chapter 4. point of no return

Several weeks had passed since Louise visited the underground prison.

Day after day, Louise spent anxious time waiting for news about her brothers until finally, she heard the news she had been waiting for.

She first heard it while Margaret was helping her with her appearance before going to the dining room.

As always, she heard the news again during lunch with Rondimio, who had fallen asleep holding her in his arms.

“Last night, your brothers who were in the underground prison disappeared.”

Finally, the fact that her brothers had successfully escaped from the underground prison.

According to what Margaret told her, though her brothers hadn’t been able to meet with the nobles preparing for the rebellion, judging by the movements of the imperial palace knights, it seemed the escape itself had been successful.

If those words came from Rondimio’s mouth, the master of the imperial palace, then it must have truly been successful.

Louise, who had been living in tension for the past few weeks, suddenly felt all that tension release, and she couldn’t even manage an expression of false concern for Rondimio.

She deliberately took a big bite of a sandwich filled with greasy bacon to hide her expression.

Just a few days ago, her morning sickness had been so severe that she couldn’t even touch anything greasy, but today she had specifically asked for bacon, and truly… it was delicious.

Now that her imprisoned brothers had disappeared from the underground prison, what was Rondimio thinking?

Louise looked at his face as he calmly wiped the grease from her lips.

The disappearance of her brothers was clearly the worst possible news for Rondimio.

Because apart from Louise, the empress, the only direct members of the imperial family of Araceli had escaped from the underground prison, and their intentions were obvious.

But why wasn’t he angry? Why was he so calm?

Was it because Louise herself was so anxious about when Rondimio would get angry that it just seemed that way to her?

But if she dared to guess why he was acting this way….

“Don’t worry too much. I have no intention of harming your brothers in front of you.”

“I’m not worried.”

“You loved your brothers who were imprisoned, even though they were abusers who mistreated me.”

Abusers who mistreated him. Hearing those words in Rondimio’s voice made her heart feel like it was plummeting.

And that calm, gentle face of Rondimio’s. Louise knew that not once had anything good happened when Rondimio made that face.

Three years ago, when he staged a rebellion and usurped the throne, Rondimio had maintained that gentle expression while causing a bloodbath.

“Don’t make that face. I’m perfectly fine.”

Rondimio smiled as he gently caressed Louise’s cheeks, which had unnaturally stiffened. It seemed so strange that he claimed to be fine.

Why, why was he fine? What on earth was he planning to do….

Though the nobles preparing for the rebellion would be thoroughly prepared, Rondimio, having lost the members of the imperial family he had imprisoned, would be searching for the two brothers with burning determination.

Her brothers’ escape from the underground prison was crossing the first hurdle toward rebellion, and now they would use force to take the throne from Rondimio.

If that happened, Rondimio wouldn’t just sit still.

Could it be… that he was wearing such a calm face because he was confident he could subdue them when the two brothers returned to the palace while staging the rebellion, without having to search for them directly?

Yes. That might be Rondimio’s thinking, but the victors of this rebellion must absolutely be her brothers and the nobles who had followed the former emperor.

Because she herself had already boarded their ship.

At that moment, Louise felt dizzy and collapsed weakly into Rondimio’s arms. Her head, already full of various thoughts, seemed unable to function properly.

“I’ve finished eating. I feel a bit dizzy, would it be alright if I went back first?”

“Your head must hurt…. I’ll escort you to the bedroom. Rest well.”

Rondimio, still wearing a smiling face, escorted Louise to the empress’s bedroom.

Finding herself suddenly tucked into bed, Louise thanked him and closed her eyes.

Just… perhaps the tension had been released after hearing that her brothers had safely escaped. She felt tired and thought she could fall asleep quickly.

But Louise had to open her eyes again. Because Rondimio, after accepting her thanks, turned back as he was leaving the bedroom.

“Louise, how about going to the Winter Palace for some recuperation?”

“Hmm…. That sounds like a good idea.”

Recuperation at the Winter Palace—this suggestion was actually very appealing.

She had been worrying about how to escape from the palace before the rebellion broke out but hadn’t easily found a way.

Louise couldn’t find a solution by racking her brain alone, and the nobles busy preparing for the rebellion seemed too occupied for her to ask them to devise a plan together.

“Yes, Louise. Rest comfortably at the Winter Palace and then come back.”

Rondimio, smiling as always, gave her a brief kiss.

