Louise stopped at the end of the corridor and whispered to the child in her womb, her eyes on Rondimio, who stood by the window.

Rondimio, who couldn’t have heard Louise’s whisper, quickly noticed her presence and ran to the end of the corridor, pulling her into his arms.

“Louise. Why are you standing here in the cold instead of coming into the office?”

“I was just happy watching Your Majesty.”

Louise buried her face in his sturdy shoulder. Rondimio, if only we had met as people who could love each other normally, not as terribly entangled ill-fated connections….

Escorted by Rondimio into the office, she noticed that unlike her first visit, the table was now clean, with all the documents containing information about nobles completely gone.

“Rest well with the child in your womb at the Winter Palace. I’ll come down once the situation is sorted out.”

The “situation” Rondimio mentioned referred to the escape of the princes that Louise had orchestrated.

Louise could no longer pretend to be a woman who knew nothing, so she closed her eyes tightly to hide her expression.

Everyone in the Araceli Empire was keeping quiet about it, but Rondimio must be honing his military power for the rebellion that would happen soon.

Louise hoped that her two brothers and the nobles’ rebellion would succeed, but if not….

“I love you, Your Majesty…. You are my first and last love.”

That dawn, Louise escaped from the palace using the secret passage in the empress’s palace.

* * *

A few days before Louise escaped from the palace.

Rondimio sat in the center of the chaotic office, drinking strong liquor straight from the bottle.

Though he had brought the strongest liquor in the empire to lose consciousness—

Crash!

His mind rather became even clearer.

After throwing the liquor bottle he had been holding onto the pile of documents messily trampled on the floor, Rondimio laughed like a madman.

“Louise….”

No, perhaps he was crying. The lovely princess who had blossomed at the corner of Rondimio’s lips made him feel miserable for the first and last time.

He had never felt miserable even on the day when his mother, the only one who had shown him affection in his childhood, abandoned him at the palace and ran away after an affair with a palace servant.

Though he cried for days as a child, he wanted to live so desperately that he quickly attached himself to various places in the palace and showed several times that he was alive.

Even when he was noticed by the emperor for his beautiful appearance and sent as a prisoner to Araceli, their enemy country. Even when he was abused by them for a long time, he had never felt miserable….

In his childhood, he just wanted to live, and from the moment he saw the lovely Louise, he wanted to live for her.

But, knowing how I live, Louise. You deceive me…?

Impossible. It can’t be.

But the numerous documents trampled on the office floor proved that Louise was deceiving him.

Killing and killing again the people who brought the evidence wouldn’t change the facts.

And now he needed to keep every one of his people well. Because he had to completely eliminate those who had escaped from the underground prison with Louise’s help and his own tacit consent due to his love for Louise.

Rondimio himself was the first to notice that Louise had started acting differently from before.

Rondimio was not a stupid person.

He was willing to act like a fool for Louise anytime, but he could no longer do so.

“This time, you must punish the empress.”

“….”

At that moment, Marquis Est, one of Rondimio’s close aides in the office, pleaded with the emperor.

Unlike Marquis Tenul, who followed the emperor’s will completely while taking his own benefits behind his back, this man made the best decisions for the emperor while showing no interest in serving the empress.

“I thought I had asked that no opinions related to the empress come from your mouth again.”

“Your Majesty the Emperor, this matter cannot be overlooked. Why do you love a woman who wants your death!”

“Marquis Est. Do you want to die quietly in the rebellion?”

Rondimio momentarily grabbed the handle of his sword but then released his grip. If it weren’t for the rebellion that needed to be suppressed, he would have killed this man on the spot….

He needed this man now.

Among his close aides who only knew how to use force by wielding swords, he was the only one who knew how to use his head.

During the rebellion three years ago, his strategies had shone brightly. Because of those strategies, the rebellion ended cruelly, which played a big role in severely straining the relationship between Rondimio and Louise.

“Your Majesty the Emperor. I also do not differ greatly in opinion from Marquis Est… but I think the dethronement of Her Majesty the Empress, or at least her demotion to imperial consort, is necessary.”

Even Marquis Tenul, who had been quietly reading the situation, belatedly opened his mouth today. This man seemed to have nothing in his head except schemes to push his own daughter into the position of empress.

