Chapter 43 - CHAPTER 41. WHAT A TEARFUL LOVE

He spoke.

“I will allow any punishment. I will grant it royally. Just please spare her life.”

“Your Majesty, I cannot do that. An assassination attempt on a member of the Imperial Family or the Emperor is the severest crime above all crimes. It has been continually punished with the death penalty. The Emperor’s mistress is no exception.”

“I am not saying that you should not give her the death sentence. I do not care if you make her someone who is not of this world, so save just her life.”

“…”

“I request this, Empress. You may not understand, but she is a pretty important person to me. If you only save your life, I will live without forgetting this.”

“… Why?”

Patrizia asked with an expression that showed she could not understand.

“Why is she so precious to Your Majesty? Because she is Your Majesty’s…!”

“You will probably not understand.”

Lucio’s expression while he spoke looked extremely sad. Patrizia instinctively noticed that this man had not told her something and that the secret was a lot bigger than she had thought. Was she ready to accept the truth?

“Yes, Your Majesty. If you do not tell me, I will not know even if I die and live again.”

The truth, she didn’t want to accept it yet. There was a conflict between wanting to know, and not wanting to know. The complex and curious feelings could not be explained. Patrizia only spoke these words with a bizarre smile.

“You say she is such an important woman to you, so what could I do? Officially, however, she will be left as a dead person. I do not know if she really wants that kind of life.”

“After that, I do not plan to interfere with her choices either. Just… I just want to leave her minimally with a choice.”

“What a tearful love.”

Patrizia was being sarcastic, but he only smiled faintly. Patrizia once again felt a bit of anger at his reaction, and Lucio’s faint smile soon was distorted, and then destroyed with a burst of violent coughs.

“COUGH COUGH!”

“Your Majesty!”

Patrizia, who had an expression of irritation, grabbed him without her knowledge. It was so natural that he and she, that both of them, didn’t notice. With an embarrassed face, she quickly asked him, “Are you alright? Shall we call the physician?”

“It is fine. Something was caught in my throat for just a moment. So you do not need to worry.”

“…”

Patrizia discreetly dropped the hand that had been holding onto his. Ah, again. She couldn’t control the emotions that had boiled up again. Stupidly. She bit her lips without her knowledge. If this was the case, there was no point in changing.

“I have kept Your Majesty for too long. I will make sure that you can return to the office immediately after a week, so please be mindful of that. Then I will…”

Patrizia thought she should move away from him. With this man, her emotions were weirdly uncontrollable. Of course, on the negative side. Patrizia hurriedly greeted him farewell and left the room.

She soon started walking silently again. Since the Emperor had woken up, she would soon have to step out of being Regent, and until he returned to office, she had to finish up all the little things. She instructed Mirya with a tired voice.

“His Majesty has awakened, and I must soon retire from being the Regent. Until then, I will have to do everything that is necessary.”

“I will make sure everything proceeds without disruption, Your Majesty. Don’t worry.”

“Sure… What is the next scheduled agenda?”

“The Duke of Witherford has asked for an audience, Your Majesty. He is probably waiting in the reception room of the Empress Palace by now.”

“I must hurry then.”

Patrizia murmured shortly and soon walked away in a hurry. Out of anyone, she couldn’t make Duke Witherford wait. Patrizia walked quickly without a loss of elegance and reached her palace in a short time.

When Patrizia reached the reception room, the Duke Witherford was sitting at a gold metal table while drinking red tea- presumably, Darjeeling supposedly served to him by a maid. She smiled and greeted him.

“I see you again, Duke.”

“Your Majesty the Regent.”

The Duke of Witherford saw her, and quickly got up, and greeted her in courtesy.

“I greet you. Glory to the Marvinus Empire.”

“Get up. The Duke of the Empire does not have to provide such an overdone greeting.”

“Not at all.”

After he replied to her briefly, he moved immediately. The Duke Witherford, along with Patrizia, sat down again at the table. Unlike the usual discourse where one started from the beginning, he went straight to the main subject.

“The reason that I looked for you today is because of what is being investigated.”

“… Yes. I know there has been no progress.”

“I apologize.”

He bowed his head as if he could not raise his face, and Patrizia did not change much in her expression, as if she had already known it.

