Their lips that briefly touched kept appearing before his eyes, making it difficult to maintain a composed expression.

“I’m sorry I can’t see Your Majesty off due to my discomfort. Please take care.”

Elia bowed her head while seated.

Soon his large back disappeared from sight, and his footsteps faded away.

“Phew……”

Only then did she feel drained, and a sigh escaped. The time, which was less than 30 minutes, felt like an eternity.

He was indeed intimidating just by his presence and instinctively knew how to take one’s breath away.

“Fate?”

If it exists, it exists; if not, it doesn’t.

“Yes, some things cannot be changed.”

Elia recalled her father’s teachings again.

“But some things…… can be changed.”

In her first life, she couldn’t become a proper empress. No, she failed to become one.

After returning from death, she didn’t want to become empress. However, that too didn’t go as she wished.

“I will become empress.”

If fate exists, though she doesn’t believe in it, she will surrender herself to its flow.

“An empress with gentle but unbreakable strength.”

And she will change the future.

“I won’t…… waver.”

She would forget Rockfort’s vows and his promises imbued with warmth.

Just moments ago, she had almost lost her composure from just a touch of his lips.

Whether it was lingering attachment or a pure emotion rooted in the present, she couldn’t be swayed by emotions after coming this far.

* * *

As Rockfort had predicted, the very next day, a carriage procession arrived at the ducal residence to escort Elia to the imperial palace.

“Impressive, Elia. I must admit.”

Daniel looked at the procession lined up outside the window and spoke mockingly to Elia.

“You, who can’t even move your legs, have moved His Majesty. I wish Kayla could learn from you, but it’s a pity you two couldn’t get along.”

“If she took after you, Uncle, you wouldn’t need to worry.”

Their words had thorns. If it had been the previous Elia, she would have endured with a flushed face, not knowing what to do.

“When you were young, I thought you were just a shy child, but I was wrong.”

They say a tree that endures a long winter grows stronger. Elia had strengthened not her legs but her heart during her solitary time in bed.

“You’re a very impertinent and clever child. I admit it. You’re smarter than your parents.”

Unlike his smile, Daniel’s eyes were like daggers.

“Don’t even think of doing anything foolish.”

To others, it would appear as a kind uncle personally pushing the wheelchair of his niece who was entering the palace.

The two wore smiles as masks.

“Why would I?”

The misfortunes she had experienced had long ago swallowed Elia’s heart like an ocean. But now she could breathe even within it.

“Just think of it as an adult’s concern. I’m worried about my young niece entering the palace.”

“You don’t still think of me as a child…… now that I’ve become His Majesty’s fiancée?”

Gently, Elia’s eyes curved. It was an expression that concealed her inner thoughts as perfectly as the mask Daniel had crafted throughout his life.

“Remember this. An empress without strong in-laws…… is merely a decoration.”

This was evident throughout history. With her parents now criminals, Elia had to rely on Daniel Theon as her background, whether she liked it or not.

“Thank you for the advice. I hope you stay safe in the fierce council. Gaining His Majesty’s trust is…… extremely difficult.”

“Is that so? If you can do it, I think I can too.”

As they exited the mansion’s entrance, the procession waiting for Elia all bowed in respect. It was time to part with Daniel for a while.

“Uncle.”

Daniel forcibly embraced Elia, conscious of the surrounding gazes.

“Let’s see how well you do.”

It wasn’t easy to maintain a smile at the impertinent whisper in her ear. But Elia released the embrace before she could counter.

“I’ve come to escort Lady Elia as commanded by the Emperor.”

Jayden, the captain of the emperor’s personal knights who had come directly from the imperial palace to escort her, bowed again. Seeing the more respectful courtesy shown to her than to Duke Daniel twisted his insides, but there was nothing he could do.

“As you haven’t held the wedding ceremony yet, please forgive me for addressing you as ‘Lady’ according to palace etiquette.”

Daniel hated seeing Elia nod rather magnanimously.

“However, since you’ve already completed the engagement ceremony with the Emperor, we who serve His Majesty will show you respect befitting an empress, and you may govern us with the same mindset.”

