Rihana stared intently at Melissa who had come to see her. When she received word that Melissa was coming to Tarecus personally, Beriel had shouted in excitement.

‘She must be coming personally because all the assassins she sent to Lady Ariella failed! The Princess is trying to kill Lady Ariella with her own hands!’

‘Surely she wouldn’t go that far.’

‘Don’t underestimate the Empire’s Princess, Lady Ariella. I’ve already experienced it myself.’

At Beriel’s serious and worried expression, Rihana also thought it might be dangerous. Actually, it was suspicious from the start that the Princess would suddenly come to the kingdom. Since it was better to prepare for anything in advance, Rihana had roughly planned things out with Beriel.

If Melissa really intended to poison Rihana personally, catching her in the act would be best. No matter how powerless the Princess had become compared to before, it would be difficult for the kingdom to directly punish the Empire’s Princess. 

Unless she admitted her crimes like Casian had, if she denied it to the end, even presenting evidence would only result in a lighter sentence. She was the Empire’s only Princess after all. 

So they concluded that catching her red-handed without any room for escape would be best, and Rihana decided to drink part of the poison Melissa would give her. Raiden had told her to just pretend to drink while foaming at the mouth, but that wouldn’t be enough.

The moment she arrived at the reception room and saw how restless Melissa was, trying to turn her gaze elsewhere, she knew Melissa truly intended to see this through to the end. Rihana deliberately turned her gaze elsewhere to match Melissa’s clumsy intentions that were obvious enough to show.

Actually, having been born and raised as the Empire’s Princess, she hadn’t thought Melissa would do such a thing herself. Rather, she thought a maid in her service would have come along to add the poison, not dirty her own hands. 

She thought Melissa would at least create an escape route by not doing it directly herself, but Melissa wasn’t smart in that regard. It was almost pitiful that there wasn’t a single person among her maids who could give her such advice.

“How is the Empire these days?”

“The Empire has nothing to worry about. The changed imperial government is running very well too. Aren’t you thirsty? Drink up.”

Melissa said while lifting the teacup in front of her. Her eagerness to make Rihana drink the tea was so obvious that Rihana unconsciously let out a long sigh. Not knowing how to hide a single expression, she couldn’t understand why Melissa had come all this way to attempt such a dangerous act.

Wondering if this was perhaps revenge for Casian, she lifted the teacup. As she brought the teacup to her lips, Melissa’s eyes visibly shook with anticipation. Rihana suddenly became curious about why Melissa hated her enough to want to kill her.

To say it was because of Casian seemed insufficient – she too had once been sad about losing Casian to Melissa. But she had never once wished for Melissa to disappear or wanted to kill her. 

Of course, Casian had become a criminal because of her in the end, but that was entirely Casian’s choice. So she couldn’t understand why Melissa would go this far.

“How is Lord Casian doing?”

Rihana asked before drinking the tea. At her question, Melissa’s face hardened.

“Do you think you’re qualified to speak Lord Casian’s name?”

“…”

“Because of whom did Lord Casian…!”

Melissa started to continue but stopped and bit her lower lip hard. She seemed to forcibly calm her anger, taking a long breath before speaking to Rihana.

“Drink it before it gets cold. The tea tastes good.”

At Melissa’s words, Rihana brought the cup to her lips. She put a very small amount of tea in her mouth and deliberately made loud gulping sounds. When she set down the teacup, Melissa’s lips were curved in a cunning smile.

Rihana felt goosebumps all over her body for a moment. The sight of someone trying to drive another person to death was more ugly and vicious than she had imagined. She hadn’t known Melissa’s smile could be this frighteningly chilling – the Melissa before her eyes now seemed like a demon.

The poison she had brought must have been quite concentrated, because even though she had drunk only a tiny amount, nausea began to set in. When Rihana grimaced and covered her mouth with her hand, Melissa forced her trembling lips to move as she spoke to her.

“You asked if Lord Casian was doing well, Count?”

“…”

“Lord Casian will soon be sent to the underground prison.”

Melissa stared intently at Rihana, thinking she would soon vomit blood and collapse.

Cough. Sure enough, blood came pouring from Rihana’s mouth. Melissa quickly stood up with joyful eyes. All she had to do was escape this place with her people waiting outside the door and it would be over. Having prepared everything in advance for this, Melissa spoke to Rihana without the slightest doubt.

“Since you’re a Count who will die soon, I’ll tell you – Casian will escape before going to the underground prison and will live with me in Oniarn. We’ll live very happily there.”

Thinking she would die soon, Melissa began freely revealing future plans without suspicion. Rihana looked at Melissa with pity – she couldn’t be this naive even if she tried.

“Why on earth…”

Rihana muttered while looking down at her own blood flowing onto her palm.

“Are you curious why I’m trying to poison the Count?”

“…”

“Isn’t it obvious? For the happiness of Lord Casian and myself, the Count needs to disappear from this world.”

