CHAPTER 13
Before attending the auction, Bella had prepared two identical copies of Oksana’s ring.
When she reached into her cape and pulled out the small black leather pouch, it gave a faint jingle—the sound of the two fake rings clinking together.
She held her breath, afraid that someone suspicious monitoring the room from outside might catch the sound. But fortunately, it didn’t seem to have been heard beyond the walls.
Bella took one of the fake rings from the pouch and quickly swapped it with the real ring in the box Lord Roim was holding. The pouch went right back into her cape, as if nothing had happened.
The real ring she had retrieved was slipped into a small pendant she’d brought along—one designed to store tiny items—and she handed it back to Lord Roim.
“Hold onto this carefully.”
“What is it, my lady?”
“There’s no time to explain. Just trust me.”
“Attach it to your uniform.”
Very few people truly understood the value of Oksana’s ring.
But Bella knew for certain that both the Second Prince and the Grand Duke would attend the auction to fight over it.
She didn’t know exactly what had driven the two to be at each other’s throats, but it was clear this ring was somehow entangled with the imperial family’s secrets. Their relationship had deteriorated rapidly after the auction, all over this ring.
“Item number five goes to bidder 101!”
They must have been shocked when they realized someone other than themselves had also been aiming for the ring.
Bella had assumed it would just be her, the Second Prince, and the Grand Duke vying for it. She hadn’t anticipated a fourth, unknown participant joining the fray.
At first, when four people kept driving the price up for what seemed like an unremarkable item, others in the auction room started bidding too—thinking perhaps it was some hidden treasure. But as the price skyrocketed without pause, they all eventually dropped out.
“Five thousand krang.”
The bidding had soared up to 2,000 krang quickly, but Bella threw out 5,000 krang in one bold move—more than double the current price.
That shut everyone else up.
They hadn’t given up entirely, of course. They were simply changing tactics.
Out of the four competitors, Bella had looked like the weakest. They likely thought it would be easier to let her win and steal the ring later, rather than keep inflating the price.
She had anticipated this. That’s why she’d brought two fake rings—one for the Grand Duke, one for the Second Prince.
“Three of them, huh. I should’ve brought a third fake.”
The extra participant made her nervous the entire time, but miraculously, things played out in her favor.
The Grand Duke and the Second Prince fought over one of the fakes, while the mage took the other.
When the suspicious figure on the rooftop swooped in and snatched the box, Bella was honestly relieved.
Her face might’ve betrayed something, but the first attacker didn’t notice—he was too busy chasing after the thief.
“That was lucky.”
Still, when the mage appeared at the end, she’d been caught off guard. And when her body lifted into the air, a spike of genuine fear shot through her.
Magic was rare. So rare that anyone capable of using it was managed directly by the Tower of Mages.
Before her regression, the ones who’d fought over Oksana’s ring were only the Grand Duke and the Second Prince.
“To think the Mage Tower was involved too…”
Back then, the ring had suddenly gone missing during their long feud.
Both the Grand Duke and the Second Prince had mobilized every resource they had, turning the entire empire upside down in the search. Especially the Grand Duke’s side—he had practically gone mad.
But despite all that, the ring was never found. The case became a cold one—unsolved.
“Was the thief someone from the Mage Tower?”
If that were true, then it made sense why a mage had taken it from her this time.
If word got out that she was the one who won the auction, she’d end up entangled with the Grand Duke, the Second Prince, and even the Tower of Mages. Each of them more dangerous than the last.
It had been a very good decision to travel with only one escort knight.
She hadn’t even called Roim by name, and both of them wore masks. They’d swapped carriages twice to shake off any followers.
And yet—thanks to listening to her butler’s earlier advice and flaunting her title as the Duke’s wife—she’d almost lost everything before her new life even began.
“Ha… thank goodness.”
“I’m sorry, Your Highness.”
“Explain.”
“…”
“Did you not hear me? I said—EXPLAIN!”
“The Grand Duke’s man snatched the box. I pursued him, but I was alone…”
“Alone? What happened to the rest of your team? Do you not understand why I grouped you together in the first place?”
