Elfreda was flustered as she headed to the audience chamber, just one day after being summoned in the same manner. It was the palace servant Robert who had come to tell her that she had to go to the audience chamber again.

‘What’s going on this time?’

As she asked with concern, Robert looked at her with a somewhat surprised face before responding.

‘Princess Serina requests an audience with His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen.’

His tone suggested that they were all in this together, so why would she pretend not to know. However, Elfreda was too shocked to notice this.

So by Robert’s words, did this mean Serina was actually going to apologize?

‘Apologize? Serina…?’

It seemed like an unlikely pairing. Elfreda followed Robert somewhat dazedly, but even upon arriving at the audience chamber, she couldn’t quite believe the situation.

She entered the audience chamber, trying to hide her expression. It was the same place where she had an affair with him in bright daylight just the day before. The memory made her cheeks flush slightly.

At that moment, Ejnar, who was seated on the throne, turned his head. Elfreda’s face turned even redder as their eyes met, but he spoke indifferently.

“The Queen has arrived.”

“…Machi’s noble lord Master.”

Elfreda quickly bowed her head. She heard Ejnar chuckle softly; she knew her face must be very obvious. She bit her lip to calm her racing heart then took her place beside him.

From there, she could see everything below clearly.

After being buried by Ejnar’s presence, which had first caught her eye upon entering, she could now see Serina.

Serina sat with a demeanor befitting a princess of Makaeri, in a place where no one could truly be at ease. Her expression looked highly displeased, and the Makaeri envoy standing beside her seemed anxious.

‘Could it really be…?’

Just as she began to think of the absurd possibility that her hypothesis might become reality, Ejnar spoke in an unusually gentle voice.

“I hear the Princess wishes to meet with us both.”

“….”

Instead of responding immediately, Serina bit her lip hard before replying.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I clearly remember what the envoy from Makaeri told me yesterday.”

Ejnar said with a faint smile.

“Is it safe to assume that my expectations are correct?”

“….”

There was a longer silence this time. However, Ejnar waited for Serina’s next move without any sign of impatience, his face relaxed.

Elfreda watched Serina nervously. She was worried about what she might do.

Indeed, Serina’s face was rigid with humiliation, and she bit her lip so fiercely it seemed like it might bleed. It was during this tense silence that even breathing felt awkward.

—Kiik.

The sound of a chair being dragged back was heard, and all eyes turned to Serina as she stood up. Even standing, her expression was one of indecision, and it seemed to worsen after she glanced at Elfreda.

‘…I.’

Serina felt her heart pounding with anger and shame. Her fists clenched tightly.

‘How did I end up in such a situation!’

“Don’t escalate things, just bend once. To achieve great things, one must learn to endure temporarily.”

Yesterday, those two lines had left Serina stunned.

The firm handwriting was unmistakably her father’s, but she couldn’t believe it. She knew about her father’s plan to take over Machi without shedding a drop of blood using Elfreda. She understood that it was important not to worsen relations between the two countries because of this.

Still, was this plan really worth protecting to the extent that she had to kneel before Elfreda? Such servility did not suit the great Makaeri, who roamed the continent as if it were their own.

Couldn’t they just take what they wanted with force, even if it meant a little bloodshed?

‘How could he be so cruel to his only hard-earned daughter!’

And not just to anyone, but to Elfreda? Should this Serina beg for forgiveness from her, a woman scraping by for even a speck of her mother’s affection?

“Princess.”

At that moment, Ejnar called her with a neat tone.

Serina felt a strong urge to simply obliterate this small country, as she looked at his eyes, which seemed to get irritated by the delay. She wanted to gouge out Elfreda’s worried eyes.

Regrettably, Serina didn’t yet realize that her father wasn’t the capable ruler who could succeed in the expedition where even her grandfather had failed. However, she wasn’t foolish enough to blatantly disregard her father’s orders.

She decided that it was right to yield, at least for now. Once she returned home, she would argue strongly with her father to crush them with force.

Still, the situation was so humiliating and demeaning that her knees shook. For the first time in her life, Serina had to muster all her strength to stand firmly, and slowly, she bowed her head in front of Ejnar and Elfreda.

“…I regret the incident where my guard killed a civilian of Machi.”

Serina clenched her teeth as she finished speaking.

“As the Princess of Makaeri, I apologize to the King.”

After saying this, her eyes stung with anger. The shame was so intense she felt tears could fall at any moment. The thought of how the king of this insignificant country and his illegitimate-born queen must be looking at her made her feel nauseous.

Serina clenched her fists so hard that her well-manicured nails almost drew blood, and she lifted her head with difficulty.

Ejnar looked pleased, while Elfreda appeared stunned. It was Elfreda’s hateful face that truly ignited a fire in Serina’s heart.

“Your apology is accepted, but you’ve omitted something.”

“…What do you mean?”

“You haven’t apologized to my queen.”

Serina couldn’t hide her surprise. Was he really asking her to apologize directly to this woman, who was no better than a bug?

She retorted through gritted teeth.

“Isn’t the Queen present beside His Majesty and thus included in the apology?”

“It’s a different matter. This incident has complicated the Queen’s position.”

Ejnar concluded with an expressionless face.

“So, it would be appropriate to apologize for that.”

“If I apologize to the Queen, will that restore Your Majesty’s good standing?”

“Let’s ensure such incidents don’t happen again, for the sake of the Queen.”

Ejnar replied in a dry tone.

“Well, I can accept that much.”

“…This seems a bit excessive, Your Majesty.”

“Your Majesty, I…”

Seeing Serina’s expression about to explode, Elfreda, fearing the situation might escalate further, tried to interject. However, before she could speak, Ejnar turned to her with a cold look, signaling her not to interrupt.

It was then did she realized that this situation was more about Ejnar’s intention to firmly control Makaeri than out of concern for her. She was merely a pretext.

Ejnar turned back to Serina and opened his mouth again.

“A simple apology should suffice. Isn’t it the least you can do for your sister, who has been put in a difficult position because of you?”

“Then, privately…!”

“You’ll be lucky you wouldn’t be slapped again.”

The atmosphere in the audience chamber turned icy with those words. Ignoring the shocked looks of the three, Ejnar added indifferently.

“I wasn’t going to mention it.”

The Makaeri envoy’s face went pale as if he was about to faint. The situation was worsening instead of improving.

‘After all the effort the Princess has made to apologize!’

The envoy couldn’t let that effort go to waste. With a desperate look, he pleaded with Serina in a voice meant only for her to hear.

“Even a simple apology would suffice, Princess. Please…”

“Whose servant are you? Why do you keep siding with that man?!”

“It’s better than letting your effort to apologize go to waste.”

For Serina, it was infuriating to the point she was going crazy.

__