Chapter 9

“Did she go?”

The Empress Dowager’s maid shook her shoulders and asked sadly.

After closing the door, Cardan glanced at what she was doing and nodded briefly.

“Yeah. She won’t come for a while.”

The maid blushed and raised her arms to cover her body. She had nothing to be ashamed of because she was fully dressed.

“Why did you choose that excuse? It’s not really like that.”

Cardan smiled lightly as he tilted his head slightly.

“Why? Are you disappointed?”

“You know how I feel. I can do anything for Your Majesty.”

The embarrassed appearance was nowhere in sight, as the maid swept Cardan’s arm.

Cardan looked at the sticky touch for a moment and smiled.

“Really? Then should I test it out?”

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After a meaningless meeting, with the emperor left behind, she had roughly idea what to do.

“I have to leave the imperial palace.”

If she could, she wanted to pack up and go to escape right away.

The escape is still early. The country to be go to had to be determined, and proper procedures had to be taken in order not to be kicked out before she is able to determine which country she’ll choose, and a home for the future had to be set up in that country.

In addition, it is necessary to devise a way to siphon off the Duke’s property abroad so that she can lead a prosperous life in that country.

So what I have to do right now is…

“Itinerancy.”

She is the Prime Minister, but it was difficult to grasp the situation because it’s only been a while since she transmigrated.

Of course, she was able to solve the problem without any hitch because of the diary and records left by the Duke, but she couldn’t erase the idea that she lacked information on whether she had a suspicious disease after she transmigrated.

So she was going to go on a trip to collect information and leave the imperial palace full of people trying to kill her.

There was no other excuse as good as that.

“While I’m at it, I’ll find out why the national treasury is running out.”

It was perfect.

She hurried to her office, praising my smart head.

But there was one thing she overlooked.

Having converted the small parlor of the imperial palace into an office, she inevitably had to pass through the corridor where the emperor’s bedroom was located.

“Hu heuk, heuk.”

Thanks to this, she was able to find a light brown-haired maid with her face on her knee at the corner of the hallway.

It was obvious that she gave her body and heart to a man, but she was desperately abandoned.

As expected, Cardan, you are a very bad guy.

But that’s not her business.

There will be no other golden opportunity to find out the maid’s identity as much as now.

She approached the maid carefully.

“Hey”.

As soon as she saw her, the maid hurriedly covered her face and tried to run away. But she snatched her arm faster than her.

“Are you okay? Your the maid of the Empress Dowager I saw last time. Right?”

The frozen maid slowly lowered her hand covering her face.

“I’m seeing the duke here again.”

She thought fiercely for a moment.

She doesn’t know whom she’s working for and how to ask.

“I’m sorry, but I have a lot of work to do.”

When the maid tried to shake her hand, she said anything urgently.

“Your Majesty, do you love him?”

Crap. What kind of question is this? She couldn’t believe it even after she said it.

The moment she thought she missed a good opportunity.

“Euk Heuk Hu hu!”

The maid, whose shoulders were shaking too much, burst into tears again.

The maid, who rejected her, quickly ran away, but at that moment, she saw all the desperate feelings that showed on her face.

“Huh.”

As expected, is Cardan the culprit?

The puzzle pieces fit right in.

Cardan, who can’t kill her openly because of some kind of contract, is not just bound by the contract.

He’s come up with a perfect plan to deal with herself quietly and put all the blame on the Empress Dowager.

She swept up my hair roughly.

She had to leave this imperial palace as soon as possible.

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“A trip.”

Cardan leaned long on the sofa and nodded his feet.

He was just lying on the sofa in the office and playing around at the time even if he had to be busy working.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Her eyes trembled as she forced her forehead not to frown, but her voice was as polite as she could.

“Why will you go on a trip?”

It seemed as if he’s someone who’s worried about her, but Cardan looked like he’s having a hard time buying it.

“It’s because I think I have to do my best to Your Majesty and look at the country’s welfare.”

She bowed her back low and answered softly.

“The duke will work on an annoying task by herself?”

