“Lady Yerena.”

The invader vanished in an instant. The man who had returned from being an enemy to being a guard knight and lover greeted her and kissed her bound hand. As respectfully as if he were paying homage to a lady he had sworn to worship for life.

“You should rest for today.”

After turning and going outside, Roshan leaned against the door and sighed. It was something he shouldn’t have said, but this would bring some relief for a while. The eyes that sparkled at the mention of revenge were not lying.

But before a day had even passed, he had to face a pale, trembling head maid.

“Your Highness.”

The middle-aged woman who knelt before him after he rushed over upon hearing the news, cleared her throat with difficulty and reported what had happened about thirty minutes ago.

“I was worried her skin would get sore from lying down, so I briefly untied the ropes…… She, she suddenly ran toward the wall.”

“……”

“Saying it wouldn’t go as intended. After saying just that, she hit her he-head against the wall……”

“……”

The head maid stumbled over her words, unable to describe what happened next. Roshan looked away from the trembling woman and asked while staring toward the inner room where Yerena would be.

“……How is she?”

The head maid moved her lips. Though physicians and priestesses had immediately entered, the situation looked critical. But at least the news of her death hadn’t been delivered yet……

“Move aside.”

Roshan couldn’t wait even a moment. He moved past the head maid and entered with one step.

Upon reaching the bedroom, he saw people moving frantically. A physician was shouting while pressing a cloth against the princess’s nose, which was gushing blood, and priestesses were murmuring something while holding the princess’s hands. Roshan turned deathly pale at the sight of blood soaking her blonde hair and dripping steadily from her injured head.

The golden light occasionally emerging from the priestess’s hands obscured his vision as he stood like a statue. Roshan watched these slowly unfolding scenes and fixed his eyes on Yerena, who hung her head while sitting propped up, unable to lie down due to the flowing blood.

* * *

The new emperor’s coronation ceremony was approaching. The capital bustled with many people, not just from the Empire but also from other countries. Merchants welcomed customers with smiling faces, enjoying a boom that might happen once in a lifetime.

“But why is the coronation ceremony being held at the Blue Palace? His Majesty the Emperor will be staying at the Central Palace.”

“I heard the underground of the Central Palace is still unstable after what the former emperor did. They need to do more repairs.”

“Well, the Sapphire Hall in the Blue Palace isn’t bad either. The distance is a bit of a drawback though.”

With insufficient hands, many workers came from outside, making the imperial palace even more bustling. Everyone moved busily preparing for the upcoming coronation ceremony.

But the Ivory Palace, with its white marble walls and beautiful white lilies spread below, was an exception. While the entire imperial palace was busy, only the Ivory Palace remained quiet as death.

‘All the other girls who came in with me are excited…… What am I doing here?’

Daisy, a maid newly arrived at the Ivory Palace, grumbled to herself as she walked carefully down the corridor. How nice it would have been if she had been assigned to the Blue Palace or the Lion Palace, or even the Central Palace gardens. Though she had a quiet temperament, sometimes the excessive silence of this place felt stifling.

‘No, actually, quiet is better.’

But she soon slowly shook her head. With her personality, she would probably complain about it being like a chicken coop if she were assigned to a noisy place.

Daisy moved on. But just as she was about to go up from the second to the third floor, someone called her from behind.

“Daisy.”

It was Juul, a senior maid who had been giving Daisy orders since she arrived. With her dark brown hair neatly tied up, despite her young age, she handled work meticulously and quickly, earning the head maid’s complete trust. Thanks to this, new maids moved according to Juul’s instructions.

Daisy came back down the stairs she had been climbing and bowed. Juul then asked,

“Where are you going?”

“I was on my way to clean the windows upstairs.”

At Daisy’s answer, Juul whispered “perfect” and gestured for her to follow. Daisy followed without a word.

“Please take this to her room.”

After entering and exiting a room, Juul handed Daisy a rather heavy vase. The pink roses blooming fragrantly in the crystal vase were large and fragrant.

“Me? Really?”

The vase and flowers looked expensive at a glance. And the room of the owner of this palace….. Daisy made a frightened face.

“Reina, who’s in charge, has sprained her ankle. She can’t even walk properly.”

“But……”

“It’s just a vase, why be afraid? Come on! Go now.”

But Juul was firm. Daisy had no choice but to nod and move. Afraid she might drop the vase or damage the flowers, her walking speed was only half her usual pace.

