ITIF Chapter 105

Deepening Suspicion

At that moment, as if sensing the gaze, Marchioness Latse lifted her head.

When their eyes met with the Empress’s, Marchioness Latse flinched in surprise and blurted out.

“I-It’s almost finished, but if you’re in a hurry, should I at least report the progress?”

As she said this, she tried to stand up with the documents she had been reviewing just moments ago.

“No. Let’s check after you’ve thoroughly reviewed it.”

“……Understood.”

When the Empress quietly shook her head, Marchioness Latse lowered her gaze back to the documents. However, she seemed unable to concentrate immediately.

After saying something to the lady-in-waiting beside her, Marchioness Latse soon stood up and left the office.

The Empress, who had been watching this, also stood up from her seat.

Lady Blatnik, who had just been bringing freshly brewed tea to her desk, looked at the Empress with a puzzled expression.

But she paid no mind and walked to Marchioness Latse’s seat. Then she casually asked the lady-in-waiting beside her.

“Where did she say she was going?”

“Ah, she said her makeup seemed smudged and she was going to the powder room.”

“I see.”

The Empress nodded slightly and immediately left the office.

****

Arriving at the powder room, Marchioness Latse checked her reflection in the mirror while grumbling quietly.

“Ugh, really! She’s going to bore a hole through my face…….”

Marchioness Latse had long ago noticed that the Empress’s gaze toward the ladies-in-waiting had been unusual lately.

She also knew that the Empress was giving different information to each lady-in-waiting.

Marchioness Latse was well aware that this was one of the procedures to see if the ladies-in-waiting were communicating smoothly with each other.

So she avoided socializing with the other ladies-in-waiting as much as possible and didn’t even talk with them.

However, contrary to her expectation that the Empress would soon drop her suspicions, the Empress’s symptoms of suspicion only grew worse day by day.

As she was retouching her lipstick, Marchioness Latse narrowed her brow at a sudden thought.

‘Should I have brought another lady-in-waiting with me after all?’

It seemed like wandering around alone might arouse unnecessary suspicion.

‘No. Until the Empress completely drops her suspicions, it’s better not to associate with the other ladies-in-waiting.’

After nodding to herself and checking her clothes, Marchioness Latse squeezed her eyes shut and opened them.

The thought of returning to the suffocating office was somewhat dreadful, but it would be better than being away from her seat for too long.

Just as Marchioness Latse turned to leave the powder room, she heard footsteps from the corridor.

“……?”

Soon a maid entered the powder room.

She was carrying cleaning supplies in her hands.

She worried that one of the Empress’s ladies-in-waiting might have followed her belatedly, but it didn’t seem to be the case.

When their eyes met, the maid stepped aside to make way for her.

Marchioness Latse walked past the bowing maid into the corridor.

And when she had taken only a few steps, she heard the maid’s voice from behind her.

“Excuse me, my lady?”

Marchioness Latse turned toward the maid. Then the maid held out a small piece of parchment and said.

“I think you dropped this.”

She had touched it with the hand holding the cleaning rag.

Even if that piece of parchment had been hers, she definitely didn’t want to touch it.

Marchioness Latse made a fastidious expression and said solemnly.

“That’s not mine.”

Then she walked toward the corridor leading to the office.

The maid was quietly watching the distant figure of Marchioness Latse when someone placed a hand on her shoulder.

“……!”

Having not sensed anyone approaching at all, the maid whirled around in shock.

The man right in front of her had a sword at his waist. He seemed to be a knight.

“Hand over what you’re holding.”

“Yes…….”

The maid immediately handed the piece of parchment to the knight.

After unfolding the small folded parchment and checking its contents, the knight grimaced fiercely.

“D-Did I do something wrong? I just came here to clean and picked up what was dropped on the floor.”

When the maid timidly poured out her excuse, the knight said.

“You need to come with me.”

“What? Wh-Where are we going…….”

The knight roughly grabbed the wrist of the maid who was hesitating and trying to back away.

While being dragged by the knight, they passed several people in the corridor, but everyone pretended not to see and just passed by.

There were very few people who could walk around the imperial palace wearing a sword.

About the knight order level that protects the imperial family. So they seemed to judge that the maid must have committed some wrongdoing.

When the maid, led by the knight’s hand, arrived at a spacious and splendid room and was looking around, a beautiful middle-aged woman walked out from the inner room.

Although no one told her who the woman before her eyes was, the maid quickly figured it out.

It was because of the tiara on the woman’s head.

“…….”

