Chapter 34

After a few sips, Azure quietly brought up Lyle.  

“By the way, do you know His Majesty has someone he cares about?”

At Azure’s unexpected words, the Empress Dowager set down her teacup and asked,  

“So, who is it? What kind of person?”  

Azure answered simply,  

“She’s ordinary. And cute.”  

Describing too much wouldn’t be proper for either Ethea or Lyle. Fortunately, the Empress Dowager didn’t press for details.  

“‘Ordinary and cute’… I can’t really picture it, but at least it sounds like she wouldn’t be suited for palace life.”  

To live as the Emperor’s partner in the palace, you needed certain qualities: cunning, reliable power like Azure’s, or another charm that would make you beloved by the people of the Empire.  

If you didn’t fit any of those, and were simply ordinary and cute, you wouldn’t be any help to the Emperor.  

“But His Majesty likes her. Isn’t that enough?”  

“Well. He’s my son, but… ah, a man’s heart is hard to trust.”  

The Empress Dowager had once tasted the bitterness of the former Emperor’s fickle affections. There’d been more than ten women who had worn the title of Empress. A man’s love was as fleeting as flowers that fall when the seasons change. No matter how much Lyle liked that woman, it wouldn’t last long.  

With those thoughts, the Empress Dowager decided to reassure her future daughter-in-law.  

“So, Azure, don’t worry about such things. Your marriage to Lyle will be solid.”  

But Azure, feeling sorry, spoke words contrary to the Empress Dowager’s.  

“Your Majesty, I think I’ll have to break off my engagement with His Majesty.”  

“Azure…?”  

Her confession made the Empress Dowager anxious.  

“Don’t say that. If you were going to break off the engagement, you would have done so already. Don’t you know why Lyle hasn’t ended it?”  

Azure wasn’t ignorant. If the engagement ended, the elders of the Imperial City would start pestering the Emperor about marriage. With no progress in his relationship with the woman he cared about, he wouldn’t rashly break the engagement. If Azure took the initiative to break it, he’d probably accept, pretending to be reluctant.  

But the Empress Dowager thought differently.  

“It’s because he trusts you. The Mage Tower and Lyle must stay together.”  

Azure thought the Empress Dowager’s worries were excessive.  

“Don’t worry. I’ll stay with His Majesty until the end.”  

“But Azure…”  

“His Majesty gave me freedom, so I should be a loyal friend for life, shouldn’t I?”  

In the end, her resolve to break off the engagement was firm.  

The Empress Dowager held Azure’s hand tightly.  

“I believe in you. Don’t leave Lyle.”  

“Still, I’ll always work as His Majesty’s person. You don’t have to be his partner to stay by his side. Look at Seisil.”  

“Seisil is undoubtedly trustworthy.”  

“So am I. If Seisil ever gets overwhelmed, I’ll step up—as His Majesty’s second magician.”  

The Empress Dowager sensed that Azure’s decision wouldn’t change and couldn’t say anything more.  

A chilly wind blew. As her tea cooled, Azure hurried to finish it. The Empress Dowager offered her some cookies, and Azure, with her hearty appetite, ate every kind. Time passed quickly as they chatted and enjoyed refreshments.  

The Empress Dowager wanted to stop the breakup, but realized that once Azure made up her mind, she wouldn’t waver.  

Azure said it was time to head back and bid farewell.  

“I’ll see you again soon. Please stay healthy.”  

“Yes, come again.”  

***

Azure’s next stop was the Emperor’s office. The Emperor was immersed in work, buried in piles of documents.  

Just checking all the papers was tiring, but stamping them was even more bothersome, so Lyle used magic for all the seals. Seeing this, Azure thought it wouldn’t be bad for him to seriously study magic.  

“Your Majesty, do you really have no intention of becoming my student at the Mage Tower?”  

Lyle shook his head. To Azure, it might look like the Emperor himself was using magic to stamp documents, but the true source of this magic was Sadea.  

Sadea, a fierce god of sl*ughter, was surprisingly obedient to his host, helping with small tasks without complaint. Sometimes, when Lyle told Seisil about this, Seisil would tease that Sadea wasn’t a god of sl*ughter but a loyal slave.  

But this was a top secret—no one but Seisil knew, and no one else should. Azure was an exception; she was someone who would pretend not to know even if she did.  

