Unbelievable rumors
Riella realized that the scenes she saw right before waking up were not just dreams.
The man she’d seen in the middle of the lavishly decorated palace grounds before she’d fallen unconscious. The same man who had looked at her, seemingly angry for some reason, and asked her why she was alone. She had a similar impression to the man she had met at Le Der last fall, but her mind was clouded and she thought she was mistaken.
‘Because It didn’t make sense. To meet that man again here.’
‘However….What I thought was an illusion was really like an illusion.’
Hair that shines like a thread of gold. blue eyes. A voice that could be fierce or gentle.
‘Everything overlapped with the image in my hazy memory.’
She wondered how she hadn’t recognized him before.
‘No way…’
Riella didn’t have time to wipe away the still dangling tears, widening her eyes and covering her mouth.
Herhan’s eyes looking down at her were quite arrogant. As if to scold her, “I recognized you from the beginning, why do you only recognize me now?”
“By the look in your eyes, you seem to recognize me now.”
“….”
“Then you knew that you couldn’t run away like before.”
At those words, Riella realized another fact.
He is the emperor. He is the powerful new lord of the Elschweig Empire. The kind of emperor who wears a blue uniform, who has so many people under his feet, and who can control even the royal family of this country. The Emperor.
‘Emperor…that it is.’
Now that she thought about it, it wasn’t just ‘another fact’, it was the ‘biggest and heaviest fact’ that had ever hit her.
‘This is nonsense…’
Even if her voice could come out, it was a situation where her mouth would not open.
At that point, Riella was already as stiff as a statue. She knew the man was the Emperor, but she couldn’t break her gaze from him.
“Then shall we hear your answer? I think I’ve already helped you many times. How and what are you going to repay me for?”
The emperor demanded an answer.
The eyes at that time were just as challenging as in the dark inn that day. Just like when he asked ‘who the hell you are’, ‘Are you a witch?’
“Ah. You couldn’t talk right now?”
Herhan took a look at Riella’s note in his hand, then folded it and put it in his chest pocket.
“Well, Then I give you some time until you can open your mouth.”
Herhan, who had been looking at Riella as if he was about to eat it, finally turned away from her.
“Bill. Give this woman a warm meal. Carnel. Take good care of her so she can recover quickly. this is mandatory for everyone, make sure you don’t lack in taking care of Riella Blinite.”
After saying that, Herhan left the room.
Just like before Herhan entered, those who gathered in Riella’s bedroom were silent after Herhan left.
The people who had found her annoying and wished she would die looked at her with dazed eyes and looked at her as a different being.
* * *
A few days later.
Inside the royal palace of Riota, where spring energy was in full bloom, ‘unbelievable rumors’ spread like a profusely blooming flower.
“They say it’s no joke. He really likes it!”
“Oh come on. You don’t have to take jokes seriously.”
“I’m telling you the truth. What else could be the reason for His Majesty the Emperor to stop attending all the schedules arranged by the royal family and stay in the annex?”
“Oh. Is it really like that…?”
When someone was whispering in a corner somewhere, all the idle maids who were wandering nearby were led there like magnets. ‘Why, why, what are you talking about? Let me listen to it.’
Those who followed them spread what they heard elsewhere.
“These days, it’s really crazy. All the attendants from the empire are attached to that woman and they’re serving that woman with great enthusiasm…”
“The woman? Do you mean Riella Blinite? The sinner? oh!”
“Shhtt. quietly. someone will hear you say her name.”
Someone added a hush, but it was meaningless. There was no place in the palace now where the name Riella Blinite was not mentioned.
“This is a real secret, but Bree at the West palace says that an Imperial entourage was in his bedroom the other day, they asked him to make some women’s clothes, and they left a bundle of the finest silks by color!”
“Oh. Really?”
“Yes. They didn’t say who would wear it, but it was obvious. Who else besides her is in urgent need of new clothes?”
Exclamations of “Wow, that’s great, this is no joke” came out from everywhere. There was surprise and envy, but also a sarcastic tone.
“It’s not like there aren’t cases like that, where a woman with a pretty face wins the heart of a nobleman by appealing to his compassion.”
“Anyway, Isn’t that bad? Forgiving and embracing her even though she was an assassin who tried to kill himself?”
“Come to think of it, the atmosphere has been a little strange since the reception ceremony.”
“That’s right! His Majesty the Emperor is openly sided with her! oh. He must have fallen in love at first sight!”
“She has fixed her destiny once.”
Whispering, condescending, screaming, and making a fuss. Princess Greta, who had gone out for a walk to calm her troubled mind, heard all the stories from behind the fence and gritted her teeth.
“Um…princess… Would you like to go back now?”
“No.”
The maid holding Greta’s umbrella looked at her. Still, Greta stood firm and listened to the whole story from the other side of her.
‘Well, If you had that talent, why didn’t you grab Fabian from the start, when you were just being played for a fool? What Is It? Is it progress in your life? Riella Blinite. Riella Blinite.’
Greta cursed the tiresome name.
However, no matter how much Greta cursed at her inwardly, the anger that reached the top of her head wouldn’t subside.
The whole palace was full of Riella’s story.
The traces of that damn thing were covering her holy and noble palace like moss.
* * *
“Rumors are spreading fearlessly. It’s the pure love story of the century between His Majesty and the tragic woman.”
