn’t readily answer his question. Duke Hewitt had also suspected this fact. The Empress, who had no chronic illness, suddenly died one day, leading many ministers to claim it was poisoning. However, the investigation found no issues with the food and drinks the Empress had consumed, concluding it was sudden cardiac arrest.

Duke Hewitt still believed that Lilith McCoy, previously the Emperor’s mistress, had killed the Empress. But there was no evidence, and the Emperor took her side, so it couldn’t be mentioned further. Meanwhile, Aidan, the Empress’s remaining child, still had to live in the palace with the woman who might have killed his mother as his new mother.

Aidan’s fear of assassination wasn’t mere paranoia. He had actually been attacked on his wedding day.

“Well, I can guess the answer without hearing it.”

When Karina didn’t answer immediately, Aidan seemed to understand her silence in his own way.

“To survive, he had to do nothing.”

Karina tilted her head at his following words.

“That’s what he believed. That if he did anything, the Empress would check him. You too… well, never mind that.”

Aidan shook his head, seemingly unwilling to explain further.

“Anyway, he was convinced he shouldn’t have children. He was anxious that if he produced an heir, they would definitely try to kill the child, and he might die too. Someone like that wouldn’t do anything reckless. There’s no proper contraception here, right? Then obviously he wouldn’t have done anything.”

Now she began to understand why Aidan was so confident nothing had happened between him and Kate.

“In the first place, that guy wasn’t meeting Kate Spencer because he liked her. He just hoped meeting her might cancel the marriage arrangement with House Hewitt, maybe? Unaware of that, only the woman was sincere.”

After saying that, Aidan checked Karina’s reaction. He seemed to realize he might have been too blunt about revealing that ‘Aidan’ didn’t want the marriage.

“Are you upset?”

Karina shook her head. She already knew ‘Aidan’ didn’t want to marry her. He had told her directly before the marriage. Nevertheless, proceeding with the marriage regardless of affection was the choice of House Hewitt and herself. Of course, until then, she hadn’t known ‘Aidan’ would be such a mess.

But after hearing Aidan’s explanation, she had much to think about.

In her previous life, Kate became pregnant with Aidan’s child after a whole three years had passed. During that time, Aidan had been involved in rumors with numerous women, but none had ever resulted in pregnancy. Could it be that he hadn’t actually slept with those women either?

Then how did Kate become pregnant with Aidan’s child? Could it be that even then it wasn’t Aidan’s child…? No way. That’s impossible. If that were the case, Aidan wouldn’t have come to her asking her to accept Kate’s child as her own.

He must have slept with Kate. Did he give in to her persistence after she hung around him for three years? Or…

She let out a sigh as she remembered Kate’s attempt to use aphrodisiacs on Aidan during the knights’ tournament. Could it be that she had done the same in her previous life? Perhaps she succeeded in having s*x with him against his will using aphrodisiacs.

Thinking about it that way made more sense. She hadn’t been able to understand why that timid man would suddenly have a child and put her in a difficult position, but if Kate had used aphrodisiacs and become pregnant that way — while still pathetic, the situation made more sense.

A foolish, timid, and indecisive man. That’s why he couldn’t cut Kate off cleanly and kept her around, leading to the worst possible outcome.

“What would you have done if Kate Spencer really was carrying your child?”

Fortunately, they had escaped this situation safely because he noticed she had never slept with him, but it could have been different. The real Aidan might have slept with her, and then her child could have been of his bloodline.

“My child? That doesn’t make sense from the start.”

Aidan frowned as if the mere imagination disgusted him.

“Someone else made the mess, why should I take responsibility?”

“Because you’re living in that body.”

Even if it wasn’t actually his fault, as long as he inhabited ‘Aidan’s’ body, he couldn’t be free from responsibility. Especially because he was a prince, and this was the imperial palace.

“I would have made her get rid of it.”

She looked up at him, startled by his answer that came without a second’s hesitation.

“Isn’t it obvious? I don’t even think it’s my child, so I couldn’t possibly love it, and I don’t have the slightest feelings for Kate, so I couldn’t keep her as a lover either. Would a child born in such circumstances be happy? No, it would probably be a terrible life. Besides, this isn’t a place where things can be glossed over with compromise. That child would be better off not being born.”

“That may be true, but…”

“Besides, if I turn my back, would Kate take responsibility for that child until the end? It would be a child no different from an orphan, even with both parents alive. Why do such an irresponsible thing? Just for the imperial family’s dignity? They can go to hell.”

Aidan thought thoroughly not about the dignity of the prince or the palace, but about the days the child would live, whether the child would be happy. Thus, she couldn’t argue against his point that not being born would be better for everyone than living a terrible life.

“But His Majesty wouldn’t allow it. Neither would Count Spencer. Because imperial blood is precious.”

When she added this, Aidan snorted.

“Who said we’d do it openly? It should be handled secretly.”

Karina’s eyes widened at his dangerous statement. Yes, this was the kind of man he was. Someone who wouldn’t hesitate if necessary, even if what he wanted to do was illegal… A man far from timid, sometimes worryingly excessive.

“In the long run, that would be better for Kate Spencer too. It would give her a chance at a new life.”

And he was also a man who excelled at rationalization. What scared her was that his words weren’t entirely wrong and she felt herself being convinced. Her heart wavering at such a man… was disconcerting.