Catherine mentally calculated the money she had left and scowled even further.

She had secretly sold some jewelry, but most of that money was already gone.

She should have increased her funds at the arena yesterday, but Kertan’s sudden disappearance prevented her.

No—if she had bet on that match, she would have lost anyway since Kertan, the sure-win candidate, was gone.

Even though she logically justified it, she still felt unbearable frustration.

It was only natural.

Not long ago, she had been full of hope, sure that she would soon escape this wretched household and walk a path paved with roses.

But somehow, things had gone wrong, and now her entire plan had crumbled.

Look at her now.

Unable to do anything, faced a man who was technically her blood relative yet more of a stranger than anyone else—one who was screaming at her with a face flushed red in rage.

If everything had gone according to plan, she would have already punched that face and walked out of this house for good.

Catherine felt a growing sense of urgency.

There wasn’t much time left before the protagonist, Julia, made her grand entrance.

Before that, she had to sever ties cleanly with Theron and leave this household…

‘Wait. Theron?’

Come to think of it, quite some time had passed since she had requested a breakup, yet the official annulment still hadn’t arrived.

Catherine suddenly lifted her bowed head.

Her bloodshot eyes, a result of sleepless nights, gleamed sharply as she stared directly at her brother.

Her gaze was so intense and eerie that even he, who treated her worse than a servant, flinched momentarily.

But the mere fact that he had reacted at all was humiliating to him, so he raised his voice even louder.

“What’s with that insolent look?! Do you think you’ve done anything right?!”

Before he could even finish his sentence, Catherine spoke.

“Has a document arrived from the Duke of Lucart’s estate?”

“What?”

“The Duke of Lucart. He should have sent me some documents, but I still haven’t received them.”

“What are you talking about? Why would the Duke of Lucart send you anything? I thought you’d lost your mind, but now I’m seriously wondering what’s wrong with you. He’s never sent you so much as a single letter.”

Her brother frowned as if she were speaking nonsense, then bluntly spat out words that would wound anyone who heard them.

If the honest Catherine—who once loved and obsessed over Theron but were now gone—had heard this, she would have cried silently for days.

But Catherine, possessed by someone entirely different, was far from tears and more dumbfounded than her brother.

“Are you saying nothing has arrived?”

“What kind of ridiculous stunt have you pulled this time? How often have I told you not to disgrace the Lucart family—Hey! I’m not even done talking! Where do you think you’re going?”

“It’s another house arrest anyway. I’ll reflect deeply on my actions alone in my room.”

Unable to hold back any longer, Catherine stormed out of her brother’s study.

She strode swiftly down the hallway, almost running, and as soon as she entered her room, she slid down against the wall and sank to the floor.

“Think. Let’s think this through.”

She repeated the exact words several times to cool her overloaded mind before finally slamming her fist onto the floor.

“I don’t understand anything!”

Nothing was going the way she wanted, and what drove her even crazier was that she couldn’t pinpoint the cause of any of it.

“Is it because the original story hasn’t started yet?”

The one plausible reason she managed to find only made her feel even more powerless.

As a reader of Julia, Where Are You? She only had information from the original novel.

If even that information was useless, then according to the original story, Catherine was doomed to be the villainess defeated by Julia.

“I refuse to live like that. I never wanted this possession, but am I supposed to live another miserable life now that I’m here? No way. No, no, no!”

As if making up her mind, Catherine took a deep breath and frantically pulled out a blank paper and a pen.

“I can’t just sit here and do nothing.”

Occasionally biting her thumbnail, she began writing a letter to Theron.

If he weren’t going to act, then she would!

It wasn’t as if her reputation in this house could get any worse just because she pulled another crazy stunt or two.

Feeling an instinctive sense of unease and dread at the story deviating completely from her control, Catherine scribbled furiously as if being chased by something.

Unlike in Re.Vil.Bre. This time, Catherine initiated the breakup, not the male lead, Theron.

***

Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.

A steady tapping echoed from the armrest of the sofa.

“Aaaaaaagh! Aaaack—!”

“Hahaha. You still have enough energy to scream so loudly? Looks like we’ve got a long way to go.”

“Stop saying such horrifying things, old hag.”

“Look at this brat! Such foul manners!”

Before Aiger, seated on the sofa, an event reeking heavily of iron was unfolding.

“Hand me that over there.”

“This?”

“No, you idiot! Not that—that!”

“Could you use nouns instead of pronouns? How am I supposed to read your mind?”

“Aaaaargh! Please, please spare me! Gaaaaah!”

The voices of his bickering subordinates and the piercing screams blended, filling the damp underground chamber.

Every second must have felt like an eternity for the one on the receiving end.

“Grrrgh… grrgh…”

The old woman, who had been slapping the cheek of a man foaming at the mouth, her eyes rolled back, finally turned away.

“Should we wake him up?”

“You always ask that. Of course, we should! What are we supposed to do if we let him sleep—ah! Oww that hurts! That hurts!”

“You talk too much! You’ll go to hell for your sins of the tongue.”

“Hell, huh.”

The old woman and the subordinate, who had started another comedic exchange, suddenly fell silent as they noticed Aiger had yet to issue a command for longer than expected.

They had been bickering so intensely just moments ago, but now, they both glanced at Aiger warily, wearing similar expressions.

Aiger, as always, ignored their stares completely.

Just as the impatient subordinate, unable to bear the silence, was about to speak again despite the old woman’s attempts to stop him—

“Recite the testimony that guy gave us. You remember it, don’t you?”

