All seasons in Artias were relatively similar to each other, with the exception being the summer. This one quarter of the year was particularly hot, especially when it was about to end. Thus, it usually wasn't to be expected that the very first days of summer were already accompanied by the burning sun, especially since the previous week had been rather frosty.

Blanche had been forced to decide what things she wanted to take with her for their two-month vacation, and that already made her sweat even though she was only sitting around in her room. She pitied the servants, who actually had to find a way to store her countless dresses in a couple of suitcases and bring them to the carriage. But she also wasn't looking forward to riding the coach for two days at a time while having to endure the infuriating heat, even if her complaint was less important. After all, she had a few things she wanted to discuss with her lover and her maid, so she could use some hours to talk well.

The concubine plopped down onto a chair with a sigh and dabbed her face with a piece of wet cloth. “We should have accompanied the others when they departed three days ago. It was still cold then. Now it's the early morning, and I'm already melting. The door and windows are opened, but the wind isn't refreshing at all.”

Stella just finished packing her own baggage and struggled to close the suitcase while rolling her eyes at her mistress. “Don't complain. You weren't the one having to transport all of your things in this heat. I would like to remind you that our friends just went earlier to unpack all the suitcases so that everything is ready when we arrive. The coast has milder weather, so it won't be this hot, but carrying around suitcases the whole day isn't fun either. You should just look forward to being there in two days, and then we can sit at the beach and enjoy the sun without feeling like the skin is melting off our bones.”

Blanche drank a sip of the water and grimaced when she noticed that it was lukewarm already despite having been cold only a few minutes ago. “I can't believe Theo was right about this. I didn't believe it when he said that we would have to deal with this kind of weather in a couple of days.”

For some reason, this heat also hadn't been described in the novel, even though the concubine would argue that it had to be pretty noticeable to the heroine. The book was written from Seraphina's perspective, so events like this should be mentioned, shouldn't they?

Blanche gulped down another sip from her cup and glanced out of her window. The sun was shining brightly as if it hadn't done more than enough to warm up the capital during the last few days. “I'm still wondering how Theo knew about this. Is he a mage or something like that?” Obviously, that wasn't it.

Stella carried her suitcase to the entrance and set it down with a huff. “It was a lucky guess. His Majesty has lived in the palace ever since his birth, so he would be able to recognize certain patterns. Maybe they had something similar a few years ago, and he remembered that. You could just ask him yourself when we brought all of this downstairs.” She eyed the remaining baggage with a frown and sighed loudly. “Why do you need to take so much with you, My Lady?”

Blanche opened her mouth to defend herself.

But Stella already made a dismissive motion with her hand. “I know that you didn't do that on purpose. Puffy dresses take away a lot of space, and we can't get anything from here for two months. So, it's obvious that have to take your favorites with you. By the way, have you decided whether you want to leave the butterfly clasp here?”

Blanche shook her head. Even though they only had a little over an hour before their departure, she still wasn't sure. She would like to continue to hide her ornament in the dresser between the shawls to make sure that it couldn't break no matter what. At the same time, she was a bit scared of someone entering her room and accidentally finding it while she was gone. Blanche stood up from her chair and walked over to her dresser to open the lowest drawer. She carefully lifted her clasp and inspected it before touching a few of the shawls. Maybe she could take it with her and hide it at the same time. As long as she wrapped the accessory in a piece of cloth, it shouldn't break no matter whether the suitcase fell.

Blanche stuck to that plan and made sure to engulf the clasp in a few layers of velvet before putting it in the small suitcase, which she would take into the carriage. This way, she wouldn't lose sight of where the butterfly was and could prevent anyone else from getting too close to it. She closed the suitcase with a content smile and sat down on the chair again.

Stella watched that while wiping away the sweat on her forehead with a handkerchief. “It would be better for you to walk around a bit. After all, we will have to spend the whole day sitting in the carriage. Tomorrow too. So, we should stretch our legs before we're stuck inside a vehicle until the evening.”

“You're right about that. Hopefully, we can open the windows so that the wind will cool us a bit.” The concubine stood up and observed the servants that were currently bringing the last ones of her suitcases out of the room. “That should be all.” She turned to her maid. “You know, you should just place your things near the rest, and they'll bring it down for you without questioning whether it's mine. When they carry the suitcases to my room in the summer residence, you can just secretly take them to yours.”

