Two hands gripped her fair shoulders. Jeanne let out a short scream at the forceful touch. Moisture welled in her eyes. It was a physiological response. She glared at her husband while biting her lips from the knife-like pain. Even though she was no longer hurt by her husband’s rudeness, she sometimes felt suffocated.

Those crude touches, his capricious attitude, and impulsive actions without forethought made her extremely tired. If he had been sharp and irritable in everything, it wouldn’t have been this exhausting. He wasn’t like this when he was young….

No, he was an affectionate husband until Kiril was born. Their relationship became twisted right after Giuseppe was born, but he started to change after Kiril was born.

Though it was now a distant past, Jeanne couldn’t forget that time. He was kind and gentle…. Though he couldn’t be called mild, he was sensitive and relaxed. So she thought it would be fine. Even if they couldn’t love each other every moment, they would live understanding each other.

“You seem desperate to provoke me at every turn.”

“What do you mean?”

“It means I can’t understand you.”

He lifted Jeanne up while murmuring insensitively. Jeanne primly bit her lips. Who was he to say such things? She hardened her face as she twisted her shoulders to escape from him.

Water splashed and her n*ked br*asts were exposed. He pulled her wet body and embraced her. Her large, soft br*asts were crushed against his firm chest, and a sensual moan escaped her plump lips.

“Hmn……”

He caressed her thin body with a crooked smile. Was it because she was an Eve? His wife’s body wasn’t much different from when she was a virgin. Whether it was genetic or constitutional….

He had heard that Eve possessed a beauty that didn’t wither until the moment of her death. At least according to ancient texts. It was the same for Adam. They would not age until death. They would live as if they would live forever, then one day their breath would stop like the hands of a clock.

Cesare tilted his head slightly and then smirked.

“There’s never a moment when you’re not in heat for me, yet you talk about being a proper wife and motherly attitude…. When have you ever not been my woman?”

It’s also funny. He sneered. Jeanne glared at him while biting her lips. Physiological tears rolled down her cheeks. Her lower abdomen, pressed against his below her crushed br*asts, tingled.

It wasn’t heat but pain. After ravaging her so much that she could barely take a proper step…. She had things to do too. Inquiring after the Empress Dowager’s health and caring for the children who looked for her all day were tasks he didn’t do. Besides….

“Let me go.”

“Why?”

“I have things to do too. It might seem like all I do is spread my legs for Your Majesty every night, but I am still the Empress Dowager’s daughter-in-law and the mother of imperial descendants. Above all, I am the acting empress, so I must also care for the concubine who is said to be pregnant with Your Majesty’s child.”

“Ha!”

He laughed. Jeanne watched the man burst into a twisted laugh in disbelief. He was the one who had openly gathered women in the rear palace. In the midst of that, one of them was said to be carrying the emperor’s seed, so she should properly look after her.

“Jeanne.”

“Don’t call me that.”

She twisted her wrist that he had grabbed. Though he had reduced his force, his still crude touch was disgusting. She raised her head and stared at his emotionless face.

His probing gaze was nauseating. She wished it was just lust. She would be grateful if those eyes saw her only as a woman. But this man, her husband….

“I’ve never spent a night with a woman who isn’t you. I haven’t even touched the fingertips of a woman who isn’t you.”

“Then why……”

“I will resolve it.”

“What……”

“I was a fool to create this situation just to get a bit of your jealousy.”

After saying that, he released her wrist. Jeanne immediately retreated and pulled in her chin. She didn’t understand what he was saying, but she didn’t want to hear any more. It only accumulated fatigue.

He gestured to the maid. Understanding his signal, the maid immediately brought a pale pink silk robe. Jeanne staggered out of the bath and put on the robe.

“You don’t need to meet my mother.”

“Attending to my mother-in-law is a daughter-in-law’s duty. I……”

“I never asked you to be my birth mother’s daughter-in-law, so go back and care for my children who are crazy about having a mother.”

He turned around after cutting her off without the slightest distortion in his face. Indignation heated her up. Jeanne shouted at the man who was turning to leave the bathroom.

