Sitting calmly in the center of the chaotic office, Rondimio endlessly worried and fretted.

Even if he quickly suppressed the rebellion while keeping Louise at the Winter Palace, Louise would eventually learn that she had lost her brothers at the hands of the man she loved.

Then she will hate me again.

After accepting all the facts, when he returned to the empress’s palace, Louise greeted him with a smiling face.

“Your Majesty. Why have you been coming so late these days?”

She had been cold for the past few days, but did something good happen today? As the tiny female body nestled into his arms, a smile spread across Rondimio’s entire face.

Thinking that this small body was carrying his child made him feel like he would go crazy with love for her.

His mood instantly improved, and he put her down on the bed and hugged her swollen belly, rubbing his face against it. Louise seemed surprised and gently pushed Rondimio away.

“Ah, the baby will be startled, Your Majesty.”

“Just… let me stay like this for a while.”

Louise, you don’t know what worries and concerns I just came from.

“Louise, I wish you wouldn’t hate me.”

Because he was worried about what if Louise hated him again.

Even among his close aides, there were daily debates about Louise and her brothers.

Knowing it was something that needed to be resolved cleanly someday, he had kept postponing it….

“Why would I hate Your Majesty?”

Even though you will surely hate me. Louise denied it with a flat voice toward the man she had already hated several times.

Rondimio, while holding Louise tightly in his arms, silently asked for forgiveness over and over again.

I’m sorry, Louise.

But, please forgive me one more time.

* * *

I’m sorry, Rondimio.

Louise quickly moved her feet while apologizing in her heart many times to Rondimio, whom she had betrayed.

Shortly after midnight, Louise, dressed in a gown that the empress’s palace maids would wear, escaped from the palace alone through the secret passage in the empress’s palace.

“This way, Your Majesty the Empress. Please hurry.”

As she walked quickly to the nearest civilian house to the secret passage while holding her swollen belly, Margaret and her brother were waiting there, dressed in comfortable clothing.

Louise nodded slightly and silently followed the two.

She already knew that the place where Louise, who had escaped from the palace, would stay until the rebellion ended was Duke Havent’s mansion, located relatively close to the palace among noble families who were not Rondimio’s close aides.

The main forces behind this rebellion were Duke Havent and Marquis Miko.

After boarding a simple carriage, Louise took in the sight of the Araceli palace growing smaller in the distance.

According to plan, it would be destroyed by her brothers’ rebellion within days.

The quick movement of the small carriage made her feel nauseous, but Louise endured it, not wanting to worry the two people in the carriage.

The Miko siblings didn’t pay much attention to Louise after she entered the carriage. They were only engaged in heated conversation about the rebellion that would begin soon.

“As the rebellion progresses, our forces will decrease, so who will escort the pregnant empress?”

“You know that without Her Majesty the Empress’s help, we couldn’t have rescued Their Highnesses from the underground prison.”

“Margaret, you……”

More precisely, rather than a heated conversation about the rebellion, it seemed like a dispute between the two about what to do with the empress right in front of them.

Though she didn’t know well, it was clear that the nobles leading the rebellion found Louise herself bothersome. And also the fact that Louise, who had escaped from the palace, had no one to rely on.

But perhaps she could rely on Margaret, who had been her maid, and her brothers, whom she would meet when they arrived at Duke Havent’s mansion.

“Young Lord Miko. I don’t need an escort at Duke Havent’s mansion. I’ll stay quietly by myself, so there’s no need to assign a maid to me either.”

“But, Your Majesty the Empress……”

“I was the one who asked you first, Marquis. To help me leave His Majesty the Emperor’s side. I won’t be greedy for anything else, just let me give birth to my child and live.”

Unlike Margaret, who showed an uncharacteristic apologetic expression, Young Lord Miko showed no particular reaction. Come to think of it, among the nobles participating in the rebellion, Marquis Miko had been unusually kind.

She knew that the nobles supporting her brothers would achieve either complete success or ruin depending on the outcome of the rebellion, so they were sensitive about everything.

She knew there was no need to be upset, and that being upset was strange, but……

Thud—.

At that moment, the small carriage shook violently and came to a stop.

Instinctively lurching forward, Louise was caught with all her strength by Margaret sitting beside her, while Young Lord Miko sitting on the opposite side drew the sword at his waist.

“Who goes there!”

While Young Lord Miko went out to check the situation, Louise stayed close to Margaret, who was checking the condition of the carriage interior through the window connected to the driver’s seat.

