Evelyn handed over the cup and turned to look at Reynard. Her face clearly showed confusion.

“What happened? Was Epha going wild… perhaps because of…”

Evelyn trailed off, hesitantly voicing her suspicion.

“That’s right.”

Reynard confirmed her doubts.

Though she had considered the possibility that Hesta’s delegation might target her, she hadn’t expected them to act in such a way.

At the same time, the memory of the fear of death she had felt atop Epha came rushing back.

Just recalling it briefly was enough to send chills down her spine.

“One of the attendants from the Hesta envoy was apparently bribed. And the moment I stepped onto the platform, they released a rat onto the ground.”

“So that’s why Epha went wild.”

She had been unable to understand why the clever and gentle Epha had suddenly gone berserk.

Realizing that it had all been a scheme by the Hesta envoy made her blood run cold.

It was already the second time.

Her homeland of Hesta had made an attempt on Evelyn’s life once again.

She had told herself it couldn’t be, but now that it had become reality and she had actually been in danger, she felt a bitter taste in her mouth.

“For now, we’ve captured the Hesta envoy and the bribed attendant. So there shouldn’t be anyone trying to take your life again.”

Reynard’s confident words brought Evelyn some relief.

“Thank you.”

“Well then, I’ll take my leave. Make yourself comfortable.”

“Yes.”

As soon as he heard Evelyn’s reply, Reynard stood up.

Without hesitation, he turned and left the bedroom.

Evelyn, watching his retreating back, suddenly parted her lips, a question surfacing in her mind.

“Is there something you need, Your Majesty?”

As Evelyn seemed about to say something, Laura, who had been waiting nearby, approached and asked.

Evelyn, who had been staring at the door Reynard had exited through, belatedly turned to her.

“By the way… when did His Majesty arrive here?”

The most surreal sight she had witnessed upon waking up came back to her, a beat late.

It was Reynard lying beside her.

That had certainly been strange.

It had looked as if Reynard had been genuinely worried about her.

But that couldn’t be.

Though Evelyn was his wife, their relationship existed purely out of necessity.

Reynard had married her to keep Duke Emmett in check, and Evelyn had agreed in order to survive.

And yet, the scene she saw upon waking was as if he had been caring for her and fallen asleep at her side.

“His Majesty arrived about three hours ago.”

“Three hours ago?”

“Yes. He personally took care of Her Majesty during that time.”

“…Really?”

When Evelyn asked again in disbelief, Laura smiled gently and nodded.

Even so, Evelyn found it hard to believe.

***

Sitting alone in his quiet office, Duke Emmett recalled the hunting tournament from three days ago.

The incident had happened suddenly.

The horse the Empress was riding had been startled by something and bolted forward.

Reynard had immediately chased after her, with the knights and soldiers quickly following behind.

Those left behind at the hunting grounds were bewildered, unable to grasp what had happened.

The first to recover and bring order to the chaos was Duke Emmett.

He calmed the crowd and made those gathered at the tournament wait, then began piecing together what he had seen with his own eyes.

The incident had started with the attendant leading the horse.

The attendant, after rummaging through his pocket, had quietly dropped a dead rat in front of the Empress’s horse.

It was clearly an attempt on the Empress’s life.

More precisely, an attempt to take her life.

That meant someone other than Duke Emmett wanted the Empress dead.

‘Could it be the Hesta envoys?’

Given the circumstances, the only suspects he could infer were the members of the Hesta envoys.

After the attendant had been captured by soldiers, news came that the Hesta envoys had suddenly vanished—further fueling suspicion.

Some claimed that the delegation had simply returned to Hesta, but Duke Emmett didn’t believe that rumor.

No matter how chaotic the situation had been, surely someone would have noticed if the delegation had left.

And so he began speculating whether the Hesta envoys were involved in the incident and whether they had gone missing because of it.

But logically, there was no reason for the Hesta envoys to orchestrate such a plot.

The Empress was a princess of the Kingdom of Hesta.

If anything, the delegation should have been the ones most concerned about her safety.

So what on earth would make them try to kill her?

Duke Emmett fell into momentary thought, slowly retracing the events of that day.

Then he remembered one detail: the name Reynard had called out while chasing the Empress.

It was nothing like the name he knew her by.

Evelyn.

Reynard had called her that.

It was hard to believe that Reynard would call the wrong name in such a dire situation.

That left only one possibility.

‘The Empress… is a fake?’

It was an utterly absurd idea, yet the circumstantial evidence mounting up made him start doubting the Empress’s true identity.

‘But if that’s the case, then the Emperor must have already known that the Empress was an imposter… Why did he allow it?’

The most plausible reason was that he didn’t want to form an alliance through marriage with the Emmett family.

But even that seemed a bit weak as a justification.

No matter how much he didn’t want to marry Greta, would he really go as far as marrying a fake who wasn’t even the real princess of Hesta?

Though the Emmett family had been keeping Reynard’s imperial authority in check, their power was still nowhere near his.

He was the man who had taken the throne by cutting down his royal brothers.

Why would someone like him be unable to deal with Duke Emmett?

In truth, Emmett himself was well aware.

That Reynard was deliberately letting him live.

The reason he hadn’t eliminated Duke Emmett was because Reynard needed a counterbalance to preserve some semblance of conscience.

He kept a check in place to prevent himself from becoming a tyrant.

But then, why would Reynard go so far as to make a false princess—an imposter—into the Empress?

No, that wasn’t it.

If the Empress truly was a fake, then Reynard must have had some hidden agenda.

However, Duke Emmett simply couldn’t figure out what that might be.

Deep in thought, Duke Emmett raised his hand and rang the bell that sat on the table.

At the sound, a knock came, followed by the door opening as the butler, Wilhelm, entered.

“You called, my lord?”

“I need to go out.”

“Yes, I’ll prepare at once.”

***

Throughout the carriage ride, Duke Emmett kept pondering over the things he couldn’t make sense of, one by one.

If his speculation was right, and the Empress was indeed a fake, then when had the switch happened, and who had done it—and for what purpose?

Figuring out when the switch happened wasn’t all that difficult.

Chronologically, it had to be before she came to the capital of Bait.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to deceive the Bait nobility.

So if it happened before entering Bait, he had heard that Reynard had first seen the Empress while she was being chased by bandits.

If the Empress had been swapped, it could only have been then.

That meant the real question was: who orchestrated the swap?

If Reynard had done it, the reaction from the Hesta envoy didn’t make sense. And if Hesta had done it, it made no sense that Reynard would knowingly keep a fake as Empress.

But the key point was this: both Reynard and the Hesta envoy knew that the Empress was a fake.

‘And the Hesta envoy tried to kill the fake Empress. Why? Does that mean they weren’t the ones who made the switch? And then, how do you explain the Emperor rushing in to save the fake Empress?’

The more he thought about it, the more tangled it became, giving him a headache.

“We’ve arrived, Duke.”

Just then, the carriage came to a stop at the underground prison of the imperial capital.

The door opened, and Duke Emmett slowly stepped out.

“Welcome, Your Grace. I am Levin Hofmann.”

Levin, who had come out in advance upon hearing word of his arrival, greeted Duke Emmett in front of the building.

The Duke shook hands briefly with Levin and walked into the building.

Levin quickly followed behind.

“I want to see the criminal responsible for endangering Her Majesty during the hunting tournament.”

“Yes, I will guide you. This way, please.”

At Duke Emmett’s words, Levin took the lead and began guiding him.

At last, he came face-to-face with the young attendant imprisoned inside the cell.