Behind Jenkins’ ornate carriage, several other carriages passed through the village near the castle. The commoners welcomed their new emperor by scattering flower petals.

Numerous knights surrounded the carriages in a protective formation. Following Jenkins’ carriage came the carriages of his mother and the nobles attending the party. 

Evelyn was at the very back. The commoners craned their necks to catch a glimpse of royalty they could never normally see.

When Evelyn poked her head out the carriage window, everyone stared at her with wide eyes. They found it fascinating that someone who was obviously Astian was attending the Peshar Empire’s coronation.

Currently, countless Astians had become slaves to Peshar nobles, and even wealthy merchants bought and kept slaves.

“This is interesting.”

Wondering if Hector and other knights might be around, she stuck her face further out the window, but an elderly maid drew the curtains.

“Lady Evelyn. Please don’t cause a disturbance.”

“Hmm…”

Jenkins was the one causing the disturbance. She couldn’t understand why he would bring a slave to a coronation and create such a fuss. Though thanks to that, she had managed to escape the harem.

However, this procession of carriages was heading back to the imperial palace. Since she wouldn’t be able to escape unless it was now, Evelyn felt suffocated. Since her carriage was at the very back, she wondered if there might be some good plan, and decided to fake illness.

Evelyn quickly hunched over.

“Ugh…!”

“Lady Evelyn?”

The two maids sharing the carriage with her looked at her in shock.

“Ah… The swaying is making me feel sick. Could we stop the carriage for a moment?”

“What? Right now?”

“I’m thirsty… I want water. My stomach hurts too…”

The elderly maid looked troubled, then soon told the coachman to stop the carriage. When the carriage stopped, the young maid stood up.

“I’ll go get some water!”

“Mmm…”

She felt a bit sorry, but there was no choice. When the carriage stopped, the people pushed in around it. They seemed curious about why an Astian was in a carriage following the coronation procession. After the young maid barely managed to get outside, the elderly maid gripped the carriage door tightly in case it might open.

“Lady Evelyn! I think you need to go! Like this…!”

As the carriage began to rock violently, the elderly maid’s face turned pale. Then Evelyn lightly struck her neck, knocking her unconscious. She quickly dressed the elderly maid in the ornate dress, then stole her clothes.

She wrapped the cloak she had brought over the palace maid’s uniform. She also tucked her silver hair into the cloak’s hood so it wouldn’t be visible outside. This way, she probably wouldn’t attract much attention. When she opened the carriage door and stepped out, neither the coachman nor the commoners surrounding the carriage suspected anything.

Thus Evelyn escaped the carriage and was able to head to the Turble Guild. She thought that since Jenkins would be tied up with the coronation, he wouldn’t be able to search for her immediately even if she disappeared.

However, unlike before, the street where the guilds gathered was desolately empty of people. Perhaps everyone had gathered over there to watch the coronation.

She knocked on the Turble Guild’s door, but no one answered.

‘I thought there were lots of people here before?’

The surrounding guilds were also quiet, so they seemed to be empty. The door was firmly locked, so Evelyn had no choice but to enter through a window. When she entered through the window, it was still dim inside.

‘Are there no lamps?’

She needed a guide to go down to the basement where Hector had been, but she was puzzled that no one was there. Perhaps everyone had already gone out to the coronation to launch a surprise attack.

‘The imperial palace would be hard to enter, so if they wanted to attack by surprise, now would be the time.’

But she didn’t sense any such signs at all. Most of the people she had seen through the carriage window looked like Peshar citizens. There wasn’t a single familiar face.

It was too dark, so she was lighting a lamp when it happened. As the light flickered, she felt someone’s gaze watching her. Wondering who it might be, she turned her head to see Max, Jenkins’ guard knight, standing there.

“…Lady Evelyn. Jenkins has ordered me to bring you back.”

“Ah…”

Startled, Evelyn dropped the lamp and the flame went out. Max picked up the lamp, lit it, and illuminated the empty shop. She hadn’t noticed before, but blood stains were splattered all over the wallpaper. Evelyn’s feet bumped into a corpse.

“!”

It seemed to be an employee who had worked here. The smell of rotting corpses filled the air inside. Evelyn frowned and spoke to Max.

“What is this…?”

“Thanks to Lady Evelyn, we were able to capture all the Astian remnants.”

“You’re saying it’s my fault?”

“Yes. When you escaped from the inn that day, five knights were tailing Lady Evelyn.”

