Chapter 131

"They look very happy."

Isabel murmured, low and quiet.

She was sitting by the window of the Empress's Palace parlor, sipping tea and gazing outside. Beyond the window, lit with spring light, Christine, Adele, and Aaron could be seen together.

The two of them were in the middle of their own quiet little tug-of-war, but from a distance it looked like a happy family's ordinary afternoon.

"So it seems. Enough to make you want to wreck it."

At the voice from across the room, Isabel turned her head.

Before her sat a beautiful golden-haired woman. Isabel, recalling how she'd looked before, thought her dress was now remarkably plain — no silk gown, no glittering jewelry.

Isabel set down her teacup and smiled, elegant.

"Are you testing me, Miss Seira?"

The moment Stone's wolf-clan blood had come to light, the Noble Council had swiftly stripped House Oswald of its name. Then,…