“No, I’ll go meet the Marquis myself. Just tell me where he is.”

After wiping away the tears flowing down her pale cheeks with a handkerchief and drinking the cold water Ciel had offered, Louise rose from her seat.

Because she now knew that Marquis Est was the only person who could resolve everything that was happening.

Deliberately separating herself from Ciel who wanted to come along, and holding a glass of cold water, she reached the office where Marquis Est was said to be, one step at a time.

At that moment, she heard the voices of knights leaking from inside.

“Do you know what caused the emperor’s rebellion three years ago and the rebellion happening now?”

“What is it?”

“The empress. If we take her hostage, this rebellion can be easily suppressed.”

“Then… how do you intend to take her hostage?”

“The empress will have nothing to say no matter how she’s taken hostage. After all, she was caught trying to escape the palace with the rebel forces without the emperor’s knowledge.”

Louise unconsciously focused on the Marquis’s words from inside the office.

Not content with taking me hostage, he’s contemplating how to hold me hostage… It was clear that he had brought her to his mansion without telling Rondimio, intending to do this from the beginning.

“Threaten the former princes with the empress’s life. Then they won’t be able to resist giving up the rebellion.”

Ah, he intends to use my life as a hostage to make my brothers give up the rebellion.

Even though she knew that no good outcome would come from Marquis Est, what expectation had she held to be disappointed?

Crash!

Louise dropped the glass she was holding.

“Who’s there!”

There was a sharp sound of the glass breaking on the floor and the bustling movement of the knights inside the office.

Louise stepped back, trampling on the shattered glass pieces.

“Marquis Est. Would you like to explain what you just said?”

By now, Marquis Est and his knights had opened the office door and came out into the hallway. All of them were staring at the empress who was trembling with betrayal and fear.

He just said he’s taking me hostage.

If my brothers find out that this man, Rondimio’s close aide, is holding me hostage, they won’t proceed with the rebellion.

Then my brothers……

“What are you doing! If His Majesty finds out about this, he won’t let you get away with it. He won’t let you get away…!”

“Everyone withdraw. I will attend to Her Majesty the Empress myself.”

“Marquis Est!”

Ignoring the empress’s words completely, Marquis Est dragged Louise into his office.

Louise held back tears of indignation, freed her wrist from Marquis Est’s grip, and glared at him.

She knew that Rondimio’s close aides didn’t like her. Even calling her the woman who was ruining the man who had become emperor through rebellion.

“I was careless. I should have placed knights in front of the empress’s bedroom.”

“Please stop this…… If you just take me to His Majesty the Emperor, I’ll overlook the rudeness you’ve committed so far.”

If Rondimio discovered what Louise had done so far, he might punish her.

But at least… she didn’t think her life would be taken hostage. Or that it would be used to hold back her beloved brothers.

No. I can’t watch my brothers die because of me…. I don’t want to go through that again.

“You must have been very shocked. Let’s go in and rest.”

“Please, listen to me! I’ll try to persuade my brothers…. So. Please, don’t do this. How can you be so cruel……”

“If Your Majesty the Empress persuades the former princes, will they willingly give up the rebellion?”

“Please…… I was wrong. I shouldn’t have escaped from the palace. No, just… I was wrong about everything.”

In the end, she begged pitifully before Marquis Est, who was nothing.

By now, tears were dropping from Louise’s eyes. Her stomach, which had been fine after resting well, started to hurt again, making her stagger.

“Ugh……”

When she begged him to call a physician because her stomach hurt too much and she feared something might happen to the baby, Marquis Est reluctantly went outside the office and ordered someone to call a physician.

Then he returned, caught the staggering Louise, sat her on the sofa, bent down, and looked directly into her eyes.

That gaze without a trace of sympathy.

It was similar to the former emperor’s gaze when he looked at her trying to protect Rondimio in childhood. There was no room for persuasion.

“I’m glad to know at least a little about what’s happening because of one empress. Though nothing will change.”

“I know I’m causing harm to many people. But…!”

Was he even listening to the empress’s desperate voice?

He took out a handkerchief from his pocket, placed it in Louise’s hand, then straightened up and picked up a dagger that had fallen on the office floor.

When the familiar-shaped dagger was gripped in Marquis Est’s hand, Louise screamed.

It was the well-honed ceremonial sword she had recently received as a gift from Rondimio.

She had tucked it deep in her dress for self-defense when escaping the palace, but had forgotten about it without using it.

When she realized that Marquis Est was opening the sword’s sheath and alternately looking at the well-honed blade and Louise, she couldn’t help but scream.

