“I won’t let this slide.”

Ines, who had returned to the Poel Ducal Residence, shut herself in her room and cried. Memories that would remain a lifelong shame, which she couldn’t tell anyone about, resurfaced.

Frustrated by the Crown Prince, who seemed not to accept her at all, she ended up doing something reckless.

She bribed the servant attending the Crown Prince with gold and sneaked into his bedroom.

Though she knew it was foolish, a part of her harbored hope.

Unlike Lou Dronay, who was arrogant, capricious, and constantly involved in scandals with other men, disregarding her noblewoman’s honor, Ines had confidence that she could devote herself to the Crown Prince alone for her entire life.

She was convinced that if the Crown Prince acknowledged her love, they would become the happiest couple in the world.

She didn’t know how much time had passed.

Finally, the door opened.

The Crown Prince, upon entering the bedroom, immediately stopped when he saw her in her undergarments.

Ines, unable to lift her head from the mix of shame, worry, anticipation, and subtle excitement, approached him with her head lowered.

“Your Highness.”

When she called him shyly, the Crown Prince took off his jacket and covered her bare shoulders.

“I thought you were quite smart, but it seems I was mistaken.”

“I won’t ask for your affection. Just let me stay by your side, Your Highness.”

“Considering your father’s over thirty years of loyalty to the imperial family, I’ll forgive you this once. But there won’t be a second time, Ines.”

He then gently but firmly admonished her.

Even then, she clung to a sliver of hope. She misunderstood his polite refusal as consideration to protect her noblewoman’s honor.

However, when she mustered the courage to look at the Crown Prince’s face, she was shocked.

The only emotions on his elegant face were contempt and disgust. He wouldn’t look at street filth with such eyes.

Soon, the Crown Prince grabbed her shoulder mercilessly and pulled her out.

Just before being completely thrown out, in her shame and despair, she blurted out a foolish question.

“If, if I were Lou Dronay, would you have done this…?”

At her words, the Crown Prince smirked.

“If you were her, that would be unfortunate in its own way. From the moment you walked in on your own, you’d never leave this place again.”

Ines shuddered at the dark obsession emanating from his whole body.

But she couldn’t bear to be thrown out so miserably after coming this far. Holding back the tears that were about to spill, she resolutely answered.

“I don’t mind. If I can hold onto Your Highness, I’d be fine being locked up forever.”

“But you’re not Lou. So stop these foolish thoughts. I don’t want to lay a hand on the daughter of a loyal subject. In any way.”

The Crown Prince strengthened his grip on her shoulder. It hurt, like her shoulder was dislocating. His fierce grip warned that this was not a mere threat.

Finally, she came to her senses and began to tremble with pain and fear.

Her tearful, frightened eyes were quite pitiful, but they were far from enough to evoke the Crown Prince’s sympathy.

“If you quietly go back, I promise neither your honor nor your family’s will be tarnished.”

If she had been worried about her honor being tainted, she wouldn’t have come this far in the first place. She wanted to say that. She would have, if her lips hadn’t stuck together as if glued.

The Crown Prince finally threw out the statue-like Ines without mercy.

As she stared at the firmly closed door, hatred sprouted in her heart. But the object of that hatred was not the Crown Prince.

Ines hated Lou, who had stolen the Crown Prince’s heart, more than the Crown Prince who had rejected her.

Why did she become the protagonist of the oracle?

Three months had passed since the oracle was given. As the days went by, the atmosphere in the capital grew more chaotic, but Lou had yet to prove any abilities.

Every time she saw Lou coming and going from the palace under the pretext of the oracle, disgust welled up inside her.

Today was no different.

Even though she was no longer the Crown Prince’s fiancée, Lou received his escort as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

The way the Crown Prince treated Lou tore Ines’s heart to shreds.

What was so pretty about that indifferent face? The Crown Prince could hardly take his eyes off Lou.

Ines, being in love, knew better than anyone what that look meant.

