Chapter – 02.
Josephine hurriedly approached the dressing table.
Coral-colored hair with a noble luster, vivid pink eyes. Sharp, finely drawn facial features came into view one by one.
“It’s really true.”
It wasn’t a dream.
The woman in the mirror was not the scrawny little girl from the orphanage.
She was the young empress from that time, the obedient wife of Henrieus and the kind, precious friend of Elizavetta.
“What is today’s date?”
At Josephine’s question, Harbor scurried over and brought a simple calendar.
After checking the date, a single question finally surfaced in Josephine’s mind.
‘In my previous life, I regressed to the moment I entered the orphanage. So why have I returned to a point ten years later than that this time?’
This was definitely something that hadn’t happened before. Josephine felt a momentary doubt, but that was all.
This was already her third life.
The Josephine of the first life was merely a doll who lived only as someone told her, as someone wished.
In the second life, she lived a bit more selfishly. To avoid being abandoned by her husband and best friend, she turned a blind eye to and even exploited the pain and suffering of others.
‘That heartless, villainess-like woman!’
So, she received contempt from many nobles and was pointed at as a villainess by the common people.
But it didn’t matter.
If she had those two people, even if the entire empire turned its back on her, it was fine.
But in the end, she was still abandoned.
Even after coming to her second life, she ultimately couldn’t change anything.
Once, Henrieus and Elizavetta, those two, were everything she had.
Because they were the only ones who accepted her, who was treated like trash everywhere, as a friend.
But not anymore.
Her saviors, who were no different to her, were now nowhere to be found.
Even after returning here, it was the same.
‘Ah.’
Overwhelmed by a wave of despondency, Josephine tossed the calendar she was holding onto the dressing table as if throwing it away.
Crash—
Because of that, the displayed cosmetics toppled over all at once.
“……Hmm?”
Only then did a single letter, seemingly tucked away in a corner of the dressing table, catch her eye.
Judging by the date on the outer envelope, it seemed to be a letter sent in advance for today’s audience request.
“Was someone supposed to come this morning?”
Josephine turned to look at Harbor with a doubtful voice and asked.
Then, a young maid standing behind Harbor opened her mouth.
“Your Majesty the Empress, this is why you shouldn’t just grant audience requests to anyone as usual…….”
“Arwen, shush!”
But the moment the maid spoke, Harbor stepped in to stop her.
“Why are you stopping her?”
Naturally, Josephine didn’t let it slide. Harbor tried to placate Josephine as if nothing had happened.
“Your Majesty must have misheard. No one came this morning.”
“I’m not deaf. You, say it again.”
Josephine sharply fixed her gaze on Arwen.
“I said, this is why you shouldn’t grant audience requests to just anyone. Your Majesty the Empress.”
“Arwen!”
“So, people like Marquis Darlan brazenly submit audience requests without prior notice and visit the Empress’s Palace first thing in the morning. It’s troublesome for us who have to deal with it every time.”
Darlan? An unexpected name. Josephine asked again.
“I had no idea the Marquis would come looking for me so early in the morning. Did you show him to the reception room?”
“No, I sent him away.”
Arwen stated flatly.
“What?”
Josephine doubted her own ears.
“You sent a guest away without even telling me?”
Arwen nodded as if to say ‘that’s right.’
“He’s someone Your Majesty has no need to meet. Especially Marquis Darlan.”
On the contrary, Arwen acted as if she was the one wronged.
“Your Majesty may not be aware, but summoning an unmarried nobleman alone to the palace first thing in the morning is behavior unbefitting the dignity of an Empress.”
Josephine was left speechless. Not because she was dumbfounded by Arwen’s blatant disregard.
‘Right, you guys were always like this.’
Rather, this subtle contempt was deeply familiar to her, as if ingrained in her skin.
Her Majesty doesn’t know any better, you may not know since you weren’t born a noble, etc.
She couldn’t possibly be unaware that these were all sarcastic remarks aimed at her origins as a foundling orphan before being adopted into the ducal family.
“Your Majesty, do you really not know who Marquis Darlan is?”
