As the second son of a humble Viscount family, Peurco was a man brighter than anyone when it came to matters of profit. He spent his youth gathering funds through several small businesses while waiting for opportunities.

When the imperial family, whose debt problems had become severe, put dams and lakes up for sale, Puerco scraped together his entire fortune to snap up the properties.

In the war that broke out afterward, Puerco, like the shrewd businessman he was, calculated that his homeland could never win. Deciding to quickly side with Tirantus was a natural choice for a businessman.

He supplied provisions to the Tirantus forces that entered the capital and bribed what Niyev generals remained. Those who couldn’t be bribed, he sold out. Though it was a war they would have won anyway, thanks to the efforts of several collaborators led by Puerco, Tirantus was able to seize victory even more easily.

As a result, Puerco’s contributions were recognized and he received a Count title.

“What brings you here? I thought you’d be busy raking in money from the bottom of lakes around now.”

Kareina summoned what little concentration she had left to receive Puerco. Perhaps from pushing herself too hard for several days, as soon as she sat down her head felt foggy and her eyelids heavy.

In the midst of this, meeting someone she didn’t particularly like made even her stomach feel queasy. In any case, he was an important person. He was the one who had bought up the most lakes and dams that the Niyev imperial family had sold off.

“At that level, you leave money-making to subordinates, Your Majesty. Because there are bigger things to do.”

Puerco sat across from her with a greasy smile. His matching striped suit radiated expensive luster, as if proving the level of wealth he’d accumulated.

“By the way, does Your Majesty the Empress have the right to mock me for doing business with my own abilities? From what I see, you seem devoted to flower-viewing without caring about the suffering of the people you abandoned in your homeland. What a nice life you have, Your Majesty.”

He said this while looking at the flowers filling the room.

Of course, Tirantus’s capital was far from Niyev and had nothing to do with the drought. He was deliberately being sarcastic despite knowing this. Because he knew well the debt Kareina felt toward the people.

He had even used this to extort money several times. He had urged her to donate funds, claiming he would establish free soup kitchens for orphans.

Since the Empress had been cut off from outside communication and unable to do anything, extorting money was easy. With just a few words, she readily handed over all the jewels she’d brought from Niyev.

Of course, the orphans received not even a cold chunk of bread, let alone free meals. Puerco had never cared whether others suffered or starved to death in the first place.

“Still, if you’re sitting in the Empress’s seat, shouldn’t you do something for the people? Well, I’m a businessman, so I have no choice but to sell even water to make a living.”

“……You’re price-gouging. How can you make excuses when you’ve raised water usage fees tenfold?”

“It’s market logic. Your Majesty, who only stays in the cozy imperial palace, wouldn’t understand well. Well, anyway, even the former Niyev people know well that their noble imperial princess abandoned them.”

“Abandoned the people! I……”

“You’re sitting in the Empress’s seat turning a blind eye to the people’s hardships and doing nothing. If that’s not abandonment, what is? Even those ignorant fools know now.”

Watching Kareina’s face gradually turn pale, Puerco smiled broadly.

“So they’re not angry at me for price-gouging them, but at the princess living in luxury. If Your Majesty went down to Niyev now, you probably wouldn’t make it a few steps before getting stoned.”

There was a reason Puerco came to find her like this and chose only words that would hurt. Just the day before, he had heard that an agenda regarding water price caps would be submitted to the imperial council.

Puerco could immediately tell whose head this policy came from. That damned Her Highness the imperial princess was tormenting him even after the country fell.

He had hated Kareina from the start for acting aloof and noble alone. Though she was part of the completely rotten imperial family, she alone struggled pretending to care for the people.

When the imperial family put the dams and lakes up for sale, it was also Kareina who tried to attach all sorts of restrictions, saying water had strong public character.

Puerco had no intention of persuading her anyway. If she were someone who could be persuaded, he would have persuaded her long ago. Instead, he chose to at least vent his anger.

“If you truly care for the people, then use that body well and try seducing His Majesty the Emperor. Though I don’t know if a stiff person like you could do it.”

“……”

“If you can’t even do that, go die somewhere. Then wouldn’t it at least relieve the resentment of the people who lost their country?”

Kareina couldn’t say anything and only moved her lips. She must have really been shocked.

Grumbling inwardly, Puerco glanced at the clock. There wasn’t much time left before his reservation at the capital’s most expensive restaurant.

“I wasted time on pointless things and ended up late.”

Puerco, blaming even his lateness on Kareina as a final jab, hurriedly left the Empress’s palace.

Kareina sat dazed for a while before standing up.

She sat at the desk and mechanically picked up the document folder on top, but not a single word entered her eyes.

“Ah…… is it because I’m too tired?”

She tried blaming her tired body, but she knew well why. Because she had just heard through Puerco’s mouth the words she feared most.

Kareina had always been afraid of what the people remaining in Niyev would think of her. At least from an outside perspective, it was true that she had abandoned the country and was living in luxury alone.

“Would I really be stoned to death if I went to Niyev?”

Muttering aloud, she finally felt completely alone. Kareina raised her empty eyes and looked around the room. As Puerco said, the colorful flowers were splendid and also shameful.

Kareina jumped up and began gathering the flowers filling the room. The vases densely filling the floor, beside the windows, and on the mantelpiece were emptied one by one.

“I’m going for a brief walk, so there’s no need to follow.”

The maids, who had been watching the Empress suddenly move busily with dubious expressions, nodded their heads.

