“Did you hear that, Your Grace?”

Griffin gritted his teeth as he struggled to suppress his rage.

“Joan already went through so much. Must you insist on pushing her so cruelly? You are a princess of a high station. Are you not going to show mercy and make room for one helpless woman?”

I watched as Griffin and Joan performed their tragic drama before my carriage with indifference and absurdity.

“Griffin, did the wasteland at the border rot every shred of sense in your head?”

I leaned forward and parted the curtain of my carriage. Then, I looked down at him from above.

“I am the sovereign here, and you’re merely a subject. You allow a woman who shared your bed out of wedlock to weep and wail before my carriage, but the one who lacks mercy is me?”

Griffin flinched under my icy gaze, but the border soldiers behind him would not back down. They were crude men who had ridden and bled alongside Griffin. What would they know of the rites between sovereign and subject?

To them, Griffin was their commander and their cause. Joan was the woman who had given their general a son.

“Your Grace, our general has spilled his blood and given his life for Cathor!” A lieutenant with a scarred face rose to his feet and said at the top of his lungs, “He only wants to grant his woman and his own child a proper place in this world. What is wrong with that? You may be royalty, but you cannot break the hearts of your loyal soldiers like this!”

Led by his outburst, the other soldiers chimed in.

“Please show mercy, Your Grace! Please accept Ms. Sonne!”

Hundreds of armor-clad men shouted in unison. Their voices thundered through the courtyard.

They were not begging for mercy. They were pressuring me.

Griffin stood at the very front of the crowd with his back straight as a ramrod.

He looked at me. It was as if he were smugly telling me that the people wanted Joan acknowledged and that I had no choice but to give in.

Ignoring the noise, I calmly looked away, lowered the curtain, and said to the coachman, “Head back to the palace.”

The coachman raised his whip and prepared to turn the carriage around. Just then, a heavy lion-headed cane slammed down hard before the horses’ hooves.

“No one will take the princess away today!” Wilma, supported by two maids, stood shakily in front of the carriage.

Though her hair had turned completely grey, her upturned eyes held undisguised sharpness and cruelty. She was a battle-hardened woman who had charged into war alongside the founding king.

With that merit, she always strode as she pleased through the capital, fearing no one. Even my father, the late king, had to show her great respect when he was alive.

“Your Grace, you’re acting pretty willful today. Where does that leave the honor of the royal family?”

Wilma leaned on her cane, her wrinkled face tight with tension.

Her tone held no respect. Only scorn.

“The Quenell family has been a great military house for a hundred years. Griffin is the royal court’s most essential man. Your carriage has already reached the front gate. Every noble and high official in the capital is watching. If you break off this wedding, are you dishonoring the Quenell family or the royal family?”

Her words were condescending and full of blame. It was as if my leaving today would make me the greatest traitor to Cathor.

With his grandmother backing him, Griffin’s confidence swelled.

He stepped forward again. His tone softened, but he still threatened me.

“Your Grace, my grandmother speaks the truth. Do not act on anger alone. The late king commanded this marriage. If you storm away today, by tomorrow, every street and alley in the capital will be whispering of your jealous and spiteful nature. When that happens, your reputation will be ruined. How will you show your face in this capital then?”

I sat quietly inside the carriage as I listened to this pair of grandmother and grandson perform their duet of reproach.

####CHAPTER-NAME:

I was no longer able to suppress my anger.

“My reputation will be ruined?” I chuckled. It was strangely loud in the silent carriage. “Griffin, you think far too highly of yourself. My reputation is none of your concern. You’re a coward who hides behind a woman.”

Griffin’s expression darkened drastically. He was instantly enraged.

“What did you just call me?”

As a celebrated warrior, he was being publicly called a coward by his betrothed. That hurt him even more than death itself.

“Griffin, please don’t be angry...”

Without me noticing, Joan had already approached us. She stumbled before throwing herself into Griffin’s arms. She held the infant in one hand and held onto his sleeve with the other.

“Her Grace was just angry. She didn’t mean it. It’s all my fault! I’ll leave right away. I won’t make things hard for you, Griffin.”

Even though she said she would leave, her feet remained rooted in place. Her tearful eyes were filled with both grievance and reluctance.

As expected, the moment Griffin saw how pitiful she looked, he flew into a blind rage.

“Isolde, don’t push your luck!”

He did not even bother calling me by my honorific title anymore. He called me by my name directly.

“For me to marry you is more honor than you deserve. Do you really think that you’re still that little princess the late king coddled? The new king has taken the throne. You’re nothing but an orphan, just the ghost of a dead reign. You have a title and nothing more.”

Everyone present gasped and fell into dead silence. No one had expected Griffin to speak the unsaid truth so publicly. Wilma, standing nearby, did not stop him. Instead, she revealed a satisfied, cold smile.

Clearly, she was also thinking the same thing.

