On Alaric's wedding day, I brought a gift to the wedding feast. I had barely taken my seat when someone swung straight at my face.

Alaric's bride, a transmigrator who called herself an expert in noble-household intrigue, glared at me in her wedding gown. "So you're the prince's former betrothed? How does a defeated rival still have the nerve to show up at the wedding feast? Have you no shame?"

A palace maid caught her hand before the slap landed, and I studied her with a dark expression.

Before I could speak, Lydia of House Leicester mocked me again. "What? Are you going to say you only came to offer your blessings? I grew up watching period dramas. Don't think I don't know what filthy thoughts a medieval woman like you is hiding.

"You came here pretending to congratulate us while planning to ruin the wedding feast and make the prince change his mind, didn't you? Too bad Alaric promised me that I would be his only wife for life. Even if you were to strip naked and stand in front of him, he wouldn't touch you!"

Then she raised her brow at the women behind her. The noblewomen and ladies who were friendly with her surrounded me, scorn on their faces. Then they reached out to slap me.

"Exactly, you wench! How dare you provoke Princess Lydia? We'll make you pay for it today!"

The courtyard fell into chaos. Insults and jeers came one after another. Just as the women were about to grab my hair, the chief steward Edwin quickly stood in front of me and shouted, "Enough! I would like to see who dares to show disrespect to the Grand Princess of this realm, Her Royal Highness Princess Sophia!"

"Princess Sophia?"

The entire courtyard went silent, and the noblewomen and ladies looked at me with uncertainty. Everyone at court knew Princess Sophia had been frail since childhood and had spent years living with the Queen Mother at the Veiled Abbey. Very few people had ever seen her.

The prince's former betrothed, Sylvia of House Upton, also lived far away in the south. She had come to the capital only once, when she broke off her engagement to the prince, so few people knew what she looked like.

They were not sure who I was, so they no longer had the courage to act rashly.

Now that the Queen Mother's chief steward had appeared, every heart in the courtyard skipped a beat and no one dared make another sound.

I met Lydia's twisted glare and shook my head with a cold laugh. "I had long heard that Alaric's bride was unlike anyone else. You have truly opened my eyes today."

No wonder Sylvia had chosen to end the engagement and cut all ties as soon as she had someone investigate the woman Alaric wanted to marry… She was spoiled beyond belief.

Lydia suddenly stepped forward and pushed Edwin aside, her face full of disdain. "What's with this act? You believe him when he says she's Princess Sophia? Everyone knows that the Queen Mother herself had arranged the engagement between Prince Alaric and Sylvia. Maybe this man is just someone that old hag sent to cover for her. He is using the princess's name so she can sneak into the manor and rekindle her old romance with Alaric!

"That is how it always plays out in period dramas! Don't think I'm ignorant about it!"

Edwin froze in shock for a moment, before he became furious. "How dare you speak so carelessly of the Queen Mother and the Princess..."

Lydia kept going. "All you medieval relics do is use your status to crush others. So what if I speak without care? The prince said that no matter what I do in the capital, he'll protect me. Go talk to him if you have the nerve to!

"For a rejected woman to come here to provoke me… Was I supposed to wait until you shamelessly got into the prince's bed before I regretted it?"

Her foul words turned Edwin's expression even darker in fury.

Meanwhile, I took out the royal signet that proved my identity and threw it at her face. "Open your eyes and look closely! See exactly who I am! What you're doing now is preposterous! I will report every single thing you did today to His Majesty and see whether the prince can still protect you."

The royal signet landed in Lydia's hand, but she only smiled in mockery as she said, "Look at that. You clearly put a lot of work into the whole act."

Under my disbelieving gaze and Edwin's scream, Lydia smashed the royal signet hard against the ground. Then she raised her brow at the maid beside her. "What can a fake signet prove? As for me, I have evidence that you came to the manor to seduce the prince.

"Bring it here. I'll expose this vile woman's true identity and make sure she pays for it!"

Edwin had not expected Lydia to be bold enough to destroy the royal signet personally bestowed on me by the former king.

The veins on his forehead popped with fury as he shouted in rage, only for Alaric's guards to force him to the ground.

The maids and senior attendants I had brought stepped forward to help, but the guards did not budge. Instead, they obeyed Lydia's every command.

"Wow! What a great younger brother I have! Someone, summon Alaric to the inner courtyard!" I was so angry I laughed before I turned to look at the smug Lydia.

Since she refused to listen to reason and insisted on slandering me as her imagined rival, I wanted to see who would be left standing in the end. "I would like to see what evidence you have that proves I tried to seduce my own younger brother!"

Lydia was the center of attention in the noisy crowd. However, she did not panic at all. Instead, she took a box a maid hurriedly handed to her and opened it before casually throwing it to the ground. Inside was a masterfully crafted sculpture made from emerald.

"This was carved from emeralds produced by House Upton's mines in the south. When you arrived, you had someone present this gift, and you wrote House Upton's name on the guest list."

"Sylvia of House Upton… The evidence is here staring you right in the face. Still pretending to be some fancy princess?"

I met Lydia's haughty gaze and nodded with a cold smile. "Indeed, I did present this gift. It is also true that one of my attendants wrote down House Upton's name on the guest list."

A sudden commotion broke out.

"Pretending to be a member of the royal family is a capital crime!"

"More than that, she impersonated the Princess, the Queen Mother's precious treasure and His Majesty's own elder sister!"