Harbor, who had been watching, couldn’t stand it and finally spoke up.
“He was the sponsor during Baron Hausen’s young lady’s debutante season and the very person who introduced that woman to His Majesty the Emperor!”
Ah, was that so. Josephine quickly lost interest.
From what she remembered, Marquis Darlan was always one of the nobles at the forefront of disliking her.
She had no particular memory of incurring his enmity, so it was always puzzling, but now she understood.
‘If he was Elizavetta’s social sponsor, then that makes sense.’
“Is that all? A month ago, because the weapon gifted by Marquis Darlan was defective, you suffered a serious injury during the demonstration, remember?”
“Ah.”
As soon as Harbor’s indignant words ended, a stinging pain was felt in her right wrist.
“That’s right.”
Josephine, holding her wrist, murmured as if recalling a distant past event.
“I have no idea what nerve he has. Having clearly sided with that woman long ago, why does he keep coming to flatter Your Majesty the Empress?”
“……Did Marquis Darlan come looking for me like this before too?”
Josephine sensed something suspicious in Harbor’s words.
It was strange. If he visited the Empress’s Palace that often, she had absolutely no memory of ever receiving him as a guest.
“Yes! He was such a leech. Even though he got scolded and chased away by Arwen like that every time, he never seemed to get tired of it.”
“Chased away?”
Josephine’s voice rose.
“You’re saying you’ve been chasing away Marquis Darlan like this all along?”
Harbor, sensing something was wrong, hurriedly changed her words.
“W-well, not chased away… He just kept coming when Your Majesty was asleep or away from your seat.”
“But why didn’t you ever inform me once until now?”
Josephine felt her head grow cold as she pressed the question.
Regardless of the Marquis disliking her, the fact that he was turned away every single time he requested a meeting with her was a serious issue. And that, too, irrespective of her will.
“Your Majesty knows well what kind of rumors are circulating in the Imperial Palace right now.”
“What rumors?”
Harbor made a hesitant expression and lowered her voice.
“The rumor that Your Majesty the Empress had His Majesty the Emperor taken away by that Hausen woman.”
Josephine’s expression stiffened slightly.
“If a rumor spreads that even Marquis Darlan is clinging to Your Majesty the Empress in the midst of this, how much would the world ridicule Your Majesty?”
*Tsk tsk.* As soon as Harbor’s concern ended, an open sneer erupted from somewhere.
“Anyway, that woman must have a face ten layers thick, huh? Early in her social debut, she sparked a romance rumor with the Marquis, and now it’s His Majesty the Emperor. Does she have any sense of shame?”
“I guess she wanted to be my husband’s lover now.”
Josephine acknowledged it indifferently.
There was no official announcement, but it was a known fact to everyone that Henrieus took Elizavetta everywhere with him during this period.
‘In the past, I dismissed it as nothing but a preposterous rumor.’
Simultaneously, a sense of futility towards her own foolishness also surged.
Why did she so desperately avoid the truth, insisting that Henrieus and Elizavetta, those two, would absolutely never do such a thing?
“It’s not just that last weapons demonstration. From Your Majesty’s first birthday banquet until now, everyone knows countless incidents have occurred.”
Harbor once again selectively listed words meant to provoke Josephine.
“Although the perpetrators were all different people, I heard that, upon closer look, they were all people connected to that woman, just like Marquis Darlan.”
*Gulp.* Harbor swallowed.
“Maybe someone is trying to push Your Majesty the Empress aside, using Baroness Hausen, who is favored by His Majesty the Emperor, as a stepping stone.”
“So you’re saying I should be careful?”
Josephine looked at Harbor with a peculiar gaze and asked.
Even though she was the subject of a scandal involving the Emperor, Elizavetta in this period was still her one and only best friend.
No matter how much it was a warning for her sake, Harbor’s criticism was definitely excessive. Sometimes to the point of feeling unnatural.
Harbor momentarily made an ‘oops’ expression, then composed herself and soon answered yes.
“Yes, because today is the day His Majesty returns with that woman from the summer villa.”
