It might have been understandable when she was actively bearing imperial descendants. If the Empress Dowager wanted to find fault and reprimand her, this would be a significant issue. After all, she was the Empress Dowager’s daughter-in-law. Of course, according to what she had mentioned, she was just a surrogate woman, not an empress, but maintaining dignity as the emperor’s official consort was another matter.

“Thank you.”

Jeanne whispered softly after drinking the water the maid handed her. The maid blushed and suggested in a gentle voice that she move to the bathroom, take a bath, and then have a meal. Jeanne nodded.

Wearing a bathrobe instead of a negligee, she moved to the bathroom with the maid’s support.

The bathroom, as spacious and pleasant as it was luxurious, was a place where one could have a kind of sauna, built five years ago by Cesare who had personally brought an architect from Barakan beyond the desert.

It was created solely for the couple and couldn’t be used by others. Jeanne walked along the familiar path after leaving the villa. Entering the elegant and majestic building, she felt the warmth.

Jeanne walked on the warm marble floor and moved to the bathtub. The court’s sauna, which had been carefully designed from selecting the stones to cutting them neatly, was all created by him using his abilities as an Adam.

But what truly made the palace staff like him was that even the troublesome tasks of boiling water and heating stones didn’t require their hands.

‘Who would have known that the return of Adam would bring such good things? Come to think of it, the late Emperor Maximilian was truly wise.’

She recalled the words of servants who were talking without knowing Jeanne was there. With the halving of trivial tasks that required human hands, the staff couldn’t help but be pleased. Jeanne thought about what a great Adam was as she stood in front of the bathtub.

Unlike the small, elongated bathtubs used by concubines, the large square bathtub made of milky marble felt empty enough to sense a chill. She touched the edge of the bathtub without being flustered. Immediately, water filled it, surging. It was the emperor’s power.

She thought of the man as she looked at the bathtub with warm steam rising. The man who made water fill this enormous bathtub every time she bathed, while he himself used a modest rose bathtub.

He had said he designed this bathroom for only him and her to use. If it wasn’t him or her, water wouldn’t fill even if one touched it with a toe…. Despite reducing the burden on subordinates with Adam’s abilities, it was luxury and waste.

“From now on, have water drawn in a portable tub.”

“But……”

“What a waste for me to use alone?”

A mere Empress Consort who hadn’t even received the title of empress filling a marble bathtub that even the emperor didn’t use. When she wasn’t going to bathe all day…. Besides, hadn’t there been reports of drought and crop failure in some regions of Riscarlo?

She didn’t want to be a thoughtless woman. Rather than not wanting to be hated, she didn’t want to indulge in luxury while knowing there were people struggling.

“But when His Majesty attends to you, Empress Consort……”

“I’m fine, so please don’t go to such trouble. I’m worried about harsh words circulating behind my back.”

She had to lie. The maid immediately closed her mouth. If she expressed concern about gossip, subordinates generally complied. This was because Jeanne’s position was ambiguous and her situation was awkward.

“Your father won’t stand by if such things happen. If that happens.”

It was when she was immersed in the bathtub, watching the steam rise. The maid who was holding strands of her tangled brown hair murmured softly.

Jeanne raised her gaze and looked at her. The maid who had been rubbing her tangled hair with rose oil turned her gaze.

“Why are you bringing up my father?”

“Well……”

“Be careful not to cause trouble with unnecessary words. He’s a man who is always busy with state affairs, too important to be involved in mere palace women’s gossip.”

Jeanne sternly rebuked the maid for mentioning her father. It was unlike her usual self. The maid nodded, becoming mute as if she had swallowed honey.

Even without managing the bathroom, she would be busy sweeping and cleaning the palace corridors all day. Jeanne thought she might have been too harsh. These weren’t unfamiliar experiences for her either. When she lived in the Empress Dowager’s palace, she had lived no differently from a maid, or rather, a kitchen drudge.

Still, it was better to be firm about such matters. Her father had been trying to distance himself from the imperial family anyway. Though he had flowed into central politics by taking key positions under imperial orders, he had long been on bad terms with the Empress Dowager, and their relationship had grown even colder after the birth of her eldest son. Usually, even between in-laws with bad relationships, longstanding conflicts tend to resolve when grandchildren are born, but the Empress Dowager and Count Spetunia only grew more distant without any improvement.

In the midst of this, Jeanne had given birth to her second son in succession, followed by her third and fourth sons. The Empress Dowager outwardly praised her daughter-in-law and said she would reward her, but even a seven-year-old page boy knew that her true intentions weren’t bright.

So how could the conflict be resolved…. Count Spetunia was Jeanne’s biological father, whether she was his illegitimate daughter or born out of wedlock. Though she wasn’t his only child, he had loved and cherished her as if she were his only daughter for a long time.

If her mother hadn’t given birth to a son 12 years ago, that attachment would have been even deeper and clearer. Though there were officially children born to the countess, people unanimously agreed that his paternal love for Jeanne was incomparable.

So she needed to behave more properly. She couldn’t put her father in a difficult position. This background was also why Jeanne tried not to confront the Empress Dowager.

If she wanted to confront her mother-in-law, she could do so at any time. Her family was as powerful as her mother-in-law’s family, the Duke of Albrov, and her family’s territory, Valetona, was as fertile and rich as Gishu, the territory of the Duke of Albrov’s family.

So if she wanted to confront her, she could do so properly. If she had shown her father even half of half of the tyranny she was enduring, he wouldn’t have remained still. Jeanne knew this well. So absolutely….

“His Majesty is coming.”

A clear resonance shook the bathroom. Jeanne looked surprised at the unexpected visit. The maid, with reddened cheeks, hastily retreated. The emperor walked in with long strides.

Jeanne instinctively covered her chest with blushing cheeks. He was wearing a stiff shirt and a black gilet, unlike last night, suggesting he had been attending to state affairs. Finding it awkward to stare at him directly, she looked at the abundant cravat decorating his collar. He looked extremely neat and ascetic.

“You invade a woman’s space like this every time, making me not know where to put myself.”

“It feels like I’ve come somewhere I shouldn’t. Besides, how is our bathroom only your space?”

“But now……”

“You were whimpering in my arms just days ago. Don’t you remember it was in this bathroom too?”

He murmured without smiling. Jeanne blushed with her gaze turned away. She would be grateful if he at least sent the maid away. She feared becoming known as a woman who received the emperor’s teasing in a luxuriously built bathroom. That was something a young concubine or mistress would do.

Whatever others might think, Jeanne was now a mother. She didn’t want to be called a woman who shyly enjoyed the emperor’s favor and played frivolously with him. Someday Kiril would have to ascend to the throne.

If the record stated that his mother was no different from a licentious concubine who hadn’t even properly received an official title, she felt she would throw herself into the flowing Javenne River out of shame.

“Do you have something to say?”

Jeanne corrected her expression and asked. Cesare, who was casually sitting on the edge of the bathtub, looked down at her. Her primly ripe face was lovely.

Should he say she was like a plum? He pulled at his lips while lifting the chin of the woman who couldn’t meet his gaze. What was there to be modest about…. They had six children together. He could impregnate her anytime, and no matter how unwilling she might be, Jeanne had no right to refuse pregnancy.

“Is there anything to be modest about between us?”

“Your Majesty.”

He rubbed her wet lips while removing his faint smile as he lifted his wife’s chin. Jeanne narrowed her brows and tried to push his hand away. But Cesare was a persistent man. He was a man who didn’t know how to accept his wife’s rejection, and recently, that tendency had grown even stronger. Even though interpreting a momentary rejection as eternal refusal was something not even his young sons would do….

“Ack!”