“Stand.”

Just as Seraphina was on the verge of collapse, the Empress finally spoke. With a sharp snap, she closed her fan and lifted her chin.

“So you’re the one who spent the Crown Prince’s rut cycle with him?”

Blatant hostility laced the Empress’s voice as she continued in a cutting tone.

“I suppose you thought that if you seduced the Crown Prince, you might improve your station. Did you really think the imperial family would be that easy?”

“N-no. I—”

“I did not ask for your answer.”

The Empress cut Seraphina off irritably. She didn’t even offer her a seat, leaving her standing while the corners of her mouth turned down in open displeasure. Then she exchanged a glance with Lady Mireille, who was sitting next to her.

The Crown Prince had slept with a woman.

For an entire week, no less.

Although he had been discreet, his prolonged absence quickly became the talk of the entire imperial palace. Rumors spread about why his cycle had started so early and who he had spent it with.

It was not until the doors to the Crown Prince’s bedchamber finally opened again that the truth came out.

Only then did Lady Mireille and the Empress tremble with humiliation.

On the surface, Lady Mireille’s visit to the palace was said to have been at the invitation of her elder relative, the Empress. However, the truth was that she had come to discuss the Crown Prince’s marriage.

Everyone knew it.

Yet the Crown Prince showed her no interest whatsoever. He offered her nothing beyond the most formal of courtesies, never once engaging her in proper conversation.

Had Lady Mireille not fallen for him at first sight, the match would have fallen through immediately.

From the moment she saw his portrait, she had carried him in her heart. He had golden hair like a sun god, blue eyes that seemed to hold the sky itself, and an otherworldly beauty that inspired awe. As if that were not enough, he kept his distance from women. What husband could be more perfect?

Lady Mireille indulged in endless fantasies. She dreamed of the day she would become his omega.

But, regrettably, the Crown Prince never spared her so much as a glance. He didn’t even allow her to detect his pheromones.

The Crown Prince was an impregnable fortress.

This made it all the more difficult for the Empress to believe that he had slept with a mere maidservant.

“What trick did you use to bewitch the Crown Prince? Speak honestly.”

“I didn’t do anything.”

“Physician.”

Acting as if she had never expected an answer from Seraphina, the Empress called for the palace physician, who was waiting nearby. He approached Seraphina, took hold of her, and examined her. When he pressed a magical instrument against the nape of her neck and read the results, he frowned.

“Even for a dominant type, her pheromone levels are unusually weak. It’s as though she nearly became an omega—but stopped halfway.”

An omega?

At the physician’s words, Seraphina drew in a sharp breath. She was a beta. An omega—something was clearly wrong.

“I-I’m a beta.”

“That may have been true until a week ago. But now, you are an omega.”

The physician replied calmly. Seraphina could not hide her bewilderment at his words.

‘Could it be…?’

Had the suffocating scent she had smelled the previous week been the pheromones of the Crown Prince? Had she been intoxicated by them? Was that why she had ended up sleeping with him?

If so, it all made sense.

‘But how… how could that happen?’

Seraphina touched the nape of her neck with trembling fingers, the supposed location of a pheromone gland in a special trait bearer.

‘Then the pain here…’

Was it her pheromone gland reacting?

As Seraphina struggled to make sense of everything, her thoughts became hazy. The Empress left her in shock as she turned to the physician and asked,

“Then is it not possible that this wench used her pheromones to seduce the Crown Prince?”

“That would be impossible. Her pheromone levels are less than half of Lady Mireille’s.”

“Couldn’t she have used an aphrodisiac?”

Lady Mireille cut in, voicing the question herself. The physician shook his head in response.

“His Highness the Crown Prince possesses dominance far exceeding that of an ordinary alpha. Aphrodisiacs would have no effect.”

The Empress narrowed her eyes in response to the physician. With a careless wave of her hand, she dismissed him and glared at Seraphina.

As silence fell, accompanied by the Empress’s troubled contemplation, Lady Mireille snapped irritably.

