MAE 09

Chapter 9…. The Empress is a Witch?

Another party was held.

This time, it was a masquerade ball organized by the Emperor himself to comfort Vintera.

“Feels like I’m young again.”

The Emperor, wearing the mask that Vintera had made for him, laughed heartily, clearly enjoying himself. The nobles around him responded in kind, laughing along.

“Come now, Vintera, just one dance with me for the first song. After that, I’ll return to my chambers. I wouldn’t want to ruin the fun of the masquerade.”

It was the Emperor’s way of being considerate.

He fully believed that the moment he left, all the nobles would gather around Vintera to console her. This was exactly what she needed, feeling down after the poster incident.

Unlike usual, Vintera wore a deep green dress matching the color of her eyes. She appeared calm yet mesmerizing.

Gliding through the ballroom in sync with the Emperor’s lead, she truly looked like the mistress of the palace.

As soon as the Emperor left, just as he had anticipated, the nobles crowded around Vintera, offering words of comfort.

“This was merely a lowly prank, Lady Vintera. Don’t let it bother you too much.”
“Yes, the choice of words alone was so crude…”

No one seemed to care about all the talk of witches.

“By the way, where is Her Majesty the Empress?”

Some nobles, who had developed the odd notion that they had to denounce the Empress to console Vintera, were eager to find a target.

“She’s confined to the West Tower.”
“Excuse me? Why?”
“The Emperor punished her for being behind the poster incident.”
“That seems a bit…”

One noble, skeptical, voiced their doubt. At that, Vintera, who had remained quiet until now, brightened her eyes.

“Why do you think it’s not true?”
“Ah, no! It could still be Her Majesty’s doing.”
“Please tell me. Is everyone else in on this secret while I remain uninformed?”

Faced with such a firm demand, the targeted noble hesitated, constantly checking around, before finally speaking cautiously.

“It’s just a rumor… just a rumor…”

Lowering his voice, he began to whisper. Unfortunately, the hall had fallen into complete silence, so his words carried clearly.

“There’s a rumor that Her Majesty the Empress is the last princess of that now-destroyed kingdom.”
“What kingdom?”
“If I say that… I really will be dead, Lady Vintera.”

Vintera chuckled softly and raised her hands in a gesture of understanding.

“Anyway… there’s also talk that the kingdom was a land of witches. So I doubt that Her Majesty, who was a princess of that kingdom, would use ‘witch’ as an insult.”
“I see… So that’s why the witch hunts stopped? Her Majesty is a witch?”

It was as if cold water had been poured over the hall—the entire ballroom froze.

No one dared speak.

Discussions regarding the Estum Kingdom and witches had been forbidden since three years ago. Any talk of curses or similar matters had led to the disappearance of the original speakers—banished or executed by the Emperor.

“D-Don’t believe such things. Witches do not exist…”
“The Emperor, who despises witches, would never… take a witch as Empress…”

Opinions were divided.

So, do witches exist or are they fiction?

If fiction, what about all the massacres carried out by the Emperor? If real, does that mean the current Empress is a witch?

The same doubts that arose among the nobles when Euribe first became Empress resurfaced.

A woman dragged here like a prisoner right after the war with the Estum Kingdom, made Empress without a proper ceremony.

Unlike previous Empresses, she became Empress with the weak title of being a distant relative of the Emperor’s chief secretary.

The Marquess of Pecori had brushed off the matter, claiming it was a modest ceremony out of respect for the recently deceased former Empress, but the nobles were not fools—they just did not dare oppose the Emperor’s overwhelming power.

So… is it really true that the Empress is a witch?

Why would the Emperor take a witch as Empress?

After dropping this bombshell, Vintera quietly smiled from behind.

Days, or maybe weeks, passed.

Euribe stared blankly at the stone walls.

At first, she kept track of time by the meals served three times a day, but even that she had now forgotten.

She felt like she might freeze to death, suffocate, or go mad.

Every time the aura of death brushed past her, her instinctive magic would activate, leaving her wrists bound in magical restraint bracelets long torn to rags.

Thump, thump!
Shhh-.
Clatter, clatter.
Click.

Her sensitive ears picked up the sounds of someone collapsing, dragging something, and unlocking a lock.

Still dazed, Euribe only turned her head slightly toward the door where someone was trying to enter.

Screech-.

With a spine-chilling sound, in came… the Second Prince, Nugos.

Euribe wished it had been an executioner instead.

She had no strength to resist, so she closed her eyes again.

Nugos’s light footsteps approached her.

“Hey.”

Apparently, the darkness prevented him from seeing her eyes open and close.

After shaking her arm a few times, Nugos placed a finger under her nose to check if she was breathing. Once he confirmed she was alive, he let out a seemingly relieved sigh.

Returning to his usual tone, he poked her gently.

“Sleeping, huh? Lucky you.”

Euribe didn’t move, so he clicked his tongue and busied himself near the bed.

Curious, Euribe barely lifted her heavy eyelids.

Frustrated, Nugos muttered to the empty air, “Ugh, why is it so cold?”

Then, striding forward, he suddenly picked Euribe up.

Startled, she flinched, but Nugos seemingly didn’t notice and carried her to the bed.

Oddly, he didn’t throw her down. The bed was lined with thick, soft furs.

The unfamiliar warmth thawed Euribe’s frozen body.

“Hang in there.”

Nugos, standing and gazing down at her, finally spoke after a while.

“If you die, I won’t be able to torment you.”

Her tense shoulders relaxed slightly at his unexpected concern.

Thinking he would leave soon, she waited.

“Hey.”

Suddenly, Nugos grabbed her left wrist and yanked it.

Startled, Euribe opened her eyes.

“What’s this?”

Dark blue eyes stared back at her, filled with what seemed like anger.

“What….”
“What’s this!”

Nugos yelled, holding her wrist before her face.

It was her own wrist.

As Euribe stared in confusion, his eyes reflected the lantern light like a beast’s eyes in the dark.

“Doing things like this now?”

Once Nugos grasped her wrist firmly with both hands, Euribe finally realized what was happening.

The marks left by the magical restraint bracelet…

“What right do you have… how dare you…”

Unable to contain his anger, Nugos gripped her shoulders tightly.

“Who gave you permission to try dying?”

The memory of the Emperor clutching her arms and berating her before confining her to the tower resurfaced.

Nugos resembled the Emperor in many ways.

Like before, Euribe could only tremble weakly.

“Answer me! Since when have you—”
“Can you explain what’s going on here?”

A cold voice cut through Nugos’s shouting.

Turning, Euribe saw the Empire’s only princess, Lucilla, standing at the doorway.

“Ah, my pretty sister.”
“Shut up.”

Lucilla replied sharply to Nugos’s teasing.

“I asked what’s going on.”
“This… she’s holding her own wrist…!”

Like bringing a criminal before a judge, Nugos dragged Euribe’s wrist over to Lucilla.

Unlike Nugos, Lucilla could assess the situation at a glance.

“Those are marks from a magical restraint bracelet.”
“Huh?”

Nugos’s clueless face earned Lucilla a click of her tongue as she scanned the room Euribe had been confined in.

“It is cold… it must have been hard to endure.”

Then, with an unreadable expression, she looked at Euribe.

“Thank you for your efforts.”

Embarrassed at his overreaction to nothing, Nugos scratched his head and moved beside his sister.

“What? The confinement’s over?”
“Yes.”
“The Emperor?”
“Not likely.”

Snorting, Lucilla gracefully passed the guards Nugos had knocked out and began descending the stairs.