The next morning. For some reason, Nian woke up before Dade. She carefully slipped out from his arms as he still slept, washed up quickly, and left the room.

She needed to hurry a bit to prepare for the party that would start in the afternoon. As she came out, a maid from the Kingdom of Rund who had been waiting outside led her to the dressing room.

Despite having packed numerous dresses, the Kingdom of Rund had even prepared a dress for Nian in advance.

Looking uncomfortably at the exotic dress with a wide and deep neckline characteristic of Rund, Nian hesitated briefly before finally surrendering herself to the maid. It would be rude to insist on her country’s style while in a foreign land.

The red dress adorned with abundant lace tightly wrapped her from the solar plexus to the waist, which emphasized her chest exposed by the deep square neckline.

Her black hair was braided and pulled up high, secured with pins embedded with small rubies. Around her neck, she wore a choker necklace of the same color.

Nian stared at her unfamiliar reflection in the mirror. Suddenly, a previous conversation with him came to mind.

‘Fortunately, I’m not to Your Majesty’s taste.’

Taste. Certainly, her current appearance was similar to the women who frequented his bedroom, unlike her usual self. Was this type of woman his preference? Perhaps the woman he still loved dearly looked like this too.

Nian smiled bitterly.

When Nian, elaborately adorned, arrived at the hall, Dade was already there waiting. She approached him with some trepidation, and upon seeing her, he said somewhat irritably.

“What happened to all the dresses your personal maid packed that you’re wearing this kind of thing?”

Nian looked around nervously as she took his arm.

“Lower your voice, Your Majesty. This is a dress prepared by Rund.”

At Nian’s words, he showed his dislike more explicitly.

“Does it not suit me?”

“Shut up.”

It wasn’t that it didn’t suit her. Rather, it suited her too well, which was the problem. In the red dress, she looked like, though it’s a cliché, a freshly bloomed rose. But seeing her chest half-exposed by the deep neckline irritated him.

Nian and Dade approached Princess Camilla and her husband, who were seated in the center at the back of the hall, and bowed their heads slightly in greeting. Seeing this, the King of Rund spoke in a somewhat playful tone.

“I wondered why the Emperor of Belton kept his Empress so hidden away, but now that I see her in person, I understand. She’s so beautiful that you probably couldn’t bear to show her off.”

Nian smiled awkwardly, as if tickled by the compliment from Melek, the King of Rund.

“Indeed. If I had known you’d talk such nonsense the moment you saw her, I wouldn’t have shown her at all.”

When Dade replied in a flat voice, Melek laughed loudly and couldn’t help but stand up. Camilla, who was beside him, also stood up.

Melek approached Dade with open arms, unable to hide his delight, but Dade pushed him away with a still indifferent face.

“I’ll pass on embraces from men.”

“You and your temperament.”

Though they were complaining to each other, somehow both were smiling. Nian watched them with a pleased expression before offering congratulations to Camilla.

“Congratulations, Camilla.”

“Thank you. You must have had a difficult journey.”

“Thanks to your consideration, I’ve rested well and feel much better.”

Nian smiled with a benevolent expression.

“That’s good. But…… is the Empress not yet expecting?”

When Nian paused momentarily at Camilla’s words, Dade, who was beside her, answered instead.

“Even as a mother, you’re still as nosy as ever, Camilla.”

At his words, Camilla narrowed her eyes and glared at Dade before looking at Nian and snorting.

“Nosy? Unless there’s a problem, I’m just concerned that it seems to be taking too long, Brother.”

She was the typical annoying sister-in-law.

“As if. It’s not helping at all, so mind your own business.”

Dade, speaking as if annoyed, grabbed Nian’s wrist and pulled her along.

“That’s enough greeting. Come here.”

Nian followed his lead without resistance. Watching the couple, Camilla tilted her head curiously.

‘What’s this? Did they suddenly become close?’

Dade, who had pulled Nian by the wrist, took two glasses of champagne from a passing servant’s tray and headed straight for the terrace.

The hall was too crowded and stuffy. Especially with so many dark-suited men around, he was even more conscious of Nian’s attire.

