Chapter 74

There was always a person next to the Empress so Lyle received a report on her every move, reports were coming in every time there was a change.

Medea sent off the small duke and baron. As soon as she was told her probation had been lifted she headed to the library. And now she was reading a book there.

What’s so good about books?

The best thing about the library was the memory of their affair. Medea couldn’t have forgotten, it had been so memorable.

Lyle got up from his seat, looked through the documents he had already reviewed, sat down again, approached the window, and looked again at the performance report and the record season he had previously checked.

Time seemed to crawl at a snail’s pace.

“…….”

Lyle found himself walking to the door determinedly and stopped.

‘Your Majesty won’t last long anyway.’

When he remembered Sid’s smirk (he denied it, but it seemed to Lyle’s eyes Sid had been laughing at him), he couldn’t step out.

‘Dinner…… Let’s hang in there until dinner.’

He was wondering what kind of torture this was.

***

“I’m alone? You mean his Majesty isn’t coming?”

“His Majesty said he was busy with political affairs. He asks that you not to wait and eat first.”

At the courteous words of the servant, Medea went to her seat and sat down.

It wasn’t that long ago, but she felt strange because they had eaten together every day for almost a month.

‘Are you really mad? I don’t think I did anything wrong…….’

The only thing she could think of was sexually rejecting him.

Perhaps she had made him feel but…… didn’t it work out the way Lyle wanted it to anyways? ‘Besides, Lyle seemed to like my reactions and rejections.’ [kink alert]

‘Or did I make a mistake? Something that hurt Lyle’s feelings.’

But nothing came to mind.

As she sat down and started to eat, Medea deeply pondered whether she had upset Lyle. If it had been before, she wouldn’t have worried this much, but since Seira’s appearance she couldn’t help but be worried if Lyle’s heart had already moved towards Seira.

‘No, it didn’t really feel that way……. Every time Seira entered his eyes he frowned and looked displeased…….’

Maybe hatred grew so much that it turned into love! Arghhh!

Medea, who was agonizing over the thought, wanted to tear her hair out.

Maybe she should have pretended to accept Lyle’s attentions. The thought that Lyle might have liked Seira made her incredibly nervous.

But she had no choice but to bring Seira to the capital. ‘Taking away Lyle, and then taking away even my dreams.…. Of course, I saved Ian’s life.….’

It wasn’t as if Medea didn’t like Lyle. But she also didn’t love him passionately so she wasn’t confident in expressing her affection actively.

She knew she was being selfish by not liking him enough but also not wanting Lyle to care about women—except for herself.

‘I’m being a chicken [t1v: she’s calling herself a chicken rib bone 계륵 or weak or a kind of weakness/selfishness where someone hesitates to give up even though it is of little interest to them]. No, it’s a little too delicious to call it 계륵.’

As her shoulder dropped and she played with the food on her plate, suddenly everything became tasteless. After eating her favorite dessert Medea got up from her seat.

***

“Your Majesty, the Empress, is the temperature of the water correct?”

The voice of the maid-in-waiting came from beyond the partition where only silhouettes could be seen. Medea nodded with a deep sigh and then turned her head because she thought they might have not seen her approval.

‘Yes, I’ll call you if I need you.’

“Yes, Empress.”

The maidens quietly left the bathroom. Although the Imperial family and aristocrats seemed to be used to being served in the bath, Medea refused to be served except when she was very tired. It was uncomfortable to be seen naked. [t1v: girl how did you survive Korean bathhouses?]

‘Because I’m in the Empress’s Palace. Will I only be able to see him on union night?’

She didn’t know why, but it seemed that everything was returning to the way it was in the past. Medea didn’t even know why Lyle suddenly showed affection for her in the first place.

‘I don’t know why it appeared, so I can’t even think about what to do about it if Lyle’s affections disappear?’

Immersed in water up to her neck, Medea sighed deeply.

She had thought it wouldn’t matter to her if Lyle’s fondness came and left. But she couldn’t help but feel miserable thinking that it had disappeared.

‘No, I’d rather be comfortable, right? I will be able to sleep fitfully.…. You can read as much as you want now…….’

In the first place, this was the life she had hoped for. Medea had been cherished tenderly by Lyle for almost a month, so it’s highly likely that they had made a child …Wasn’t this the boring life of an Empress she had hoped for?

Oh. Suddenly, I really miss Lyle. So much.

Medea, who was squatting in the bathtub and sighing, suddenly rose from her seat.

Then she noticed something in the bathroom she hadn’t detected before.

Originally, there were large mirrors on the left and right sides of the bathroom, attached to the wall. But now there was a strange massive mirror in front of the bathtub. Two large iron swans were seen supporting a giant round mirror with wings.

“Why did you put this here in such an inconvenient location?”

Should she move it?

No, it would be too difficult.

It would be a huge undertaking to carry it because it was so big. On top of that, wouldn’t the mirror break if she did something wrong?