“Exactly as I said, you are no longer the Crown Prince……”

Crack.

Leila’s cheek snapped to the left in an instant.

Her cheek burned as though scorched, and her head swam.

“Ah, with Sam gone, I have to use my own hand even when I want to hit someone. I need to find a manservant quickly.”

For someone said to have weakened muscles from lying and sitting for so long, the force behind the blow that struck Leila was not weak at all.

“Did you think I was just lying there and truly saw nothing? I was thinking the whole time. Why did we lose when our forces were roughly equal?”

Eric said it while flexing his hand.

“I realized too late that there was a rat in the capital feeding them information. It was because I had lost my mind for too long.”

Leila grimaced at the metallic taste of blood from her split lip and asked, “When exactly did you……”

“When did I come to my senses? Does that matter right now? What matters is that you ruined my plans again.”

Eric walked back to his chair and sat down.

“Right, I figured it all out. That it was you who gave information in the capital back then. So I kept pretending I had not come to my senses. Bribing your family’s doctor through Count Collet’s family was easy. That doctor, I heard he needed a lot of money after your family was demoted to a comital family. I had that taken care of for him.”

Leila was both shocked and furious to learn she had been deceived by her family’s own physician all this time.

“How does it feel? Being betrayed from behind.”

Enjoying her expression, Eric continued.

“At first I did not understand. You were meant to become Empress. You were to stand at the pinnacle of the Empire. So why, why on earth would you betray us?”

Leila tried to say something in rebuttal, but Eric raised his hand and stopped her.

“I know that feeling very well. You do not need to explain.”

A madness flickered in Eric’s eyes.

“Mateo Fezel, quite handsome, is he not. He seemed to have grown even more impressive over the past three years.”

“What does that have to do with……”

“What, are you indignant? You cannot be a woman who sold out her country over a man? Then you should have been more careful with your conduct. If you are going to call it a misunderstanding, then do not meet in the middle of the night and go around together under the pretense of conducting an investigation.”

Leila was so dumbfounded the words would not come.

“When I miraculously came to my senses and could move my body and think again, I instinctively hid my condition. And then I thought.”

Eric tapped his temple with his finger.

“The answer came quickly. There is a spy close by. So I started gathering information too. Since I could not do it alone, I also chose someone to help me. And I found the culprit. It was easy, because I came to know that you had even sold out your own father.”

He rose from his chair, grabbed Leila’s jaw, and turned it this way and that.

“Ah, this will be hard to hide. Tell anyone who asks that you fell. Even if you say I hit you, I doubt anyone would believe it.”

Eric released her jaw roughly, drank some water, and continued.

“I had bath time, a good time to be alone. You, having never loved me from the start, left things like bathing entirely to the maids. But those servants and maids had your father as their master. And you are someone who sold out that master and still came back to this house without shame. I said a few words and they all said they wanted to teach you a lesson.”

Suppressing the trembling that had taken over her body, Leila asked, “If you joined hands with Count Collet, then my mother knew that your mind had returned……”

“How would she know? Her daughter is a spy. I deliberately drew that woman in. Because I was worried you might lose your mind again and betray us. I had them approach her deliberately, to make it clearly known that your mother also had a hand in this.”

Having said that much, Eric rose from his chair and pulled the bell cord.

“The reason I announced today that my mind had returned is to make it look as though I had no connection to this matter. Even if you claim my mind was already clear before this, there will be no one to believe you. There will only be people to testify about the inappropriate relationship between you and Mateo.”

Knock knock.

“Come in.”

A blonde maid who had occasionally helped bathe Eric entered.

“You called.”

“You do not have to hide anymore. Pleased, are you not? Tonight I will permit you to sleep at my side.”

“Your Highness, I am so happy.”

Saying that, the maid smiled brightly and nestled into Eric’s arms.

“What are you doing? Are you not leaving? Do not tell me you intend to watch from there.”

Unable to bear Eric’s insult, Leila glared at him with murder in her eyes.

“Ha, still that look in your eyes. Do you not understand what is happening? You were fooled by me in this house for nearly two years. There is not a single person on your side here!”

Leila closed her eyes.

Memories of the time she had spent clinging to his side, struggling alongside the Empress, came back to her.

She had spooned soup into his mouth countless times, massaged his body and turned him over, watching carefully so he would not develop bedsores.

All of that was a lie.

Leila rose from her chair and walked out of the room.

She showed not the slightest trace of fear, and did not unleash her fury with her whole body.

But before leaving Eric’s room, Leila left just one word.

“Do not forget. The debt I owed you has already been repaid many times over.”

❀❀❀

After that day, the Anderson residence ran as though divided into east and west wings.

Leila separately hired people to work in the east wing for the time being, and the Anderson comital family also moved hurriedly into the east wing side.

“I want to claim annulment of the marriage.”

Leila said that to Count Anderson.

“Many people know I was the former Crown Princess, but we never actually spent our wedding night together.”

“They will not easily acknowledge it. On another note, they are frightening people. They are saying they had nothing to do with this matter and have occupied the west wing as though it were their own home.”