* * *

Louise planned to pretend to leave for the Winter Palace while actually going into hiding. With help from the nobles currently preparing for the rebellion, it seemed this could be accomplished much more smoothly.

To find a way, Louise sat in a bathtub filled with warm water and conversed with Margaret.

“Today His Majesty the Emperor told me to go to the Winter Palace for recuperation. I think I can easily prepare to leave this place, but I’m wondering how to contact Duke Havent.”

“Hmm…. I want to help Your Majesty the Empress in any way I can, but it would be difficult to help you escape by abducting Your Majesty as you depart for the Winter Palace with the emperor’s guards.”

“Then… what about escaping from the palace at dawn on the day of departure for the Winter Palace?”

“That would be the same problem. It needs to be more secretive. Perhaps there’s a way that only Your Majesty the Empress can escape?”

Margaret was clearly asking if there was another way to use ancient magic-imbued imperial treasures, like the “Araceli key” that had been used to help her brothers escape.

As for the treasures of the Araceli imperial family, there was the “Araceli key” that could open all doors in the palace, a mysterious ceremonial sword she had only heard of by name, and a few other items….

The important thing was that Louise didn’t know where these treasures were, except for the Araceli key, or what abilities each treasure possessed.

Until the warm water in the bathtub turned cold, Louise wracked her brain trying to come up with a solution. As a direct member of the Araceli imperial family, there had to be a secretive way to leave the palace….

“Ah, yes, the secret passage!”

Finally thinking of a solution, Louise sprang up from the bathtub of now-cold water.

The secret passages within the Araceli palace were known only to direct members of the imperial family, along with the imperial treasures.

Although Louise knew little about the imperial treasures and only some of the secret passages… she did know several passages from the Lunaris Palace where she spent her childhood and from the empress’s palace.

“If there are secret passages in the palace, we can use them. If Your Majesty the Empress can come out of the palace alone, we’ll send someone to meet you.”

“Yes, that will work.”

Louise returned to the bedroom with a smile, wrapping a bathrobe around her wet body.

It seemed all preparations were complete.

* * *

The day before departing for the Winter Palace.

“The main palace in the capital is also very beautiful and peaceful. Do you really have to go to the Winter Palace?”

“There must be a reason for what His Majesty the Emperor said, Ciel.”

“But His Majesty isn’t even going with you…!”

After Louise had quickly confirmed her plan to recuperate at the Winter Palace, which was slightly removed from the capital, Ciel, who knew nothing about the situation, grumbled as she hovered around Louise.

Looking at the baby items that densely filled one side of the empress’s palace, Louise gently stroked her lower abdomen where her precious child was growing.

Clearly, Louise had planned to raise the child alone as her final act of love for Rondimio, whom she didn’t love, and live with guilt until she died.

Surely the child, who would take after Rondimio’s beautiful appearance, would be incredibly pretty.

And every time she looked at that child, she would think of Rondimio, against whom she had raised a sword with her own hands.

Her eldest brother, who would become the new emperor, and her second brother, who would become his close aide, would surely allow her to raise a child who resembled him.

“Ciel said she’s all prepared to leave for the Winter Palace, but what about Margaret? Aren’t you coming with me?”

“Could I… request a month’s leave, Your Majesty the Empress? I’d like to stay with my father for a while.”

“Oh my. I didn’t know Lady Miko was so fond of His Grace the Marquis.”

Margaret, who had agreed to help Louise escape, planned to leave the palace first under the pretext of a long vacation. Ciel, who had no way of knowing the reason, looked at Margaret with envious eyes.

Come to think of it, she always felt sorry for keeping so many secrets from Ciel.

“I’m happy to be alone with Ciel. But if you really like the Winter Palace, I might stay there even after winter passes. I might even give birth to the child there.”

“What…? How could you give birth to the precious imperial heir in such a cold, small place….”

“Then I’ll consider my leave granted. Ah, see you later, Lady Belka.”

After exchanging final signals with Margaret, who was leaving, Louise rose from her seat, saying she would visit the emperor’s office.

Throughout her journey to the emperor’s quarters, the gazes of palace servants and nobles were fixed on her, but Louise walked straight ahead, paying them no mind.

She had been living in tension every day, thinking only of escaping the palace, worried that Rondimio might discover she had helped her brothers escape from the underground prison….

Yet ironically, before leaving, she wanted to fill her eyes with Rondimio’s face. Because she might never see him again afterward.

“Baby, that’s your dad. Look at him well before we leave.”