The power that was able to look down on everyone and put them below her.

But it became useless from the moment Achilleon could not believe her anymore. After raising his suspicion, Hazel became even more powerless and weaker than a flower petal, only an empress in name.

The memories of the maids who refused all her requests and saying that they had been ordered to do so by the emperor, came to her mind one after another.

In the end, the most dangerous thing was that Hazel became intoxicated with that power itself.

The price of being too careless. The cost of believing that the sweetness he gave to her would not change no matter what.

Looking back at her haughty and foolish past, Hazel felt utterly disgraced.

Hazel calmly calculated her future.

She had to be someone’s wife as long as it wasn’t Achilleon. Whether it would be a country far away from Land, or a powerful family in Land.

Because the position of king’s daughter was a very useful trading item in the kingdom before the fact that she was a human being.

She knew that her father, the king, was picking up a marriage partner early to be with her after she became an adult. Wherever it would be, Ileos would try to marry off his daughter in search of the place where they are willing to pay for the highest price.

The happiness of his daughter was not included in the price. Hazel knew it all too well.

Immediately after turning back time, she only cared about not having any relations to Achilleon. It was the same with Sisef. She didn’t want to have any sort of connection with the Demophos’ brothers.

Running away from them and being strangers to them forever. That was what she wanted.

But she wondered if that would solve everything. Could she have a future like the one she really wanted?

Achilleon will be emperor in the future.

That one was the future that couldn’t be changed. It was out of her reach.

He was born with a talent, defeated the continent, and made everyone submit under his feet.

Even if he was still a crown prince now, he would soon ascend the throne and look down on everyone. Land was also included there.

The great blessing was bestowed upon Land as soon as she became the Empress. Just because it was the former home of the Empress, Achilleon offered Land an exceptional privilege. It was something that other conquered countries didn’t get to enjoy that.

Ever since Hazel became Achilleon’s wife, the king has changed his attitude and been kind to her. It wasn’t just her father who had changed.

The same happened to her maternal family, Duchess of Conces. She sent tribute to her whenever she had time, and sent uncle to ask how she was doing. She was also willing to welcome the Duchess of Conces.

This was because her mother’s family, which had connections with foreign countries, was a great help to her. A foreign empress needed a strong background regardless of how much she had gotten the emperor’s favor.

But now.

‘Conces Family has been preparing to abandon me.’

Hazel recalled the medicine box Lady Pais had brought along with herself the last time she came here. She knew really well that Lady Pais didn’t really bring it to give it to her.

‘This reminded me of reality.’

The queen was dead and gone now, her condition was like a broken sailboat collapsed and just dumped into the stormy sea if without the power of her mother’s family. She would be pushed back and forth by the sea waves and eventually sink deep into the sea.

No one from the Conces family came to visit her palace, despite the rumors that Hazel had fallen ill.

Leaving aside the elderly Duke Seymour Conces, the same with the sons of Hazel’s uncles, and their children.

‘Why didn’t I think about that?’

She was too sure and believed he was on her side. But then it was only possible because Hazel was the Empress of Demophos at that time. Things were different this time.

But now, Hazel needed the support of the Conces. In order for her to survive in this empire.

‘I’m sure they are aiming for the next duke position.’

Seymour Conces had lived for too long. If his wife left him first, or if some of his children had gone, he was still living. He lived longer than the kings he served.

As a child, Hazel sometimes believed that his grandfather was under a magic which made him immortal.

Her maternal grandfather’s appearance in her memory has not changed ever since she was a child until now.

His hair was white, but he was still healthy to the point that he didn’t need a cane. Ten years later, and ten years more, he still looked the same.

In front of Seymour, even her mother, the Queen, could not kneeled properly.

Even though she was his daughter, she was still the queen, therefore it was the law to bow down in front of her and show his courtesy, but Seymour remained stiff in their private meeting. Rather, it was Martina’s mother who bowed her head to show respect.

After following her mother, his maternal grandfather opened his mouth and asked how she was doing.

Perhaps time has completely eluded him, Seymour has shown signs of weakness in the recent years. His visits to the court began to be reduced gradually to the court and sent his sons instead of himself to take care of things.

It’s time for her uncles to take over his position.

All three uncles were struggling to impress her maternal grandfather.

Of course, his eldest son has the right to inherit the family’s properties, Wilves, but unfortunately, he had a weak body unlike his extraordinary intelligence.