“…”

“Thanks to that, we were also able to find out where the Astian Emperor was hiding. Following Jenkins’ orders, we killed everyone who was here.”

Evelyn was momentarily speechless. Five knights – she hadn’t even sensed their presence.

“What about Hector? The Astian Emperor…?”

“We killed him. There were orders that he absolutely had to die.”

“Ah…”

Evelyn staggered. Since they had conquered the Astia Empire, it was natural not to leave any royalty alive. However, she was also royalty.

[You are His Majesty the Emperor of Astia. Show them that we are not weak, that we won’t just be beaten down.]

Still, to think he died so futilely – she could hardly believe it. Evelyn thought Max was lying.

“I won’t believe it unless I see the corpse.”

“…There is no corpse. Following Jenkins’ orders, we burned the Astian Emperor’s body so it could never be seen again. This all happened because of Lady Evelyn. If you hadn’t left the inn that day and come here, they would all still be alive.”

“Don’t lie, Max.”

Hector couldn’t have gone down like that. He was the smartest and bravest person she knew. She had learned swordsmanship from him… and also.

Tears dripped from Evelyn’s eyes. Her heart felt torn apart with anguish.

“That’s… impossible.”

She snatched the lamp from Max and checked the faces of the dead people.

“…!”

The moment she saw the faces of Marquis Smith and Marquis Harper, only despair came over her. Their eyes were full of hatred. They seemed to be resenting her, so Evelyn stepped backward.

She felt a hard chest against her back. When she turned around, Ian Harper was standing there.

“We meet again, Lady Evelyn.”

“…You.”

Ian looked at Max and shrugged his shoulders.

“Max, don’t pressure Lady Evelyn so much. Wasn’t it I who told you that this place had Astian remnants?”

Ian, who had grabbed Evelyn’s shoulder, pressed his nose against her neck.

“Mmm. Lady Evelyn still smells wonderful. But why didn’t you wear the dress I made? I wanted to see it…”

“You… aren’t you Ian Harper?”

Ian smiled with narrowed eyes.

“I am Ian Harper. But after being caught as a spy here, I’ve been serving Jenkins.”

In the end, Ian was the cause of all this trouble. Because he had betrayed the country.

Evelyn raised her hand and slapped his cheek. Ian’s cheek, struck hard, swelled up bright red.

“…Your father Marquis Harper is dead too. Why on earth did you betray us?”

Apart from Max killing them, she couldn’t understand why Ian had betrayed them. Then Ian reached out his hand and stroked Evelyn’s face.

“Because I didn’t want to die. I betrayed everyone because I wanted to live. My own life is more precious than anyone else’s.”

“…”

Evelyn was left speechless by Ian’s honest words. He bowed his head briefly, then opened the shop door. A moment of light leaked in from outside, revealing the miserable state inside the shop. Before Ian left, he turned around.

“Since I’m alive, didn’t we also have s*x?”

At those words, murderous intent surged in Evelyn. She thought his selfish nature was exactly the same as Louisa’s. After he left, Max looked down at her. His hand was still gripping Evelyn’s wrist.

“…Will you go now?”

“You want me to watch the coronation in this mood?”

“…It’s Jenkins’ order.”

“I refuse.”

“…”

When Max released her wrist, Evelyn lit all the lamps in the shop. Since quite some time had passed, she thought the coronation might be over. She didn’t believe such lies about burning Hector’s corpse.

She could see the study that led down to the basement. Perhaps Hector was alive down there. They couldn’t possibly know about the secret passage.

But she couldn’t go down to look for Hector now. If she went down now, Max would also learn about this secret passage. To think they had five knights tailing her – was it because they wanted to catch Hector?

Seeing that Marquis Harper and Marquis Smith were dead, the surprise attack had failed. And that was due to Ian Harper’s betrayal.

‘Hector. Please be alive somehow.’

Evelyn opened the shop door and came outside. Outside the door, two maids and a carriage were waiting. Betsy handed Evelyn the silver dress.

“…After the coronation ends, there’s a party for invited nobles. Lady Evelyn, please get in the carriage.”

“Fine.”

She wished it would rain instead. The weather was annoyingly clear, making her mood gloomy. These were nobles who had tried to sell her to an old emperor anyway. Even so, the thought that Hector’s wings had been torn off made her deeply distressed.

It seemed the Astia Empire would never be able to rise again.

Evelyn, who had changed into the dress inside the carriage, headed back to the coronation venue. Max and four other knights followed along. It felt like invisible threads had wound tightly around her body.