Chapter 14
When Yulia heard from a maid that the captain of the imperial guard had arrived at the Reak duchy, her heart began to race.
‘Ah, finally. They must be announcing the marriage.’
Just the day before, Karolina had visited and, in a generous tone, told her that the Empress Dowager would be suggesting at breakfast the next day that the emperor formally announce his marriage to Lady Reak.
But something felt off. It was too early for the imperial breakfast to have ended.
Moreover, if this was news from the Empress Dowager about the engagement, it should have been delivered by the chief attendant, not the captain of the guard.
“Stop brushing, will you?”
Yulia pushed the maid away and went straight to her father’s office.
In the hallway, she ran into the duke in his formal uniform and the duchess handing him his gloves. After respectfully offering her morning greeting, she asked,
“Father, why is the captain of the guard here?”
“Yulia. Kazan of Tane has broken the peace treaty and invaded. You’re not to go out. Stay by your mother’s side.”
“F-Father… is His Majesty going to war?”
“He must.”
Lifting her skirt, Yulia walked quickly to keep pace with her father’s urgent strides.
Then what about the marriage announcement? Is it being delayed again? What if Harzen gets hurt?
She grabbed her father’s sleeve just as he was about to mount his horse.
“Please, Father… Go in His Majesty’s stead.”
“Hmph, a man with only a daughter…”
The duke glanced down at her with a displeased look and spurred his horse. His knights followed behind. The duke resolved that he must try harder to secure an heir before it was too late.
The Duke of Reak had no experience in war. No matter how much his only daughter begged, he had no intention of going in the emperor’s place to a battlefield where life and death hung by a thread.
Even if it wasn’t him, there were plenty of hot-blooded knights ready to give even their guts for the emperor. Even Kazan, a war maniac, didn’t necessarily require the emperor to personally command against him.
They could stall for time by sending the guard captain or Kalip ahead, then form an expeditionary force using the mercenaries currently mining in Kaosan and the Rochet Mountains. The longer the war dragged on, the more unfavorable it would become for Tane.
If the emperor and the duke were to join the reinforcements together, it would present the right image.
When the Duke of Reak and his knights arrived at the palace gates, the emperor and his troops, having just completed the departure ceremony, were exiting the palace.
The duke and his knights dismounted and dropped to one knee, bowing their heads.
Despite seeing the duke and his men, the emperor passed by with his usual cold expression.
It was an urgent situation, true, but shouldn’t he at least have nodded to the man who would soon be his father-in-law?
The duke felt embarrassed. His cheeks burned and his earlobes turned hot.
Yulia had been anxious ever since she heard the emperor was personally leading the army. Every day waiting for news from Panaho Fortress felt like hell.
And it was Karolina once again who poured fuel on that anxiety.
She reported that the head maid, Anna, had bought a large quantity of lady’s items from the Rose Marie dress shop on Epi Street and sent them to Panaho Fortress.
Though the duchess tried to stop her, Yulia insisted on leaving with only a single carriage and a small escort.
Thanks to traveling nonstop for two days, they arrived at the main fortress of Panaho just in time to see lady’s items being unloaded from the front carriage.
Yulia pressured the steward until she uncovered the truth behind the imperial business carriage filled with women’s items.
‘The leader of the enemy nation that started the war was a woman? The captured prisoner was a Tane princess?’
Yulia recalled her days studying at the Tane Academy. She had never once heard that the Tane Empire had a princess. It was unbelievable.
Even more unbelievable was the fact that a woman had escaped from Panaho Fortress, an impenetrable stronghold.
“Bring me the maids who served her.”
“My lady, the two Hun maids are in the underground prison, being disciplined for neglecting their duty as guards.”
“Then should I go to the underground prison myself?”
It was the butler’s first time meeting Lady Reak in person. Still, even he had heard the rumors, that if not for the late emperor’s passing, she would have been the one to marry the current emperor. The butler bowed his head.
“Please wait a moment. I’ll bring them to you.”
Once the butler left, Yulia walked to the window in the reception room. She looked back at the maid who had come with her from the duchy.
“You!”
“Yes, I’m Rena.”
“Good, Rena. Come here and draw the curtains.”
Rena stepped over and pulled aside the heavy double curtains.
Yulia narrowed her sharp eyes, looking up at the wide moat and towering castle wall. From the first-floor reception room, the wall rose so high into the sky it seemed to have no end.
“Look at that. They say a woman climbed over that wide moat and that tall wall. She must be as big and muscular as a man. Don’t you think?”
“Y-yes, just looking at it makes me dizzy.”
‘Then why the dresses? Why would they be prepared for a prisoner like that?’
With a knock, the butler returned, bringing the two maids with him.
Yulia’s mood soured further at the sight of the maids, brought from the underground prison, looking neat and unscathed, with no signs of being punished.
“You may go.”
She sat on the sofa and motioned for the maids to come closer.
“Kneel right here.”
While bringing the maids from the underground prison, the butler had debated how best to explain Lady Reak’s position to them.
Though rumors in noble circles declared her the emperor’s betrothed, no official announcement had been made.
So the butler had simply instructed the maids to respond politely and state only what they knew.
The maids knelt and bowed their heads.
“Tell me everything you know about the prisoner.”
The Hun maids replied without hesitation.
“She’s called a princess, and she wasn’t strict, she was gentle.”
