She let out a deep sigh.

It has been six months since Jiun left the empire. Several months passed after she carefully crossed the border and settled in the Lisa kingdom, but everything was unfamiliar to her.

An unfamiliar kingdom, strangers, and the watchers monitoring her every move.

She was lonely, and at the same time, she was scared. Given Rublis’s attitude or the marquis’s, it seemed that they didn’t want her to stay alive. She could hardly go to sleep because she was afraid that they might stop monitoring her at some point and kill me. The fact that I had nobody to confide in made her life harder all the more.

The more she thought, the more she felt frustrated, so she went out of the house after hardly eating breakfast. The streets in the foreign country were strange to her, but she felt she would be better off out in the streets than being in the same space with the men that she knew were monitoring her.

How blankly did she walk?

While walking, a bit spaced out, she came to her senses when she heard a screeching noise. She raised her head, frowning her eyebrows. A man and a woman dressed up colorfully came into her hazy blurred vision.

The woman who stared at her sharply said, as if she was dumbfounded, “You wretched slut! How can a commoner like you raise your head in front of a nobleman?”

“What did you say? Wretched slut? How dare you…Ah.”

While refuting inadvertently, she shut up hurriedly, realizing she made a mistake, because she noticed a familiar man frowning behind the woman.

“Did you say how dare? Do you think you are a nobleman’s daughter? Whose family are you from?”

“…Sorry, I made a mistake as I was half asleep. Please forgive me. ”

Jiun hurriedly bowed to her with apologies. In fact, she was more bothered by the man associated with the Monique family, who was approaching her now. Her rebuttal came out unconsciously because she used to be respected as the highest woman in the empire for a long time, but if the man found out her identity, she could not guarantee her safety. Besides, she was on edge all the time because she was scared that she might be assassinated anytime.

Despite her sincere apologies, the woman sneered at her and said coldly, “Are you a commoner?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Really? So, you dared to raise your head before a noble when you’re a commoner?”

Then she lifted her gloved hand.

Jiun closed her eyes quickly. As long as she had to live as a commoner by hiding her identity, she could not cause further disturbance. It was right for her to cope with the situation as best she could.

Snap!

Her head was turned away with her intense snapping. As a result, her deep-pressed hat was taken off, dishevelling her hair. But she was now too out of her mind to notice it. She felt dizzy at the burning sensation on her face and salty blood from her mouth.

When she flinched at her sharp voice once again, she felt somebody pulling her suddenly.

In no time, the woman said with an embarrassed voice, “What the heck is this? Why is the knight from the empire disturbing my…”

“Can you stop there? If you make a fuss over her in broad daylight like this, it won’t do you any good.”

She unwittingly stiffened, hearing that knight’s voice that she apparently heard a lot.

She opened her eyes, swallowing. Then she slowly cast her glance at his black cloak, the two red straps on his shoulders, and his long and red hair.

‘Carsein de Lars…!’

She had cold sweat breaking out on her back. Her heart sank when the knight, watching the woman briefly, quickly intervened. This was a much worse situation than before because outsiders believed that she was officially dead.

Marquis Marquis’s warning buzzed in her ears that she should be careful enough not to let anybody notice her identity because of the emperor’s order to expel her from the empire without being caught by anybody. Right now, as she might be caught and killed, her meeting with the emperor was very dangerous. Besides, she was being watched.

“I just disciplined a mere commoner woman. As a knight from the empire, you should not meddle in this matter.”

“Really? I think I should.”

Examining her with a pensive expression, a man stopped her when she was trying to say something, frowning at his refuttal, “May I ask if you are Sir Lars? ”

“Well, they call my elder brother like that. I’m Carsein de Lars, the second son of the Lars family.”

“Lars family?”

Erasing her ferocious expression from her face, the woman said in a much softer voice, “Well, if a man like you from the Lars family wants me to stop, I have no choice but to do so as you wish.”

“Thank you, lady.”

“Well, sir, I think this might be a karma thing here. Are you free for a moment? I’m the third daughter of Viscount Bevon…Sir?”

“Ouch!” Jiun screamed while drawing back from the three talking among themselves when someone snatched her wrist from behind. Caresin quickly grabbed her wrist and turned her back. She could now see his blue eyes clearly.

“You…?”

He opened his eyes wide, then squinted with a suspicious look. She got goosebumps at that, but she desperately pretended to be calm. She did not know what would happen if he found out her identity here.

“Thank you, sir.”

When she lowered her head hesitantly, Carsein opened his mouth after remaining silent as if he were thinking about something, “…No way. She is already dead. ”

“Pardon?”

“Oh, nothing. By the way, are you related to the Monique family?”

‘How did he know this?’ She was stunned, but replied as natively as possible, as if she knew nothing about the family.

“Monique family? You mean the noble family?”

“Yes. Don’t you know? ”

“I’m only a mere commoner. I have nothing to do with the noble family.”

“Hmm, really?”

My mouth dried up when he asked me suspiciously. She felt like his brief silence felt like eternity, so she bowed her head even more, hiding her face.

‘Please give me a pass.”

Did her earnest wish make true? Tilting his head a bit, Carsein waved his hand lightly and said, “Got it. You can go now.”

“Thank you, sir.”

She breathed a sigh of relief and bowed deeply to him. Then she stiffened her legs and quickened her steps to get out of his view. She was scared what would happen to her when he reported this incident to his commander, so she thought it was the best policy to leave the place as soon as possible.

She thought that she survived her encounter with Carsein without being caught, but the very next day she was ordered by Marquis Monique that she would be forbidden from going outside her dwelling.

***

“Can’t I go out even today?”

“Sorry, lady. You had better not go out for the time being. ”

Jiun sighed at the old man, as always. She put up with his rejection until now for fear of possible repercussions due to her open resistance, but her patience was slowly running out because she had been confined to her place for almost a month.

‘What did I do wrong? Of course, it was my fault that I encountered that noble woman that day, but little did I think I would bump into Casein de Lars there.’

She bit her lip with an annoyed expression. When she was forced to choose between the two options by the emperor, she didn’t want to give up her life even if she was despised by the emperor and Aristia. But because of her extreme stress for more than six months she even thought that she would have been better off being killed honorably than living like this.

‘Yes, nothing is going to stop me now.’

When she thought as far as that, she opened her eyes fiercely and stared at the old man. Normally she would listen to him, but today she didn’t want to. If she had to die like this in extreme stress, she would rather speak out at the risk of her life.

“Please allow me to see the marquis.”

“Why are you suddenly saying that?”

“I’ll do whatever you want, so please allow me to see the marquis. Anyway, you are reporting to him about me everyday, right?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t do it, lady.”

“Oh my…you’re really driving me nuts. I’m going to do whatever you want. Why are you harassing me like this?”

The old man, who silently watched her yelling hysterically, nodded slowly a little later. He might have been surprised at her hysterical reaction because she was quiet and obedient until now, but there was no change in his blank expression, as if he was used to her attitude like that.