As soon as their eyes met, a tense atmosphere thickened, neither side willing to back down even an inch.

“You should’ve just said something the moment it happened! That way, I could’ve at least handled it!”

“……”

“Do you think I’m acting like this just because you slapped some country bumpkin?”

The Count’s voice dripped with resentment, escaping through clenched teeth.

“Ah…”

Kyla, who clearly felt a pang of guilt, quietly lowered her head.

“I’m sorry. I’ll accept the punishment.”

“Y-You…!”

The Count pointed a trembling finger at his daughter, utterly flabbergasted, likely from rising blood pressure.

She simply gave a calm, practiced bow and walked away without hesitation. Then, for days, she locked herself in her room and didn’t set foot outside.

“Tell them I’m skipping meals too.”

Kyla said this as she cheerfully ate the buttery, oven-roasted chicken.

“And that I won’t even drink water.”

“That’s… a bit extreme, isn’t it?”

“Last time, I nearly starved to death. So believe me, they’ll fall for it. I just take turns. One time it’s real, the next time it’s fake.”

Then, as if the dry chicken got stuck in her throat, she gulped down some nearby tea.

Watching her silently, the nanny, Isabelle, let out a long sigh and nodded as if she understood.

Shortly after leaving the room, she went to the Count with the old butler, apparently deciding she wouldn’t let Kyla go down alone.

“My lord, it’s already been two weeks. At this rate, the young lady’s life is truly at risk!”

“Please, forgive her!”

She had gone into punishment willingly. But now the servants were left to plead and beg the Count, saying she refused to come out until she was forgiven.

“What if this time it’s real…”

The Count sighed and covered his eyes with one hand, clearly troubled.

“…Summon Princess Everett tomorrow. If her friend visits, she’ll at least show her face.”

***

The next morning, Princess Everett showed up unannounced and without a letter.

Like a true royal, she sat upright at the guest table with perfect posture, sipping her tea with an air of elegance. Across the table, the opposite chair scraped loudly and harshly as someone sat with absolutely no grace.

“Did my father call you over?”

Kyla flopped into the seat across from her friend, crossing her legs with an easy grin. The blonde princess replied softly in kind.

“Of course. You think I came here on my own?”

“Too bad the timing sucks. If you’d come two days later, I could’ve skipped the ball too.”

What a shame. But still, this much was a win.

The fact that her father had resorted to calling her friend just to get her out of her room — that alone meant Kyla had won the power struggle.

To celebrate her little victory, Kyla plucked a green grape from the plate and popped it into her mouth. As she crushed it with her tongue, a fresh tang spread across her taste buds.

“You look pretty pleased.”

Everett rested her chin in her hand as she studied Kyla.

“And why shouldn’t I be? It’s been win after win lately. Oh, did you hear the rumor that I lit a fire under your brother’s marriage proposal?”

“W-What?!”

Startled, Everett nearly choked and burst into a coughing fit.

“Wait, y-you mean that was… you?”

Face now as red as a strawberry, she drank her tea to calm down and asked again, more composed but still shocked.

“That was you?!”

Her eyes were wide, and even the tip of her nose flushed in disbelief.

‘What the heck?’

Watching her friend’s reaction, Kyla began to feel a bit weird.

Gellensid Groan Blanverque.

Eighth son of the King of Blanverque and Everett’s older brother.

Even hearing his name was annoying. Since the moment they both debuted in society, he and Kyla had been seen as a matched set.

To put it plainly: they were cut from the same cloth — and that cloth was chaos.

Society’s ticking time bombs.

Everyone believed that if either of them ended up marrying a normal person, that poor soul’s life would be ruined. So naturally, the “solution” was to tie the two of them together.

And thus, they were engaged.

“I absolutely refuse!”

Of course, Kyla furiously rejected it.

But her rejection was, in turn, rejected.

“Since I’m your future husband, you’d better start treating me with the respect I deserve. You can even start practicing how to serve me at night.”

Gellensid wasn’t just obnoxious — he was a lecher, too. His character was absolute garbage.

Despite being just the son of a dancer, the eighth prince acted like he was king, bullying his weaker siblings — including Everett.

She was one of his many victims. A complete weakling in his eyes.

After losing her mother at a young age, Everett had been left alone in the cold palace with no nanny to care for her.

The King had twenty-two concubines at the time. Among them, only five princes and nine princesses had survived — so there was no shortage of children.

The King didn’t care who bullied whom. And in his indifference, Gellensid’s cruelty only grew.

“Waaah! Hic, sob…”

Back then, the one who saved the crying Everett was none other than Kyla Bailey.

“What’s there to cry about over some stupid jerk? Geez. Quit crying and get even!”

