“You are still as clever as ever. That, at least, gives this old woman some measure of reassurance, Your Majesty the Empress.”

At the Duchess of Brighton’s brazen words, murmurs spread throughout the hall.

Most watched with undisguised curiosity. A few looked frightened, like shrimp caught between battling whales.

“Duchess of Brighton…!”

Princess Anna von Lernando, seated opposite the duchess, jolted upright in indignation, about to speak, but Clodine raised her left hand to stop her.

The firm look in her eyes made it clear: do not intervene.

Anna, already flushed with anger, did not know what to do, and Lady Charlotte Langham gently tried to calm her.

Seeing this, the duchess let out a derisive snort and addressed Anna loudly enough for all to hear.

“Your Highness is remarkably at ease. Do you truly believe Her Majesty the Empress when she speaks of wishing for the Empire’s prosperity?”

Unsatisfied, she spread both hands wide and swept her gaze across the room.

“Was she not grinding her teeth, declaring her hatred for this Empire only days ago? We all pretend not to know, but we are not truly ignorant, are we?”

Unable to restrain herself, the duchess burst into laughter.

A few others joined her.

The atmosphere of the banquet had already crossed a point of no return.

Clodine silently endured the ridicule.

‘She was never so lacking in dignity…’

Young people might change easily, but to see the Duchess of Brighton, who had carried herself with unmatched grace and refinement for over sixty years, become so openly emotional in merely a few years felt profoundly unfamiliar.

Clodine reached a quiet conclusion: meaningful conversation here was impossible.

After sweeping her gaze over the countless eyes fixed upon her, she spoke in a steady, even tone.

“If my presence makes you uncomfortable, you may take your leave. I will not take offense. Please depart at ease.”

At the Empress’s dignified dismissal, the guests exchanged awkward glances. They hesitated, watching one another to see who would move first.

The turning point came when the Duchess of Brighton rose abruptly from her seat.

One by one, others followed.

Surveying the majority who chose to trail behind her with visible satisfaction, the duchess looked back at Clodine and said:

“The Empire is not merely a vast stretch of land, Your Majesty. It has eyes that see, ears that hear, and mouths that speak. I suggest you remember that.”

With that, she and a sizable group left the banquet hall without looking back.

“That old duchess has been teetering on the edge for some time, has she finally gone mad? Your Majesty the Empress…! Why do you remain silent?”

“Indeed, Your Majesty! This is a grave offense against the Imperial House!”

“The Duchess of Brighton has changed completely. She was never like this before.”

Beginning with Anna’s shrill protest, those who had remained seated started voicing their thoughts one after another.

From their words, it seemed more than one person had sensed that the duchess had become someone entirely different over the past few years.

Clodine quietly looked at the table now dotted with empty seats. Then she offered the remaining guests a faint smile.

“It may be uncomfortable, but let us finish our meal.”

She instructed a servant to summon a small ensemble into the dining hall and ordered them to play, hoping, however artificially, to soothe the fractured atmosphere.

After the turbulent meal ended, Clodine returned to her chamber.

The moment she loosened the tightly laced corset around her waist, she leaned over a silver basin filled with water for washing and retched.

Startled, Merian hurried to rub her back, repeatedly asking if she was all right.

Clodine forced herself to nod.

Feigning composure while eating under such strained tension had taken its toll.

“The Empire is not merely a vast stretch of land, Your Majesty. It has eyes that see, ears that hear, and mouths that speak. Remember that.”

The duchess’s sharp words refused to leave her mind.

Just as Clodine had never desired the position of Empress of the Empire, the imperial citizens had never desired her as their Empress.

She had vaguely acknowledged that truth before, but facing it directly with her own eyes was far more difficult than she had imagined.

“Would it not be best to inform His Majesty the Emperor of what happened today?”

“You know as well as I do how many eyes Ahazan has within the imperial palace. Even if I say nothing, he will learn of it.”

“Your Majesty the Empress, what I mean is—”

“I know, Merian. I understand what you mean.”

Merian wanted her to leave the matter in Ahazan’s hands.

“This was far too excessive to be dismissed so lightly.”

“But it was Ahazan and I who first acted beyond reason with our marriage.”

If one were to ask whether their union had truly been for the sake of the Empire’s citizens, Clodine could not answer yes, not even a little.

So she accepted calmly that she had no right to answer the citizens’ justified anger with anger of her own.

There was no guarantee this would not happen again. And each time it did, she could not run to Ahazan and say, ‘You brought this upon us, take responsibility.’

