Just because she told him to eat well, does it mean he has to be this upset? Arundel felt a bit wronged. It seemed like whatever she said was heard through a skewed filter.
“The emperor is my husband. It’s natural for a wife to worry about her husband. Please clear up the misunderstanding.”
Arundel appealed shamelessly, trying hard to ignore her trembling heart under Zion’s fierce gaze. Zion glared at Arundel for a while, then left, slamming the door as if to break it. As expected, the glass door was slightly cracked.
‘Really, what a temper.’
As Zion left, Arundel’s legs began to tremble. It was an unbelievable momentum for a human.
‘Should I be grateful that he didn’t say much and just disappeared, despite his fierce gaze?’
She wiped her forehead with one palm. Despite his sharp gaze that could kill someone, he didn’t say much and left.
If there was a positive side, it was that.
Empress Irina also had a pitiful life. In the end, she was even abandoned by her family. If she had actually experienced such a thing, her heart would have been so worn out that she would have satisfied Zion’s twisted desire.
Sighing as if the ground was collapsing, Arundel waited for the evening again. She was not going to change her plan to meet Irina’s younger sister. Then she needed to know where she lived.
Arundel waited for the darkness to fall outside the window.
“I brought your meal.”
“Come in.”
The maid who had been teased by the knight the other day looked very uncomfortable after finding out that Arundel, who had saved her, was the empress. The maid who brought the meal was pale and sweating.
“Do you know me?”
The maid’s pupils shook from side to side, appearing very anxious.
“I… I…!”
The maid clasped her small hands together and bowed her head. She prostrated herself in front of Arundel.
“Please forgive me, Your Majesty…! I committed a mortal sin. I didn’t know you were the empress back then and I was rude…!”
Arundel lifted the maid, who was flat on the floor and whose face was not visible.
“What’s your name?”
“…Pardon?”
“I asked what your name is.”
The maid seemed to hesitate for a moment before opening her mouth.
“It’s… Bell.”
“Bell, what did you do wrong to me?”
“I didn’t recognize you as the empress and didn’t greet you properly…!”
Arundel let out a short sigh.
“I don’t mind. From the beginning, I wore the hood so that no one would recognize me. You probably know, but I’m trapped here.”
Bell seemed to calm down a bit. Arundel looked at her with a gentle smile.
“And you owe me, don’t you?”
“Pardon?”
Bell looked surprised and questioned Arundel.
“I saved you that day, from that beggar-like knight.”
“Oh, I was really grateful for that!”
“Just with words?”
Bell looked a bit flustered as she looked at Arundel. Arundel smiled triumphantly.
“Since you owe me, I’d like you to help me.”
Bell looked very uncomfortable.
Certainly, she was grateful for her, for saving her last time, but this was a separate matter. Working in the royal palace, rumors were a fun topic among the maids. Especially, the stories about Empress Irina, who was in front of her, had a very high percentage.
Because she hardly showed herself to the outside world, her story was inflated like a myth and spread everywhere. Of course, in a bad way.
A coronation wasn’t even held for the empress, so only a few nobles recognized her, and the number of maids visiting the Empress’s Palace was extremely limited. It just so happened that one of those maids fell ill, and Bell took her place.
Before bringing meals to Empress Irina, she was drilled with precautions. Don’t mix words with the empress. Avoid eye contact as much as possible. Finish your work as quickly as possible and leave, etc. But to ask for her help in such a situation was perplexing.
“I know it’s difficult. I will definitely reward you as soon as the situation improves.”
Arundel grabbed Bell’s hand. At Arundel’s action, Bell was startled.
“Your Majesty! Where are you touching this lowly hand…!”
Even lower nobles avoid touching a maid, but the second highest person in the empire, albeit nominally, grabbed a lowly hand, and Bell didn’t know what to do.
“I will make sure you don’t get hurt…!”
Arundel spoke with her eyes wide open in a pitiful manner. At her plea, Bell closed her eyes tightly. She seemed to be lost in deep thought.
“No, Your Majesty. You saved me, so it’s only right that I help you.”
At Bell’s answer, Arundel cheered inwardly. But on the outside, she wore a faint smile.
“Thank you, Bell.”
“What can I help you with?”
Bell, having made up her mind, looked determined.
‘Oh, but what should I say.’
Thinking about it, if she suddenly asked about the location of Empress Irina’s hometown, Bell might think it’s very strange.
She was not Arundel now, but Empress Irina. It would definitely sound strange for Empress Irina to ask for information about herself.
As Arundel didn’t tell her what to help with, Bell wore a puzzled expression. Looking at Bell’s face, Arundel seemed to have a flash of inspiration in her mind.
“I heard that the family moved.”
“Moved…?”
