She didn’t have even the slightest intention of accepting him as her son. She looked at him with contempt, as though he were the filthiest thing in the world, and at every moment, she doubted and guarded against him. She was constantly watching for an opportunity to kick him out of the imperial family again.
Even the suggestion to award him a dukedom and grant him land on the frontier as a reward for his victory in war was just one of the empress’s shallow tricks. She wanted to clearly draw a line between herself, the imperial family, and him, so he wouldn’t dare covet the positions of her own sons.
The reason he silently agreed to this marriage was because it would be the last time. He would tolerate the tyranny of the woman called mother and keep his promise to the Empress Dowager—just this once.
Ricardo walked to the window and looked down at the direction of the woman’s chambers.
In any case, she was just a puppet to be used and discarded by the empress. He had no intention of recognizing her as his wife.
The thought of the woman who must have rushed all the way to the capital dreaming of becoming a duchess made him feel sick.
She was a woman who gladly accepted the title of a duchess in name only. So she must be prepared to endure whatever this marriage would bring.
His eyes turned cold.
Knock knock.
At the sound of a knock, he turned his head. It was the butler Jan and a few servants.
“Your Grace. A messenger has arrived from the imperial palace.”
As Ricardo changed into the formal uniform the servants had brought, he read the letter Jan handed to him.
It was an imperial order to enter the palace together with Stella Enrio and have an audience with His Majesty the Emperor.
Inside the carriage heading to the imperial palace.
I quietly stared out the window at Ricardo riding a horse beside the carriage.
His large frame sat upright in the formal uniform, and the sight felt completely different from when I saw him this morning.
‘He really is the male lead.’
Recalling the moment we faced each other alone at dawn felt surreal, and I felt a strange sensation. My heart suddenly thumped hard in my chest.
‘Well, he’s the one who’s going to kill me, so it’s only natural I feel tense.’
I shook my head, trying to erase the earlier scene from my mind.
‘Anyway, I hope nothing strange happens at the palace today.’
Since I was ordered to enter the palace with him, I would likely meet all the members of the imperial family today. The next step would surely be the wedding. Without realizing it, I tightened my grip on the curtain.
Just then, Molly, sitting across from me, muttered.
“Why on earth did Lady Kayla run away from a man like that? I just can’t understand.”
It seemed she had also been sneaking glances at Ricardo’s back through the open window.
“They called him a bloodthirsty demon, but all those rumors were false, weren’t they?”
The grim rumors about Ricardo had spread even to small frontier towns. Some came from enemy forces, but many were maliciously fabricated and spread by the empress. To imprint him as a terrifying demon in the minds of the empire’s citizens, they needed to thoroughly suppress any glorification of his war heroics.
“Hmph. Thanks to that, I hit the jackpot. If I had a husband like that, I could die after the first night without any regrets.”
Molly sneered and glared at me with eyes full of jealousy.
“But then I heard something strange earlier.”
Her gaze on me instantly turned sly.
“What strange thing?”
She giggled behind her hand, then shook her head as if pitying me.
“I mean the Duke of Zenkis. Apparently, there’s someone else who is supposed to be his real wife. They say everyone at the duke’s estate already acknowledges only her as the future duchess. Supposedly, she’s from an incredibly prestigious family.”
The moment she said that, a woman’s image flashed through my mind.
Yerena Guineiro. The female lead of the original novel and the duke’s true lover.
‘Come to think of it, she appeared in my dream, too.’
I vaguely remembered her sadly watching from behind as Kayla was driven away by the duke.
Molly began provoking me again.
“They say no one in the empire can compare to her beauty. How could a lowly maid from the countryside possibly measure up? I just hope you don’t humiliate yourself by instinctively bowing your head like when you were still a maid.”
She was clearly enjoying the situation, eyes full of mockery.
Her words about Yerena weren’t wrong, but the way she laughed at me with fake pity made me sick.
“Maybe you should worry about your own position, since you came along to serve that ‘lowly maid.’”
