The Emperor who left the grand conference hall headed not to the main palace but to the Empress’s palace.

“What brings you here without notice?”

Though surprised by the Emperor’s sudden visit, the Empress welcomed him with a smile.

“I will have refreshments prepared.”

“That won’t be necessary. Dismiss everyone.”

The Emperor’s voice was more gruffer than usual. She finally noticed his expression was also stern.

“Do you have something to discuss?”

The Empress sat across from the Emperor after dismissing all attendants and knights. Though she had a bad feeling, she pretended not to notice. Even after sitting down, the Emperor remained silent for a long while. He wasn’t looking at the Empress either. He only let out deep sighs occasionally.

“Your Majesty, is something troubling you?”

Even when he was young, the Emperor would come to her like this and maintain silence when he had concerns. Without rushing or prying, she would wait and continue casual conversation, and the Emperor would slowly open up about his worries. He wasn’t looking for answers from her. He just needed someone comfortable to listen to his story. The Empress understood this well.

Someone he didn’t need to maintain imperial dignity with, and thus could reveal his inner thoughts to. Lilith McCoy became the Emperor’s lover and Empress by creating such a place for herself within the Emperor.

She thought today was the same. Coming straight after the policy meeting ended, if the Emperor was worried about the meeting, she believed that though she couldn’t offer helpful advice, just listening would be comforting enough.

However, something was different from usual. The Emperor’s gaze toward her was so sharp it felt murderous.

“Your Majesty… have I done something wrong?”

When she asked, unable to bear the prolonged silence, the Emperor let out an empty sigh.

“Wrong… I wonder if you even think it’s wrong?”

The Empress frowned at these strange words.

“I really don’t know you anymore. What kind of person you are… what kind of person you were!”

The Emperor’s voice rose as he put force into his final words. The Empress’s eyes widened in response.

“Have you… perhaps heard some strange false rumors?”

The Empress asked in a trembling voice. The Emperor scoffed at the words ‘false rumors.’ Were they really false? Or was it the truth? He swallowed the words lingering on his tongue and glared at the Empress. Feeling burdened by just that gaze, the Empress’s eyes trembled slightly before lowering to avoid the Emperor’s stare.

“I don’t know what to do when Your Majesty acts like this.”

The Empress’s voice became tearful.

“You are all I have… if Your Majesty doubts me because of malicious rumors…”

Bang! Before she could finish speaking, the Emperor slammed his fist on the table. When the Empress looked up in surprise, he pulled something from his uniform pocket and scattered it on the table. The Empress’s gaze naturally fell to the items dropped on the table.

They were old, faded letter envelopes. As she examined them closely, wondering what they were, her eyes gradually widened.

The back of the envelopes bore House McCoy’s seal. It was the seal once used by Marquis McCoy, and after his death, the one she had used under the name Lilith McCoy.

The Emperor who dumped the letters said nothing. He just glared at the Empress and the letters with fierce eyes.

The Empress picked up the letters with trembling hands to check their contents. She was certain these were letters she had sent to Marquis Belmont, but they were so old she couldn’t remember what was written in them anymore. Her eyes trembled as she read the first page. Thinking that the Emperor must have read all of this, she felt her world going dark.

“Will you insist the contents of these letters were also fabricated by malicious people?”

“This, this is…”

Though she needed to make some excuse, her mind went blank and she couldn’t think of anything.

“So…”

The Emperor’s voice sank frightfully deep.

“Did you give your body to Belmont?”

“……”

The Empress couldn’t give any answer. The letter clearly displayed her handwriting, stating she would give Belmont anything he wanted, explicitly mentioning her body first.

Chewing her lips, she couldn’t bear the prolonged silence. After moistening her dry lips with her tongue, she moved her trembling lips to make a sound.

“Would you believe me if I said no?”

When she asked back, the Emperor let out a derisive laugh.

“You speak as if I’m the problem for not believing.”

The Emperor’s voice was cold. His gaze toward the Empress was filled with contempt.

“If you’ve already decided on the answer, whatever answer I give would be useless…!”

“Lilith!!”

The Emperor’s sudden shout made the Empress flinch and shrink back.

“Don’t try to deceive me.”

The Emperor who stood up came right in front of the Empress. His eyes fixed on her face gleamed even more fiercely.

“If you knew what I saw at Marquis Belmont’s mansion, you wouldn’t dare move those lips.”

He spat out each word as if grinding them. The Empress couldn’t even blink as she met the Emperor’s gaze.

The Emperor saw something? Was there something else besides these letters?

As she searched her memories, something suddenly flashed through her mind.

‘Let me commemorate our last time together. Don’t I deserve at least that much reward for all I’ve done for you?’

