CH 21

The gaze of all the ladies in the salon were now focused on Clementine’s walking disaster.

As if sensing that she was suddenly the new victim of the crowd, Clementine bit her lip and rushed into the carriage.

Bam! As soon as the carriage door was closed, the coachman hastily drove the horses away.

Looking into the salon, I saw how all the ladies were talking among themselves.

Probably, the noble ladies who visited the salon today have already forgotten about the divorced empress and remember only Clementine, who catch what she had.

“I think they’ll forget me because of this.”

I turned to Helen.

“All is well that ends well. But it’s time for us to go to the estate.”

“Okay.”

And who the hell is the person who accidentally helped me?

For the last time, I turned my gaze to the place where the unknown strongman disappeared, and then I got into the carriage.

* * *

Ding

A bell rang. This opened the door of a bar located in one of the back streets of the capital, which was visited by many mercenaries.

The owner of the bar, a large man with a gray beard and a weathered face, shouted without looking back:

“We are closed. Come when the sun goes down.”

“Billy, it’s me.”

Billy looked back. Then the man took off his hat, looked at Billy and smiled.

His amber eyes shone with gold.

The face, emaciated from the long journey, was clearly familiar to Billy.

The man moved his lips at Billy’s dull gaze.

“I haven’t been here for seven years. Don’t you want to hug an old friend?”

“You’re a hellish psycho!”

Billy threw the mop on the floor and ran to hug the man with tears in his eyes, unlike his harsh words. The man pushed Billy aside and said:

“The peasants didn’t stop hugging for a long time. It gives me goosebumps.”

When the man said this with a mischievous laugh, Billy screamed, wiping the tears from his eyes:

“What the heck, Jeremy?! I thought you were dead long ago!”

“Why would I die? My apologies, but I’d outlive you all.”

Jeremy patted Billy on the shoulder and sat down at an empty table.

“I would drink a cold beer to calm my frayed nerves.”

Billy asked as he sat down opposite Jeremy:

“Why did you come back at all? Looking for a job?”

“Hmm… Well, I’m not sure about that yet.”

“You can’t wander like that all your life.”

Jeremy shrugged, pretending to be okay, and sipped his beer. But he had nothing to argue with.

He can’t walk on the edge until the end of his days.

“Even though I’m a toothless tiger, I’m still a tiger. I can waste this way for another ten years.”

“Then why did you return to the empire after all this time?”

“Ah… I didn’t want to stay here, but I heard strange things.”

“Strange things?”

“It was only a matter of time before the first love of the emperor would return with the child, and now the rightful empress has been expelled from the palace! Uh, so I came to see everything with my own eyes. I quickly checked everything. Now I will only stay here for a couple of days.”

“I wonder why the hell are you worried about the empress, if you yourself hadn’t lift your finger even if someone die in front of you.”

Jeremy twitched at these words.

“I’m not that inhuman.”

“Well, yes, so be it. But, you heard the news, and checked… and that’s all?”

With his fingertips, Jeremy rubbed a misted mug of beer. The cold penetrated his hand.

Like a cold snowy night.

Those amber eyes were now looking into the past.

“Checked… That’s all. In any case, this person is just the past.”

“You couldn’t do anything anyway. But you came… This is not like you. If I ask you now, will you tell me what you really thought of?”

“Hmm.”

Jeremy grunted and sipped his beer again. Then he threw out of his head her purple eyes, which he had encountered a little earlier.

* * *

“Come in.”

I was awakened by a knock on the door.

Helen looked a little embarrassed.

“What’s happening?”

“Here… you are invited to a banquet.”

“Invited?”

Helen answered with a nod.

“Yes, lady.”

I received an invitation to a banquet… This is really strange.

Less than a day has passed since the announcement of the divorce.

Many people do not even know that I have returned to my father, but the invitation was addressed to the estate.

“Is this all for sure?”

I asked Helen again, just in case. But Helen responded with an expression of confusion:

“Yes, an invitation to the lady, everything is correct here.”

“Who the hell can it be… Please come over.”

Even if it is someone from the nobility who saw me in the salon today, they know that I will not appear at such an event.

I would not want to expose myself to ridicule.

If I had thrust myself there, all the interest of the crowd would have sharpened in an instant on me.

But the invitation…

I held out my hand, wondering what kind of idiot had sent the invitation to the party to the former empress.

[Marquis Sios]

Yes, this is Lisa’s family.

Yes, the invitation was for me.

I remembered how I met her at the exit from the palace that day. Then I slowly unwrapped the invitation.

[We are having a small party to celebrate Edmund Sios’s birthday. His last birthday under that name. Therefore, we hope that Mrs. Ellie Croft will visit us.

—Marquis Sios]

“Very funny.”

Edmund’s birthday… And they invite me there.

“Lady, where are you invited?” Helen asked me, seeing how I fell silent.

“Edmund’s birthday.”

“Yes? No, but how can they send this to you?!”

Helen raised her voice as if she were really furious.

In fact, if you think about it, Helen’s reaction was justified.

Although Edmund was not to blame for the divorce between me and Raymond, but he was involved.

There may be various reasons, but outwardly it looked as if I, the empress, had been pushed from the throne by this illegitimate child.

And right on the day the divorce was announced, I was invited to Edmund’s birthday.

So don’t be surprised if I tear the invitation to pieces.

But I could not understand what was on Lisa’s mind.

She has already seen me leave the imperial palace, and there is not much evil between me and her.

Stop… Perhabs, am I wrong about that?

Even when I bumped into Lisa the day I left the palace, I did not feel hostility towards myself.

Or does Lisa not know about the letter?

After all, the sender was the marquis.

This phrase “last… under that name” meant that the child would soon receive the imperial surname of the Egrit Empire, and would no longer be part of the Sios House.

“I’m still wondering if Lisa really didn’t know about the letter.”

“Milady, will you accept this invitation?” Said Helen.

I removed the invitation and looked at Helen. Looks like she didn’t want me to go there.

And this is understandable.

There was a place hostile to me.

“Perhaps His Majesty will come,” Helen added to me, as if worried. I shook my head.

“No, His Majesty won’t be there.”

Later, when he makes Lisa the empress, the know may not approve of this gesture…

A murmur will begin.

Raymond probably won’t want me to make a fuss.

“I’m going to the banquet,” I replied to Helen, looking at the invitation.