“I heard the Imperial Princess is getting married?”

The timing of when each maid heard about Natalie’s marriage seemed to differ. This time, it wasn’t from the maids who cleaned the garden but from those working in the kitchen that Lisette heard talk of her marriage.

Determined to finally discover who her partner would be, Lisette perked up her ears.

Who could it be?

She had her own ideas about Natalie’s potential husband candidates and was concentrating on the conversation while thinking of them. Then, the moment she heard the maids’ next words, she felt her breath stop.

“I heard it’s Lord Usta? I wondered who she’d marry, but of course she’s taking the most handsome man in the empire.”

Lord Usta?

Claude Usta was a name she hadn’t considered at all.

Had Natalie been interested in him too? The most admired man by women throughout the empire was to be her marriage partner…

It would be a lie for Lisette to say she had no interest in him. He was an attractive man, and while both he and Natalie shared the common trait of appearing arrogant, when placed side by side, they didn’t seem compatible at all.

“That’s unexpected. They don’t match at all.”

The maids seemed to share Lisette’s thoughts, tilting their heads in confusion.

“I wonder if she’s using her position to arrange the marriage.”

“If they love each other, that’s all that matters.”

“Do they really love each other?”

“That must be why they’re getting married. Even with her position, a family like the Ustas could refuse if they wanted to.”

The moment she heard the words “love each other,” Lisette’s face instantly hardened. Her heart sank heavily, creating a strange feeling.

She wouldn’t dare imagine things working out between herself and Claude, but she also hadn’t imagined someone else by his side. So she especially didn’t want to accept that person would be Natalie.

“He likes her despite that difficult personality?”

“Of course, she probably acts like a perfect lady in front of him, so he might not know.”

The maids seemed to share Lisette’s thoughts, directly answering what she wanted to know.

Oh, so that’s how it was?

In her mind, Natalie’s behavior toward her just moments ago overlapped with how she might act toward Lord Usta, creating a chaotic mixture.

Lisette bit her lower lip.

In truth, Lisette was a beautiful woman with refined, elegant features. Before learning that Natalie’s partner was Lord Usta, she had considered seducing the man Natalie was to marry.

She resembled her mother, who had been beautiful enough to captivate the Emperor at first sight, so she was confident in her appearance.

‘Don’t stand out too much, wear glasses and dress plainly.’

Even Celia, who typically showed little interest in others’ appearances, had told her to hide her beauty. So she thought she could entice most men with her looks. But with Lord Usta, such tactics wouldn’t work.

‘What should I do?’

Would his feelings change if she revealed her true self? That alone wouldn’t break off the marriage. Even if she told him, the chances of Claude changing his mind were slim.

According to rumors, once he made a decision, he would see it through to the end.

But she couldn’t give up like this. The moment Natalie thought she would be with the man she loved, she needed to be harshly rejected and deeply hurt. Only then might the tightness squeezing Lisette’s heart ease somewhat.

She had been avoiding him for fear of her identity being discovered, but now that wasn’t the issue. First, she needed to break up Natalie’s marriage.

What other ways could she use to cancel the marriage?

Using Lord Usta as a tool for revenge troubled her somewhat, but preventing him from marrying such a woman would be better for his future. So she resolved not to feel guilty about using him.

By now, the maids who had been talking had disappeared from view, but Lisette continued to wander around the garden, still pondering for a solution.

After circling for quite some time, she spotted Claude and his subordinates. Even just passing by made her so nervous that her body involuntarily flinched.

When he politely nodded his head, Lisette bowed in return. Many people would ignore her, but he had shown courtesy.

Then she sensed him stopping and looking back briefly. Lisette couldn’t bring herself to turn around and had to endure his gaze.

‘Why? Did he recognize me?’

The black veil completely covered her face, so there was no way he could have recognized her. Perhaps she had walked strangely?

Lisette immediately realized that she had been so nervous that her hands and feet had moved awkwardly. It was because she had become even more tense after hearing about his marriage to Natalie.

‘I must be crazy!’

He wouldn’t know who she was since he couldn’t see her face, but she thought he must have found her behavior strange. Before arousing more suspicion, Lisette hurriedly walked toward her quarters.

Claude’s gaze remained fixed on Lisette until she disappeared from view. Strangely, his eyes were drawn to her involuntarily.

Whether she had been abandoned by the Emperor or not was none of his business. But seeing how nervous she seemed whenever she stood before him strangely kept bothering him. Especially since many women were nervous around him, but none had ever moved their hands and feet so awkwardly at the same time.

“She was nervous last time too. I think that Imperial Princess has fallen for you, Captain.”

The knights with him must have noticed her strange behavior and spouted nonsense.

“Spare me the useless talk!”

“You’re quite the heartbreaker. With rumors of your marriage to the Imperial Princess, how heartbroken must the ladies who have feelings for you be.”

“What marriage rumors?”

They were probably just joking lightly, but among their words was something that irritated Claude.

“Aren’t you marrying Imperial Princess Natalie? The rumors are everywhere.”

“…”

‘Damn that father of mine!’

Claude clenched his fists. He had been putting off thoughts of marriage with the excuse of being busy, and it seemed that during that time, Marquis Usta had been up to something strange.

At that moment, Claude felt dizzy. It was a subtle tremor that the knights around him didn’t notice, but he thought something serious would happen if he stayed there.

‘When will you ever make time?’

His father kept pressuring him to make time, seemingly pushing him to meet the Imperial Princess. Claude had deliberately scheduled excessive work to appear busy, and this was the result.

“I have somewhere urgent to go. Tell the vice-captain to take over the rest. I’ll be back as soon as I’m done, so don’t think about slacking off!”

“Yes, understood!”

He clenched his fists and headed to the stables, borrowed a horse, and left the palace.

Lately, he hadn’t been sleeping due to stress from his father’s constant nagging about marriage. Normally, he could function well with little sleep, but recently he felt twice as fatigued.

This would be a serious problem if enemies invaded. He needed to maintain peak condition. He also needed to maintain his busy schedule to avoid meeting the Imperial Princess.

With no immediate solution himself, he needed someone else’s help. And right now, only one person came to mind.

* * *

“Witch, come out now!”

Just as Lisette was about to enter the shop after leaving her horse nearby, she saw a man shouting and knocking on the shop door.

“What’s the matter?”

Celia opened the door and asked with a yawn, looking annoyed.

“I asked you to make my son obedient to me, not to turn him into an idiot!”

“He obeys you, doesn’t he? So it worked. Or when you made your wish, you should have specified that he shouldn’t become an idiot.”

“Did I really need to say that too?”

“Of course.”

“Then change him back to normal!”

“I told you I only grant one wish.”

“I don’t need wishes anymore, just give me back my son!”

“Fine, bring your son to me.”

“Wait right here. I’ll bring my son.”

Seeing the man leave the shop cursing, Lisette, who had come to make a wish, stopped in her tracks.

Celia granted people’s wishes, but being eccentric, she often didn’t handle things the way people wanted.

As a result, she occasionally did things that defied common sense when granting wishes.

For a woman who wished for her love to be fulfilled, Celia had created a potion to help, but problems arose. The man became so obsessed that he imprisoned the woman.

The woman barely escaped, complained, and Celia restored the man to his original state, resolving the issue. But the process had been so troublesome that just thinking about it made her shudder.

Besides that incident, Celia had caused various other strange accidents. All these occurred because she had limited interaction with others, sometimes resulting in communication errors.

The fortunate thing was that whenever people complained, she would restore them to their original state, and they would leave without further argument, thinking they had just experienced a brief nightmare.

Despite causing so many bizarre incidents, people still came to make wishes.