Chapter 49
Chapter 49. An Uninvited Guest
No sooner had Vinea finished speaking than Tatar tilted his head and pressed his lips against hers.
The breaths intertwining gently, all kinds of cheers blurring in their ears. Though not a long kiss, it was a perfect picture for showing someone.
Vinea could tell Eurene’s expression without having to look at her standing far away. As their lips parted, Tatar left a trace of regret.
“A sane emperor wouldn’t do something crazy like burrowing into the Empress’s dress here, so I’ll have to hold back, right?”
“After the evening banquet ends, I don’t care if Your Majesty is the greatest rake in history.”
“Can I interpret that as I like? You’re being unusually generous today. Strangely so.”
“I wonder. I’m trying to fill my world completely with someone as Your Majesty wishes. I’m also curious to see how far this despair will go.”
Despite Tatar’s narrowed gaze trying to gauge her intentions, Vinea just smiled and waved to the people.
“So don’t slip away somewhere else after tonight’s banquet ends. I’ll be waiting for you personally at the bottom of despair.”
* * *
After the dreamlike meeting with Eurene, Vante was preparing, having received word that someone would come to fetch him in the afternoon.
With little to pack, preparations ended quickly, leaving some time before the appointed hour.
“The third day… I heard there’s a royal procession.”
Though he’d soon see his sister again, he left the lodging intending to familiarize himself with her one more time before leaving Tessibania.
The crowds were so enormous that yesterday’s complexity seemed laughable in comparison.
It was hard to even walk properly, and as he barely made his way through the crowd, he recalled yesterday’s encounter.
‘If we happen to meet twice, then we can call it fate.’
Somehow, that smile lingered long in his mind. Even though he’d likely never see her again.
However, as if in jest, or perhaps fate, Vante met Eurene again.
She hadn’t noticed him, seemingly distracted waiting for someone, but he could clearly recognize her.
“Lady Eurene?”
Should he approach and greet her, would she tell him her family name?
He could easily find out by checking the Tessibanian nobility list after returning to Veshnu, but somehow he wanted to hear it directly from her lips.
‘But I should refrain…’
He hadn’t yet met and talked with his sister, and his uncle’s matter wasn’t resolved.
Moreover, she would soon see his sister’s face at the head of the procession, and if they met a few more times, she might quickly notice something strange.
However, his gaze fixed on her sky-blue hair refused to move.
In contrast, Eurene was too preoccupied to notice the stare fixed on her.
With her father’s help, she had barely escaped the mansion with one maid. Having only brought the minimum preparations needed to attend the Empire Foundation Day banquet, she needed to go to the salon her father had arranged and finish preparing, but strangely, her feet wouldn’t move.
‘I’ve never seen brother in the Empire Foundation Day procession before, having been confined to the mansion all this time…’
She recalled memories of him telling her to follow right behind with yellow flowers after her debut.
Although someone else would be sitting beside him in this first procession she’d see, wouldn’t it be good to witness it once, since next time she would be sitting next to him?
However, contrary to Eurene’s expectation that it would be fine, when she saw the two people moving through the crowd’s cheers in the distance, Eurene couldn’t hide the trembling in her fingertips.
Envy, jealousy, anger. Emotions surged so strongly that it painfully stabbed her heart, making her wonder if such large and dark feelings had always resided within her.
As the carriage carrying the Emperor and Empress gradually drew closer, Eurene hesitated and stepped back.
The unpleasant feeling of intruding where she shouldn’t, like that day in the garden, weighed on her shoulders.
At that moment, her eyes briefly met icy blue ones.
Eurene’s expression hardened as she watched the two talking.
“Waaaah!”
“For the glory of Tessibania!”
“For His Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Empress!”
The voices praising the kissing couple scattered chaotically without reaching Eurene’s ears.
‘Our eyes definitely met. Even though she knew I was here…!’
How could she be so desperate to humiliate an innocent person? How can a person be so wicked and vile!
Eurene clenched her trembling hands and turned away abruptly. Her stomach churned as if she might vomit at any moment.
She disliked everything here.
The cloudless clear sky, the warm sunshine, the cheering people, the vivid memories of her brother holding her hand saying they would join the procession together someday, and the dark emotions staining her.
“I can’t forgive you. Empress Vinea who stole what’s mine, I will never forgive you…!”
* * *
The first thing Vinea did upon returning to the palace was to remove her stone-heavy clothes.
She had to start preparing for the evening banquet right away, so she quickly washed up first.
Her body felt strangely feverish from smiling and waving all day as if wearing a mask.
Wrapped in a bath robe, she sat languidly in a chair with her eyes closed, letting the attendants dry her hair, when suddenly a familiar scent brushed her nose and the hands touching her hair became more blatant.
When she slowly opened her eyes, sure enough, the man who was the empire’s emperor was standing behind her, personally wiping the moisture from her hair with a dry towel.
