The Empress’s gaze, as if she had missing her prey, now turned towards me.
Her glittering eyes seemed to say that she would devour me instead, and I unconsciously shrank back.
Thinking about it, once uncle Edward and Enoch left, I had no one to rely on at this party.
The knights of Emblem were good with their swords but not very perceptive.
‘I should have gone out with them too.’
It was already too late to regret it. The Empress slowly bent her knees and personally made eye contact with me.
‘Manners, manners, manners.’
I tried hard to recall the etiquette my parents taught me.
“I’m sorry for the late greeting, Your Majesty the Empress. I am Cherrya Emblem.”
At my greeting, the Empress looked me up and down as if she was trying to find a flaw.
Although my greeting was a bit late, considering I was an excited seven-year-old meeting the Empress for the first time, there was nothing wrong with my manners.
“Oh, so you’re the Emblem young lady.”
The Empress, unable to find any fault, accepted my greeting. Her kind smile seemed less sincere than before, making it clear she didn’t like me.
“Edward is so introverted that he couldn’t even be honest with me, his own sister. Thanks to the courageous Emblem young lady, he can finally open up with me about what he feels. Thank you.”
“………..”
I narrowed my eyes at the Empress’s way of twisting words, ignoring how uncle Edward had been saying he wanted to go home from the start.
Despite aunt Diana being stripped of the Gray Ducal House’s succession rights, uncle Edward was still Enoch’s father, the heir to the Gray family.
Uncle Edward’s position wasn’t something to be treated so lightly. The name of the Gray Ducal House carried that much weight.
If Enoch’s grandfather heard the Empress’s words, it would have been enough to start a fight. Of course, the sharp-witted Empress wouldn’t act like this in front of the Gray Duke.
‘Even so, how could she disparage uncle Edward, one of the only people I like from the Gray Ducal House, besides aunt diana?’
From today on, I decided to consider the Empress an enemy. Whether she was truly a sociopath or not didn’t matter anymore.
I could read hostility well. Anyway, this pretty lady seemed to dislike me, so there was no need to hesitate.
“I know everything that uncle Edward didn’t tell me!”
“Oh, really?”
“Yes! If you truly care for and like someone, you can understand without them saying anything!”
“……….”
What I meant was that the Empress didn’t care for and like uncle Edward that much.
Although it was an obvious sarcastic remark, fortunately, I was a pure seven-year-old.
My cheerful, innocent smile wouldn’t show any signs of sarcasm.
Knowing that the innocent bluntness of a child could be deadly to adults, I was aware of how my innocence could be a critical blow to the Empress.
“Duke Gray, aunt Diana, and Enoch all understand uncle Edward just by looking at his face because they’re family! So don’t worry, Your Majesty.”
Only you don’t know, only you. All of uncle Edward’s family knows, but you don’t.
Why? Because you don’t consider uncle Edward as family, right?
“……….”
Judging by the Empress’s face, unable to respond to my words, my inner thoughts seemed to have been conveyed sufficiently.
The Empress maintained her gentle smile as she slowly stood up. Her gaze on me naturally lowered.
“Emblem young lady is truly…”
With a small sound only I could hear, the Empress continued speaking.
“…cute.”
This was her entire evaluation of me.
“Let’s go back, Arthur. Just seeing Edward and Enoch’s faces made me happy.”
“Yes, Mother.”
The second prince, who kept glancing at me and the Empress, was led out of the party by her.
Watching those who hadn’t spoken to the Empress follow her out in disappointment, I quietly spoke to the Emblem knight.
“Hey, I don’t really like the Empress.”
“Neither do I.”
“Really?”
“Yes, the Empress doesn’t like Emblem.”
“Why? Emblem is the Emperor’s sword.”
“Because it’s the Emperor’s sword.”
At Emblem knight’s words, I hummed and fell into thought.
She dislikes Emblem because it’s the Emperor’s sword. That means she stands in opposition to the Emperor.
Is it really okay for the Empress, who is supposed to lead the empire with the Emperor to be like this?
‘I thought this country was peaceful, but it turns out the higher-ups are just as dirty as anywhere else.’
In my previous life, I tried to dig into people at the center of such power and ended up dead.
Would the same thing happen here?
A bit of regret crept in, making me think I shouldn’t have gotten involved.
But unlike my previous life, where I was all alone, I now had my reliable family, so I wouldn’t die so easily.
With that thought, I tried to calm my rising anxiety.
“Then she would have disliked me no matter what I did.”
“Back when His Majesty the Emperor was still a crown prince, he once proposed to our commander. Because of that, people believe that Her Majesty the Empress, who was his fiancée at the time, came to dislike Emblem.”
“What? Really?”
I was surprised by this new information. Come to think of it, the Emperor was young once too, around my parents’ age.
“That’s so interesting. Can you tell me more about it?”
“I don’t know much. This is just a rumor that was quietly spread among those who worked at Emblem back then.”
It dawned on me that I had never heard the story of how my mom and dad met and got married.
I also remembered hearing at the party before the royal hunting competition that Jade Gray had his eyes on my dad as a match for aunt Diana.
So, the Emperor had a crush on my mom, and his fiancée, the Empress, disliked my mom because of it.
Meanwhile, uncle Edward, the Empress’s brother, married aunt Diana, and my mom ended up marrying my dad, who Duke Gray had chosen for aunt Diana.
‘Wow, even a soap opera couldn’t come up with this. How many sides are there to this relationship?’
This was crazy. I almost forgot about my subtle clash with the Empress, eager to uncover the truth of these tangled relationships.
“I need to go home and ask mom and dad how they fell in love!”
“Uh, lady, can I join you?”
“We’ll see!”
Humming a little tune, I led the Emblem knights out of the now-empty party hall.
***
It seemed that the report of my friction with the Empress had already reached my mom.
My mom rushed into my room, her face pale, and grabbed my shoulders, shaking me back and forth.
“Why did you do it! Why!”
“Aahhh, mom, you’re making me dizzy. What did I do……!”
“Why did you have to talk to Her Majesty the Empress! Why!”
“You never told me I shouldn’t! How was I supposed to know if I could talk to Her Majesty the Empress or not!”
Of course, after meeting the Empress, I could understand why my mom was so upset.
She seemed like a truly scary woman, and I hated getting involved with her. But it was too late now.
The Empress disliked Emblem, and I was part of Emblem. Since I couldn’t completely avoid the social circles ruled by the Empress, I would inevitably run into her again.
“Mel, I understand you’re worried, but calm down. We didn’t want to burden Cherry with the adults’ power struggles, but it seems that’s how it turned out.”
My dad, who followed my mom in, tried to soothe her as she couldn’t contain her worry.
“But, but why did it have to happen when neither of us was there with Cherry…!”
Seeing my mom’s face twist in distress, a sense of crisis crept in. Could it be that I… had caused a huge mess?
