“Kaiden, we are the only family to the queen now. So think about the queen’s position.”
Kaiden’s fierce expression softened a little when the Dowager Empress said that. When she realized that the corner of his eyes had fallen a little, the Dowager Empress, who knew that her words were effective, continued.
“It was the same when I married into this imperial family. They were all adults who were afraid and distant from me.”
“….”
“The queen is a person who will live in the imperial family for the rest of her life anyway. If so, isn’t she someone who should continue to live facing both me and Princess Elsius?”
Kaiden clenched her lips at the Dowager Empress’ words.
“I won’t see Elsius in 10 years.”
“She’ll leave in ten years.”
“After 10 years, the old emperor from the next country won’t be able to ask for a concubine.”
“Then you should get closer to the queen. The princess will not be able to marry and will remain in the palace.”
At the words of the Dowager Empress, Kaiden crossed his legs again.
“I reject it. Get out, grandmother.”
“Why! If I’m wrong, refute me!”
“Why would you refute a word that is not worth refuting? For Lina, I am family enough. Didn’t I give you a lot of opportunities?”
Kaiden tried to drag Dowager Empress out of the audience room by beckoning as if he had nothing to see anymore. Then the angry Dowager Empress clenched her fist and said.
“Think carefully about what I say. The queen is in a different position from you.”
“Yes, let’s go.”
“If you care about the queen, think from her point of view.”
The Dowager Empress turned as if she was going to go out on her own, staring at the Marquis of Logias, who bowed his head between the ministers and strode outside.
As the Empress went out, Kaiden said with an annoyed look on her face.
“Let’s start the meeting again. Tell me about the Denver Bridge. Marquis of Logias.”
“…Yes, Your Majesty.”
That’s how the morning meeting started.
Kaiden could not hide his displeasure throughout the morning meeting and tormented the ministers.
~~~~
「 The Dowager Empress and the Princess are aiming for Your Majesty. It looks like a brief alliance. 」
Evelina read the note that arrived to her at her office and burned it with a candle on the spot. It was almost always easily burnt because it was a fire that was the kind to melt the sealing wax. The scent of peppermint from the scented candle also cleared her head.
“The Viscount Lubbs disappeared before the trial.”
“Did he run away?”
“It disappeared leaving a will to give up all rights.”
Evelina knew the emperor had a hand in this. He probably had to write a suicide note on the condition that he was spared and then kicked out to another country.
“What about the body?”
“They say there isn’t one. However, there are signs of stowaways to the north. His Majesty asked if Your Majesty would like to investigate this matter further.”
Evelina thought the reward for Armen Lubbs, who stuck next to the Dowager Empress and became her eyes, was already sufficient. She didn’t think she would want her father to die, no matter how much love and hate she had.
“Can’t you impose an entry ban on Abelard Empire so that he won’t be allowed to enter it again?”
“I will tell him as you said.”
The emperor’s aide listened to her and went out.
So Evelina had to draw up this year’s budget and plan for the royal family. Annual events, small parties, and forthcoming. To the reception of envoys from the Kingdom of Tenesi.
She had to deal with it busily and talk to the maids.
“We’re going to put up a new maid candidate tomorrow.”
Evelina smiled as she saw a huge improvement in the new maid candidate. Since the last tea party, Evelina’s position has been proven, so it had been flocked like this.
It was a group of candidates that used to be less than ten. Except for the two of them, they quit.
But now there are only three applications. At this rate, it seemed that young ladies, who had just made their debut, were included.
She was looking at the list of applicants who wanted to be ladies-in-waiting after pushing aside the work she was dealing with for a while.
– Knock knock.
“Come on in.”
She kept her eyes on what she was seeing and waited for the person who came in to report on their own. When she saw some good ladies on the list, she marked the part with a pen.
“The way you work is beautiful, too.”
“Kaiden?”
Evelina opened her eyes wide, surprised that it was Kaiden who came to her office.
“Isn’t it time for a political meeting?”
“I have about ten minutes left.”
“What?”
When Evelina looked at him in embarrassment, he dismissed the servants in Evelina’s office with his hands. Then he went near her chair. When Evelina tried to get out of her seat, he made her sit again.
“Kaiden?”
Evelina called him because she felt strange that he gently pressed her shoulder and sat her back down. Then he.
“Kaiden!”
He sat on the floor casually and looked up at her. Then he turned her chair around and let her look at him. Then he said, leaning his head over her thigh.
