For her to be left behind
“What? Where to live?”
“You’re not going to stay in the West Palace forever, are you?”
Riella blinked her big eyes a few times in surprise, then nodded her head sharply.
“ah. yes. Yes. That’s right, but… then where…?”
Riella looked at Herhan’s gaze while trailing off her words.
‘I wonder if I might be kicked out now.’
Herhan held back the laughter that threatened to burst out at Riella’s face like that and continued speaking solemnly.
“There is a suitable place within the imperial palace that can be used as your residence. It’s close to the main palace, so you can move around much more freely than the west palace. It’s close to Jess’s lab and isolation room, so you’ll be able to walk around comfortably.”
The stiffening of Riella’s face told Herhan what she was thinking.
‘Her ears must have been perking up.’
“Is there such a place?”
She turned her head to meet his eyes, and they were so wide and innocent he wanted to bite them off.
“Uh, yeah. it is an area under my direct control and there is currently no chief of servant in charge, so I can only put the minimum number of maids you need.”
“really!?”
Riella jumped up without realizing it, her eyes sparkling.
As a person who had been tormented by the maids of the West Palace without a single moment of rest, there was nothing she could be happier about.
Herhan held back his laughter because Riella was so cute.
‘I said it on purpose, but I didn’t expect it to work this well.’
“But because of me, people who are already there will suffer harm—”
“No one. It’s a palace that’s been empty without an owner for a long time.”
“Then I’ll go there!”
Riella shouted brightly and asked while looking at Herhan’s expression.
“Can I move there with Lou?”
“I tell you to get ready right away.”
When giving his final answer, pretending to be kind, Herhan deliberately turned his back on Riella. It was to hide the corners of His mouth that were raising up even if he tried to hold it back.
Riella was just happy and relieved and just thanked Herhan.
It was late in the evening that day when Riella began to realize what she had done.
* * *
Riella’s preparations for moving were completed in just three or four hours after the emperor’s order.
He said that all necessary procedures were arranged on the emperor’s behalf.
There wasn’t that much luggage to carry, so it was literally ‘time to just leave with her body’, and it was Lou who ran towards Riella, seemingly out of breath.
“Riella! We’re in big trouble! You need to know where you’re going to live!”
“yes. Where?”
It’s quiet, free, and an empty palace that’s not burdensome to occupy because it’s an empty space.
Riella didn’t intend to care much even if it was old without a roof or haunted, because it was a place where all the conditions were perfectly matched, just like a space prepared just for her..
“It’s a lake palace!”
“Lake Palace? I guess there’s a lake there too? Wow.”
Even the scenery was excellent, so Riella couldn’t be happier.
Thinking that she was always in debt to His Majesty, how would she repay it all, Riella thought of a way to repay Herhan’s consideration.
It was from then on that the maids of the West Palace began to scream.
“Lake Palace? Really? Is it really the lake palace that Riella is moving to?”
“Oh my god! Well, that has been officially decided, right? I didn’t hear anything like that from my uncle? He said he had nothing to say at the meeting this morning!”
“His Majesty has chosen it, so it must be for sure. Hasn’t all her luggage been moved there already?”
The maids, who were shocked for no reason, began to hold Riella’s arms and legs more tightly than before.
They begged Riella to please take them with her, and each other even grabbed the head of Riella’s head and struggled to get her by her side.
“Why are you all like that?”
“Riella. Are you sure you don’t know?”
The bewildered Riella was greeted by the eyes of the maids, who were even more bewildered than she was.
“The Lake Palace is the Empress Palace!”
* * *
That night, as soon as Asion heard the news of Riella’s move to the lake palace, he come into his lord’s bedroom.
“Are you going to make Miss Riella the empress? why, you’re going to have an heir on this very occasion?”
“……”
“what! Could it be that there really was a baby!?”
“Are you speaking informally to me just now?”
What else is a baby? Look at the sky to find the stars.
Herhan was so dumbfounded that he simply swallowed his ridiculous laughter. Asion understood the meaning and hesitantly placed his buttocks back on the chair.
He calmed down, but that didn’t mean all his excitement and questions had subsided.
“I know that Your Majesty cares about Miss Liella, but it’s a lake palace. The ministers and aristocratic society will strongly oppose this.”
“Asion, since when did you represent them?”
“I also want to join in the resistance.”
“You’re going to rebel openly. Okay. Try it. If you’re going to try it.”
“Your majesty!”
“Everyone knows that the emperor is completely infatuated with the woman he brought from the kingdom. Even if he were to make that woman his empress, there’s no way you had be able to stop him. You might say, ‘The already crazy emperor has become even more crazy’.”
