“I don’t really… I’m sorry. Would you like me to find out?”

“Don’t bother.”

Thinking a commoner woman and an Imperial Princess could have similar scents… I must be losing my mind.

Claude felt pathetic for momentarily imagining that the veiled woman might be the same person who worked at the shop.

This was the first time he had made such an absurd assumption. He had never made this kind of mistake before. Was he mentally exhausted from working without rest lately?

He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. But the unsettling feeling remained.

Since he couldn’t simply run over and remove her veil, he tried to push thoughts of this troubling woman from his mind.

“When the security detail for the ceremony ends, we’ll return to the training grounds.”

“Understood.”

After confirming the Emperor had safely boarded his carriage, Claude was about to head toward the Emperor’s location, planning to return to the palace.

“Lord Usta!”

A woman approached him with a bright smile.

“Greetings, Imperial Princess.”

Claude approached Natalie and greeted her respectfully.

“Stand up. You can be more familiar with me.”

“I’m fine this way.”

Having spoken with her only once, Claude found it uncomfortable to greet her casually, so his response was curt.

“You’re going to see my father, right? Let me join you.”

“Very well. Please go ahead. I’ll escort you from behind.”

“No. I want to walk beside you.”

Though he gestured for her to go ahead, Natalie stood next to him with a bright smile.

“As you wish, then.”

Claude slowed his pace to match her steps.

“Did you receive the letter His Majesty sent? How did you feel about it? I think we would make a good match, what do you think?”

A stream of words flowed from her mouth without pause. Her expectant, sparkling eyes were not only burdensome, but her endless chatter made his ears ring.

He should have said “I declined,” but he couldn’t bring himself to say those words directly to an Imperial Princess.

“Since I haven’t considered marriage yet, I haven’t given it much thought.”

Though he thought he had declined politely, the Imperial Princess’s eyes began to moisten.

Is she innocent, or just pretending to be?

Her pale blue eyes should have looked clear, but strangely, to Claude, they didn’t appear particularly clean. They seemed somewhat murky.

Of course, this was just his personal impression, but something felt off about her, making him maintain his distance.

* * *

Natalie returned to the Imperial Palace in a foul mood. She had sent a letter expressing her desire to marry Claude, but his face showed no sign of joy.

How many years had she been watching him? She had observed him training from afar and harbored feelings for him for a long time, but she had barely spoken with him because Claude was always confined to the training grounds.

His rise to Captain of the Imperial Guard at such a young age was partly due to his innate talent, but also the result of his efforts, exceeding those of anyone else. 

So at banquets, it was extremely difficult to converse with him, busy as he was guarding the Emperor, like trying to pluck stars from the sky.

Just once, after returning victorious, he had attended a celebratory banquet in a personal capacity, allowing her to speak with him, but she wasn’t the only one who had planned to talk to him that day.

With so many noblewomen crowding around him, trying to engage him in conversation, Natalie, despite being an Imperial Princess, barely managed to speak with him.

A noble knight with more dignity and restraint than anyone else.

It was somewhat irritating that other noblewomen shared her thoughts, but he was undeniably handsome. Even his cold demeanor seemed incredibly attractive.

Yes. That’s Lord Usta.

Many noblewomen had fallen for his lofty demeanor, courteous yet unapproachable, and Natalie too had fallen for him.

So when she received a gift along with a response from the Usta family indicating they viewed her marriage to Claude positively, she felt like she could fly to the heavens.

But seeing his apparent lack of interest in the marriage discussion, she couldn’t help feeling disappointed, despite knowing what kind of person he was.

Still, she believed that once he truly opened his heart, he would never change and would look only at one woman. And that woman would be her.

The thought of receiving his love after marriage improved her gloomy mood somewhat, though not completely.

When it came to relieving her lingering melancholy, there was always one sure method.

“I’m going to the garden.”

Natalie headed straight for the garden in the Detached Palace. Though far from her quarters, she frequently visited for one reason: her target for venting frustrations was there.

Upon reaching the garden, she spotted Lisette admiring the flowers. Natalie’s lips curled up on one side when she saw her. With an expression that said “caught you,” she approached with quick steps.

When Lisette encountered the Imperial Princess, she bowed her head, but something displeased Natalie, who immediately picked a fight.

“You’re ignoring what I told you last time. How did I tell you to greet me?”

Was she serious about bowing prostrate every time?

Lisette couldn’t bring herself to assume such a humiliating posture again. Once was bearable, but twice was difficult.

“Kneel!”

As her hesitation lengthened, Natalie’s face began to contort. When Lisette continued to resist kneeling, the Imperial Princess nodded to the maids behind her.

Immediately, two maids approached Lisette, grabbed her arms, and kicked the backs of her knees.

“Ahh!”

Lisette’s knees buckled automatically, her body tilted forward, and her knees hit the ground. But she had no time to feel the pain.

Suddenly, someone grabbed her hair from behind and slammed her face into the ground.

Fortunately, her face landed on soil beside the path rather than the hard path itself, so she wasn’t seriously injured, but blood flowed from her nose.

The hand gripping her hair forcibly lifted her face, then slammed it back down.

“I told you to greet me like this, prostrate. Who dares greet me at eye level? Do my words mean nothing to you?”

The veil began to soak with blood, but the Imperial Princess didn’t seem to care at all.

“This is the greeting that suits you. Understand? How dare you defy me, you stray cat?”

The term “stray cat” wounded her pride and twisted her emotions, but the force pressing down on the back of her head was so strong that Lisette could do nothing but keep her face buried in the ground.

Only after their voices faded did she raise her head. She rose to her feet, dusting off her ruined dress.

Thanks to the veil, her face wasn’t dirty, but the bleeding hadn’t stopped. Lisette reached under her veil to wipe away the blood while watching the Imperial Princess disappear from view.

Her clenched fist trembled.

The Empress who had accused her mother of adultery, and her daughter.

She had endured until she could find evidence, but Natalie’s behavior was worsening day by day, pushing Lisette to her limits of patience. She was so furious that she couldn’t move from that spot for a while.

There were people watching them from a distance. Shocked by the unexpected situation, no one spoke.

“Imperial Princess Natalie is quite frightening.”

The vice-captain broke the silence. He kept shaking his head in disbelief, trying to deny what he had seen, but his gaze remained fixed on Claude.

He kept giving Claude, who was rumored to be marrying Imperial Princess Natalie, pitying looks.

“This is a personal matter, so forget everything you’ve just seen. And I clearly declined the marriage, so there’s no need to look at me that way.”

“Are you really not going to marry her?”

“I declined because she didn’t leave an impression on me, but seeing this now, I think I made the right decision.”

Power struggles in the palace were common, so Claude wasn’t concerned about whether fights broke out or not. Having experienced far worse on the battlefield, he wasn’t easily shocked. But this time, he was considerably stunned.

How could the woman who had trembled with tears before him at the Temple ceremony transform so completely when bullying someone else? 

It seemed his instinct that something was off about her had been correct.

He had been worried that his animal instincts had dulled due to his self-reproach for mistaking an Imperial Princess for a commoner.

While he had been contemplating how to regain his senses, thanks to Imperial Princess Natalie, he felt his lost confidence returning somewhat.