“There were servants from the beginning who thought poorly of what I did, and it seems there were quite a few people Count Collet’s family had introduced as well. The responsibility for not managing the servants properly all this time falls heavily on us, Brother.”

“Even so, to think they would bribe our family’s own physician! That bastard Gilette!”

Count Anderson slammed his fist on the desk, unable to contain his fury.

“Please do not do that. You will only hurt yourself, Brother.”

“Everyone says those things because they do not know what state of mind you were in when you made that decision. Why can they not understand that those people survived because you called Father out. Why!”

“I am glad at least you understand.”

Saying that, Leila’s face took on a lonely expression, and he could not help but feel sorry for her.

His younger sister had endured more than most, always told she would live in the imperial palace.

Aside from the one day she had come to the academy festival her brother attended as a small act of rebellion, there had not been a single day she had been lax in her education.

“Brother, if things take a turn for the worse, take refuge with your wife’s family.”

“What are you talking about? What more could possibly happen here? Somehow we need to get Mother out of this first……”

“These are not people who will ever stop here. They will try something else. I will find out what it is and stop it.”

“Leila, it is dangerous, you of all people should leave this house immediately……”

“Miss, those words are quite hurtful.”

Countess Anderson walked into the drawing room where the two of them were and said.

“Sister-in-law.”

“I am regretting right now that I lived too carelessly as the mistress of this house. I had no idea while people like that were coming in. If I had known it would come to this, I would have kept your nanny here. I regret sending her away out of worry that her family would get needlessly tangled up in our affairs.”

“Please do not say that. I know well how busy you have been going around the territory with Brother handling things. Managing the household was my responsibility…… I thought there were no problems. I suppose I wanted to believe that.”

Before she knew it, tears had gathered in Leila’s eyes.

“Caring for Eric was hard, but I thought as long as it was only me suffering, that was enough…… I thought I had taken something from these people, so I should live with a spirit of atonement.”

“Leila, that is not something you should have to bear……”

“You are right, I betrayed everyone and helped the current Emperor and Empress. So I thought it was only fitting to receive this kind of punishment.”

“Miss……”

“It was partly my own desire, but it was also a choice made with the Empire’s people in mind. At the time, I was still the Crown Princess. I wanted to protect the countless people who would be in the capital, even if it meant doing it that way. So I have no regrets.”

Leila wiped her tears and said it firmly.

“And I will not simply take this lying down.”

❀❀❀

“Just give me sons. I will let everyone go to the imperial palace.”

At the outrageous sounds coming from the west wing, the former Empress plugged her ears as best she could and had no intention of leaving her room.

When she first heard from Eric that he had deliberately pretended to be unable to move for nearly two years and had even deceived her to keep Leila from finding out, she had wondered whether the person in front of her was truly her son.

Before she could properly demand an explanation for how he had even thought to deceive her like that, the maids working in the west wing came in and began openly clinging to Eric.

When she expressed her anger and asked what this was, Eric turned around and demanded to know why she was raising her voice at him.

“Should I not have an heir before returning to the imperial palace, to have nothing to worry about? I hear that Selina creature is pregnant. I cannot lose.”

From his attitude, which had not a shred of dignity, and his outrageous words, the former Empress understood she could not stop him.

And a few more days passed, and her meals began to change.

“Wh, what is this? How can a single bowl of soup be all there is?”

“The east wing has cut off the west wing’s allowance, so we are struggling to afford even one meal. His Highness said he would go and demand an explanation today, so please wait just a little, Your Majesty the Empress.”

Watching the maid leave with nothing but a bowl of soup in an irritated voice, the former Empress thought to herself.

Things were going very wrong.

❀❀❀

“Are you planning to starve me to death now? Is that it? Did you think I could do nothing without your support? Well?”

Eric, his clothes disheveled, strode toward the east wing looking like a wild animal, and maids attached themselves to him one by one, dressing him as he walked.

“Your Highness, you must speak to them properly. That wretched butler says he will not give us a single coin, so we could not buy food.”

“It is food that will soon nourish the imperial princes in our bellies. We cannot eat just anything, can we?”

“Right, wait for me. I will sort it out right away.”

As Eric crossed into the east wing, servants stepped forward to block his path.

“You may not enter.”

“Who do you think you are blocking! Do you know who this person is!”

The west wing’s servants pushed back and matched them.

“Blocking the meals of people who are about to return to the imperial palace. It seems everyone here has more than one life to spare!”

“Move out of the way at once!”

He shoved through forcefully and the path to the east wing opened.

“Leila Anderson! Come out right now! This will not do. From now on, you will live with me in the west wing. That way these people will not cut off the food allowance.”

Even with this commotion, neither Leila nor Count Anderson and his wife appeared.

Eric strode further into the east wing and said, “Ha, do you think this changes anything? Do you need your mother to die before you come to your senses?”

Eric grabbed a lantern hanging in the corridor and threw it, and the sound of it shattering rang out.

“Come out now, Leila Anderson!”

“I……”

A man’s voice rang out, one that should not have been there, and Eric froze on the spot and began to break into a cold sweat.

“Even when I heard the reports, I doubted my own ears.”

“Your Majesty, I am deeply sorry for showing you such a sight.”