“Forgive me. The woman insisted on handing over the box only if I stayed behind alone. Said she felt threatened because she had only one escort.”
“So, you accepted her terms? And even after agreeing, you couldn’t secure the ring?”
“…Yes.”
“And now the Grand Duke has it?!”
The prince trembled in fury. He grabbed a vase from the desk and hurled it across the room.
The vase shattered on the floor, but no one dared move. All they could do was bow their heads.
“You useless fools. Get out of my sight—NOW!”
“It’s fake.”
“…Pardon?”
“The ring. It’s a fake.”
The Grand Duke clenched the copy of Oksana’s ring in his hand, his jaw tight.
He hadn’t raised his voice, but the way the sapphire crumbled into powder under his grip made his anger crystal clear.
“The Second Prince’s doing, no doubt.”
Crunch—
“Investigate him. And find the real Oksana’s ring.”
“Yes, sir.”
“This is your final chance, Ferran.”
“I understand.”
The Grand Duke’s fiery orange eyes blazed as he stared toward the imperial palace beyond the window.
There was a flicker of dark, seething hatred in his gaze.
“Forgive me…”
In a pitch-black room, a man knelt on the floor, forehead pressed to the ground, repeating his apologies over and over.
Everything had been fine—until the moment his master checked the contents of the pouch.
“Does this look real to you?”
“…I’m sorry.”
The man seated in the ornate chair hurled the pouch at him.
The ring inside spun on the floor before toppling over.
It was one of Bella’s fakes.
“Look closely. Does this look real to you?”
“I-I apologize, Lord Grogen…”
Grogen stood and approached the trembling man.
“I sent you out knowing full well the risk—that someone might learn I was after the ring. And not only did you expose yourself, you failed to bring me the real thing.”
“I’m sorry… I truly—!”
“Do you realize how long I kept our organization’s involvement hidden?! You ruined everything!”
“Forgive me!! Please, Lord Grogen—!”
Grogen raised a clenched fist, and the man suddenly clutched his throat and rolled in pain.
“GAAAH—! Forgive me!! I’m sorry!!”
“And now she knows who we are. The Grand Duke. The Prince. And next…!”
“No—it’s not like that!! Please—!”
“What?!”
Grogen paused, and the man gasped, desperate to speak.
“Only the woman who won the auction and her escort knight saw me use magic…!”
“…”
“The Grand Duke’s and Prince’s men never saw my face!”
“Tell me everything. From the beginning.”
Grogen sat back down, glaring coldly. The man took that as a chance to explain.
“The woman went into the room, took the box, and immediately pulled out a pouch to switch the rings.”
“…”
“I disguised myself as staff, saw her out… and she gave me two silver coins.”
“Hold on. She gave you silver?”
“Yes, sir. As a tip, I believe.”
“And what did you do?”
“Well, I thanked her and pocketed it. Judging by that, she must be a frequent guest—surely she’ll return to the auction, and then we—”
“You idiot…!”
“M-my lord?”
Grogen leapt to his feet, enraged.
“Do you even know what silver coins mean at the auction?! They’re not a tip! They’re tokens given at entry to retrieve your personal items!”
“What…?”
“By handing them to you, she wasn’t thanking you. She was demanding her property back! She figured out right then that you weren’t staff!”
The man’s face turned ghostly pale.
“No… that can’t be…”
“After this mess, do you really expect to live?”
“Please, Lord Grogen—!”
Thud!
A heavy blow sent the man collapsing sideways.
“Katan.”
“Yes, my lord.”
A figure materialized from thin air.
“Find whatever that woman left at the auction. Bring it to me.”
“Understood.”
Katan vanished just as suddenly as he appeared.
“Damn it.”
If only he knew what she left behind…
Oksana’s ring wasn’t just an ordinary sapphire ring.
“It should be around here…”
Bella fiddled with the center of the sapphire, feeling for the tiny ridge along its edge. She gave it a firm tug.
Click.
The gemstone split neatly in half, opening like a tiny lid.
On the underside of the gem—embedded in the ring’s base—was an intricate engraving of a dragon breathing fire.
“So this is the seal…”
The hidden truth behind Oksana’s ring.
It bore the crest of the fallen House Peresia.