The maid trembled and bowed her head deeply.

The Empress, who had been glaring at the parchment the knight handed her with narrowed eyes, opened her mouth.

“Are you certain?”

“Yes. This maid is the witness. Tell us exactly what you saw.”

Reading the Empress’s mood, the maid stammered as she explained the situation in the powder room from moments ago.

“Yes? Yes. So, I went to clean the powder room…….”

****

The piece of parchment crumpled with a rustle in the Empress’s grip.

At that moment, Young Marquis Antares walked into the reception room, slightly out of breath.

“Your Majesty the Empress, you summoned me?”

Since he had been at the imperial palace to look into Marquis Antares’s matter, he was able to respond quickly to the Empress’s summons.

Without saying much, the Empress handed him the parchment she had been clutching tightly.

“A date and time are written here……. Wait, this place is?”

“That’s right. It’s very close to the prison where Baron Cypress is imprisoned.”

“But how exactly did you obtain this?”

“Because internal information seemed to keep leaking, I was suspecting the ladies-in-waiting and caught suspicious circumstances regarding Marchioness Latse. How I obtained that parchment was also…….”

The Empress added a brief explanation.

After hearing all the facts, Young Marquis Antares squeezed his eyes shut. Then he let out a long sigh.

“Hah…….”

It was one thing after another.

Currently, Marquis Antares was being held at the imperial palace under the Emperor’s control.

That was why Young Marquis Antares had also come to the imperial palace early.

In addition to the fact that Marchioness Latse, whom they had trusted as an ally, was suspicious, there was also the fact that she might try to interfere with Baron Cypress in a way that went against them.

For the still young Young Marquis Antares, overwhelming tasks kept coming one after another, and the stress from it had also reached its peak.

The thought of wanting to quit everything naturally came to him, but Young Marquis Antares calmly settled his mind.

Now, when his father Marquis Antares was away, was the perfect time to prove his qualifications to become the next head of the Antares family.

“I’ll give instructions to watch Baron Cypress’s situation more closely on the date written on the parchment.”

“……Is that all you have for a plan?”

The Empress criticized him as if his response was inadequate.

For a moment, he felt something surge up inside him.

But Young Marquis Antares barely managed to force a smile.

“I apologize for not immediately thinking of an alternative that would satisfy Your Majesty the Empress. But as you know, so many things are happening all at once…….”

Before Young Marquis Antares could finish speaking, the Empress whirled around.

“Enough with the excuses. You may go now.”

Glaring at the Empress’s back, Young Marquis Antares gritted his teeth.

Come to think of it, the one who always gained the greatest benefit was the Empress.

When his cousin Joshua ascended to the throne, it would also be the Empress who would hold the greatest power.

His father, Marquis Antares, had spent his entire life taking care of the Empress’s messes.

But the Empress had never even properly expressed gratitude.

Of course, relying on the Empress’s power, the Antares family had also gained some benefits, but he couldn’t shake off the thought that it was unfair.

The proof was that even in this moment when things were going badly, Joshua hadn’t shown his face at all.

“How is His Highness the Crown Prince doing? It seems it’s been quite a while since we’ve seen him…….”

The Empress stopped in her tracks and turned to look at Young Marquis Antares.

From the coldness in the Empress’s eyes directed at him, more than ever before, she seemed to have immediately grasped his intention.

The Empress, who quickly closed the distance between them, whispered softly in Young Marquis Antares’s ear.

“Young Marquis, from next time, be sure to remember before you speak. Where Antares’s power comes from. And also…….”

The Empress snorted quietly and continued while patting Young Marquis Antares’s shoulder.

“……Let’s stop here for today.”

And only after briefly glaring at him did the Empress turn away again.

Young Marquis Antares clenched and unclenched his fist.

Just as the Empress had immediately realized what intention he had in mentioning Joshua’s name, he too understood what the Empress had been about to say before stopping.

That Marquis Antares’s family didn’t have just one son.

****

Young Marquis Antares, who had come to the imperial palace today to find the reason why the Emperor had confined Marquis Antares, had to turn back with no real gains.

The sky was already getting dark.

Before returning to the mansion, Young Marquis Antares deliberately took a route that passed by the prison where Baron Cypress was imprisoned.

It was quite a detour, but since today was the date written on the parchment, he was concerned.

‘That person is……?’

And right then, he saw a face that was all too familiar in front of it.

It was Marquis Latse.

Next to him was Duke Kavelaseth Cardia.

Naturally, Young Marquis Antares’s brow furrowed deeply as he looked at the two.