Chapter 99………………
“I… I shall take my leave now. Please, everyone, continue to enjoy the banquet.”
The Empress, perhaps realizing that any further questioning would be dangerous, accepted Yevgeny’s support and exited.
All eyes turned toward the Empress’s faction and toward my mother. Whispers spread among the crowd, hushed voices gossiping.
I laid a hand on my mother’s arm and looked at her.
“What on earth is going on?”
When I quietly asked, Mother gently stroked my hair and replied,
“It’s nothing serious, my dear. You needn’t worry so much.”
“But Her Majesty the Empress looked at you as though she meant to kill you. How could I not worry?”
“Well…”
Mother gave a troubled smile and glanced around. Soon, she pulled at my hand.
“This isn’t the place to talk. Shall we step away for a moment?”
At her suggestion, I turned my head and looked at Lihart standing behind me.
He smiled lightly and nodded.
“I’ll be fine here, Your Highness. Please go. I’ll wait for you.”
“I might not come back. Don’t wait for me.”
“Then I’ll wait for tomorrow.”
“….”
The Crown Prince’s investiture ceremony lasted two weeks. Such was fitting for a grand national celebration.
I studied Lihart for a moment before nodding.
“If you’ll agree to be my partner again tomorrow, then.”
“Your Highness’s place has always been at my side.”
…What nonsense is that.
I quickly turned my head away and began to walk.
Mother, overhearing this exchange, gave me a look that all but hummed Hmm~? as she watched my face.
Her gaze lingered, probing, but ignoring was my specialty. I hurried her along, and together we reached the guest lounge.
Once the door was locked, people would know it was occupied and choose another.
I secured the door and turned to face her.
“Let’s sit down first, Mother.”
“Yes, let’s.”
She sat on a sofa, and I followed suit, watching her.
“What exactly happened? I’ve never seen the Empress so flustered before.”
“It wasn’t such a big thing. I merely asked some leading questions.”
“Leading… questions?”
I still looked puzzled, so Mother lowered her voice.
“I asked about Heremo Dvich. Of course, I didn’t mention the name outright.”
“Then why did she overreact like that…?”
“That’s what I’m about to explain.”
She slowly recounted everything that had transpired while we were apart at the banquet.
After Dmitri had been declared Crown Prince, Mother and I had mingled separately with our respective groups.
It was then that the Empress, bringing her faction with her, approached Mother once more.
The Empress, to keep my mother’s growing influence in check.
Her followers, to reap whatever benefits might fall from siding with her.
Each with their own motives, they approached Mother. But Mother, as though she had been waiting for such a moment, welcomed the Empress warmly.
“As it happened, the conversation had just turned to the ladies’ maiden years. The timing was perfect.”
“The Empress’s days as the young Lady Alphe… Did you perhaps ask about childhood crushes?”
“That’s right. My clever daughter always sees straight through things.”
Mother laughed softly, pride in her expression. But her tone soon grew serious again.
“The Empress made a jab, wondering what could possibly be so amusing. I took the chance to naturally draw her into the discussion.”
‘Would Your Majesty care to join our conversation?’
It had been no more than a polite gesture, yet the Empress readily accepted, hoping perhaps to find a weakness to exploit.
And immediately regretted it.
For as soon as Marchioness Iolin broached the topic, the noblewomen’s faces softened, fond smiles blooming as they recalled their youthful days.
Only Dolores, the Empress, looked displeased.
“Did you all have someone you secretly adored?”
At Iolin’s question, the Empress’s allies began to speak, coughing and glancing at her as they did.
“I once had a childish crush on Count Deon… just silly infatuation in my girlhood, of course. Nothing now.”
“I too once loved my knight, Sir Riva… though of course I gave it up quickly. The difference in station was insurmountable.”
Though wary of the Empress, none of them could resist talking. After all, what better topic than reminiscing about youthful fancies, fashion, gossip, and love?
“….”
While everyone else joined in, Dolores alone could not. Her face was stiff.
Iolin noticed and gently asked,
“Your Majesty the Empress?”
“…What is it?”
“Your expression is not well. Are you perhaps tired?”
The Empress forced her lips into a smile and shook her head.
“No, no, not on such a joyous day. It’s only that my legs ache from so much standing. I think I shall rest awhile—please, continue without me.”
“….”
Ayla, Mother, glanced at her and smiled faintly.
“Then perhaps we should all move?”
“…Pardon?”
“Surely it wouldn’t be right to let Your Majesty leave alone when you’ve graced us with your presence. Don’t you all agree?”
The noblewomen, almost unconsciously, nodded.
With her trademark cheer, Ayla pressed on.
“Don’t worry, Your Majesty! We’ll simply go with you. I’m sure everyone here would love to hear of your own days as a young lady. Isn’t that right?”