In response to Everett’s question about how she could do that, the next day, Kyla proved her words by kicking Gellensid’s butt, sending him flying into the lake.

“You really… did exactly the same thing…”

Everett, who had always suffered in silence, looked at Kyla like she was a heroic knight.

“So cool…”

A sparkle lit up the young princess’s chestnut-colored eyes. It was the fateful meeting of a legendary troublemaker and an innocent princess.

From that moment on, the two conspired together to endlessly torment Gellensid.

Everett, with her pure and delicate face, always supported Kyla’s wicked antics. But now…

“Why are you so surprised?”

Their uneasy gazes met in the air.

Everett swallowed hard and steadied her voice.

“Um, they say Gellensid’s leg is…”

As soon as Kyla heard what had happened, her face went pale.

***

That afternoon, three men with a white lion flag stood in front of the castle walls. The flag, carried on horseback, symbolized a royal envoy.

“Stop right there!”

The guards tried to block their way, but it was useless.

Knights wearing black helmets quickly subdued the guards and forced their way in.

The king had lost the last war.

The nobles divided the territories among themselves, and although they were formally bound as one nation, Count Bailey’s territory was distinctly decentralized.

No matter how much of a king one was, one could not invade recklessly.

“Cease this at once!”

The furious Count came out in his armor and sword from the war, ready to stab the knights at any moment.

Even the servants watching nearby cast anxious glances at the Count, but the tall knight in the middle showed no sign of backing down.

A deep voice slowly flowed from within the black helmet.

“I have come to see Lady Bailey.”

“You didn’t just come to see her, did you?”

The count scowled deeply and pointed his sword at the knight’s neck.

“Gasp!”

From a distance, maid Mary gasped and covered her mouth. Then she ran upstairs—to inform her lady.

“My lady…!”

But Kyla wasn’t in her room.

“What’s going on?”

Climbing the stairs, the nanny encountered the anxious maid and grabbed her.

“There’s trouble! The white lion has come and is demanding the young lady be handed over…!”

Oh no. The moment they’d been dreading had finally arrived.

The nanny took a deep breath, trying hard to stay calm. She lifted her chin and quickly walked toward the back door.

And, of course—there was Kyla with her travel bag.

“Where are you going?”

Startled, Kyla raised a finger to her lips. 

Shhh.

The nanny understood what that meant and shook her head desperately.

“Please, my lady. Don’t do this. We’ll all die.”

“Father will be fine.”

“He might not be this time.”

“Shh, calm down. I said it’s fine.”

The nanny’s voice grew more frantic.

“They say Gellensid’s leg has been crippled!”

“Oh dear.”

Kyla didn’t seem particularly surprised.

“You knew?”

Technically, yes—she found out earlier today when Everett came and gave her a heads-up.

She stepped toward the nervous nanny, placed her hands on her shoulders, and looked her squarely in the eyes.

“Isabelle. Calm down and look at me. If I go to Gellensid now and beg, do you think anything will get better? This is who I am.”

With a serious expression, she made a slicing motion across her neck—dead woman walking.

“If I die, Father will surely go to war. And that’s when everyone really dies.”

“You are incredibly shameless! This is all—”

“Yes. It’s all my fault.”

She put on a face of genuine regret. But honestly? She didn’t feel sorry at all.

He’d had it coming.

‘He put poison in my teacup and waited for me to drink it.’

Gellensid had crossed the line. After she rejected his proposal, he tried to kill her.

If she hadn’t used her ability to secretly test the tea for poison every time, she really might have died.

And now what?

‘Crippled leg?’

Yeah, right. He was probably just shocked. At worst, his foot got burned—maybe a bit badly—but the servants had quickly poured tea all over it, so it couldn’t have been that bad.

‘I even watched the fire almost go out before I left.’

But then…

“Huh?”

The tea?

Come to think of it—that tea was poisoned.

‘Aha. So they poured poison on his burns?’

“Oh, Gellensid.”

Now she felt almost sorry—for him and his stupid attendants.

‘Tsk, tsk…’

But for now, she had to run.

‘Retreat for now.’

Kyla shook off the nanny and bolted across the garden with her travel bag. From afar, she could hear voices calling for her.

“My lady! Where are you, my lady?!”

She had to hide where no one would ever find her.

She made her way into the deep forest beyond the garden.

There stood a massive, ancient tree—so large it would take five grown men linking arms to surround it.

‘Back in the day, no one ever found me when I hid here.’

With a confident smile, Kyla placed her travel bag inside the cozy hollow of the tree and climbed in. Wrapping a blanket around her legs, she leaned back to rest.

“Found you.”

“Mother of—!”

Kyla jumped out of her skin.