~CHAPTER 41~
“The Water Queen’s Mirror is at its most beautiful season.”
“It wouldn’t hurt to enjoy the scent of autumn before the sun sets.”
– Adelaisa Belua.
That was all the letter said, delivered by the Marchioness of Calamir.
If anyone else had seen it, they would have thought it was a warm greeting.
But to Rision, the letter carried a very clear meaning.
He dismissed all his escorts and headed straight for the Empress Palace.
The servants who managed the empty palace moved like shadows.
No one was foolish enough to let themselves be seen by an emperor walking alone.
As he expected, Adelaisa was at the pavilion the Late Emperor had gifted to the Empress.
Adelaisa rose when she saw Rision approaching from afar, sitting until then on a chair carved entirely from marble.
Her pale face showed clear signs of exhaustion.
“Did you walk all the way here alone?”
At his worried scolding, Adelaisa gave a faint, powerless smile.
“I told my maid to wait at the entrance.”
“I took breaks on the way, so I’m fine.”
She looked too tired for him to add more words.
Rision sat her back down and took the seat across from her.
Adelaisa lowered her head first.
“I apologize for troubling you to come all the way here, Your Majesty.”
“I thought it would be better if news of me visiting the Imperial Palace at this time didn’t reach my father’s ears.”
The moment she mentioned Duke Belua, Adelaisa’s face stiffened ever so slightly.
Her uneasy gaze drifted across the marble table, something uncharacteristic of her.
Rision didn’t rush her.
The silence didn’t last long.
As if bracing herself, Adelaisa took a deep breath and began to speak slowly.
“My father—”
Rision raised a hand to stop her.
He looked straight at her and spoke in the gentlest voice he could muster.
“Lady Adelaisa.”
“Listen to me carefully.”
“I have never approached nor avoided you because you are someone’s daughter.”
“I trust you already understand this.”
Adelaisa gave a small nod.
“You do not need to prove your worth or loyalty to me.”
“I know the circumstances you are in, and the limits that come with them.”
She stayed silent.
“So think carefully about what you’re about to tell me.”
“Today, I am content with nothing more than enjoying the scenery of the Empress Palace lake.”
Her eyes, which had been wandering the table, fixed directly on him.
In them, Rision could see confusion, fear and unrest she couldn’t hide, even with the dignity of a duke’s daughter.
But over all of that, he saw a clear and firm resolve.
“One can cherish and love a family member as blood, and still despise their depravity and shame.”
There was no one in this land who understood that truth better than Rision.
Being forced to love someone you could not respect simply because they were your father was the cord that tied Rision and Adelaisa together.
His leniency toward her came from the fact that her circumstances were not theory to him, but reality.
“Your Majesty must already know every detail of my father’s crimes.”
Rision did not answer.
Adelaisa actually seemed relieved not to hear a confirmation.
“I know nothing I do can lessen my father’s sins.”
“But someday, when the time comes for you to decide…”
Adelaisa bit her pale lip.
“At that time… would you remember that I was loyal to you, even for a single moment?”
She wasn’t begging for her life.
Even if Duke Belua were dragged away for treason, she would not bear guilt by association.
She knew Rision would never do that to her.
What she was begging for now was her father’s life.
“I am not the only one who has a grudge against the duke.”
But Rision was obligated to avenge Edric.
If Rision did not take Duke Belua’s head, Marek would abandon the name of Loisen and his position as a royal guard to kill his brother’s murderer himself.
He could not force such disgrace upon a loyal friend.
“I cannot promise the actions of my future self.”
“But I will remember your heart.”
Adelaisa lowered her head.
Her practiced way of swallowing despair pained him, but he could not comfort her.
The silence didn’t last long.
Adelaisa wiped away her gathering tears as if it were nothing, and spoke in a flat voice.
“Baron Aldebaron has defected.”
Rision’s face hardened.
The House of Aldebaron had served the imperial family for generations as eastern nobles.
The previous baron had been especially wise and upright, often speaking frankly even to the Late Emperor.
After his death, his son inherited the title.
The son wasn’t particularly talented, but he had no serious flaws, so Rision treated him with honor.
His daughter, Bertona Aldebaron, was also Elpenlira’s first lady-in-waiting.
Not useful, but trustworthy.
Or so he thought.
Being corrected stung in every case.
“The duke must have used the baron and his daughter to steal information about Grand Duchess Erbinjel and the Oak Palace.”
He reminded himself he was in front of a lady, but his voice still came out cold.
Adelaisa nodded heavily.
*‘So the source of the rumors about Elpenlira was the baron.’*
Countess Ornin had been thorough.
Under her management, problems were rare.
But if the lady-in-waiting herself was a spy, that was a different story.
“That is not all.”
Under tense air, Adelaisa explained that Ambassador Nixandor had been colluding with Duke Belua using Baron Aldebaron as intermediary.
Rision nodded silently.
