“If you would like to see your birth parents…”

“No.”

Alexa answered calmly.

“I have already said my farewells. I’ll be fine.”

In this world, it was not uncommon for a married daughter to never see her family again. That was the nature of political marriages among the nobility.

“Then please think of me as your own mother. If you ever find things difficult in the imperial palace, or if you are in trouble, you can lean on me at any time.”

Violet’s heart was warm.

Alexa smiled at her sincerity.

The preparations for Alexa’s entry into the palace proceeded without a hitch. And as planned, ten days later, a magnificent carriage drawn by eight horses arrived from the imperial palace.

“Then I will take my leave.”

Dressed in her gown and draped in a thick white fur over her shoulders, Alexa paid her respects to the Duke and Duchess. Violet quietly took both her hands and held them tight, while Archer wore a look of satisfaction.

“Never forget your duty, wherever you may be.”

“Yes. I will keep that in mind.”

That was all there was to the farewell. Alexa boarded the carriage bearing the imperial family’s crest, together with Matilda. Shortly after, the carriage set off.

“My lady, you must be so nervous.”

Matilda asked with a tense expression, but Alexa shook her head. She already knew well enough what lay ahead. There was no point in wasting emotion over it.

“Matilda, life in the imperial palace won’t be easy.”

According to the original story, Enoch had disliked Alexa’s very existence even before meeting her. There was no way life in the palace would be comfortable.

“I will serve you well, my lady, so please don’t worry too much.”

Alexa gave a small nod. She only felt sorry for Matilda, who had been drawn into sharing her harsh fate.

“Yes, thank you.”

For now, those were the only words she had.

The carriage moved at a swift pace, and before long they were nearly at the imperial palace. It was the cage Alexa would enter and never leave.

Alexa looked out the carriage window one last time, committing the outside world to memory.

It might be a sight she would never see again until the day she died. That was what it meant to become the empress.

“We greet Lady Alexa.”

The carriage came to a stop before a detached palace.

The palace attendants who had been waiting for Alexa bowed in unison.

“I am Stella, head lady’s maid in service to Her Majesty the Empress Dowager. I will be assisting with your preparations for the imperial marriage.”

Stella bowed once more.

“You will be staying in this detached palace until the imperial marriage.”

The detached palace, its walls painted white, was not large, but it looked elegant and comfortable.

“First, you must be tired from the long journey. Please, come inside.”

Alexa gave a nod, and Stella stepped forward to lead the way. The interior of the detached palace was decorated as elegantly as the outside.

“These are the young maids who will be attending you.”

Two young girls curtsied.

“We greet you, my lady. I am Ella.”

“We greet you, my lady. I am Sophie.”

The two of them would assist Matilda in looking after Alexa.

“I will have the chamberlain and the attendants present themselves separately at a later time.”

The only person Alexa had been able to bring with her was Matilda, who had cared for her since childhood.

Matilda had been designated to become head lady’s maid once Alexa was crowned empress. In a sense, she was Alexa’s only ally.

“His Majesty the Emperor is occupied with affairs of state, so please do not take it to heart if he does not come to call.”

“I understand.”

Enoch had been cold toward Alexa even after the wedding. So this was hardly anything new.

“There is a bedchamber inside. Please rest for a while. I will return later.”

Stella curtsied and withdrew.

Alexa entered the neat bedchamber and sat down on the edge of the bed. It had not been a particularly long journey, but the reality of truly being inside the imperial palace now settled over her, and all the strength left her legs.

‘This is where I must live…’

It was a reality the original Alexa had faced as well, but for her, having possessed this body, it was a reality she had never wanted. Yet neither the true Alexa nor she, after the possession, had the power to change the course of things.

‘At the very least, I have to try not to be hated.’

In the original story, Alexa had faithfully carried out the Taira ducal house’s wishes from the very beginning, and it was precisely that which had caused her to fall further out of Enoch’s favor.

So Alexa had decided she would not make any effort on behalf of the Taira ducal house. She already knew that the more she did, the more she would be digging her own grave.

‘But the emperor will already resent my very existence.’

They had gone so far as to adopt a girl and push a daughter of the Tairas into the empress’s seat. It was obvious how deeply Enoch must have been fed up.

Thinking about it that way, Duke Taira was truly foolish. Did he believe a marriage could be made to work simply by forcing it through? If no fruit could come of it, it would have been better not to have done it at all.

“My lady, please get some rest.”

Matilda spoke to her gently. She seemed to want to soothe Alexa’s troubled mind.