Not when she herself had walked into the wedding hall of her own accord.

“I will meet with the duchess privately and speak with her. Do not worry too much, Merian.”

“Alone? No, Your Majesty. She will only look down on you further.”

“And what meaning is there in being looked down on a little less because I borrowed someone else’s strength?”

Clodine let out a faint, self-mocking laugh as she wiped her mouth with a cloth.

When the servants finished tidying the room and withdrew, only Clodine and Merian remained.

“Gather what rumors you can, there must have been a clear point when the duchess’s reputation began to change.”

Clodine rinsed her mouth with the water Merian handed her and continued.

“We must first find out what turned the duchess into someone so sharp… and whether it has anything at all to do with me.”

“Yes, Your Majesty the Empress. I understand.”

Merian bowed respectfully.

Afterward, Clodine bathed with the servants’ assistance and retired for the night.

She had thought it had been an exhausting day, yet sleep refused to come.

With the lamps extinguished, she lay staring out the window. The countless stars scattered across the night sky seemed as though they might spill into the room.

They said there were people who could find their way guided only by the stars, without even a map.

Clodine gazed at them as though trying to determine which of the many shining points before her was meant to show her path.

Instead of finding direction, however, the darkness before her seemed only to deepen.

Clodine Ramier. 

Clodine Penelope. 

Clodine von Lernando.

It occurred to her suddenly that not one of those names truly felt like her own.

By the time she had nearly died, she had already lost herself. And since she had been given this life to live again, she no longer wished to blame fate.

Her gaze drifted to her thin wrist and the dark, clotted burn ointment smeared thickly across her left hand.

She did not want to remain this frail, unable even to care properly for her own body.

Even now, emotion threatened to surge up within her. But she no longer wished to shed tears that solved nothing.

And then… and then…

Her thoughts expanded from the incident with the Duchess of Brighton, branching outward.

At that moment, she quietly closed her eyes and slipped her left hand beneath the covers.

She had heard it: the faint but unmistakable sound of the door opening and closing.

Her heart thudded sharply. Relying on her suddenly heightened senses, she recognized that someone was approaching the bed.

The scent that drifted toward her was not the one she had expected, and for a brief moment she was taken aback. But soon she realized it was the same rose perfume she herself had used that morning, and only moments ago.

He was not one to change his preferences easily. What whim was this?

Before she could dwell on it further, the figure cloaked in rose fragrance slipped into her bed and wrapped his arms around her slender body from behind.

“I know you’re pretending to sleep.”

His voice, deep beyond simplicity, settled by her ear.

“When you’re truly asleep, you breathe so quietly it makes people uneasy.”

Through Ahazan, she learned a habit of her own she had never known, and instinctively held her breath.

Behind her, she heard him chuckle softly.

“It’s already too late. Instead of that, turn around and look at me.”

Caught off guard by the request, Clodine hesitated, then finally turned to face him as though conceding.

When she opened her eyes, his handsome face washed in blue moonlight was much closer than she had anticipated.

The faint smile lingering from his earlier laughter softened the coldness of his features, making him appear almost gentle.

With a hand still warm, Ahazan brushed the hair from her cheek and said.

“I heard you were busy from morning. Nothing too difficult, I hope?”

Of course there had been difficulties. Yet even compared to those, this moment was no less difficult.

She had assumed Ahazan already knew what had happened that day. Still, she shook her head quietly.

“It wasn’t busy. And it wasn’t difficult.”

“Then how was it?”

She had not expected him to ask again.

After a brief pause, wondering how best to describe the day, she answered softly.

“It was just… a little hard.”

A satisfied smile curved his lips at her honest reply, and he spoke lightly.

“If you want, I could make it easy.”

He lifted one brow slightly, as though asking.

Well?

She recognized then that he knew everything about the day’s events.

It had been quite a commotion, after all.

A faint sigh escaped her lips.

“If it’s to be done, I’ll do it myself. And you…”

Her voice, deliberately sharpened, followed the brief, indifferent reply.

“Stop pretending we’re on the same side.”

“Aren’t husband and wife supposed to be on the same side?”

“Only the ones who married for love.”

The words slipped out easily, perhaps too easily, and therefore all the more honest.

She had said nothing wrong, yet a faint sense of ‘I shouldn’t have said that’ crept over her.

And the smile on Ahazan’s face changed subtly, but unmistakably.

It was not only the smile that shifted.

“So.”

His voice had dropped, markedly lower than before.

“Does that mean I can never be on your side?”