“Is Bell in her room? I need to check on her.”

Nigel, looking up at the stairs, held Marienne back.

“Your Highness.”

“Duke Bernac!”

The Imperial Princess, gripping the handrail, excitedly hurried down the stairs. The knights parted to make way.

Theo quietly elbowed Hector in the solar plexus as he kept his head tilted defiantly until the end.

The Imperial Princess, with her faded blonde hair, flour-white skin, plump red lips, and deep blue eyes, approached Nigel as gracefully as if walking on water.

“I bow before Your Highness, the noble star of Grencia.”

Nigel placed his right hand over his heart and bowed.

The Imperial Princess responded with a slight bow and extended her hand to him with a radiant smile.

Nigel quietly looked down at it, then took her hand and touched it to his forehead in respect before releasing it.

It was a greeting more suited for a mentor than between young noble men and women.

The corners of the Imperial Princess’s upturned lips fell.

As Nigel slowly raised his expressionless eyes, the Imperial Princess withdrew her hand.

“It’s been a while, Duke.”

Nigel, quite irreverently, remained silent and quietly gazed down at the Imperial Princess.

The knights, well aware that this was their lord’s anger about to explode, had to break into a cold sweat.

“I missed you. I was upset hearing that you never came to the imperial palace and only went to battlefields for the empire. Have you been well?”

“Your Highness, this is my beloved, Marienne Rose.”

Marienne’s face turned pale as she had been waiting with her hand on her chest and knee bent, waiting for the Imperial Princess to turn around.

With the long journey and last night’s events, Marienne’s physical condition was terrible.

Supporting herself on trembling knees, Marienne greeted the Imperial Princess.

“Marienne Rose of Louer, I bow before Your Highness, the precious star of the Empire.”

The Imperial Princess clasped her hands together and lifted her chin. Then she returned the greeting with a haughty blink of her eyelids.

Marienne straightened up and looked at the Imperial Princess, who was called the most noble lady in the empire.

Unlike herself with her sweat-soaked face, dusty dress, and leaves stuck in her curly hair, the Imperial Princess was perfect like a doll crafted by god.

To boldly call herself his beloved before such a person…

They agreed their false relationship must not be discovered by the Emperor. That must be why.

The Imperial Princess clenched her molars as she looked Marienne up and down, struggling to hold back her laughter that threatened to burst out crudely.

What a vulgar and pathetic wench.

To think she had been anxious about competing with this…

Has the Duke gone mad, avoiding social circles and only rushing to bloody battlefields?

Or perhaps he was blinded by the cheap warmth of army tents.

But it doesn’t matter.

The Duke isn’t one who can’t tell pearls from pebbles, flowers from weeds.

Just then, Marienne, who had been standing behind Nigel, began to sway. Her eyelids fluttered weakly.

Hector, who had been watching anxiously, rushed forward and caught the falling Marienne in his arms.

“She seems to have fainted. My lord, I’ll take her inside.”

Nigel grabbed Hector’s arm as he tried to leave.

Gone was the quiet man from before — his fierce eyes looked ready to burn through Hector’s neck.

The Imperial Princess stepped between them.

“Duke, I have so much to tell you. Before going to Rockshield, perhaps some tea……”

Completely ignoring the Imperial Princess, Nigel called for his vice commander.

“Benwick, take her to my room.”

The tactless vice commander looked back and forth between the Imperial Princess with her hardened expression and Marienne in Hector’s arms.

“Whom do you mean……”

Nigel snapped at the middle-aged man who was looking perplexed.

“My woman!”

“Ah! Oh, yes! My lord!”

Benwick took Marienne from Hector and went up to the second floor.

Hector, now awkward, rubbed the back of his neck and retreated.

“Duke, will you treat me so coldly?”

Without taking his eyes off Benwick carrying Marienne, Nigel spoke while fixing his gaze on the closing door of the second-floor room.

“Your Highness should apologize first.”

Elizabeth’s eyebrows rose at his emotionless tone.

“Apologize? Who to whom?”

Only after Benwick came out of the room did Nigel lower his eyes to the Imperial Princess.

