‘Forget about such a country. I can give you much better things than what you enjoyed there.’

Roshan slightly clenched his fist as he watched her leading Jane away. To his eyes, Yerena walking with her skirts fluttering was the same as before. Still lovable and beautiful.

‘Come to think of it, isn’t that woman the same? She’s an imperial citizen, so why……’

But the person beside her wasn’t. As time passed, the maid he had placed with Yerena irritated him more and more, like a grain of sand in his eye.

Anyone could see it. That Yerena cherished that maid. That she thought of her as precious and considered her one of her own people.

Just as dark, childish emotions were about to swallow Roshan, Jane turned her head back. Roshan naturally averted his gaze from her, who was surprised at his expression.

“Jane? What’s wrong?”

“Ah, it’s nothing.”

Yerena asked Jane, who was trembling. Jane shook her head with an awkward smile and answered that it was nothing.

But having already seen Roshan’s face, she had turned as white as if she had seen a ghost.

* * *

Luna, Empress Liliana’s maid, knelt on the dirt ground with her dress getting ruined, unaware. Then she asked the woman beside her, in the same state, again,

“Right? My eyes aren’t wrong?”

“……Yes. It certainly seems to be Crown Prince Roshan.”

“My goodness……”

Looking at her colleague who nodded while unable to hide her anxious expression, Luna, Empress Liliana’s chief maid, made an indignant face. She repeatedly opened and closed her mouth silently several times before carefully rising. Of course, she still kept her body hidden behind the shrubs.

“Let’s go.”

“What?”

“We need to tell Her Majesty the Empress what we saw.”

Luna seemed ready to immediately report everything she had seen to her mistress. But Liliana’s other maid who had come with her hesitated and spoke,

“But if Her Majesty the Empress learns this fact, she will certainly throw a fit.”

Whenever the empress became angry, someone always got hurt. Luna, as a maid who had been with the empress since her maiden home and enjoyed her trust and affection, would have no problem, but the maid didn’t know what trouble might befall her if she delivered this news alongside Luna.

“What are you worried about? I’ll do most of the explaining. You just answer the questions Her Majesty asks you.”

“Yes……”

Luna knew this fact too. However, she pretended not to know and bullied the maid. The maid, though looking like she might cry at any moment, nodded.

The two left the place as if fleeing, not even caring about leaves sticking to their dresses. And not long after they disappeared, a blonde knight dropped down to where they had been.

The knight who came down from the tree in one motion was Frederick. Following Roshan’s orders after Liliana’s poisoning attempt, he and his subordinates had been secretly guarding the area around the tower.

‘Why did he tell us to just watch?’

Though Liliana’s maids would think they hadn’t been discovered, Frederick and his subordinates had been watching them for quite some time. They simply pretended not to notice, following Roshan’s orders.

Frederick, who had been looking at where the empress’s maids had been sitting, turned his head. And like the maids, he looked through the gap between the shrubs at the figures standing in the distance.

Two women strolling around the tower with a man following behind. Frederick naturally followed the blonde woman with his eyes but turned his head at the gaze he suddenly felt.

Red eyes swept past him. And immediately, Frederick slightly bowed his head and disappeared back into the tree.

* * *

“I knew it!”

Liliana sat down in the middle of the Ivory Palace garden and began crying loudly. Her fine pink hair spread to the floor along the sides of her dress.

“Your Majesty. You’re hurt.”

Luna, who had been holding her breath in a corner of the garden, ran over and sat beside Liliana. Liliana stared at Luna, who carefully examined her hands injured from breaking and throwing flowers and scratching people, then buried herself in Luna’s arms and cried more sorrowfully.

“How could Roshan do this to me?”

After some time, Liliana’s crying gradually subsided. She raised her head from Luna’s embrace and stood up abruptly, looking down at her hands. Though her eyes were red from tears, her expression was cold, as if all emotion had been erased.

“Luna. As you said, my nails are ruined. Call that girl who I praised before for taking good care of nails.”

“Since you ordered her to be flogged just now……”

“Oh my. What a shame. By now her arms and legs would be broken. Well, it can’t be helped. Call another girl.”

Liliana, looking perfectly fine as if she had never cried, made a regretful face when she found she needed the maid she had ordered to be flogged as an outlet for her anger. The maids standing a little distance from her stiffened, seemingly getting goosebumps at this sight. But Luna nodded nonchalantly and instructed that another maid be prepared.

