Chapter 54

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 54

Chapter Title: Seizing the Empress's Hand

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Before Arpad or the Empress could react, I called out first.

"I'm so thrilled that you're welcoming me like this, Your Imperial Majesty!"

At the same time, I grabbed the hand she had extended.

Thanks to that, I got a front-row view of the Empress's horrified face up close.

"...?!"

'Arpad's hand belongs to me!'

If she took it from me right now, what would become of my dignity!

At the very least, something like this should happen after I've been officially recognized as the Crown Princess.

If she snatched it away now, I'd lose before the banquet even began.

So, right now, I was stubbornly pushing forward.

The Empress reaching out to force Arpad into escorting her...

'I'll interpret it as the Empress extending her hand to welcome her daughter-in-law!'

The true intention didn't matter.

What mattered was that I positively reframed her preemptive strike and seized the initiative.

'You can't spit on a smiling face, after all.'

Besides, if I interpreted it kindly and she openly contradicted me here, she'd only make herself look foolish.

Especially since she was the one who had to maintain her dignity in front of inferiors.

'In fact, her entering first and demanding Arpad's escort went against precedent in several ways.'

At that moment, Arpad, who had been stifling a laugh beside me, chimed in a beat late to back me up.

"I'm even more grateful that you're greeting my wife so warmly, Your Imperial Majesty."

"......"

I could almost hear the Empress grinding her teeth.

But she couldn't shake off my hand here.

'That would be tantamount to admitting she was trying to come between me and Arpad.'

In the end, she had no choice but to concede.

"Very well. We'll have plenty of time to see each other's faces, so there's no helping it."

A half-hearted retort along the lines of 'You won't hold the Crown Princess position for much longer.'

Compared to my various expectations, it was actually quite mild.

I responded with a beaming smile.

"The pleasure's all mine! I'll be seeing you often from now on, Your Imperial Majesty!"

'Yeah, no such thing. I'll keep getting in your way from here on out.'

That was my answer.

The Empress's brow furrowed ever so slightly.

But she wasn't given a chance to hurl harsher words at me or Arpad.

A chamberlain cried out in a loud voice.

"His Majesty the Emperor, proxy of the great Artanus and ruler of the earthly realm, arrives."

The Emperor's entrance.

The doors opened, revealing an Emperor who looked like Arpad after twenty years of aging and growing a beard.

'Of course, Arpad is still more handsome.'

And I didn't miss my chance.

"It's such a joy to see you again, Aba-mama!"

Aba-mama.

That shocking term silenced the banquet hall, filled not just with the four imperial family members but dozens of chamberlains.

A daughter-in-law calling her father-in-law 'Father!' wasn't impossible.

It didn't violate etiquette at all. It was just a bit affectionate.

Especially in a private family gathering like this.

But it was certainly rare.

Given Arpad's personality, he probably never called him 'Aba-mama' even after loosening up.

'Am I maybe the first person to call the Emperor Aba-mama?'

Anyway, that wasn't the point right now.

After appealing to the Emperor's sense of familiarity with 'Aba-mama'...

I smoothly handed off Arpad's hand, which I'd been forced to hold to protect him from the Empress's clutches.

'The Crown Prince escorts the Crown Princess! And the Emperor escorts the Empress!'

Whether flustered or not displeased by the Emperor's escort, the Empress didn't refuse.

Thanks to that, the Emperor naturally ended up escorting her.

'Perfect. That was smooth!'

With that, I backpedaled toward Arpad.

He promptly grabbed my hand.

I winked at him while glancing around at the onlookers.

'How was that? I did great, right?'

Arpad chuckled softly.

At least it wasn't a denial.

The Empress, who had been gearing up to cause serious trouble for me and Arpad moments ago, had gone completely docile.

Well, that was only natural.

'Even at the wedding anniversary event a few days ago, the Emperor didn't show. She probably hasn't gotten his escort much.'

And then I saw it.

The Emperor stared straight ahead with a rigidly stiff face, but the Empress was different.

Ever since he entered, she couldn't tear her eyes away from her husband.

'Just as I thought...'

And right after, the event I'd anticipated unfolded.

With a subtle motion, the Emperor naturally released the Empress's hand, which he'd been forced to hold.

"...!"

For a fleeting moment, despair and desolation flickered across the Empress's face. Humiliation followed.

She quickly composed herself as if nothing had happened, but Arpad and I, right behind her, saw it all.

This couple had built a long history of unrequited love and mutual avoidance.

Arpad whispered mocking words into my ear, as if it were routine.

"The hysteria of an unloved woman is quite ugly."

Hmm. He really was my husband, but his temper was rotten.

Still, I didn't feel like scolding Arpad here.

Empress Isabel had been Evangeline's first patron and greatest backer.

And the very person who always killed me miserably for her daughter's sake.

'Maybe that's why she was so obsessed with making her daughter Empress.'

Given the Emperor's attitude, it was understandable why Isabel clung to her position.

'She must think she's not being treated as a proper Empress.'

Yes, that could be.

Resenting her husband for it... that could happen too.

'But I don't need to understand it when the fallout affects me.'

And of course, I already knew all of this.

'I'd seen it in my previous life.'

In my second life, after the Emperor had abdicated and become nearly vegetative, he'd come to find me at a remote temple.

He confessed his despair to me, then fell into a coma the next day.

He passed away a week later.

Before the Emperor died, a woman came to visit.

Empress Isabel herself.

Evangeline's mother, who was on the verge of her own coronation as Empress Dowager and at the peak of her power.

I'd been stuck nursing the fallen Emperor, and thanks to that, I overheard her words unintentionally.

Isabel gazed down at her nominal husband with a face far more aged and weary than now.

Wearing a black mourning dress with a long black veil trailing behind.

If I hadn't known her face beforehand, I wouldn't have recognized her.

She sat by the bedside of the comatose Emperor and spat out words laced with resentment.

"In the end... you won't even look at me until the last moment. I was never your wife, not even for a single instant."

Her black eyes, stained with resentment and despair, shed tears that looked like blood.

"But even so, I am your Empress. And my daughter will be the true Empress. No one can deny that."

I had to hold my breath outside the door.

She'd kill me for sure if she knew I'd overheard.

I was assassinated soon after anyway.

"I won't let you be buried beside Roxelin as you wished. You killed her only son with your own hands and have no face left anyway, right?"

She whispered softly into her dying husband's ear.

"If you'd just looked at me once, I wouldn't have done this."

Yet her trembling hand couldn't bring itself to touch the Emperor's.

"If you'd treated me as even the bare minimum of a wife... I wouldn't have gone so far as to kill Arpad."

That's exactly what she said.

Arpad 'too'.

Meaning the Empress was involved in the deaths of others the Emperor had lost.

Back then, I didn't know what those words meant.

But now, I could guess.

'The death of Arpad's birth mother, the late Empress Roxelin, wasn't an accident either.'

And I was certain.

If the Emperor learned the truth, he would never let the Empress off easily.

His love for the late Empress had been profoundly deep.

'But... there's no evidence.'

If I could find proof, it would be my strongest weapon against the Empress.

No proof, but I had solid conviction.

'Empress Roxelin died of mania. And so did Arpad, all three times.'

Though obscured by the many in the imperial family who died of mania, it was unnatural.

In my third life, I'd learned in detail about the mania arising from dragon bloodlines and how to control it.

So I could make an educated guess.

'I know how this woman killed Empress Roxelin and Arpad.'

Once I knew the method, uncovering evidence that she used it wouldn't be hard.

Preparations for that were progressing smoothly.

Hiding my inner thoughts, I followed behind them with a bright smile.