Chapter – 18
The One the Emperor Loves Is Me
Even after hearing the answer she wanted, Elisabeth couldn’t quite relax.
“Honestly, I should’ve just killed him today.”
Muttering to herself, she spent the entire afternoon gnawing relentlessly at her thumbnail.
Olga, watching her mistress’s displeased mood, spoke gently.
“Please don’t think so pessimistically. Even if His Highness Siegfried has been placed in Her Majesty the Empress’s care, that doesn’t mean something will happen right away.”
“That’s exactly the problem!”
Elisabeth angrily slammed the side table.
“Now that His Majesty Henryus can’t handle Siegfried freely, this matter will never simply disappear. It’s just going to drag on and on for no reason.”
“Is that… bad? Madam, it’s not like you’re truly the one who put poison in the tea…”
“Is your head really not working?”
Elisabeth glared at Olga with cutting malice.
“As long as Siegfried’s alive, His Majesty Henryus will never forget today’s incident. He’ll keep remembering it over and over.”
Siegfried wasn’t the only one who needed to die for Harbour to be at ease.
Elisabeth, standing behind all of it, was just the same.
“That means eventually His Majesty will have no choice but to suspect me. Even if he hides it, that’s what he’ll think.”
It wouldn’t take Henryus long to realize Siegfried wasn’t the real culprit.
That was why Elisabeth planned to wrap everything up before Henryus regained his reason.
Everyone knew Henryus hated Siegfried to the bone.
So if Siegfried supposedly tried to kill Henryus, of course Henryus would erupt with rage.
“I should’ve let His Majesty deal with him on the spot, but then she had to pop in and ruin everything…!”
And that “she” was none other than Josephine.
“W-What should we do then? If… if Madam ends up being revealed as the real culprit during an investigation someday—”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
Unable to contain herself, Elisabeth swept everything off the table.
“It’s not me. It’s not! It was her! Why won’t anyone believe me? Not even you?”
Elisabeth was so frustrated that her eyes brimmed with tears.
“Y-You mean Her Majesty the Empress did it?”
Olga hesitated. She wanted to ask how Elisabeth could be certain Josephine was responsible.
“But there’s no actual evidence…”
“Of course there isn’t!”
Elisabeth snapped.
The suspicion that Josephine had attempted to assassinate the Empress still hadn’t cleared; accusing Josephine based on nothing but gut feeling was suicide.
Henryus, given the state of things, would never believe Josephine staged a fake attack on herself.
“If the culprit really is Her Majesty the Empress, then w-what do we do? What if Her Majesty realizes our plans…?”
“You’re trembling at that little wench? What’s so scary about her?”
“N-No, that’s not what I meant—”
“That fake noble lady—does she have power? A background? Does His Majesty even love her? She’s nothing. What is everyone so afraid of?”
Elisabeth had been hearing nagging all day—from Olga and even from her own family.
They all said she should lie low until the day she was officially named imperial consort, and keep her head down around the Empress.
“How does that make sense? I’m supposed to cower under that girl? In what world am I inferior to her? Huh?”
“T-Then why are you so anxious now, Madam?”
Olga finally asked, slightly irritated.
“If you’re this terrified, you should’ve just followed the original plan and drunk the poisoned tea in His Majesty’s stead…”
“Siegfried—he’s hiding something.”
Elisabeth grit her teeth and stared at the floor.
“He did the final inspection, so he had to know the poison was there. But he boldly lied and said there wasn’t. He’ll be found out eventually, so why risk his life for a lie?”
“D-Do you not trust him?”
“Of course not. Why would I trust a barbarian from the North? Even His Majesty hates him.”
“Then you don’t need to worry about our plan being exposed…”
Even with Olga’s logic, Elisabeth kept biting her nails, her front teeth clicking.
Between the shards of shattered teacups, red tea pooled like spilled blood.
“The one I’m afraid of is Henryus. I’m scared he’ll abandon me because he loves her more.”
“Madam…”
“What if Henryus still loves that girl more than me? And what if he learns I tried to harm her? Then what am I supposed to do, Olga?”
Elisabeth, who’d been acting so vengeful, now clutched Olga’s hand and whimpered again.
Henryus’s affection—that was the only thing Elisabeth possessed that the fake noblewoman Josephine never won.
It was the one thing she absolutely couldn’t lose.
“Don’t worry, Madam. Didn’t the viscount say so earlier?”
Olga squeezed her mistress’s hands.
“Even though things turned out this way, if Siegfried doesn’t wake up in four days, Her Majesty the Empress will also be in trouble.”
“And if he does wake up?”
“What good will it do? It’s Siegfried. The man who once fought off ten elite imperial knights alone.”
Olga whispered confidently.
“Even His Majesty, his closest friend, couldn’t win his loyalty. Do you really think the Empress can manage it in a few days?”
“…Yes. You’re right.”
Elisabeth nodded as she mulled over Olga’s words.
“If Siegfried doesn’t wake up in four days, Josephine won’t be the only one in trouble.”
Then at last, a new malice flickered across Elisabeth’s darkened face.
“After all, His Majesty is the one who put Siegfried in that state. When the summit happens, public sentiment will turn sharply against him.”
“A-And then?”
“Then we’ll make it look like Josephine planned everything from the beginning! That way, the only one who suffers is her.”
Elisabeth exclaimed with delight.
“If that happens, His Majesty will have no choice but to lean on me. And if things go well, he’ll end up grateful to me.”
“B-But what if Siegfried wakes up and sides with Her Majesty…?”
Elisabeth sneered slyly.
“He’s just a discarded prince. Even if he and that lowborn Empress cry their hearts out, who will believe them?”
Olga swallowed hard as she looked into Elisabeth’s pitch-black eyes.
“For the sake of the nation, His Majesty could easily abandon someone like Josephine. There’s nothing he values more than imperial authority.”
Elisabeth could say that confidently.
By rank and reputation alone, she was merely a minor noble from a rural barony.
But the era had changed.
A royal bastard became emperor through divine power, and now he was trying to redefine what power meant.
The Hausen family—Elisabeth’s family—was a convenient partner for his goals.
Elisabeth was no naïve country girl. Henryus had reasons for favoring her.
“So write a letter. Not to my father—send it secretly to Uncle Garrett. He’s probably drinking himself unconscious somewhere in Norden’s rich district.”
“W-What should I write?”
Elisabeth stood by the window, staring north toward the distant horizon.
“What else? Tell him the Empress of Van Charlois brutally abused the First Prince Siegfried, leaving him at death’s door.”
Four days from now, when the envoys cross the Red Sea from the north…
She wondered what rumors they would bring back.
“The faster the rumor spreads, the better. The sooner they cross the Red Sea, the better for us.”
“By tomorrow, there’ll be rumors all over Norden that I abused you.”
Josephine said coolly, standing beside the bed—carefully keeping her distance from Siegfried, who sat perched on the edge.
“Rumors like that will really spread?”
Siegfried was infuriatingly relaxed. So relaxed she wanted to hit him.
Josephine’s head throbbed, but she asserted firmly:
“Yes. The Hausen family has branches across the entire continent—six continents, the largest merchant guild in the world.”
