TVMA 02

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A brief silence passed.

Yulion slowly tilted his head to the side, then raised one hand and touched his ear.

“Could you say that again? I think I must have misheard you.”

He raised his eyebrows as though he genuinely had no idea what I meant.

With a quiet sigh, I repeated myself.

“Please propose to me, Your Highness.”

At the sound of my voice, clearer than before, Yulion stopped his playful act.

His golden eyes shimmered as though examining me, and soon a mocking smile crept onto his lips.

“You seem to have a peculiar hobby of joking with your life on the line.”

“I’m serious, Your Highness.”

“Then I’ll answer you just as seriously. No.”

“Is it because I’m a Casiayan?”

“You understand well. Your family. The rumors surrounding you. None of it offers me any benefit. I will take a Crown Princess whom the people want.”

Yulion’s voice was firm.

The curiosity that had once sparkled in his eyes disappeared, and displeasure slowly crept across his face.

I brought up something that would pique his curiosity again.

“How about a free supply of Tarrot?”

As expected, a spark returned to Yulion’s eyes.

Tarrot was a medicinal herb that barely kept the current Emperor alive after he had collapsed from an unknown illness.

However, it only grew in Casiayan territory, particularly in the lands under my management, which was why Yulion was even more unable to do anything about Casiayan.

For a moment, Yulion looked at me with interest, but he quickly regained his composure and spoke indifferently.

“The Imperial Family has plenty of money, Lady Casiayan.”

So that wasn’t enough.

I pulled out another card.

“I can give you everything I have. Just marry me for one year.”

“No. Even so, you are still a Casiayan lady, are you not? What I want isn’t in Casiayan.”

Yulion hated the Casiayan Ducal House.

He never openly showed hostility toward them, but I had heard that Yulion was an upright Crown Prince who genuinely cared about his people.

It was only natural that someone like him would despise Casiayan, a family notorious for its cruelty.

“Let me say it again. If I take you, a woman notorious for being a villainess, as my Crown Princess, the people will be disappointed in me. Do you have a card strong enough to make me bear all of that?”

Everything he said was completely reasonable.

Instead of answering immediately, I pulled out the documents I had prepared beforehand from inside my robe.

Thud.

Yulion’s gaze fell upon the stack of documents I placed on the table.

“I’ll place Casiayan in Your Highness’s hands. And that is only a fraction of it.”

Yulion silently picked up the documents.

As he turned through them one page at a time, the crease between his brows deepened.

He’s good at controlling his emotions, at least.

Those documents were filled with the crimes and corruption of Casiayan that I had collected over the years.

I had brought only a portion of the information I possessed to use as leverage in my negotiations with Yulion.

Among them were also incidents connected to my mother’s death.

“……”

The silence was so complete that it felt as though even the air had stopped breathing.

At last, Yulion closed the final page.

His troubled expression was unmistakable.

“Why do you want to marry me badly enough to go this far?”

“I think you can guess after seeing those. I want the same thing Your Highness wants.”

Revenge for my mother.

It was a reason anyone could understand.

“Then there’s no need for us to actually marry…”

“There is no stronger bond than marriage. Whatever we do together, no one will suspect us if we’re husband and wife.”

The Casiayan Ducal House was by no means an easy opponent.

If Yulion and I, who had no connection whatsoever, suddenly began meeting frequently and working together, my father would certainly become suspicious.

Yulion surely understood that as well.

He lifted his gaze from the documents.

The moment my eyes met his golden ones, which shimmered with anger, I became certain.

Yulion would never be able to refuse my proposal.

And, just as I expected, he let out a hollow laugh and gestured toward the sofa opposite him.

“I never thought I’d have to go back on my word. Sit down for now, Lady Casiayan. It looks like this will be a long night.”

Having said that, he started to call for his attendant, only to stop.

“Oh, right. You put them all to sleep, so I suppose no one can bring us tea.”

As expected, Yulion seemed to know everything.

Even though I had tried to deal with them as quietly as possible.

“…I have no idea what you mean.”

I smiled shamelessly and feigned ignorance.

It was sleep herb that left no traces anyway, and everyone would wake up after a little while.

Apparently, Yulion had no intention of pursuing the matter further. He merely shrugged and immediately got to the point.

---

The entire empire was thrown into an uproar.

News that the Crown Prince had proposed to the Lady of Casiayan spread like wildfire.

The Empress opposed the marriage, and even my father, the Duke of Casiayan, was taken aback.

He even subtly pressured Yulion, suggesting that he should take the eldest lady, Liliana, instead.

But Yulion remained adamant.

He insisted that it had to be me and pushed the marriage through in the blink of an eye.

