“I’m not sure what you’re talking about……”

Natalia shrugged with an expression of complete innocence.

“You clearly said you would sign the contract on the second day of the harvest festival! And today, you invested in a different wine estate! How can you simply back out like this?”

It was as though he had swallowed a cannon, her ears ringing. Natalia pressed her hands over her ears with an irritated look and stood up.

“I’m sorry, but that’s how it turned out.”

She stroked her gently rounded belly and lifted her chin with regal composure. The meaning was clear, she carried the imperial heir, so others should step back.

But Viscount Cuvier beat his chest as though he might burst and cried out.

“Did I not even have a necklace made for you!”

“I haven’t actually received it yet, have I? Of course I’ll accept the gesture gladly. But—”

“What? Accept the gesture gladly?”

Natalia watched him exhale in disbelief and continued.

“Look here, Viscount. Do you think you’re the only noble who comes to me with requests? And I never asked for the necklace first. And since we’re on the subject, I have well-connected friends too. You were the one who tried to take advantage of me with that failing estate!”

As Natalia’s voice rose, the viscount rubbed his forehead with his palm in visible agitation.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Did you think I wouldn’t find out that you were planning to sell me that rotting estate?”

“How could you say such a thing!”

“Are you raising your voice at me right now?”

Viscount Cuvier snapped his mouth shut at Natalia’s sharp cry.

“If I keep talking I think my stomach will start hurting, so I need to rest!”

Natalia Dohimer let out a loud, contemptuous snort and walked into the bedchamber. Viscount Cuvier stood there with his jaw hanging open, then had no choice but to turn and leave.

Each step down the corridor felt heavier than the last, as though his feet might sink through the floor.

‘What now……?’

He hadn’t expected that dim-witted Coumont girl to catch on. Rumors about his wine estate going under had been quietly circulating among those in the industry.

But western wine wasn’t a subject of much interest, and he himself was an unremarkable provincial noble, so it hadn’t drawn much attention.

He had been certain he could successfully swindle the emperor’s mistress.

‘Wasn’t that how noblewomen were?’

They had no sense of judgment whatsoever, blinded by glittering jewels and capable of nothing but nodding their pretty heads.

So the plan had been to dazzle her with the necklace, hand over the estate, and flee to Stykia.

Of course, the price Natalia Dohimer would have paid included not just the necklace but his own “handling fee” as well. In the end, he would have lost nothing.

If only the contract had gone through.

Now that he had to find another mark, the deadline he had promised his father-in-law for relocating to Stykia was nearly upon him.

He had just stepped out of the annex building with his head hanging to his chest when a boy sidled up nervously beside him. Beneath a mop of thin, straw-colored hair, a pair of round eyes looked, charitably speaking, rather guileless.

Less charitably, the boy looked like a country bumpkin. Judging by his clothes, he was no servant. Certainly not a palace attendant, since a fine appearance was the foremost requirement for any attendant in the imperial palace.

“Ahem!”

The boy cleared his throat and brought the side of his hand to his mouth as though sharing a great secret. Then he whispered in a voice like a cracked flute.

“Her Majesty the Empress wishes to see you, Viscount.”

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

Aella shut herself in her quarters and spent her days at leisure.

The empress’s chambers released no official statement regarding her absence. In one light, it could have appeared as though she were shirking her duties during the harvest festival.

But the emperor actively shielded her. Even he had some faint thread of conscience, it seemed.

And so the empress’s duties were passed entirely to the Empress Dowager. She took them on with delight — for the purpose of pushing her new candidate for daughter-in-law before her son.

The Empress Dowager brought Lady Selot at every opportunity, and the lady would offer the emperor wine. Then Natalia would come bursting in from somewhere and shatter the glass.

The same scene repeated itself over and over, until Francis grew thoroughly fed up and took to avoiding all three women.

Tilda relayed every detail of this with great relish.

“What a shame I couldn’t see the chaos in person.”

“Truly, Your Majesty. It was an absolute disaster.”

In any case, lavish banquets were held every night amid the commotion. Aella sat quietly watching fireworks burst beyond the window and ate sweet-and-sour lemon cake. It was, in every sense, a blissful rest.

Her days were occupied in their own way.

First, she made careful preparations for the relief supplies to be sent to the farmers of Heirn.

She also sent word to Leonhardt to bring Benjamin along for the southern inspection. Having a reliable physician on hand would be invaluable if anything went wrong.

Two days prior, she had summoned Viscount Cuvier and purchased the Sarabis wine estate.

[Regarding Viscount Cuvier, his personal conduct is clean, but he has a reputation as an unscrupulous businessman.]

Aella had not forgotten the contents of the report Leonhardt had once compiled for her. She decided to match his level of unscrupulousness, so she named a price on the spot, one quarter of what Natalia had been prepared to pay.

She also added a quiet hint of a threat.

She expressed her concern about what might happen should the emperor learn that someone had tried to swindle his beloved mistress.

That warmly worded worry proved remarkably effective.

The result was that the viscount concluded the unsatisfying deal by signing a meticulously drafted contract.

The viscount had inflated the estate’s price twofold to sell to Natalia, which meant Aella had ultimately purchased it for half its actual value.

Holding onto a failing estate would only deepen his debts, so it wasn’t a complete loss for him either.

Afterward, Leonhardt looked into the matter at her request and found that Viscount Cuvier had left the Napier Empire without paying the jeweler for the necklace.

Aella also bought up all the farmland near Sarabis and had wheat, barley, and beans planted as planned.

Everything was moving according to Aella’s design.

Once the southern inspection was over, there would be no major events for a while.

That was when she intended to actively seek out the ‘Red-tailed Foal,‘ the ‘Drunken Peacock,‘ the ‘Brave Canary,‘ and Nicholas Biscati, those who would join the rebellion.

I should start preparing to marry Leonhardt as well.

Aella had been kept fully informed of Leonhardt’s every move since he had left her quarters on the first day of the harvest festival.

He had been busy too. The first thing he had done was replace a large number of his household staff.

He had identified those who had openly criticized Lorendal and sent them to his other estates, so it was not an outright dismissal.

‘Still, those were people he had personally selected and brought all the way from Siren……’

Aella was quietly surprised by the decisiveness of his choice.

The drive of a man who had charged across battlefields without pause was never going to stop there.

She heard that he had ordered both his capital residence and his governor’s estate to be fitted with libraries and studies, and was acquiring all manner of rare books.

This chain of information had passed through his aide to Nicby. Fresh from sword practice, Nicby had come running to tell Tilda.

In that roundabout trail of gossip Aella had pieced together, Leonhardt was steadily preparing to receive her.

“I thought he’d never come to his senses, but it seems he finally has. Honestly, I always knew he would.”

Tilda smiled with rare satisfaction and praised Leonhardt’s actions.

Aella was absently touching her throat when she moved to stand before the mirror.

She gingerly pressed at the still-mottled skin, then squeezed her eyes shut.

For some reason, both her cheeks and the tips of her ears had gone quite red.