The driver at the driver’s seat was trembling with a pale face, and the horses he had been driving were all covered in blood, rolling on the dirt ground.

The smell of animal blood coming through the small window made Louise bow her head and retch, and Margaret, who had seen everything visible through the small window, screamed.

“Margaret, what else is there……”

There seemed to be many people visible behind the dead horses… who were they?

As Louise rose, supporting herself on Margaret’s back, trying to confirm those things with her own eyes and about to extend her head toward the window, she was blocked by Margaret.

While hearing Margaret’s scream, which was on a completely different level from before.

“Aaaaah!”

With a slashing sound of something being cut by a sharp sword, the tightly closed carriage door opened. Margaret embraced Louise while shedding tears.

She tried her best not to let Louise be taken away by the figure who opened the carriage door and entered, but she eventually lost to the much stronger force.

As Margaret’s small, soft touch faded and a large, rough hand forcibly lifted her, Louise unconsciously opened her eyes, which she had been keeping shut.

“Marquis Est……”

When Louise confirmed the identity of the person now in front of her, she let out a sigh mixed with a scream.

He was Rondimio’s close aide who was supposed to escort Louise to the Winter Palace at this hour.

He absolutely shouldn’t be here, and my brothers’ rebellion must succeed……

“Please forgive my rudeness.”

Before she could ask what situation was happening and what Marquis Est was doing, Louise had to board a carriage engraved with the Est family crest while being carried by him.

Until they arrived at Marquis Est’s mansion a while later.

Only after arriving at Marquis Est’s mansion did Louise finally grasp the situation.

That there had been a huge setback to her brothers’ rebellion, and that she was hopelessly trapped in Marquis Est’s mansion.

Even if people found out that I had been captured by Rondimio’s close aide, would there be anyone who would rescue me?

What happened to Margaret and Young Lord Miko? Does Rondimio know about this situation?

“If anything happens to the imperial heir I’m carrying, none of you will survive!”

In the mansion full of knights under Marquis Est’s command, Louise held back her rising tears and remained wary of them.

There was nothing she could do.

The thoughts that surely they wouldn’t threaten the empress carrying the emperor’s child, and that she didn’t have confidence in protecting the child alone, jumbled chaotically in her mind.

Eventually exhausted, she entered the bedroom she had been guided to and cried silently. She wanted to rely on someone, but there was no one she could trust.

It’s all my fault. If only I hadn’t loved Rondimio long ago… none of this would have happened.

After crying and fainting repeatedly for a long time, Louise blinked her tear-soaked eyes when she realized that a very familiar face had entered the bedroom.

“Your Majesty the Empress. Are you alright…?”

“Ciel…?”

Why was Ciel, who was supposed to go with her to the Winter Palace this morning, here?

She felt ashamed for having deceived her so much.

Ciel must be upset with the empress who had deceived her for a long time and escaped the palace with another maid. She didn’t even have time to understand why Ciel had come to her with such a worried tone……

“I’m sorry……”

When she saw a familiar face for the first time after being trapped in a strange place and crying, her tension eased and she shed tears she had been holding back. Though doubts arose about whether she could trust Ciel, she was glad that she had come.

Ciel hugged and patted the back of the crying Louise without asking for anything in return.

“When I went to the empress’s palace bedroom this morning and found Your Majesty the Empress wasn’t there, I was so surprised. I don’t know what happened, but… please don’t cry.”

But looking around, there were only knights in the mansion, so how did Ciel get here?

When she asked out of curiosity, she learned that Ciel had been preparing to leave for the Winter Palace with the Marquis, but amid the unsettled atmosphere after hearing that the empress had disappeared, only Ciel ended up following Marquis Est.

“I only know that the Marquis rescued you when Marquis Miko tried to kidnap you. Though the Marquis doesn’t seem to have reported to His Majesty the Emperor, wouldn’t he know by now…?”

Even the fact that Marquis Est was deceiving not only Ciel but also Rondimio.

If a close aide of the emperor learned that the empress had escaped from the palace, it would be natural to think of bringing the empress back, but keeping her in his own mansion was too strange.

Then this might be something Marquis Est was doing independently without Rondimio’s permission.

“Thank you, Ciel. I feel a bit calmer thanks to you.”

“It’s nothing. You must have been shocked? I can’t understand the Marquis either! Then I’ll meet with the Marquis to discuss when we can return to the palace……”