Come to think of it, if those three people didn't come, the next target would be Tenstheon.

The Empress' seat had been vacant for a long time now. Since Tenstheon did not have any Empress or concubines, there were many people who wanted to secure the Emperor's second marriage for themselves.

In addition, there were countless women who pursued him.

It was no exaggeration to say that all the noblewomen had had a crush on Tenstheon at some point in their youth. According to Chelsea, Tenstheon was second only to Blake when it came to how many noblewomen had a crush on them.

If those three were absent tomorrow, Tenstheon would be asked about his remarriage.

Normally, he'd keep his mouth shut the whole time, but there would still be quite a few people who were too drunk to notice and kept talking to him.

It'd be hard for Tenstheon to get angry during the party.

But he was planning to use those three as a shield. He was such a bad boss!

When I glanced at Tenstheon, he placed another dessert in front of me.

"Eat up. You have to eat a lot to regain your stamina."

"Yes, father."

I cut a slice of the cheesecake. The cheesecake melted as soon as it entered my mouth, and the taste of delicious cheese took over my senses.

"It's so delicious!"

Tenstheon smiled at me.

"Father, you eat it too."

"I'm full just looking at you."

I didn't insist anymore because I knew he didn't like sweets.

***

Having eaten all those desserts alone, my stomach felt like it was going to explode.

I thought I should exercise, but the weather was so cold that I was shivering.

I walked a little and quickly went into the library in front of me.

"Your Highness."

"Collin!"

When I saw Collin, I quickly greeted him.

"Are you here to read?"

"Ah, yes."

I had originally wanted to take a walk but it was too cold outside.

"Did you come here often?"

I didn't meet him when I went to the study before. He must've been in the library.

"Yes, I'm thinking of leaving work today."

"So soon? Are you sick?"

It was still early. Besides, there seemed to be a lot of documents piled up in the study.

I was worried about whether he was sick but Collin shook his head.

"No, I'm not sick."

"Then...?"

"The day after tomorrow."

"Ah..."

Noticing what Collin meant, I nodded my head.

He was intentionally delaying his work so he didn't have to go to the wedding.

"You're not going to attend Ron's wedding?"

"That's right."

He nodded firmly without any hesitation.

"But His Majesty said you're coming with us."

"I'm not going. I'll never go."

He spoke with a determined expression.

Even though Collin often whined to Tenstheon, I never thought that there would come a day when he'd reject His Majesty's order.

Seeing him like this, it seemed like he really didn't want to go.

"I hope you get what you want."

I said it sincerely.

He was so pitiful. His boss wanted to drag him to the wedding and use him as a shield even though he didn't want to go.

No matter what father said, I was on Collin's side.

"Thank you, Your Highness."

He spoke in a grateful tone. I had never seen Collin being like this. It seems he was really thankful that I sided with him.

"Collin, there's no news about her yet, is there?"

Ser being the Goddess of Light was a secret that only Blake, Tenstheon, Collin and I knew.

There was no one around us right now, but just in case, I phrased it cryptically.

"No, nothing yet."

"What about the Camellia orphanage?"

Camellia was the name of the orphanage that Richard owned. It was also the place where Ser first appeared.

"She didn't go there either."

Tenstheon had also investigated Richard for bringing the fake Ancia, but released him quickly .

Richard didn't know about Ser's existence at all. He brought her to the Palace because he thought it was really me.

But that might be a lie as well.

I was being careful because I didn't know exactly why Serphania went to Richard.

I wasn't going to tell them about my past life, but I let them know that Richard was Phillip.

Even now, we didn't know what kind of thing he was planning now.

Even after coming out of the Door of Darkness, Ser had spoken about Phillip as if she had lingering feelings.

"If I find any clues, I'll let you know right away."

"Yes please."

At first, I was going to wait quietly for Ser to appear in front of me.

However, the anxiety in my mind continued to rise.

What if she was asking me for help but I couldn't hear her like before...

Of course, I didn't think that was the case because Ser had appeared in my dream, but I really wanted to meet her.

***

The palace was scheduled to undergo extensive repairs starting tomorrow.

There were many places to fix because it had been empty for seven years.

