The season when winter draws to a close.

Kareina, who had been gazing at the tender leaves sprouting on dry branches, turned her head back into the room.

A servant with an arrogant expression looked down at her, waiting for an answer.

Kareina slowly repeated the words the servant before her had just conveyed.

“His Majesty the Emperor is looking for me. Right this instant, at that.”

Chin raised with a confident attitude, the servant once again conveyed the Emperor’s command.

“Her Majesty the Empress is ordered to come to the Imperial Palace immediately.”

“For what reason am I……”

“You are to come the moment you receive this message.”

At the servant’s rudeness in cutting off her question, Kareina’s silver eyelashes twisted slightly. But that was all.

No one in the room pointed out the servant’s attitude. However, a hint of surprise did settle on the faces of the maids lined up by the door, though this was for a different reason.

“Has His Majesty the Emperor finally awakened?”

When one maid who couldn’t contain her curiosity asked the question, eyes full of interest turned toward the servant. Receiving the gazes of the Tirantus women all at once, the servant straightened his shoulders for no reason.

And in a warm voice quite different from when addressing the Empress, he revealed what he knew.

“Fortunately, Lady Anna. The Sun of the Empire has awakened perfectly fine.”

“Is his body all right? He was unconscious for over a week.”

“The imperial physician is examining him. I came here so I couldn’t confirm the results. But at least he looked robust on the outside.”

“Have they caught the culprit? The one who planted the bomb in the carriage.”

“Not yet, as far as I know. Still, seeing how he ordered the Empress brought to him the moment he woke up……”

As the servant’s words trailed off, the smoothly flowing conversation abruptly cut off.

The eyes of those who had been chattering about the incident that turned the imperial palace upside down suddenly turned toward the Empress.

Kareina tensed the tips of her two hands resting on her knees. Of course, she knew well what those gazes meant.

They were the cold, sharp gazes that Kareina, a perfect outsider, had been receiving constantly since entering the imperial palace.

Especially these past few days.

During the week their Emperor had been unconscious, hovering between life and death. The hostility toward the Empress from a fallen nation had only grown blatantly thicker.

Kareina barely pried open her reluctant lips to answer the sharp stares.

“His Majesty suspects me as the mastermind behind the incident. That’s why he’s ordering me brought to him. To interrogate me about the charges.”

“He didn’t say it like that.”

‘He didn’t say it like that.’ Kareina laughed self-deprecatingly as she mulled over the meaning contained in that sentence.

She knew best how much her husband hated her. In fact, the Raul she knew was someone who would painstakingly fabricate even a nonexistent bombing incident if it meant he could pin charges on her.

Moreover, hadn’t this incident occurred in Niyev, once her homeland but now part of the Empire? The nobles of Tirantus had also been busy generating rumors mentioning the Empress as the mastermind the moment the incident became known.

“You must go now, Your Majesty the Empress.”

The servant, gesturing at the clock on the wall, urged her with irritation.

“…… Fine. Let’s depart.”

With a deep sigh, Kareina rose from her seat. The servant with an obviously annoyed expression and the bright-looking maids followed behind her.

Among the procession, Kareina was the only one trying to appear composed.

A bombing incident. No, terrorism. Wasn’t it clearly attempted m*rder of the Emperor?

Had the Emperor decided to completely crush her with this opportunity? Or even if he couldn’t directly pin charges on her, would he punish her simply because the incident occurred in the Niyev region?

And…… how long would she be locked in the underground dungeon?

The now-familiar rusted iron bars, the ceiling with unidentifiable water dripping down, the cold earthen floor with chill rising directly from it—all of it rummaged through her mind anew.

Her shoulders trembled involuntarily. No matter how brave and composed she pretended to be, no matter how she acted like nothing was wrong, she couldn’t help but be repelled by that dark and damp space.

“Her Majesty the Empress enters!”

Kareina took a deep breath.

A face that had grown slightly thinner in a week, yet still shone most brilliantly in Tirantus, discovered her and gently raised the corners of his mouth.

Surely a cruel sneer mocking prey that had walked into a trap on its own feet…… sneer…… sneer…… was that right? Both corners of his mouth were rising toward his cheekbones in perfect balance?

“What are you doing standing there, Karen.”

Kareina doubted her own ears.

Not just because of the warm voice that could melt even a frozen river in one breath. Though that was surprising too, of course…….

Karen……?

Naturally, the two weren’t on terms to call each other affectionate nicknames. At the unfamiliar address that felt like someone else’s name, Kareina raised her hand and rubbed both eyes.

At that sight, Raul gave a languid smile he had never shown her before. It was an expression as if he were looking at a lover he found so adorable he could die.

With that absurd expression, Raul casually spouted words he would never say if he were in his right mind.

“Come here quickly and let me hold you. You’re so pretty today too, darling.”

Kareina Fair Adrian was an imperial princess of the Niyev Empire, now erased from maps.

Like all empires, Niyev had its glorious days.

Niyev, a pleasant land where milk and honey flowed and warm winds blew. Niyev, a country of beautiful women and handsome young men.

But times changed, and the Empire on the verge of collapse had lost most of its former territory. It was barely maintaining the form of a city-state, having only defended the capital region.

And the one who completely cut off the breath of this failing nation was the current Emperor of Tirantus, Raul Fonnos Tirant.

In a way, Kareina and Raul were mortal enemies.

Nevertheless, the justification for the fallen nation’s princess becoming the Empire’s Empress was concise and clear.

A signal of embracing the Niyev people who had lost their country, and to comfort the Tirantus people exhausted from the long war and promote harmony.

Therefore, while there were many who grumbled implicitly about this lopsided marriage, no one openly opposed it.

