Llewellyn’s eyes filled with tears as she looked at Ines, who insisted she never regretted her decision.

Her heart ached.

She felt she understood why Ines had sacrificed her leg. She pitied her daughter, who faced the world’s criticism despite her sacrifice.

It was as if her heart was being torn to shreds.

Without taking a moment to wipe away her tears, Llewellyn embraced Ines. Then, she whispered softly, “If Your Highness doesn’t regret it… then that’s enough.”

Probably, no one had spoken kindly about the decision she made. They likely only disparaged her choice with unpleasant looks and words.

So, as her mother, she felt compelled to support Ines’s decision. She needed to comfort her by saying, “You’ve been through a lot; it must have been hard.”

If even she, as her mother, didn’t do that, she feared Ines might truly crumble.

Llewellyn wept as she patted Ines.

Ines, too, began to cry again, overwhelmed by the comfort and encouragement she was receiving for the first time.

She had missed this embrace. She longed to see the only person in the world who could truly understand her. She wanted to confide everything to someone with whom she didn’t need to hide her secrets. The time had been too harsh to endure as if nothing had happened.

After they had cried for a long while, Llewellyn, who was the first to pull away, spoke.

“Now, just think about how to be happy.”

It was the first advice she had ever given her daughter as a mother. Llewellyn knew how much Ines loved Carlos.

Even when she was told to marry his brother Joseph in the past, she had stopped eating and drinking.

Ines, who had cried out that she would rather die than betray Carlos, had succumbed to her father’s threats to kill her real mother. An innocent child had sacrificed herself because of her lowly self.

Everything seemed to be her fault, and Llewellyn felt burdened. If she hadn’t existed, maybe Ines could have lived more freely.

Llewellyn held Ines’s hand. It was a delicate hand, unlike her own.

“This is a bond that was hard to come by. So now, you must be happy.”

There must have been a reason why the man who even incited a rebellion couldn’t let go of a bond that was already severed.

She, too, clearly couldn’t forget Ines. Of course, rumors were rife that the two were distant.

Naturally, it couldn’t be helped. Even a paper cut takes time to heal and grow new skin. It was only natural that it would take even longer to heal a wound so deep that the bone was exposed.

Therefore, she hoped that at the very least, Ines would make an effort to heal that wound.

She wished Ines wouldn’t give up the hard-earned opportunity on her own.

So, for her only daughter, Llewellyn spoke with difficulty.

“Let go of your pride.”

“…”

“Bow your head and approach His Majesty first.”

Llewellyn knew Ines’s personality well.

In her heart, she wanted to advise her to talk sincerely by sharing all the circumstances they had been through.

But she knew better than anyone that Ines wouldn’t do that because she wouldn’t want to show Carlos her miserable side.

‘Carlos likes me because I am the legitimate daughter of the Claudia family.’

It was something Ines used to say to her habitually in the past.

She believed Carlos loved her because of the noble name Ines Claudia. She feared that the moment Carlos found out she was not the legitimate child but an illegitimate one, he would leave her.

So what could she do? If she couldn’t tell the truth, she had no choice but to swallow her pride and go in.

Ines, who had been listening quietly to Llewellyn, spoke self-deprecatingly.

“Will I really be happy if I just let go of my pride?”

“Of course.”

Unlike the confident Llewellyn, Ines felt unsure of herself.

“…Everyone hates me.”

There was no one in the kingdom who liked her.

In fact, it wasn’t just the kingdom. There was nowhere in the world where people welcomed her.

Even a child, whom she thought knew nothing, had thrown stones at her.

Ines recalled the face of the child who had hated her at the orphanage.

Her head bowed automatically. She didn’t believe her efforts would change anything. Seeing this, Llewellyn continued speaking.

“Yes, you should try to get a little closer.”

It wasn’t formal speech.

Surprised, Ines looked up. Llewellyn had never spoken informally to her since she became Joseph’s fiancée.

“Yes, just focus on how you can be happy.”

Since childhood, Ines had been that way. Her pride was so strong that she would endure beatings from the Duke that she didn’t have to.

Duke Claudia had struck her even more to break her spirit.

But Llewellyn hoped Ines wouldn’t continue like that.

“How to be happy…”

Ines pondered Llewellyn’s words.

“Yes, what do you want the most?”

What I want.

That is…

Ines bit her lip. The face of another person who had asked her what she wanted flashed through her mind.

“Mother, actually…”

Ines’s shoulders trembled as she spoke in a tearful voice.

“I want to stay by Carlos’s side.”

It was the first time she had confessed her true feelings.

Feelings she had constantly hidden even from herself.

In truth, she didn’t want to leave his side.

She didn’t want to see him with another woman.

But.

“But if I stay here, it makes things harder for him.”

He had finally started to gain recognition from people.

He had become the proud king of a nation, rising from being an ignored illegitimate child.

Everything he had achieved was being shaken because of her alone.

And Ines found that fact unbearably painful.

“Don’t blame yourself. None of this is your fault.”

My fault.

At those words, Ines recalled memories of the past.

About Carlos, who went to war instead of her brother to marry her.

‘If only I had stopped him back then…’

‘If I had told him not to go, knowing my father wouldn’t keep his promise, maybe our relationship would have been different.’

‘Can I really say it’s not my fault?’

‘Even though I knew he wouldn’t keep his promise, I couldn’t say anything because of a faint hope.’

‘No, if at least I had no abilities…’

‘Maybe my father would have kept his promise to Carlos.’

Ines couldn’t respond to Llewellyn’s insistence that she was blameless. Sensing Ines’s distress, Llewellyn added more.

“It was because of me, wasn’t it? You decided to become queen because of me.”

After discovering Ines’s abilities belatedly, Duke Claudia changed his attitude.

‘I can sell her for a higher price.’

The person who had constantly ignored and abused Ines began treating her like a prized daughter in front of others.

“No. It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t eaten what the Duchess gave me…”

Llewellyn’s mind drifted to the past that had tormented her for so long—the event that started all this tragedy. But soon, Ines called out to Llewellyn in a firm voice.

“Mother.”

Then she gently comforted her mother’s trembling hand.

“It’s all in the past now,” she said, as if to reassure her mother not to blame herself anymore.

Ines consoled Llewellyn, who often fell into self-reproach, believing that her daughter was unhappy because of her. But what use was it to dwell on right and wrong now? Nothing would change anyway.

Ines offered a bitter smile at the irreversibility of the situation. She wiped her tears with the back of her hand and said, “Don’t struggle anymore. Stay with me at the palace.”

However, Llewellyn shook her head at Ines’s words. “That, that can’t be.”

“Why not?” Ines’s smile quickly faded, her expression turning serious.

“If people find out I’m your real mother, how much will they look down on you?”

“There’s no one here who knows that anymore. So there’s no chance of being found out…” Ines replied, but Llewellyn remained firm.

“I don’t want to owe you any more emotional debts.”

“Then, are you saying you’ll keep struggling there? Farming is so hard…” Ines protested. Winter would soon follow autumn, and working hard outside in the dead of winter was not something she wanted her mother to endure.

“I’m, I’m happy now,” Llewellyn insisted.

“……”

“I feel more alive than when I was at the Duke’s mansion.”

“……Mother,” Ines whispered.

Llewellyn smiled at her daughter. “So, you should forget about me now.”

Her eyes seemed to say, ‘Don’t worry about someone like me anymore. Just think about how you can be happy.’