“Your Majesty attending to me, there will be talk among the servants.”
“That doesn’t matter anymore, does it?”
“…Do as you please.”
The dimming sun and relaxed tension from bathing. The pleasant touch on her hair and the quietness so different from daytime felt stable.
However, the hand touching her hair, which was almost dry with nothing left to wipe, gradually moved lower.
Gathering her carelessly spread hair and twisting it up, exposing her neck completely, he pressed firmly with his hand and soon hot breath touched her skin.
“—Ah!”
A stinging pain spread between her left shoulder and nape.
Seemingly with minimal conscience, he left his mark just barely in a position that could be covered by the prepared dress.
“It faded, so I must mark it again. So everyone can see who stands firmly by the Empress’s side.”
“Ha! Speak plainly. It’s not for everyone, but because of Balak Utar, right?”
“You know I’m exercising the utmost patience by not killing him immediately. You should overlook this much spite.”
“Kill him. As Your Majesty said, we’ll just regress again anyway.”
“That’s the answer I wanted, but… do you really wish for that?”
Tatar tilted his head to meet Vinea’s eyes in the mirror. Beside his dangerously wavering silver-gray eyes, red blood droplets could be seen spattered on his cheek.
He had looked excessively precarious somehow. It seemed he had been swinging his sword while suffering hallucinations somewhere again. Whose neck had he cut this time? He might have upset the Emperor Emeritus recently, so it could be from there, or maybe an assassin sent by her uncle.
“…Do as you wish.”
At those words, Tatar straightened up again. Darkness swirled in his eyes beneath a hazy smile.
“How nice it would be if I could know the Empress’s thoughts in detail. Then I could at least pretend to go along with the Empress’s schemes that seem to have other motives.”
She hadn’t thought she could completely fool him anyway. She was just holding him back to prevent an incident big enough to drastically derail this regression for now.
Everything would happen after this banquet ended. How his desires were such a vain dream, how far this regression would break us.
“Do you still believe? That clinging to hope and wandering in endless despair is better than holding onto only each other in despair?”
“Yes.”
“If you say so. We’ll see when we check.”
“I look forward to it. Though I don’t know what my Empress wants to confirm so badly, I just hope this attitude of the Empress willingly going along with my stubbornness lasts as long as possible.”
Vinea laughed briefly and raised her head.
“It won’t take long to confirm, my Emperor.”
Just as he did, Vinea also closed her dangerously shining blue eyes.
* * *
“His Majesty Emperor Tatar de Tessibania and Her Majesty Empress Vinea de Tessibania are entering!”
With the attendant’s cry, the doors of the grand banquet hall opened.
The scene seen in every regression didn’t evoke any new impressions.
Tatar, standing beside Vinea, passed by those bowing their heads with an extremely bored expression and sat in the chair at the end of the carpet.
“Raise your heads.”
Everyone waited for the Empire Foundation Day congratulatory address to be given by the Emperor and Empress.
Only Deron standing to Tatar’s left and Lineue standing to Vinea’s right lowered their heads, unable to meet the expectant eyes of the people.
“Let the Empire Foundation Day banquet begin.”
The next moment, silence fell over the vast banquet hall. People’s confused gazes eventually turned to Vinea.
Unfortunately for those expecting the Empress to say something, just recalling how many times they had attended this banquet was overwhelming. They were just doing their best within the bounds of not greatly deviating from procedure.
“As the Empress leading Tessibania, I express my gratitude to those attending this gathering. Everyone, please enjoy the banquet comfortably.”
Though a longer greeting than the Emperor’s, it was equally insufficient.
Amidst the bewildered gazes of people, only the red-haired man slightly shook his shoulders, covering his mouth with the back of his hand.
Deron nodded towards the band in one corner of the banquet hall.
As the music with splendid melodies began, the tense atmosphere in the banquet hall quickly loosened. Since it was rare for key figures from each country to gather in one place like this, everyone busily began socializing for their personal interests.
Though the Tessibanian nobles and the Veshnu delegation were keeping their distance, noticeably apart at a glance, still one or two could be seen trying to interact, discussing each other’s businesses.
In the early regressions, seeing that sight had inspired a sense of mission, but now it evoked no feeling at all.
Vinea turned her head to look at where the Veshnu delegation had gathered.
She could see her uncle surrounded by people, conversing on various topics.
Seeing him talking with a pleasant face as if without any worries or schemes, it seemed he hadn’t personally confirmed the bodies of the assassins that had been dealt with.
Here, along with her, he was the only one who knew the transformed appearance of the artifact wearer.
‘If he had directly confirmed the body, he would have known it wasn’t Vante as soon as he saw him. Fortunately.’
At that moment, the doors of the banquet hall opened belatedly.
‘It can’t be…’
Vinea’s gaze, instantly sharpened, turned towards the doors of the banquet hall.