It was often said that it would be difficult to inherit and lead the family and lead them due to the frequent Hemoptysis[1] and collapsing.

([1] Hemoptysis is a state when someone coughs up blood from their lung.)

The next were her twin uncles.

They were born five minutes apart from each other but they were the total opposite.

Theodore, the older one between both of them, was delicate if she had to speak well of him, and extremely narrow-minded if she talked about him on the bad side. He had the temper to remember what the other person had said and done to him before retaliating against them later on.

The other brother, Bredan, on the contrary, had a short-tempered personality. If she was to speak on the good side, he could be dismissed as just being arrogant, but in most cases, it mostly went the wrong way.

Wilves, the eldest son, was struggling to deal with the big and small accidents his brother had made, in return for his personality, who wasn’t holding grudges, letting his anger go toward everything before him.

Needless to say, both of them often fought and hit each other. To the point that Seymour once sent his twins to two countries with each of them located on the end of the continent, saying he would leave them behind.

It was simply amazing how their personalities differed so much when they were brothers born from the same mother.

And that was the reason the tension around them was heightening, Hazel thought that way.

“Who would be suitable for this position?”

The elderly maternal grandfather had been utterly left out from the target list. All she needed was someone who could be manipulated well by her and come into her hands willingly.

The eldest son, Wilves was older than Martina and only weak in his body, however he had a genius brain. He was meticulous and cold enough to be considered as the most similar to Seymour among his children.

The age difference between the middle child of Martina and her twin uncles was quite below, so their age gap with Hazel was only 13 years apart.

Twin uncles certainly had so many advantages to pull her onto their side.

Hazel began to compare between them both, the narrow-minded Theodore and short-tempered Bredan.

Uncle Theodore had high self-esteem due to his sensitivity, and he surely had a sense of retaliation.

He was not a great man to bear if he was falling behind his younger brother, Uncle Bredan was on the opposite side as he was competitive, but he just felt immersed at the moment, he didn’t bear a grudge against the other person for a long time.

Which one would be easier to deal with and able to help her more? Hazel put the two on the scale and began to compare them again.

The pendulum, which had been tilted to one side, continued to lean toward that side for a long time before leaning to the other side, and soon leaning back and forth.

She got so lost in her own thoughts that she didn’t realize Mary had come in and spoke to her.

“Your Highness, Her Highness Princess Lorette is here.”

Hazel nodded openly after she retorted, ‘Again?’

“Tell her to come in.”

“Sister!”

As soon as Lorette entered the room, she immediately ran to Hazel and knelt down on the ground.

Lorette looked as if she were about to burst into tears. She might have stayed up all night tossing and turning in her bed like Hazel, so her eyebag were dark as well.

“I was really, really sorry about yesterday.”

“What?”

Lorette bit her lips as she said to Hazel who was asking her with a smile.

“Y-You got hurt because I asked you to go to a masquerade ball with me. I also upset your feelings by being with Prince Sisef….”

You do know that. Hazel replied inwardly while still maintaining her smiling face.

“No way, Lorette.”

Hazel said while holding Lorett’s hand after she lifted her up.

“It’s a request coming from my younger sister, but I, as your older sister, do so because I listened to your wish.”

Hazel then said again while nodding her head.

“And what you did was only to fulfill your duty as a princess.”

“Duty…?”

“Aren’t you trying to reconcile with him because you’re worried about being uncomfortable with Prince Sisef?”

“…but.”

“We are the daughters of the king. Would he use us if we didn’t get along with the prince from another country?”

Lorette looked puzzled, wondering if what Hazel had said was true.

“That could have turned into a diplomatic dispute. Right now Prince Sisef is paying a visit to bring a peace treaty with the Land, and because if we don’t get along with him, it can bring a negative impact to the country’s affairs.”

“Oh…”

Fortunately, Lorette seemed to believe it. Hazel didn’t want to leave any animosity between herself and Sisef. I’ve already gone through the false accusation of desiring my younger sister’s man in the past.

As long as Sisef’s heart had already fallen to Lorette, she didn’t have any intention to force it back toward herself.

“Thanks to you, we were able to make a peace treaty with Prince Sisef. All of the credits are yours, Lorette.”

Hazel added while looking at Lorette’s face who was still puzzled in her place.

“I’m grateful to have you.”