Before I knew it, we had become the couple starring in the romance of the century.

“Crown Prince Enchanted by Villainess—Wedding Finally Takes Place Today.”

The news of my wedding was printed in huge letters across today’s newspaper.

I skimmed the headline and casually tossed it aside.

Just then, the carriage jolted.

Jenid picked up the newspaper that had fallen and placed it back on the seat.

“By the way, are you really sure we don’t need to take the other girls with us?”

Concern appeared on Jenid’s face.

She was talking about the maids who had served me at the ducal residence.

“They all have families. Once they enter the Imperial Palace, they won’t be able to see their families often.”

Jenid had family as well, though hers consisted only of her older brother and his child.

She had long since cut ties with them, though.

“Even so, they wanted to follow you. They were worried about what would happen if you became lonely in the Imperial Palace.”

“I’m not a child. What are you talking about?”

Even as I said that, a small laugh escaped me.

My maids, including Jenid, had been with me since my mother was alive. They were practically family to me.

Precisely because of that, I had deliberately treated them harshly and pretended to torment them in order to deceive my siblings.

Otherwise, they would have been put in danger because of me.

Perhaps the only people who knew how much I truly treasured those maids were Jenid and the maids themselves.

That was probably why our bond was even stronger.

Though to outsiders, all they would have seen was a cruel young lady tormenting her poor maids.

“Besides, as commoners, it would be difficult for them to work as maids in the Imperial Palace. They’re much better off going somewhere else.”

As my final act of cruelty, I had driven the maids who followed me out of the ducal residence as though I were throwing them out.

Then, through Jenid, I had written letters of recommendation for them.

By now, they had probably all arrived at their new workplaces.

Concern clouded Jenid’s face as she looked at me.

“You’ll have a hard time too, my lady.”

“I’ll be fine. Having just Jenid is enough for me.”

Although Jenid served as my maid, she was actually a noblewoman, not a commoner.

She was the younger sister of Count Vien, a high-ranking noble, and was certainly not someone who should have been working as a maid.

Even so, she had remained by my mother’s and my side all this time and worked as a maid solely out of gratitude.

“I’m happy to hear you say that, but… I’m the one who has always been grateful.”

After the House of Count Vien had fallen so completely that it could barely maintain its existence, Jenid had nearly died.

It was said that my mother had given her a new lease on life.

Jenid had remained by my mother’s side to repay that debt, and even after my mother died, she refused to leave me and continued taking care of me.

By now, even if I spent the rest of my life repaying my debt to Jenid, it still wouldn’t be enough.

While I was lost in these thoughts, the carriage came to a stop at the entrance to the Imperial Palace.

“My lady, we’ve arrived.”

The knight knocked on the carriage door from outside.

When Jenid opened it, dazzling sunlight poured inside.

I slightly lifted the hem of my pure white dress and slowly stepped out of the carriage.

“Everyone, show proper respect!”

The guards and knights called out to the gathered citizens.

The surroundings had already fallen silent.

I raised my eyes, which had adjusted to the sunlight, and looked around.

People of all kinds completely surrounded us.

But they had one thing in common.

They were all looking at me.

“It’s the Lady of Casiayan!”

“The empire must be doomed. How could they make a villainess the Crown Princess…”

“I heard she drove out all the maids who had devoted themselves to serving her!”

“Shh, keep your voice down. Do you want Casiayan to come after you?”

“What of it? Do you think they know who I am?”

“Exactly, exactly. If not now, when will we ever get another chance to curse them to our hearts’ content?”

The gazes directed at me could hardly be called welcoming.

As whispers insulting both me and the Casiayan Ducal House filled the air, I swallowed a bitter smile.

It was exactly the reaction I had expected.

“This way.”

Following the knight’s guidance, we moved closer to the castle gate.

The wedding ceremony would begin with Yulion and me marching together from the castle gate to the inner garden.

Yulion, who had arrived first, was waiting there for me.

…He’s dazzling today, too.

His black hair was the first thing that caught my eye, standing out even beneath the bright sunlight.

Then I saw the clear golden eyes beneath it.

The distinctive golden eyes of the Imperial Family gazed at me with an enigmatic glow.

“Rohiriel.”

Yulion called my name.

With a bright, pleasant smile he had put on for public appearances, I approached him.

I was just about to place my hand over the hand Yulion extended toward me when—

“You villainess!”

A sharp cry rang out from the crowd.

I instinctively turned around.

A young girl was standing atop a tall rock, glaring at me.

“Because of Casiayan, I lost everything!”

Her voice, filled with hatred, rang out once more.