Herhan talked about himself leisurely, as if he were talking about someone else.
This made Asion angry even more.
“No. That’s what strangers say. Your Majesty! Isn’t the reality different? No matter how much you care for Miss Liella, the reality is…”
Asion took a breath and continued speaking.
“Your Majesty has no intention of appointing Miss Riella as empress, right?”
After that question, silence fell.
Although it was very short, the silence was so heavy and painful that it took both people’s breath away.
Herhan was the first to break the silence with a meaningless mockery.
“Yeah. I don’t intend to make Riella as Empress. I’m just pretending to be.”
Herhan was quite calm. But the calm face of the lord made Asion even more miserable.
“I can’t turn that pretty woman into a widow.”
“Don’t smile when you say that.”
Asion grunted and responded in a weak voice.
He was right. Herhan had no intention of accepting Riella as empress. Or, more accurately, he had no intention of making anyone an empress.
The question of ‘empress’ or ‘marriage’ hadn’t even come up.
Asion did not know the reason why his lord had lived his entire life in vain even though he could have had as many women as he wanted.
“So is this also part of the ‘preparation’? Your Majesty’s great ‘preparation to die’.”
Asion asked in confusion.
“You rushed to regain the throne, branding yourself a barbaric usurper. You purged your opposition with tyrannical abandon. Also, You created titles that we would starve to death without you, and you gave them all to us. For those who remained after His Majesty passed away. For those of us who will be left behind.”
Asion seemed to explode with anger in the gaze that met Herhan’s eyes.
He said to his lord who was calmly preparing to leave, and to himself, who was powerless and had no choice but to watch his lord.
Herhan looked at Asion like that and thought that he was too weak-hearted for someone who wields a sword.
“But now you’re including Miss Riella in that.”
“Yes,maybe.”
Hearing Riella’s name flow from Asion’s mouth again, Herhan came to his senses.
‘Enough of the bitter and sad thoughts. As Asion said, ‘preparation’ had to be done calmly.’
“Even if I die, that woman will live. To do that, she will need a title, even if it is a false one.”
“your majesty…”
“It is not enough to just bring Riella to the Lake Palace.I have plans for her, so please help Riella get her place properly. We are in the same situation.”
Asion bowed his head.
‘Then this is the end of all treason, right?’
Herhan’s bitter smile spread heavily.
Outside the door of the emperor’s bedroom, where the gap had opened, Riella quietly pressed her fist to her chest.
‘For some reason, I couldn’t breathe well.’
“I’ll just go…”
“Have you finished your business already?”
“yes.”
Riella quietly closed the door to the emperor’s inner room and tried to go out before approaching the doorkeeper again.
“Will you keep it a secret from his Majesty that I just came and left?”
“yes?”
“I’m planning to give His Majesty a surprise gift, but I’m afraid he will be disappointed.”
“Oh, was that something like that?”
The doorkeeper of the inner room opened his eyes wide, not knowing that Riella was just making up excuses.
He knew very well that His Lord always had Riella by his side and loved her. That’s why he opened the door without any hesitation despite the sudden visit at this late hour.
“All right. I will definitely keep your secret.”
“Thank you.”
While the doorkeeper answered, Riella could not easily resolve her stiff expression and ran out of the inner room.
As she passed through the long hallway, Lou, who had been waiting, came running from the front.
“Riella! Have you ask His Majesty? Are you sure you’re really going to the empress’ palace?”
“Yes…That’s right.”
‘Actually, I didn’t ask His Majesty directly to confirm.’
At Riella’s words, Lou opened her mouth half in exclamation and half in worry and blinked her big eyes a few times.
“Really? Does that mean Riella becomes Empress?”
“No. It’s not like that….”
Riella could not easily continue talking.
In fact, Riella was so surprised that she heard the place called ‘Lake Palace’ where she would be moving to, was a palace that had been used by empresses.
Although she knew it would be rude to visit the inner room in person this late at night, she was curious enough about the emperor’s intentions to risk it.
‘I knew he was always taking great care to build up her prestige. But even so, why empress?’
Riella was confused, and her heart was trembling.
If he calmly calls herself ‘my woman,’ he might say ‘I’m going to make you empress’ again this time. If Herhan did, Riella tried to laugh it off as a very funny joke.
But It was definitely like that.
“Riella?”
“I don’t know, Lou. I don’t know what to do. ah… What should I do…?”
“Riella! Are you okay?”
Riella could not walk any further and collapsed in the middle of the way back to the West Palace.
* * *
