The moment Carlos Ivan spoke, Ines’s heart sank. His indifferent voice pierced her heart like an arrow. She barely managed to part her lips.

“…That’s right.”

She wanted to argue, but for some reason, she couldn’t help but lower her head.

“No one likes me.”

Before the rebellion, and even after it, no one liked her.

Even her fiancé Joseph and her family disliked her. But…

Ines quietly raised her gaze to look at Carlos.

What about you?

The question lingered in her throat, swirling around in her mouth. She wanted to ask if he, too, had no affection left for her, even though the answer had already come from his lips.

A bitter smile spread across Ines’s face. Hadn’t he just said it himself? That no one liked her.

“…”

Carlos watched Ines, who seemed drained of energy, and his lips twitched. Seeing her with slumped shoulders didn’t sit well with him, yet he couldn’t quite grasp why. He hesitated, as if wanting to say something, but in the end, he kept silent.

Seeing this, Ines continued with a resigned expression.

“I’ll go to the charity house with Lady Colsen, as you wish. She has the trust of the people, so perhaps my reputation might improve a little if I go with her.”

As if that would happen. Going with Raella wouldn’t improve her reputation. If anything, she might be openly compared. But Ines no longer cared about such things.

She was tired of arguing over these issues. It seemed better to just go along with what others wanted. Ines decided to follow Carlos’s wishes.

With a small sigh, Ines pushed away the plate in front of her.

“My stomach doesn’t feel well, so I’ll stop eating here. Take care on your way back.”

Carlos stopped Ines as she was about to leave the room after saying her piece.

“…Let’s schedule the charity house visit for a week from now.”

“Do as you please.”

Ines tossed her words carelessly and left without hesitation.

* * *

A week had passed. As promised with Carlos, today was the day Ines would go to volunteer at the charity house. The rain that had fallen all week finally stopped this morning. As the sun emerged from behind the clouds, beams of light poured down.

Ines looked up at the clearer sky and then lowered her gaze. Even from inside the carriage, she could tell the ground was in poor condition.

With each step, the muddy soil would surely cling to her feet. Of all days, it had to rain until the day she was to go to the charity house. At least she felt fortunate that the rain had stopped now.

‘The ground will be all soggy.’

The thought of walking with a cane on the muddy ground already felt daunting. She worried about making a fool of herself in front of others. Just as the carriage jostled her around, it slowed down and eventually came to a stop at their destination.

When Ines got out of the carriage, the Colsen family’s carriage had already arrived. As she stepped down, Raella approached with graceful steps.

“It’s been a while, Your Majesty.”

It had barely been a month, so the greeting was merely formal.

“Are you feeling better? You have no idea how worried I was that day.”

She was referring to the day Ines collapsed at the wedding. Ines looked intently at her face.

‘Now that I think about it…’

At the time, she was too disoriented to realize it, but upon reflection, she understood that her fainting spell that day began with Raella’s inappropriate comment.

Raella must have been aware of this as well. Yet, she hadn’t offered a single word of apology for her rude remark that day. In such situations, it would have been appropriate to warn Raella not to overstep her bounds again. However…

Ines slowly surveyed the area around the charity house. In front of the building where they stood, not only were there children who had come to greet them, but also townspeople who had gathered to watch.

If she said anything wrong to Raella here, it was clear she would be portrayed as the wicked queen bullying the kind-hearted lady who had come to help with the charity work. Ines was also weary of being the subject of gossip.

So, with a quiet sigh, Ines replied, “Thanks to your concern, Lady, I’ve fully recovered. It seems we’ll be pressed for time to finish the scheduled work today. Shall we start right away?”

Raella, who had been silently observing Ines, responded with a bright smile. “Yes, that sounds good, Your Majesty.”

* * *

Their task was simple: distribute gifts prepared by the royal family to the children. After all, there was no surer way to win people’s hearts than with material gifts.

This was especially true for children, so royals and nobles had long practiced visiting places with children to distribute gifts and display their modest goodwill.

The aim was to leave a positive impression on children who had not yet formed political biases, so they wouldn’t grow up harboring strong rebellious feelings. However…

“Oh dear, children. Slowly, one at a time. There are plenty of gifts.”

Unlike Ines, Raella had a particularly large crowd of children gathered around her. Meanwhile, only about five or six very young children, who seemed barely able to speak, stood in front of Ines.

Seeing this, the director of the charity house, looking a bit troubled, spoke to the children gathered around Raella. “Hey, kids. Her Majesty the Queen also has very nice gifts, so line up over here too.”

Then a child standing in front of Raella whined, “They said she’s a scary person…”

“Yeah, Jackson said she’s a really mean demon.”

They whispered cautiously, worried that Ines might hear them, but unfortunately, their voices were loud enough.

“What, what are you saying! You shouldn’t say things like that!”

The director was startled and glanced nervously at Ines. He feared losing her support over this incident. The director scolded the children loudly. Watching this, Ines recalled Carlos’s words that flashed through her mind.

‘No one likes you anyway, so does it even matter?’

Ironically, his words proved true. Even the children, who should have known nothing and hadn’t heard rumors about her, didn’t like Ines.

It was as if his words were a prophecy coming true, and she couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh. The director, watching Ines closely, began to admonish the children.

“You’ve got it all wrong. This lady is…!”

“It’s okay. Let the children do as they please.”

Improving public perception now was absurd. Her reputation, already ruined beyond repair, had been further tarnished by the rebellion and was long buried in the mud.

Ines, with an indifferent voice, instructed her escort nearby, “Please take all the gifts in front of me to Lady Colsen. I doubt anyone else will come to receive them from me.”

“Yes, understood.”

Following her command, the knight gathered the gifts and approached Raella. Raella, upon seeing the bundle of gifts brought by the knight, responded with a bright smile, “Thank you. I was running short.”

Naturally, all eyes turned to Raella. She was practically the star of the day. Surrounded by children, she appeared quite beautiful even in Ines’s eyes.

To exaggerate, she looked like an angel descended from heaven. If she appeared this way to Ines, it was obvious how others must see her.

Sure enough, even the guards beside Ines were focused entirely on Raella. So much so that they didn’t notice a child approaching Ines.

“Excuse me, are you the queen…?”

A poorly dressed boy, about ten years old, approached Ines. She answered him with a puzzled expression, “Yes, I am. Is something the matter? Are you here to receive a gift? But I’m afraid I don’t have any left.”

The gift boxes, which had been piled like a mountain until a moment ago, had already gone to other recipients.

“Instead of me, why don’t you go to the lady over there…”

Just as she was about to tell him to go to Raella instead…

“…You demon!”

The boy suddenly threw something he had been hiding in his pocket at Ines. It was a stone, covered in mud.