Axel walked out of the office at a fast, deliberate pace.
Near the office, he’d said.
Axel’s expression set into something dangerous as he recalled Xenon’s words.
In all the time Judith had been coming to see him, she had never once stopped somewhere else before arriving. Her only purpose in coming to the imperial palace was the office, and nothing else.
But today of all days — she had somewhere else to be?
Axel felt a primal, instinctive dread the moment he heard it. The tips of his fingers began to grow cold.
Because if Judith had business elsewhere in the palace, there was only one reason that could explain it.
The Crown Prince…
He did not want to doubt her. But first, he had to silence the unease that was consuming him. He needed to see it with his own eyes.
If she is with the Crown Prince right now…
He had said he’d seen her near the office, hadn’t he? There was one place Axel could think of.
…That place. If they were going to meet without being seen by anyone, that would be where.
Axel walked quickly.
He prayed that Judith would not be there.
But his prayers changed nothing.
Because as he crossed the boundary where the servants no longer walked, moving deeper toward the garden, familiar voices reached him almost immediately.
The very voice he had most desperately hoped not to hear.
Without thinking, Axel held his breath.
That day — Axel understood at once that it referred to the day they had met at the dressmaker’s studio.
According to Judith’s letter, nothing had happened that day. She had called it a coincidence — an absolute, complete coincidence — and begged him not to misunderstand.
…But then what did “getting along well” mean? What is this?
In the midst of his confusion, Judith’s voice followed close behind.
Axel felt his heart plunge straight down. It was as though he had heard something he was never meant to hear. She had not denied a single word of what the Crown Prince said.
Why? Why not?
Her words sounded, to him, exactly like someone afraid of being discovered by him — afraid of being found out.
Axel moved quickly through what he was witnessing.
A Lady Melberine and a Crown Prince, conversing in secret in a place no one else would come.
A Lady Melberine worried about being found out by him. A Crown Prince keeping her there.
It looked exactly like a hidden rendezvous — an illicit meeting with a secret lover, conducted behind a husband’s back.
His mind grew increasingly tangled, and the world seemed to go dim at the edges. Their conversation no longer reached him properly.
So Lady Melberine truly… the Crown Prince…
The circumstances that had made him suspicious began to resurface, one after another.
And now Axel was witnessing with his own eyes the very meeting that proved it.
There was no longer any point in denying it.
Shuian had been right.
Lady Melberine had betrayed him.
The moment that understanding landed in him, the pain was immediate — like something sharp being driven into his chest, hollowing it out.
Was this betrayal he was feeling? Why does my chest hurt this much? He could not understand it. Could it be that I, Judith…
Axel’s hand closed around the fabric of his coat over his left side.
He could not bear to keep listening. He turned to leave — and then the Crown Prince’s voice caught him by the ankle.
He could not make himself walk away. He stood still and listened.
Their words came to him in fragments — his mind was too damaged to absorb them cleanly.
He was biting down on his lip, trying to hold himself together, when a petulant little outburst from Judith reached him clearly.
Her voice rang in his ears, sharp and unmistakable.
The tone of it — playful, almost affectionate — like a person teasing someone they were close to.
The moment Axel heard it, he understood.
She was explaining herself — defending the situation. Just as she had done in the letter she’d sent him: it was a coincidence, I wasn’t with the Crown Prince, it was all a misunderstanding.
She was saying the exact same thing to the Crown Prince now.
The difference was — she was the smokescreen. She was the performance. And the person she truly cared for was the Crown Prince.
Damn it all…
His jaw clenched so hard it trembled. His fist pressed against his side until the skin broke. Nothing could calm him. His emotions had never been thrown into chaos like this — not once in his life.
But none of that mattered to what came next.
Because the cruelest words emerged from her lips at last.
The words that drove everything home, and left nothing standing.
The tension in his shoulders and fists gave way all at once — not with anger, but with something hollow and exhausted.
She could never care for me…
Why was it that Shuian’s words chose this exact moment to echo alongside hers?
He understood, finally, and completely. He was nothing more to her than a convenient toy. A useful prop. And he had served that purpose well.
It was a lie from the beginning.
Every claim that she cared for him. Every declaration that she had given up the Crown Prince. All of it.
Now that he knew, there was no reason left to play along.
This had to end. This farcical, laughable arrangement.
I had been sneaking careful glances at Axel when I finally attempted a proper greeting.
“Oh — hello, Your Highness?”
Nothing came back. Axel gave me the briefest, sharpest sideways glance, then looked away — as if I didn’t exist. As if I were made of air.
Hm…?
I blinked a few times, then turned to look at Shuian and Xenon.
This was not normal either.
Shuian was watching me like a mortal enemy. Xenon was looking back and forth between them, expression helpless and miserable, as if he had no idea what to do.
Something was definitely wrong. I tried a tentative greeting to both of them.
“Ha, aha. Lord Shuian, and Lord Xenon — it’s been a little while. Is everything all right today?”
Shuian said nothing — just like Axel. I turned my most pleading look on Xenon beside him.
“Hi, hel—ow!”
Someone had clearly stepped on his foot. Xenon fixed me with a pained, helpless smile.
Something had definitely happened. And I felt dread settle over me.
Was Axel still angry? Had my explanation failed to reach him? I couldn’t tell which of the two had gone wrong.
I took one slow breath to compose myself, then squared my shoulders and walked toward Axel with deliberate steps.
I stopped directly in front of him — close enough that he couldn’t look through me — and greeted him with complete, shameless cheerfulness.
“I don’t think you heard me, so I came closer. Good morning, Your Highness!”
But not even that earned me a single sliver of his gaze. He was treating me as though I were invisible. Truly invisible.
That’s… strange.
I blinked twice, then tried again, approaching the matter differently.
“Your Highness, could it be that the letter I sent yesterday didn’t reach—”
“It seems the fact that I’m busy isn’t visible to Lady Melberine. I have no time to spare for conversation with you.”
No time to spare for conversation.
Cold — past cold, the words were practically frozen solid. Even at our first meeting, his tone had not been quite like that. Something was genuinely wrong. Where had things gone off course?
Under ordinary circumstances I might have pouted and demanded an explanation. But I understood now was not the moment for that.
“Ah… I’m sorry, Your Highness.”
I retreated quietly and went back to my usual seat.
Right now, not provoking him further was the only priority. I would count myself fortunate not to be thrown out of the office entirely.