However, for harmony and embracing to occur, there first had to be cold punishment of the defeated.

“War criminal Kareina Adrian, kneel!”

A week before the wedding, Kareina, dragged from prison, knelt on both knees before the plaza.

The plaza filled with Tirantus people who had gathered to see the last imperial family member of the enemy nation bow their head before their Emperor. The heat emanating from the fierce crowd burned as hot as the sun overhead.

“Hear this, criminal!”

The executor’s resounding voice pierced through the crowd’s clamor and rang through the air. Holding a long paper, he recited the crimes of the criminal Kareina Adrian one by one.

Each time a charge was added, jeers and cheers erupted simultaneously.

“…… Nevertheless, the Sun of the Empire, taking pity on the last remaining imperial family member of the enemy nation, will pardon her with a heart as vast as the sea,”

Kareina’s head, which had been facing the ground while bound in ropes, lifted for the first time. Her dry pink eyes met directly with Raul sitting on the platform. Backlit by the sun, looking down at the criminal and the people, he certainly exuded the leisure and aloofness befitting a victor.

“Criminal, beg for forgiveness with a joyful heart.”

The excited crowd sent expectant jeers. The booming drum sounds, along with the scorching sunlight, made Kareina’s head dizzy.

With a hazy mind, Kareina raised her body, then slowly folded it back down.

Raul, who had been looking down below the platform with indifferent eyes, opened his mouth. The jeering crowd held their breath and focused all attention on the Emperor’s mouth.

“Though the criminal and the criminal’s homeland inflicted irreparable damage on the Empire. We accept the forgiveness earnestly sought at our feet.”

The imposing voice in a low tone instantly dominated the wide plaza.

“From this moment forward, we pardon all crimes the criminal has committed,”

A suppressed sob escaped from the prostrate Kareina’s lips.

“Just as the Niyev region has become one with the Empire, we proclaim that Kareina Adrian has also been reborn as a Tirantus citizen from today.”

Intoxicated with a sense of victory at witnessing the miserable princess’s humiliation, the masses repeatedly cried out the Emperor’s name. Raising his hand to answer the people’s cheers, Raul looked down at Kareina’s retreating figure as she was dragged away.

Because the marriage was achieved through such a process, it was all too obvious that the Empress would become nothing but a figurehead puppet.

Judging by the Emperor’s attitude, even whether the newly married couple would consummate their marriage was uncertain.

From the reception, the groom was already pulling the daughters of Tirantus’s influential families close and whispering sweet nothings, not to his wife.

Unexpectedly favored, their hearts aflutter, they squinted their eyes and burst into shrill laughter at the Emperor’s every word. Their flushed faces were no less red than the crimson paint on their nails.

“The Empress can’t shake off her provincial air no matter how elaborately she’s decorated with all kinds of jewels, but you’re pretty just as you are.”

At the words whispered loudly as if for her to hear, the last bit of color drained from the bride’s lips. The groom’s assessment was truly unfair.

Despite being the bride who should be the star of the wedding, Kareina’s adornment was excessively plain.

Makeup applied half-heartedly, a bland white dress, a bare neckline—contrasted with the nobles’ daughters’ elaborate attire, it made one confused about who among them was today’s bride.

The Emperor’s description of such a bride as “elaborately decorated with all kinds of jewels” was clearly full of malice.

However, instead of shrinking down, she held her head up stiffly and downed the whiskey she had just filled in one gulp.

As soon as the glass emptied, Kareina frowned, then mercilessly struck the cheek of the maid standing blankly beside her.

“My glass is empty and you’re not filling it immediately—what are you doing?”

“Your, Your Majesty!”

At the new bride’s bold unexpected action, the surrounding air froze instantly.

The giggling conversations about the bride’s shabby appearance ceased, and the groom finally turned his head toward the bride.

As if a grand mage’s silence spell had been cast over the entire reception hall. Suffocating silence pressed down hard on the people.

But the one who caused this commotion didn’t even glance that way and picked up the bottle to fill her glass herself.

“The servants of the Tirantus Empire have neither tact nor manners. Is it because they’re citizens of a barbaric nation that tramples others’ lands without hesitation?”

At the sarcasm that followed, the Emperor let out an empty laugh, then kicked back his chair and left. The bewildered nobles finally came to their senses and began to murmur.

Soon whispers containing impressions of what just happened popped up here and there.

However, most were somewhat shocked but not displeased.

No, rather, some were even relieved.

Because no one expected this marriage to be maintained normally anyway. Instead, the prevailing opinion and the nobles’ wish was that the Emperor would soon take an imperial consort to continue the succession.

Therefore, the darker the future of the newly married couple, the more fortunate it was for them.

“Still, they’re a married couple. It would have been troublesome if His Majesty had fallen for that person. But from the looks of it, that won’t happen. Haha.”

“Count, what pointless worry. They may have held a marriage ceremony for show for the country’s sake. But even His Majesty the Emperor—how could he share a bed with his family’s enemy?”

Those exchanging such conversations naturally recalled the incident that had plunged the imperial palace into shock.

The Emperor of fallen Niyev—that is, the horrific m*rder committed by the brother of the woman who just became Empress.

That cruel man had snuck into the castle under cover of darkness.

He cut down dozens of guards trying to stop the intruder. After brutally murdering the former Empress, he threw himself out the window.

Some said he had attempted to rescue his sister, being her brother after all. Others said he had taken inhuman revenge before his end.

“Either way, it’s certain that it’s an unforgivable crime.”

Having recalled this far, the woman sitting in the middle of enemy territory with a pale face seemed somewhat pitiful.

But it was a fleeting compassion.

More than that, the fact that this couple who had the worst wedding ceremony would absolutely never consummate their marriage reassured the guests.