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Chapter 2
A brief silence settled between Rizeana and Laiphin.
“Very well. If that is your wish.”
Laiphin rose first, slipping on his robe as he brushed back his blue hair that shimmered beneath the sunlight.
There was a time when she had fallen in love with that very sight. But now, the man reflected in Rizeana’s eyes was nothing more than the traitor who had stabbed her—nothing less, nothing more.
“Would you like to go have breakfast together?”
“No.”
Rizeana had always agreed to everything Laiphin said.
At her refusal, Laiphin looked puzzled for a moment, but he still nodded.
“I see… Then I’ll have Eliza deliver today’s documents to you as well. I’m counting on you?”
He was planning to dump most of his work onto his aide Eliza before running off to spend time with Delisa.
She had noticed it becoming more frequent at some point, but perhaps this was when it reached its peak.
Because of that, Rizeana had learned state affairs by looking over his documents, gradually broadening her understanding of governing an empire.
But as the workload piled up day after day, exhaustion had steadily weighed her body down.
“Rizeana?”
Seeing no response from her, Laiphin stepped closer.
“Ah, yes, Your Highness. Of course.”
Snapping back to herself at his voice, Rizeana forced a calm smile onto her face.
Only then did Laiphin smile more deeply as he took her hand and lightly kissed the back of it.
“I don’t know what I’d do without you, Rizeana. I love you.”
Laiphin would probably never realize how those words had become chains that bound her.
Because of those words, she had mistaken herself for someone precious to him. And in the end, that illusion had led her straight into her own destruction.
“Me too, Your Highness.”
The words I love you refused to leave her lips, even as a lie.
The place where his lips had touched the back of her hand bothered her unbearably. She wanted to scrub it clean immediately, but she forced the urge down with a smile.
‘Huh?’
Unable to continue meeting his gaze, she lowered her eyes to the hand clasped in his.
The silver ring on his finger suddenly caught her attention.
Their wedding rings were silver as well, but theirs held blue gemstones at the center.
She recognized instantly that this was not his wedding ring.
“Your Highness, that ring…?”
At her question, Laiphin glanced down. The moment he realized she was staring at it, he quickly pulled his hand away, visibly flustered.
“It was given to me by Her Majesty.”
“Ah… I see.”
“Something urgent just came to mind regarding state affairs. Rizeana, I’m sorry, but I should go.”
The smile vanished from his face in an instant. Without looking back, he hurried out of the bedroom.
Left alone, Rizeana silently watched his retreating figure until he disappeared from sight.
She looked down at the hand he had touched moments ago.
Then she replayed the words I love you in her mind.
It made her sick.
Covering her mouth with both hands, she trembled.
A confession of love from the man who had plunged a blade into her chest.
Rizeana ordered a maid to bring her a towel.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t know?”
‘It was given to me by Her Majesty.’
“That was the ring Delisa gave you!!”
Grinding her teeth, Rizeana furiously scrubbed the back of her hand with a wet towel until it turned red.
“And state affairs? You disgusting bastard. You’re not handling state affairs—you’re going to see Delisa.”
He had forced her to shoulder every filthy deed while he happily spent his days with Delisa at his side.
Rizeana spread out the documents Laiphin had given her one by one.
“To think I’m seeing these papers again…”
Even at a glance, the stack of documents Eliza had delivered that morning was enormous.
She picked up one of the papers containing several matters bundled together.
As she skimmed through it, old memories surfaced.
Laiphin had demanded many things from her, and she had obeyed for his sake.
She had cut off the financial lifelines of noble families that opposed his policies.
She had even managed the imperial family’s illegal businesses herself.
And beyond that, to preserve his position as crown prince, she had eliminated anyone who stood in his way without hesitation.
It would be a lie to say she had felt no guilt.
But over time, Rizeana had grown numb to it all.
Lowering the document, she let out a hollow laugh.
“The man praised outside the palace as a wise ruler is actually this vile.”
And she herself, who had obeyed his every order, had undoubtedly been a fool.
The main request this time was an order to secretly assassinate Marquis Carlson.
The reason?
Because he had repeatedly voiced opposition during meetings.
Rizeana felt an overwhelming disgust toward Laiphin.
A man who wore the mask of a benevolent ruler while pushing all his dirty work onto her.
He was truly horrifying.
‘I don’t even want to touch these.’
Every document was related either to Laiphin’s illegal operations or to threats against his faction. Suppressing the urge to tear them all apart, Rizeana abruptly stood.
Gathering the papers from the desk, she strode to the fireplace in one corner of the office and threw them all into the flames.
The fire roared to life.
‘That despair, that sorrow, that pain… I’ll repay every bit of it.’
The flames reflected in Rizeana’s eyes.
Unable to remain in the office any longer, Rizeana wandered through the imperial palace corridors.
Yes. She still had a chance.
She was alive, and she had not yet been framed.
More importantly, she had returned to the past. She knew the future.
For the first time, a faint hope bloomed within her chest—the hope that she could change her fate herself.
With two maids following behind her, Rizeana walked down the hallway.
In the distance, someone approached from the other end.
The moment she recognized who it was, the hopeful mood she had just begun to feel sank instantly.
