It’s Been a While, Paula
“The Emperor has prepared an enormous number of archers, ready to attack the moment Young Duke Rochester and the Demahen Knights reach the port.”
At those words, the Duchess and I simultaneously squeezed our eyes shut.
No matter how great Ricardo’s martial prowess was, could he block thousands of arrows flying at him the moment he disembarked from the ship?
After that, the man delivered a few more reports with pessimistic content. After he finished his report and left, the Duchess urgently grabbed the Duke’s arm.
“You know as well as I do. There’s only one port where a large ship carrying Ricardo can dock at Micheela Cor.”
Micheela Cor was a small island. Although Ricardo had left with only his elite troops, there was only one port that could accommodate a ship carrying at least a hundred people.
“I have to go.”
Even at the Duke’s reckless declaration, the Duchess couldn’t say anything and bit her lip. I expected that the thoughts going through her mind were not much different from my own.
[The one who will kill his father and become the sun in the sky.]
At the Duke’s unhesitating words about going to rescue his son from a dangerous place, I couldn’t help but recall that terrible oracle.
“It could be a trap. No, it’s definitely a trap.”
“Right, it could be. But my dear.”
When the Duke spoke gently and squeezed her hand, the Duchess stopped speaking and looked at him.
“If the Emperor digs a pit of fire and tells me to walk across it, even if I know it’s an endless cliff, I have no choice but to go. Because my son is on the other side.”
“But darling.”
“You and I both know well that when the Emperor has a knife to my son’s throat, I have no choice but to cross over.”
The Duchess’s red eyes trembled finely. Seeing her, who had never once wavered, shaking with fear, my fingertips also turned cold.
He gently stroked his wife’s cheek once, then looked at me.
“Lienne, while I’m away from the mansion, I’m counting on you to look after your mother. It will be difficult for you as well…”
I couldn’t answer aloud and only nodded my head vigorously. I couldn’t even bring myself to tell him not to worry. As the Duke said, even if this was the Emperor’s trap, he had no choice but to go.
My reason was also becoming paralyzed at the thought that it might already be too late.
After that, the Duke moved without delay. Selecting the fastest horses and ships, it took him just over an hour to assemble the Rochester Knights and leave the estate.
****
After Duke Rochester left, I spent my days mainly with the Duchess in the drawing room attached to her bedroom.
Three days after the Duke departed for Micheela Cor, Harriot’s wedding proceeded as scheduled at the Imperial Palace.
That morning, the Emperor once again sent a letter written in his own hand to the Duchess. It was a letter with the same content as before, ordering all those bearing the Rochester name to attend the wedding.
“You’re not going, are you?”
While the Duchess was nodding her head, Freddy came to the drawing room. At his urgent-looking face, the two of us tensed up again, squaring our shoulders.
“What is it this time?”
“A messenger has come from the Serhen family.”
“From my family home?”
The Duchess jumped up from her seat and took the letter from Freddy. As she read the letter, her expression grew darker and darker, eventually coloring with despair.
“Has some problem arisen?”
Instead of answering, the Duchess handed me the letter. Surprisingly, the letter stated that Count Serhen and the Duchess’s mother had been dragged to the Imperial Palace.
She tried to maintain a calm expression but couldn’t prevent her face from turning pale.
The title of Count Serhen had been passed down to the Duchess’s older brother.
After she rose to the position of Duchess, the Serhen family moved their estate to the border of the empire. It was to avoid being accused of growing their influence by backing themselves with the powerful ducal family.
“Plotting treason.”
To charge such a family with treason. Even reading the letter directly, it was hard to believe. After closing her eyes briefly to assess the situation, the Duchess slowly lifted her eyelids.
“It’s lamentable that the Emperor’s creativity amounts to only this.”
She stood up from her seat, straightened herself, and gave orders to Freddy in an unwavering voice.
“I’ll go to the Imperial Palace. Prepare.”
Freddy hesitated for a moment but soon nodded and accepted the order.
“Lienne, you stay at the mansion. Since the Emperor sent such a grandiose invitation, I must go.”
I hurriedly stood up, following her who looked ready to leave at any moment.
“Mother, I’ll go with you.”
“That won’t do.”
