When Natalie gritted her teeth, the maid who had been watching her reaction carefully spoke up.

“What? What did you say? Say it again.”

Natalie thought she had misheard. Not a noble lady, but a commoner? How could that be possible?

“A-A commoner woman. They say her clothes were extremely plain.”

But even when she asked again, the maid’s answer remained the same.

The moment she realized she hadn’t misheard, it felt like her pride was being torn to shreds. How dare he reject the Emperor’s daughter and accept a commoner?

“Is he insane? No wonder she had the audacity to covet someone else’s man. She’s just a commoner who doesn’t know her place or understand the situation!”

Natalie shouted with bloodshot eyes. When she bit her lower lip hard, the muscles at her temples twitched.

“Y-yes, exactly. Lord Usta apparently said he would take responsibility since they spent the night together.”

Responsibility? What nonsense.

“Go find out who that woman is!”

“Y-yes, Your Highness.”

The maid hurriedly left the room after answering.

Having lost her self-control, Natalie threw whatever objects she could see onto the floor. Teacups and flowerpots shattered upon impact, but seeing the destruction didn’t ease her anger.

She could understand him sleeping with another woman. But marriage? How could he reject marriage with her while considering it with someone else?

If he was such a principled man who would think of marriage immediately after spending one night together, she would have pounced on him herself. No man would reject a seductive woman approaching him n*ked.

“Whoever she is, I won’t let her off when I find her!”

Natalie’s face contorted as she clenched her fists, and at that moment, she recalled what the maid had said. He would take responsibility because they spent the night together…

That was something only a principled man would say. And it meant she still had a chance.

If she spent a night with him, wouldn’t he also talk about taking responsibility and marriage? That sounded good.

It was fortunate that the woman who slept with him was a commoner. She could make her disappear without a trace and take her place.

Unexpectedly, things seemed to be working out, and a wicked smile spread across Natalie’s face.

* * *

“You couldn’t find her?”

“Yes. Despite our thorough search, we couldn’t find even the slightest trace of her. We’ll need more time.”

“You’re saying it’s difficult to find her even with the current manpower?”

“I regret to say so, but yes.”

Though Claude had thought it wouldn’t matter when they found her, his eyebrow twitched when he heard she was difficult to locate.

A week had already passed since he ordered his men to find the woman. Normally, this would have been more than enough time. The fact that they still couldn’t find her made no sense.

Strangely, almost no one knew her outside the shop. The regular customers knew only her name, Lie, just like him.

There should have been at least family or related people, but everything about Lie seemed confined to the shop.

He hadn’t thought it would be difficult to find her since he had hired skilled people, but now his opinion changed. Could there really be a woman even they couldn’t find?

The longer the search took, the more anxious Claude became.

He had always thought that possessing someone was absurd. But the more elusive she proved to be, the stronger his desire to conquer her grew, along with his determination to find her.

Of course, it wasn’t just stubbornness driving him to find her, but strangely, his body grew hotter with each passing day.

He had never soothed himself like this before. Usually, exhausting training would tire him enough to fall asleep.

When he couldn’t sleep, he would spend time swinging his sword or moving his body until he naturally calmed down, but not this time.

Since that night, just thinking of her face made him throb. No matter how much he wished it would subside, it only grew larger.

Even swinging his sword alone to clear his mind didn’t help.

‘What did you do to my body!’

When even inflicting wounds on himself didn’t calm him down, Claude headed to his bedroom, breathing heavily.

“Are you alright? Are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

The butler approached, alarmed by his unusual behavior, but Claude gestured for him to stay away and entered his bedroom.

Once inside, looking at the bed made things worse. Though they hadn’t made love in his room, her image kept flickering in his mind.

The thought of her approaching n*ked, seemingly caressing his cheek, made his body heat up even more. Having already experienced physical intimacy with her, imagination alone wasn’t enough.

“Damn it!”

Unable to control his body, he finally loosened his pants. His p*nis, swollen from restraint, throbbed.

He was not a beast in heat. It was both frustrating and ridiculous, but what could he do? He needed to subdue it quickly.

Claude stroked his manhood. Just that simple action, while imagining her, sent shivers through his body.

His initially fumbling hand movements gradually quickened, and the wrinkles between his brows deepened.

Clear fluid flowed from the split tip of his gl*ns. But this wasn’t enough. He wanted to be inside her.

“Haa.”

Claude’s head tilted back with a low moan. His Adam’s apple bobbed prominently, and his gaze grew increasingly languid. The more he stroked, the more his c*ck swelled and reddened, and soon he felt the urge to climax.

“Ugh!”

Milky fluid traced an arc before falling to the floor. A pungent scent stung his nostrils. When Claude’s languid gaze turned to his lower body, he found his member already hardened again, not subdued by a single release.

Suppressing s*xual desire after holding back for so long was indeed difficult. Only one person could quench this thirst.

“Lie…”

Claude murmured the woman’s name softly. Why did just calling her name once feel so tender? His desire to find Lie grew more desperate with each passing moment.

‘Damn it! Where are you?’

Initially, he had mentioned marriage lightly, but not anymore.

Even if they didn’t actually marry, he needed to find her and bring her before him. Only then could he understand why his body had changed. Only by embracing her again would all his thirst and questions be resolved.

This was the first time he had felt such desperation, and unable to remain idle, Claude tidied himself and got up.

He ordered more people to search for the woman. The number didn’t matter.

But increasing the manpower proved futile. Contrary to his belief that they would find her with time, even tracing her whereabouts was challenging.

There was only one conclusion if they couldn’t find her when it should have been impossible not to.

Her real name wasn’t Lie. There was no other explanation.

Whatever her story, the woman had likely worked at the shop secretly, hiding her identity and name.

If she had an identity worth hiding, there were two possibilities: a noble with a complicated past or an escaped slave. Claude leaned toward the former.

The familiar face, exceptionally fair skin, and the innate grace in her gestures.

While he couldn’t remember Imperial Princess Natalie at all, the fact that this woman remained in his mind was because he subconsciously sensed the disharmony between her behavior and environment.

If that was the case, there was only one way left to find her: to extract her face from his memory.

“Go call a skilled painter. Money is no object.”

“Yes, sir.”

Having already been rejected by the mage, this was the only way to find her, difficult though it might be.

At least one noble must know her face. So the only method was to find her through a portrait.

Marquis Usta was equally unsuccessful in finding Lisette.

“You couldn’t find her? Didn’t you say she was a commoner?”

“Yes. Strangely, no one knows anything about her. Even visiting the shop where she worked was useless.”

“How is that possible? Wouldn’t she at least tell someone close about her hometown?”

“It seems she didn’t have anyone close enough to share such information with.”

Like Claude, he couldn’t understand it either. Unless someone deliberately hid their identity, there would always be traces to follow.

Could it be…

No, it couldn’t be. No.

Despite his denial, there was only one conclusion now.

“She’s pregnant! Claude must have hidden the woman because she’s pregnant!”

He concluded that the reason they couldn’t find her despite their efforts was because Claude was obstructing the investigation.

“To think we must abandon our connection with the Imperial family like this…”

The moment the woman returned pregnant, everything would be over. As his sweet dreams of the future dissolved into nothing, Marquis Usta covered his head with both hands and hung his head low.