Foresight of benevolence and righteousness is far away, and the sword is close. No one was brave enough to openly raise the ’emperor killed his brother and the empress remarried her brother-in-law’ topic.
In such a suffocating atmosphere, Madam Rachel has splendidly emerged as the Emperor’s official mistress.
A woman who makes her extravagance an epidemic, with her blonde, light brown hair curled into different shapes every day, and a red silk skirt that’s over ten wide.
Rachel’s beauty, luxury, and cunning soon became everyone’s favorite. The arrows of accusations against her have kept the Emperor and Empress somewhat out of the spotlight of the people.
“Madam Rachel has arrived.”
In front of the inner chamber where the Emperor lives, the attendant cautiously raised his words and glanced at Rachel.
Rachel stood there, lightly tucking the hem of her skirt. Even though she had grown plump at a fairly old age, she had a bizarre beauty that worked as an advantage.
Her eyes, full of her years, were thick and deep. The white skin looked as sweet as cream, making any mouth water. They couldn’t take their gaze off her.
Rachel smiled at the attendant who was frantically spying on her.
After a while, the bell rang as a sign of permission. The door opened and Madam Rachel entered the room.
“Your Majesty?”
The room with the curtains half drawn was dark.
There was a slight smell of smoke as if the candle had just been extinguished.
The new Emperor was reclining in an armchair by the window. Half of his face was in the shade.
“What were you doing here all alone?”
“Rachel.”
The Emperor’s blue eyes looked at his advisor.
“You said at first that Damian would never get married.”
Rachel raised her brows.
Apparently, her Emperor today didn’t need a concubine, but rather wanted to interrogate her as a secret agent.
A red smile bloomed on her lips.
“Yes, I did.”
“And that they were going to have a wedding at the imperial palace.”
“That’s right.”
As if flying, but as light as a butterfly, Rachel sat down on the floor next to the Emperor’s armchair. She then leaned her head softly on the armrest.
“I did. Who would have thought that the young and naive Elector of Turin would defeat me with his wicked little scheme?”
The Emperor did not respond to the beautiful voice as if singing. His concubine held up the Emperor’s hand, which was hanging on the armrest and kissed it reverently.
“But, Your Majesty, it’s nothing to worry about. It’s a strategy based on a fleeting marriage at best.”
“…”
Claude’s hand wrapped around Rachel’s chin.
“Your Majesty…ouch!”
And she was slapped on the cheek without any acknowledgement.
The hair pin that was holding her hair neatly fell off and scratched her forehead. But Rachel, who had fallen on the side, didn’t care and hurriedly raised her body and grabbed Claude’s leg.
“Your Majesty, Your Majesty!”
“Put up your face.”
When Rachel shuddered and raised her head again, Claude’s hand moved sharply again.
Pa, pa.
The rough hand quickly made her tender cheeks swell, and blood burst from her lips. Eventually, the violence stopped only when Rachel, unable to bear it, let out a sob.
“Are you making fun of me for being good even though you couldn’t handle a single thing properly?”
The Emperor, who was suddenly out of breath, fiercely questioned. However, the mistress rather noticed that this was the timing to be forgiven.
“Your Majesty, Your Majesty…”
Rachel said in a gasping voice, rubbing her face like a dog that unconditionally trusts its owner at the hand that just slapped her cheek.
“This Rachel was wrong, Your Majesty. I was wrong. I won’t make that mistake again. I’m confident!”
As she raised her voice like a scream, the Emperor’s hand painfully gripped her pitiful chin.
“Tell me what you’re going to do if you’re that confident.”
“When an alliance is simply broken, there is room for holding hands again, but strangely, when a marriage breaks down, they become bitter enemies. It’s nothing to boil a weak-willed girl and break the shallow marriage relationship when they couldn’t even spend the first night with. This Rachel can do it, she knows it, Your Majesty!”
“You’re desperately wagging your tongue.”
Despite being sarcastic, the Emperor’s grip loosened. Rachel sobbed that she was grateful and kissed the hand that struck her.
Tsk. The Emperor frowned and rubbed the red lip rouge on her white face.
“Make them both impatient to kill each other within a month.”