She had thought avenging herself against Laiphin would be enough.
But in her excitement over changing the future, she had forgotten something important.
There was another person who had contributed to her death.
Realizing that, she cursed herself under her breath.
“Rizeana… greetings to the Crown Princess Consort.”
Wearing a pink dress, Delisa strutted through the imperial palace as though it belonged to her.
She deliberately spoke Rizeana’s name first before lazily adding the honorific title afterward.
Anyone could tell it was blatant disrespect.
“Lady Crodonne.”
To speak the name she hated once again.
It left a foul taste in her mouth, yet at the same time exhilaration began to rise within her—her mind filling endlessly with thoughts of how she could ruin this woman.
After offering a shallow curtsy, Delisa raised her head.
“Where are you headed?”
“…That’s none of your concern.”
“My. Such informal speech, Your Highness. Surely you’re not speaking casually to me…?”
Rizeana, who had died and returned from the dead, had no intention of treating one of the people responsible for her death with respect.
She scoffed at Delisa.
“There’s no reason for me to use formalities with you.”
“I… see.”
Rizeana had always been the one to quietly lower her head and pass by.
Caught off guard by her unusual behavior, Delisa hesitated before quickly recovering her composure.
“And where might you be returning from, my lady?”
“I doubt it’s anything worthy of Your Highness’s interest.”
Before Rizeana could finish speaking, Delisa interrupted her smoothly.
“Are you perhaps attending the upcoming ball?”
“The ball…”
“Surely you haven’t forgotten? Oh dear… It seems you still haven’t found a partner.”
That’s right.
Around this time before her regression, there had been a grand ball.
Delisa snapped open her fan to hide the mocking curve of her lips as she laughed. At the same time, the silver ring on her hand glittered conspicuously.
‘That ring…’
Rizeana’s gaze lingered on it for only a brief moment.
Delisa’s laughter grew louder.
You noticed, didn’t you?
Rizeana could practically read Delisa’s thoughts from her smug expression.
But this time, Rizeana had no intention of backing down.
“How laughable.”
“Of course it is. How could it not be amusing when the noble Crown Princess Consort is about to lose her nest?”
Delisa’s mocking face loomed close.
Yet Rizeana only looked at her indifferently.
“You and Laiphin are so inseparable, after all.”
Delisa flinched at the coldness in Rizeana’s unwavering stare.
“Laiphin looks for me every single day. Even in the middle of dining with you.”
“Why are you suddenly bringing that up?”
“Why do you think?”
Delisa remembered.
Laiphin constantly leaving her alone for hours under the excuse of urgent business.
“Has Laiphin ever spoken to you about state affairs?”
“Th-That’s…!”
Rizeana took a step forward.
Her lips drew closer, her voice slow and quiet like poison seeping in.
“Laiphin tells me to kill people.”
“…!”
Kill people?
For the first time, Delisa truly understood the rumors surrounding Rizeana.
A criminal hiding behind the mask of a crown princess. A villainess wearing a crown.
The countless titles whispered behind Rizeana’s back flashed through her mind.
Without realizing it, Delisa’s hands began trembling uncontrollably.
“That’s what Laiphin calls ‘state affairs’ when he asks favors of me. Though perhaps a cuckoo bird stealing another’s nest wouldn’t understand.”
Rizeana pulled back slightly, remaining close enough that their breaths almost touched.
“Do you really think someone like you could play the role of Crown Princess beside him?”
As Delisa stood there flushed with anger, breathing hard, Rizeana smiled brightly.
A crown prince obsessed only with protecting his power, and a crown princess who knew nothing of governance.
The future of the Avid Empire was obvious.
“I sincerely hope you become Crown Princess.”
It was unmistakably a plea.
Late that night, after dismissing everyone, Rizeana sat alone at her desk.
Usually buried beneath mountains of paperwork, the desk was emptier than ever before.
Moonlight poured through the wide window, illuminating her cold eyes.
‘Revenge.’
Once she resolved to repay everything done to her, there was nothing left for her to fear.
For the first time in a long while, her mind felt calm.
Quietly, Rizeana picked up the calendar beside her.
“Ten days from now.”
That was when she would be stripped of her title as Crown Princess and ultimately die by Laiphin’s sword.
She dipped the tip of her quill into ink.
Then she circled the date ten days ahead.
And the event that would lead to her death was—
“The kidnapping of Delisa Lupe Crodonne.”
This time, she lowered the pen onto the date five days from now.
“Five days left.”
The day Laiphin’s mistress, Delisa Lupe Crodonne, would be kidnapped at the temple.
Without even noticing the ink dripping onto the calendar, Rizeana sank deep into thought.
‘If I’m going to die in ten days anyway, then I’d rather be the one kidnapped five days from now.’
“Revenge…”
Rizeana murmured in a cold voice.
Laiphin was the crown prince of the Avid Empire. There were not many ways to take revenge against someone like him while remaining within the empire.
But if she were to leave the Avid Empire…
Her gaze fell upon the circle marking the day Delisa would be kidnapped.
Slowly, the corners of Rizeana’s lips curled upward.
The time for Rizeana’s revenge was finally beginning.
