The power of the pearl was quite strong.
While Xian was “rebooting,” he started sleeping more, and his sleep schedule became erratic. Even while we were talking face to face, he’d suddenly flop over and be fast asleep.
“Feels like I’m raising a baby or something.”
I couldn’t take my eyes off him all day, not knowing what kind of trouble he might cause.
Ugh, how am I supposed to survive one more day with this ticking time bomb?
I grumbled as I pulled the blanket over the sleeping Xian on my bed.
He had barged into my room early in the morning, chatted away, started rustling around saying he’d brush my feathers, then passed out out of nowhere.
“His Majesty has grown so affectionate lately,”
Lauren said with a warm smile as she handed me a glass of water. I downed it in one go and muttered to myself with a bitter face.
How is that affection? It’s more like pet—no, Fluffy—treatment.
Lauren always lacked subtlety in things like this.
“Anyway, I’m going out for a bit.”
Stretching my stiff body, I left the Empress’s quarters.
Once Xian falls asleep, he won’t wake for at least an hour, so I figured I could finally catch my breath. Being glued to him all day had me on edge, like it was shaving years off my life.
I slipped out quietly with just one maid and went for a walk around the outer palace.
As always, the place was bustling with people headed to government offices, libraries, or social gatherings, each with their own agendas.
Since I took a quieter path and wore ordinary clothes, no one recognized me in the busy midday crowd.
Thanks to that, I could enjoy a peaceful stroll.
“Lady, your words are too harsh.”
“Did I say anything untrue?”
Then I heard an argument from somewhere.
Looking around, I spotted three women gathered in a spacious garden rest area.
Ah, watching a fight really is the most fun thing in the world.
Who’s bold enough to pick a fight in the Imperial Palace?
Curious, I tiptoed over and hid behind the nearest pillar, peeking around the edge.
“A noble baking her own cake—such a disgrace to refinement!”
It was Countess Ramfel’s daughter. Her voice was dripping with mockery.
In fact, Baroness Sabine had recently revealed that she was a custom cake designer and pastry chef.
Normally, such a confession would be a social faux pas.
But that changed when she beat Count Ramfel’s long-standing streak and won this year’s dessert competition—after he had taken first place ten years in a row.
She actually became quite famous as a top-tier pâtissier.
As a result, Baroness Sabine gained incredible popularity without taking any hits to her status.
However…
“Custom cakes? Isn’t it shameful for a noble to just make whatever people pay for, without any artistic vision or philosophy?”
Ramfel’s daughter snorted.
Baroness Sabine and Countess Ekaterina retorted, visibly offended.
“Must desserts always be ‘refined’? As long as it makes the person eating happy, does it matter how it’s made?”
“I don’t understand why you say I lack philosophy. Sure, I make what people ask for—but I don’t accept requests that insult or hurt others.”
But Ramfel’s daughter just continued babbling as if she hadn’t heard.
“So you really think it’s noble to bake with flour flying everywhere?”
Nobles loved desserts. Sometimes, fancy confections were even more expensive than dresses. But being a pâtissier wasn’t seen as a respected job.
They liked buying expensive sweets, but not making them. It was generally considered beneath their dignity.
That’s why Count Ramfel ran his dessert business under someone else’s name, and Baroness Sabine entered the competition under a pseudonym.
It was also why Countess Ekaterina, who loved baking, kept it a tightly guarded secret.
“Oh! Now that I think about it—you two aren’t from Vermouth, right?”
Ramfel’s daughter twirled her half-tied pink curls as she exclaimed, mock surprise in her voice.
The three women weren’t far apart in status, and the two others were older and actual noble ladies, unlike the young lady Ramfel. Arguably, they outranked her.
But Ramfel’s daughter was a pure-blooded noble of Vermouth. The other two were from smaller countries.
Plus, their marriages were more diplomatic than strategic, and their husbands’ families weren’t particularly powerful.
“Well, I guess money might matter more than dignity for you. I wasn’t aware of such… differences.”
Baroness Sabine and Countess Ekaterina bit their lips.
Saying they had no class because of their lower origin, then pretending to be understanding with a pout—Ramfel’s daughter was downright vile.
Feeling triumphant, she kept jabbing.
“Really, what’s the point of money if you have to lose all your grace and class…”
At that point, I stepped out from behind the pillar.
“Good afternoon, everyone.”
“Oh! Your Majesty the Empress!”
“Your Majesty!”
The three women were startled and greeted me with hurried curtsies.
“The weather’s lovely, isn’t it? Looks like you’re all out for a walk.”
Smiling as if I knew nothing, I approached and took Ramfel’s daughter’s hand in surprise.
“Oh my, I actually wanted to talk to you. What a pleasant coincidence.”
“To me?”
