“The woman from Sersenfers who came to see Henrietta yesterday.”

And?

Her face was covered in bruises. It was clear that she had been hit — by a large hand, no doubt. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she was limping.

“…”

“Her body was probably even more battered in the areas covered by her clothes.”

“…”

“Come on, Hendrik. If anyone overheard this, they’d think I was some lunatic talking to himself.
Why won’t you ever give me a proper answer?”

Hendrik, already having lost interest once he realized it wasn’t the name he’d expected, poured tea into the cup placed in front of him.

“So…”

Even as he finally responded in a low voice, Hendrik was struck by a wave of self-disbelief.

The woman who had just been sitting opposite him in this very room hadn’t had a single mark on her face.

So why did he feel so strongly about hearing about a commoner girl being beaten?

At that moment, Hendrik could think of no one but Henrietta. She was the illegitimate daughter of the Osbornes, a noble family who treated her worse than a commoner.

“Do you like her? That woman?”

Hendrik smiled, returning William’s ridiculous question right back to him. The tea was slightly too hot as he drank it under William’s incredulous stare, but the sensation of it sliding down his throat was pleasant.

“…What?”

“Do you like her—Evelyn, that commoner girl?”

“You—you… what are you even saying? I’m the Prince of Huntingford!’ They say that I look just like the founding king in his portraits. I’m the very picture of royal perfection! So how could someone like me possibly fall for a girl like that?”

William looked as though he had just been terribly insulted, like an offended noblewoman.

“So, is this your way of telling me how ridiculous my question was?”

His lips trembled and he looked as though he was about to lash out and demand that Hendrik take it back immediately.

“No, I’m just saying it because the Prince of Huntingford is acting suspiciously today.”

“What’s so suspicious about me? I was just asking out of curiosity. You know that world better than I do.”

The way he casually drew a line between his world and theirs, displaying innocent cruelty in the process, made Hendrik laugh out loud.

He thought, ‘This part of him is really just like Isabella.’

“So? Are commoner women really helpless, even when they’re being hit?”

As if it were only commoner women who were helpless. It happened all the time. So often, in fact, that drawing attention to it felt almost laughable.

Hendrik gave a small shrug and abruptly stood up from his seat.

“Where are you going, mid-conversation?”

“I feel like I’m married to a nagging wife.”

“In that case, I’d rather people thought I was a lunatic talking to myself. From now on, don’t say anything.”

“How could I disobey such an order?”

Hendrik grinned mischievously, walked over to William’s side and patted his shoulder lightly.

“But listen, William.”

“…”

“Don’t be curious anymore. These are the filthy truths of the world that a noble prince like you doesn’t need to know.”

It was a world that he didn’t need to know about.

The bluntness of those words made William fall silent. He looked as though he had just had an unwelcome realisation.

“You know it, too, don’t you? That the emotion a royal must be most wary of is curiosity.”

“…”

“And once that curiosity is satisfied, what then? What are you going to do next? You won’t be able to handle it. You’re not built for that.”

At first, the words sounded mocking, and William’s initial reaction was shame. However, he wasn’t so dense that he couldn’t recognise the genuine concern in his friend’s voice.

And he had to admit it. He was deeply curious about that common girl — more than he should have been.

“That’s why, Your Highness, you should just stick to your royal duties.”

Although the words were short, Hendrik’s meaning was clear.

The idea that it was unfair for a beaten woman to have no means or will to defend herself was naive and arrogant in itself.

So just shut your mouth and do what a prince is supposed to do.

‘The work of a prince…’

William bit down hard on his lower lip. He felt as though something was weighing heavily on his chest, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was.

He had been born bearing the royal crest and raised entirely within its walls. His family was loved and respected by the people, and he had lived his life believing that the noble name was synonymous with his identity.

That such a reasonable instruction—do the work of a prince—could feel this humiliating… He never imagined a day like this would come.

Thunk.
The door closed, and William was left alone in the drawing room.

It felt as though he’d just been scolded by his father.

***

Robert pressed his palms hard against his temples, trying to ease the pounding in his head.

Despite the well-paved road, the carriage was rattling and jolting more than usual that day.

Annoyed, he tapped the wall of the carriage three times, instructing the driver to slow down.

Though the carriage did slow down, he now found it too slow.