Sitting straight and looking forward, Elia maintained a dignified attitude without being intimidated by the large procession.

“I will.”

The palace servants privately marveled at her elegant demeanor, as if she had been empress from the beginning.

“Then…… goodbye, Uncle.”

The largest carriage from the imperial palace was waiting for Elia, who was still physically unwell.

Hannah and Dain, each newly appointed as the head lady-in-waiting and grand chamberlain of the empress’s quarters, wore badges on their chests as proof and escorted her.

“Then, we will escort my lady. Duke, I wish you peace.”

Jayden, the representative of the procession, bowed to Daniel and turned to attend to Elia boarding the carriage. Their attitude clearly showed who was more important and noble.

Especially when the carriage door closed and those blue eyes looked down at Daniel through the window.

“Is everything alright?”

Jayden, standing in front of the carriage window, carefully asked.

Elia, who had been looking at her uncle through the window, nodded.

“Then, shall I order departure?”

It was remarkable how the emperor’s favor worked—previously, when she was empress in name only, no one had respected her like this.

“Yes, let’s go slowly. Having been bedridden for so long, I want to see the outside scenery.”

Despite the sudden request, not a single face frowned.

“Of course. I’ll convey your message to the coachman to take the main road of the capital and move slowly.”

“While we travel, I’d like my head chamberlain and head lady-in-waiting to ride with me and talk.”

“Understood, I will follow on horseback behind the carriage.”

Seeing the emperor’s closest aide immediately obey Elia’s request made her realize anew that she had truly crossed death and returned through time.

The treatment she had never received during her years as empress in her past life felt surreal.

Had the world always been this kind?

In the slowly moving carriage, Elia looked at Hannah and Dain, gave a strange smile, and shrugged.

Seeing the similar expressions on all three faces, they seemed to be thinking the same thing.

* * *

The rumor that the emperor had specifically held an engagement ceremony with Lady Theon spread throughout the capital along with the large imperial carriage carrying her.

“Does it feel good to see the outside now? You must have felt confined?”

Elia, who had been staring out the carriage window, turned her head at Hannah’s gentle words.

“I didn’t want to look outside. I’m riding slowly so people will look at me.”

It was time for Hannah and Dain to realize their mistress was no longer a child.

“All the influential nobles’ mansions are built along the capital’s main road. Like our ducal residence. Soon…… everyone who needs to know of my existence will learn that my residence has moved to the imperial palace.”

The years she spent living in the imperial palace as a powerless empress weren’t wasted. Rather, because she was powerless, she learned how the world worked and realized how strong the logic of power and strength was.

“If I’m going to be empress anyway, I need to establish my authority properly.”

It was unusual for the imperial family to visit the bride’s home and hold the engagement ceremony first.

The emperor was free to choose whomever he wanted as empress as situations changed. There was no need to be bound by future promises.

“Miss, could it be that…… when you said you didn’t want to be empress, when you tried to run away……”

“No. I was sincere. I just couldn’t achieve it.”

Hannah and Dain were like Elia’s limbs. They were also the only two people in this world who cared for her without conditions.

So she wouldn’t hide anything from these two, nor should she put on airs.

“When I sent Aunt away alone, I decided. If I have to become empress anyway, if I can’t break His Majesty’s will…… I might as well use it to my advantage.”

The innocent young lady they once knew was gone.

They would believe that the sudden misfortune and time she spent bedridden had changed Elia. That was half true.

“Where I, no, where we are going now is…… a place where the Emperor’s existence and authority take precedence over anywhere else in the empire. It’s a world that revolves solely around his will and heart.”

In her past life, the master of that world rejected Elia’s existence.

Yet Elia endured in that world for over ten years. Days when her tears dried up, her heart grew numb, and her limbs withered like vegetation.

“I don’t want his heart.”

Such a thing never existed in the first place. Why should she wish for something she never had?

“But I need to be respected as an empress and have the power to control the inner palace for us to live properly.”

This relationship that Rockfort was unilaterally pushing could change anytime his heart cooled.

Elia would no longer stake everything on that.