To them, I had lost my patron and my power. I could only let the Quenell family do whatever they wanted with me.

“Griffin is right,” said Wilma.

She struck the ground with her cane again and continued smugly, “Your Grace, I advise you to see things as they are. Once you’re part of the Quenell family, you’ll have to obey my household’s rules. As for Joan, you will accept her whether you want to or not.”

The moment she said that, the Quenell household guards took a synchronized step forward. The scrape of steel leaving scabbards cut sharply through the air. Those several hundred soldiers in heavy armor surrounded my carriage.

It was clear that I could not leave unless I agreed to the marriage.

The scar-faced lieutenant and the other soldiers that Griffin led fixed the coachman with a menacing glare.

Nothing but a slight move from the coachman would trigger their swords.

“Your Grace, please step down from the carriage.”

Griffin smoothed his wedding tunic that Joan had wrinkled and stood tall again in his lofty, condescending posture.

“It’s getting late. Don’t keep the guests waiting.”

The atmosphere was heavy with pressure. The household guards of the Quenell family completely blocked my path. The coachman trembled with fear. He gripped his whip tightly in his hands. He did not even dare to breathe loudly.

This was Cathor’s great noble house. This was the so-called worthy man whom my late father, the king, had chosen after seeing a thousand potential grooms for me.

I looked at those bright, gleaming blades outside the carriage window.

It was an absurd scene.

“Griffin,” I said in a clear and calm voice, “Do you truly believe that a few hundred household guards can hold me prisoner?”

Griffin frowned. He seemed annoyed that I still spoke boldly, given my dire situation.

“Your Grace, I am doing this for your own good.”

He sighed and pretended to be reasonable.

####CHAPTER-NAME:

“All you have to do is step down from this carriage and walk in with Joan while holding her hand. I promise that from now on, in this household, you’ll still be the exalted first wife. Joan is very sensible. She will never try to overstep you.”

Joan immediately lowered her head as if in agreement, revealing her pale nape.

“Your Grace, don’t worry. I will serve you day and night from now on. I will treat you like my own elder sister. I only ask that my baby be given a legitimate place in this family.”

As she spoke, her eyes shimmered as they welled up with tears again. With that meek and yielding manner, any onlooker would think that I was the wicked mistress breaking apart another’s family.

The common folk present started murmuring again.

“This princess is completely unreasonable. That other woman has already been through so much.”

“Exactly. General Griffin has risked his life for Cathor. What is the harm in taking an extra wife?”

“I think she just looks down on us common folks. Arrogance is in her blood.”

Everyone started taking Griffin’s side.

Seeing this, Wilma became more confident.

She knew well that in a place like the capital, tongues of people cut deeper than any blade. If she could make people label me as “jealous” and “unreasonable,” even my royal title would never be able to save me.

“Your Grace, I’m going to ask you one last time.” Wilma’s murky eyes bore into the carriage. Her voice carried an ultimatum. “Please step down from the carriage.”

I did not answer her. Instead, I turned my gaze toward the scar-faced lieutenant.

“What’s your name?”

The scar-faced lieutenant was startled. He clearly had not expected me to ask his name at such a moment.

Boldened by Griffin, he answered in a rough, loud voice, “Leo Zinke!”

I nodded and said calmly, “Very well.”

“Leo, do you know what happens to those who surround a princess with armed soldiers?”

Leo threw his head back and laughed heartily. He looked as if he had heard the funniest joke in the world.

He said arrogantly, “Your Grace, I am a crude man. I only know that the general’s words are absolute! While he fought enemies at the border, you were admiring flowers and playing under the moon in the capital. Even if the king himself came today, I would still demand justice for the general!”

His treason was plain to see.

Griffin did not stop him. Instead, he showed a look of approval. These borderland soldiers had long been brainwashed by him into becoming the Quenell family’s private army. To him, this was his greatest bargaining chip to control me.

“His words are absolute, huh?”

I nodded as my fingertip gently brushed against the folded parchment hidden beneath my sleeve.

“Griffin, the soldiers you trained are certainly very loyal to you.”

“Of course they are!”

Griffin puffed out his chest with pride. He looked as if he had already won.

“So, Your Grace, stop your useless struggling. Get down from the carriage now, and we can still go through with this wedding with dignity. No one will benefit if this turns ugly.”

As he spoke, he reached out his hand and swept aside the curtain of the carriage. That large, rough hand grabbed my wrist without hesitation with undeniable force.

“Be a good princess and come down.”

He no longer tried to hide the arrogance and contempt in his gaze.

It was as if I were nothing more than a helpless prisoner at his mercy. Joan stood behind him. She could barely hide her triumphant smile. Wilma proudly stroked her lion-headed cane. She was simply waiting to see me walk out of the carriage in a dishevelled and humiliated state.

####CHAPTER-NAME: