Returning to the Imperial Palace, we arrived at the emperor’s room only to come face to face with the empress dowager. An elegant lady, she was dressed in a deep reddish-purple dress reminiscent of a mermaid’s tail.
She welcomed us with a straight back.
The emperor sighed openly, as if tired. “What are you doing here?”
The empress dowager made a worried face and held the emperor’s hand tightly. When the emperor shook her hand away with a face of disgust, she quietly withdrew her hand.
“Why, are you sorry that I didn’t die?”
“What are you talking about, Your Majesty? I was so worried that I was about to go mad, I almost chased after you. You’re like a son to me…”
“I’ve never known anyone who sends poison so shamelessly.”
The Empress Dowager rolled her eyes. “Oh my God, whoever hears you will misunderstand.”
I was engrossed in the thought of whether someone should give out acting awards, but then her gaze shifted to me. She took a careful look at the embroidered dress I was wearing, even the accessories. She stared at me blatantly, taking account of my finery, the weight of her gaze full of something unspoken.
However, the emperor did not even look back when the empress went to the trouble of opening her mouth.
“The secretary’s form is very unique.”
“It is nice to meet you, Empress Dowager.”
She continued without even listening to my greetings, “I don’t think the value of that dress can come out of the pockets of any insignificant commoner, can’t it? From the moment you appointed this secretary, your intentions have been clear.”
“You heard about today, so you know what happened. There are forces trying to undermine the academy, so I just went to check it out. We went to a party, so what should one wear to feel comfortable?”
“Of course you would say that. She’s a lowly woman, so she seems to be enjoying it by putting on these expensive things and saying that she put on this and that.”
How many times had the empress dowager said something like that at this point? I didn’t even get angry anymore.
However, those words seemed to have added one more stone to the tower of the emperor’s wrath, which had been building up until now. Even though it wasn’t a big deal, he looked straight at her. His red eyes, which were much more prominent than usual, looked incredibly menacing. The Empress Dowager took a step back, seemingly frightened for a moment.
“Be careful what you say, Empress Dowager.”
“…You’re going to scare me!”
I thought it was presumptuous, but I put my hand on the emperor’s back without realizing it. Perhaps because he had used a lot of energy, his atmosphere seemed unstable today.
He didn’t look back at me, but maybe he knew I was trying to help him, so he breathed deeply and closed his eyes. When he opened his eyes again, they looked the same as usual.
“I don’t feel like arguing right now. I want to rest because I’m tired, so that’s all for today.”
The empress dowager then corrected her expression. “Everyone is waiting for Your Majesty.”
“At this hour?”
“If something like that happened, then how could the Parliament stay at home?”
He smiled crookedly. “Since they’ve waited already, tell them to wait a little longer.” Without waiting for an answer, the emperor turned away.
I followed him, and his escort servants and attendants followed us. I looked back, pretending to make sure they were following.
The empress was staring at the emperor’s back. It was clearly intended to look at whether there were any signs on the exposed skin and whether the emperor looked unwell. Although she didn’t seem to believe what the chief of the palace had said to her, she still seemed to be looking into it casually.
I followed her gaze. He seemed to be fine, and it was difficult to observe anything different. He probably wasn’t suffering too much. If he was in a hurry, he would have asked me to look at his back in the carriage. There was no request whatsoever, which meant that… the kiss probably helped.
She must have found nothing amiss. She turned her head in disappointment by the time we turned the corner.
Before arriving in his room, we also had to face the prime minister and the chairman of the council. It was way past the time when they should have gone home to their families, but here they were hurrying and anxious to speak to the emperor.
It was only when I saw them running, with their faces nearly turned blue, that the reality of what happened sank in.
It could have gone very wrong.
We were there because of the emperor’s will to find out about the intruder in my room. But it was also because I couldn’t stop him. My heart thumped fast when I thought something might have gone wrong.
When we managed to get to the emperor’s room, he irritably threw off his overcoat. I threw off my party clothes and quickly approached him as he picked up his attire for the meeting. He looked at me with puzzled eyes, but I didn’t care and turned him around.
“What is this… Where are you going like this?”
