Chapter 1
Jeffery almost got stripped of his position as Crown Prince, all because he wanted to marry me.
On our wedding night, he didn't show up until the sun was rising, looking pissed off.
I teased him, saying he shouldn’t drink so much, no matter how happy he was.
Jeffery mumbled, "Vaomi, I've begged Father to let me marry that crazy girl. Now your heart won't give you trouble anymore, right?"
He kept whispering, "Vaomi, I'll listen to whatever you say.
"Vaomi, I... I'll love you for the rest of my life.
"I'd do anything for you, I... I really would..."
His words barely left his lips before he started snoring.
I stood there, watching the candlelight flicker, feeling like this was absurd.
I was not Vaomi, for fuck's sake.
It was my third day as the Crown Princess.
I already had a lead on who Vaomi was.
A guard came to report, "Your Highness, according to our investigation, Vaomi's full name should be Vaomi Morre."
I thought for a moment. From what I remember, there wasn't any noble lady everyone knew named Vaomi in Mornthyr.
Not long ago, the official list was announced, and a bunch of officials and their families moved to Mornthyr from all over the country. I'd seen the list, and there was more than one family with the surname Morre.
'Maybe she's one of those newcomers, just hasn't made a name for herself in Mornthyr yet?' I thought.
Idly swirling the wine in my glass, I arched a brow and asked, "Oh? Which family does she come from?"
The guard paused, struggling for words, before finally blurting out, "She... She's..."
His voice dropped to a whisper. "The head courtesan at Twilight House."
"Holy shit!"
I yelled without thinking.
The glass shattered in my grip.
Neera whispered from the side, "My lady, as the Crown Princess, you should act with grace."
To hell with grace!
I immediately barked at the servants by the door, "You two, go and drag that bastard Jeffery back here.
"If you're late, don't bother coming back with your heads still on."
The servants were trembling all over.
They scrambled out of the room like their lives depended on it.
It wasn't until I became the Crown Princess that I found out Jeffery's heart was never mine.
The one he truly cared about was Vaomi Morre, the head courtesan at Twilight House.
Our marriage was nothing but a plot from the start.
It was Vaomi who put him up to it.
As for the reason, I still hadn't figured it out.
Even Jeffery had no idea what was going on.
He said that whenever he saw Vaomi with tears in her eyes, his heart would go soft. Whatever she wanted, he couldn't say no.
Vaomi told him to chase after me, and he'd do it without a second thought.
She told him to beg the emperor to marry us off, and he'd go running to do that, too.
Originally, Jeffery had a fiancée.
She was the prime minister's legitimate daughter, but he called off the engagement midway and insisted on marrying me instead.
The prime minister raised hell in court, and the emperor almost kicked Jeffery off the throne, but Jeffery wouldn't change his mind.
After all, he was the emperor's own son, so the emperor had no choice but to indulge him.
On top of that, my dad was a legendary war hero. He died right on the battlefield.
A lot of big shots in court had my back.
So the wedding plans actually got flipped.
I was touched when I first heard about it.
I thought I'd finally found my true love.
But after jumping through all those hoops and stirring up so much trouble, Jeffery was absolutely clueless about why Vaomi wanted him to do any of it.
Look at him, acting like a damn fool, and he was our crown prince?
If he ever made it to the throne, he'd be a fatuous, good‑for‑nothing emperor.
On our wedding night, I hauled the dead-drunk Jeffery right off the bed and grilled him for the whole story.
I planted my feet, gave him a couple of good slaps from both sides, and almost made him spit blood.
The Eastern Palace, which had been silent as a grave just moments before, suddenly burst into chaos with lights blazing everywhere.
Maids and royal physicians were scrambling around, nobody really knowing what they were doing. They were shouting, panicking. The whole place was in an uproar.
I was the only one knocked out cold, sleeping straight through till the afternoon the next day.
I didn't even hit Jeffery anywhere vital. He was overreacting.
After that, Jeffery kept avoiding me like the plague and wouldn't come near me, no matter what.
The emperor did call me in once, all set to chew me out for my behavior as Crown Princess.
After I laid out the whole story, he fell silent.
Originally, Jeffery's proposal to marry me threw the entire court into chaos.
In the end, it was just a ridiculous mess.
And the real culprit behind it was Vaomi, the top girl at Twilight House.
The emperor's beard was practically shaking with rage.
As he left, he tossed over his shoulder, "Next time, go a little easier on him.
"Just try not to kill my son, alright?"
Three more days went by, and Jeffery still hadn't come back.
But he kept sending me stuff, military books, fancy hairpins, all kinds of jewelry.
Every time, Jeffery'd slip a little apology note in with the gifts.