The good thing was that her room wasn’t far. Daisy looked at the room visible in the distance and walked on, swallowing hard.

One of the tall knights guarding the room called someone inside as soon as he saw Daisy’s uniform and the vase she was carrying. The maid who came out was fortunately someone Daisy had seen a few times.

“I’ve come on an errand to deliver this vase.”

“The flowers are pretty. Follow me.”

The maid looked as if she had been expecting the vase. As she turned, the door that had seemed immovable opened.

‘Wow!’

As soon as she entered the door, Daisy opened her eyes wide. There wasn’t a single unremarkable spot in the Ivory Palace. But this room was so magnificent that it caught even Daisy’s eyes, which had grown accustomed to the Ivory Palace.

The room was larger than Daisy had imagined. The maid led Daisy through what appeared to be a reception room and past a couple more arched doorways. Before entering the innermost space, she tidied her clothes and stood at the door, saying respectfully,

“Lady Yerena. I’m coming in for a moment.”

The cloth covering the arched doorway was removed, revealing a sunny bedroom space. Two maids standing by the window turned to look at Daisy. She quickly lowered her eyes and tightened her grip on the vase.

“Put it here.”

The maid gestured to Daisy. She walked toward the window, a little distance from where the maids were standing.

‘I need to leave quickly.’

Just as she had put down the vase she had brought and picked up the original one to turn around, her gaze naturally fell on a woman surrounded by maids.

Daisy stopped without realizing it. The woman sitting in the sunny spot, surrounded by maids, was dazzlingly beautiful. Her long, curly platinum blonde hair was like the golden thread spun by the mythical golden spider and used by the goddess, and her white skin was like smooth porcelain.

‘She truly is beautiful.’

She understood the rumors her peers had been spreading. What man wouldn’t love such a woman? Even if she were emperor, she would keep such a woman by her side regardless of whether she was a commoner or a lowborn.

After Daisy had been unable to take her eyes off the woman for a while, the maids noticed something strange about her. The maid who had guided Daisy sighed softly, approached her, and scolded in a small voice,

“How rude.”

Only then did Daisy come to her senses. Blushing, she whispered an apology and moved hurriedly.

“I-I’ll be go—Ah!”

But that was poison. In her haste, Daisy tripped over the hem of her skirt and fell.

Crash. With a sharp sound, the expensive glass vase shattered into pieces. Daisy’s complexion turned blue as she fell. The pain in her knees or legs wasn’t the issue. Having broken such an object…… Her future looked bleak.

The maids’ expressions were no different from hers. But they were busy checking on the seated woman rather than the broken vase.

“You. We’ll talk later.”

The maid’s angry voice was heard, and Daisy slowly got up with tear-filled eyes. But at that moment, a faint voice reached her ears through the air.

“J…… ane?”

* * *

Daisy had seized fortune. Far from paying the price for breaking the expensive vase, she received good treatment and even extra wages.

Of course, there were conditions. In exchange for the extra wages, Daisy changed her workplace. From the corridors of the spacious Ivory Palace to a room so beautiful it was hard to take her eyes off it.

Cleaning a room filled with noble objects required intense concentration. But since the area assigned to Daisy was only a part of the room, she had no major complaints.

However, the one additional task she was given was quite burdensome. Daisy had to loiter in front of the room’s owner a couple of times a day.

Daisy didn’t know exactly why such a strange order had been given to her. But from the maids’ secretive whispers, she could roughly guess the reason.

‘You’re the only person Lady Yerena has shown a reaction to. So they want to keep you near her for a while.’

‘Indeed, how long has it been? Since we heard her voice.’

‘It was the first time since she woke up. Probably.’

The owner of the Ivory Palace, who would soon become the most noble woman in the Empire as Her Majesty the Empress, was literally like a lifeless beautiful statue. Daisy heard that she had suffered an accident and injured her head before she arrived, and for months, she hadn’t opened her mouth to speak or changed her expression.

But the moment she saw Daisy, that pattern broke. Daisy vaguely guessed that this was why she had been given this task.

‘But she hasn’t shown much reaction to me since then either.’

However, since that day, the woman hadn’t particularly responded to Daisy either. Because of this, Daisy found her job increasingly burdensome day by day.

‘She’s beautiful.’

Daisy, moving beside the woman, silently admired her face bathed in the sunset light.

‘She would be even more beautiful if she smiled brightly.’