“You’re… you’re going to kill me? Are you insane?”

“Well……”

Without needing confirmation, it was a weapon that Rondimio had said could kill people. Louise instinctively pushed Marquis Est away, rose from her seat, and ran to the office door.

Click, click.

But the office door was already firmly locked and showed no sign of opening. It seemed he intended to kill the empress here rather than calling a physician.

Louise clung to the wall, holding her swollen belly, forgetting even to wipe away her flowing tears.

“His Majesty the Emperor’s child is growing in my womb. You’re trying to harm two members of the imperial family…!”

“Is that so?”

Marquis Est approached Louise, who was pressed against the wall, without showing the slightest emotion. Despicably trying to soothe her as she sobbed in indescribable fear.

If she were alone, she might have no regrets about dying. But she carried Rondimio’s child in her womb.

I will protect this child.

Louise immediately composed herself and gently stroked the child who must have been very startled. This man wouldn’t be able to directly harm her, at least, whom Rondimio loved.

“Please… don’t do this to my brothers and child. I was wrong. I know it’s all my fault……”

“……”

“Step back. Even if I die, I will die in Rondimio’s arms.”

As he watched Louise stopping her own tears, Marquis Est gently gripped her shoulders.

Louise wiped her tears roughly with the back of her hand as they flowed down her clear white cheeks, and stared directly at Marquis Est.

“Unfortunately, the beauty of Your Majesty the Empress, beautiful enough to sell the country, does not work on me.”

Marquis Est, who had hesitated for a moment, soon approached Louise with a relaxed smile.

The blade of the ceremonial sword, removed from its jewel-encrusted sheath, gleamed sharply.

“If you kill me, His Majesty the Emperor won’t let you get away with it either.”

With a desperate thought, she stood on tiptoe and tightly gripped Marquis Est’s collar, making him slightly frown.

Lowering his waist to match Louise’s eye level, he gazed at her beautiful platinum blonde hair and whispered softly.

“Don’t be alarmed. Just play the role of a hostage comfortably.”

With a slicing sound, Louise tightly closed her eyes.

Then her beautiful platinum blonde hair coiled around Marquis Est’s hand, fluttering like a dance.

Yes, her hair.

What Marquis Est had cut with the ceremonial sword was a strand of Louise’s hair.

Louise, who had a strand of her hair cut in an instant, glared at Marquis Est, filled with both slight relief and anger.

She roughly understood the situation. Marquis Est had said he was taking her as a “hostage” against her brothers.

Then he needed evidence that he was holding her “hostage.” The cut hair of their beloved sister would be enough to unsettle her brothers.

“If you were going to use me as a hostage anyway… you could have just cut my hair quietly!”

Louise, barely supporting her trembling legs, looked at Marquis Est who, unlike moments before, was now calmly tying the empress’s cut hair with a ribbon.

Perhaps because he had cut hair from an inconspicuous inner section, it wasn’t very noticeable once she tidied her disheveled hair.

“Shh. The physician is coming. Wipe your tears first.”

Marquis Est placed the hair, neatly tied with a ribbon, into an elegant box and closed it. Then he approached Louise with the ceremonial sword.

Just before the imperial physician knocked on the office door, he handed Louise two items.

One was a new handkerchief to replace the soaked one, and the other was the ceremonial sword, properly sheathed.

“Just wait. When I meet my brothers again, I won’t let you get away with this.”

“Hmm… Not His Majesty the Emperor? Haven’t you noticed that won’t happen?”

Just as Louise was about to argue, Marquis Est shrugged his shoulders and opened the locked office door.

Facing the physician and Ciel who stood with a worried face, Louise hid the sword in her sleeve and gave a pitiful smile.

If Rondimio lives, her brothers will die; if her brothers live, Rondimio will die.

To think she had been foolishly played by Marquis Est while knowing this fact. Louise rose from her seat, staring directly at Marquis Est.

In truth, she had one more question for Marquis Est.

Namely, whether Rondimio had known for a long time that she herself was involved in her brothers’ rebellion.

Even knowing how things had turned out, she hoped Rondimio didn’t know that fact.

“Your Majesty the Empress. That’s why I said we should go together……”

“Sorry, Ciel…. As you can see, there was a bit of trouble.”

“Let’s go to the bedroom and rest. You said your stomach hurt.”

But that worry didn’t last long. Ciel naturally stayed close to Louise, embracing her and moving forward while glaring at Marquis Est just as fiercely as Louise had.