Melissa is sometimes sharp like that.

“Sa-, same age. What are you talking about? Wow, it’s snowing. The whole place is white now!”

I ran from place to place and participated in the snowball fight. It was fun to have a snowball fight after a long time, but apart from that, my hands are freezing.

That’s why I didn’t want to do it…

***

“Diana, let’s take a bath.”

Everyone’s in a mess because of the snowball fight. Especially Diana, who had fallen several times and rolled over the snowfield, had her full-body wet. I brought her to my room.

“Oh, no! I can do it when I get home.”

Diana was embarrassed and hurriedly stirred the topic. Why is she so surprised when I just asked her to take a bath?

“You’ll have a cold. The carriage is slippery because of the snow, so you won’t be able to go fast.”

“It’s all right! I’m strong and I won’t catch a cold! I’m more worried about you.”

My eyes narrowed by themselves. There’s something fishy about her.

Diana’s cheeks were slightly swollen, and she kept falling during the snowball fight.

“Did you hurt your leg?”

“No!”

Her legs did hurt, but she flatly denied it.

“Tell me the truth.”

“It really doesn’t hurt!”

“Diana, if you keep lying like that, I’ll be upset.”

“Sister…”

Diana couldn’t speak properly and her lips were quivering. Soon after, she shed tears and she told me everything that has happened.

Over the past two years, Count Bellacian has forced Diana to spy on the Crown Prince’s palace, and she had rebelled yesterday.

Listening to Diana’s words, I was speechless.

Gilbert Bellacian cared about Diana. I thought to Diana, he was very sincere.

Diana loves her father, too.

In the original story, she didn’t hate her father who drove her older sister to death, but rather she suffered herself.

When Richard gambled with Count Bellacian as a hostage, she chose his father and left Blake.

I didn’t want the young Diana to go through such a thing.

In those two years, I often dreamed of Ancia, and found out how she was hurt. I couldn’t forgive Count Bellacian, but I didn’t want to force this kind of thing on Diana.

I didn’t expect him to make the young Diana a spy.

“Why didn’t you tell me? You should have told me if that happened.”

“I’m afraid you will hate me. I’m scared. What if my sister says she doesn’t want to see me?”

I thoroughly read Diana, who was pouring with tears.

“Why don’t I want to see you. You did nothing wrong.”

Diana never followed Count Bellacian orders.

She never gave her opinion when I picked a servant. Just how much pressure did Diana must have felt for two years?

“Can, can I come here again?”

“My sister was always scolded by her father. But I was barely beaten once… you don’t need to worry about me.”

“I worry about you! Why do you say that!”

Diana is holding back her tears and asks carefully.

I thought she was just an innocent tomboy, but did she have such a thought inside?

I like Diana. But right now Diana is asking her real sister, not me.

Knowing that I looked straight into her eyes, recalling the story from the original.

“…Ancia doesn’t hate you.”

I paused to see if she felt uncomfortable in my answer.

Soon, she wiped away her tears and smiled.

“…Yes, thank you.”

***

I put Diana to sleep at the Crown Prince’s palace.

She wanted to enter knights academy but hesitated because of Count Bellacian’s opposition. I wanted Diana to go to the academy. However, since Knights Academy usually enrolls children between the ages of 10 and 12, there was still time. Rather than encouraging my thoughts, I was thinking of waiting a little for Diana to make up her mind.

I looked at Diana’s calf. I applied ointment, but the wound still remained intact.

I was trying to apply the ointment again when I heard a knock.

“Ancia.”

It was Blake’s voice.

“Come in.”

He opened the door and came inside.

“Is Diana asleep?”

“Yes. She just fell asleep. Your Highness, I think I should sleep with Diana tonight.”

Ever since I came to this world, I’ve been sleeping with Blake. But I wanted to protect Diana by being at her side as her older sister today.

“Yes, okay. Don’t worry about me.”

Blake held my hand tightly. I could feel a firm force from him.

“It’s not Ancia’s fault.”

“….”

He spoke as if he had read my mind.

“Don’t blame yourself.”

“Yes, I won’t.”

The little boy’s words were a strong consolation. I held his hand tightly together.

***

When Diana didn’t come back, Gilbert had a somewhat bad premonition.

Did Diana betray her own father? He didn’t raise Diana to be such an ungrateful child. However, there was a possibility that she made a stupid mistake when he thought of Diana, who has been rebelling these days.

Gilbert, unable to contain his anxiety, went straight to the Crown Prince’s palace.

“You can’t come in.”

But he couldn’t go into the palace and was blocked.

“I am the father of the Crown Princess.”

Gilbert indicated displeasure, but Hans was adamant.

“I was ordered by His Highness to stop Count Bellacian from entering.”

“The Crown Prince?”

Not Ancia, but the Crown Prince stopped me? A monster abandoned by a goddess?

Gilbert didn’t think of Blake as a human. He is a monster whose soul has blacken to the point where the goddess curses him. He would be more like a monster than a human being.

“Get him here.”

When Gilbert did not call Blake ‘His Highness,’ and said him in a mocking tone, Hans and Edon’s faces hardened. But Gilbert didn’t mind.

It was none of his business whether the servants were angry or not. Rather, he was mad at their presumptuous attitude of telling him what to do.

“I came to pick up my child. Get out of the way.”

Hans and Edon, who heard of Count Bellacian’s atrocities, were amazed by his brazen manner.

“It’s not possible.”

“I am the in-law of the Emperor. Get out of the way!”

Gilbert threatened to push Hans’s shoulder, but Edon blocked him.

“I won’t tolerate any more rudeness.”

“What? How dare you touch this body when you are just a commoner!”

In any case, he was the father of the Crown Princess and the head of the Bellacian family. Edon is only a knight, and their status was wide apart. Edon hesitated for a moment and heard Blake’s voice from behind.

“What’s with the noise?”

“The Count of Bellacian is insisting on entering the Amoria palace.”

“What? So stubborn?”

Gilbert was angry at Hans’s arrogant choice of words. But as soon as he met Blake’s eyes, he flinched and backed away.

“Bring the count into the greenhouse.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

***

There were only two people left, Gilbert and Blake in the greenhouse.

Although he is his son-in-law, it was only during the wedding that he actually met Blake. At that time, he thought he was just a dreary little boy. But the crown prince whom he met after two years had something changed in him.

The cold energy emanating from the little boy penetrated Gilbert’s body and gave him goosebumps all over the body.

At some point, his body trembled with fear.

“I, I’m going back with Diana.”

“Diana’s asleep.”

“Then tomorrow morning…”

“You can’t. Diana will stay in the Crown Prince’s Palace from now on.”

The Crown Prince cut off his words coldly. Gilbert was sure that his hunch was right.

Diana betrayed her father, and she tells everything to Ancia.

“Your Highness, have you heard of any nonsense from my daughter?”

“Nonsense? It didn’t sound like that to me.”

She really told them everything she has been doing. Just in case, he didn’t let Diana know about the secret agreement between the Duke of Cassil and him.

He only says, “If you steal the information from the Crown Prince’s palace, good things will happen to us.”

But he didn’t know that Diana would stab him this way.

He raised her all this time!

The situation would have been different if only he invested in Ancia instead.

Before marrying the Crown Prince, Ancia wanted his affection. If he had given her a little affection at that time, he would be deeply engraved in her heart and she will devote herself to her father and family.

But Diana, instead of trying to repay his kindness and marry into a good place, she put her father in danger by her words!

Gilbert clenched his palm, holding in his anger.

“Never mind what she says.”

“I know the count cares about Diana very much.”