Chapter 35: Reneve’s Regret About Lucius

“A tea party at the royal palace?”

“Yes. It seems Princess Solti sent out invitations for a tea party to the nobles of Vascher.”

“I see.”

Reneve brought the teacup to her lips, lowering her gaze.

Amber took a bite of a cookie generously studded with chocolate and said,

“It seems the nobles are going crazy trying to get their hands on the princess’s tea party invitations.”

There hadn’t been any parties at the palace since the ball.

Apart from Icar, there were no other royals in the Vascher palace, and Icar didn’t seem particularly fond of parties.

So, anyone wishing to go to the palace would desperately need an invitation from Esica.

‘She said we’d meet soon.’

Reneve now understood what Rachel had meant earlier.

Which also meant that Esica had sent Rachel a tea party invitation.

Kiernen, who had been quietly listening to Amber, began rifling through a drawer, frowning.

“That’s strange. Why isn’t it here?”

“If you’re looking for Princess Solti’s tea party invitation, there’s no need to bother.”

Kiernen, after rummaging through the drawer full of invitations, turned his head toward Reneve.

“My lady, what do you mean by that?”

“You wouldn’t send me a tea party invitation.”

Reneve said nonchalantly. Amber asked,

“Does that mean the princess only plans to invite people she’s recently befriended?”

Kiernen responded brusquely to Amber.

“Princess Solti must be quite narrow-minded. Perhaps she’s still sulking over what happened in the dining room last time.”

“Excuse me? What happened in the dining room?”

Amber looked at him in disbelief, so Kiernen explained the incident as if it were his own business.

“The princess tried to belittle you, my lady, by talking about social status differences.”

Amber’s eyes widened, sparkling with surprise.

“Oh my! Comparing a tiny kingdom with the Paradium Empire? Without even knowing the numbers…”

“Luckily, my lady gave her a proper response.”

Kiernen said triumphantly, and Amber’s eyes grew even wider.

“Miss… you didn’t… strike the princess, did you?”

Reneve let out a small chuckle at Amber’s words.

“Of course not.”

“Come on, even if you were angry, someone as noble as you wouldn’t hit someone without decorum. Isn’t that right?”

Kiernen quickly wrapped around Reneve in defense.

“Y-yes…”

Amber, giving a brief response, lowered her gaze and quietly began sipping her tea.

Because Amber had witnessed Reneve hitting someone in the past.

And it was quite a scene.

Of course, Reneve hadn’t gone mad and hit an innocent person without reason.

When Reneve was young, the Marquis of Siren and Patrick usually stayed at the western border region, returning to the marquisate downtown where she lived during the founding festival.

Some opportunistic nobles tried to invite the two, and Patrick, after attending a few social gatherings, grew restless and summoned knights to spar in the training yard.

Reneve would secretly watch and imitate them.

She thought learning self-defense might come in handy someday.

Once, Lucius, visiting the Marquis of Siren’s house, caught her at it.

He teased Reneve for punching the air alone, which provoked her to swing at him.

There were rules about not laying hands on royals, but at that moment, she simply couldn’t restrain herself.

Lucius was small for his age, and Reneve, having gone through early secondary growth, was roughly a head taller than him.

This allowed her to win the skirmish.

Amber had watched the entire scene from the side.

‘Ever since that day, Amber became strangely more loyal.’

Of course, both Reneve and Lucius were young, so it was possible.

Fortunately, nothing serious happened afterward.

‘Lucius, proud as he is, probably didn’t want to tattle to the Empress.’

Thinking back to that moment, Reneve’s cheeks flushed slightly.

It was a black mark on her past, when her mind was still a bit immature in her child body.

And now, Reneve regretted it.

She should have hit Lucius much harder.

Outside the carriage window, Lucius noticed a splendid mansion.

Watching the Marquis of Siren’s estate fly past, Lucius got lost in thought.

As a child, he had often visited the Marquis of Siren’s house.

Now he knew it had been part of his mother’s plan to strengthen the bond between him and Reneve early on, but back then, he had no idea why.

He only knew that going there meant he could play with an interesting girl his age.

During the founding festival, when the Sirens returned from the western border, the young marquis taught him the sword, and the young marquis’s son shared tales of the battlefield.

Lucius had been completely innocent, unaware of how they were watching him.

‘The Marquis of Siren must have realized.’

His mother’s intention in having her cherished only son visit a marquisate without supervision.