Before I could even react, I felt a dull impact against my head.

Something wet trickled down afterward.

What fell with a soft thud at my feet was a crushed eggshell that reeked of raw egg.

“Oh my goodness, Your Highness!”

Jenid hurried over and wiped me with a handkerchief, but my clothes were already stained.

Before I could even comprehend what was happening, another furious cry followed.

“Bring my parents back to life, you vicious Casiayan!”

I casually brushed away the liquid running down me.

The girl, wearing a robe over her head and holding a basket of eggs, met my eyes.

Her expression twisted even further before she shouted at the top of her lungs.

“I, Hemion Martin, as a proud member of the nobility, will never recognize the Casiayan lady who commits such evil deeds as the Crown Princess!”

Hemion Martin.

The moment I heard that name, I immediately understood the situation.

She belonged to a family that had recently been ruined because of a new business my father had started.

The Martin Viscounty had been an insignificant provincial noble family, but I heard that they had dared to stand up to my father simply because they were nobles.

The result had been disastrous.

The Viscount’s House fell.

While being exiled after being falsely accused of crimes they had never committed, the Viscount and his wife died in a rockslide.

As for the heir, hadn’t he been attacked by some thugs somewhere?

Still, I heard there was a child who somehow survived.

I had been planning to investigate separately soon, thinking that the child might become a means of getting a hold on Casiayan.

So, in a way, I was grateful that she had appeared right in front of me.

“Casiayan is a murderer! You cruel, vicious, despicable—!”

But something about Hemion seemed strange.

Her trembling voice could be attributed to the circumstances, but her complexion was as pale as someone on the verge of death.

And it looks like she can’t use one of her legs.

By then, a guard who had approached Hemion lunged toward her.

“Let me go!”

Desperately struggling to avoid being caught, she suddenly tore open the hem of her skirt.

The sudden turn of events shocked the crowd.

I, too, froze when I saw her exposed thigh.

There was a long slash wound on Hemion’s leg.

Veins protruded around the dark-red wound like a spiderweb.

Even at a glance, it was clearly an unusual injury.

But I became serious for an entirely different reason.

That wound isn’t ordinary. Could it be…

My eyes narrowed instinctively as I tried to examine Hemion’s wound more closely.

“As you can see, I don’t have much longer to live. The vicious Casiayan did this to me! Please, let everyone know that the Martin Viscounty was sacrificed by Casiayan… Cough!”

Blood suddenly gushed from Hemion’s mouth as she pleaded through clenched teeth.

The blood splattered onto the dirt and instantly turned black, killing the weeds around it.

At that moment, I didn’t need to see anything more.

I ran toward Hemion.

There was no doubt.

It was the deadly poison, Bihwa.

It traveled through the bloodstream, causing the veins to become visible. Eventually, the veins throughout the entire body would protrude through the skin and bloom outward like flowers.

Not only did it horribly deform the body in the process, it could also poison the people nearby.

It was infamous as one of the most vicious poisons even in the underworld.

But it’s a poison our family loves to use.

Damn it.

This Casiayan was useless to me until the very end.

They had even managed to make me the center of a scandal on my wedding day.

Suppressing the curse that nearly slipped from my lips, I grabbed the guard who was trying to drag Hemion away.

“Your Highness, the Crown Princess…?”

“Move. Now!”

If this continued, everyone nearby would be poisoned.

Judging by the state of the blood she had vomited, there was no time to waste.

Hemion was already on the verge of losing consciousness.

Taking advantage of the guards’ confusion, I pushed them aside and laid Hemion down.

She struggled desperately, but the strength of someone on the verge of death was pitifully weak.

Jenid, who had naturally followed me, whispered anxiously.

“Will she be all right? This must have been done by the Duke…”

Something the Duke must have arranged.

Although she left the rest unsaid, I understood perfectly.

She was worried that if I treated someone my father had tried to eliminate, I would arouse unnecessary suspicion.

But that would only matter if Casiayan’s name had not already been exposed.

This situation was the exact opposite.

“That’s precisely why it’s fine. Casiayan has been publicly accused in front of all these people. If I treat her, I have the perfect justification—restoring our family’s reputation.”

If Hemion Martin died here in front of everyone, the people would undoubtedly suspect Casiayan.

But what if I, the “Lady of Casiayan,” treated Hemion in front of everyone?

I might even get praised.

I could thwart my father’s plans and receive praise at the same time.

It was killing two birds with one stone, so there was no reason not to step forward.

“Jenid, the bag.”

“Here.”

I quickly opened the medical bag Jenid had brought and took out the necessary tools.

Then I shouted at the people gathered around us.