I grasped the hand of the Duchess who was staring straight ahead with a hardened face. Contrary to the warm teacup she had been holding just moments ago, her fingertips were cold as ice.
“The Emperor wanted everyone bearing the Rochester name, so if I don’t go, he’ll definitely make an issue of this.”
I couldn’t let her go alone. Before my life turned back, the reason Ricardo couldn’t rashly attack the Imperial Palace wasn’t only because Paquin and Chaplin weren’t on his side.
At that time, the Emperor was holding the Duke and Duchess hostage.
“Lienne.”
“Please don’t stop me. I absolutely cannot let you go to the palace alone, Mother. I promised the Duke and Ricardo. That I would protect you no matter what.”
“For the same reason, I cannot take you with me.”
“No. You told me yourself, Mother. That during the thousand years Dermeier has endured, Rochester’s history has always been a history of struggle.”
“…”
“As long as you’re at the Imperial Palace, Mother, the Rochester mansion is no longer a safe place either.”
Her red eyes, wavering here and there, turned to me. I looked straight into those eyes and declared:
“Now I’m also a member of the family, so please let me participate in that struggle.”
In my previous life, the Emperor hadn’t used the Serhen family like this, but the situation was strangely turning out similar to back then. Inevitably, my thoughts raced only in bad directions.
“The reason Rochester stands so firmly in this position now is because we’ve never lost once in that history of struggle, right?”
“Of course, that’s right.”
“Then this time too, Rochester will surely be victorious. Please don’t exclude me from that victory.”
Having barely obtained permission from the Duchess, I returned to Hyacinth Mansion and immediately began preparing to go to the Imperial Palace.
After Ricardo left to search for the labyrinth, and after the Duke departed to rescue Ricardo, a new battle had begun in the empire.
The move the Imperial Palace made, with both Paquin and Chaplin having turned their backs, was this shallow and base. So to stand against it, I had to steel my resolve.
****
After arriving at the Imperial Palace, the Duchess and I were immediately led to the Emperor. The Emperor summoned us to the same place where I had first had an audience with him.
In the audience hall so vast that sounds echoed hollowly, a giant eagle was glaring down at me.
Its stance, as if it would tear out my throat at any moment, was still the same, but it didn’t feel as frightening as before.
Although the Imperial Palace had been occupied by the Demahen Knights, they couldn’t move rashly while the people from the Serhen family were in the palace.
“His Majesty the Emperor is entering.”
After the loud announcement, the Emperor soon appeared. He was still flaunting his glamorous golden hair that fell to his shoulders, but his face, which had become sharper from weight loss, was reminiscent of a boa constrictor.
Slumping down into the golden-decorated throne with a thud, he swept back his hair and looked at the Duchess.
“It’s been a while, Paula.”
Hearing the Emperor familiarly call the Duchess by her first name, I scowled as much as I could, despite being in the Emperor’s presence.
Only then did I recall that twenty-some years ago, the Duchess had been the woman who reigned at the top of Dermeier’s high society.
“Where is my family?”
The Duchess ignored the Emperor’s words and got straight to the point.
“Don’t you have something to say to me first?”
“…”
“Remove those dreadful things from my palace.”
The dreadful things the Emperor was referring to were the Demahen Knights. Even as the Emperor barked with unfathomable eyes, the Duchess didn’t yield to him in the slightest.
“Remove them, I said remove them! Just seeing the shadows of those things makes me sick enough to die! If you make sure the Demahen Knights are no longer in my sight, I’ll send your mother home.”
When the Emperor stared at the Duchess and brought up the former Countess Serhen, the Duchess’s arm twitched. I stepped forward, hiding her behind me.
“We will do so.”
At my obedient answer, a strange light appeared in the Emperor’s eyes, which had been rolling wildly after losing his reason.
“Really?”
The Demahen Knights would prioritize my orders as Ricardo’s wife over the Duchess’s orders. He leaned back leisurely against the throne, relaxing his tensed body, and closed his eyes tightly.
“If the Demahen Knights all leave the Imperial Palace, Count Serhen will be able to return home safely as well, won’t he?”
“Well…”
“Your Majesty the Emperor must also know. How reckless it would be to engage in all-out war with the Demahen Knights inside the palace at this point.”
At my question, he, who hadn’t given a proper answer, narrowed his eyes and looked at me.
“You.”