Tolman de Lakia.

It was a name Vanessa knew, though this was her first time meeting him face-to-face.

“…It’s an honor to meet you, Your Highness, Prince of Lakia.”

“Haha, the honor is all mine. To have a conversation with such a peerless beauty is truly a great honor!”

To Vanessa’s somewhat lukewarm greeting, Tolman responded exuberantly, like someone oblivious to social cues.

Despite making it clear that his presence wasn’t particularly welcome, Tolman didn’t leave. Vanessa was on the verge of exploding with irritation, which was already at its peak.

‘What on earth is he trying to do?’

Normally, when a woman shows discomfort, even a man who had approached to get closer would quietly retreat. This was the most basic etiquette in social circles.

But Tolman de Lakia was acting as if he didn’t know such rules.

“I thought you were truly beautiful when I saw you from afar, but up close, it’s as if I might go blind, haha.”

Tolman was fidgeting excitedly, his face flushed red. Vanessa had to try hard not to frown at the unpleasant heat emanating from him.

As much as she wanted to throw champagne in his face for his vulgar behavior, asking where he got the nerve… she couldn’t do that to a legitiamte prince of Lakia, the leader of the Alliance’s three countries. Forcing a smile and nodding was the best she could do.

“Don’t you find it stuffy staying in the banquet hall all the time? The garden of this palace is quite beautiful even in winter. How about enjoying a short walk?”

Tolman extended his hand as if he wanted to escort Vanessa away right now. Vanessa instinctively flinched and quietly looked into his eyes.

Now that she looked closely, this guy… his eyes were half-crazed.

‘He’s a madman.’

As Vanessa inwardly lamented why only madmen seemed to be drawn to her, Tolman urged her by opening and closing his hand, as if asking for a quick answer.

Unable to bear it any longer, Vanessa wiped the smile off her face and took a step back. Then, with a polite but firm attitude, she expressed her refusal.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness, Prince of Lakia, but I’m not in the mood for a garden walk. I’m feeling a bit dizzy right now.”

Dizzy from the lecherous desire swarming in your eyes. Vanessa turned away from Tolman, showing a slight contempt.

It was an action calculated to make him give up now that she had shown such clear dislike.

However, Tolman smiled broadly as if this was a good thing and latched onto Vanessa’s words.

“You’re feeling dizzy? Then it must be hard for you to stand in the banquet hall. I’ll guide you to the resting room. Come, give me your hand…”

He reached out his hand again, closing the distance Vanessa had created. Vanessa stumbled back further, as if she had spotted a bug.

By this point, she was too dumbfounded to speak. He’s not backing off even after being given such clear hints to leave? Why on earth?

‘Is it because I’m cursedly beautiful…’

In fact, there were enough men who had pestered Vanessa as much as Tolman—no, even more—to build a mountain if piled up.

But that was only when Vanessa was unmarried, and when she was being torn apart by the insane noble society of Terevron.

Now Vanessa was—though it irked her to admit it herself—the fiancée of Jurgen Drake, a duke of the empire, which meant she was not someone that lustful men should casually hit on.

Yet Tolman de Lakia was rushing at Vanessa like a moth drawn to flame, oblivious to everything else. He looked just like an unbridled colt.

Slightly furrowing her brow, Vanessa glared at Tolman and mentally reviewed the information she had about him.

‘This man… Was he always known to be such a ruffian?’

She had heard he had a history with women, but as far as she knew, he hadn’t caused any major problems… She couldn’t help but wonder what on earth he had eaten to act like such a complete scoundrel.

Meanwhile, Tolman de Lakia himself was irritated and frustrated, wondering why this notoriously loose woman was playing so hard to get.

Before approaching Vanessa in earnest, Tolman had accidentally overheard the story of an imperial noble who had stayed in Terevron a few months before its downfall.

[She’s a nation-toppling beauty alright. She ended up destroying an entire country. That woman isn’t just ominous. She’s a thoroughly depraved and devilish woman, I tell you. There were widespread rumors that she slept with Arno, the brother of King Leroy of Terevron, every night because Leroy was impotent. And that’s not all. Among the nobles of Terevron, there were numerous men who claimed to have slept with her once or twice.]