Cardan sat down right away, roughly flipping his bushy hair.

“Keep explaining.”

She doubted if this person was seriously listening to her when he yawned with one arm over the back of the sofa and his long legs crossed, but she continued to speak in a gentle voice.

“I’m also worried that the amount of tax that needs to be filled as His Majesty’s national treasury is decreasing year by year, and that it may be leaking somewhere.”

Even before she finished talking, she could hear a smirk of laughter.

“Just be honest and tell me you’re going for money. Isn’t it a fact that everyone knows about the duke’s obsession with money?”

People will think that the national treasury is her money.

“I just want your Majesty to enjoy a richer and more luxurious life than any other monarch.”

She tried to keep calm.

“And most of all, through this trip, I would like to inform the various parts of the empire of your Majesty’s immeasurable deep will for the country to make Your Majesty someone that will remain in history.”

Finally, she bent down deeply.

However, no answer came back no matter how long she waited.

She had an ominous feeling.

She slightly raised her head and made eye contact with the fierce flashing enemy eye.

She was frozen by the gaze. If she make a mistake here, she thinks her throat will be cut.

“Prime Minister.”

“Prime Minister.”

Cardan’s bloody lips were slightly twisted. The sharp eyes were also distorted.

At first glance, it sounded like a smile, but Cardan’s voice was not light at all.

The fact that the man in front of her was a tyrant thirsty for blood has never touched her as horrifying as it is now.

She tried to hide her trembling fingers in her sleeves. Her blood seemed to dry up.

“Of course, Your Majesty is still a great ruler, but I have a desire to make your name known to the whole world.”

Fortunately, thanks to the training of her previous life, her voice flowed smoothly.

Cardan gritted his teeth so hard that his jaw twitched.

Is she going to die like this?

“Go and come back.”

It was quiet permission.

Cardan lifted her chin slightly with his fingertips and smiled sweetly.

He is ecstatically beautiful…

“As much as the Duke wants. As always.”

She almost fell for that smile for a moment, but she wasn’t like a moth leaping into the flames.

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

As she bowed her back with a gesture of utmost respect, Cardan’s fingertips brushed her cheek.

｡+.｡☆ﾟ:;｡+ﾟ ☆*ﾟ¨ﾟﾟ･*:..ﾞ

‘I will make you a prince for sure.’

The expression on the girl’s face when she said that out of the blue was quite determined.

It might be funny to see the skinny girl talking seriously, but Cardan didn’t laugh.

He already realized it.

He knew that he shouldn’t laugh at Erina carelessly.

Still, at that time, he smiled and ruffled Erina’s hair roughly.

‘There is no guarantee that he will become the Crown Prince, but what about it?’

He thinks it was because of the desire to touch the girl’s gray hair, which was braided long, even though she risked staring at him.

‘You will be both the Crown Prince and the Emperor.’

The throne, let alone the Crown Prince, was always in danger, but Erina made it sound plausible.

‘When that time comes, you should have me as your closest aide.’

After saying that, Erina, who was lost in thought for a moment, shook her head.

“No, Prime Minister.”

And then she smiled mischievously as if her serious expression for her age was a lie.

At that moment, for the first time, Cardan realized what it was like to fall in love.

His heart was pounding so loudly that he almost couldn’t hear Erina’s next words.

‘If you give me the seat of Prime Minister, I will make you a prince by all means.’

It seems that she barely whispered with her dry mouth at her words.

‘Yes. When that happens, be sure to stay by my side.’

Cardan furrowed his brow at the memories of the past that were messing with his mind.

“Tsk.”

Breaking out of his thoughts, he looked out the window of the office again.

He saw the duke’s party getting ready to go on a tour from dawn. Among the bustling people, gray hair stood out.

When he saw the gray hair, his stomach was twisted. It’s disgusting because it looks so much like the past.

Cardan then opened the window and whistled briefly. The crow immediately answered his call.

“Kah-. Kah-.”

A crow flew leisurely over the heads of the group on their tour.