Nevertheless, he merely held his breath and let his gaze drift into the distance.

Beyond the window, the Porus River stretched out, bathed in spring’s full bloom.

Robert stared at the changing season with an empty, unfeeling gaze.

He had finally fallen asleep with the help of alcohol, but the faint footsteps of servants walking on their heels outside the door woke him.

Even so, it was a relatively peaceful morning—simply because Henrietta was in his home.

But that peace didn’t last long.

Henrietta had fled again.

He didn’t know if it had been during the night or at the break of dawn.

Just as he was about to command Pierre to bring her back immediately, an unexpected report reached him.

‘So that was it. That’s what drove her to run.’

The royal family had taken over Hangderhood by the will of a newly emerged prince.

‘How dare they…’

His visit to the palace, scheduled for around midday, went on longer than planned and only ended as the sun set.

This was because, after meeting the empress and evading her questions, he received a summons from his mother on his way out.

Josephina van Ansonaisen.

She was now supposed to be addressed as the Duchess of Schutzman, yet ever since his father’s death, she had insisted on using her maiden name.

“What brings you to the palace?”

Born a princess, lived as the Duchess of Schutzman, and now aiming to become the emperor’s mother.

His mother, still with that lustrous silver hair and imperial-blue eyes—the unmistakable mark of the royal bloodline.
Ah, my mother.

“Come. Let’s have tea.”

She behaved as though the imperial palace were her own private estate, treating Robert like any other guest.

Her dignified grace repulsed him, but he followed Josephina silently.

Soon, the two of them were seated opposite each other in the palace’s greenhouse garden.

As she was known as ‘the Emperor’s most beloved sister’, nobody in the Empire could object to her using the palace greenhouse for leisure activities.

She wanted it, and Robert had made it happen.

Nevertheless, he felt suffocated, as though something were stuck in his throat. He reached up and tugged sharply at the tightly fastened tie around his neck.

“The weather’s lovely today.”

The phrase “the emperor’s most beloved sister” was nothing more than a false rumor—one the emperor had chosen to spread in order to protect his own fragile pride.

“Were you involved in what happened at Hangderhood in Sersenfers?”

At Robert’s abrupt question, Josephina’s expression tightened briefly in displeasure.

“Where?”

She had entrusted her hand to one of the palace maids and was now reclining leisurely in a plush armchair.

The maid handled her hand as if it were that of the empress herself, massaging it with the utmost care.

“Ah, you mean that orphanage on the Osborne estate.”

“Yes.”

“Right, that orphanage. Its name was Hangderhood, wasn’t it.”

“……”

“But my son, don’t you think it’s strange to say that I was ‘involved’? It was just a matter for the women’s quarters.”

I don’t know what promises Her Majesty the Empress may have made, but I want things to go back to how they were.”

At that, a sharp glint flashed across Josephina’s previously indifferent face.

She pulled her hand away and told everyone around her to leave in an irritated tone of voice.

As the doors closed and silence fell over the room, she rose and walked towards her son.

Robert followed her movements with his eyes, doing his best to ignore the shudder of revulsion that crept up his spine.

She was now a slender woman who didn’t even reach his shoulder, but she had once been the embodiment of all his fears.

“Are you still in love with the girl you met at the orphanage?”

“She’s Osborne’s daughter.”

“Calling a bastard child a ‘daughter’—even a stray dog in the street would laugh at that.”

“That’s not what matters.”

“I don’t care what you do with her. Whether you toy with her, kill her, or toss her away is none of my concern. But I can’t stand the sight of you running to the palace over a mere peasant girl.”

Josephina reached out and cupped her son’s cheek.

The thick ring on her finger pressed a cold chill into his skin.

“It’s just an orphanage in the countryside. What difference does it make if it ends up in someone else’s hands? Why are you standing there looking like that?”

“…”

“Robert, my beloved son.”

Robert took a deep breath. He knew his mother’s monologue was about to start again, word for word. Despite knowing how wrong her brainwashing methods were…

Whenever her vivid red lips parted, Robert’s heart would tighten without fail.

“You haven’t forgotten already, have you? Everything your mother sacrificed for you.”

The brilliant Baroness Josephina, the emperor emeritus’s favourite daughter, was the noblest woman in the empire.