I felt like the emperor was looking at me like a hamster running on a wheel.
It was a pathetic reaction, but I was drunk and didn’t notice anything. I was just glad the emperor was paying attention to me.
“Your Majesty.”
The emperor raised his glass to his mouth and stiffened.
“……why.”
I laughed heartily. Then I leaned down and put my hands over the emperor’s ears.
“You know…….”
His body stiffened for a moment, but I, who was already a slave to alcohol, was unstoppable.
When my breath tickled his earlobes, I could feel the Emperor’s breathing.
“I have something to tell you.”
“…….”
The Emperor’s deep golden eyes were looking at me without moving an inch. That sight was strangely satisfying.
I opened my lips as if I were revealing a secret with my half-closed eyes.
“At night, in bed.”
“What are you trying to say?”
The Emperor tried to shut me up with a serious expression, but the slave of alcohol was brazen.
“Why, no. Actually, when we sleep together…”
“Don’t.”
“I, in bed at night… while watching His Majesty sleep…”
And sadly, I blacked out.
* * *
The next morning.
“Ugh, my head.”
I drank the honey water the maids gave me, but I couldn’t overcome my hangover and was lying down.
I can’t believe it. I lost the drinking game! This person who always drinks alcohol instead of water even when eating!
“Am I a bad drinker?”
I asked Lauren as I approached, and she gave me a sympathetic, “You’re not sober yet” look.
“It seems you’re feeling a little queasy because you haven’t had a drink in a long time. I’ll bring you some really good tea.” As I nodded, Lauren left me with the maids and disappeared into the kitchen.
Ah, why are my shoulders stiff? What on earth did I do yesterday?
“Oh, Your Majesty. I’ll give you a massage.”
“Ugh.”
As I mumbled, the maids who were still afraid of me hesitated and rubbed my shoulders. Their delicate touches made me feel a little better.
I lay there tiredly, quietly recalling my memories.
“So, I drank with the Emperor.”
I thought I had won the game because his drinking style looked like a beginner’s.
But strangely, the Emperor’s face didn’t change even after drinking a lot of alcohol. I blush easily even after drinking a little.
Anyway, since my face color and my drinking capacity had nothing to do with each other, so I drank curiously until then. We even had a whispered conversation.
‘There’s something I think about every night when I see you sleeping. Do you know that you often make faces when you’re sleeping? It’s so funny sometimes.
‘Honestly, you’re sleepy right now, aren’t you?’ Oh, your eyebrows twitched.’
… No, twitches?
I became a little anxious.
I should have just made the Emperor drink a lot, but why are all the conversations I remember so strange?
I somehow understood Leah’s past behavior of putting a diamond ring on a man’s toe while drinking in the harem. I guess I’m the type that goes overboard when I drink.
‘Anyway, the important thing is whether you’ve made a promise to go to the ball.’
I searched my throbbing head again. Memories came back to me in fragments, tangled together.
Hmm, it was around the time when the two of us had each drunk our fifth bottle.
‘Your Majesty, will you surrender now?’
As my vision began to blur, I glared at the Emperor.
‘Why should I surrender? There’s more alcohol left.’
But the iron-clad emperor didn’t budge. He opened the sixth bottle of wine and began to drink himself.
‘I’ll have some too.’
I gritted my teeth and held out my glass, thinking I couldn’t resist. At that moment, the Emperor glanced at me.
‘Go to sleep.’
‘Ar-are you ignoring me now?’
And I snatched the Emperor’s wine glass and drank it in one gulp…
Ah, no, it’s me in the past. Why did you get drunk when you just need to ask for permission to attend the ball!
I slammed my head on the table with my mouth agape. The maid brushed my forehead with her hand.
“You-Your Majesty. If you’re sleepy, go to the bedroom.”
“Sniff. No, that’s okay. You can go.”
I tried to regain my composure and recall my memories.
Anyway, I was originally a terrible Empress. Even if I snatched the Emperor’s wine glass and drank it, it wouldn’t have looked particularly strange.
‘Your lips, they’re purple.’
The emperor looked at me like I was some strange prey because I had drunk too much wine and my lips were stained.
‘Your Majesty. But I’ve been wondering for a while, why do you call me ‘you’?’
‘…….’
‘Ah. You don’t know my name? Now, repeat after me. Leah.’
‘…….’
‘We see each other every day now, so can’t you call me by my name? I like Leah much better. Got it, Xian?’
Tsk.
Did I get drunk and ask the tyrant emperor to have sex with me?
I banged my forehead on the table with my mouth wide open. The maids tried to get me off, but it wasn’t enough.
Because I remembered how I’d been screaming the emperor’s name without his permission.
‘Xian, can’t we have a banquet? Huh?’
‘Please, Xian. If you don’t, I won’t let you go to bed and I won’t let you have a snack!’
Ah… I’m going crazy! I sat up, kicking the table instead of the blanket while sitting, and then collapsed from exhaustion.
“Ah, Your Majesty. Are you okay?”