“That guy… Oh! You mean that guy?”

The subordinate who had accompanied him to the back alleys nodded enthusiastically, his lips curling into a pleased grin.

“Of course! I remember everything. I wouldn’t be careless with a request from you—mmph! Mmmph, mmmph!”

Having tried to act smug for no reason, the subordinate ended up clamping his lips shut by Aiger’s hand, only managing to shed a few tears once he was freed.

“Just answer the question.”

“That knight—no, that trash—said he made a deal with Catherine Sillion. It wasn’t grand, just the courage to go through with the abduction.”

“Hohohohoho! The courage to abduct? What nonsense! I’ve never heard anything so ridiculous!”

The subordinate suddenly yelled in frustration at the old woman’s scathing laughter, a person who worked under Aiger, handling the dirty work.

“Grandpa! I’m talking right now! This isn’t my fault, okay? It’s your fault—… I’m sorry.”

As he put his hands on his waist, panting in frustration, he felt Aiger’s ice-cold gaze slicing through him like a blade.

The dark blue eyes, already deep and brooding, seemed even darker in the dim underground chamber, absorbing little light until they looked almost entirely black. His heart shrank in fear.

He quickly clasped his hands before his stomach and continued his report.

“Anyway, that knight bastard said he decided to abduct the young lady of Mifaro based on Catherine Sillion’s advice. In exchange, she demanded the transfer of Mifaro’s most lucrative mine.”

Once the subordinate finished speaking, Aiger leaned deep into the sofa and murmured,

“Catherine… Catherine Sillion.”

He had no interest in the story of a knight who betrayed the one he swore to protect.

Besides, the story itself was nothing new. It was just another cliché.

And yet, Aiger didn’t dismiss it immediately. He kept turning it over in his mind.

Because it was Raylin—of all people—who had said, ‘Look into the relationship between Catherine Sillion and the knight.’

He had never heard of any interactions between the Greuga and Sillion families.

If there had been a secret meeting no one knew about, that would be a different matter. But considering the nature of Duke Greuga, he wouldn’t do something that would stir up unnecessary trouble.

Then, could it be that the young ladies had a personal connection?

Aiger had long since embedded eyes and ears into high society, all to shake the emperor’s throne and increase his chances of survival, even if only slightly.

He had no time or desire to attend social events and act like a noble celebrity personally, but few in the empire could gather such news faster or more accurately than he could.

And so, he was sure.

There was no personal relationship between Raylin and Catherine Sillion.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

A rhythmic tapping echoed through the damp air as Aiger drummed his fingers on the armrest.

He carefully retraced the events.

They only discovered that the Mifaro young lady had been kidnapped rather than having eloped for love because Raylin was remarkably perceptive and sharp.

But suddenly, linking Catherine Sillion to the kidnapper?

It wasn’t impossible. That knight had served the Sillion family before defecting to Mifaro.

But the nagging irritation in Aiger’s mind wasn’t about something so simple.

‘Why?’

Why was Raylin so fixated on Catherine Sillion?

… when Catherine Sillion and Theron Lucart discussed their broken engagement at the café, Raylin was there.

She had even gone out of her way to change their meeting location.

Had she ever sent him a personal letter before then?

Not once. Their monthly meetings, an obligation of their engagement, were only carried out as stipulated in their betrothal contract.

Yet, for the sake of going to the café where Catherine Sillion was, Raylin had sought his permission—she, who had once been so afraid that she couldn’t even meet his eyes and later regarded him as nothing more than a piece of furniture.

“A turning point…”

Catherine Sillion had catalyzed Raylin’s change for some reason- some unknown connection.

And Aiger did not like that fact.

Despite treating him like a stranger before, it wasn’t bad that she had grown closer to him.

But why did that have to be because of Catherine Sillion?

If their relationship was to change, shouldn’t he be the reason?

The logical thought that relationships could be influenced by external factors was drowned out by his simmering emotions.

Aiger, driven purely by impulse, decided to visit Raylin.

It was already late, the sun was long gone, and night had set in. Even for the Crown Prince, showing up unannounced was impolite.

But Aiger did not stop.

This wasn’t the first time he had visited her unannounced.

The night he rescued the kidnapped Mifaro young lady and safely returned Kertan’s sister to him…

“Ugh… N-no… Stop… don’t…”

“As expected…”

Raylin, drenched in cold sweat, her already wet cheeks further streaked with tears, murmured incoherently, pushing away an unseen figure in her sleep.

Aiger had anticipated this, but there was no satisfaction in being right.

Many who were forced into war at a young age and killed for the first time in self-defense were plagued by nightmares.

Aiger had experienced the same. That was why he had come tonight, worried about Raylin, who had just gotten blood on her hands for the first time.

He reached out, catching her hand as she flailed, trying to scratch at her own throat as if she were being strangled.

Suppressing a weary sigh, he pulled her delicate, fragile frame into his arms.

The trembling that radiated from her body did not subside.

It only grew worse.

Aiger held Raylin tightly, leaving no space between them to prevent her from struggling, and whispered softly.

“It’s over now. You’re safe. As long as I’m here, no one can touch you.”

He repeated those words until the trembling, tears, and whimpers finally ceased.

Only when Raylin’s breathing evened out and her face, now peaceful, was free from the nightmares did Aiger carefully lay her back down on the bed and step away.

He murmured, absentmindedly rubbing the thumb that had wiped away her tears that night.

“I need to ask her directly.”