When Lysith made a face that seemed to say ‘What nonsense is this?’, Diana spoke again, as if to drive the point home.

“Someone recommended you, lady, for the position of Empress.”

Of course, in terms of status, Lysith was currently the most suitable candidate for Empress. But in the history of the Empire, there had never been a single case of a woman marrying the Emperor after divorcing a Grand Duke.

No, there had never been a divorced woman marrying the Emperor in the first place!

While the Faeous Empire wasn’t entirely harsh in its view of divorced women, they weren’t treated the same as unmarried women either. Lysith wanted to argue what the difference was between being unmarried or divorced, but anyway, that was the social climate of this game world.

“Are they in their right mind…”

“They probably were.”

It was even more absurd that they said such a thing in their right mind.

Above all, given that the Emperor had already once rejected marriage with Lysith, it was incomprehensible what they were thinking to bring up such a suggestion.

No sooner had she thought this than Diana continued.

“Well, from what I heard… it seems the Duke was trying to push for it a bit.”

“My brother… did?”

“Yes. Of course, it seems His Majesty was well aware of it all.”

This was about Sylvian Gronevelt, whom she hadn’t even met yet.

He still hadn’t come up to the capital, so Lysith knew nothing about him. Except for the cold demeanor that remained in her memories.

To think that such a person was considering marriage between the Emperor and Lysith…

For what reason? That was her first thought.

It wasn’t something an ordinary person would casually consider.

To speculate most lightly, there was an advantage in terms of power. Since she was no longer the Grand Duchess, pushing her to become Empress would make the Gronevelt ducal family extremely close to the Imperial family. In fact, it was even better than becoming a Grand Duchess. Any ordinary noble family would obviously be overjoyed at such a prospect.

After roughly organizing her thoughts and pushing aside her musings about Sylvian, Lysith slightly bit her lip while pretending to drink tea, hiding her lower face with the cup.

Could she glean even a little about the Emperor’s reaction here? How should she phrase it…

“Lady Pirandello.”

“Yes?”

“Do you know everything about that day’s conversation?”

“Yes. I heard it from my father.”

For now, since it wasn’t too late to ask why she had come to tell her this story, Lysith wanted to hear about that day’s events first.

“I’m curious about how people reacted when my name came up.”

“…Hmm.”

Giving up on beating around the bush, Lysith finally asked directly about what she was curious about. Diana, not particularly flustered by Lysith’s words and looking as if it was understandable, fiddled with her teacup for a moment.

Diana’s response was quite ambiguous. It felt as if she was hesitating, wondering if she should tell this story.

‘What is it? Did the Emperor shout for everyone to get out, saying what nonsense is this?’

As Lysith, inwardly screaming, stared intently at her face, Diana finally opened her mouth cautiously.

“His Majesty…”

“Yes.”

“…said, ‘What nonsense is this?'”

“……”

The moment she heard Diana’s words, Lysith felt like crying.

I knew it.

I knew this would happen!

There must have been reasons why the Emperor initially refused marriage with Lysith. Moreover, hadn’t he grown up in the Imperial Palace with the Grand Duke when they were young? It would have been a bit ridiculous to ask him to marry his friend’s ex-wife.

In fact, this whole situation was a comedy…

As Lysith held her forehead, Diana slowly began to recount the story of that day’s noble council meeting.

“As they were moving on to the next agenda, Count Chensi brought up the topic of the Empress position.”

“Count Chensi… He’s from the Noble faction, right?”

“That’s right. Anyway, starting from that, various names were mentioned…”

As Diana’s words trailed off, Lysith felt a sense of foreboding.

And sure enough…

“Someone brought up your name, Lady.”

“……”

“I heard the council chamber froze. His Majesty asked if someone had put them up to it.”

“Put them up to it?”

“As I mentioned earlier, it seems he had Duke Gronevelt in mind.”

Lysith nodded, trying to suppress her uneasy feelings.

“Did it just end there?”

“No. His Majesty apparently expressed disbelief, saying something like, ‘You’re telling me to take in a woman who’s been discarded once as the Empress.'”