The ladies murmured, awkwardly agreeing.
The Empress realized she could no longer keep her composure. While the others looked to Ayla, her face twisted. Only Ayla saw it.
Yet she feigned ignorance, instead stepping forward to escort her personally.
“Shall we?”
“….”
The Empress ground her teeth but walked along with Ayla’s guidance, the Duchess of Kalipsa trailing nervously behind like a puppy.
Thus seventeen noblewomen and the Empress herself gathered.
With a bright smile, Ayla revived the earlier conversation.
“So then, when were your first loves? Since we’ve come this far, why not share your stories of romance as well?”
The women exchanged glances.
‘We’ve hardly spoken of such things since marriage…’
‘It might seem improper, even vulgar…’
‘But perhaps just this once…’
They swallowed hard.
In their maiden days, they had freely chattered about crushes and rumors. But as noble matrons, pride had sealed their lips.
And besides, this was a rare chance—Empress and Empress Consort together!
Such an opportunity might never come again.
So, one of them—the same lady who had confessed her crush on a knight—spoke first.
Blushing, she said,
“Has anyone else ever fancied their bodyguard?”
“I… I suppose I have, if only briefly. Those gallant men with their swords…”
“Well, they risk their lives for us every day. Who wouldn’t admire them?”
“And wasn’t there a princess who actually married her knight? Truly the romance of the century!”
The women squealed with delight.
Then—
“Did Your Majesty the Empress never have such feelings?”
The question came just as the Empress accepted a champagne glass.
Ayla, feigning innocence, had asked.
The Empress froze mid-motion.
The noblewomen waited, expectant.
“I… did not.”
“Well, of course. You were always famed for your impeccable propriety, even before your marriage.”
Ayla replied sweetly—then added,
“Though I’ve heard stories of certain young ladies who fell for their servants… or even foreign merchants. Oh, and once, someone’s guard knight!”
She clapped her hands in mock delight.
The women gasped and laughed, murmuring at the scandalous possibilities.
“And to think, our Empress never once had such rumors. Truly admirable, is she not?”
“Indeed. She is nothing if not strict.”
“She was the Duke of Alphe’s daughter, after all.”
At that, the Empress’s faction puffed up proudly, saying, “Isn’t that right, Your Majesty?”
Clang!
The sharp crash silenced them.
The champagne glass had shattered on the marble floor.
Startled, the women looked quickly to the Empress.
Her face twisted with fury as she shot Ayla a murderous glare.
All others flinched under that gaze—save Ayla, who met it calmly.
The Empress’s voice was low and seething.
“It seems the First Consort lacks awareness of her station.”
“And why do you say so?”
“As a member of the Imperial House, to indulge in such vulgar chatter, laughing with these women… Truly unbecoming.”
“….”
“Are you even fit to call yourself one of us?”
She sneered down at Ayla.
Her followers shrank into uneasy silence.
But Ayla tilted her head with a smile.
“Perhaps you are right. It may seem I lacked some awareness.”
“‘Seem’? You clearly lack all quality of a royal. One must even question whether you belong in that seat at all.”
Such open insult drew a faint frown from Ayla.
Once, she might have bowed her head, begged forgiveness.
But not now.
She had a daughter to protect.
And that daughter was already enduring more than anyone should, just to keep her safe.
As a mother, Ayla could no longer cower.
Just as she had stood before the Emperor, she now met the Empress’s eyes squarely and retorted,
“Perhaps Your Majesty should look more closely at those beneath you.”
“…What did you say?”
“As you know, neither you nor I may interfere directly in high society. Thus every lady here is precious; each one a source of information. Their presence is invaluable.”
She clasped Iolin’s hand, smiling warmly.
“Rather than call their conversation vulgar, would it not befit Your Majesty to cherish them? To draw closer as a true sovereign should?”
“Are you contradicting me?”
“No, merely voicing my own thoughts.”
Ayla smiled serenely.
The women blinked, taken aback by her composure.
Then Ayla’s eyes turned cold.
“How strange… I spoke no ill of anyone. I merely asked about love in its many forms. Why react so strongly?”
“…!”
The Empress flinched.
“Weren’t you, Your Majesty, always the model of propriety as a young lady? And yet your face darkens with each word, and now you shout so suddenly… I cannot understand.”
“Second Consort…!”
“Unless…”
Her voice trailed off into the din of the banquet, too faint to hear.
But the weight of suspicion lingered. Iolin and the other ladies all looked to the Empress, unease written plainly on their faces.
The Empress trembled, fury she could no longer contain.
“How dare you…!”
But before she could shout further, Yevgeny appeared, and her voice shrank back down.
—And so, that is what happened.
