Bright sunlight streaked across the dark room. Ines’s eyes slowly opened at the bright light tickling her face.

She slowly raised herself while staring at the familiar ceiling.

Ines, adjusting her clothes that were practically undone, muttered.

“Did I fall asleep here…”

The place where Ines had opened her eyes was right in front of the door. It seemed she had fallen asleep on the floor despite the bed being right there.

Looking around with a dazed mind, Ines recalled what had happened.

In the early dawn, after Carlos had left like that, Ines had collapsed onto the floor. How many tears had she shed after that?

She must have cried until exhaustion took over – if tears had a storage tank, it would surely have hit bottom by now.

“Haa…”

Ines let out a brief sigh as she raised her head. The blood and glass shards scattered on the carpet showed without filter the serious events that had occurred here yesterday.

Looking at the glass pieces strewn across the floor, she recalled her conversation with Carlos.

She had done her absolute best when Carlos confronted her about what kind of relationship she had with the Marquis’s son.

She had revealed why she had been visiting the Marquis’s mansion all this time, and confessed about being blackmailed by the Marquis.

It was a secret she had never spoken of herself since birth. But Carlos hadn’t believed any of it. Ines spoke in a tired voice.

“What more should I do in this situation?”

She had gotten pregnant for Carlos.

It was a child conceived hoping their relationship might improve, even if things couldn’t go back to how they were before.

After that, she had tried her best not to become a queen who would be pointed at with scorn, for the child’s sake. Fearing her secret birth might burden him, she had humbly accepted even the terrible things the Marquis ordered.

But what she got in return was the filthy stigma of having an affair with another man.

‘I only tried my best.’

She had only tried her best to enjoy ordinary happiness like others, but all that remained was humiliation. The dirty rumors surrounding her must already be widespread in social circles by now. She could endure such scandals.

“But at least…”

Shouldn’t at least Carlos believe in her? Yet this was all she got as a result of the confession she had made after gathering all her courage.

The miserable outcome stripped away all the will that remained in her.

“There’s nothing I can do.”

She felt lost. She couldn’t find the right direction to move forward.

She hated Carlos for dismissing her words as lies. But on the other hand, she regretted confessing to him so late.

‘If only I had told him before leaving the palace.’

If she had honestly opened up when she was being blackmailed by the Marquis, she wouldn’t have faced such misunderstandings now. Then he might have listened to her words more seriously.

But there was no point in regret now.

Ines, who had finally properly put on her scattered clothes, got up from her spot. As soon as she moved, a groan escaped her lips.

“Ugh…”

Her whole body ached as if she had been beaten from sleeping on the hard floor.

She wanted to go to bed and lie down comfortably.

This was the first time she hadn’t been able to rest even for a moment since returning from the Marquis’s mansion. Right now, she just wanted to sleep peacefully without any worries.

As Ines got up and was slowly limping along, it happened.

While crossing the room, she ended up stepping on the glass shards scattered on the floor.

“Ungh…”

Ines frowned as she examined her foot. Red droplets of blood were forming like dew on her white skin. As she quietly stared at it, she suddenly recalled something she had forgotten.

“Come to think of it, my healing power didn’t work on Carlos.”

Ines looked at her palm.

“Why doesn’t my ability work on him?”

Never before had her ability failed to work. But it seemed unlikely that Carlos’s body was specially resistant to her ability, since she had already used it on him before. Wasn’t she still limping now because of those aftereffects?

“Perhaps…”

After considering various possibilities, Ines came up with one hypothesis.

“Maybe it doesn’t work on people I’ve already used it on?”

But she soon shook her head, thinking that couldn’t be it. If that were the case, her ability would have only worked once on Alfredo too.

She had already used her ability countless times on the Marquis’s son. So that couldn’t be the right answer.

Though she couldn’t know the exact reason, one thing was certain – the misunderstandings had deepened because her ability hadn’t worked on him.

“If my healing power had worked on Carlos, things wouldn’t have gotten this bad.”

It felt like fate’s prank. It seemed almost like a heavenly decree that the two of them should remain with deep emotional rifts between them.

As Ines stood there wearing a bitter smile, there came a knock.

Ines instinctively looked at the clock. Though the second hand pointed to noon, only Margaret would be visiting her room anyway.

Ines’s face instantly hardened as she answered in a stiff voice.

“Come in.”

Then as she raised her head with an indifferent expression, an unexpected person stood there.

“…Raella?”

It was Raella, not Margaret.

“Raella, why are you…”

“I pay my respects, Your Majesty. From today, I will be serving instead of Margaret… Oh my goodness!”

Raella’s practiced greeting was cut short. She surveyed the room with a shocked expression and asked.

“Why, why is the room in this state? Oh my! I must call the maids to clean this up first!”

Before even finishing her greeting to Ines, Raella pulled the bell rope to summon the maids. As Ines watched Raella’s strange behavior, she asked.

“Where did Margaret go that you’re here instead?”

Originally, though Raella had entered the palace as a lady-in-waiting, she had never properly served Ines. So why was she now saying she would serve instead of Margaret?

To her question, Raella responded with a surprised face.

“Oh my, haven’t you been informed yet? Margaret left the capital this morning. She said she was going to the villa in the south to prepare for His Majesty and Your Majesty’s stay.”

“The villa in the south…?”

Tezever’s winters were harsh.

So when the coldest month of the year came, the royal family would often leave for the warmer south to stay there.

‘But we won’t be able to go south this year.’

However, this year they weren’t in a condition to stay in the south because of Ines’s pregnancy. Therefore, it made no sense that Margaret had been sent south.

‘What exactly is going on?’

While Ines was bewildered by the sudden situation, the maid who had just entered began cleaning the room.

At the same time, Raella approached Ines.

“Also, His Majesty has ordered that Your Majesty should stay only within the palace for now.”

“What?”

“You may receive guests, but only briefly during daylight hours. No going outside is allowed. His Majesty asks for your understanding as this is for the child’s sake. Ha, because of this, I too will be stuck inside the palace.”

In other words, Ines had been placed under house arrest.

Raella, who used to go out whenever Ines left the palace, complained.

“Even so, won’t you find it stifling to be under house arrest?”

Unlike Raella, who was expressing her dissatisfaction with a grumbling face, Ines’s expression wasn’t so bad. No, she actually seemed pleased with Carlos’s order.

‘So does this mean I can’t go to the Marquis’s mansion anymore?’

Probably the main reason for the house arrest was the disgusting rumors about her and the Marquis’s son.

There was no way Carlos would allow her to meet them.

As that thought occurred to her, Ines’s expression brightened even more.

She no longer had to endure Alfredo’s pain in his place, nor take on the wounds of people whose faces she didn’t even know.

Moreover, with even Margaret gone from her side, the house arrest was more like giving her freedom. The more she sorted through her thoughts, the more her lips curved upward.

Though she didn’t know what Carlos was thinking, what mattered was that she didn’t have to suffer anymore.

With her heart feeling much lighter, Ines plopped down on the bed.

When was the last time her heart had felt this peaceful?

An uncontrollable smile bloomed on Ines’s face.