“Yes. Do you know my family?”
At Arundel’s question, Bell slowly nodded.
She couldn’t help but know. The hottest topic in the royal court and among the nobles these days was the disownment of Empress Irina. The story that Count Dunkeld disowned Empress Irina from the family was widespread.
Empress Irina, who was disowned by the family, was asking for the address of the moved house. She was curious, but as a maid, she dared not ask.
“…Do I need to find out the moved address?”
“Yes. There’s someone I need to meet.”
At Arundel’s words, Bell unknowingly looked at Arundel with a sympathetic gaze.
She was a truly pitiful person. Even though she was in the position of the empress, she couldn’t leave the Empress’s Palace, and rumors said that even the emperor visited only occasionally.
And then she was disowned by the family, and there was someone she had to meet among them. Bell wrote down the pitiful story of the empress in her heart.
‘While Bell is getting the information, should I relax a bit.’
When Bell left the bedroom, she felt a bit relieved. She wanted to ask Bell about Zion, but she didn’t ask because she thought it might raise suspicion. She thought she would naturally ask as she got closer to Bell.
****
The blue moonlight poured in through the window. Zion, bathed in moonlight, was as lonely and beautiful as the moon god. His dazzling platinum hair, which lightly touched his shoulders, flowed down his face.
But his gaze, staring somewhere with his chin propped up, was sunk deep like darkness.
‘What a cheeky person.’
Emperor Zion had to be in the office until late due to overflowing work, but he was thinking about what had happened during the day, not work.
‘I was in a good mood until I had dinner with the empress in theEmpress’s Palace.’
‘I was annoyed by the stupid nobles, but I was looking forward to delivering interesting news to Empress Irina. I wondered if her face would crumple like a piece of paper, or if her beautiful face would be covered in tears.’
‘As the meal was about to end, I opened my mouth to deliver the prepared news.’
[Count Dunkeld visited today.]
Count Dunkeld visited the office wanting an audience without making an appointment.
The cunning and vile blood didn’t go anywhere, Count Dunkeld proposed a deal with the empress as a prerequisite.
Count Dunkeld originally loved gambling and entertainment, so he spent a lot of money. The problem was that he was also included in the list of western nobles who had to support the east this time.
[Your Majesty, please, just once…! If we support the east this time, our family will go bankrupt…!]
[What an interesting thing to say. Why should I do that.]
As he was about to turn away coldly, Count Dunkeld knelt down and pleaded.
[I…Irina… No, I will disown the empress.]
Zion looked at Count Dunkeld with a cold face.
‘The quick-witted and cunning guy knew what kind of existence Empress Irina was to me.’
‘She is entirely mine, my possession. And I’m going to slowly destroy her. To do that, she had to be thoroughly alone.’
‘Of course, she was already close to being alone, being trapped in the Empress’s Palace like a bird in a cage, but I wanted it to be more perfect. This cunning Count Dunkeld saw through that.’
‘Like brother, like sister. It was a truly dirty lineage.’
‘But there was no reason to refuse this attractive deal.’
[Good. I accept the deal.]
A smile hung on the corner of Zion’s mouth.
****
[…I see.]
The person who made the day exciting seemed to have no particular feeling.
[Remember this clearly. Now, you only have me.]
‘Well, it’s not important. You are now completely alone. There is no place to escape nor a place to accept you.’
[Don’t skip meals, and take good care of yourself.]
The smiling face distorted for a moment.
[The emperor is my husband. It’s natural for a wife to worry about her husband. Please clear up the misunderstanding.]
He wondered if she was making fun of himself, but her expression seemed surprisingly sincere.
What’s even more ridiculous is that he couldn’t pour more onto the empress and left the place.
Sitting in the office and recalling what happened during the day, Zion’s face crumpled.
‘Husband? You are not in the same position as me. You are just my possession, nothing more than a toy.’
Only now, hundreds and thousands of such words came out, but at that moment, he didn’t know why he was speechless.
‘Come to think of it, was she that kind of person?’
He had thoroughly investigated before getting married.
Whether it was congenital or due to a bean flour-like family environment, Empress Irina had a very quiet and delicate personality.
(TL: bean flour-like family -A state in which order within a group has collapsed or close relationships have disappeared)
How many tears she shed on the way here. Those tears really filled him with anticipation.
He hadn’t seen her many times, but she hardly spoke loudly and couldn’t make eye contact.
In addition, it was fun to see her trembling slightly every time he faced her.
But now, Empress Irina looked like a different person. She doesn’t avoid his eyes and faces him directly. How many people have faced his eyes with such confidence?
Knock knock-
At the sound of knocking on the emperor’s office late at night, Zion stopped thinking and looked at the door.