Belmont had painted it himself. He spent several days and nights eating and rolling around while slowly painting on a large canvas.

She never saw the completed painting. At the time, she was pregnant with Lloyd, and when the Emperor learned of the pregnancy, he ordered her to enter the palace saying he would personally take care of her from then on. She had been with Belmont right up until entering the palace. It was to keep him on her side even afterward by coaxing and soothing him. There was a painting from that time.

Could that painting still exist?

Just the possibility made her spine go cold.

‘I sincerely congratulate you on becoming Empress. I will serve Your Majesty the Empress with all my heart from now on. You need not worry about the past. I have burned everything that could cause trouble for Your Majesty the Empress.’

She hadn’t completely believed those words. Knowing Belmont’s nature, she thought he might have hidden away everything related to her somewhere. So when she visited his mansion making excuses, she had searched everywhere herself. But she truly couldn’t find any traces. Belmont had soothed her again saying not to worry, and in the more than 20 years since then, he had never once mentioned the past, so it had faded from memory.

But now the letters she had sent him appeared in the Emperor’s hands. That meant other traces might still remain. What if the Emperor had seen those…? It felt like all the blood was draining from her body.

“Seeing your face, it seems my suspicions were correct.”

Neither had directly mentioned anything yet. Nevertheless, just seeing the Empress’s hardened face made the Emperor guess that his worst imaginings were true.

“Since I don’t know what you suspect, I cannot carelessly deny anything.”

She needed to answer calmly, but her voice trembled. The moment that painting she thought had been not just buried but vanished came to mind, she couldn’t maintain her composure.

“You don’t know what I suspect…”

The Emperor exhaled a long breath as if in disbelief.

“It’s disgusting to even mention it with my own mouth.”

Even his mutterings were full of sharp edges. The Empress made no response. She couldn’t even breathe deeply due to the tension that any careless word might make the situation even worse.

“Did you sleep with Belmont?”

It was a low voice. His anger had settled deep beyond overflowing.

“I’ll ask again. Were you intimate with Belmont?”

“……”

The Empress bit her lower lip hard and didn’t answer. If he already knew everything, it was better not to answer hastily.

“I asked if you slept with Belmont!”

The Emperor’s voice rose again. It was loud enough to worry it might be heard outside the reception room. The Empress gripped her skirt tightly and opened her mouth.

“Are you blaming me now, Your Majesty?”

The Emperor’s brow furrowed at her returned question. The Empress’s response was different from what he had expected.

“At that time, Your Majesty had another woman. You even had an officially recognized companion. And now you, who were in that situation, are condemning me, who was alone then?”

The Emperor’s eyebrows twisted at the Empress’s rebuttal. The Empress was now asking who was worse between the Emperor who had been married then and her who had been a widow.

“I wasn’t yours. I had to do anything to survive. If it weren’t for Marquis Belmont, I might have been killed by Marquis McCoy’s relatives who were eyeing his fortune. After my former husband died. What were you doing then, Your Majesty? Who was by your side?”

“So you’re saying your relationship with Belmont was justified?”

“If we must compare, I’m saying I was more righteous than Your Majesty.”

“Ha!”

The Emperor was so dumbfounded he lost his words.

“It was a time when I couldn’t be sure if Your Majesty could protect me completely. I only did my best to protect myself. It’s unfair to condemn me from that time. If I had been Your Majesty’s consort from the start, if I had been your person from the beginning, I wouldn’t have made such choices either.”

Looking at the Empress who was not just righteous but rather claiming unfair treatment made his head throb. If they were to argue about what happened in the past, neither of them was blameless. More than dwelling on that issue, the Emperor had another more important concern.

“What about Lloyd!”

The Empress closed her mouth and stared at him at the Emperor’s loud voice.

“Is he definitely my blood? Not Belmont’s child?”

The Empress’s lips trembled at the Emperor’s question. Her eyes instantly filled with tears which then rolled down her cheeks.

“Answer me. If you lie, I won’t forgive you anymore, even if it’s you.”

The Emperor showed not the slightest wavering at the Empress’s tears. His gaze toward her was only cold. His suspicion had already become a certainty. The Empress could feel that too.

“He is Your Majesty’s son. I swear on my life.”

“How can you prove it?”

“Whether it’s true or not, there’s no way to prove it. In any case, what Your Majesty believes will become the truth.”

The Empress turned away to wipe her tears, not hiding her hurt feelings. Her sobbing sounds were gradually growing louder.

The Emperor made no attempt to comfort her. After watching her silently for a while, he left the reception room as is. The attendants flinched at the door closing so hard it made a bang, but none dared to ask what had happened. As far as they knew, this was the first time the Emperor and Empress had such a fierce argument.

*