The capital of the Austine Empire, Siaus.

In a room furnished in classic elegance, Lilian sat by the window as she stared at the snowy scenery outside with her cold amethyst eyes. Beside her stood an orange-haired maid, who softly reported the intelligence gathered today with a lowered head.

She was Audrey, who served as Lilians head maid.

She had been serving Lilian from a young age and displayed great competence in any work entrusted to her, making her Lilians most trusted aide. While Lilian was away in Leinster, she was the one who had been managing Lilians faction and settling all sorts of issues.

Not anyone could become the personal maid of a high noble. By the Austine Empires tradition, this role was reserved for a daughter from a lower noble house. It went without saying that the personal maid of a member of royalty had to be chosen with utmost prudence.

Audrey herself was from a count house, so she was of considerable social standing despite being a maid. Prior to Lilians enrollment in Saint Freya Academy, she had always made sure to stay close to Lilian and attend to all of her needs, which resulted in her adopting some of Lilians cool-headed decisiveness. That made her quite an intimidating person to go against.

Yet, she couldnt help but feel a pang of worry and confusion as she looked at Lilians silhouette. It had already been ten minutes since she had finished her report, but Lilian hadnt issued any orders yet.

As someone who had served Lilian by her side for many years, Audrey was more aware than anyone else about the latters intelligence. Lilian had always been efficient when it came to work, dealing with issues at a speed where even Audrey struggled to keep pace. Even for intricate problems with many nuances, it would never take her more than five minutes to come to a decision.

Yet, there was no response from Lilian even though ten minutes had already passed thus far. On top of that, Audreys instincts were telling her that Lilian wasnt thinking about what she had said at all.

Such incidents had already occurred several times ever since Lilians return last winter.

Lilian had also cultivated a habit of sitting next to the window and staring blankly at the scenery outside, seemingly contemplating or reminiscing something. It was hard to tell what she was thinking due to her perpetual poker face, and Audrey dared not to carelessly interrupt her either.

But this time, Audrey got an inexplicable feeling from Lilians silhouette that the latter was thinking of someone.

Hold it right there! For a lady of Her Highness age to be thinking of someone, could she possibly be

No no no, thats impossible.

After a short bout of suspicion, Audrey quickly evicted the disrespectful thought from her mind. She couldnt tell whether Lilian was truly feeling that way about another person, but she simply couldnt envision anyone in this world who was worthy of Lilians attention.

Your Highness, do you have any orders?

!

Another five minutes passed. Seeing that they werent going to make any progress at this rate, Audrey had no choice but to interrupt Lilian from her train of thoughts.

The sudden question jolted Lilian out of her thoughts. Her amethyst eyes narrowed ever so slightly as she drew her gaze back into the room.

Pardon me, Audrey. I got lost in my thoughts. I need you to repeat what you have just said.

Yes, Your Highness. Starting from the Seze Dukedom

Audrey repeated everything she had just said without any hesitation, and Lilian quickly gave out follow-up orders for each of the issues. It was also around then that her mind began wandering back to the confrontation between her and Emperor Lukas.

On the Austine Empires Founding Day, Emperor Lukas summoned her to the audience room to question her about her ties with Roel Ascart. Knowing that it would be terrible if Emperor Lukas found out about her intimate relationship with Roel, Lilian made sure to answer every question with prudence. It looked like Emperor Lukas had accepted her answers for the time being, but that wasnt enough to dispel his doubts.

Thus, he intended to send Lilian to the eastern border in order to eliminate any possibility of the two of them meeting.

Emperor Lukas told her that there was a need to escalate measures now that Roel had won the Challenger Cup. Now that the two of them were representative figures of Saint Freya Academy, it would become much harder for them to avoid contact with each other. To avoid being put in a spot, it was best for Lilian to just stay away from him.

Lilian couldnt accept that judgment, but she wasnt in a good position to cast doubt over Emperor Lukas verdict, and the latter had no intention of seeking her opinion. He also didnt bother explaining why the two of them absolutely had to stay away from each other.

To be dispatched to the distant eastern border to fight the deviants was no different from being exiled for someone who stood at the core of the capital. However, knowing that a Holy War was imminent, Lilian wasnt too bothered about that. It was just that she couldnt stand the thought of being unable to meet with the man she loved.

Your Majesty, theres only one more year before my graduation at Saint Freya Academy. Could you allow me to carry out your order in the form of a mission from the academy? That way, I would be able to stay away from Roel Ascart while reaping the fruits of harvest from my past three years of effort.

Lilian had to shoulder great pressure to make this request. Emperor Lukas stared at her silently for a long while before finally giving his consent. Then, he dismissed her and the audience finally came to an end.

All kinds of news started spreading ever since then.

It could be possible that Lukas had noticed something from the final request she made, but there was not a single piece of news that was beneficial to Lilian. On the contrary, they were all trampling on her from different angles.

The involvement of the Sezes in the Theocracys internal war was clearly a directive from the Austine Empires upper echelon. Their goal was to blow up the matter such that the Austine Empire could directly intervene to suppress the Theocracy.

That would lay the groundwork for them to clinch the leadership position in the upcoming Holy War, thus rallying the entire humankind under the Austine Empires flag once again. If things worked out, the Austine Empire could return to its old days of glory.

Given the huge implications, it was no exaggeration to say that the person who led the Austine Empire in the war against the Theocracy would receive unprecedented glory for his contribution, thus putting him closer to the throne than other candidates.

And the one who was chosen was none other than First Prince Lucius Ackermann.

The vastly different attitude Emperor Lukas had taken toward Lucius and Lilian didnt escape the notice of onlookers. After these two matters were announced, some of the nobles leaning toward Lilian started putting some distance between them.

Lilian was in her worst ever position, and that was the reason why Audrey had been working extra hard over the last few days. However, what confused Audrey was how Lilian didnt seem bothered by the current turn of events, not making any attempt to fight back at all.

Your Highness, are we really doing nothing at all? Were still at an advantageous position at the moment. As long as we join hands with the Second Prince, we might still be able to reverse His Majestys decision, asked Audrey anxiously.

The combination of the First Prince and the unprecedented glory of bringing upon a new era of prosperity to the Austine Empire was simply too dangerous. Even if Lilian couldnt secure this opportunity for herself, it was much better for it to go to the Second Prince instead.

But to Audreys astonishment, Lilian shook her head at her question.

No, theres no need for us to do anything at all, she replied.

Lilian placed her hand on a document on the table and endearingly traced a family name written on the paper.

Its unnecessary. This plan is bound to end in failure, she added with a murmur.