Lyle stopped his paperwork and approached Azure.  

“How have you been, Sister?”  

He didn’t call her brother like Seisil did, but this title still didn’t suit Azure. So she pleaded, for what felt like the hundredth time,  

“Your Majesty, please don’t call me that—use my name. That way…”  

“You mean because you put a magic recharge spell on your name, so it helps, right?”  

Lyle cut her off and finished her sentence. Azure glared at him, as if to ask why he acted like he didn’t know.  

But soon she laughed. Lyle could be mischievous, but he was still a cute younger like-brother, just like Seisil.  

“I feel like I’ve been overworking the Mage Tower staff lately, so I was planning to have a good meeting soon. Please, sit.”  

Lyle was always polite to Azure, who was ten years older.  

Azure sat on the sofa as Lyle instructed, and only after she’d sat did he sit across from her.  

Azure liked this about Lyle. Even as Emperor, he didn’t sit at the head seat, but listened from across—he hadn’t changed since his days as a prince. His consistency made it easy to be open with him.  

“Your Majesty. The reason I came today is…”  

“Yes, please speak.”  

“I think it’s best to call off our engagement.”  

“Oh.”  

Lyle lowered his gaze for a moment, then looked at Azure and smiled playfully,  

“Is it because I’m not good husband material?”  

“Haha, not at all. I just don’t need a husband.”  

“I see.”  

Lyle honestly expected this day would come.  

Azure had proposed to Lyle to escape a forced marriage. With her immense magic and skill, she couldn’t stand the thought of her life being tied down by an unwanted marriage.  

The engagement was a means of escape. No matter how high his status, she never truly expected the engagement to end in marriage.  

‘I expected this…’  

But Lyle thought he would be the one to suggest breaking it off first. Someday, they’d each find someone they truly liked and consider real marriage. Azure might already have someone she cared about. He didn’t want to make her Empress if that was the case. So he intended to let her go first.  

Still, he’d put off breaking it off because he felt guilty. When he needed strength as a child, he’d relied on her. Now to break off the engagement on his own felt selfish. There was her reputation to consider, too. Of course, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t go through with it, but…  

Anyway, since she was asking first, it solved his dilemma. He was grateful and sad.  

“I respect your decision. Let’s proceed with the formalities.”  

“Even though I asked you to use my name… Honestly, you’re glad, aren’t you?”  

“How could you say that?”  

“I heard most of it from Seisil. And I saw her myself, ah, her. She was really cute.”  

When Ethea was mentioned, Lyle’s face turned red. Azure wanted to tease him more.  

“She seemed plain but had charm.”  

“…”  

“I’m not the only one who thinks so. The young men in the village too…”  

“The young men in the village?”  

Lyle asked, his voice sharp with tension.  

Azure, amused, pressed further. It was all true, anyway.  

“She’s so charming, everyone’s kind to her. Not openly, but you can feel it. Hassen, the fruit seller, delivers fruit to her even when she doesn’t ask, and Luth from the vigilante group protects the children playing in her yard, and if she offers him a drink, he blushes…”  

Lyle’s eyebrows twitched. Hassen from the fruit shop and Luth from the vigilante group?  

‘Etty!’  

Gin’s real father, Lyle, hadn’t been invited, but the village young men had?  

Lyle felt a splitting discomfort in his forehead.  

“The party was for Gin, but the men were more interested in the hostess. Such popularity, haha.”  

“I… I see.”  

The Emperor’s cute reaction made Azure want to tease him more.  

“Oh, by the way, you weren’t invited, were you?”  

Lyle felt his pride wounded at the thought of agreeing.  

“Um, haha. Well, Sister, I was busy…”  

Just then, the chief attendant interrupted their conversation.  

“Your Majesty, there’s a request for an audience.”  

“Who is it?”  

Lyle asked, and an unexpected answer came.  

“It’s Ethea from Oak Village.”  

Azure’s eyes widened in surprise. Could a commoner request an audience so quickly? It had to be because Lyle had made arrangements, telling them to let her in immediately whenever she came.  

Just as the saying goes, ‘Speak of the devil, and she appears.’  

But Lyle was even more surprised. He jumped up and shouted,  

“Let her in immediately!”