"This woman will use any filthy trick to seduce Alaric. If I were Princess Lydia, I would have her thrown into the moat."

As both mockery and slander filled my ears, I stopped my furious maids and senior servants before giving a sneering look over everyone around me. Then I said, "But those were not the only gifts I presented. Although House Upton and Alaric ended the engagement, their business dealings never did. As House Upton is based in the far south, they had petitioned for the Queen Mother to present their gifts instead. However, as she had caught a cold in the past few days, I am delivering the gifts on her behalf.

"I am here today to present gifts on behalf of the Queen Mother, House Upton, and the Grand Princess’s Household."

Seeing Lydia's face darken only made the whole thing seem even more absurd for me. "Ask the steward of Alaric's household whether my words are true!"

Ever since the engagement between House Upton and Alaric's estate had ended, it was awkward for both sides to meet each other. My mother and Alaric had discussed the gifts long ago and the steward had been present, so he would know about it.

While Alaric was being held back by court officials and royal advisers drinking with him and had not come to the inner courtyard, the steward could not refuse the summons.

Soon, the steward hurried over. But the moment he saw me, he angrily said, "So you're the vile woman who pretended to be Princess Sophia and tried to get into our prince's bed? You can forget about all of it! You're merely the daughter of a merchant! Do you truly think we are afraid of you?!"

After saying that, he turned to the crowd and shook his head in regret. "This was all my fault. I was deceived by her pretending to be Princess Sophia. Today is Prince Alaric's wedding day, yet I've allowed her to slip in with the intention of ruining the royal couple. I'll have someone drive them out of the estate at once!"

Edwin cursed in fury, but I looked closely at the steward's face as he turned his head. "Are you the newly appointed steward? Where is Cedric? Summon him here. The person present at the time was not you. It was Cedric."

Lydia burst into laughter. "You should at least have found out who is in charge now before you snuck into Alaric's estate. Alaric gave me authority over the household a long time ago and I've already replaced the estate's older servants with people I trust. You can forget about waiting for Cedric to cover for you!"

I looked around at the unfamiliar faces and frowned.

No wonder I had not seen any of the old household staff. My dear younger brother had truly lost all sense. He had been so enthralled by this jealous woman that he had dismissed Cedric, who had served him for more than a decade.

When Lydia saw me fall silent, she grew even more arrogant. "Today is my wedding day, so I won't make things difficult for you. Beg on your knees and apologize to me, then swear you'll never appear before the prince again. Then, I won't expose this matter. Otherwise, it's not my fault for doing what duty demands. Impersonating royalty is a capital crime. Even the Queen Mother won't be able to save House Upton!"

With that, she led the guards toward me. Her sharp nails dug hard into my arm. The maids and senior attendants beside me were stopped by the guards in their tracks, and Edwin was sweating all over from anxiety.

"Stop! How dare you disrespect Princess Sophia! Stop this at once!" He yelled. But a guard kicked Edwin to the ground with so much force that he coughed out blood just a split second later.

My eyes widened before I raised my hand and slapped Lydia on the face with all I had. "You dare cross such a line? You deserve this! I already told you I am not Sylvia! Since you don't believe me, go to the front hall and ask Alaric who I truly am!"

But Lydia would never let her imagined rival meet Alaric so easily. Touching her red cheek, Lydia kicked hard at the back of my knee with a furious expression on her face. "You wench! Even now you're still thinking of seducing the prince?! Your intentions are as clear as day! You won't see the prince today!

"You refused my mercy and chose the hard way instead… How dare you strike me, Prince Alaric's wife? Someone, strip off her clothes and throw her into the streets! Women in this backward age care most about their virtue, correct? I'll make it so bad for you that you have no way out other than to hide in a convent!"

I was kicked hard to the ground, and my face was bruised from Lydia's slaps. When I saw the maid beside her reach for my belt, rage burned inside of me. "You dare?! Lydia, I will make Alaric's entire household pay for what you've done!"

Lydia laughed and shook her head, her eyes full of contempt. "What? Still unwilling to give up the fake princess act? Alaric can only ever be mine no matter how you threaten me. Don't even dream of stealing him away."

With that, she personally tore open my outer gown and laughed with glee. "I'm an expert at such intrigue. You're no match for me at all. No matter what schemes you use, I'll easily see through them. You would have been better off groveling and begging me to spare you instead of going against me!"

I struggled hard, biting the inside of my mouth until it was bloody and torn. "Let go of me! His Majesty won't spare you! My mother won't spare you either!"

Lydia was not afraid. Instead, she smiled mockingly. "So what? The prince said he would protect me. Even if I killed a little wench like you, nothing would happen to me. I am the woman the prince married. What can a mere merchant's daughter use to fight me?"

Lydia tore my clothes completely open as everyone watched. Lydia picked up a quill and walked toward me with a provocative smile as my maids and senior attendants desperately tried to stop her.

"What a beautiful figure. What a pity it has to be marked with the word harlot. This is a special alchemical ink that won't fade. You better remember this humiliation well, you fake princess. Don't seduce men you should never covet again!"

I gritted my teeth and glared at Lydia. Just as she was about to lower the quill, the maid I had sent out stumbled over in a panic and shielded me behind her. "Don't be afraid, Your Highness. Prince Alaric is here!"

Alaric, dressed in his wedding suit, frowned as he stepped into the inner courtyard. After looking around, his shocked gaze landed on me. "Why is it so lively here among the ladies? What happened here?"