“Aunt, what is there to think about? Just throw that woman out.”

“Lady Mireille, calm yourself. Matters are not that simple.”

The Empress calmed her down, then folded her arms.

As soon as his cycle ended, the Crown Prince went to see the Emperor. There, he announced that he had found his destined partner and intended to marry her.

Caught off guard by this sudden announcement, the Emperor opposed him. He angrily declared that negotiations for his marriage to another party were already underway and that this was unacceptable. But the Crown Prince would not be swayed.

He delivered his declaration in a flat, matter-of-fact tone.

Both the Emperor and the Empress were stunned. The fact that the Crown Prince was speaking with such certainty could mean only one thing: he had mated with an omega during his rut.

Until then, the Crown Prince had always endured his rut cycles alone. He had relied on suppressants prescribed by palace physicians and had never once taken an omega into his arms.

So why now? What had driven him to take a woman — and even mate with her?

The Empress suggested postponing the decision. Considering Lady Mireille’s dignity, she said that appointing a Crown Princess immediately would be challenging. The Crown Prince regarded her coldly as she tried to persuade the Emperor to delay his decision, then turned and left the palace.

As soon as he had left, the Empress summoned the woman who had spent the cycle with the Crown Prince.

She wanted to see the audacious woman’s face for herself.

She then planned to declare her impure, expel her from the palace, and take the child away once it was born.

However, she was shocked to discover that the woman was an omega who had once been a beta.

Even worse, she was a dominant omega who had not fully awakened yet.

If that were the case, she could not possibly have bewitched the Crown Prince with her pheromones. So how had she triggered his rut cycle?

‘Could it be…?’

The Empress looked at Seraphina and narrowed her eyes. A beta with brown hair and violet eyes. Suddenly, an image flashed through her mind.

‘No. That cannot be that child.’

She pushed the thought aside, straightened her back, and continued. Even if she could not discover the woman’s true intentions, expelling her would be enough.

Contrary to her expectations of a cunning schemer, however, the woman seemed innocent. If anything, that made matters easier. Such a naïve creature would cause little trouble, even if she were expelled from the palace.

Conveniently, the Crown Prince had also left the palace. Now was the opportune moment.

“Seraphina Lindenrosen is hereby banished from the capital for insulting the imperial family. You are forbidden from ever setting foot in the capital again. Should you defy this order, you will be executed.”

The moment the Empress’s decree was uttered, the guards seized Seraphina. Startled, she looked towards the Empress. Seeing her flustered reaction, the Empress continued coldly,

“You are said to be carrying the Crown Prince’s heir. Do not even think of erasing or concealing imperial blood. Once the child is born, the imperial family will take it.”

“I am not pregnant.”

Seraphina protested the outrageous command. The guards’ rough grip made her arms ache.

“And I cannot accept the charge of insulting the imperial family. I did nothing wrong.”

“Did nothing wrong?”

At Seraphina’s calm explanation, Lady Mireille sprang to her feet. She glared fiercely at Seraphina, who was being restrained by the guards.

“You humiliated me, and you dare say you’re innocent?”

“You are not a member of the imperial family, my lady.”

Seraphina replied evenly, forcing her pounding heart to steady. She could not simply accept the charge of insulting the imperial family.

‘She must feel humiliated.’

How could she not be furious after losing her fiancé so abruptly? Noticing the deep red flush on Mireille’s face, Seraphina spoke carefully.

“I’m sorry, my lady.”

Smack!

Before Seraphina had finished speaking, a sharp sound rang out in the reception room. Mireille, who had just slapped her, was trembling with anger.

“What? You’re sorry?”

Mireille glared at Seraphina, whose head had been turned to one side but who remained silent and motionless. Gritting her teeth, Mireille raised her hand once more.

“How dare someone like you mock me?”

Just as Mireille was about to strike Seraphina again—

Bang!

The doors to the Empress’s reception room were thrown open with a violent crash.