Without a doubt, it was an accident that Ginny, a maid from the Emperor’s palace, pushed Kareina into the water.

In the first place, Ginny hadn’t even pushed Kareina. She had simply applied force incorrectly in her haste to grab the woman just before she fell into the water.

Thanks to her screaming and calling for help, guards who happened to be passing by rushed over and were able to rescue her.

And given that the woman happened to be the Empress, Ginny could be considered extremely lucky.

The Emperor highly valued the merit of saving the Empress and appointed Ginny, who had been a maid, to the position of lady-in-waiting. On top of this, he even ordered her to personally attend to the Empress.

Faced with this tremendous fortune, Ginny couldn’t bring herself to confess that she had been the one to drop the Empress into the water.

Only after confronting the Empress while wrapped in guilt could she prostrate herself flat on the floor and beg forgiveness for her wrongdoing.

“Your Majesty the Empress, I have committed a mortal sin. To have shamelessly received a reward after daring to drop Your Majesty into the water. I will gladly accept any severe punishment.”

Kareina couldn’t understand the lady-in-waiting who begged forgiveness as soon as she saw her.

“Dropping me into the water……”

Ah. Only then did she remember the buzzing shouts and the feeling of someone pushing her just before falling into the lake. Then this person who saved Kareina was also—

“You’re the maid who saved me.”

“What? Y-yes. That’s right. But before that, I pushed you, Your Majesty.”

“Did you push me on purpose?”

“No! Absolutely not! In the first place, Your Majesty was so precariously by the water…… I was only trying to help.”

“Then it’s fine, Ginny.”

A gentle hand lifted her from her flat prostration. Ginny was stunned by the unbelievable kindness.

“R-really?”

“In the end, you’re the one who saved me.”

In fact, malicious rumors about the Empress circulated here and there throughout the palace. That the Empress changed lovers every night and had affairs, that she embezzled the budget allocated to the Empress’s palace to line her own pockets, that her tyranny toward ladies-in-waiting and maids reached the heavens, and so on.

When it came to bad rumors, it was actually easier to find ones that didn’t exist than ones that did.

Ginny also believed most, if not all, of the rumors as gospel truth. This was why she had prostrated herself flat as soon as she first met Kareina. She had expected to receive at least a few slaps.

But it was the complete opposite.

Kareina forgave Ginny with an angelic expression and even gave the frightened girl time to rest, telling her to calm down.

“But keep it a secret that I had my hands in the water, Ginny.”

“What? Why, Your Majesty?”

“Hmm…… I don’t want to hear that I fell in the water while foolishly playing around.”

“Aha. So you were playing in the water.”

When Ginny nodded, Kareina gave her an angelic smile.

“My goodness. Could there be another person as angelic as this?”

Ginny, crunching on the cookies she received from the Empress, made a resolution.

“I will devote my life to serving Her Majesty the Empress with loyalty.”

At the serious resolution, the ladies-in-waiting sharing the cookies turned to look.

“What did you say?”

“Her Majesty is an angel. From now on, I’ll live for Her Majesty the Empress and follow any command.”

The newly appointed ladies-in-waiting were those favorable toward the Empress for reasons such as having Niyev relatives, having studied abroad, or coming from open-minded families.

So while they shook their heads at Ginny’s absurd declaration, they didn’t antagonize her.

“Yes. Work hard, Ginny.”

Maria Poppy, the only daughter of a Count family that ran the capital’s largest theater troupe, replied indifferently.

After the accident at the lake, Raul no longer sent flowers. That didn’t mean he stopped the gift offensive.

Rather, he seemed like someone determined to fill the flowers’ empty space with other things. All kinds of jewels and dresses, tapestries and paintings to hang on walls came streaming into the Empress’s palace in succession.

Kareina still tried to store the jewels in the drawer but was restrained by Ginny.

“Goodness, goodness, Your Majesty, is this drawer a mine? I’ve never seen such expensive jewels tangled up so carelessly.”

When she made such a fuss, the ladies-in-waiting who gathered brought jewelry boxes. The accessories in the drawer filled two jewelry boxes to the brim and still had some left over.

“You can wear these earrings and necklace for your walk.”

Maria, rummaging through the jewelry box with sparkling eyes, suggested. Kareina thought the sapphire earrings and diamond necklace were too splendid for a garden walk.

However, since the ladies-in-waiting rushed at her with fire in their eyes, she silently put them on and went outside.

It happened to be a clear afternoon without a single cloud.

Thanks to the sunlight growing warmer with each passing day, flowers began blooming in the outdoor garden as well.

After viewing the flowers, Kareina and the ladies-in-waiting walked on the soft grass. The air was cool and birds chirped merrily.

Then Ginny, examining a tall tree, tilted her head.

“Look at this, Your Majesty. Someone stuck a note between the tree branches!”

At those words, Maria, who was on the tall side, hurried over and pulled out the note.

“Oh my, really.”

Ginny, who quickly took it, opened the note and frowned. Then she held it out to Kareina.

“Someone must be having a romance in the sacred palace. Look at this, Your Majesty.”

Kareina opened her hand and received the note in question. On the palm-sized paper was written the following:

You must not forget me

A romance?

Kareina tilted her head.

For a love letter, it’s a bit…… scary. Maria, who seemed to have the same thought as Kareina, replied.

“You don’t write such words to a lover.”

“Why not? It says not to forget me. Isn’t that romantic?”

“Hmph. Just what kind of men have you been seeing?”

While the two bickered, Kareina examined the note closely.

Several strokes were broken in the middle, as if scrawled roughly with a pen that didn’t write well. Kareina fell into thought while fingering the messy marks that seemed to have been torn from a larger paper.

“……A threat?”