“I thought a lot about it.”
“The floor is dirty.”
Evelina reacted unconsciously to his words as if he had become a submissive beast.
“I don’t want Lina to be afraid of me.”
She thought what he was saying was probably because of what happened in the bathtub yesterday. The look on his face as soon as he opened his eyes. The expression was like a beast of prey.
“Can you stroke my head?”
However, his eyes looking at her leaning on her legs now seemed gentle like a domesticated dog.
She touched his hair as if possessed by his words. His dark, nightly hair tickled her hand and slipped away.
Evelina was amazed that he, the emperor, put his head on her legs and showed a gentle appearance. She thought it should be the opposite.
He looked up at her as she gently pulled her hand out of his head.
“Is this even scarier?”
“No, this is better.”
Evelina was not afraid of him looking up from underneath her. Because now he was being very obedient.
“Then can I do this often?”
“Yes, I like it.”
Then he bent over and wrapped his arms around her waist as if to hug her. Evelina didn’t mind having his hair tickle her breasts. The only thing that bothered her was his hot breath tickling her stomach.
“I heard you had work this morning.”
Evelina was recalling that her aide told her this morning about the friction between the Dowager Empress and the Emperor in the audience room.
“Never mind.”
“I’m a little bothered.”
Then his arm relaxed. Evelina said, stroking his cheek with her hand.
“I think Her Majesty is right. I’m a member of the Imperial family now.”
Evelina was not a fool. However, her life span was now two weeks away, and neither the Dowager Empress nor the Princess thought she was an obstacle that could interfere with their work.
When first Princess Elsius was detained in her room for 10 years, she thought she had been completely removed. However, she changed my mind when I saw the princess holding hands with the Dowager Empress, who was like a political opponent.
“Even if you hate your family, you have to keep seeing them.”
“You don’t have to. “You don’t have to. Why don’t we send the two of them to the Western Territory instead?”
Evelina thought he didn’t mean what he said. The only two families left for the emperor were those two. However, if she, the enemy’s daughter, asked him to do so, he would pretend to do so and bring them back when she avenges himself.
Evelina intended to re-open the relationship between the two that had troubled her so that they could never trust each other again. She didn’t want it to pose a threat to my adoptive parents.
Even the emperor, who may be the biggest enemy, was so overwhelming. The addition of two people to it only added to her anxiety.
“Kaiden.”
She called him out as if to ask. Then he looked at her as if he were an obedient beast.
“My grandmother is not a very nice person. When I was young she suspected that I wasn’t of the blood of the imperial family, she was a tough guy to me. Even now, because I am the emperor, she is acting like she has affection for me.”
Evelina looked at Kaiden as if she was waiting for him to finish.
“I have no intention of forcing Lina to have a child. I don’t want to have an empress.”
“What if I’m infertile?”
“Then we can adopt.”
Evelina opened her lips gently at the words. There were only three members of the imperial family who were of immediate descent. Kaiden and Elsius, and Dowager Empress Isabella.
All of the collaterals were distant relatives, too. Because when Kaiden ascended the throne, he mercilessly killed all those who stood in his way or could replace him.
Adoption, by the way. How do you adopt a child who couldn’t find legitimacy anywhere?
Ianathas, a close relative, was unable to succeed to the throne due to problems on his mother’s side. His mother was a long-time family member who had already been branded a traitorous family.
“I see. I believe in Kaiden.”
She smiled at him, saying the opposite of what she thought.
“If Lina gives birth to a child.”
“…Yes.”
“Then, whether they are a girl or a boy, they will succeed to the throne. And Lina will no longer be the queen.”
In some ways, it sounded like a saying that if she had a child, she would be raised to the position of an empress, and on the other hand, it sounded like a saying that he would erase her from this world when a child was born.
“Kaiden, if I have a child, I want to have a child that looks like Kaiden.”
He smiled joyfully at her words and took her hand to his cheek and pressed it.
“As I said before, I want to have 10 children. With kids who look like Kaiden and me.”
“Lina.”
“But I… I just need time. After all, I’m shy because I don’t know men.”
Evelina smiled warmly at him, hiding her cold chest.
“To do that, I want to be close to the people of the royal family.”
This time, she intended to make neither the Princess nor the Dowager Empress ever interferes in the affairs of the imperial family again.
Using the emperor to help her.
“I…”
When he opened his mouth to the object, she kissed him and covered his mouth.
