“… I am aware that a balanced approach is necessary.”
It was unfortunate, but giving weight to the theory of Eastern intervention as a smokescreen didn’t mean that the rumor of Eugene being the Emperor’s paramour could be denied. It had to be the unshakable truth that he was found naked in the bathroom with the Emperor the night Louise was murdered.
The day that it is revealed that the situation had been a ruse, not only Eugène but also the Emperor, who proved the reason for his absence, would be in trouble.
If they weren’t in a sexual relationship, why were they discovered that way? Why did he go out of his way to mask Eugène, the most likely murder suspect, as if he were a Lady of Balustre so that no one would question the truth of that day?
The questions raised were likely to end with a fatal blow to the Emperor’s morality without ever reaching a legitimate truth. However, Eugène had no intention of letting things go that way.
“A balanced approach, you say.”
The Emperor quietly repeated the words out of his mouth, as if the words Eugène had chosen were interesting, and he smiled haughtily.
“What do you plan on doing? It will not be easy.”
The Emperor slowly scanned Eugène from head to toe with a slight smirk, leaning over and leaving a clandestine whisper in his ear.
“You will need a special method to convince those who are not as foolish as you say they are as to why We are interested in your body.”
A velvet-like sensual voice slowly permeated Eugène’s ears. The Emperor’s warm lips brushed close enough to touch Eugène’s auricle. The sight of vivid, drawn-out eyes approaching and moving away with a smile was strangely captivating.
The Emperor stood straight and looked at Eugène as if he were ridiculing him, and then turned around. Although Eugène didn’t know that he was doing it intentionally to mock him, his heart still sank, unconsciously so. The subtle scent of musk that soaked the tip of his nose when he leaned over still seemed to drift around him like a reverberation.
‘Yes. I will surely need a really special method.’
Even though he was a man just like him, Eugène gloomily spoke to himself at the appearance of a too-alluring Emperor. He suppressed his sigh as he recalled the Emperor’s beautiful ivory-like white cheeks, gorgeous golden eyes, and masculine yet sensual lips.
What kind of means would it take to convince a person that someone like him desires a man like Eugène?
No matter how much he thought about it, it was a question that could not be answered.
***
Click.
The hand that was holding the elaborate hair comb made from a tortoise shell momentarily stopped in mid-air. It stopped so abruptly that the tip of the comb caught on the lid of the jewelry box and made a small fricative noise.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Only after hearing the sound did the woman seem to have come to her senses, and she turned again to look down at the jewelry box. As before, it was just to choose the accessories to dress up, but her mind seemed to have gone somewhere else.
Zlixs, vfilmjaf olcufgr wbnfv jr lo ibra jwbcu atf rqifcvlv jcv iezeglber pfkfir. Vtf tlv tfg mbwqifzis reyvefv fsfr jcv bqfcfv tfg wbeat jr lo cbatlcu tjv tjqqfcfv.
“… Llr Zjpfras abbx j kjix klat tlw?”
“P atbeuta P tfjgv la kgbcu, yea la kjr agef. Rba bcis ws wjlvr yea jirb Nlrmbecafrr Zjgmté, ktb kjr kjixlcu lc atf ujgvfc ja atf alwf, rjlv atfs tjv rffc la olgratjcv. Pa rffwr atja atfs tjv yffc kjixlcu jibcf lc atf ujgvfc fjgis lc atf wbgclcu jcv fnfc tjv j rqfmlji mbcnfgrjalbc klat atf jaafcvjcar yftlcv atfw.”
Count Freyr’s daughter, who always spends toilette time with Countess Patrí, was late for the meeting today. To begin with, she was never quite prompt, and recently, she had suffered a terrible disturbance, which left her severely weakened due to the shock, but now it seems that she had slowed down her steps because she had picked up such rumors.
She fanned her cheeks, reddened with excitement, and confessed to Countess Patrí the hot news that had just happened.
“No one could see them up close as they were accompanied by the attendants, but they seemed to be extremely intimate with each other even from afar. It was said that His Majesty even called the person close to him before leaving and even left a whisper in his ear. How could His Majesty do that?! I thought it was all simply rumors, but this is surprisingly astounding, Countess.”
Countess Patrí did not raise her head. She looked down at the jewels with an overly cautious attitude, ignoring the fuss of Count Freyr’s daughter.
“Is there anything unusual about it? It is surprisingly common for court aristocrats to indulge in unusual hobbies occasionally, is it not?”
She found a precious hair comb made of only the finest pearls, without any flaws, and inserted it into the skein of her hair. The lady-in-waiting, who was more cautious than usual, helped Countess Patrí see her back by aligning the angle of the silver mirror in her hand.
