Meanwhile, a cafe around the same time.

“I don’t recognize you, Lillian. You didn’t want to meet me up.”

Verndia was overhearing the conversation between Jess and Lillian while hiding in the ceiling.

If it wasn’t for this, he would have followed the princess to see Widnix.

Today was the day Lillian made an appointment with Jess and Lillian was really on her own.

He came to prevent an unsavory incident of passing the blame onto Psychke if ever something happened to Lillian, since Jess has no capability to do so.

“You kept avoiding me, but why did you ask to see me first today?”

Jess sneered while Lillian bit her lip and glared at him without saying anything, then grabbed the hem of his dress and fired an argumentative shot at him.

“What are you doing?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why did you meet Psychke?”

“Ah, that princess. Since you won’t meet me, I just broke through her window.”

“Window?”

Lillian burst into laughter at the indescribable brazenness.

“A necklace or something, after all the things you’re blabbering, what? window?”

“Can’t I?”

Jess smirked, touching the scar on him cheek.

Embarrassed by that action, Lillian clenched her teeth and immediately pulled away from him.

“No. So why do you keep torturing me!”

“That self-centered mindset is still there.”

“Tell me quickly!”

The room was deserted, but I was terrified of being seen.

An assassin and a princess, what an unlikely pairing.

She would have been horrified if she had known Verndia was eavesdropping from the ceiling.

“What do you want from me? Money? I gave you enough of it. At that time, I gave it to you even though you failed. Title? There was nothing I can’t do.”

“Lillian.”

Jess grinned, not matching his stern expression.

“I don’t think it makes sense to entrust a request that can’t be successful in the first place and discuss failure.”

“…”

“The request you entrusted was ‘to expel Princess Psychke from the capital’, right? Asking to touch a mad dog’s woman is too big of a request.”

What was the request Lillian made?

Tendons grew on Verndia’s forehead, who was eavesdropping.

“I’m glad wer’re here, or I’d beat the crap out of you. Besides, we’re an assassins’ guild. We specialize in killing, not kicking out people.”

Jess giggled.

“Ah, come to think of it, I heard that Princess Psychke is going to the north soon, so she seemed to have fulfilled your wish.”

“Are you saying that now?”

Lillian shuddered at her.

“Saying things. Do you even know what will happen to me if she gets credit for that?”

“Does that have anything to do with me?”

“Jess!”

“It was you who abandoned us.”

Jess laughed languidly.

The inhuman aspect was completed as the brutal impression was combined with the cruel knife marks.

“Wouldn’t it be nice to leave us and go to Silkisia?”

“You decided not to talk about that! I just, thanks to Duke Evergreen’s help-”

“It’s still okay to blame others.”

A cornered Lillian pursed her lips.

At this, Jess’ eyes were savagely torn.

“Why don’t you be honest when no one was watching. You said you did it because she coveted your position as princess. That you couldn’t see your friends—”

“No!”

“If words and actions are different, what should I believe?”

“…”

Lillian was loss for words, biting her fingernails.

She still remembered the day she went to the temple with the Duke of Evergreen and how her blood reacted to Logan’s blood and hair. She was actually happy.

She thought that if she became a princess, she would be able to get her friends from the West out of the Black Moon.

However, when she became a princess, the gap between the princess, who was like the stars in the sky, and the assassin, who was at the bottom of her life, was too great.

‘How can I say that these guys are my friends?’

She was ashamed.

It was even more so when he saw Hilvia clicking her tongue in front of wealthy commoners.

So…

“Anyway. I didn’t call you to ask about this.”

Jess laughed grimly.

“I’ve already given up betting on you. So, I’m going to try betting on Princess Psychke.”

“What?”

Shocked by the sudden remark, Lillian jumped up and hit the table.

“No!”

“I thought you were naïve, but you were not. So, you would survive.”

“No way!”

“I know what you can do.”

“I-I will help you. I’ll help you, so don’t say anything more!”

“That you are a monster?”

“No!”

Lillian let out an incomprehensible growl. She squeezed the center of her hollow chest like someone wearing her necklace.

“No, I’m not like that!”

“Then?”

“That, that… no. It’s nothing, I’ll help you. Don’t go. Aren’t we friends?”

Lillian, who was talking gibberish, desperately grabbed Jess.

He frowned and brushed it off.

“What friends do you mean?”

“Please, Jess. Please.”

Jess got up from his seat.

Lillian hurriedly grabbed him.

“Don’t go!”

“Okay. I wanted to see this expression.”

Lillian froze at the words like a cruel victor.

Jess’ slow hand stroked her flawless cheek. He stroked her silver hair, ran it through the grain, grabbed a handful of them, and brought them carefully.