“……”

Diana, who had been carefully observing Lysith’s ambiguous expression, continued speaking cautiously.

“As you know, His Highness the Grand Duke and His Majesty the Emperor don’t have a very good relationship.”

The Emperor and the Grand Duke don’t get along well?

This was news to Lysith. Diana’s following words, suggesting that this might be why he reacted more sensitively, went in one ear and out the other.

‘I guess this is as far as I go…’

f*cked. Should I just die?

It’s already quite an achievement to have slept with two out of four, right? She tried to console herself inwardly, but reality was harsh.

Failing to manage her expression, Lysith let out a hollow laugh as her gaze drifted to the distant mountains.

‘You should have told me about this earlier, you damn system…’

They don’t get along? But didn’t they grow up together when they were young! After this internal scream, she thought that if they had gotten along well, it might have been even harder to win him over. But did they need to have such a bad relationship? If they lived together in that vast imperial palace, shouldn’t they just be indifferent to each other?

She felt like she would have screamed at least five hundred times if she had been alone. How on earth was she supposed to win over the Emperor? When she’s the ex-wife of a friend? They weren’t even friends. That would have been better. The ex-wife of someone he doesn’t get along with was even worse.

The only fortunate thing was that due to Lysith completely cutting off her interest in Dietrich, rumors were already widespread in high society that she had ended her unrequited love.

But everything else was ruined.

‘What’s the use? Even I wouldn’t be interested in myself.’

As Lysith sighed deeply, Diana, who had been watching her with sharp eyes, sipped her now half-cold tea. After taking a couple of sips and silently setting down her cup, she put on a serious face.

“Lady.”

“Yes…”

“I came here today because I have something serious to ask you.”

Half-dazed by the story she had just heard, Lysith had almost forgotten that she still didn’t know why Diana had suddenly come to her mansion and why she had told her this story.

Barely regaining her composure, Lysith nodded for her to ask.

After examining Lysith’s face once more, Diana opened her mouth with an expression that couldn’t be more serious.

“Do you have any intention of becoming the Empress?”

“Pfft.”

Caught off guard by the unexpected question, Lysith slightly spit out the tea she was drinking. As she barely calmed her choking and set down her teacup with trembling hands, Diana followed with an apology.

It was inexplicable why her luck had been so strange lately.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t understand what you mean.”

“It’s exactly what I said. Do you have any intention of taking the position of Empress?”

…What was the reason for asking this now?

After a moment of surprise, Lysith thought deeply. An ordinary person might naturally aspire to the position beside the Emperor. So which side was this woman in front of her on?

It was almost a given that the Marquis of Pirandello wouldn’t arrange a political marriage for his daughter…

Then, what were the chances that Diana Pirandello liked the Emperor?

And why would she ask Lysith such a question in this situation?

…To check if she was a rival in love?

Lysith was indeed in a position where she needed to win over the Emperor. She had to share a bed with him at least once and raise his affection to 100.

But what happens after that was none of her business.

She wouldn’t become the Empress after that. Because she would escape this game. Strictly speaking, it had become a bizarre situation where she intended to seduce the Emperor but had no intention of actually becoming the Empress.

Looking at Diana’s face, she still wore an extremely serious expression. Contrary to her worries about the probability of Diana liking the Emperor, there was no sign of wariness towards her at all. Though Diana’s face was generally hard to read expressions from.

Lost in these thoughts, Lysith couldn’t answer Diana’s question. As if to put a period to her contemplation, Diana spoke in a resolute tone.

“I’ll be straightforward, Lady.”

“……?”

“I, no… we want you to have intentions for that position.”

Contrary to Lysith’s various concerns, it was a refreshingly clear statement.

So Diana wasn’t interested in the Emperor, and moreover, she wanted Lysith to ascend to the position of Empress…?

At this point, Lysith paused her thoughts for a moment.

“I don’t understand why you’re telling me this. As you said earlier, if His Majesty’s reaction was like that…”