Nevertheless, she pleaded with Lou. She didn’t feel it was degrading. She could abandon her pride as long as she could stand by the Crown Prince’s side. But Lou Dronay responded to her earnest plea with mockery.

“I won’t forgive you…”

Her hatred grew, feeding on a sense of defeat and rage. An intense emotion she had never felt before burned Ines’s heart black.

A venomous look appeared on Ines’s usually gentle face.

***

A few days after meeting Ines. News came that Ines Poel had been bedridden due to an unexpected accident.

“Ines? What happened to her?”

“I don’t know the details, but it seems she was severely injured. Even though the Poel family is annoying, it’s still worrying to hear that a young girl got hurt.”

Mother, who brought the news, shook her head with a sympathetic expression.

I felt uneasy as well. The last time I saw Ines, she had looked anything but normal.

“It must be a mere coincidence.”

I soon forgot about it. Until I met Michalis.

At night, I heard a knock on the window.

Thinking it was Janet, I opened the window without much suspicion.

“How have you been?”

A pale, handsome man with a red bat on his shoulder sat on the windowsill, smiling. His unusually sharp fangs were visible.

“Oh, you scared me! What’s the matter, Michalis?”

“I had an unsettling feeling. I thought it would be best to tell you.”

He entered my room with elegant movements.

“What is it? Did some big shot show up that even you can’t handle?”

“That’s not it. Someone summoned me recently. It was a human living in this city.”

“What? Who’s crazy enough to do that?”

There were always lunatics wanting to make contracts with non-human entities, but transcendent beings weren’t easily accessible.

Even among the court mages, no one had managed to make a contract with a transcendent being for generations.

More precisely, it wasn’t that they couldn’t but that they didn’t.

Summoning a transcendent being with malice towards humans would only bring disaster.

“It wasn’t a lunatic. It was a woman.”

“That’s not the point. Why did you respond to the summoning in the first place?”

“I was bored and it was nearby. Besides, her wish was too interesting to resist.”

Michalis smiled broadly, like a child who had found a fascinating toy.

‘This guy isn’t normal either…’

I looked at Michalis suspiciously and asked.

“You didn’t make a contract, did you?”

“Of course, considering our friendship, I refused. She asked me to kill Lou Dronay.”

“What? Me? She asked to kill me?”

I was stunned to hear my name suddenly mentioned.

I had made many enemies here and there. But I hadn’t committed any crimes worthy of death.

‘Who could it be?’

Who would go so far as to summon a vampire lord to commission a murder?

Only one person came to mind.

“Think carefully. It might have seemed like a woman, but it wasn’t really a woman. Was the person excessively tall with broad shoulders and an Adam’s apple?”

“Do you think I can’t tell the difference between a man and a woman at my age?”

“With beauty that transcends gender, it’s easy to get confused. Was the summoner’s name Pinion Dias Kebrenia?”

“Oh. You broke off your engagement with the Crown Prince, and it seems things are worse than I imagined. The way you instantly named him.”

“So it was that bastard. He’s always pretending to be innocent while backstabbing. That human trash!”

I slammed the table in anger.

Trying to do the same thing even after turning back time. People really don’t change.

“You’re wrong. No matter how much the Crown Prince is called the flower of this era’s social scene, he is still undeniably a man. Besides, I already know what he looks like.”

‘What, is she really a woman?’

I suddenly felt wronged. Just because I pulled some hair and splashed some tea, do I deserve to be threatened with murder?

‘Wait a minute.’

The terrifying face of Ines from a few days ago flashed through my mind.

“Could it be, Ines Poel…?”

“I think that was roughly the name. A girl with brown hair who looked quite innocent.”

I forgot my anger and stared blankly at Michalis.

Michalis, seeing my dumbfounded face, chuckled.

But I was too shocked to even feel indignant.

I slowly ran my fingers through my hair, organizing the situation I had just heard.

Ines had summoned Michalis to commission my murder.