Rachel, who was still beautiful even with her bizarre appearance, with tousled hair and rouge smeared on her cheeks, nodded.
“Yes, dearest majesty. Trust this Rachel. She will surely live up to expectations.”
***
After the first day of entering the Grand Duke’s mansion unconscious, Lilian continued to live in seclusion. She even delayed being greeted by the majordomo and housekeeper.
It was very uncharacteristic of Lilian. However, Damian, who seemed to strangely have a low pressure, didn’t say anything, so Matteo tried not to step out.
Then, in the end, while Damian was away from the mansion today, something happened that he couldn’t leave alone.
In front of Lily’s room, Matteo kept a red envelope on his chest. And he politely knocked on the door.
Unexpectedly, permission to enter the room was given immediately.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
As soon as he saw Lilian, whose complexion was pale, Matteo’s expression hardened. Not because he was angry, but because he was worried.
“You seem to be overdoing it more than I thought.”
Usually, the wedding ceremony is handled by the mother of the bride or the wife of a close relative. But she had neither the person nor the time to do that, so Lilian had to make almost all of the decisions by herself. It was fortunate that her family vassals were cooperative.
However, Matteo was actually stunned to hear that she had prepared and sent gifts within that tight timeframe and even enclosed a handwritten message.
In addition, she went sraight to the capital, so it was reasonable for her to be weak.
“It’s nothing to worry about.”
“I heard that the maid came out with a bloody towel.”
“Um…”
Then there was no excuse. Lilian awkwardly shut her mouth.
“You should have done your best.”
“Me?”
“About the wedding.”
“Aha, I see. So that’s what His Highness the Crown Prince meant.”
It was something that could be heard rudely, depending on the listener;s discretion, but Lilian only accepted it with a smile on her face.
Looking at her docile face, the Crown Prince reflexively thought of His Majesty the Sun Emperor, whom he respected and his beloved father, Idoel.
He told his nanny that Lilian looked more like His Majesty the Sun Emperor rather than Her Majesty the Empress, it was a spontaneous thought, but looking at her today, he wondered why he hadn’t thought of that before.
They didn’t look alike. Even so, she was soft enough to remind him inadvertedly, but she also had a hard expression that wouldn’t let a needle go through.
Lily asked, biting into her ivory pipe and inhaling the smoke.
“They say you have something to tell me.”
Every time she spit smoke from her lips, Lilian had a habit of lowering her eyelashes.
Just that much made his stomach churn. The 15-year-old secretly clenched his fists and gave them strength.
Until four fingernails left red marks on his palms.
“Your Highness?”
“A, ah. Yes.”
Matteo tried to calm himself down. Still, the boy thought. Did he come because he had something to say with a really pure heart?
…or did he just want to talk to this person?
Every time he thought about it, he was about to go crazy.
‘It can’t be like this.’
It shouldn’t be like this. Lily Islar is now Lily Rupenwein. She was his aunt. Even the slightest agony was a sin.
Overwhelmed by remorse, the Crown Prince boldly omitted even the polite remarks.
“Please accept this first. This is a letter addressed to Her Highness.”
Lilian received the red envelope presented by the prince. In a world where the art of papermaking was poor, paper this smooth and brilliant red was very expensive.
“This is from Madam Rachel.”
“Yes, that’s right.”
The content of the letter was simple. She had heard about Lily for a long time, and to put it bluntly, wanted to have a relationship, so the simple content was to continue their friendship in the future.
“It’s a warning.”
From the time she came to the capital, no, even before she married Damian, it was already in her calculations that she would be opposed to Madam Rachel. Lilian didn’t care and put the letter down.
“Thank you. Did you take care to not let the people under you see me surprised when I received the letter?”
“It’s not enough to be thanked. If you don’t mind, I think it would be helpful to tell you what I know about the social circle. You may already know everything, but…”
“No. Since it was before my debut, there are a lot I don’t know. I’m glad you cared about it.”
According to Matteo’s account, Emperor Claude had two women.
The first is Aratine of Castana, the first empress in imperial history to have two emprors as husbands.
“Her Majesty Empress Aratine nominally has the right to rule the inner palace and noble ladies, but the real power is wielded by Madam Rachel Wood.”
It was a very businesslike tone for someone talking about his mother.
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