Chapter – 14
Imperial Palace, Office
Today, an unusual tension filled the room.
The head chamberlain, who was blocking the Emperor, finally spoke with difficulty.
“Your Majesty, you cannot. Didn’t you leave your seat for a long time just a few days ago?”
At the dark tone of the chamberlain, Bayern let out a sigh.
Recently, the Emperor had started acting strangely. One day he said he was going to a tea party. Another day he suddenly abandoned his work and visited the marquis’s residence.
The chamberlain even began to doubt whether this was really the Emperor he knew. Since the day he began serving him, he had never seen anything like this.
Moreover, for the past few days, the Emperor seemed absent-minded, as if his thoughts were somewhere else.
Meanwhile, Bayern could think of nothing except Rafine, who still had not awakened.
Several times a day he had to hold himself back from going to see her. Even today, when the chamberlain told him he could not go, Bayern openly showed an irritated expression.
“I really have to go. Are you saying I can’t?”
When Bayern glared at him, the chamberlain trembled in fear, but he still nodded firmly.
Rafine, who had fallen from the tower, had not woken up for several days.
After the tea party, the fact that the Emperor personally escorted her to the marquis’s residence was still being talked about among the nobles.
And when Bayern insisted on staying there until she woke up, people had struggled greatly to force him to return to the palace.
On the other hand, her fiancé Cedric looked completely calm.
“Hmm… No matter how I think about it…”
Even when everything was put together, Cedric’s story did not seem like the truth.
“What do you think?”
“Pardon?”
The chamberlain looked even more troubled at the sudden question.
The question had no clear subject.
“I asked what you think.”
“W-What do you mean, Your Majesty?”
The chamberlain gathered his courage and asked back.
“Do you think Cedric’s words are true?”
“Ah…”
Only then did the chamberlain understand and awkwardly scratched his nose.
The incident at Countess Rozen’s tea party had already become the biggest gossip.
Rafine, who had risked her life and jumped from the tower to gain the attention of her fiancé Cedric.
For nobles hungry for gossip, it was a very stimulating story.
Considering that Rafine had always loved Cedric alone, many people believed that the rumor might be true.
“Well… Would Cedric really lie to Your Majesty? Honestly, he should have teased Lady Robru a bit less. In love, people sometimes— Agh!”
He suddenly screamed.
The Emperor had thrown a quill pen at his head.
And it hit exactly in the center of his forehead.
Holding back tears, the chamberlain quickly changed his words.
“Did I… say something wrong again…?”
“Everything.”
The Emperor frowned in irritation.
Bayern could not believe that Rafine—who had just spoken about breaking off the engagement—would do such a thing.
That was why he wanted to see her wake up and hear her story himself.
What made him even more anxious was the fact that Rafine still had not awakened.
Even now, he felt like he might go mad from worry about her.
“I can’t stand this anymore. I should go see her.”
“Where do you think you’re going?! No!”
The chamberlain almost cried as he shouted.
But to Bayern, Rafine was more important than anything.
If something really happened to her…
“Y-Your Majesty!”
At that moment, the door suddenly burst open.
A knight rushed in, saluted quickly, and spoke.
“Lady Robru has awakened today!”
The chamberlain’s face brightened immediately.
“Oh, Your Majesty!”
Bayern’s face also lit up.
“Since there is nothing to worry about anymore, it would be best if you put on your mask and attend the meeting.”
The chamberlain quickly handed him the mask as if he had been waiting for this moment.
Bayern frowned again.
After fainting, this was the first time Rafine used her wind ability again.
Her body felt lighter than she expected.
She could easily control power of this level.
She calmly left the mansion through the window and headed toward Roisha Street, which Bayern had written in his letter.
When she remembered Cedric’s face while he was apologizing, she felt something strange.
He should have done that earlier.
No matter how many times she thought about it, breaking the engagement was the right decision.
As she walked lightly, she wondered what the Emperor was going to give her.
What could it be? I hope it’s permission to break the engagement.
But that light mood soon shattered.
She had just arrived at Roisha Street and was looking around for the red-haired knight.
Because it was a busy street where many nobles gathered, she began to hear various conversations.
“Did you hear that story?”
“What story?”
“That one… about the Robru Marquis family… What was her name?”
“Ah! The suicide incident? I heard it too. I was really shocked.”
Groups of people were all talking about the “suicide incident.”
It took Rafine a moment to realize that they were talking about her.
She was so dumbfounded that she could not even speak.
“How could she try to win back her fiancé’s heart with such a method?”
“Exactly… If I were the fiancé, I’d be terrified.”
“My goodness… What kind of woman says she would rather die if he doesn’t love her? That’s terrifying.”
At first, Rafine thought they were talking about someone from another country.
But they were clearly mentioning Rafine and Cedric.
They said that Lady Rafine of the Robru family had jumped from the tower herself to gain Cedric’s affection.
The most ridiculous part was—
“Apparently, Lord Playton told His Majesty that himself.”
Cedric was the source of the rumor.
Cedric, who had pushed her off the tower, had told a lie to the Emperor.
They were saying she had thrown herself from the tower just to gain Cedric’s attention.
Rafine did not even know where to begin correcting such a rumor.
“Ha… that crazy bastard…”
The curse slipped out of her mouth.
“So that’s why… he tried so hard to keep me from leaving…”
He must have thought that if she left, the truth would come out.
Rafine sighed deeply.
She had hoped to break the engagement quietly.
But that already seemed impossible.
She was standing at the center of the rumor.
Still, once the engagement is broken, the story will disappear.
She decided not to care about the rumor.
Soon she would leave the marquis’s house anyway.
Let them gossip as much as they wanted.
Once another rumor appeared, the nobles would quickly forget this one.
She stopped wasting her emotions on it and looked around again.
Just then—
“Greetings.”
“Ah!”
A man with bright red hair was suddenly standing in front of her.
Rafine immediately realized he was the red-haired knight Bayern had mentioned.
“Are you Lady Robru? I am Rayen Pascal. You may call me Sir Pascal.”
He introduced himself in a disciplined voice like a proper knight.
“Ah, yes.”
“His Majesty asked me to apologize that he could not come personally.”
“That’s… alright.”
Why would the Emperor need to apologize?
If anything, he was the one helping her.
“This is what His Majesty asked me to deliver.”
The red-haired knight, Rayen, handed her two sealed parchments.
“Two?”
“Yes. His Majesty said you would understand one of them when you read it. The other is an invitation.”
“An invitation?”
“Soon the Founding Festival will be held, correct? His Majesty wishes to invite you to the Imperial Palace celebration.”
“Me…?”
Rafine was so shocked that all her thoughts about Cedric disappeared instantly.
“Yes.”
The knight answered calmly.
Receiving the Emperor’s invitation to the Founding Festival had a very special meaning.
Traditionally, those invited by the Emperor were either noble ladies who might become the future Empress, very special guests, or people born with special abilities.
Rafine was confused.
There was no way the Emperor could know about her ability.
She had no idea that Bayern had noticed her power when she fell from the tower.
Just as she accepted the invitation with a bewildered expression—
“I didn’t expect this.”
Suddenly someone stepped between Rayen and Rafine.
“Stay away from my fiancée. Are you the man called Bayern?”
Rafine opened her mouth in disbelief.