Rondimio sat in the center of the office with staggering steps from the alcohol. He needed to make plans to suppress Louise’s rebellion aimed at killing him.

“Tell me how best to suppress the rebellion that will occur in a few days… It must be suppressed in a way that doesn’t hurt the empress.”

“What nonsense…!”

“In exchange, you may deal with the empress’s brothers however you wish. They have clear reasons now, having staged a rebellion to usurp the throne.”

“I understand that as long as no direct harm comes to the empress, it’s acceptable.”

“….”

Rondimio said nothing even to the slightly misinterpreted words of his two close aides.

It was already strange that he had chosen to wait for their rebellion to happen rather than suppressing it in advance.

That he would punish their crimes more severely afterward, and that Louise should be sent to the Winter Palace for recuperation in the meantime….

During the exchange of numerous opinions, Rondimio merely nodded vaguely. In truth, he still couldn’t believe the current situation.

If Louise really wanted my death, what should I do?

How should I die to make Louise happy?

Louise had many opportunities.

She could have suffocated her hated enemy who embraced her while sleeping in the same bed with a pillow, or stabbed him with a poisoned dagger.

Louise’s small, light touch might struggle to cut off the breath of an enemy who had grown into a robust man all at once, but she would succeed.

If Louise wanted that, Rondimio himself would have gladly accepted even the act of dying slowly and painfully.

So that she could believe she had sent the man she once loved peacefully to sleep forever, so that she wouldn’t be too shocked or saddened.

“Sigh… I’ll accept it all. Keep the specifics between yourselves.”

In the end, Rondimio painfully accepted reality.

The fact that Louise had rescued her brothers from the underground prison and planned to stage a rebellion.

He might have deliberately turned a blind eye until facing direct evidence like today, even though he knew Louise had started acting unusually.

“I trust that you won’t tell Her Majesty the Empress about all the plans.”

“I won’t….”

The two men, perceiving that the emperor’s condition was not normal, tactfully refrained from speaking further. It also helped that he had permitted the death of the former princes, which he had previously refused due to the reason that the empress would be hurt.

Rondimio rose with a staggering body and personally picked up the documents ruthlessly trampled on the office floor, throwing them into the fireplace where hot flames were blazing.

This rebellion is being carried out by the empress’s two brothers and the nobles who support them. The empress is never involved in that rebellion.

“Remember. The empress is innocent. The guilt lies only with those who have deluded the empress.”

“…Yes. We alone will know this.”

Rondimio’s hardened face had somehow softened, and he was smiling. One thing was certain. Louise was innocent.

If there was any guilt, it would be the guilt of being too lovely. But she had committed deception against him, so she must pay the price for that.

What would be a way to make her pay for her deception without harming Louise….

Rondimio handed the ‘Araceli key’ that he always carried at his waist to Marquis Tenul.

He knew well that the underground prison of Araceli was a space as difficult to escape as a labyrinth, but it could be easily escaped with the help of someone who could open the underground prison.

Because that’s how he had been able to escape with Louise’s help.

“Help the princes in the underground prison escape easily. Whether by loosening the security as before or making the key easy to copy… help the empress.”

“Yes. Then after that…?”

“Right. All actions will be carried out after the empress leaves for the Winter Palace. The empress’s escort… Yes, let’s assign it to Marquis Est.”

Rondimio looked back and forth between the two men who were among his closest aides, then pointed to Marquis Est.

Honestly, he didn’t want to entrust Louise’s safety to either of them, but it was better to keep Marquis Tenul, who was more skilled in force, by his side for suppressing the rebellion with military power.

“For me to be doing escort duty for the empress while a rebellion is happening… Sigh, no. I will serve her to the best of my ability.”

“Be prepared to die if you do anything foolish this time.”

Rondimio, who had been glaring at Marquis Est whose eyes changed as soon as he heard he would be escorting the empress, drained the unfinished liquor to the last drop.

This is what happens when there are only two useful close aides. After suppressing the rebellion, should he properly attend to state affairs and act like a wise ruler?

Then maybe Louise would like him.

“Suppressing this rebellion will be an easy task.”

At Rondimio’s confident statement, Marquis Tenul nodded and left the room with the Araceli key.

Marquis Tenul was a trusted aide since before the rebellion, so he would handle this matter without problems as well.