Hearing her past embarrassing behavior from Arsen’s mouth made Lydia feel utterly mortified.

‘Demanding physical contact at every opportunity.’

Yes, that’s right. She had heard somewhere that relationships between men and women deepen with more skin contact.

Especially since men were supposedly vulnerable to such seduction, and Richard was at a passionate age at the time.

So Lydia demanded skinship from Richard, asking him to hug her, hold her hand, kiss her.

At first, she only asked when they were alone, but once she started worrying about Giselle, she acted spoiled anytime.

Whenever they met, she would throw herself into Richard’s arms, link arms with him, and refuse to leave without a kiss.

Richard complied with Lydia to avoid troublesome situations, but that didn’t last long.

One day, he started rejecting her, irritably saying she was bothering him when he was busy.

And then he got Giselle pregnant before marriage? That bastard.

Anyway, by acting without considering others’ eyes, Lydia had created such an embarrassing past.

‘It’s Richard’s fault. Yes, this is all Richard’s fault.’

Her barging into his office without knocking was Richard’s fault too.

What choice did she have when he wouldn’t meet her? Her memories drifted to the night she secretly entered Richard’s bedroom.

That night, Lydia intended to make Richard completely hers. If it took too long to win his heart, she would at least have his body.

Steeling her resolve, Lydia snuck into Richard’s room in her nightwear.

Since she would obviously be caught entering through doors or windows, Lydia used the Marquis’s mansion’s secret passage to enter Richard’s room.

But around that time, there was some intelligence about an assassination attempt on Richard.

Richard mistook Lydia, who was tiptoeing toward him, for an assassin and pointed his sword at her.

The knights, including Arsen who was hiding to protect Richard, rushed in when they heard the wine glass Richard broke as a signal.

However, what they found was Lydia trembling in her nightwear.

Richard lost his words in anger, the knights threw contemptuous looks that said ‘she’s at it again,’ and Devon actually cursed her as a stupid girl.

‘I was stupid.’

That action was not the only stupid thing she did. The most stupid one was the fact that she didn’t abandon Richard then — a man who never once visited Lydia when she locked herself in her room for days, humiliated and hurt.

Anyway, Arsen just had to bring up all those past events.

“Ahem, Sir Arsen, don’t you think that’s a bit excessive?”

Lydia forcefully suppressed her embarrassment.

Because embarrassing memories become truly embarrassing when you start feeling embarrassed about them.

“It’s not excessive.”

“Not excessive? Even if I throw myself at you, enter your bedroom and such?”

“That’s right. To fool my knights, you must do at least that much. They’ve all seen it before — if you act with less intensity, they’ll be suspicious. They’re quite suspicious by nature.”

This was a disaster. Lydia had planned to stop at merely showing affection toward Arsen, not go that far. That was too… excessive.

But listening to Arsen’s words, they made sense. The knights were all witnesses to Lydia’s dark history.

To fool such people, she needed to do more than before, not less.

If she couldn’t fool the relatively friendly knights, how could she fool Devon? What about Richard who would dig thoroughly? Or the perceptive Giselle?

“Didn’t I tell you when we started this operation? If we’re doing this, we must do it properly.”

So that’s what he meant.

Lydia realized belatedly. If she had known this would happen, she would have devised a different operation, but it was too late now.

Still, it wasn’t a difficult task, was it? She just had to endure a little embarrassment.

“Alright.”

Having done it once, how hard could it be to do it twice? Lydia was ready.

“Brace yourself, Sir. From today, my seduction will intensify.”

Lydia turned and left swiftly, saying she would come back with a new operation plan. Her swaying pink hair scattered a sweet fragrance.

When the office door closed with a thud, Arsen buried his face in his palms and let out a long sigh.

“Ha.”

Whenever Lydia was involved, Arsen acted like a stranger to himself.

When Lydia asked him for tea but shared conversation with Mallan, when she smiled sweetly asking Kedrick to show her around the borderlands, when Randel tagged along as escort on that trivial picnic.

Back then, he felt like he needed to go out and swing his sword immediately.