Kareina often took walks at the large lake in the rear garden. The lake was her sanctuary and a space that comforted her stifling daily life.

But today, she hoped that deep darkness would hide her stain. Kareina, who ran to the lake with quick steps, threw everything in her arms into the lake.

Fortunately, the lake was deep and wide enough to accept everything.

Starting with the heaviest mariposa, the dizzying colored petals were gradually consumed by the cold water. Their form receding soundlessly into the darkness was frightening yet beautiful.

After everything disappeared, Kareina sat down weakly beside the water. And looking at her own face reflected in the black water, she realized.

Now the only stain remaining was herself. There was only one choice left to be forgiven by the remaining people. She could never seduce Raul and make him her ally anyway.

Kareina reached out her hand toward the calm water surface.

“It’s cold……”

The water tickling past her fingertips through the inside of her palm was cold. But rather than chilling and frightening, it felt cool and warm.

Did the abandoned flowers feel this way too? Kareina thought of the flowers that would be lying at the lake bottom by now and pushed her hand in deeper.

Her upper body gradually leaned forward, and the hair she’d swept behind her neck poured out onto the water surface. The concentric circles drawn by her hair were as beautiful as the flowers that had just sunk, and she quite liked them.

As her face drew closer to the water surface, she seemed to hear a buzzing noise in her ears.

Kareina squeezed her eyes shut and leaned her upper body forward. As her center of gravity shifted, her body trembled.

And with the feeling of something faintly touching her back, her body completely toppled onto the water surface.

Consciousness returned as if cut off. Kareina, waking in darkness, blinked several times.

Seeing the darkness, was this h*ll? As she calmly organized her thoughts, a dry, cracked voice came from above her head.

“Karen.”

Karen? Kareina turned her stiff head to look to the side. Her eyes, having adapted quite well to the darkness by then, recognized the other person.

“Kareina.”

I’m not dead. Only then did Kareina realize she had returned to the Empress’s palace. She also recognized that the owner of the hot body temperature covering her hand was Raul.

When she tried to sit up, Raul stopped her. Instead, he turned on the lamp beside the bed to make the surroundings somewhat visible.

“What brings Your Majesty here at this hour?”

When she asked quietly, she felt strength enter the hand gripping hers.

“You almost died, so isn’t it natural for me to be here?”

“But I didn’t die.”

At the dazed reply, dark clouds gathered on Raul’s face. Kareina sighed and looked around the room. Something had definitely changed.

“All the vases are gone.”

“I ordered them all removed. Of all things, to fall in the water while discarding flowers. No, who throws flowers in water in the first place?”

So that’s how it was organized. The ones who testified that I went out with flowers were probably the maids. Kareina didn’t object and nodded her head.

“It was a stupid thing to do.”

“……Ha.”

Raul, exhaling briefly, opened his mouth again.

“From tomorrow, new maids will attend to you.”

“……Why?”

“Because I dismissed all the existing Empress’s palace maids. Maids who aren’t by their mistress’s side when needed aren’t necessary. If it hadn’t been for that maid, you…… wouldn’t have come out of the water.”

A subtle anger was felt in Raul’s sunken voice. Not knowing who that maid was or where that anger was directed, Kareina pressed her lips shut, and Raul sighed again before continuing.

“The maid who saved you, turns out she’s the daughter of a fallen Baron family. She’ll report to the Empress’s palace starting tomorrow.”

“Is that so?”

“That’s enough now, so close your eyes and sleep. You fell in cold water in this weather, so you need to rest well to avoid catching a cold.”

Simultaneously, the warm body temperature covering her hand disappeared. Then suddenly, the sensation and fear of the moment she fell in the water revived in Kareina’s mind.

The reason she had tried to choose death, which she had forgotten until just now, also came back vividly.

Kareina realized. Since she hadn’t died, the path to being forgiven by the people through death had also disappeared.

“Your, Your Majesty.”

Feeling left alone in the darkness, her body began trembling like an aspen. When she squeezed out all her strength to call Raul, he turned around with a frown and strode over.

“Kareina? Why suddenly…… are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

Warm light illuminated Raul’s shadowed face. The shadows created by his thick eyebrows and dense eyelashes swayed softly while embracing his gray-green eyes.

Until now, Kareina had believed nothing was contained in those gray-green eyes.

But not now. The gaze she was facing was clearly rippling with all kinds of emotions and wavering. It didn’t matter if it was an illusion.

“Wait a moment. I’ll quickly get the imperial physician……”

“Don’t go, Your Majesty.”

Kareina grabbed his hand as it tried to move away again.

“Just stay beside me. At least for tonight.”

She felt Raul stop stiffly. When she pulled slightly, his house-sized body was drawn over without resistance.

“I’m scared to be alone.”

At the whisper, his wavering breath was transmitted unfiltered through the dawn air. Like a well-tamed beast, Raul returned to the bedside.

“I’ll stay beside you, so close your eyes, Empress.”

Kareina closed her eyes as he instructed. As hot body temperature covered her hand, her eyelids easily grew heavy.

In the distant darkness, Kareina recalled Puerco’s words once more.

He said if she truly cared for the people, she should try seducing the Emperor. At the same time, Puerco had asserted she couldn’t do it.

Perhaps those words were right. Kareina, who had only lived as a stiff imperial princess, didn’t know how to seduce a man, and Raul loved Evelyn, who was completely different from her. The very next morning, Raul might become cold-eyed and cut out Kareina’s heart.

But there was nowhere left to return to anymore, was there?

Kareina, smiling faintly, fell into sweet sleep.