Aeri waits in the royal box of King’s Arena while judges argue over a penalty, stretching the tension past when the two-minute warning should arrive. Holding a fruit tray to maintain her cover, Aeri grows increasingly panicked as King Joon sits only a few feet away wearing the golden crown, and Mikail is present while Sora still has not entered the box.

Sora finally approaches with Count Bay Chin and Ty, but Bay Chin orders Royo to stay behind, leaving Aeri without Royo’s protection in the guard-heavy royal box. Bay Chin formally presents Sora to King Joon as “Sora of Gain,” and Aeri watches the king and count speak about Sora as an object, reinforcing the cruelty of the world Aeri once expected to endure.

As the moment nears, Aeri chooses a different life: she wants a future defined by people who value her, especially Royo, rather than her father’s approval. With that clarity, Aeri resolves to betray Bay Chin and commit fully to the plot against the king.

The two-minute warning horns finally sound, confirming the agreed signal. With Sora positioned beside King Joon and Mikail standing ready, Aeri retrieves her hidden yellow-gem amulet—stolen long ago from Prince Omin’s dead body—and freezes time at the cost of rapidly aging herself.

While everyone and everything is suspended, Aeri removes the crown from King Joon’s head and places it into Mikail’s hand, then restores time by letting the amulet fall back under her uniform. Exhaustion and the accumulated “aging” crash over her, but no one suspects etherum or magic in Yusan, dismissing what happened as mere sleight of hand as the crown’s theft succeeds.