“Are these the two most popular entries in the competition?”
The nobles eagerly welcomed me into their conversation.
Feigning ignorance, I sampled my Applelum Tea and cake, letting out a genuine-sounding gasp of admiration.
“My goodness, this is delicious! The raisin cookies and Applelum Cocktail must be just as amazing, right?”
With a pleased expression, I picked up a glass of Applelum Cocktail, the very plagiarized drink that had been secretly laced with digestive medicine in an attempt to copy the effects of my tea.
“A toast—to the 34th Imperial Dessert Competition!”
“To victory!”
The crowd cheerfully raised their glasses with me.
I flashed a bright smile and drank deeply from the Applelum Cocktail.
CRASH!
A glass shattered to the ground.
“Y-Your Majesty?!”
“Ah… My head….”
I clutched my mouth, staggering dramatically.
Immediately, panic erupted. My attendants rushed to my side, sending word for my physician, Merton, who arrived in record time.
Recently, Merton had been studying pharmacology under Lindo, so he was more knowledgeable about medicine than before.
Upon examining both me and the cocktail, his face darkened.
“Who put digestive medicine in this?!”
His furious voice rang across the hall, exposing the truth for everyone to hear.
The nobles gasped in horror, tossing aside their cocktail glasses as if they had been poisoned.
Within seconds, chaos erupted.
“Wait… There was medicine in the cocktail?!”
“No wonder it felt like my stomach was forcefully emptied instead of naturally settled!”
As physicians and Merton administered emergency care, I put on my best dazed, fragile expression.
“Your Majesty, are you alright?”
“Ah… I think I’ll be fine now. I’m so sorry to have startled everyone.”
I let out a gentle cough, my voice soft and apologetic—as if I were simply a delicate noblewoman, startled by the sudden effects of unexpected medicine.
The nobles, many of whom already saw me as a frail, tragic figure thanks to Xian’s overprotectiveness, reacted just as expected.
Their whispers turned into angry murmurs.
“Has Count Lampell gone mad?!”
“Drugging food intended for the Imperial Family?!”
“Even if it’s just digestive medicine, what if someone sensitive had an adverse reaction?!”
Amidst the uproar, the voting period quietly ended, and the Imperial Administration moved to finalize the results.
Before long, the head administrator stepped forward.
“The results of the 34th Imperial Dessert Competition will now be announced.”
Everyone took their seats, anticipation thick in the air.
From a distant corner, Baroness Sabine—who had entered under Lindo’s trading company—looked on the verge of fainting from nerves.
The official retrieved a sealed envelope and slowly unfolded the winner’s name.
“Ahem.”
Just then, the doors swung open—and Count Lampell finally made his grand entrance.
A wave of whispers and murmurs rippled through the hall.
Clueless to the tension, the Count simply smirked, twisting his mustache confidently as he sauntered toward the front.
He even made a move to step onto the stage, as if he had already won.
“The winner is… Applelum Tea and the Custom-Designed Cake.”
“What?!”
The hall erupted in thunderous applause.
Caught mid-step, Count Lampell stumbled, his face twisting in shock.
Frantically, he snatched at the administrator’s sleeve.
“This must be a mistake! There’s no way—!”
The administrator calmly held up the results sheet for him to see.
“Applelum Cocktail: 3 votes. Applelum Tea: 37 votes. Any objections?”
The moment his eyes landed on the numbers, his face drained of color.
As nobles brushed past him, clicking their tongues, he collapsed onto his knees in disbelief.
“Drugging food just to win… How desperate can you get?”
“Come to think of it, wasn’t Applelum Tea released first? It really does seem like he copied it—and not even well.”
While the crowd flocked to the winning desserts, they completely ignored the Applelum Cocktail and raisin cookies, leaving them stacked high like untouched garbage.
“The winners will receive official recognition, along with a one-year exclusive contract to supply desserts and flour to the Imperial Capital.”
At that announcement, Count Lampell crumbled.
