She should not lean too much on this man’s kindness. Both Anriq and Raina have spoken that his affection was nothing but a packaging. Ivena braced her loosening heart. He was just a person that she had seen three times, maybe as the palace was unfamiliar and she was nervous about her new life, she relied on him more than necessary.

She opened her heart to the word ‘family’ too easily. He was a soft and gentle man, but he was also a king who spoke of marriage at the first meeting, duty at the second meeting, and faith at the third meeting. However, they did not mention each other’s feelings in the process.

“Because of the fact that you even liked Your Majesty’s escort and not someone else, you are leaving one weakness to Your Majesty. Maybe he already calculated that, I am afraid.”

Daniel didn’t talk about her feelings towards Anriq. So instinctively, she knew she shouldn’t ask Daniel about ‘E.J’ either.

“Each of us is the only colleague for each other in the entire world. As much as I’ve lifted you up higher and made you lonely, I will always be there for you.”

Just because two were colleagues, and also stayed at each one’s side, it didn’t mean that both loved each other. Even at the night she got the proposal, while obviously knowing that the Bureau of Investigation employee was eavesdropping, she was still able to meet Anriq.

Her gentle and affectionate husband still has not forgotten another woman. But seeing him being incredibly nice to Iveka, she was sure that he had a purpose with her heart.

Even so, she was his Queen. She was able to accept that fact calmly. Since her childhood days, she has been receiving worse possible truths. She just lived silently for eighteen years in the Count’s mansion. That was why, even now, she could stay still in his arms casually.

Natural affection, or reliable family, was not something that was given to her in this life.

All of a sudden, she tried not to be overwhelmed.

***

“He told you not to attend the noble’s families conference?”

In the next afternoon, a guest who was her father, Count Ewill Esselburn, paid her a visit. From now on, Ewill had to use honorifics while speaking to her third daughter.

Iveca thought that it was the first time she had ever been alone with Ewill. Therefore, Ewill, who spoke to her in honorific, was not strange at all. Because in the meantime, they have not been into conversation properly before. She, who had been drinking her bland tea without a hitch, frowned as she was deep in thought on what Ewill has just said.

“So, what did you say?” asked her father.

“I said that I understood.”

“You should’ve said no.”

Ewill sighed. Iveca sat with her head down and gave no answer. In the end, did she always remain a useless daughter to her father? The father and daughter who were facing each other had no real external resemblance. At least, she had purple eyes like her mother’s…. Iveca felt herself shrinking in front of Ewill.

“Isn’t a Queen excluded from politics nothing but a scarecrow? If so, why would he dare to ask the Queen…”

She answered carefully, “He told me to stay working in the Judicial Affair Bureau.”

“What did you say?”

“It is a matter that was agreed before marriage…”

Ewill touched his forehead. And then he continued with a cold voice.

“Nevertheless, quit the Judicial Affair Bureau, and tell him that you are coming to the meeting. How can you treat the Queen as an employee of an affiliated organization?”

Iveca hesitated a little, then muttered, unable to look straight at Ewill with his pale blonde hair. “Queen Evena has also made it as the Head of Administration Bureau.”

Ewill stared at the Queen that was an Esselburn. He never considered his third daughter, Iveca, as his own. If you counted ten months backwards, the child was conceived when he was in the countryside.

Countess Riszora insisted that she was born two months premature, but Iveca’s weight was normal, and her black hair was similar to the handsome stableman who had already been kicked out. The other four daughters resembled him and had pale blonde hair, so the different appearance kept her further away.

Her short physique, compared to the rest of his tall daughters, was also a factor that made her feel at odds. The more he looked at the delicate, pretty face, the more it resembled the young and fresh stableman rather than his own.

Anyway, the Countess gave birth to Iveca herself, and he hated people talking anyway, so in this case, it didn’t make anything more problematic, but also created a more subtle atmosphere. Iveca worked hard on everything since she was young. When she was given a tutor, the progress was faster than the older sisters, and she was also physically fit. But no one has ever acknowledged her. It was closer to someone who was being ignored.

So even when she said she wanted to go to college at a very young age, he allowed it without thinking. After graduating from college, he tried to marry her off, but as soon as she came of age, she immediately wrote an application for a job at the Bureau of Investigation and ran away from home without saying a word. The rest of the family never mentioned her either. As if she had not been there since the beginning, they lived as they had only had four daughters since a long time ago.