Chapter 16
Anel raised her head, wondering if Johannes was really asking because he didn’t know. However, Johannes’s face displayed pure curiosity, which drained Anel of her strength.
“…Fine.”
It was a name already given. There was no point in protesting now.
Johannes, with nothing but genuine curiosity on his face, spoke as Anel sighed.
“I don’t like things like that.”
“Like what?”
“Starting something on a whim and giving up on a whim.”
What was he talking about? When did she start all this? The beginning of all these disasters was her.
“I never started anything, Your Highness.”
“You started everything, Anel.”
It was nonsense. She didn’t even initiate a conversation with him. In the end, Anel gave up on the will to argue. What would arguing accomplish? It was a waste of time and emotions.
Anel set the knife down, intending to stand up.
“Again.”
However, Johannes’ voice caught her ankle.
“So you’re trying to run away on your own terms again.”
“Do I have a place to escape to? This palace, this empire belongs to His Majesty.”
Anel was relieved that the table in the restaurant was very long.
If he were close-
“Even though you know that, you’re still trying to escape now.”
She would have to meet those eyes up close.
“Besides running away, there’s nothing else I can do.”
This statement was sincere.
What could she do now? What is the difference between her situation and the food on the plate, cooked and presented at will, knowing the fate that awaits in the predator’s mouth?
Anel chuckled.
Whether he liked that laughter or not, Johannes’ eyebrows moved slightly.
“Shall I tell you what you can do, Empress?”
Johannes raised a cup of coffee.
“Call my name.”
Anel doubted her ears.
“What did you say?”
However, Johannes casually sipped his cup.
“If you don’t like your name, give me mine. Call my name.”
“I wonder why…!”
Johannes tapped the documents he had just been looking at with his tweezer-like fingers.
“Samuel Gears sent me something like this.”
!
Johannes slowly tilted his glass towards the documents.
“Gears territory in a gruesome state, pleading for support, a petition.”
Black coffee was flowing towards the white paper.
It was obvious what would happen if he tilted his hand a bit more. Anel closed her mouth.
“I can ignore this.”
“Your Majesty.”
That was not something that could be allowed.
Anel knew where Gears territory was. It was where her father was banished.
In essence, Samuel was banished as well.
What Johannes was trying to trample was not just a simple petition.
It was the pride of Samuel, willingly broken in front of his half-sister.
“I could consider accepting it.”
Johannes smiled gently.
“So, Your Majesty.”
However, in Anel’s eyes, that smile didn’t look like a smile.
“Call me by my name.”
The hunter aiming for prey.
It only appeared to be a prey that faced the predator.
Anel bit her lips tightly.
“D’neger, Your Majesty.”
In an instant, the glass stood straight, and the coffee returned to its original place.
“Your name.”
Villain. Anel was about to call him a villain –
“…Johannes.”
She just called his name quietly. If that’s what he wished.
Anel stared at him silently.
However, Johannes was not looking at her.
Seemingly lost in thought, he was now gazing down at the quiet black liquid.
“Now, are you satisfied?”
Anxious, Anel asked.
“Yeah, it seems fair enough.”
Where, though? Anel glared at him.
Johannes put the glass down and picked up Samu’s petition.
His face was filled with a satisfied expression.
“After you’ve finished eating, you can run away again. To your palace.”
Upon hearing those words, Anel immediately pushed her chair back and stood up.
She left without even giving a glance to Johan.
Bang.
The sound of the door closing resonated loudly.
At that moment, Johan couldn’t hold back his laughter.
My empress is certainly skilled at running away.
…But she’ll have to come back here again anyway.
Then, once again, the door opened with a soft click.
“Your Majesty, it seems the Empress has already risen, and I have come to tidy up the place for you.”
It was Gareden. Johannes responded without even giving him a glance.
“Leave me be.”
“Pardon?”
“Do I need to say it twice?”
Gareden looked at him for a moment and then dismissed the servants.
After all the servants had left, Gareden could finally pour coffee into Johannes’s cup.
“I am pleased that Your Majesty is having breakfast. It would be even better if you had food instead of coffee.”
Johannes remained silent even in the face of sincere advice.
He simply drank the refilled coffee, showing no response.
Garden sighed inwardly.
Well, this should be enough. After all, he was someone who didn’t even have a proper meal, let alone breakfast.
“By the way, although Her Highness the First Empress couldn’t join us for breakfast today, she mentioned wanting to have it together tomorrow….”
“I know the subject.”
Although it sounded polite at first, the response was actually cold, leaving Garden speechless.
“If that’s the case, as for Her Highness the Second Empress…?”
“She already knows the subject, so it doesn’t matter.”
It was an impregnable fortress. Garden awkwardly stepped back.
He had received instructions from the high nobility, including Duke Magnam, in the assembly.
Make sure the Emperor sees the Empresses. The farther the Empress, the better.
However, with such a firm response, there was no room to dig deeper.
“So, what about breakfast tomorrow, Your Majesty?”
Instead of a reply, Johannes simply placed the coffee cup down.
It meant to refill the cup. Garden understood the message and promptly poured more coffee.
It took Johannes quite a while, after finishing the coffee, to respond.
“Let it be the Empress and Hado.”
Garden tried to grasp the hidden truth in those words.
Is the Emperor favoring the Empress?
If so, what was the cause of the Empress’s angry face a while ago when she left in a huff?
“As for lunch or dinner…”
“Unless there’s any specific schedule, with the Empress.”
It was awkward.
In this way, his intention to take care of the empresses as much as possible was not going through.
Garden rolled his head, but no words to persuade the Emperor came to mind.
“If you do, the Empress Mamas will feel very lonely.”
That was the only sentence he managed to squeeze out. Garden felt like burying his face in the coffee cup and wishing for death.
“They have chosen their own paths.”
Johannes snapped his fingers.
Upon that, Garden immediately placed a lighter in his hand and set fire to the poem. It was the Emperor’s morning habit.
After drinking espresso, one poem.
“My Empress has made her choice too.”
Respecting choices is necessary. Johannes said so, happily placing the poem on the document.
In the spot where Samuel’s signature was crushed.
The rain fell.
The day had already darkened as evening approached. Disliking the brightness, Anel turned off all the lights, including the lamp.
Looking at the water flowing down the window, Anel recalled that man.
The man who had trampled over him.
How could he be so cruel? What did I ever do wrong to him?
I never committed a sin against him, not even once. Just last year, we hadn’t even seen each other.
He slapped the glass. It was cold.
The sound of rain echoed like gunfire. Firing hundreds of bullets into his heart, Anel looked at the imperial palace on the opposite side.
The entire Potentia Palace, with all its lights off, had only one room illuminated.
At the sight of it, Anel gasped as if he had forgotten how to breathe, like someone who had lost their way.
Leaning against the cool window frame, breathing heavily, Anel saw someone below the window.
It was Samu.
Anel was so surprised that he immediately opened the window.
Ignoring whether the raindrops soaked her dress or not, Anel looked down at Samu.
Samu, standing upright without an umbrella in the pouring rain, looked at her as well.
The person who had gently calmed the waves of her heart each time, who had been her only comfort.
Now stood before her in a wrecked state.
For her alone.
She wanted to call him, wanted to run to him right away.
How did you forgive me? How did you come all the way here to protect me? She wanted to ask.
However, the two couldn’t move. They just stood at a distance, silently gazing at each other.
Expressing the words they could never say, keeping them inside.