Soon a maid arrived in the garden carrying various items. Liliana sat comfortably in a chair prepared in the garden, extended her nails to the maid, and with her other hand gestured for Luna to come closer.

“Luna. What should I do? Even trying to think as calmly as possible, I can’t come up with a good solution.”

“……”

“If I get caught using poison again……”

Liliana couldn’t tolerate Yerena’s existence. But she feared Roshan too much to make another direct move.

“……Might he have only said that? His Highness has always been quite lenient with Your Majesty the Empress.”

Luna, who had heard about the previous incident from Liliana, spoke carefully. Though the Crown Prince had warned her mistress, it might have been just words. After all, the Crown Prince had said nothing when Liliana harassed and even killed women who showed interest in him.

“No. Roshan is thoroughly bewitched by that Sedas wench, disgusting!”

Liliana shook her head at Luna’s words. Having observed him since childhood, she knew. Roshan’s warning then was not empty.

“Is there no way…… Ah!”

As she pondered with a serious face, she moved her finger. This caused the maid’s tool, which was grooming her nails, to slightly prick the flesh beside her nail.

“I-I’m sorry, Your Majesty the Empress. Please spare me. Please spare me.”

The maid immediately prostrated herself, turning deathly pale. Liliana looked down at the maid with a hardened face, then lifted her face with her shoe.

The maid’s face, ruined with tears, was pitiful. But what captured Liliana’s attention were the large blue eyes.

“Your eyes are pretty.”

Liliana murmured. Having already received reports about Yerena’s appearance, she suddenly hated the sight of the maid’s eyes kneeling before her.

Liliana grinned as she looked at the pointed part of the nail grooming tool that had fallen to the floor. Then she ordered Luna to call the knights. The knights who had been standing guard a short distance away came with Luna. Liliana smiled brightly on her beautiful face and commanded,

“Take her away and gouge out her eyes. Don’t forget to show me what you’ve taken out.”

The knights looked troubled at this horrific order. But they soon, albeit hesitantly, dragged the maid away. The maid wailed and begged for her life. However, Liliana paid no attention and asked Luna,

“……Luna. That Sedas wench has a maid attached to her, right?”

“Yes. There is one.”

Liliana thought of Jane as she watched the maid being dragged away. She touched her nails, which had been partially groomed, and ordered,

“Find out about that commoner girl. We might be able to use her.”

* * *

The desk was filled with books and documents piled like mountains. Juul and Jael, who assisted Alicia, looked sick of the materials that seemed endless no matter how much they read.

“It’s late, so let’s stop for today and rest.”

Perhaps noticing their expressions, Alicia spoke while turning the pages of a book. Juul brightened at Alicia’s words but then hesitantly said,

“Lady Alicia, you should rest too. It’s late.”

“I’ll rest after looking a bit more.”

“Then we two will stay a bit longer as well.”

Jael spoke in response to Alicia’s answer. But Alicia shook her head.

“You two have to pray at dawn tomorrow. It’s an order. Go to bed now.”

Her firm voice seemed unwilling to accept any opposition. Only then did Jael and Juul rise from their seats.

Alicia smiled at them as they hesitantly left and urged them to go quickly. And only after their footsteps faded did she close the book and press her head.

“Ah……”

Reading with her holy power severely diminished brought overwhelming exhaustion. Though she struggled to conceal this from others, she doubted how much longer she could maintain even this facade.

‘Still, I must endure.’

Alicia, who had been rubbing her forehead, pushed the book away and took out a bundle of papers hidden in a drawer. The paper, which needed careful handling as it was burned, contained writing that appeared to belong to one person.

“……Mother.”

Alicia quietly called the owner of the writing. Naturally, there was no response, but she felt comforted as if by her mother.

She placed the bundle of papers on the desk and pulled the book back. The book titled “Legendary History of the Sedas Royal Family” was quite thick and heavy.

‘Most of the content is the same as what I already knew. Well, I would have researched with these materials back then too.’

The numerous materials on the desk were brought by Hayden from the Sedas Kingdom. After reading them carefully, Alicia could confirm that most of the content was not different from what she already knew.

‘A curse that started from the radiant princess……’

Yerena’s eyes originated not from a disease but from an ancient curse. Alicia had already realized this fact but planned to pretend not to know for the time being.