Of course, even now he couldn’t sit still, wanting to go out and swing his sword. Not because he was displeased, but because Lydia warning him to prepare for her seduction was too cute.

He felt like he needed to cut something. Arsen took off his jacket and headed to the training ground.

* * *

The Imperial Palace.

Richard finally found some time after days of intense work. Even after the coup ended, he worked tirelessly, holding a simple coronation ceremony and postponing the imperial wedding, trying to stabilize the chaotic political situation.

However, few things went according to his wishes.

As the chaos subsided, the nobles began their power struggle with Richard, scheming how to fulfill their selfish desires.

A young emperor who seized the throne by force. Though the young nobles who supported Richard became the imperial faction, they were still inexperienced cubs lacking both experience and power.

While not unhelpful, they couldn’t be called greatly helpful either.

The older nobles opposing him were cunning snakes with plenty of territory, titles, private armies, and wealth, and Richard grew increasingly tired of fighting meaningless battles with them daily.

“Your Majesty, today is the day for Her Majesty the Empress to receive the physician’s examination.”

“Ah, is that today?”

Just when he finally got to bed early. Richard rubbed his forehead and turned his steps toward the Empress’s palace where Giselle was.

He had promised to be present during the examinations for the baby’s sake, even if they couldn’t meet often.

He briefly regretted making that promise but quickly dismissed the thought.

At least this way he could say he performed his duties as a father when the baby is born.

If Lydia had been the pregnant one, she would have pestered him constantly. In this aspect, Giselle was more suitable as a wife.

But if he had married Lydia, he wouldn’t have had the troublesome task of placating the sulking Marquis Evansi.

“What is Devon doing these days that he doesn’t show his face at the palace?”

“He says he’s nursing the Marquis.”

“What a filial son.”

Despite being convinced his father would die.

Richard, who had been speaking sarcastically, realized he was in no position to mock Devon now.

Marquis Evansi was currently Richard’s biggest headache.

He couldn’t ignore him because the Marquis’s contributions were too great. Ignoring the greatest contributor during the early days of his reign would brand him as an Emperor who didn’t know gratitude and loyalty.

Then who would be loyal to him?

Already, several noble ladies didn’t view Richard favorably for abandoning Lydia and marrying Giselle.

In this situation, there were signs of the noble faction frequenting the Marquis’s residence.

If the Marquis turned his back on Richard in this situation……

It was a situation he didn’t even want to imagine. Meanwhile, Giselle, after visiting the Marquis’s residence, had been doing things to upset the Marquis’s mood for some reason.

‘I thought she was less emotional than Lydia.’

Richard glanced at Baron Bergman following behind him.

He was one of Richard’s few close advisors who, after noticing Richard and Giselle’s relationship, had advised:

‘Marry Lady Lydia and take Miss Giselle as your concubine, Your Majesty. If you say you’ll make Giselle’s child the crown prince, she will accept it.’

Would things have been less complicated if he had followed that advice?

“Do you have something to say? Or is there something on my face?”

When Richard didn’t enter Giselle’s room immediately and stared at his face, Baron Bergman asked while rubbing his cheeks and chin.

Richard patted his shoulder and muttered as he entered the room.

“I think it might have been fine if I had listened to you.”

* * *

Lydia slowly circled the Edis mansion, studying its structure.

Though barging into the office and sneaking into the bedroom might seem simple, it actually required very precise strategy.

Especially in this mansion where wolf-like knights prowled about!

“Priestess Lydia.”

After circling the mansion twice, Maria discovered Lydia and ran over happily.

“Maria, is it okay for you to run?”

Lydia looked worriedly at Maria’s slightly swollen belly.

Maria laughed heartily, saying the baby was strong so it was fine.

At that laughter, Kedrick appeared from somewhere, prowling around. Like a true wolf guarding the mansion.

“Priestess, why have you been circling the mansion since earlier?”

“Ah, I’m trying to understand the mansion’s layout.”

“Why do you need to know the mansion’s layout?”

Maria chimed in curiously.

“Well, since Sir Arsen is busy, I’m looking for routes where we might accidentally meet. He won’t meet me when I just ask.”