Adelaisa’s eyes widened a little.
“You are not surprised.”
“I already suspected the two were connected.”
“Though this is the first I’ve heard the baron was their bridge.”
This confirmed once again that Dianu’s testimony was true: Ambassador Nixandor and Duke Belua had indeed conspired together.
*‘How dare they.’*
His chest burned with rage.
Rision closed his eyes and opened them again to steady himself, then spoke to Adelaisa.
“Thank you.”
“This will be useful.”
“I should have told you earlier… I was too late.”
“I am sorry.”
“You are forgiven.”
There was nothing to forgive.
Had it been anyone other than Adelaisa, this information would never have reached him in a hundred years.
By choosing to act as a spy, she betrayed her father.
She knew she was essentially hammering nails into the coffin of her own family.
“Forgiveness is separate.”
“I will repay you properly.”
Adelaisa tried to refuse, but Rision rose first.
He had heard footsteps outside the pavilion.
No one should have been entering the Empress Palace besides the managing staff.
“Your Majesty…?”
So when Rision found himself face-to-face with Dianu Ortensa outside the pavilion, it was only natural he couldn’t behave normally.
* * *
Marek Loisen arrived at the East Wing office of the Imperial Palace holding Rision’s coat — the very one that had been forced into his arms by Dianu.
Nairon, who was reading reports aloud beside Rision, frowned.
“I believe this exact thing has happened once before…”
Marek gently placed the coat on an empty chair and stepped back.
With Nairon no longer reading, the office filled with awkward silence.
Rision, trapped between a wary secretary and an uncomfortable royal guard, finally sat upright.
The question that had been gnawing at him ever since running into Dianu burst out before he could stop it.
“These days, young ladies…”
He couldn’t finish the sentence.
With Nairon and Marek staring at him with wide eyes, Rision snapped in frustration.
The two men exchanged a glance.
Rision drew an uncertain shape in the air with both hands.
“They wear things that don’t fit—”
“…”
“They don’t even button everything—”
“…”
After opening and closing his mouth for a long time, Rision flopped back into his chair with irritation.
“It’s nothing.”
A true gentleman never comments on a lady’s attire.
It wasn’t rare in the Catalos social scene for revealing dresses or seductive silhouettes to become fashionable.
Thinking strange things about a lady simply following fashion was unsophisticated.
And yet, the moment he saw Dianu in front of the pavilion, Rision realized he was not a sophisticated man.
Had she been wearing a dress that exposed her shoulders and arms — and surrounded by similarly dressed women at a banquet — he wouldn’t have reacted that way.
But that day, Dianu looked the same as always.
Her thick brown hair tied back with the ribbon he had given her, her cheeks flushed pink from spending a while outside.
With her bright, lovely face, she was wearing a skirt that traced her curves and even had one of the blouse buttons undone.
To avoid accidentally looking somewhere he shouldn’t, he had no choice but to stare straight into her eyes.
He knew he looked stern — even frightening — but controlling his expression had been impossible.
The pity he felt for Adelaisa, the rage toward the baron and duke, all washed clean out of his mind.
Even the suspicion in Elpenlira’s gaze when she saw him and Adelaisa together was something he had no room to explain.
He hated the idea of anyone else seeing Dianu dressed like that.
That was the only thought in his head.
The coat he had given her came from pure instinct.
“Um… Your Majesty.”
Marek’s cautious voice sounded behind him.
Rision took a slow breath and looked back at him.
Marek looked serious.
“Lady Ortensa has no riding clothes, so she borrowed Lady Elpenlira’s.”
Rision went silent.
“So it’s not that such clothes are fashionable, nor that Lady Ortensa prefers them.”
“She only went out like that because no one would see her.”
Rision narrowed his eyes.
“Marek, are you even human?”
Marek failed to hide the gloom on his face.
“…At the very least, I’m definitely not considered a man.”
Rision slowly sat up.
He tried to keep a straight face, but Nairon’s baffled expression made the corner of his mouth twitch despite himself.
Covering his lips with a hand, he turned toward Nairon.
“Which dressmakers are popular in the capital these days?”
“Pardon?”
“It won’t do for the princess’s tutor to have no riding clothes.”
He had written Dianu a reasonable check, but she was frugal with herself.
If he assigned the princess’s tailors to her, she would refuse violently.
But a boutique in the capital? She might accept that begrudgingly.
As he was considering this, Nairon’s voice cut through his thoughts.
“Well, Lady Ortensa will soon meet Lord Balih for a formal proposal.”
Rision froze.
There was nothing polite in Nairon’s tone.
“Isn’t it proper for a lady’s wardrobe to be filled by her fiancé?”
Rision leaned back into his chair.
Nairon glanced at him and flicked the report in his hand.
“Shall I resume reading, Your Majesty?”
Rision looked to Marek.
The loyal knight only gave him a pitying look.
“…Proceed.”
His mood was utterly ruined.
