“If he had survived in that condition, he would have returned by now!”

The viscount rattled off the words in agitation, but Catherine’s cool gray eyes did not waver.

After losing her husband and becoming a widow, Catherine’s way of surviving had been to become the king’s mistress. With her seductive nature and talent for manipulating men, it had not been difficult to become the mistress of King Max, who had fallen into grief after Queen Olivia’s death.

She had thought she would soon become queen.

But the gentle and simple-minded king’s devotion to his late queen ran too deep, and he would never allow their relationship to go any further.

Though she had become the true power within the palace, Catherine was still hungry.

Even the existence of Crown Prince Damon, who possessed the legendary blue eyes said to bring prosperity to the Kingdom of Conwell, grated on her nerves.

‘As long as the crown prince lives, I can never become queen, and my son Joseph will forever be left with nothing to rely on.’

She had to see Damon after his breathing had stopped and his body had become a corpse.

With her own eyes.

“The area beyond the sea beneath the cliff is the border region of Pilmaon, correct?”

“What? Yes, that is correct.”

“Viscount Herbert.”

Plop.

A sugar cube dropped into the teacup, sending ripples across its surface.

Catherine stirred it round and round with a teaspoon, as though mirroring the turmoil in her heart, and smiled with the cunning eyes of a snake.

“We must see this through to the very end for the sake of our plan. Only then will your plan and mine be brought to a flawless conclusion, won’t they? His Majesty will also be able to accept the death of his precious son and acknowledge mine.”

“Then…”

“What lies across the sea?”

At Catherine’s question, the viscount, drenched in a cold sweat, barely managed to answer.

“The Conrad Duchy.”

A duchy that had gained independence from the Kingdom of Vandels.

A place where people came and went freely, and where those from the New Continent lived intermingled with one another.

Catherine closed her eyes, then opened them again. She could feel the faint trembling of her eyelashes.

‘I must make certain, to the very end, that he has drawn his last breath.’

‘Whether the sea swallowed those cursed blue eyes, or whether, with that devilish tenacity of his, he managed to crawl all the way to the neighboring duchy.’

No matter what.

Catherine approached the viscount, her devoted henchman, with her fingers interlaced. Then, without warning, she seized the chest of the man who had already grown aroused at the sight of her.

A strangled groan escaped him, followed by a rush of ragged breaths. Catherine’s low voice slipped from her lips.

“Bring Helene to me. I need her to confirm with her own eyes whether that blue-eyed monster crawled his way into Conrad.”

* * *

—Creak.

Late at night, Yvette pulled a purple hood low over her head and quietly opened the back door, barely managing to slip outside.

Instead of a dress, she had picked out a shabby outing dress meant for a housemaid from the linen room. It fit her well enough.

Had she worn one of her elaborate evening gowns, they would have discovered at once that she had left the palace.

‘I’m only going out to buy presents.’

Toys for Bellorin and Karl, her nanny’s niece and nephew.

The chef’s two sons had recently been accepted into the Royal Academy and the capital guard, so she ought to prepare gifts for them as well.

She did not want to visit the fashionable district frequented by nobles, only to become the subject of gossip among the noble young ladies again.

She hated even more the thought of them whispering that the Grand Duke’s young daughter bought nothing but such trivial odds and ends.

‘What is wrong with looking after the families of the servants?’

‘Just this once. I’ll buy the gifts and come straight back.’

It was the only way she could shop for presents without becoming the subject of gossip among the noble young ladies.

‘No one will know as long as I slip out and return unnoticed.’

Yvette quietly released the doorknob and hurried through the rear entrance of Erined Palace. Then she raised a hand and hailed a public carriage.

“Please take me to 31B Northwind Street!”

The carriage set off.

Naive Yvette had no way of knowing that a lone rider had fallen in behind it.

In the end, the princess stopped at a general store in Northwind and bought as much as she could carry in both arms—gifts for the nanny who had cared for her and for the chef’s children.

The shops lining Northwind Street were filled with the latest goods fresh from the New Continent, items that had not yet reached the stores frequented by nobles.

Yvette pulled her hood low once more and glanced around.

The back alleys of Northwind, scattered with green leaves, were emptier than ever.

Standing at the entrance to the alley on Twenty-Fifth Street as she waited for a public carriage, Yvette clutched the heavy bags in both hands beneath the glow of a streetlamp.

She thought she could hear the steady click of shoes behind her, but the weight of her burdens kept her from noticing.

Then it happened.

A group of thugs rounding the corner came to a halt.

Bottles of strong liquor dangled precariously from their wrists as they staggered about.

A crude whistle cut sharply through the quiet alley.

“What’s a noble young lady doing in a shabby place like this?”

“Look at that hood. She deliberately put on a cheap skirt, but that’s a fine velvet hood.”