Shuk. Shuk.
Just as Herhan looked at the documents without paying attention in front of him, Asion also continued to nag without paying attention to the emperor’s reaction.
“Oh. No. is this a political drama with the tragic woman who brought down the Emperor? From what I’ve heard, it seems that this one is more popular?”
It’s so sarcastic.
At that point, Herhan could no longer ignore Asion’s words and laughed.
That laugh was the source of his anger. Asion, who had been holding back his anger, exploded.
“Did you laugh, now? Do you find this situation funny?”
“Then it’s not funny? I think it’s funny. I like that. pure love is so boring.”
“It’s not a situation where you can slip in a joke like that.”
“It’s not even a situation that needs to be taken seriously.”
“No. you’re right. Seriously. I really want to hear that. really.”
Asion’s last words were threats and pleas.
He clung to Herhan as if pleading once again.
Normally, he wouldn’t have dared to put his hand on his master’s body, but now he ignored that and even grabbed Herhan’s arm and sighed.
Then he asked, “What the hell was going on with Riella Blinite?”
“Even if it wasn’t like the rumors, there was something else, right? Is that why you cared for her from the start? Please answer me now.”
“Well?”
‘Argh!’
Asion struggled with frustration and realized. if he couldn’t get answers from this side, he could try the other side.
So he went straight to Riella Blinite.
“Have you ever had a relationship with—”
“I heard that the new emperor ascended the throne last winter. Is that right? What happened in detail when he received the throne?”
“I can’t explain it all. So what I’m curious about is how you and our Majesty—”
“I heard that His Majesty knew from the beginning that what happened last fall was the work of the Riotta royal family. Then, what will happen to the Elschweig Empire and the Riotta Kingdom now? Will there be a war?”
“War is not an easy thing. This was before His Majesty ascended the throne, so it can be resolved within the line of receiving an official apology and compensation.… Ah no, not that!”
“If His Majesty was originally a crown prince, why hasn’t he been in the palace all this time…?”
“Stop, stop, stop!”
Riella Blinite was a formidable foe in a different sense.
As if she was trying to kill someone with a question mark, she poured out endless questions, so Asion couldn’t even properly try to dig into her relationship with the emperor.
“How have you been putting up with this kind of talk all these years?”
Asion burst into anger and glared at her.
Then Riella immediately opened her eyes like a deer and said,
“Sorry. I was off-topic. I’m so confused about everything….”
“….”
Asion was at a loss for words at her attitude of being so hurt.
One side was too hard like an iron castle, and the other was too soft like cotton wool. Since the two of them were doing this as a pair, it was truly crazy for a third person caught in the middle.
‘I couldn’t figure out the relationship between the two.’
* * *
It was that evening that Riella came out of her bedroom.
Her voice had fully recovered the day before. The doctor advised her to move her body little by little from now on.
He said she couldn’t move freely because she was restrained, but he would allow her to go to the hallway outside her bedroom.
Although it was a doctor’s word, Riella sensed that it was actually a decision by the emperor. At that point, there was something else Riella really wanted to ask.
‘Where is His Majesty the Emperor?’
While recovering her body, the Emperor granted her some outrageous favors.
It was unbelievable that she was given a room in a regular bedroom in the palace, not a prison or prisoner’s ward, and the food, clothing, and medical attention she received was overwhelming.
Riella stayed in her bedroom all the time, so she didn’t hear any rumors floating around the palace.
However, she could grasp the mood just by looking at the eyes of the workers and guards who came and went in and out of her bedroom.
‘Just as I am bewildered now, I knew everyone was bewildered too.’
However, the emperor who actually created all these situations was still unknown.
‘I’m sure you’ve heard that you can talk now.’
‘You said you’d give me time to open my mouth. You provoked me to see what I could answer.’
What’s wrong with him? No, what his intention is…’
Sitting alone in the bedroom and thinking about it wasn’t going to give her the answer.
So Riella left her room to clear her mind.
It was only when she stepped out of the second-floor hallway and into the open parlor, she found the Emperor sitting by the light of a candlestick.
“Ah…”
At the unexpected meeting, Riella let out a sigh involuntarily.
Hearing that sound, the emperor and his escort knight, who was behind him, turned their heads at the same time.
The moment they made eye contact, Riella shuddered and stiffened. While she wondered if she should avert her gaze or bow, the Emperor withdrew his gaze again.
The way he withdrew his attention so quickly, without a word, left Riella feeling hollow.
Was she the only one frustrated? Was she the only one who had a question? Was she the only one waiting for him?
Riella turned away, hiding her complicated emotions. It was then that the Emperor’s orders flew behind her back.
“Riella Blinite. Come and sit here.”
When Riella turned her head, the emperor was sitting on the sofa and still looking into the documents.
‘Did the Emperor really just say that?’
Hesitating, Riella’s eyes met those of the knight behind the Emperor. When she saw the knight nod, she quietly approached the table.
Her heart pounded, echoing in her ears.
Six chairs were placed around the rectangular table.
Riella hesitated, then sat down on the chair farthest from the emperor’s seat.
“I forgot you were recovering. I see your voice is better already?”
When he saw her again, the Emperor immediately frowned.
Riella raised her head in surprise, the emperor finally met Riella’s eyes and opened his mouth again.
“I mean sit closer.”
* * *