“You can’t stop me from doing my duties! No matter what Your Majesty says, I will properly do my duties! Until you divorce me!”

Her vision turned hazy. Jeanne, who had been shouting while breathing heavily, collapsed. The startled maid supported her. She sat down and breathed laboriously. Her heart felt like it would burst from emotions she couldn’t vomit out. Instead of shedding endless tears, she bit her lips.

* * *

Though Cesare said there was no need to respond to the Empress Dowager’s summons, for Jeanne, not responding to her mother-in-law’s call was very difficult. Perhaps it would be different if she were just a concubine or his mistress. Jeanne was the emperor’s bride who had been raised in the imperial palace since she was eight years old, and his official consort. Moreover, she had grown up under the Empress Dowager for a long time.

She had been separated from her husband at nine and stayed in her mother-in-law’s palace until she was seventeen, so she had spent more than half of her childhood under her shadow. She thought of the time when just the memory made her legs tremble.

The strict etiquette of the imperial palace was influenced by Riscarlo’s patriarchal climate and the conservative sentiment of aristocratic society. So whether she received the title of empress or not, doing her best as a daughter-in-law to the Empress Dowager was extremely important to Jeanne.

It was afternoon. Despite the warning in the bathroom, Jeanne came looking for him with a face flushed white.

Cesare glanced at her and then focused on his documents. Despite barely being able to walk properly. The woman who had hurriedly come after dressing up, fearing he might separate her and send her to the Empress Dowager’s palace, was pale enough to be pitiful.

“You’re going to the Empress Dowager’s palace looking like that?”

“What’s wrong with how I look?”

“Did you look in a mirror?”

“If you don’t like how I look, you can cast me out. Then seat a woman you like as Empress Consort.”

His wife didn’t back down. The way she retorted to everything, grating on his nerves, was like a cat with its fur standing on end. Instead of sighing, Cesare buried himself in the backrest and stared at her intently.

Her magnolia-like puffy sleeves and white ruff collar that wrapped around her neck were elegant and noble, but her unusually pale face only highlighted her innate frailty.

He slowly stood up while watching her with a pipe in his mouth. The completely stiffened woman flinched and looked up at him. He looked down at her blankly and then extended his hand without saying anything good. Jeanne, who had been looking at him expressionlessly, soon took his hand.

The “Sacred Palace” where the Empress Dowager resided was located to the east of the “White Palace,” the center of Baren Palace where the emperor stayed. Unlike the palaces that had undergone repeated reconstruction and expansion, the Empress Dowager’s residence, which had preserved its antiquity for a long time, was called “Amang Herne” in ancient language, meaning “mother’s house,” and stood more majestically than any other old palace.

Jeanne got off the carriage with the emperor and looked up at the spires surrounding the Empress Dowager’s palace.

The four tall, pointed towers were so high that their tops couldn’t be seen even with her head completely tilted back. It looked more like a temple where priests walked than a palace where imperial family members resided. From the bricks that appeared reddish-brown from age to the courtyard that differed from modern styles. The dome with rounded curves and the parallel arched windows were antique.

The palace, which was somewhat boringly neat unlike the empress’s palace that was elegant and bright, was exotic in a way.

This was because, unlike the other palaces that had been repeatedly reconstructed and reborn in Riscarlo’s unique style, this place had originally been a temple of the Paro Empire that had ruled and dominated the Eastern Continent, and following the wishes of Rosalite, the founding emperor’s birth mother and Riscarlo’s first Empress Dowager, it had maintained its original form with only slight expansion.

“Jeanne.”

Her husband approached her as she looked up at the spires with eyes that were not just gloomy but frightened. Unlike usual when he would wrap his long arms around her slender waist, he politely extended his hand. Jeanne glanced at him and folded her hand over his.

He suddenly pulled her. She flinched in surprise and looked at him, and he met her gaze expressionlessly. His eyes asked if there was a problem. She tightly closed her lips and looked ahead.

The emperor took the first step. Jeanne followed him into the Empress Dowager’s palace.