“Whoo!”

One of the men, his hands shoved into his pockets, made an exaggerated gesture to signal another member of the group.

A man in a gray jacket, his hat pulled low over his face, stepped in front of Yvette beneath the streetlamp.

“P-please move…!”

Clutching her hood with one hand, Yvette looked around, struggling not to show how frightened she was.

There was no one on the roadside walkway.

The public carriage should have arrived by now, but growing anxious, Yvette turned to flee elsewhere.

“Where do you think you’re going? We gentlemen are short on drinking money. How about helping us out, miss?”

“D-don’t do this! Let go of me! Please!”

A thick hand landed on her hood and shoulder. Yvette screamed, trembling with fear.

Her hood was pulled away, revealing her honey-blonde hair. At the sight of it, the thugs bared their teeth, their eyes flushing red with l*st.

Panicked, Yvette shoved at the men’s chests with her fists, but they did not budge.

The hands that twisted around her wrists were burning hot, flushed with excitement at her humiliation. A few of them were already snickering.

“Well, look at that. She’s a real beauty.”

“Hey, I’m first! Me first! I was the one who spotted her coming from the end of the alley! I said I’m first!”

“You bastard, wait your turn. I’m the leader, so I go first. I’ll let each of you have your turn, so be patient.”

While the thugs bickered among themselves, the terrified Yvette threw the packages in her hands at them.

As several of the thugs looked down at the large paper bags as though they were sacks of gold, Yvette began to run.

“Catch her!”

The man in the gray jacket quickly caught up with her.

“Let go of me! You bastard!”

Yvette screamed as he grabbed her hood.

The man in the gray jacket yanked on it and reached for the ribbon at the front of Yvette’s dress as she struggled against him.

Thud—!

The ribbon that held the front of her dress securely closed had already come half undone, and Yvette’s delicate bosom was on the verge of being exposed.

At that moment, a shadow emerged faintly through the mist and mercilessly kicked the distracted man away.

“Ugh!”

With a short groan, the man pitched forward and rolled across the ground.

Covering the front of her dress, Yvette lifted her large green eyes toward the figure standing opposite her.

“Theo!”

Tears instantly welled in her fear-stricken green eyes.

Damon seized one of the thugs by the back of the neck and hurled him aside. The man faltered when he saw the murderous gleam in Damon’s deep blue eyes.

“Who the hell are you, you bastard!”

The surrounding thugs rushed at him.

Damon drove his fist into one man, hooked another’s leg out from under him, and kicked a third in the stomach.

“Ugh…!”

“Hey, th-that’s a guard uniform! Sh*t! Run! Get out of here!”

At the thug’s shout, the rest fled as fast as their legs could carry them.

The man in the gray jacket, who had been sprawled on the ground, ground his teeth.

Yvette was no longer the problem.

What mattered was that he had been knocked flat in front of his own men. Even if he went back, he would never be able to hold his head up before them again.

Grabbing a stone from the ground, the man let out a yell and hurled it toward Damon and Yvette.

“Theo! No!”

Yvette’s scream shattered the silence.

Just as Damon turned toward the man in the gray jacket who had lunged at him, a large stone struck the back of his head. Blood welled from the wound and trickled down.

“The little rat holds quite a grudge.”

Damon merely furrowed his brow. Then, as though crushing an insect beneath his foot, he pinned the leg of the man who had thrown the stone firmly beneath his military boot.

“Ghk!”

Unable even to cry out, the man could only gasp for breath. At last, he clutched Damon’s leg.

“P-please forgive me. J-just spare me this once…”

“How dare a bastard like you lay those filthy hands on Yvette’s body?”

At Damon’s low, sinister voice, all color drained from the face of the man trapped beneath his military boot.

So that was why he was angry.

It was not because the man had struck him in the head with a stone.

It was because he had tried to violate the blonde lady and torn at the ribbon over her chest.

Deathly pale, Yvette clung to Damon’s arm.

“P-please, let’s just go, Theo. Hurry.”

Yvette’s face had gone white.

Taking advantage of the moment, the man beneath Damon’s boot staggered to his feet and fled beyond the alley.

Blood dripped onto Damon’s uniform. Yvette picked up the purple hood from the ground and wrapped it around his head. Tears spilled from her green eyes, filled with worry and concern.

“Let’s go to a doctor. Your head needs treatment right—”

“A four-wheeled carriage will arrive soon. You were on your way back from praying at the church when you bought those things in the Viles shopping district. You were never in Northwind.”

“Theo…!”

The back of his head throbbed with heat. The stone must have been quite large, for blood continued to seep from the wound.

Damon clasped Yvette’s trembling hand tightly.

“Don’t run away. Protecting you is my duty. If you flee, I’ll chase you to the ends of the earth and bring you back.”