After what had happened in front of the conference hall of the Congress, Killian had kissed her lightly on the tip of her nose and busily disappeared. If he broke up for a moment, he used to leave a deep kiss, as if he were saying good-bye, but this time he only kissed on the tip of her nose, not on her lips.

Maribel smiled at Julietta's grumbling. "That's because you almost got yourself into trouble over the fragile safety of the guard. Do you like a stupid man who falls in love and doesn't even know what's important?"

"It's not that." She felt a little relieved that it was for her, but she couldn't help but feel sorry about it.

"I guess you must have really finished your work. I see you are grumbling about a trivial thing." Maribel, who had already taken control of the Asta Palace, went into the lounge and looked around at Julietta, then ordered a maid to call in the head maid.

"Now, as the hostess of the Asta Palace, it's your first time preparing for dinner, so you have to try your best. What's good for appetizers?"

Maribel's tone changed when there were other maids in the lounge. Julietta replied soberly, thinking Maribel was a real fox, "His Excellency Oswald hates any fish with eyes on it, so we have to be careful about that."

"Oh, my G.o.d! How delicious the fish head is! Anyways, he's too delicate. Vera, Julietta's dress tonight should be a bright light green one that reminds people of a bud, like a long winter is over and a new spring is coming."

Julietta was in a hurry to dissuade her, listening to Maribel busily giving out endless instructions. "Not today. His Highness will be busy reconfirming the security of the Imperial Castle, and Count Valerian will not be able to return to the castle today because of Christine's deportation."

They could feel the fatigue in her voice, despite her intentionally smiling and talking brightly.

Maribel stopped being more deliberately energetic than usual. "Yes, it's not over yet. Let's take a good rest today. Please feel sad and angry as you want, and do whatever you want. But tomorrow..."

"That's right, Maribel. My future position is that I can't show my personal feelings for long. So tomorrow, I'm going to stand up with a casual face and have a good dinner with those who have suffered through this and celebrate their hard work. It's a safe end to a hard journey."

------

Maribel accompanied Julietta to the bedroom, where she took off her dress and let her hair hang loose. After Vera helped her put on her pajamas, Maribel took Julietta to bed and asked, "Only today, Julietta. Send everything into your dreams today."

"Yes, I will." Julietta's eyes closed as she listened to Maribel's request.

She was so tired. Rather than a sense of accomplishment that she had kept her place, she was instead relieved that she survived and that she would see tomorrow. It seemed to cover her whole body, and she had no energy left. It was finally over.

Julietta fell asleep and muttered as if she promised to herself, "I'll have a lot of fun every day, starting tomorrow..."

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Epilogue

Julietta's promise to get everyone together and have a nice dinner was not kept for a while, because she slept like an exhausted person. Everyone tried to call a royal physician, but Julietta said that she was only physically ill and that she wanted to rest for a few days without any interruption.

After her exhaustion was gone, Julietta rose as if she had found all her vitality.

Killian asked softly, as he had kept watching to see if she was recovering, "Did you sleep well?"

She slept soundly without even dreaming. No, she thought she had a dream, but she couldn't remember. "Yes." Looking into Killian's friendly silver eyes, Julietta smiled.

"If you didn't wake up today, no matter how much you hated it, I was going to bring a royal physician."

"I was laid up with fatigue. I guess I finally felt relieved and my body decided that it could take a good rest. In this case, it's better to sleep well than a royal physician who comes, asks me a question, and gives me some medicine."

Killian lightly touched Julietta's forehead and then tilted his head. "I think you have a slight fever. Are you all right?"

"It's just that I slept a long time. Anyway, let's have the dinner we were talking about last time."

"The sun is already high. Mrs. Grayson has been busy every day, saying she would have a nice dinner as soon as you got up."

"It's a fight to secure her position, so she will be busy."

Not long ago, Maribel appeared to have started a fight with Countess Auguste, the head maid of the Asta Palace.

"If Mrs. Grayson decides to do that, Mrs. Auguste is no match. If it were Albert, he might be a match," Killian raised himself after a long kiss to Julietta.

Julietta asked, looking at him fully clothed. "Is the work done yet?"

"That's not it. I'm going to take this opportunity to make major changes to the security of the Imperial Castle."

Killian decided to take this opportunity to get rid of the remaining forces of the First Queen, the Duke of Dudley, and Francis, because Francis had died.

"You'll be back before dinner, right?"

At her question, Killian turned around and came back to the bed. "It's not the problem of coming back, I don't want to go out at all. But this is our chance. We need to fix everything."