Thinking she had impressed me by putting the other two in their place, Ramfel’s daughter straightened her posture with pride.
I nodded cheerfully at her eager eyes.
“I was wondering how Count Ramfel is doing. He’s been summoned by the Food Safety Bureau and has been under investigation for nine hours over that Appleum cocktail incident. That’s why you came to the palace, isn’t it?”
Ramfel’s daughter’s excited smile collapsed instantly.
Feigning concern like someone completely oblivious, I patted her hand gently.
“My health is so fragile, I didn’t even realize it had digestive herbs in it. Normally it’d be just a fine, but they say there might be a full tax audit since the Count runs a business. You know how sensitive His Majesty is about my health.”
“T-tax audit?!”
Ramfel’s daughter gaped.
“But I’m sure everything will be fine! It’s Count Ramfel, after all. Just think of it as a routine check.”
Yeah right.
He got so greedy, he copied the Appleum tea and even added medicine to it to boost its effects—there’s no way that investigation isn’t going to dig up something shady.
Your family’s about to get wrung dry.
Ramfel’s daughter began forcing a smile, though her lips were twitching.
“Y-Your Majesty… I suddenly don’t feel very well…”
“Oh dear. Feeling faint? That’s alright. Some people really do value money over dignity.”
It was a direct jab at Count Ramfel’s plagiarism and spiking of drinks to win the competition. Her face turned beet red—guess she wasn’t that dense after all.
Still smiling brightly, I delivered the final blow with a compassionate tone.
“But young lady… you’re not going to do that again, right?”
“P-pardon?”
“Because really, what’s money worth, if you have to be so uncultured to get it?”
I patted her shoulder as if to comfort her and asked again, Right? Ramfel’s daughter’s eyes welled up.
She couldn’t talk back to me—the Empress—and as she saw the two noble ladies stifling laughter, she finally burst.
“Waaaaah!!”
Crying her eyes out, she ran away.
Countess Ekaterina and Baroness Sabine laughed out loud at the same time.
“Thank you, Your Majesty!”
“That felt so good!”
“Oh, it was nothing.”
I smiled serenely and said with poise:
“Honestly, if you’re jealous, just say so.”
With my innocent face and not-so-innocent words, the two noblewomen laughed even harder.
And just like that, the three of us had a lovely chat together.
****
“Damn Empress!”
Lady Ramfel stormed down the path, her face streaked with tears.
As if it wasn’t bad enough that her father had made a fool of himself and ruined their family’s reputation—now she’d been humiliated on top of that!
“How dare she show me up while hanging around with those lowly women?!”
Just because her relationship with His Majesty had improved a bit lately, did she really think she could act all high and mighty?
Lady Ramfel, a lover of gossip and scandal, knew all too well what a mess the Empress had been.
She remembered well the filthy rumors that had swirled right after the wedding! And she had the nerve to act superior?
Thud.
“Ugh, what the—?!”
Not watching where she was going, she bumped into someone and snapped irritably. But a soft voice replied,
“Oh. I’m sorry, Lady Ramfel. I wasn’t looking.”
With silver hair and violet eyes, it was Eloise—strikingly similar in appearance to the Empress.
She looked like the Empress, but her personality was entirely different.
Eloise had recently joined a social circle reserved for pure-blooded nobles of Vermouth.
Being the Empress’s cousin and fabulously wealthy, she had been warmly welcomed.
Lady Ramfel sniffled. She’d heard that Eloise was kind—and it really seemed to be true.
Everyone else had turned their backs on the disgraced Ramfel family after the dessert debacle, but Eloise still treated her warmly.
Overwhelmed with emotion, Lady Ramfel clung to Eloise and poured out her heart.
Eloise comforted her gently, murmuring that the Empress had gone too far.
After ranting for what felt like hours, Lady Ramfel muttered without thinking:
“Lady Appenzeller, you’re so kindhearted. You should’ve been the Empress!”
“Oh… That’s far too much praise.”
Eloise hesitated, as if caught off guard, then responded. Lady Ramfel, even more charmed, chatted away for a while longer before finally heading off.
Clop clop clop.
“So annoying.”
As the Ramfel carriage disappeared into the distance, all the softness in Eloise’s violet eyes was replaced with visible irritation.
Anyone who knew her as the gentle, sweet noblewoman would’ve been shocked to see her now.
But Eloise skillfully masked her expression once again.
I had free time and thought maybe she could be useful, so I entertained her…
But all she did was whine—what a waste of time.
With a look of mild disgust, Eloise turned and resumed walking.
She was wandering the outer palace, looking for the young lady of the Chenowith family—the rulers of the Triton territory.
Where is she, anyway?
Her target was nowhere to be found, and Eloise, now bored, suddenly remembered something Lady Ramfel had said earlier.
“…Me? The Empress?”