Melissa turned around. Before entering the reception room, she had already ordered that not even an ant could come near this area, so no one would be able to discover Rihana while her body grew cold and stiff. Melissa thought everything would be over once she left the reception room and went to meet Casian.

But the moment the reception room door opened, her subordinates she had brought were nowhere to be seen, and royal guards surrounded Melissa. And Raiden appeared among them. 

The moment Melissa saw Raiden, she panicked and took several steps backward.

“I told you to just pretend to drink.”

Seeing Rihana who had vomited blood, Raiden frowned and strode toward her. Rihana smiled awkwardly while receiving his support.

“You said catching her in the act was most important.”

“How… how…!”

When Rihana, who should have collapsed and grown cold, moved around perfectly fine, Melissa’s face turned white as a sheet.

“I didn’t drink the poison. Well, I should say I drank just a tiny bit.”

“…!”

Then Felton entered and reported on Casian’s situation.

“The Empire’s Marquis Lewandes has just been imprisoned in the underground prison.”

At this, Melissa’s eyes widened to the point of popping out.

“What…? What did you say?!”

“He was imprisoned in the underground prison. Can’t you hear?”

“That can’t…! That can’t be! What are you talking about! I clearly…!”

“Ah, the commission house that the Empire’s Princess used was under Tarecus jurisdiction, you see.”

“…!”

“Marquis Lewandes wanted it that way from the beginning anyway.”

“What… what?!”

When Melissa asked with an unbelieving face at Felton’s words, Raiden sighed briefly and spoke for Casian’s feelings.

“Lord Casian said he would rather die than marry the Princess. He only got involved with the Princess to save Rihana in the first place.”

“…”

“From the beginning, the Princess was never love to him. Do you understand now, Princess?”

At Raiden’s cold words, Melissa glared at him venomously. Tears quickly formed in her eyes.

“Felton. Contact Kadelai. Tell them the Empire’s Princess tried to poison Tarecus’s Princess.”

Raiden said while supporting Rihana and heading outside. Before Felton could even answer “Yes,” Melissa swallowed the tea that Rihana hadn’t finished drinking. 

Startled, Rihana quickly ran over, forced Melissa’s mouth open, and made her vomit the tea. She forced the mouth open and induced vomiting to make her spit out most of the tea, but Melissa lost consciousness anyway.

Rihana put her finger under Melissa’s nose, and relieved that she was breathing, let out a deep breath. No matter what bad things she had done, she was the Empire’s only Princess. If she died in the Kingdom of Tarecus, it could cause various disputes between the two countries.

Having no idea that Rihana was thinking such thoughts, Raiden misunderstood that she hoped the Princess wouldn’t die because she was from the Empire, and felt a bit hurt. 

Even though Rihana would become his companion, she was a person of the Empire, and even after the Princess had tried to kill her, she was still worried about the Empire’s Princess. In reality, Rihana had tried to save Melissa thinking that if the Princess died here, it would damage Raiden and the kingdom’s relationship with the Empire.

* * *

Due to Melissa’s wrongdoing, the Empire’s Emperor and Crown Prince sent deep apologies to Tarecus’s King, Prince, and Princess.

Raiden proposed releasing Casian in exchange for covering up Melissa’s incident. This proposal was to repay the debt to Casian who had saved Rihana’s life, and to ensure Rihana would no longer feel sorry toward Casian. 

The Empire’s Emperor readily agreed to the proposal, and Casian was released just three days after being imprisoned in the underground prison.

Melissa, who opened her eyes only a week after returning to the Empire, saw Casian before her and thought she was either dead and in heaven or in a dream. But whether it was heaven or a dream, just having Casian looking at her was enough to make her happy, and she hoped she wouldn’t wake from this dream.

“I’m sorry, Your Highness.”

But at Casian’s realistic voice, she immediately realized it was reality. Melissa stared at Casian at his unexpected apology.

“I used Your Highness’s feelings for Rihana… for my fiancée.”

“…”

“I never loved Your Highness for even a single moment. I’m sorry.”

Tears streamed down Melissa’s face.

This couldn’t be. This couldn’t be so cruel. After everything she had been willing to give up for Casian, after what she had been willing to do, he couldn’t do this to her.

Melissa resented Casian and screamed silently. Fortunately, her voice wouldn’t come out due to drinking the poison, so she couldn’t actually scream. At least she couldn’t make an ugly scene.

“I will never be able to love Your Highness for the rest of my life.”

In the most life-threatening situation of her life, the man she loved most in the world was saying the cruelest words in the world. At Casian’s sincere apology, Melissa felt like she was bearing all the sadness in the world.

The man she had loved had never loved her for even a single moment. He had simply used her love for the woman he loved. Born and raised as the Empire’s most noble and precious Princess, she had tasted the world’s most devastating unrequited love. She had used the blessing fruit but failed even to bear his child. Her desperate love had nearly made her a murderer.

Melissa regretted her past and squeezed her eyes shut. She lamented that her love of the century had left nothing but regret in the end.