Sob, sob. It’s embarrassing to be drunk, but it’s even more embarrassing to not remember how the Emperor reacted.
Why the hell is my drunkenness the only thing that comes to mind!
‘Xian, are you really not going to throw a banquet? … even if…’
‘You. What are you doing…’
‘Please. I beg you.’
Wait. What’s going on here?
I straightened up my upper body as the memory came to mind.
“Ugh!”
While doing that, I ended up hitting the chin of the maid who was massaging my shoulder. She grabbed her chin and blushed, so I quickly pulled out the chair next to me.
“I’m sorry. Are you okay? Please sit here for now.”
“I, how could I…”
“Sit down and rest for now.”
A maid who got injured while massaging the shoulder of her master who was suffering from a hangover. This must be absurd.
“Th-thank you, Your Majesty.”
When I forcibly dragged her to sit down, she looked around, not knowing what to do, and then gradually felt relieved.
Looking at her eyes, I could feel that she was still afraid of the empress, so I chuckled.
“Sarah, you’ve been working the night shift a lot lately.”
“Huh?! How could Your Majesty know that, and how did you know my name…?”
The maid with dark circles was startled. I answered, resting my head on my arms like a child.
“I see you all the time, how could I not know? It’s already been five days since you’ve been working the night shift in my bedroom.”
“I-I’m sorry to bother you, but I can’t help it because I’ve been so busy lately.”
“Ugh, it’s not that I’m bother. Take this and eat it. I heard it’s good for recovering from fatigue.”
I held out the nuts soaked in aged honey that Lauren had prepared for me. They’re supposed to be eaten as a nutritional supplement, but it was quite expensive and out of the reach of most nobles.
‘I’m healthy enough without this.’
And what I need now is not a nutritional supplement, but an all detoxifier.
“Take it and share it with your colleagues who need it.”
Because Leah was so damn bad, most of the maids in the Empress’s palace were from poor, lower-class noble families or ordinary merchant families.
Since they were replaced every other day, the rich and high-ranking ones ran away early. The maids who were here now were all new.
In that sense, nutritional supplements are only needed by office workers who work overtime.
I waved my hand dismissively and began pressing my throbbing temples again.
“Th-thank you, Your Majesty.”
“Yes. Don’t work overtime too much. I’ve been sleeping late at night lately, so I know how hard it is.”
“Yes…”
For some reason, the answer sounded nasal, and I wondered why, but I closed my eyes, still hungover, and forced myself to remember.
Where was I?
‘Xian. Will you throw me a banquet?’
‘… Again… I’ll think about it… Later.’
Almost the end of a faint memory. I asked, sobering up, what the Emperor had said.
‘Ohhh. So it’s not a complete refusal, is it? Later, you mean, maybe we can talk again?!’
I blinked at him, apparently the alcohol had paid off after all.
‘You. What are you doing….’
‘Please.’
But what did I really do?
I scratched my cheek with a puzzled expression as I tried to remember.
It didn’t seem like the Emperor would have simply accepted my request because I’m calling him by his name. Based on the circumstances, I think I did something back then, but I couldn’t remember it even after racking my brain.
“Hey, Sarah. By any chance. What do you think when someone you used to dislike suddenly starts acting friendly? Do you feel burdened?”
I asked her slyly, hoping to get a hint. After all, the Emperor had hated me not so long ago.
The maid replied with a wistful look on her face.
“I-I love it!”
“Huh?”
“We didn’t even know that Her Majesty the Empress had become a new person. We were scared because we only heard rumors, sniff. You’re someone who cares for your subordinates so much.”
The maid, holding the nutritional supplement I gave her tightly in her arms, shed tears.
“Oh, no, that’s not what I was talking about.”
I was just taking care of her as a fellow night shift worker out of a sense of camaraderie. It seems that she thinks that the Empress, who had reformed herself, wanted to become friends with the maids.
“From now on, we will be your strength in this palace. Just trust us and leave everything to us!”
“Ah, thank you.”
Yeah. It’s a good things.
I laughed indifferently, having gained a group of maids who were impressed for free.
“Well, then, I want to get something that you absolutely cannot do, but how can I get it?”
“Ah. Is it like a bet or something? If it is, I’ll go all the way!”
The chattering maids answered me one after another. They all advised me to go straight ahead.
“Right? Actually, he said he would reconsider because I pressured him. Then I guess I should definitely pressure him more?”
“Of course! They say that no tree will fall after ten strikes, Your Majesty.”
Yeah, life sucks!
Encouraged by my fellow maids, I pumped my fists.
Just then, the emperor approached me as he moved toward the garden where I was resting. I waved and smiled broadly.
When our eyes finally met.
“Your Majesty. Good morning…”
But the emperor’s face hardened, and he made a U-turn and disappeared. It was a clear dodge.
‘What the heck, where is he going now?’
The black panther that had been successfully tamed had escaped. I blinked in disbelief.
But at that very moment, a piece of memory from last night popped into my head.
‘Do you do this to anyone?’
… Huh?