However, the ignorant daughter of Count Freyr, unable to properly understand the signal from Countess Patrí, persisted in an uncomfortable topic.
“It simply does not seem like a temporary hobby to me. I was thinking about it myself, but right now, the room the person is staying in in the court is the so-called ‘teacher’s room’, is it not? Why is itt the same room as the one the late Emperor had given to Madame Winslet a few generations ago?”
The Madame Winslet mentioned by the daughter of Count Freyr was a Lady of Balustre, who is still talked about as the lover of Clotilde VII, who was the Emperor four generations ago.
She was called a ‘teacher’ at the time of her entrance into the palace because she was a tutor to teach the princess, who was also the daughter of Marquise Garniar, the concubine of the Emperor. After being noticed by Clotilde VII, she was loved more deeply than anyone else until she died of a stillbirth, and she was never able to officially ascend to the position of an imperial concubine.
It was because she was already married, came from the third class, and, most of all, was not even a citizen of the empire. She was originally from Belpasset, a member of the Confederation of Five Nations.
“I had heard from my grandmother some time ago that there was a rumor that Clotilde VII used a secret passage somewhere in the room to secretly visit Madame Winslet. And so, it was a meeting that went on secretly for several months without being discovered by the Marquise Garniar.”
Countess Patrí made an annoyed gesture to the lady-in-waiting as if she didn’t like her reflection in the mirror. The lady-in-waiting in charge of her hair quickly approached and placed the pearl hair comb back in the jewelry box.
“If that rumor is true, it is a strange coincidence, but too strangely coincidental. Why did His Majesty give him a room with a secret passage? Maybe there was indeed something special from the beginning?”
“Your imagination seems to have gone too far. I heard that the truth about the secret passages of the Imperial Palace is only passed down to His Majesty and his successors. But how could such a secret travel around people’s mouths? It must be a rumor made up by people who only like to talk.”
Viscountess Wemmel, who couldn’t continue listening any longer, stepped forward and tried to change the subject, but to no avail. The young daughter of Count Freyr, who was deeply absorbed in her thoughts, insisted on her opinion until the very end.
“But it is so strange! As is known officially, the two first met at the last divorce trial. However, considering it was their first meeting, the way His Majesty treated him was very suspicious. His Majesty was too generous even when given the fact that he is His Majesty’s vassal.”
Countess Patrí reluctantly opened her mouth, as the young lady was poised to keep the topic going forever if left alone. She looked at the sapphire earrings that matched her eyes and added color to her ears and responded in a sullen tone.
“You are talking too long of an uninteresting story. I am not very interested in it. Do you not know His Majesty as well? He is not of the nature to be deeply indulged in hobbies that would harm his prestige.”
It is possible for a man to fall into a whirlwind entanglement momentarily. If one always eats oily food, sometimes one may wonder about rough bread.
Countess Patrí was not pleased that the socialites, who thought that loving one’s wife was the job of a peasant and that being chaste to one’s husband was a behavior befitting a blacksmith’s wife, were fussing so much over a mere incident as if it were a rare scandal.
In fact, if one thinks about it, they were the ones who committed worse acts than this.
“Regardless-”
“It is not nice to see a young lady who has not even married yet put too much emphasis on gossip. Please stop talking about uninteresting things and take a look at my adornment. What do you think? Do you think these earrings would look good on me?”
“… Did you not wear those earrings yesterday as well?”
“Oh, did I? I forgot.”
Countess Patrí put down her sapphire earrings as though they were insignificant and took out platinum earrings adorned with rubies in response to the careful assessment of Count Freyr’s young daughter. At the same time, the pattern on the dress she was wearing depicts a lingonberry shrub with the fruit on the tip of the branch, so the red jewels were a perfect match.
The Countess, who saw the pair in the mirror, hung the ruby earrings on her ears as if satisfied. The young daughter of Count Freyr, watching the scene, smiled innocently and added something like a joke.
“How marvelous. Though it is really strange that the Countess forgot what she was wearing yesterday.”
The Countess, finally refining her look through the full-length mirror after she had finished adorning herself, instantly turned fierce. She stared at the reflection of Count Freyr’s young daughter in the mirror for a moment, then withdrew her gaze and coolly looked at the mirror again.
She knew that since the scandal broke out, many people in the court were watching her with as much persistent interest as it had been directed at the man.
They wondered how she would react after her position was threatened in an instant after having been favored as the Emperor’s concubine for so long. But she didn’t want to satisfy their expectations, even out of pride.
