Chapter 1.5

“How about Posco?”  

Elvia asked, gesturing with her fan toward a man standing across the room.  

Two years ago, Elvia had been engaged to a captain, but he had gone to war before their wedding and never returned.  

Since then, Elvia had been considered a widow despite never marrying, but this year, she had finally removed her mourning clothes and was ready to pursue marriage again.  

“Do you not know about his first wife?”  

Lucia asked.  

“The rumors that their relationship was oppressive? That’s nonsense. There’s no such thing as oppression in a marriage. His wife was mentally unstable and spread strange stories before her death.”  

“Are you joking?”  

Lucia asked again, her face reddening.  

“Fine, fine. I was just saying. No need to raise your voice.”  

Elvia glanced around nervously before continuing.  

“My father thinks you’re strange. He says the world has improved so much, so why are you always so sensitive?”  

“What’s so great about the world? Look around you!”  

“Where, exactly?”  

Lucia pointed to her split lip.  

“To be fair, that’s because of your bold and disrespectful attitude.”  

“Why is it ‘bold and disrespectful’ to try to make decisions about my own life?”  

A chill settled between Lucia and Elvia.  

Elvia cleared her throat.  

It was time to change the subject.  

In such situations, gossip worked best.  

“They say Emperor Aristide is here today, keeping his eyes peeled for his next concubine.”

Elvia glanced at the empty throne.  

Since becoming Emperor, Aristide had never once appeared at the Imperial Ball.  

Even five years ago, when Lucia attended the Imperial Ball, the throne on the high platform remained empty throughout the event.  

According to rumors, Emperor Aristide secretly observed the ball from somewhere else and spent the night engaging in unspeakable acts with the women who caught his eye.  

Lucia felt chills run down her spine.  

“Last year, he sent his twenty-something concubine to the harem.”  

Elvia continued.  

“Perhaps he wants to reach thirty, so he can enjoy a different woman every day of the month.”  

The numerous women referred to as ‘concubines’ were closer to being the Emperor’s mistresses than actual concubines.  

They bore no obligation to produce heirs, nor did they possess the special rights or power that came with the title of ‘concubine.’  

In a way, they were courtesans with just one client—who happened to be the Emperor.  

The peculiar aspect was that these mistresses all lived together in a massive harem.  

It was said that the jealous and suspicious Emperor confined them there to keep them under control.  

‘I’d rather die than live like that.’ 

Lucia thought to herself.  

The ‘concubine system’ was created solely to satisfy the Emperor’s desires.  

Thus, the concubines existed for his pleasure, living luxurious lives funded by the people’s taxes, hence they were despised and treated as parasites.  

“Isn’t it strange that he still doesn’t have any children?”  

Elvia said excitedly.  

Even though concubines weren’t obligated to bear heirs, it was odd that none of the countless women had ever gotten pregnant.  

Hence, rumors circulated that the Emperor was impotent…  

“During Emperor Orestes’s reign, such rumors about the Emperor would have been unimaginable, wouldn’t they?”  

Emperor Orestes was moral, wise, and compassionate.  

In contrast, his son Aristide abandoned his duties as Crown Prince as soon as he came of age and wandered other countries under the guise of travel, leaving the empire unattended for a long time.  

Thus, when Emperor Orestes passed away and Aristide ascended the throne, there was significant backlash.  

Rumors even spread that a civil war was imminent.  

Lucia remembered how her father had agonized over which side to support during that time.  

Elvia tapped Lucia’s arm, snapping her out of her thoughts.  

“He’s coming, he’s coming, he’s coming!”  

A man approached them with a bright smile.  

He was one of the suitors Lucia had rejected in the past.  

He had screamed and fled in terror after discovering a spider the size of an apple—of course, it was a toy Lucia had made—crawling across the table.  

He had seemed like a decent person, and Lucia felt a twinge of guilt for scaring him so much.  

“Miss Elvia, Miss Lucia.”  

The two women bowed deeply to the man who stopped before them.  

The man gave Lucia a brief nod and then immediately turned to Elvia, flashing a smile that revealed his white teeth.  

“I hadn’t realized such a beautiful face was hidden behind the veil, Miss Elvia.”  

Elvia feigned shyness, opening her fan to cover her flushed face.  

Lucia thought to herself that if the two of them ended up together, she’d have to warn Elvia about the spider.  

“Would you honor me with the next dance?”  

“It would be my pleasure.”  

