Chapter 11

***

“Empress left with Grand Duke Eisen that day.”

Rodelia’s perplexed eyes turned to Kane.

If she heard it correctly, he seemed to be jealous of Cerdian and her right now.

What kind of shame is he saying that in front of her?

She was speechless, but she tried to control her emotions, and then spoke calmly.

“I told you…… that I had a separate conversation with the Grand Duke. And did I have to stay in that kind of place?”

“However that may be, you’re the Empress. What will happen to my face when the Empress leaves with another man? Do you think it makes sense to not care about such things because you’re the Empress?”

His face?

Rodelia burst out laughing in disgust.

“Did you just say ‘your face’?”

(*face* in this situation means his appearance, his pride, his dignity as an emperor. How the people view him)

How could he spit out such a shameless word like it was nothing? It was incomprehensible.

Did he mean his dignity was more important than the Empress’s? She didn’t even want the courtesy of being his ex-lover. She only hoped that he would treat me decently as an Empress…

Rodelia closed her lips and gave him a cold look, and Kane hesitated for a moment, as if realizing his mistake.

“Can’t you trust me and wait for me?”

“Why should I trust you, Your Majesty? Have you given me a decent explanation?”

Kane, who was seriously thinking about something at her barrage of questions, opened his mouth with a furrowed brow.

“…Is it because I moved the winter flowers without your permission?”

“What?”

“Then I hope you’ll do as I wish with the second daughter of Count Polton.”

The situation was truly appalling. She hated Kane for making a judgment without even trying to listen to her.

“Your Majesty didn’t even ask me why I kicked Sarah out or what she did to deserve it. Can’t you think that there is a reason?”

“It doesn’t matter what the woman did!”

Kane shouted nervously. As if he couldn’t control his facial expression, he frowned and sighed deeply. Shocked by his attitude, Rodelia’s whole body trembled.

“…You’ve changed a lot, Your Majesty. There is always a good reason for the Empress’s actions. However, to change so soon after you have the mistress, were you always like this?”

A cold voice leaked out. Rodelia left her seat without looking at him. She didn’t have the courage or the heart to be in this place anymore.

Kane’s mouth twisted as he faced her unfamiliar appearance.

Rodelia was a woman who could not speak her mind for fear of being hated. She was afraid she would lose their love.

Kane knew very well that she was obsessed with her role as the perfect Empress and valued her dignity seriously. She believed that this was the only way to be loved by the emperor.

He didn’t think she would bravely speak for herself like this. Of course he could tell she was angry because her beliefs were touched.

Perhaps she didn’t really mean to react so coldly. Perhaps she will rethink and will be worried she’d be hated and return to her old self.

But he didn’t like the subtle changes she had the past few days. Who on earth could have so skillfully shaken a well-stacked tower?

(TL *Is Kane mentally challenged? Or is he just naive? Because obviously he is the one who shook that well-stacked tower. He humiliated her publicly, but to ask such questions? He expects her to be a doll without emotions? Tsk tsk.)

Kane felt the need to press her again.

“Why did you change so much? I thought you were the right woman for the position of Empress, or did I misread you?”

He acted as if he was handling a troublesome task.

A feeling of shame washed over Rodelia. How could he be so selfish without any thought for her?

“Stop here.” (Rodelia)

She felt like she was about to burst into tears at the cold words, but she deliberately straightened her posture more. She pretended to be calm and was about to leave the dining room, when she heard laughter coming from behind her and stopped dead in her tracks.

“Leave her be. She seems to want to rest.”

A sharp, seductive voice echoed through the hall with the sound of heels. The moment she heard that voice, Rodelia felt as if all the blood in her body would drain out. Unable to ignore it, Rodelia slowly turned around and immediately regretted her decision.

‘I shouldn’t have looked back.’

Sola walked slowly towards Kane, wearing a night sky dress that she could have worn to a banquet. Her white shoulders, revealed by the deep-cut dress, glistened with light.

Maybe it was the feathers in the dress, maybe it was her gestures, but she was like a seductive black swan.

Sola hugged Kane’s neck as if telling him to go with her. As Rodelia struggled to manage her warped expression, Sola’s red lips opened softly.

“Right?”

***

Rodelia left the dining room as if running away.

Because this time she felt the same emotions. The uninvited guest was Sola, but she (Rodelia) seemed to have become a foreign object between them.

The same was true of the servants’ attitude towards her.

As Rodelia left the dining room, the maids glanced at her and whispered in hushed tones. She tried to hide her expression and quickened her steps.

‘Tomorrow, words will spread throughout the palace. ….’

The Empress had really lost face. Rodelia closed her eyes and her face turned pale.

“Oh, Empress. What’s going on?”

She couldn’t remember with what spirit she came back to her room.

As she walked back to her room with a stiffened face, the maids came up to her and took the shawl she was wearing and asked her with worried faces.