She was the Lady of Ivory and was praised as the most beautiful woman in the empire. There was no reason to be worried about an opponent who would be nothing more than a play of fire at one time at the most.
“It is a nice day. Shall we go out to the garden for tea? A few days ago, my father sent me a precious tea that is hard to find in the Western Continent. Even in the Eastern Continent, it is said that it is a special product that is only delivered to the imperial family, but I have not tried it yet.”
She led the young girl into the garden with a friendly smile. Count Freyr’s young daughter followed her in delight at the prospect of drinking luxurious tea from the Eastern Continent.
Countess Patrí straightened her back and stepped forward with impeccable perfection. The women who followed were all beautiful, but none of them were as flawlessly beautiful as her.
That day too, Countess Patrí had a day like no other.
As promised, she tasted tea from the Eastern Continent with her companions, including Count Freyr’s esteemed daughter, in the garden. After finishing lunch, which was excellent quail sauté, she invited the furniture craftsmen she had called in advance to bring in new furniture into the newly refurbished guest room. She didn’t know who would be in the room in the future, but since it was a place where one perilous incident had taken place, she wasn’t too concerned about decorating the room.
After looking at the designs suggested by the craftsmen for several hours and choosing furniture, it was late afternoon.
The ladies briefly dispersed for a while and went back to their own toilette room to dress up for the evening banquet. Countess Patrí, who had spent half a day with a bright smile, started walking down the hallway at a faster pace after breaking up with Count Freyr’s young daughter. Viscountess Wemmel’s steps became faster at the same time to catch up with her steps.
“What a carelessly impertinent chick!”
As soon as the door closed behind Viscountess Wemmel’s back, a sharp voice of anger erupted from the lips of Countess Patrí. She furiously took off her earrings and threw them into the jewelry box, biting her red lips.
“What about the teacher’s room? How dare she refer to Marquise Garniar? Ha! Sister, did you hear what that wicked thing had to say?”
The name of Madame Winslet, who was nothing more than a mistress, was still remembered not only because of her unprecedented favor but also because of the tragic fate of the Marquise Garniar, who suffered due to what happened.
The Marquise Garniar, who was called the most beautiful woman of her time and was the Emperor’s favorite, was abandoned after giving birth to the prince she had longed for. She was also defeated by an insignificant teacher, who was not only a foreigner but also a commoner.
The courtiers called her ‘Garniar of the Dawn Star’, a cruel sarcastic nickname about her sitting alone in bed until dawn, waiting for the Emperor.
Born as the daughter of a prestigious noble family and having great pride, she could not bear the humiliation and left the imperial court, lived in Le Chamel Palace, the imperial family’s detached palace, and did not come out until her death.
Even after she died, she did not enter the imperial cemetery and left a will to be enshrined in the ossuary located in the chapel of the Le Chamel Palace, so it was worth guessing how much shame and anger she must have felt.
T/N: hello ! happy new year and hope you’re all doing well ;] this is a temporary note for those who didn’t exactly know the reason of my absence and that was because one of my lovely cats had passed away but enough time has gone by and i didn’t want to keep you all waiting for any longer than i already have, which i apologize for :[ thank you so much for your patience, i appreciate you all <33
Thank you for the chapter, and for thinking of us! My deep condolences for your the loss of a beloved companion. I hope the new year is a good one for you.
با تشکر از شما برای فصل جدید برای گربه عزیزت تسلیت میگم میدونم خیلی دردناکه لطفا ما را در غم خود شریک بدانید و سال نو مبارک.
Countess Patri is feeling the same thing that her Predecessors must have felt before her. They must have felt devastated to know emperor taking in new concubine. I suddenly feel so bad for these imperial concubines , they’re condemned to share their love.
I also feel distressed about emperors , they can’t be with solely with the one they love.
Lives of these Upper echelons were no easy. This Historical Drama is no easy. (˘･_･˘)
Oh ! So sorry about your cat :’( Hope you’re faring well now. It’s good to see you here again after such a long time.
Happy New year. May this New year showers you with new strength 🌸💕
I missed this so so much and I just want to say that my love for this never wavered even after almost a year has passed. I fell in love with this novel so much that I really appreciate your efforts in translating this. Take your time, mimari~
My heart is breaking for your loss. I can not imagine how grieving you feel for losing your cat 🥺🥺🥺🤍
I am truly sorry for your loss and hope you a Happy New Year<33
Also take your time, we r waiting no matter how long 🙂
I am so sorry for your loss, take as much time as you need to heal and thank you for posting this chapter. Its brilliant as usual.
My deepest condolences for your loss😔🙏
I’m so happy this is back ❤️❤️