In fact, it was within her expectation that the investigation alone would not be enough to reveal the truth. However, the fact that it made her feel bad, was a separate story. Patrizia asked him with an expressionless face, “But you probably did not find me just to tell me that. Duke of Witherford, I think you have looked for me because of a different reason, or am I mistaken?”

“Of course, Your Majesty. I came to you because I had something to discuss with you.”

‘Something to discuss.’ Patrizia quietly chewed the words around in her mouth.

If the Duke of Witherford had visited her for “something to discuss,” there could be only one thing. Something related to this investigation. And discussion meant that he wanted to talk about something that needed her consent. Patrizia nodded as if encouraging him to speak, with an interested expression.

“If there is not any guilt, that can just be made up. Moreover, it is not so difficult for such a serious matter.”

“Duke’s words are right. But I think the Duke has already visited me with someone in mind, who will make someone guilty. Is it not?”

Patrizia asked with a small smile. The Duke of Witherford was in opposition with the Duke of Efreni as political enemies, which had been the case from generation to generation. So maybe the person in his mind was one of the people associated with the Duke of Efreni. ‘It would be nice if it was Rosemond,’ Patrizia thought. Wasn’t it the most realistic person for now? If he even suggested it, Patrizia planned to push her on with her own plan.

“I surely cannot deceive you, Regent.”

“Because the situation is like that. So who is it? The person you were thinking about.”

“It is a person whom Your Regent Majesty, no Your Majesty will like. And this is a person everyone knows.”

“…”

The title had changed. Patrizia smiled quietly. Not addressing her as Regent, but someone she might like as the Empress. There was only one person. She asked with a pleasant smile.

“But why? I do not quite understand why this is your choice. Does she have anything to do with the Duke of Efreni?”

All she knew was that in fact, in her previous life there had been a certain kind conspiracy between the Duchess of Efreni and Rosemond, but perhaps the Duke of Witherford was more likely to not even know about this. But why was the person who was pointed out, not a person related to the Duke of Efreni, but Rosemond? The Duke of Witherford kindly answered her question, as she was drowning in curiosity.

“It is possible if you think about it dichotomously, Your Majesty.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Duke of Efreni is not regarding you very well. In order to maintain the power he holds, he will somehow try to connect with Your Majesty or Lady Phelps. But looking at his attitude towards you now, at least it is probably not you that will be the connection. In that case, there is only one person left. At least not officially.”

“…”

“Do you think I am wrong?”

“No, not that. However…”

Patrizia made a thoughtful look as she ended her train of words. Yes, she knew to some extent. The Duke of Efreni didn’t think too highly about her. After becoming the Regent, there were numerous tackles from him, and anyone would be a fool who did not notice it.

But why in the world? Patrizia wondered why. She had never discriminated against the three dukes. She tried to be as fair as possible with everyone, and the result she got was a Witherford’s friendly attitude and a relationship with the Duke of Vashi who was neutral everywhere.

However, only the Duke of Efreni was hostile to her. No, truthfully it was too hard to say that he was being hostile, but that did not mean the attitude was friendly.

Patrizia thought seriously. What was the cause of that? But even though she was worried, she couldn’t get an answer, so she decided to ask a question, “I am just curious. Why do they hate me? I have never treated them poorly when I take the time to think about this.”

Patrizia waited for the Duke of Witherford’s reply, and what followed was unexpected.

“Your Majesty, why do you think the reason is yours?”

“… What?”

“Politics are inherently difficult to cut only by dichotomous thinking. Especially when it comes to this.”

“… Continue speaking.”

“I also know that you treated all the nobles equally. There should not be a noble who participated in the advisory council meeting that does not know this.”

“And so?”

“So there is no problem with your attitude, at least. At least, I only do not know during the time before Your Excellency became the Regent or even the Empress. But, as everyone knows, you have been quiet in the social world, and your days of growing up as a Lady were ordinary. So it is hard to say that they are acting out just like that due to your actions.”

“Then why, for what reason did they not choose me?”

It wasn’t something to say in front of the Duke of Efreni’s political opponent, the Duke of Witherford, but she was really curious. Why, why they didn’t choose her. After she spoke, she briefly paid attention to the Duke of Witherford, but he just smiled.

“I do not know why, Your Majesty. Perhaps only he would know.”

“… Yes.”

“What is for certain, Your Majesty. Is that we have already crossed a river where we cannot go back.”