Without hesitation, Elvia took the man’s offered arm and headed to the dance floor.  

From the opposite end of the ballroom, Marisa, who had been conversing with a young man, gestured for Lucia to come over now that she was alone.  

Lucia pretended not to see her and headed toward the entrance of the ballroom.  

However, her father was there, enthusiastically conversing with influential figures of the empire, so Lucia turned sharply and entered a doorway where a waiter was emerging.  

The corridor connected to the kitchen was stifling, filled with heat and the smell of food.  

The kitchen entrance bustled with waiters carrying trays back and forth, so Lucia slipped into a side hallway.  

Several couples who had met in the ballroom were scattered throughout the dark corners of the hallway, producing sounds that made Lucia blush.  

She kept her eyes forward and walked straight ahead.  

Her plan was to find an empty corner, take out the notebook hidden under her skirt, and revise the design for her corn-shelling machine.  

She intended to spend the rest of the evening like that until the ball ended.  

She felt proud of herself for keeping the promise she made to her mother that morning: not to leave the ball early.  

As she walked toward the end of the hallway, ignoring the indecent sounds around her, she suddenly heard her mother’s voice behind her.  

“She must have come this way…”  

‘Damn it.’  

Even if her mother dragged her back to meet a new suitor, Lucia was confident she could fend him off.  

But if her attempt to escape was discovered, she feared the violence she would face upon returning home.  

Today, she wanted to avoid being beaten.  

Her parents had already warned her sternly on the way to the ball that if she tried to run away, she’d face severe consequences.  

‘If I don’t get caught, it’ll look like I wasn’t trying to escape, just that I wasn’t noticed.’  

So she simply needed not to get caught.  

She spotted a staircase beside the hallway.  

Grabbing the railing, she climbed two steps at a time.  

***

The spiral staircase seemed endless.  

Looking down, she saw that Marisa had just started climbing the stairs.  

Lucia began to run.  

Finally, she reached the top of the staircase.  

There, she found a space overlooking the ballroom like a theater balcony.  

“No guests allowed here. Please return to the ballroom.”  

Two Imperial Knights blocked her path.  

Click-clack.  

The sharp sound of high heels ascending the stairs grew closer.  

One of the knights reached out to grab Lucia’s arm as she hesitated.  

“What’s going on here?”  

A man emerged from the shadows and asked.  

The knights bowed their heads to him.  

“We were just about to escort this guest back to the ballroom, as she seems to have lost her way.”  

The man’s companion, dressed in a black tailcoat, replied.  

“She’s here because I summoned her. Let her be. If anyone should be escorted out, send that person back.”  

He gestured with his chin toward Marisa, who had just reached the top of the stairs.  

The knights quickly descended and escorted Marisa back.  

Fortunately, Marisa hadn’t seen Lucia and returned to the ballroom.  

Lucia let out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding.  

She bowed her head in thanks to the man who had helped her.  

“Thank you.”  

“It’s nothing, it’s nothing!”  

He laughed heartily.  

“Enzo, give Miss Bianchi a seat.”  

‘How does he know my name? His voice sounds familiar too.’  

The man who had dealt with the knights wore a white banquet robe adorned with gold embroidery.  

His strong features looked as if they had been meticulously sculpted, evoking the cliché phrase ‘a face like a statue.’  

And his transparent turquoise eyes…  

‘Where have I seen him before?’  

As Lucia tried to recall, the man spotted a grape rolling on the floor.  

He picked it up and popped it into his mouth.  

The scene seemed oddly familiar, and Lucia hesitantly asked, 

“Sir…?”  

The ‘regular customer’ smiled brightly and waved his hand.  

At that moment, a knight entered and asked, 

“Your Majesty, should I prepare a room?”  

Your Majesty?  

Lucia’s gaze shifted to the chair the regular customer was sitting on—more precisely, to the emblem of the throne engraved on it.  

Then she saw the face that had been depicted in the portraits hung throughout the capital the week Emperor Orestes had passed away.  

The face was significantly younger than the one in the portraits, which was why she hadn’t recognized it immediately.  

‘A reckless and selfish emperor…’  

‘A lecher who only cares about women, not the affairs of the state…’  

‘Here today to choose his next concubine…’  

Her vision blurred for a moment.  

“Later.”  

Emperor Aristide waved his hand dismissively.  

“Formal courtship must come first.”  

He cleared his throat as if preparing to make an important announcement.  

“Lucia Bianchi, you’re next.”