“Oh dear.”
Cherrya blinked her eyes slowly, sounding flustered. The Empress, her face red with anger, was breathing heavily, unable to control her temper.
Unsure of what to do, Cherrya darted her eyes around nervously before deciding to pacify the Empress. She cautiously raised both hands and said.
“Your Majesty, while my knowledge is limited, I’ve heard that at your age, you should be mindful of blood pressure. As we age, our blood vessels become weaker, and…”
“Enough!”
Cherrya’s attempt to calm the Empress failed miserably. Unintentionally, she had touched upon a sensitive topic—the Empress’s concern about aging.
“Understood.”
Faced with the Empress’s bloodshot glare, Cherrya wisely clamped her mouth shut.
“Hah… hah…”
The Empress, who had been shouting for some time, was now panting more heavily than a knight who had rolled across the training ground several times.
While Cherrya looked around anxiously, Melsia gave her a thumbs-up. Cherrya, worried about being reprimanded for angering the Empress, felt slightly reassured by the gesture.
“Dame Emblem.”
The Empress, who had finally managed to suppress her boiling anger, called out to Cherrya in a cold voice.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Feeling relieved after seeing Melsia’s signal, Cherrya smiled and faced the Empress.
“Honestly, sometimes your unchanging demeanor is… just so…”
Unable to continue her sentence, the Empress shut her eyes tightly, her fists trembling with suppressed rage. Summoning all her patience, she managed to regain her composure, though her voice still carried traces of frustration.
“I sometimes imagine the future under your leadership of the Emblem Order.”
The implication was clear: What would the state of the Emblem Order be like with someone like you in charge? However, Cherrya, who had previously failed miserably at understanding Olivia’s courtly quizzes, was unlikely to grasp the Empress’s nuanced language.
Having only just begun to explore the social scene, Cherrya was far from understanding the layered expressions of someone like the Empress, who had not only survived but reigned supreme in society for decades.
“Thank you.”
Cherrya, interpreting the Empress’s words as a sign of high expectations, nodded simply and expressed her gratitude.
Veins bulged on the Empress’s forehead.
She realized that no matter how sarcastic or cutting her remarks were, they would hardly leave a scratch on Cherrya’s brazen composure.
“…Alright. Shall we continue our conversation?”
“So, I should report this to His Highness, the Crown Prince?”
“Not that.”
The Empress pressed her trembling eyelids with the tips of her fingers, attempting to calm herself, and forced a smile.
“I’m curious about what you shouted loudly enough for everyone here to hear. If it’s not something that needs to be reported to the Crown Prince, couldn’t you share it?”
“What are you curious about?”
Cherrya, still unable to catch the roundabout hint, asked the Empress again. Cherrya’s unrefined directness had always clashed with the Empress, ever since a long time ago.
‘I should have nipped this in the bud when she was younger…’
The Empress always regretted not having done so. The seed she failed to trample early had now grown insolently bold, daring to make eye contact and talk back.
The Empress glared briefly at Melsia while trying to formulate a phrase Cherrya might actually understand.
‘How did you raise your daughter?’
‘Did a good job, didn’t I?’
The exchange of glances between the Empress and Melsia seemed to carry such a dialogue.
But sometimes, the one feeling regret had to make the first move. The Empress had to acknowledge that, at this moment, she was the one regretting.
“That lunatic—cough, ahem. You mentioned the knight of the Gray Order you’ve been cradling dearly almost died today, didn’t you?”
“Pardon? Oh, yes, indeed. That guy, um, that man did something truly insane because of his pride, uh… How do I put this…?”
Cherrya hesitated, frowning slightly as she searched for an appropriate word to use in front of the Empress.
Her gaze briefly flickered toward Melsia, who nodded as if giving her permission to say whatever she wished.
“Even His Highness, the Crown Prince, would be curious. Speak freely.”
Melsia’s expression suggested she knew exactly what Cherrya was about to say. The weary boredom etched into her face made it seem like she’d witnessed similar situations countless times before.
“That’s right, Dame Emblem. Since the Empress is here, and she has seen the condition of the injured knights of the Gray Order, she must be somewhat informed about the situation.”
Even the Crown Prince encouraged Cherrya, who was hesitating.
He knew that since the Empress had already witnessed the situation here, she would inevitably dig into what had happened during the extermination. It was better to gauge what information she would extract in the Crown Prince’s presence to better handle her in the future.
For the first time in a while, the Empress felt as though she and the Crown Prince were on the same page, and she nodded benevolently.
“I’ve heard of your bold storytelling, so don’t worry and speak freely.”
“Oh, then I’ll speak a bit more comfortably.”
Cherrya, finally feeling somewhat relieved, straightened her knees and brushed off the dust.
The Empress wrinkled her nose and instinctively moved to cover it with a handkerchief but stopped when she realized it was soaked in monster blood from wiping Melsia’s face earlier. She barely suppressed her nausea.
“As we were progressing with the extermination, we realized that the Gray Order knights were disappearing one by one. The frontline had already collapsed, and I immediately sensed something major was wrong. So, we began investigating the number of remaining Gray Order knights and attempted to share the current situation.”
“That was the right thing to do,”
The Crown Prince said, nodding in agreement.
It was only natural for the less-damaged Emblem Order to assess the situation. The Crown Prince clasped his hands tightly, desperately hoping the Emblem Order wouldn’t be blamed for this incident.
Whether or not she noticed the Crown Prince’s desperation, Cherrya scratched her head in frustration and continued.
“So, we started searching along the frontlines. If we found Emblem Order knights, we regrouped with them. If we found Gray Order knights, we explained the situation and sought their cooperation.”
“Cooperation? Cooperation, you say…!”
At that moment, a Gray Order squire, who had been humiliatingly carried here by Cherrya, pointed a trembling finger at her and tried to sputter words while foaming at the mouth.
“Exactly! We thought they were bandits, not knights!”
“Didn’t they roam in groups and hunt down Gray Order knights?!”
“Cooperation, my foot!”
Even the injured Gray Order knights, who were quietly receiving treatment, voiced their protests in unison.
“Oh my, what’s all this commotion?”
The Empress laughed as though thoroughly entertained, her eyes curving into crescents. The sparkle in her gaze as she looked at Cherrya was the most dazzling it had ever been.