She wanted to cry in front of them, her friends, her sisters. But she couldn’t do it. That was what the position of Empress was all about.

She can’t show tears to anyone. Rodelia shook her head.

“I’m sorry, but later. I want to be alone right now.”

The maids, understanding Rodelia’s words, exchanged eye signals and then quietly left the room.

It was then that she was finally able to express her emotions as they were. She crawled under the covers and cried like a child for a while. Everything that had happened during that time flashed through her mind like a running clock.

Where did it go wrong?

Since the Eisen siblings came to the imperial palace to introduce themselves or before that?

Perhaps Kane had long since lost his heart.

She clenched her fists tightly until her palms turned red. She couldn’t remember the happy days now, because it felt like the far past that had vanished like dust.

Rodelia fell asleep, exhausted from crying as she continued to think about the hurt that Kane had caused her.

****

The Imperial Palace was in a flurry of preparations for the foundation banquet that would soon take place.

The castle was decorated with gorgeous and best decorations all around. All the old tablecloths and curtains were replaced with new ones, and food was prepared in large quantities for the banquet.

As this year was the 100th anniversary banquet, so it was an even more meaningful one, each item was carefully prepared, but the role of the Empress, Rodelia, was more important than anyone else.

Fortunately, if she may say so, it allowed Rodelia, who had been busy, to forget her grief. Both Kane and Lady Sarah’s betrayal were erased from her mind for a while.

Rodelia, who had stayed up many nights at the end of preparation for the banquet, was spending her day buried in a huge pile of documents as usual.

“His Majesty has sent you this.”

“His Majesty?”

The chief attendant, Ferna, came to see her. He handed Rodelia a document with the emperor’s seal on it.

She received the document with a curious look on her face, and her expression gradually hardened.

“It’s an invitation list……”

A disappointed sigh escaped her lips.

Normally, the invitation of all banquet attendees was handled by the empress, Rodelia. However, the reason for sending out such a list now…She couldn’t understand it.

No, she thought she could understand why.

Since Kane had changed his heart, perhaps he also wanted to change her way of work to his liking.

She started to choke up in frustration. She wanted to ask the chief attendant what was going on, but Ferna was only here on Kane’s errand. There was no point in getting angry with him. In the end, Rodelia closed her lips without saying anything.

“I’m sure you understand, so I’ll be going now.”

Ferna, who had been staring at her as Rodelia checked her papers, turned and left the room.

There was a subtle attitude of ignoring her, but that was not important.

Having been absent-minded for a long time even after Ferna left, she was able to come to her senses only after Viscountess Cohen arrived for work.

Rodelia went to her desk and sat down with a dignified posture. Then she methodically read the invitation list one by one, and it didn’t take long for her eyes to open wide in surprise.

‘Did I misread?’

Rodelia tilted her head slightly.

‘Have I been looking at so many documents that I can’t read the words……’

She blinked a few times, then turned her gaze back to the document.

“What is it ……?”

“Huh? Your Majesty, is there a problem?”

Viscountess Cohen, who was helping her and was working on the rest of the papers, sent a strange look towards Rodelia, who was mumbling to herself.

“No, there is a name that should not be on the list of attendees for this banquet that His Majesty sent me.”

“What is it……?”

“Can you take a look?”

“Yes …….”

With a plump hand holding the document that Rodelia handed her, the Viscountess immediately had the same reaction as Rodelia did. She frowned.

“Isn’t he on the blacklist?”

“But everyone else is important.”

“Prince Grey Howard? There’s a possibility that the list was manipulated…….”

“Who in the world could have fabricated the emperor’s seal?” Moreover, Ferna brought it.”

“That’s…….”

Rodelia asked the other maids, but the answers were the same. They all reacted surprised as soon as they saw the invitation list. However, the majority of them agreed that they should send the invitations first.

“It’s really strange.”

It was understandable that everyone was surprised. Grey Howard, a longtime enemy of the Thebe Empire, was a prince of the kingdom, one that Kane particularly hated.

It was strange to suddenly invite Prince Grey.

[That creepy snake decided to screw me again this time. Sooner or later, I’ll have to destroy that kingdom.]

After all, it was always just words.

Anyway, Kane gritted his teeth in astonishment whenever the Prince was mentioned. But, why did he want to invite him so suddenly?

Come to think of it, the hair color of Prince Grey was red. Was it because Kane was crazy about Sola that he had come to like red hair?

‘I guess so.’

Rodelia, who was struggling alone, smirked in despair.

‘Then it’s none of my business now, is it?’

Feeling it was an unnecessary concern, she decided not to care about Kane’s personal history any longer. It was partly because she didn’t want to expend unnecessary emotion, and partly because she had done everything Kane would let her do to be loved.

She soon returned to her dull expression and wrote the invitation with a mindless touch. Having made and sent Prince Grey the last invitation, Rodelia stretched out with her hands in the air.