Chapter 76

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 76

Chapter Title: Chapter 9. Owner of the Platinum Key

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Empress Isabel had no intention of attending the banquet at Artanus Hall, naturally.

This was the same for Lady Quinibel's ball held within the Empress's Palace.

Her daughter smiled sweetly and whispered.

"Mother doesn't need to step in personally. It's better if I handle it myself."

The Empress agreed with this opinion.

And so she limited herself to simply supporting her daughter.

Until just a few days ago, before mentioning the "madness of the imperial blood," Evangeline had always been the kind, capable daughter who met her every expectation.

None of the things that child had affirmed had ever failed to come true.

Until today.

This faith was rock-solid, and she believed it would remain so.

Until the midpoint of the banquet, when the Empress witnessed "that phenomenon" with her own eyes.

"Your Majesty the Empress! Come out and see! In the sky right now...!"

"What is this sudden commotion?"

The form of a dragon blotting out the sun.

The shadow of the dragon cast over the earth.

Any citizen of the Empire, upon seeing that form, could think of only one word.

Artanus!

Whether that form was truly a dragon or not.

Even if it was a real dragon, whether it was Artanus or not didn't matter.

What mattered was that the vast majority of imperial citizens would perceive it that way.

And it happened to occur on the very day Hilia was hosting her banquet at Artanus Hall, right in the middle of the festivities.

Was this truly a coincidence?

But no one could have predicted this phenomenon. And yet that wench did?

Not even the continent's foremost scholars or the court mages affiliated with the imperial palace had predicted it.

Not even a word from the Magic Tower.

The Tower Master was superior to the palace mages under the imperial family—in fact, the continent's greatest mage.

The Empress had some connection with him.

If the Tower Master had foreseen this phenomenon, he would have informed me.

Somehow, Hilia seemed to be the only one who had successfully predicted it.

Anyone with eyes had seen the spectacle. And the timing was far too perfect.

Such rumors were inevitable.

"Dragon Artanus appeared in person to acknowledge the new Crown Princess."

If no rumors arose, Arpad would surely fabricate them himself.

If she had truly predicted the phenomenon, she might have even spread the rumors in advance.

Is all of this truly that wench's scheme?

No. It could just as easily be Arpad.

That had been the prevailing public opinion on Hilia until now.

A trophy that, if obtained, would bring the Delphin Ducal House into one's grasp.

A pitiful woman used and discarded by the men of the imperial family.

But was that truly all there was to it?

Anew, the Empress recalled the look in Hilia's eyes from their last banquet.

Those deep purple pupils, gleaming with sharp intelligence, were not easily fathomed.

Either way, the Empress had no choice but to admit it.

I've underestimated her.

Hilia's abilities.

Or perhaps Arpad's feelings toward her.

...Or both.

That was why the Empress had stepped forward herself. Discarding all predictions and plans.

On her way here, having finished dressing as quickly as possible, messengers came running with news of the anomaly at Artanus Hall.

"The western nobles, led by Grand Duchess Axion, have filled Artanus Hall!"

"Lady Quinibel's ballroom is completely empty!"

"His Imperial Majesty the Emperor has arrived at Artanus Hall!"

The final report reached the Empress just as she neared Artanus Hall.

Unseen by anyone, she bit her lip.

She had already tested the Emperor before.

"What will you do? You've deigned to descend upon Artanus Hall itself—will you not take a single step inside?"

"She must prove her own worth. I can't spoon-feed her everything, can I?"

Anyone listening would know the Emperor had no intention of attending the banquet.

He meant he would decide whether to acknowledge Hilia based on the outcome.

But reality was different.

Did he... deceive me?

She tried not to show it, but the Empress was practically swimming in humiliation right now.

Upon entering Artanus Hall, the Empress realized her suspicions were correct.

The very thing she had desperately hoped was wrong.

At the center of Artanus Hall's semicircular ceiling was a hole.

No rainwater leaked through it—only sunlight and moonlight filtered in.

It was midday now. A woman gleamed dazzlingly in the streaming sunlight.

Standing guard at her side were two men.

Arpad, embracing Hilia.

And a man who looked just like Arpad. The Emperor, Walter Estrid.

Her husband.

The Emperor gazed at Hilia with a tender, warm look—the first such expression he had shown since the late Empress Roxelene's death.

One heartbreaking fact pierced her to the bone.

He never once gave me eyes like that.

She didn't dare hope for the love and passion he had shown Roxelene.

But surely a wife deserved at least some affection and fondness in his gaze.

Yet until this day, the Emperor had never once bestowed it upon her.

While giving it freely to that wench who had entered his life just over a month ago.

Gripping her dress tightly, Isabel tried to relax her hand.

But she couldn't stop her long nails from digging into her skin.

The Empress walked slowly across the hall.

The crowd filling the hall like clouds parted with every step she took, creating a path.

As she approached, the Empress took in each and every noble surrounding them with her eyes.

Her gaze was intense and lingering, as if committing them to memory.

The western nobles didn't budge, but the turncoats who had come from the Empress's Palace to Artanus Hall trembled in fear.

Stopping right before me, the Empress smiled only with her lips and said.

"What a grand banquet."

A blatantly mocking tone.

Her eyes, filled with the desire to tear me apart, were fixed on the tiara atop my head.

The "Tiara of Moon and Stars" belonging to Princess Estrid.

Something she had never worn even at our abbreviated wedding or the skipped reception.

Before that, the Grand Duchess had ensured she couldn't even possess it.

I had chosen it deliberately, of course.

Arpad was still holding me tightly, but I made no move to pull away.

Instead, I pressed even closer into his embrace and replied brightly.

I had noticed at the last banquet that this would annoy the Empress even more.

"Thank you."

I answered, but offered no formal greeting.

At that, the Empress tilted her head and asked me.

"It seems you've forgotten something."

"What have I forgotten?"

The Empress looked down at me with utmost arrogance, picking a fight.

"I pointed it out last time as well, but it seems the previous Duke didn't properly educate his daughter."

"...!"

There it was—the attack on my upbringing.

As expected, like mother, like daughter.

Of course, calling me "similar to Evangeline" was the ultimate insult to me.

I kept my smile firmly in place and threw her words right back at her.

"My father did his absolute best, just as Your Majesty the Empress educated the Ruth Marquis's Daughter."

"...!"

I had countered with a smiling face.

'Our family's upbringing is better than you and your daughter's, which is a complete mess.'

I could see the Empress's lips stiffen ever so slightly.

There was no way she hadn't read the room upon entering the hall.

Gatherings of people in a banquet hall signified power dynamics.

No one was around Evangeline right now.

She was truly a wallflower.

Evangeline was always at the center of attention.

Even I was seeing her like this for the first time.

No words needed for how her mother, the Empress, felt seeing that.

She's absolutely furious.

The fact made me feel utterly satisfied.

Tension crackled between the Empress and me, like lightning ready to strike at any moment.

The Empress moved first.

She took one step closer and said.

"But now that you're no longer an outsider, I suppose I must teach you myself."

A declaration of war, promising to instruct me in etiquette personally.

But I smiled radiantly and replied.

"Oh, thank you. Your Majesty the Empress. It feels so new to be acknowledged as the Crown Princess by the lady of the inner palace herself."

"...What?"