“Her face and golden hair seemed to glow.”
“Yes, that’s right. She was beautiful… and a bit playful.”
“She wasn’t being silly. She was lively, but she had grace.”
They described her manner of speaking, her cute behavior, her bright and cheerful dancing, all exactly as they had seen it.
“A graceful person starts a war? Swings a sword?”
Yulia was furious at their naive praise.
‘She even put on pants and danced in front of the maids like some vulgar thing.’
But what pushed her over the edge was hearing that the prisoner had been tied to the emperor’s bed and slept there.
“His Majesty, the Emperor, where did he—?”
“His Majesty slept in the reception room.”
Even at that answer, Yulia didn’t lower the poisonous rage that stiffened her like a viper.
“So it was you who helped the prisoner escape. You made her pants. You gave her scissors.”
In the end, unable to suppress her emotions, Yulia struck the maids across the face with a fan adorned with dangling jewels.
The silver trim around the jewels scraped one maid’s cheek, drawing blood that dripped down. Her lips split open, and blood spilled out in heavy gulps. Startled by the sudden violence, the maids couldn’t even scream; they swallowed their breath and clutched their blood-soaked cheeks.
At that moment, a roar came from the direction of the castle gate.
“Harzen, Harzen, Harzen!”
It was the shout announcing the emperor’s return.
Yulia dismissed the maids from the room and ordered her own maid to fix her face and hair. As Rena quickly moved her hands, she said,
“My lady, you look absolutely stunning.”
Rena was a maid who knew exactly what Yulia wanted to hear.
“Yes. Let’s go.”
*
The emperor sat with his back straight and his long legs crossed leisurely.
He lifted his head toward the ceiling, then lowered only his gaze to look at Yulia, like a black wolf seated proudly atop a high cliff.
Harzen saw the moist eyes of the noblewoman staring at him with a flushed face. But in that moment, he remembered the calm, indifferent gaze of Patricia, and it annoyed him.
That’s the kind of look most ladies give me. How could she not?
He recalled the moment he had held Patricia at his side as she looked out the window with her hands bound and asked.
Ha! Patricia. She claimed she didn’t remember this Harzen, this handsome face?
The more time passed and he replayed the event in his head, the angrier he became.
I’m curious to see how she’ll react when she stands before me again.
He thought of Emperor Kazan’s marriage proposal, part of the negotiation, and let out a faint laugh. The only reason he could even afford a smile now was because he had decided to accept the proposal.
Yulia, sitting before him with her hands folded and eyes fixed on him, was the least of his concerns.
His mind was entirely consumed by thoughts of the Tane princess who had been his prisoner. Just thinking of her made his heart race, then burn with anger, then grow anxious. He was incredibly thirsty.
He lifted the pewter goblet with his long fingers and drank deeply. The strong liquor slid down his throat, making his Adam’s apple twitch.
Yulia looked at the emperor’s cold expression as if tracing it with her eyes.
His sharp, temperamental features were devilishly handsome, enough to steal one’s breath away every time she saw him.
Sometimes, he’d curl his lips into a smile. When Sir Kalip made one of his silly jokes, the emperor would smirk in a way that could unravel anyone’s heart.
His wide, square shoulders, the taut waist filled with muscle, the veins bulging on the back of his hand, the primal twitch of his throat, his long, firm legs—
No matter how many times she saw him, her heart burned.
The emperor unfastened one of the buttons on his uniform and brushed his fingers over a red wound on his neck.
Then, he glanced briefly at the fan Yulia was holding. It was a decorative folding fan with lace-trimmed panels, and a gemstone dangled from the center of each section.
“Lady Reak, to what do I owe the visit?”
Yulia, who had been staring at the red wound peeking out between the high collar of his uniform as if mesmerized, finally snapped back to her senses and set her teacup down on the saucer.
“Her Majesty the Empress Dowager was worried that Your Majesty had gone to the battlefield personally, so she asked me to bring you a medicinal tonic.”
How obvious.
“You came to a war zone with only a knight and a maid, without any proper escort?”
The emperor lifted his empty pewter goblet. The butler beside him picked up a Panian bottle and poured. Yulia gripped her dress tightly with her lace-gloved hand.
“Your Majesty, about the lady’s dresses and items sent to Panaho…”
“…”
The emperor suddenly stood. The chill in his abrupt movement silenced Yulia, cutting off her question. He turned to the butler and spoke.
“She says she came to deliver medicine, so take it.”
Harzen walked over to the window and looked down at the moat. He imagined Patricia swimming through the dark water now engulfed in shadows. Ha… how had she managed to avoid the venomous snakes?
“Your Majesty, it’s my first time here… They say the view of Panaho is beautiful, especially the forest at sunset, when it turns red—”
“Lady Reak.”
Harzen leaned against the window sill, arms crossed.
“This is war. Are you here to see the red sunset—or the red blood spilled by friend and foe alike?”
“Your Majesty… I have something to say. Just for Your Majesty.”
Yulia’s voice trembled low as she spoke. The emperor had neither offered her tea nor dismissed the butler and Kalip. She was now clearly asking for their leave.
For a moment, the atmosphere in the reception room froze in silence. The butler and Kalip looked toward the emperor.
“Leave us.”
At the emperor’s command, they left. Yulia stepped closer, bowed her head slightly, and said softly,
“Tonight. I will come to Your Majesty’s bedchamber.”
