When Gis maintained his silence in the face of the two women’s demands, the Empress Dowager shifted the atmosphere and soothed the emperor in a gentle tone.

“This is something to celebrate. Isn’t it a joyous occasion for the Empire and the Imperial family that we have awaited for so long? To have both an Empress and a precious child at once—this is a double blessing.”

The Empress Dowager continued as if Beate were not present.

“I didn’t realize that His Majesty would be so successful in producing an heir. This mother has been anxious all this time, swayed by baseless rumors.”

Beate was completely excluded from the conversation, standing awkwardly like a piece of office furniture with a complicated smile on her face. No one included her, the person most directly involved, in the discussion. She had thought they would at least offer a token word of congratulations.

What had she expected from them? Her own body was nothing more than a political tool for these two women. Beate blamed herself for holding on to even a sliver of hope.

Gis, for his part, kept his thoughts hidden and spoke little in front of his sister-in-law, who pretended to care for him, and his brother’s mother. These were the very women who, until the Crown Prince’s death, had despised Prince Gis more than anyone. They were the ones who had cursed and wailed that it should have been him, the illegitimate son, who died instead of Kyle, the legitimate Crown Prince.

Though time had passed, he knew their hearts had not changed. Their smiling faces were just political masks, not genuine feelings. Until the other side reveals their hidden claws, one must keep their own claws hidden as well. That was politics, and the best courtesy he could offer them.

“What are Your Majesty’s thoughts?”

“As a man and a member of the Imperial family, you will surely fulfill your responsibilities and duties, will you not?”

The Dowager Grand Duchess and the Empress Dowager pressed him repeatedly, urging him to answer.

Before replying, Gis looked at Beate. Her face was pale, and she looked so exhausted that she might collapse at any moment.

Finally, Gis spoke.

“Do as you wish. I will leave the matter of the Empress to the two of you.”

He tossed out his answer in an indifferent tone and rose from his seat. If he showed any sign of caring for Beate, those women would only exploit her more ruthlessly.

Beate’s pregnancy was already a spilled cup of water. Since it could not be undone, he resolved to prepare thorough countermeasures. He let the two women take the lead on the imperial marriage, pretending to acquiesce.

“I have a meeting with the ministers. Please inform me of your decisions through my aide.”

Gis moved toward the door but paused in front of Beate. He lifted her small, soft chin with one hand.

Gis’s sharply defined features shimmered like a sculpture in Beate’s large eyes, which were filled with fear.

“You’ve gotten yourself into something you can’t handle alone. And you didn’t even give me time to prepare.”

He whispered in a tone of reproach. Beate’s shoulders flinched.

“That is…”

“It’s not the place to explain here. I, too, have things left to say, so let’s talk separately later.”

His expression was cold and his tone dry, but the hand holding Beate’s chin was gentle and warm.

‘Does this man have even a little bit of feeling for me? If he knew my circumstances, would he understand me, even a little?’

Perhaps reading the longing in Beate’s eyes, Gis turned his head away. He released her chin and left the office, a chill trailing in his wake.

A heavy silence, like an eternity, settled over the office with only the three women remaining. It was the Dowager Grand Duchess who broke the silence with her sharp voice.

“You should leave now as well. Stop your duties as a maid and return to the Grand Duke’s residence tomorrow evening. I’ll send someone for you to prepare for the imperial wedding.”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

Beate bid farewell to the two women and left the office. Meeting people as formidable as these, even one at a time, was exhausting—seeing them together was almost unbearable.

Phew. She let out a long sigh in a deserted spot.

“It won’t be smooth from here on out, will it?”

Still, she comforted herself that at least she had fulfilled her mission in this life, so she wouldn’t die—never guessing what was to come.

*   *   *

The following night, Beate finished her final duties as a maid. When she returned to the palace, it would be as Empress, not as a maid. Just as the title of Grand Duke’s daughter had been an empty shell, so too would the title of Empress be no different.

She headed to the Grand Duke’s residence with the attendants sent by the Dowager Grand Duchess. A maid from the residence rode in the carriage with her, along with a coachman and a guard.

The carriage was not headed to the townhouse in the capital, but to the main house in the suburbs. The forest road on the outskirts of the capital felt especially lonely that night. Even with the moon out, the overlapping shadows of the trees made it dark.

It was a road she had traveled many times, but tonight the eerie cries of wild animals sent chills down her spine. Was it her maternal and protective instincts, heightened by pregnancy, making her sensitive?

Suddenly, a scream of agony rang out from outside the carriage.

When she pulled back the curtain, she saw blood spattered on the carriage window, and the terrified maid began to sob and tremble.

Beate opened the window and looked outside. The coachman and guard’s bodies had already fallen to the ground, growing smaller in the distance as the carriage sped away.

The frightened horses bolted wildly, sending the carriage careening down an unfamiliar path, shaking so violently it seemed about to break apart.

‘If we keep going this way, there’ll be a cliff. I have to jump out before then.’

She hoped a thicket would appear before the road ended.

Beate flung open the carriage door, told the maid to do the same, and waited for the right moment to jump.

Focusing all her senses, Beate caught the faint scent of a familiar herb on the wind.

‘This scent…’

It was the fragrance that signaled the presence of a soft, dense thicket. The faster the carriage went, the stronger the scent grew. She warned the maid to prepare.

“Now! Jump!”

Beate gave the signal.

Just as she was about to leap into the air at the peak of the scent, the carriage’s front wheel hit a rock and broke off, the horses tangled and collapsed.

Her body flew through the air, and she hit the ground with a shattering impact.

Her face on the ground felt wet. Was it already soaked with blood from her injuries?

Lying face down, Beate struggled to lift her head. Right in front of her was a small puddle formed in a hollow in the ground.

The puddle shimmered in the moonlight, and in it was reflected the face of a stranger.

A woman with the same bright honey-blonde, wavy hair and violet eyes as Beate looked back at her with a sorrowful expression.

She thought it was a vision that appeared just before death, as it had in her previous life. Back then, as she died from poison, she saw the emperor’s face overlap with another man’s.

Blood flowed from the beautiful stranger’s face. Blood dripped from Beate’s own face as well, clouding the puddle and making the woman’s image disappear.

Her mind grew hazy. A lovely scent, one she had never smelled before, lingered at the tip of her nose. The thicket was right in front of her.

There, small white flowers bloomed in the moonlight.

[Beate, this plant smells wonderful even as a herb, but when it blooms, it’s even more fragrant. I learned about it when I had you. One day, when you fall in love, you’ll know it too.]

It was the flower scent her mother had told her about as a child, a fragrance only a maiden in her first pregnancy could detect. According to legend, if a man made a flower crown from this blossom and gave it to the woman carrying his first child, their love would last forever.

The flower was called “Beatus Virgo,” meaning “Blessed Maiden.”

‘I’m carrying a child who should be a blessing, so why must I die in this life as well?’

Grief weighed down on Beate. Her eyelids grew heavier and, in the end, death came for her once more.

As she took her last breath, Beate spoke the emperor’s name aloud for the first and last time.

“Gi…s…”

Without ever knowing why she had to die even after carrying the emperor’s child, her second life ended in vain.

She engraved deeply into her soul that, if she were ever given another life, she would never live like this again.