“Mam Stella said that a secret must be kept. That’s why I tried to protect it even when my body became rags…”

As the saying goes, the hand holding the hair was full of scars.

Jess kissed her hair lightly.

“It is of no use.”

“Oh, no.”

“Second month of Vicente, 12th.”

It was the day Marquis Esland had spoken of.

Verndia on the ceiling listened.

“It was the first day you came to us after becoming a princess. I was expecting it, but I was stupid.”

Jess laughed.

“Because you were a real monster; your body and mind.”

“No, I’m not like that!”

“You do not have to worry. There will be nothing to do in the future.”

“Jess! Jess!”

“Take care of yourself, princess.”

Despite the frail call, he never looked back. Jess just left the room.

Lillian screamed his name and ran away.

Silence came over the noisy footsteps. Verndia was troubled as he covered his mouth.

“What?”

Princess Lillian was a monster. What were they talking about?

* *

“Are you here?”

It was when Psychke returned to Lestir Mansion after finishing her deal with Widnix.

Verndia jumped out of nowhere and grabbed her by the wrist.

She knew he had been there to eavesdrop on Lillian and Jess’ tryst.

So, Psychke looked up at her fiancé and gave her a light hello.

“You’re here early.”

“Ugh, whatever. What occurred was short.”

As he led her somewhere, Verndia frowned at her pale expression.

“What else was that Widnix talking about? You told me not to come, so tell me.”

“He just gave me medicine to get my body back to normal.”

Verndia’s steps stopped.

“I didn’t take it because I lost my memory.”

Psychke explained the side effects of Widnix’s medicine.

Verndia, who had been listening to her story with a serious face, cautiously opened her mouth.

“Anything else besides that?”

“There were more, but it’s a secret, so I guess it’s hard to say.”

He was displeased with the word secret but did not ask more.

Instead, he grunted and asked another question.

“What did you do to make the smell of perfume vibrate so much?”

“I accidentally broke the bottle.”

“Are you not hurt? I’ll have to put a drop on it.”

Contrary to the spiteful words, Verndia hardened her face like a person who had suffered a serious problem for her.

While doing so, he checked her palm to see if there was a piece of glass stuck somewhere.

Psychke gently withdrew her hand.

“You don’t have to check my hand. How was your trip?”

“There was nothing to worry about. But-”

Verndia briefly described the conversation he had overheard.

“I didn’t know what a monster was. It was an unknown fact that the holy water turned black during her discrimination ceremony, so I don’t think it was because of that.”

He paused for a moment before knocking on the door of the room in front of him.

“More than that, Princess. Have you forgotten anything?”

“Yes? What?”

What else are you trying to say by looking at him so subtly?

Psychke stepped back with wary eyes and noticed that Verndia had knocked on her room.

The corners of her eyes went down sullenly as she stared at her for a long time with her eyes expecting something from her.

“Don’t you have any of mine?”

“Ah!”

Psychke, who finally realized what Verndia was referring to, hurriedly opened the door.

“It was completed later than Duke Evergreen’s. I was waiting because it needed more maturation.”

She pulled out a box she had been keeping dear from deep in the drawer and handed it over.

Verndia made a thrilled face as he snuggled his box into his arms.

“I thought you wouldn’t give it to me because you looked at me so pathetically.”

“I didn’t look at you in a pathetic manner….”

He was embarrassed because he liked it as if he had received the whole world in a small gift.

Psychke lowered her gaze and said something unsolicited.

“I’ll give you a return for the sword later. Is there anything you would like to have? I’m buying with the duke’s money anyway, but I’ll pay you back later.”

As she was talking, she realized that she was using his property, so she felt ashamed and said she would pay it back.

“What do you mean, payback?”

“If the princess uses it, it’s the princess’s money,” said Verndia with a smile.

He tried the perfume Psychke had on her wrist. It smelled like bergamot.

“I chose it because it resembles the duke’s name, but if you don’t like it, I’ll change it.”

“No way. I like it very much.”

Raising the corner of his mouth seductively, he sprayed perfume behind Psychke’s ear.

A refreshing scent hung in the air. He was very happy that she smelled like him.

* *

At that time, Silkisia.

“Designating Princess Psychke in the North…”

Yzhar, who came home after a long time, murmured.

He had been in the Death Knights’ quarters ever since it was revealed that Psychke was Glorielle Silkisia.

“Yes, brother.”

Lennox, who was scolded by his father for presiding over the convention, nodded timidly.

He looked like he didn’t know if it was a good thing to tell his brother about the results of the convention.

Same with the blue moon ledger and Lillian’s discriminant.

It was Lennox, who had become very depressed over a short period of time.

He wouldn’t have said it if his older brother hadn’t asked first.

Yzhar spat out without hesitation.

“If she receives credit, Silkisia will end that day.”