I thought he would be okay by taking only a little help from me, but that was a mistake. His back was covered in blood. The new wound looked as severe as if it had been struck with a blunt weapon. It was the first time I’d seen such a strong side effect. How the heck did he use so much of his power?
Without even thinking about it, I absorbed some of the pain from his body. My entire body felt like it was on fire.
As I rested my hand on the wound, I heard a small moan.
“If it was this bad, why didn’t you tell me in advance?”
“Are you angry with me?”
“I wouldn’t dare! I was just asking you to tell me if you need help!”
“No, you’re mad now.”
“How do I…”
At least he could still turn his head to look if I would scold him. His eyes were distracting me, so I stared blankly ahead to focus on healing.
I put my hands on his back, reciting the magic of the elemental water world that he had never heard of. As I covered the emperor’s back with lace-like webs of glowing light, I could see a magical glow shining faintly on my body.
It must not have been a pleasant sensation for the wound to heal so quickly that it was visible to the naked eye.
“Are you crying?” he muttered faintly.
As soon as I heard it, the drops fell from my eyes. After a few blinks, my blurred vision barely returned.
It was unfair. I didn’t mean to cry, but I couldn’t help my tears. It was my weakness, probably.
He cleared his throat. “There are servants who are angry because they can’t go home because of me, and there are those who have their necks on the line because of me, but there aren’t that many that I cried.” He sighed and turned around when there was no answer. Then he turned around and touched my tear-streaked cheeks with his hand.
I tried to cover my face with my free hands. “Stop.”
“Why?”
“It will dry on its own.”
“Like it would be better if you left my back alone.”
“Your Majesty!”
“Shouldn’t you be angry at me right now? This is strange.”
It was unreasonable how much I wanted to bring him back to his full strength. The stubborn emperor wanted to see my weeping face and gave up taking care of his wounds and stood looking at me, so I had to stand there dumbfounded until the tears finally stopped.
“Now then, your back, please.”
The emperor waved his hand lightly. “That’s enough for today. Apparently, there are quite a few people waiting.”
“Okay, then later…”
“Yeah.”
I caught a flash of the emperor’s back heading to the door.
“Your Majesty, may I speak to Prince Khun of the Empire of Tepoda?”
Somehow I couldn’t get rid of the idea that he seemed friendly to me. Maybe it was because I had to discover what he was hiding, something big enough to involve Instructor Xenon. I wanted to meet and talk to him even just once.
The emperor looked grumpy, but still nodded. “He talks as if he didn’t participate in today’s incident, but we aren’t sure of that either. What are you going to do with someone like that?”
“I want to know why he keeps looking for me. I’m just going to ask him a few questions. You’re very busy, so I think I can go by myself.”
“Well…” The emperor turned around as if he was unwilling. His face drifted closer to mine.
I could feel his gaze slowly moving from my forehead to my nose, from my nose to my cheeks, and from my cheeks to my mouth.
His eyes narrowed, and he smirked. “Do as you wish.”
That was surprisingly easy.
“Alright.” I stood up with excitement and moved quickly.
His gaze continued to follow me, but I had so much to do that I didn’t have time to worry about it.
When I opened the door, as expected, a bunch of servants and knights were standing in the drawing-room. I put them in order of priority and put the most urgent knight in front of the emperor.
“You may now see Your Majesty.”
“I have come to report the results of the interrogation of the madmen in the tower.”
“How is it?”
The knight spoke slowly in a shaky tone as if he was still out of breath from running, “It sounds a bit strange.”
“Sounds strange?”
“It’s like they’re part of an armed struggle for justice.”
“The realization of justice while thinking of annihilating powerless civilians. It’s a fun idea.”
“What should I do?”
“How far did you say it was?”
“Not so far yet, but I’m not so sure.”
“Tell me.”
“It looks like he’s not going to talk about the location of his stronghold and what’s next. However, looking at the way he looks and speaks, he seems to be a mixture of Yekatu, Bazan, and Goldina.”
“Find out more.”
“Yes.” Hearing the emperor’s command, the knight began to add something, but then he looked at me.