“A threat?”

Ginny, who had been fighting with Maria, asked with wide eyes.

Yes. A threatening letter.

Though the recipient wasn’t specified, this definitely seemed like a threatening letter.

“……Or maybe it’s just lovers playing around.”

But there was no need to make others anxious over something uncertain. Kareina shook her head with a smile.

Moreover, Tirantus wasn’t Niyev. Who would have the nerve to leave a threatening letter in the imperial palace of a great empire?

It was probably her own paranoia that was the problem. This time blaming her paranoia, Kareina folded the note and tucked it into her sleeve.

On the day marking one week since he awoke, the Emperor decided to reconvene the noble council. While there was a need to officially announce the Tirantus Emperor’s good health, it was also due to the practical need to resolve accumulated agenda items.

Also, Raul wanted Kareina to be by his side during the meeting without fail.

Kareina no longer believed his excuse that he hadn’t memorized all the nobles’ names and faces, but she attended the meeting without raising any objections. She needed to become closer to Raul.

The nobles were bewildered by the Empress’s appearance at the meeting hall.

Of course, this wasn’t the first time Kareina had attended a noble council. However, until now she had sat in a corner of the table and quietly exited.

She had never confidently taken a seat next to the Emperor’s designated spot like now.

Moreover, the Emperor’s gaze and attitude toward her had also subtly changed from before.

The nobles who arrived early exchanged busy glances after seeing the Emperor’s eyes curve widely toward the Empress.

And when the Emperor finally personally swept the hair that had fallen on the Empress’s cheek behind her ear, the meeting hall stirred.

“Di-did His Majesty just sweep back her hair?”

“Maybe he was shooing away a bug?”

“No. Don’t they say going through a brush with death changes one’s mindset? His Majesty must have changed somehow after wandering at death’s door.”

“Tsk tsk. What nonsense you’re talking. Are you trying to say His Majesty has fallen for a Niyev person right now?”

The nobles who had been whispering busily fell quiet.

The one who threw cold water on the conversation was Duke Debussy.

“His Majesty still cherishes our Evelyn greatly, so you don’t need to worry!”

The Duke, who spat out his words irritably, swept the surroundings once with a fierce glare. Well, he was the person who would be most immediately affected by the Empress and Emperor’s romantic front.

Moreover, among the nobles attending the meeting, many had already aligned themselves with Duke Debussy. It was because of their conviction that Evelyn would soon become imperial consort.

So while the couple’s changed relationship felt unsettling, they couldn’t voice it further as the meeting began.

However, as the meeting progressed, thoughts about the imperial couple’s slightly strange atmosphere were cleanly erased from the nobles’ minds.

The Empress had been ignored even just for breathing. Soon the usual habit of looking down on her began popping up here and there.

“Isn’t the mastermind behind the carriage attack remnants of former Niyev?”

Starting with Marquis McKeon’s denunciation, all kinds of raw criticism poured out toward Kareina and her background.

“People from Niyev are ignorant and rough, so they don’t know the grace our great empire bestows!”

“Their temperament is also foul, just like someone they resemble, hahaha.”

“Her Majesty the Empress, who looks only at the Niyev region day in and day out, couldn’t have been unaware of this incident. We must interrogate the Empress about who the culprit is.”

Criticism and mockery close to insults poured out indiscriminately.

Raul looked around the meeting hall with a rigidly hardened expression. However, the nobles continued pouring cruel words at Kareina, paying no heed to the Emperor’s silence.

In the midst of this, Kareina just listened without saying anything. It was a peaceful expression—not smiling but not looking angry either.

But how could she be unaffected hearing such words to her face? Seeing her unable to say anything though she must clearly be hurt, it felt like fire was rising from Raul’s core.

Raul clenched his fists tightly.

These were familiar words to Kareina.

Rather, she was observing the unusually quiet Duke Debussy today and trying to guess his intentions.

There were many nobles who hated her, but among them, Duke Debussy particularly hated Kareina. Perhaps it was natural since his daughter was the mistress.

In any case, normally the Duke would have added at least one comment that Kareina was definitely infertile, or that she secretly kept a Niyev man hidden in her quarters.

Kareina slightly frowned while examining Duke Debussy’s thin but solid-looking cheeks. She wondered if he was unwell, but looking at his complexion, that didn’t seem to be the case.

Moreover, today the Emperor was also completely absent from this parade of criticism and mockery. This point especially made this terrible time bearable.

No matter how much she tried to close her ears and not listen, the raw criticism that stuck in her ears made her mouth go dry.

“There’s one slave from that region, and they’re so incompetent and stupid. Well, the top was stupid, so of course they ruined the country, didn’t they?”

Kareina lifted her glass with a cold expression and took a sip of water.

In any case, she had to get along well with Raul. Even if she couldn’t make him fall head over heels, she had to maintain an amicable relationship. That was Kareina’s newly determined duty and usefulness.

So she mustn’t fight unnecessarily with Raul’s subjects.

This level of criticism was just childish, and also……

Bang!

At the loud sound like a bomb exploding, Kareina was so startled she nearly dropped her glass. The source of the sound was right next to her.

“Your, Your Majesty.”

The nobles who had been looking around in surprise soon identified the source of the sound and opened their eyes wide in shock.

Raul, who had struck the desk hard, was glaring at the nobles with a chilling expression as if to devour them. And the Emperor, who had instantly created a suffocating silence, opened his mouth.

“What vile and filthy words are these about the Empress?”

It was a growling voice as if pulled up from his core.

“Do you all want to be punished for insulting the imperial family?”

The chilling gaze swept over everyone in the meeting hall one by one. The nobles were shocked by the unexpected situation and closed their mouths, only blinking their eyes.