“All right.”

Alexa lay down, and Matilda tucked the blanket around her and left.

But sleep would not come. Thinking of what lay ahead, as it had been portrayed in the original story, she felt only a heaviness in her chest and a creeping dread.

“An empress that no one wants…”

In the end, Duke Taira’s painstaking efforts would come to nothing, and Alexa would become a sinner without having done anything at all.

And in the latter half of the original story, a woman named Claire would appear and threaten Alexa’s position.

Regrettably, that was as far as her knowledge of the story went.

“Perhaps being cast out would be easier.”

Holding on to the empress’s seat, sharp as a bed of needles, she might be better off being divorced and freed from the imperial palace. She would rather endure physical hardship than live with a hollow heart. That, she truly could not bear.

“To think I can do nothing for my own future…”

If there was one thing she regretted most about her previous life, it was that she had never tried for herself. And now, even after possessing another’s body, she found herself in the same position. It was almost laughable.

“I wanted to live by my own will, just once.”

Even if it ended in failure, that would have been fine. At least it would have been the result of her own judgment, her own choices.

But of all the characters in all those novels, she had ended up possessing Alexa. A situation not so different from her own original life.

“I was facing a political marriage too.”

She had forgotten even her own name from her former life, but that much she remembered clearly.

At the time, she had been facing a marriage she did not want. But too afraid to resist, she had only suffered alone in silence.

Even if she had not met her death, she might well have ended up in much the same place as she was now.

“To think all I can hope for is to get through this without trouble.”

Alexa was a fresh twenty years old. On top of that, she was beautiful enough to have been handpicked at a glance by the Taira ducal house.

But in this world, a woman’s fate was decided by marriage. Alexa would become the most exalted woman in the land, but she would not be happy.

“Yes. Keep my head down, and get through it without trouble…”

She had no desire to be hated or looked down upon for taking the Taira ducal house’s side in front of Enoch.

So Alexa intended to ignore the Taira ducal house’s wishes. Rather than being an empress for the Taira ducal house, she had chosen to simply be a woman living her life without making waves.

At least, that was her plan for now.

* * *

Empress Dowager Camilla held a long, slender pipe between her lips and listened to Stella’s report.

“What did you make of her?”

She exhaled a breath of smoke, and a haze spread before her.

“Just as Duke Taira described, she was a refined and elegant beauty.”

“Good. There is no man who dislikes a beautiful woman.”

Stella looked strikingly young for her age and was elaborately put together. Her long nails, dyed red, were particularly striking.

“Did she seem obedient?”

“Yes. She appeared to have received a thorough education in etiquette at the Taira ducal house.”

“It was my brother’s doing, so there would be no gaps. And the trousseau?”

“It is still arriving. Even now, the attendants are bringing items into the new empress’s quarters.”

Empress Dowager Camilla had ordered the old empress’s quarters renovated before the imperial marriage. It had to be done to accommodate the full trousseau from the Taira ducal house.

“And it is all fine quality, of course?”

“Yes, it is flawless.”

At those words, Camilla’s red lips curved into a smile.

“For a time I worried about how things would turn out, but how fortunate that a suitable young lady was at hand.”

“Indeed, it is most fortunate.”

The Taira ducal house had produced no daughters. Yet from the Blanc marquisate, a collateral branch of the family, a perfect candidate had emerged. It was a great stroke of luck.

“And the emperor?”

“There is no word from him.”

Tsk. Camilla clicked her tongue.

Enoch had been skeptical of this marriage from the start. But it was Camilla who had pushed it this far.

“Well, once they are actually married and see each other face to face, a bond between husband and wife will form.”

“Yes, I am certain it will.”

Camilla still did not truly understand her own child’s nature. The fact that she believed bringing in a beautiful twenty-year-old empress would dissolve his long-held resistance and turn them into a loving couple made that plain.

“The next heir must also carry the blood of the Taira ducal house without fail.”

Enoch already carried half the blood of the Taira ducal house. Alexa was not of the Taira ducal house by birth, but she was of a collateral branch and had been formally adopted, so if a child were born, the Taira ducal house’s blood in the imperial line would run even thicker.

“I, too, became empress for the same purpose, joined this imperial family, and bore a child.”

The mission of Camilla’s life had been to enter the imperial family, bear a child carrying the blood of the Taira ducal house, and raise that child to the throne.

She had fulfilled that mission brilliantly. It was only natural that her expectations for Alexa ran high.

All without a single thought for the feelings of Enoch or Alexa, the two people actually entering this marriage.