Yes, he must have known.

The Sirens sometimes cast disapproving glances his way.

Especially when Reneve acted friendly toward him, they couldn’t hide their discomfort.

The Sirens had pledged loyalty to the emperor, which meant supporting the empress.

To distinguish themselves from other households, his mother was called Empress, and even though he was made a prince, the Sirens probably saw Lucius as no different from a child of the household.

‘Perhaps my reactions were a form of resistance to their scrutiny.’

Once, he had deliberately acted friendly toward Reneve in front of the Sirens.

Naturally, they glared at him.

“Since it’s late, it’s best you return to the palace, Your Highness.”

Their tone was polite, but he understood it meant he should leave.

Reneve had retorted to the marquis:

‘We’re playing with the prince today. Father, I mean, don’t send the prince away.’

The marquis had been powerless against his only daughter’s words.

Of course, Reneve, being precocious, wasn’t actually playing dolls, but the marquis, having been away from the west for a long time, didn’t know that.

The next year’s founding festival, he even brought a carriage full of dolls as gifts.

Lucius recalled the Marquis of Siren’s house in his view until it disappeared completely, pondering a lingering question.

‘When did it start… when Reneve’s feelings began to change…?’

He thought of the little Reneve on the day he first held the marquis’s hand and visited the palace, and the mature lady she had become after adolescence.

Initially, she had looked at him with disdain, calling him the child of a mistress, but she had changed at some point.

As if her very core had been replaced.

From then on, Reneve had shown him unconditional affection.

Was there anyone besides Reneve who had poured endless love on him without conditions?

‘No… but was her affection truly unconditional?’

Lucius laughed wryly at his own thought.

Reneve’s love did come with a condition.

She wanted his heart in return.

‘Women are the same, whether young or old. Once they feel they’ve fully won a man’s heart, they’ll stop valuing him. So, never open your heart to the young lady of the Marquis of Siren. Understand?’

Young Lucius had taken his mother’s words at face value.

So he tried not to show any vulnerability to Reneve.

And how did that turn out?

Lucius snorted.

Once, seeing Reneve act friendly toward the first prince, he had been furious.

So he pretended to be close to the daughter of Count Trader and mocked Reneve secretly as she copied the knights’ training.

And she had beaten him thoroughly.

Reneve usually seemed quiet but was strong-willed, yet that day…

While he had been shocked by her temper, it had also taught him to be subtly cautious around her afterward.

He had to avoid his mother until the scars on his face healed.

If his mother had heard that Reneve had struck him, he never would have visited the Marquis of Siren’s estate again.

When Lucius smiled wryly, the carriage stopped.

Now unable to sway the Marquis of Siren to his side, he needed to grow his own strength to become emperor.

Only then could he crown Reneve empress without his mother’s interference.

Lucius put on a mask covering half his face and eyes, pulled a hood over his head to hide his conspicuous blond hair, and got out of the carriage, heading down a dark alley.

Since their meeting in the salon, the Duchess of Durenburg and Esica had grown quite close.

Though they each had their own agendas, they shared one thing: neither liked Reneve.

In fact, the first guest the Duchess of Durenburg had invited to her salon was Reneve.

Reneve politely declined, and the next target became Esica, prompted by a rumor from a palace source:

‘Several have seen His Majesty the Emperor strolling in the garden with Princess Solti.’

The Duchess assumed the young emperor had just awakened to romance.

Naturally, the next step would be to receive the lady.

In Vascher, the empress ranked just after the emperor, and her emergence would likely shift the social hierarchy.

The Duchess, the queen bee of the current Vascher social scene, was highly interested in the next empress.

If the future empress were to oppose her, her glamorous social life could be over.

That’s why she had personally taken it upon herself to help prepare Princess Solti’s somewhat tedious tea party.

“I think Princess Raina and the young marquis of Venistan should be seated here. What do you think, Princess?”

The Duchess tapped a spot on the parchment with her finger, asking for Esica’s opinion.

The parchment showed the table layout for the tea party, and she had pointed to a seat near the central table.

“Hmm… I think that would be fine.”

Esica pretended to ponder for a moment, then slowly nodded.

She looked at the maid standing beside her, who quickly wrote down their names on the parchment.

“Then this seat will be for…”

The Duchess continued with the next guest placement, while Esica silently sighed.

‘Wouldn’t it be easier to just let people sit wherever?’