The celebration was finally over.
Other than the incident with Princess Ludia, nothing major happened.
Unfortunately, “accidentally” throwing wine at the princess was considered a big deal. Even considering her rude comments at me, Lucretius overreacted. Genoa was a powerful nation, and this was an unnecessary incident.
I sighed deeply.
Why did he do that?
I glared at my husband, who followed me into my bedroom as if he owned it. Lucretius shrugged and asked, “What?”
“What were you thinking? I get you got angry, but they are from Genoa, not Aeal.”
He chuckled annoyingly and nodded. “It’s true. Genoa is definitely nothing like Aeal.”
“So why did you do it?!”
He gave me a chilling smile.
“Because they needed to be reminded.”
“…”
When I gaped at him in shock, he smiled to reassure me.
“Don’t feel bad. It wasn’t your fault at all. Because of the former emperor’s stupidity, other kingdoms have been becoming arrogant. I need to show them I am not like my weak father.”
His smile looked excited as if he wanted… a war. Was that why he mentioned the “Blue tear of the goddess?” Was he planning something?
I got goosebumps all over myself.
***
As we got into my bed, he asked me, “Now that this event is over, would you be interested in working on something else?”
I looked up at him in surprise. Under the dim light, he looked like he was choosing his words very carefully. I became suspicious.
“What kind of work?”
He replied slowly, “Normally, it is something an empress would take care of.”
“Pardon?!”
When I reacted negatively, he calmly explained, “Don’t be like that. It’s not a big deal. The dowager empress is supposed to be doing it, but even when the former emperor was still alive, Katleyanira showed no interest. She, in fact, stole the budget for this job and used it for personal reasons. The former emperor knew this, but he didn’t care.”
I became curious. “What is it?”
“It isn’t really even a job. It’s more like working as the face of the royal family. An empress flaunting her generosity and kindness to the public.”
“Hmm…”
“Rombrook is overflowing with the poor. It had always been like this, but during the former emperor’s rule, it became much worse. Unfortunately, there hadn’t been a solution to this.”
“Oh!”
“During his rule, our economy wasn’t great. As I said before, my grandfather was a great emperor, but the former emperor ruined everything my grandfather achieved for this land. Now, what we have left is years of poor crops and an epidemic that destroyed the southern land.”
“Oh, no…”
I was unaware of this. For all the time I spent in this world, I had never been out with regular people. I lived in the Aeal castle for a year, and the rest of the time was spent in this castle. I was ignorant of the sickness and bad crops.
“Poor crops? Was it bad last year too? I wasn’t told about this at all!”
This was the beginning of the year. If we had a poor harvest last year, this would be a difficult year. When I was about to panic, Lucretius calmed me down.
“It was an average harvest last year, so it was okay. It could have been much worse. The illness still remains, but the worst is over.”
“…”
This must have been why he was so busy. I wondered why he hadn’t told me until now.
“So why didn’t you let me know about this before? Why are you telling me this now?”
He grinned infuriatingly. I knew this grin very well.
He was about to lie.
“I didn’t want to worry you.”
I smiled as well and pinched his arm hard.
“Stop lying and tell me the truth.”
He surrendered quickly and replied, “Like I said, this is supposed to be the empress’s duty and I wasn’t sure if you would be up to it. Besides… I wasn’t sure you would be capable of carrying out this responsibility.”
“So… you now think I can do this?”
Lucretius kissed the back of my hand lightly and nodded. “Yes.”
“…”
“So? Will you do it? It is very important, but it’s not necessary. I’m not ordering you.”
I didn’t hesitate for long.
I still didn’t know if I would be able to return home.
Even if I was sure I could, I still had to establish my power in this world and defeat the dowager empress. With this duty, there was a good chance I would learn more about the running of this kingdom and establish myself as an influential royal member.
“Yes. I will do it.”
I knew this meant I was going into an open fight against the dowager empress. I knew it, and I chose it intentionally.
Two days after the last day of the celebration, we heard the news of the dowager empress’ baby.
A princess.
I should have felt relieved, but for some reason, I couldn’t shake my nervousness. In fact, I became even more fearful.
***
The dowager empress gave birth to a daughter, but this didn’t mean she would give up her fight for the ultimate power. I wondered what she would do next.
The dowager empress didn’t leave Girand. Lucretius sent many spies, but her place was well hidden and protected.
Another unexpected news arrived. Marquis Toruka was able to remarry. The young bride wasn’t from a powerful family, but she was still a noble lady.
Lucretius smirked and said to me, “The new bride apparently turned sixteen this year.”
“S… sixteen?”
She was too young, especially considering how old the Marquis was.
“Yes. I hear that the Marquis is overjoyed. His oldest son, the one Liliana fell for, is only seventeen. This means the marquis literally took in a wife who is young enough to be his daughter.”
I gaped. “It’s ridiculous.”
“Well, it’s not uncommon. Apparently, the new bride only brought a minimal dowry, but on the wedding day, the marquis sent gifts worth over three times the dowry. As I said, it’s not unusual to buy a wife, or getting a much younger wife.”
“… I must say I can’t condone such things.”
Lucretius smiled brightly, but the words that came out of his mouth were ominous.
“It doesn’t matter. I wasn’t planning on letting him die easy.”
“…”
Sometimes I forgot what kind of man Lucretius was, but when he said something like this, it was a chilling reminder.
I said to him, “By the way, now that his father is remarried, Clodys must feel troubled.”
“True, and it can be a good thing.”
“How?”
“He will have no choice but to help us.”
“Oh!”
I understood immediately what he meant.
It was true. If Marquis Toruka got a son from his new bride, it would be game over for Clodys. His mother’s family was trying their best to help him reclaim his title, but at this point, only the emperor or the dowager empress could accomplish this task.
The problem was, Clodys knew that being on the dowager empress’ side didn’t guarantee him anything. In fact, it was unlikely that it would be helpful to him. On top of that, the dowager empress just had a daughter.
So far, Clodys had been trying to keep an appropriate distance from both the emperor and the dowager empress to see which side looked promising. With the recent developments, it was clear that Lucretius was the best bet. This also meant that Lucretius could now, in turn, trust Clodys to some extent.
“…”
I wondered how the Marquis managed to find a young bride so fast. If the dowager empress gave birth to a son, her brother the Marquis would have been considered a good husband material. However, with another princess, the dowager empress’ power was significantly reduced.
With Lucretius’ interference, the Marquis had been having difficulties finding a new wife until now. This meant that for Clodys, he needed Lucretius desperately.
This was too good to be a coincidence.
I couldn’t help but ask.
“Did… you make the marquis’ marriage happen?”
Lucretius grinned.
“My wife is so quick. Our child will be very intelligent no matter who he or she resembles.”
… Lucretius had finally gone mad.
I stuck my tongue out at him and instead of replying to his ridiculous remark, I asked, “If you made this marriage happen… That means you couldn’t trust Clodys.”
He frowned in displeasure.
“Of course. He can talk the talk, but he was definitely not trustworthy. I had to do something to make sure he had no way out. By the way… This has been bothering me for a while now.”
“Pardon?”
“Why do you keeping calling him by his first name? As your husband, it is very concerning.”
“…”