Count Anderson bowed his head beside him and said.

“But my younger sister has not been able to sleep properly for a single night because of that scoundrel’s harassment. Until now, my younger sister was never commended for her military contributions for the information she provided to the Grand Duke’s forces. I believed this matter needed to be set right.”

“Indeed, Count Anderson. Why have you been tolerating such tyranny? Letting someone who dreams of treason live comfortably in this house. Did you want to be dragged down and killed along with them?”

“They kept insisting that because my younger sister was the former Crown Princess, she had to fulfill that responsibility to the end. She is my precious younger sister. Please understand, Your Majesty.”

Eric slowly turned around.

“Long time no see, cousin. It seems you have finally come to your senses.”

“You, you little, how dare you take my throne……”

“Stop.”

Eric’s body froze in place just as he was about to lunge at Zenus.

“Attention.”

Eric snapped to attention and glared at Zenus with murder in his eyes, shouting, “I will kill you!”

Zenus noticed the people around him who had involuntarily snapped to attention without realizing it, gave a faint smile, and said to Eric, “Eric Constantinus Gable, go to the drawing room, kneel, and press your forehead to the floor. You will hear the full details from someone else.”

❀❀❀

“I told you so clearly that I wanted to go!”

Selina punched the cushion and said in an irritated voice.

“You must not, Your Majesty. You cannot move about carelessly right now.”

“That is right. If something bad were to happen there, it would be terrible.”

“Do not say such ominous things, stop it!”

Selina’s expression did not soften as she looked at the two ladies-in-waiting making things even more flustered.

“I wanted to see Leila too.”

“Lord Fezel said it would be better not to see her right now. See her later, once things have improved.”

“It is my fault. I did not know Leila was living through such hardship inside there. If I had known it would come to this, I should have just disguised Leila as my lady-in-waiting and let her stay in the capital.”

Changing her status would have been entirely possible.

Sending her as an adopted daughter to another household and erasing her name from the imperial register would have been enough.

But that had not been done.

It was because Leila had wanted it that way.

“She seemed close with her brother. She seemed close with her mother too. I was naive to believe the two of them being there would be enough.”

“Please stop blaming yourself, Your Majesty. You are tearing up again.”

“Lately I keep crying and getting angry.”

Selina, who had not been prone to emotional swings, felt herself changing little by little after the pregnancy.

“They say everyone changes like that when they are with child.”

“How remarkable. It must be the process of becoming a mother.”

Selina calmed herself a little and wiped her tears with a handkerchief.

“When I heard that Eric had come to his senses, I wanted to have a proper talk with that person at least once. Even when things came to this, because his mind was elsewhere, I could not say what I needed to say.”

“That is why everyone tried to stop you.”

“That person…… there is no telling what terrible thing he might do to Your Majesty.”

“If he comes at me roughly, I will not stand for it either. It is just that he is also an old friend to me. I felt there was a need to talk at least once.”

“A friend, Your Majesty.”

Nora said it while placing a warm health tea before Selina.

“There are times of closeness and times of distance, but just one thing. A friend is someone who always wishes the other person well, no matter when. I wonder whether that person thinks of Your Majesty that way.”

“True. He is someone who would cause trouble in all sorts of ways if things became entangled. Especially now, when they say he has his eye on the throne.”

Whether the tea was bitter or her mood was bitter, a bitter taste lingered throughout, and Selina set her cup down on the table.

❀❀❀

“I am truly without excuse.”

The former Empress turned her eyes away from Eric, who was pressing his forehead to the floor in the drawing room, and pleaded with Zenus.

“Zenus, I truly did not know. I never dreamed in my sleep that he would be up and about like that, fully recovered. And to think he schemed something so enormous. That wicked Count Collet must have bewitched my son. There is no other explanation……”

“Aunt.”

Zenus’s heavy voice resonated through the drawing room, and she fell silent, then soon began to shed tears.

“That stubborn child made up his mind to deceive even me, his own mother. How could I have known? Leila and I did nothing but care for him with all our hearts. That is the truth.”

Count Anderson, watching her alongside Zenus, spoke first.

“I make a plea to the former Empress. Would you be willing to acknowledge the annulment of Leila’s marriage, even now?”

If the marriage were annulled, the former Empress and Eric would naturally have to leave this house.

The Cherny family had ceased to exist three years ago, and they could not return to the imperial palace, so without securing even a small cottage somewhere, the two of them would have nowhere to stretch out and sleep.

“No, I cannot. That I cannot allow. Leila, I will beg like this. Please, please, not the annulment of the marriage, Leila.”

The former Empress grabbed the hem of Leila’s dress and clung to it, regardless of who was watching.

“Leila, please. Like it or not, he is your husband. You are already a woman married to Eric. And yet you speak of annulment.”

“I will ask the former Empress. On what grounds do you say I am that person’s wife?”

“Leila……”

“Ha! The nerve of this! Hey, do you think there is anyone in the Empire who does not know you are my wife? Where do you get off saying something like that?”

Eric interjected with his forehead still pressed to the floor.

“Eric, you keep quiet. Lady Anderson, let me hear from you. Is there a reason you are claiming annulment rather than divorce?”