“N-No… No! My desserts! My flour monopoly!”
“Oh, don’t be so discouraged, Count.”
I approached him with an innocent smile, tilting my head sympathetically.
“Three votes is still something, isn’t it?”—Said the person who just won by a landslide.
I gracefully covered my smirk with a handkerchief, looking every bit the gentle, understanding noblewoman.
“Though, I do regret hearing about the drugging incident. The Imperial Food Safety Department will likely begin an investigation soon—please cooperate fully.”
“Y-Y-Your Majesty! It’s a misunderstanding!” Count Lampell scrambled for excuses, but I ignored him entirely, turning on my heel to exit the stage.
From the corner, Baroness Sabine came rushing after me, still breathless from shock.
“Y-Your Majesty! I—I can’t believe it
***
“Let’s see…”
That evening, I hummed a tune as I spread out a map in front of me.
I had marked several locations with red stars, and now, flipping through the Imperial Land Survey Report from the royal archives, I began cross-referencing my choices.
“An island, a mountainous region, a seaside town, and the southernmost tip….”
I quickly narrowed it down to four.
All of them had mild climates and were governed by well-reputed lords.
I tapped my chin with my quill, deep in thought.
‘Where would be the best place for a peaceful retirement?’
Money was rolling in smoothly.
That meant it was time to start scouting for a house outside the capital for my future.
But picking a location was harder than expected—they all seemed equally appealing.
‘Should I just stay in the capital?’
Somehow, the Imperial City had started feeling like home.
But… I really didn’t want to live in the same city as Duke Celeste.
Besides, staying in the capital, where the original Leah was poisoned, didn’t sit well with me.
“Hmm… Maybe I should pick somewhere with good transportation?”
After all, the most important thing in old age is convenient access to doctors.
I wasn’t even thirty yet, but here I was, already thinking realistically about my future.
“Triton.”
A coastal town known for its clear blue skies year-round.
A place of towering cliffs and storybook-like ocean views.
It had a small port, making traveling to the capital by ship fairly easy.
The painting in the report made it look incredibly scenic.
“But… it’s a little too small, isn’t it?”
I preferred lively towns, and Triton felt more like a quiet resort town.
‘Maybe a small mountain village near the capital instead?’
I sighed and flipped through the land reports again.
“Hmm…”
Yet, for some reason, I kept coming back to Triton.
I found other promising locations, but no matter what, my eyes would always drift back to Triton’s seaside painting.
It felt as if something was pulling me toward it.
Like I was meant to be there.
Eventually, after reopening the same page for the fifth time, I gave in.
“Oh, whatever! It must be fate.”
I grabbed my quill and drew a big heart over Triton on the map.
Luckily, since it was a small city, land prices weren’t too bad.
The local lord was currently staying in the capital, as he owned another estate elsewhere.
“I’ll have to visit and buy some land later. And build a house exactly to my liking.”
Muttering to myself, I folded up the map and report and tucked them into my desk drawer.
Right then—
Knock, knock—!
Or rather, a knock so faint it was practically useless, followed by the door swinging open in a hurry.
The culprit?
Xian.
‘Huh? It’s not even a shared night.’
According to the schedule, tonight was his solo night in the main palace.
Blinking in confusion, I asked:
“Xian? What brings you here at this hour? Oh, did you mix up the days—”
Before I could finish my sentence, he suddenly closed the distance between us.
His tall frame and broad shoulders loomed over me, carrying a familiar, sweet scent.
‘Wait, I know this scent… What was it again?’
I tilted my head, puzzled.
“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”
Still silent, Xian’s lips finally parted.
“I heard you collapsed today.”
Ah—now I remembered.
The scent on him was from the “shortcut” between the Main Palace and the Empress’s quarters—a garden where milk-flowers bloomed.
My brain finally caught up, and I stared at him, dumbfounded.
“…What?”
Wait.
Did he really run all the way here through the shortcut… just to ask me that?!