Although others dismissed it as mere gossip, Tolman, who had already accepted it as fact, didn’t hear them.

‘That’s right, Vanessa Roengreen was originally a loose and frivolous woman. No one would dare criticize me for flirting a bit with such a woman. Didn’t Jurgen Drake get engaged to her knowing all this?’

Having rationalized thus, Tolman flirted with Vanessa without any sense of guilt.

But… why was this woman, famous for being loose, acting so prickly?

‘Didn’t she sleep with over 50 men in Terevron? Why is she pretending to be innocent now?’

In his mind, where rumors had solidified into truth, Vanessa was a corrupt and lascivious temptress, and he couldn’t shake off the delusion that she would fall for him if he just pushed a little more here.

As a result, he continued to commit a great rudeness to none other than Duke Drake’s fiancée, to the point where the atmosphere in the banquet hall watching this situation turned chilly.

It was just as Jurgen, who had finally noticed the situation, was about to reach them that Vanessa, unable to endure any longer, exploded.

“Enough.”

“What?”

“That’s enough, Your Highness, Prince Tolman de Lakia.”

Vanessa slowly opened her eyes and spoke with a voice and expression as cold as winter. An icy aura flowed mercilessly from her. Her navy blue eyes were burning a merciless bright blue.

“It is clearly rude to continue to trouble a lady after she has expressed her refusal. For the sake of your own dignity as a legitimate prince of Lakia, the leader of the Western Alliance of three countries, you should stop here.”

Her voice, falling without inflection, was infinitely calm, and her attitude in pointing out the other’s rudeness was merely cold. Not a single piece of intense emotion was revealed. Her noble figure was like a single white lily blooming on a cliff.

Everyone watching was dumbfounded by this perfect display of royal demeanor. In an instant, the doubts about Vanessa that had been circulating in the shadows until then were washed away.

—How could this figure be the princess rumored to be promiscuous?

While such thoughts were exchanged in glances, Tolman, who hadn’t expected to be so flatly rejected by Vanessa, trembled in shock.

Intense humiliation swept over him. He wasn’t a fool who didn’t know he had been disgraced, and he sensed that this incident would be on people’s lips for a long time.

Moreover, in this situation. Vanessa Roengreen appeared undoubtedly as a noble princess, while he was being regarded as a vulgar man who had tried to take advantage of such a woman.

Tolman’s face turned red and blue, and the the whites of his eyes became bloodshot. He couldn’t just sit still after suffering such an insult… Clenching his fists tightly, he spat out words filled with anger.

“A lady? What kind of lady are you? Vanessa Roengreen! You’re the infamous harlot who slept with over 50 men while you were the queen of Terevron!”

Whispering “I heard that…” behind someone’s back and directly confronting the person in question were entirely different matters.

Even those who had been secretly slandering Vanessa until then were shocked by Tolman’s audacity and widened their eyes in surprise.

In the silence that fell like cold water had been poured, several dozen seconds that felt like an eternity passed, and then Vanessa’s bitter laugh softly fell.

A voice as cold as an ice blade cut through the silence and resonated.

“Someone is spreading malicious rumors about me again.”

She opened her eyes, like someone familiar with such situations, yet coldly angry. As her bright blue eyes slowly surveyed the crowd, the entire banquet hall fell silent, enveloped in a tense atmosphere.

“I swear on the name of my deceased father.”

People gasped at the weight carried in those words.

“I have never, ever committed any immoral acts. Although my life may have been entangled with a corrupt, fallen country and plunged into mire… I swear by my father’s soul and by the grace of God who took pity on me, that this body and mind of mine are pure.”

No sooner had she finished speaking than Vanessa’s navy blue eyes turned white. At the same time, a geometric pattern reminiscent of a blooming lotus appeared on the back of her outstretched right hand. That clean snow-white glow was—

“…Stigmata!”

It was the stigmata, the mark proving that one had received God’s blessing.