Originally, I only intended to repair the defects, but due to Blake and Tenstheon's strong insistence, we finally decided to just remodel everything.

I checked the list of things to be repaired for one last time, and then gave it to Chelsea.

"Okay, proceed."

"Yes, Your Highness."

It hadn't been long since I returned to my own body, but I already had a lot of work to do.

Chelsea was very helpful because of her resourcefulness.

After the remodelling of the Sephia Palace was completed and I began to work as the Crown Princess again, I planned to select Chelsea as my official assistant.

She was more of an aide than a maid.

"Actually, I went to Camellia orphanage yesterday."

She had asked me for a day off yesterday, so I guess she went to Richard's orphanage then. She must've gone there to take a look because she knew that I kept thinking about it.

"How was it?"

"The facilities were very good. I almost thought I had come to the wrong orphanage. They taught the kids there how to read and write, and provided them with excellent food and clothing as well."

"Is that so..."

Collin said the same thing.

I continued to monitor Richard just in case, but there was no problem to be found.

He named the orphanage after the flower, Camellia. He must've worked there sincerely. After all, he named the orphanage after his mother's favorite flower.

That was not to say that I believed Richard had changed.

Due to his meticulous nature, he would not have committed illegal activities in his own facility.

Even if he did something bad, he wouldn't have done it in the orphanage that was under his name while the Imperial family was monitoring him.

It must've been true that the facilities were good and that he was treating the children well then.

He was probably running the orphanage to build a good reputation for himself, so he must've paid extra attention to it.

However, it was somewhat surprising that he even accepted children of Roum blood.

Although his Roum lineage had been revealed in the trials before, I thought he'd ignore it and simply forget about it.

It was weird because in the original, other than hiring Domiram, he had nothing to do with the Roums. Besides, he had hired Domiram because of his excellent skills.

Even after he became an Emperor, there were no talks of implementing policies for the Roums.

"But there's a slight problem with the treatment of the Roum children."

"Are they discriminated against?"

I was a little surprised to hear what Chelsea said.

Knowing Richard's character, he would've refused them right from the beginning rather than accept them, and then discriminate against them.

Did he have any other intentions behind taking them in other than building his reputation?

I thought it was suspicious for some reason, but Chelsea shook her head.

"Not really, but it seemed as if the other kids were rather reluctant to play with the Roums. They formed separate groups and didn't include the Roums because of their deep-rooted prejudice."

"What happened?"

No matter how smart Chelsea was, it would be difficult to grasp the relationship among the children from just one short visit.

"There was a fight. A child cursed at one of the Roums. The Roum child got angry and it quickly turned into a physical fight. The teachers were shocked and quickly stopped them."

"Did anyone get hurt?"

"Yes. It could have ended quickly, but one of the Roums wouldn't stop until the end. It was a little boy named Karuo, and in a good way, he was very spiteful."

According to Chelsea, it was really just a quarrel between the children. It didn't seem like Richard had done anything.

However, I couldn't draw any conclusions since I didn't see it in person.

"Was Richard Cassil with the kids when they were fighting?"

"No, he wasn't there."

I heard that he had been stopping by the orphanage lately, but coincidentally enough, he didn't come yesterday.

I couldn't tell whether it was because Ser hid him or he was busy preparing for his marriage, but I had heard these days that the Marquis of Westin did not come out of the house at all.

"Ah, and the date of Richard Cassil's wedding has been moved forward."

I was surprised to hear Chelsea's words.

Their wedding was less than a month away, but he still pushed the date forward?

"When?"

"Tomorrow."

"Tomorrow? That soon? What's the occasion?"

"Marquis Westin is said to be in critical condition."

I remembered the contents of the original story. Marquis Westin was a character who did not appear until the second half of the novel.

There was not a single line describing his poor health or any note of him suffering from a chronic disease.

Someone like that suddenly fell into a critical condition? It was too suspicious.

***

Chelsea said Marquis Westin was suddenly in a critical condition.

That's why he was holding the wedding ceremony sooner. So he could see his daughter getting married before he died.

At first glance, it sounded plausible, but there were many things suspicious about it.