The fire in her eyes ignited instantly at my jab.
“If I get kicked out of the mansion, you’ll be worse off than a stray dog.”
“You…!”
Her face trembled with rage, and only then did I feel a bit of relief inside.
“Even if I’m kicked out, I’m still a noble and a former duchess. But you? You’ll be nothing but a pitiful wretch with nowhere to go. So think carefully about which master you should serve to avoid being thrown away.”
Spitting out those cold words, I turned my gaze back to Ricardo.
Just as Molly said, he had a true lover—kind, beautiful, and angelic—who stayed by his side since his days as a mistreated child. A character too perfect, with beauty, heart, and even noble lineage.
Yerena Guineiro. So perfect that even as the female lead, I couldn’t empathize with her.
‘Of course she must’ve married Ricardo and become the empress. That must’ve been how it ended.’
After the scene where Kayla and Stella were dragged off to a monastery and died, I lost interest and put the book down. I never even saw the ending. But I didn’t think there would’ve been any surprising twist.
Recalling the scene where Kayla and Stella died made me want to slap the back of Ricardo’s head.
‘Was it really necessary to kill the ex-wife you drove out? And why kill the poor innocent maid too?!’
He’d said he’d spare their lives, and yet he showed no mercy. I trembled at the cruelty of this merciless man.
I was still glaring at the back of his head when he suddenly turned around and looked at me.
‘Ack!’
Startled, I quickly turned my face away from the window and pulled the curtain shut.
‘Does he have eyes in the back of his head or something?’
I let out a small sigh, trying to calm my pounding heart.
Not long after, we finally arrived at the palace. It was obvious that more people than before were waiting for us.
After passing through several layers of gates guarded by soldiers, we entered a grand hall. Atop the marble platform stood the emperor and empress, wearing their crowns, along with a man and woman who appeared to be their son and daughter-in-law.
“You have performed another great service, Your Grace.”
As Ricardo walked toward the platform, the retainers bowed and greeted him.
He was, after all, the emperor’s second son and a general who led the frontlines during the war. They could not treat him carelessly. The only one watching his proud return with discontented eyes was the empress on the platform.
Rumors about the duke’s future wife must have already spread. The retainers exchanged glances and awkwardly nodded at me in greeting. As high nobles, they all looked distinctly displeased about greeting a young lady from such a lowly family.
We walked a long way on the red carpet before arriving in front of the platform.
Although Ricardo carried imperial blood, it was clear the people on the platform saw him as only a half-member of the family. Their gazes were cold, as if looking at a stranger.
“I’ve returned after completing my mission, Your Majesty.”
Ricardo addressed his father not as a son, but as a vassal.
“I’m glad you returned safely. Are you hurt anywhere?”
The emperor, with wavy dark brown hair and a thick mustache, asked with a dignified tone, like a proper father.
“I’m fine. Thank you for your concern.”
Ricardo’s reply was dry and formal.
Seeing the emperor in person, he looked exactly as I had imagined from the original novel. Dignified and mature-looking, but somehow lacking in conviction. Maybe I was biased, having read so many scenes where he was swayed by the empress.
“You’ve done well, little brother.”
A sickly-looking man also added a word.
Even that short line was followed by a light cough. With dark circles under his eyes, he looked gravely ill. He was clearly the crown prince.
‘He looks seriously unwell.’
Indeed, he was destined to die soon from a chronic illness. He was the only one in the imperial family with any semblance of sanity, so it was a shame he would die early.
As his coughing worsened, I furrowed my brow in concern. It sounded so violent he might cough up blood at any moment. Others cautiously exchanged glances, sensing the tense atmosphere.
‘Now I understand why the empress is afraid of Ricardo.’
With the crown prince so weak, it was obvious how fierce the battle would be between Ricardo and the third prince for the heir’s position. The empress feared Ricardo might bare his hidden claws.
‘And in the end, that intuition was right.’
Once the crown prince died, Ricardo began to reveal his ambitions openly.