As soon as they reached the terrace, he took off his tailcoat jacket and draped it over Nian’s shoulders.

“Don’t ever wear that kind of outfit again.”

“Is it that bad?”

“Yes.”

She had wondered if this type of woman might be to his taste, but apparently not even that. If not this, then…… Suddenly, Nian recalled his words from yesterday when he saw her in a modest outfit on the street and said she looked like ‘Ilena.’

“Is it because I don’t look like ‘Ilena’?”

“What?”

Nian felt somewhat desolate at his behavior—so gentle when she looked like the modest Ilena, but so cold when she became the glamorous Nian. When she closed her mouth, he tightened his grip on her wrist.

“You’re treating me like a fool.”

“Your Majesty.”

Nian called him as if to admonish him for his harsh words.

‘Whether you’re Ilena or whatever, I hate seeing your chest exposed like that.’

Dade couldn’t bring himself to say the rest, afraid his childish thoughts would be revealed. He had been relatively cool-headed, but since meeting Nian, he felt like a fool who couldn’t control even his own emotions.

“If that’s not it, then why do you hate this so much? Perhaps your recent kindness toward me is actually toward ‘Ilena,’ not me?”

“You are Ilena, so what’s the difference?”

“That’s true. I just wondered if you might have forgotten.”

“I know it damn well, so don’t worry. I know it very well.”

He released her wrist, which he had been gripping tightly, and added in a cold tone.

“Much to my regret.”

He turned around and left her on the terrace, returning to the party hall. Nian stood on the terrace for a long time, staring at her flat champagne.

When she returned to her seat, Dade was sitting quietly with a coldly hardened face. Nian too deliberately ignored him and sat looking straight ahead. Unlike the chilly atmosphere between them, the party was quite lively, as if in a different world.

Camilla approached them.

“Is the party boring, Empress?”

“Not at all. I think I’m feeling the effects of too much champagne.”

At Nian’s words, Camilla glanced at Dade sitting beside her and spoke again.

“My brother doesn’t seem affected just by champagne though?”

“……”

Though he pretended to be sitting calmly, his stiffly set lips clearly showed he was angry. She spoke deliberately so he would hear, but her brother simply avoided her gaze without responding.

‘Hmph. How boring.’

Soon Camilla lost interest and disappeared into the center of the hall. As Camilla moved away, Nian sighed and looked at Dade. Feeling her gaze, Dade closed his eyes firmly.

“If you’re planning to provoke me more, don’t. It’s already hard enough to restrain myself.”

Nian started to say something but swallowed it with a sigh.

“As you wish.”

Nian, rarely showing anger, stood up from her seat.

Unable to endure the cold war with Dade, Nian rose and approached the center, where Camilla spotted her and came over.

“Why is my brother acting like that? Did you two fight?”

Nian hesitated a bit before sharing her frustration.

“I don’t know. He doesn’t seem to like my outfit.”

“What?”

“I’m not sure if it’s my outfit he doesn’t like or just me, but that’s how he’s acting.”

Looking back and forth between Nian, who couldn’t understand what was happening, and her brother, who was still angry, Camilla couldn’t hold back her laughter.

“Ha ha! My goodness. Well, the dresses in this country are quite revealing. It seems my brother is jealous.”

“……?”

Nian was stunned by Camilla’s words, as if she had been hit hard.

Jealous? Who? Dade? Because of who? Me? Why?

Nian wondered if she misunderstood the word jealousy, but no matter how she thought about it, she knew the meaning correctly.

Jealousy: excessive suspicion when one’s spouse or loved one likes someone else.

That’s the dictionary definition. While jealousy itself isn’t a particularly good emotion, it’s fundamentally a feeling that occurs between people in love.

Nian couldn’t clearly remember what expression she had afterward. She just spent a long time in a daze before finally returning to the room first.

‘Love? Is that an emotion that could exist between him and me?’

It seemed impossible. Though their relationship had indeed softened recently, he still said he hated her.

‘Then what about me? How do I feel about him?’

Suddenly, Nian’s thoughts stopped.

Her black pupils trembled.