“Have you forgotten your rudeness? Were you always this dull? The years……”

Nigel deliberately trailed off as he blatantly looked the Imperial Princess up and down.

“The years have been unkind to you too, Your Highness. I understand, but I must hear an apology. As you can see, I’ve become someone who won’t tolerate even weathered storms.”

“Duke.”

Theo herded the knights to their respective rooms. Judging by their lord’s expression, it would be better for them to disappear for the sake of the Imperial Princess’s pride.

Elizabeth clenched her fists and lifted her chin.

The smile on her lips, trained over many years, wouldn’t easily crumble.

“You should apologize to me. You tormented me without a single letter for all those years. And at the end of that wait, you humiliate me by making me face a common peasant wench. What should I apologize for to such a heartless man like you? When even holding back tears is difficult now!”

Nigel’s eyebrows twitched at the offensive word.

“Common peasant, you say?”

“Yes. Duke, don’t try to deny it. I know everything.”

“She is my chosen woman.”

Nigel warned as he looked down at the Imperial Princess who was biting the inside of her cheek.

“Despising what’s mine is the same as looking down on me. Any insult to my woman is a debt I must repay. So remember this. If you don’t want to make an enemy of Bernac, you should be careful.”

The Imperial Princess’s blue eyes shook violently as they widened.

“You dare insult me with someone like a bella!”

Nigel smirked as he watched tears well up in the Imperial Princess’s eyes.

“Should I not?”

“Nigel!”

The Imperial Princess poured out her heartfelt emotions to the arrogant Nigel.

“I waited for you! For countless days! But you’ve changed. Where are the gentle smiles and gazes we shared in our childhood? Look carefully at the woman before you! At this moment, I’m not the Empire’s star but a pitiful woman blinded by jealousy.”

“What times are you talking about? When we were ten? Twelve? Or even earlier when we were snot-nosed kids? I’ll speak plainly. All Your Highness can get from me is the oath of a faithful knight to lead the imperial army, nothing more.”

“Duke, I am the Empire’s brightest star. There’s nothing I cannot have, nothing I cannot possess.”

Nigel stepped close to Elizabeth’s face and threatened.

“Why can’t you understand, Elizabeth. I hate you.”

The Imperial Princess raised her hand to caress Nigel’s rough jaw.

“I don’t care about your feelings. Only my desire to possess you matters.”

Nigel laughed bitterly as he observed the Imperial Princess’s unmasked true face.

His stomach churned at the gleam in the woman’s eyes, and the thick perfume made him want to retch.

Everything about the woman standing before him was disgusting.

Nigel thought he might even be willing to destroy the imperial family if this woman’s shamelessness came from her petty power, not even trying to hide her monstrous nature.

He removed the Imperial Princess’s slender arm. Then, as if unwilling to exchange any more words, he left her and headed up to the second floor.

“Duke, I’m going to Rockshield. We’ll meet again there.”

The Imperial Princess spoke to Nigel as he climbed the stairs, but he didn’t stop.

When he opened the door, Marienne’s scent rushed in.

He closed the door and closed his eyes tightly before opening them again. It felt like he could breathe again. His taut nerves finally relaxed.

He picked up a handkerchief from the floor, dusted it off, and put it in the sewing basket. Then he sat in the chair beside the bed.

Her sleeping face was pale.

She had been the one who marveled at every scenery they saw, blending into it without showing any sign of fatigue.

He gently wiped the cold sweat from her forehead. Marienne’s brow furrowed.

Nigel leaned forward and pressed his lips to it. The deep scent of her skin immediately made his heart flutter.

He kissed her thin eyelids, her temples, her soft cheeks, and her slightly parted lips.

What would happen if he named this throbbing feeling, if he answered this aching excitement?

He would probably lose many things.

The life he had lived desperately to uphold his father’s will would lose its meaning, and ultimately, he would become the laughingstock of society and remain a disgrace to the family.

Choosing this woman would be like throwing away everything he had painfully protected.

So he must keep it as a contractual relationship.

Nigel lifted her hand and pressed his lips to her fingers.

Marienne had said she would leave when the contract ended. Nigel ignored why those once-harmless words now made him shudder. He didn’t want to know.