Stella shook her head. “I won't make these poor people carry even more baggage. Besides, I just have two suitcases. I can bring them down my-” She cut herself off when she attempted to lift one of the pieces of luggage and barely managed to move it. “On second thought though, you might be right. Could you tell them to bring this downstairs too?”

Blanche let out a chuckle and moved to the entrance to her room to ask one of the servants.

The man's face was already red from carrying so many things and running up and down the stairs to the third floor in this heat. He grimaced upon hearing that he and a colleague would have to go down again but declined it when the concubine offered to ask someone else.

The servants left with Stella's baggage, and as soon as they stepped outside, the maid began grinning. “You never had to do much, but now it seems like your life gets easier and easier. The staff is starting to like you, see? You just have to be polite and utter a ‘please’, and they do everything you want. I think most of them have grown fond of you during these past months.”

“I wouldn't be too sure about that. They have to listen to me since I'm the emperor's guest. They can't ignore my orders. But it would be great if you are right.” In fact, it did seem like Blanche had made progress, but the situation was still a bit more complicated.

The last five months had been enough to convince many servants that she had changed for the better. Occasionally, offering them some of her baking had also helped to improve their opinion of her. Most of them thought neutral of her, and some even liked her enough to greet her with a smile when she approached them. That was exactly what she needed to improve her reputation so that she wouldn't be the villainess.

The only problem was that there were still groups that seemed to have sworn to hate her. They were being less obvious about it now, but she could see their glares and hear how some voiced less kind things about her. In most cases, they were already scolded by their colleagues for those comments, so she didn't worry too much. If the biggest part of the staff didn't really care about her, she had reached the goal that she determined after receiving the novel's memories. She would continue to be kind to the servants and just hope that the remaining resentment would fade with time, and then she would be fine as a neutral person.

Stella's smile widened at her mistress' doubts. “I'm always right about things like that. My intuition tells me so. And that can only be good for us. If the others like you, they won't mind doing more for you than they might do normally. Our vacation was going to be extremely relaxed in the first place, but now it will be even more pleasant. You can let the staff bring you everything without lifting a finger and eat as many sweets as you want because we're on vacation and that justifies not doing anything the whole day. His Majesty won't work either, or if he does, it will just be a little bit. You can spend so much time together and try out all kinds of new things. You'll see the ocean for the first time too, and you could visit Ibela and eat fresh salmon there.” The maid continued to blabber about how great this summer would be while the concubine listened with half an ear.

Maybe Blanche would be more ecstatic if her stomach wasn't churning whenever she thought about the vacation. The next two months would give her the final proof of whether she was right to think that she had a chance to stay with her lover or whether she was doomed to fail.

At this point in the novel, the emperor hadn't even met her original self's eyes anymore as he had spent time with his wife, and Blanche needed to be certain that that wouldn't happen. If the main characters didn't get closer during their stay in the summer estate and didn't have their first night together, it was clear that the novel also wouldn't follow its original course.

The concubine obviously wouldn't cause any trouble like she had in the book, so Theodore wouldn't send her home two weeks early. That was important. After all, she had to cling to him to make sure that he wasn't meeting Seraphina in secret. It might be a bit childish to solve that problem by controlling every one of his movements, but it was her only choice. She could only hope that her lover wouldn't get annoyed and ask her to step back. She didn't expect him to act like that, but she couldn't know how much the contact to the empress could influence his behavior in the future.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

Stella's ranting made Blanche look up at her maid, and she recounted the events in the novel up to this point. The servant should already have become Seraphina's attendant before the vacation, but this clearly wasn't the case. Stella had never been ordered to enter the empress room nor had she pushed over a vase and been caught. And she still liked her original mistress now.

That thought brought a bright smile onto Blanche's lips. She congratulated herself in silence and then looked around in her room for one last time. As she glanced at her belongings, she went through her imaginative list of all things that she had to take with her. Though, Blanche doubted that she had forgotten anything since Stella had also looked over everything. In an emergency, they could buy anything that was needed in the city that was close to the summer residence too, so checking for the fifth time wasn't necessary. This meant that they were ready.

Slowly but surely, Blanche began feeling a tingle in her stomach as she became more and more nervous. Uncertainty because of the novel and anticipation because of the upcoming vacation mixed and made her want to distract herself so that she wouldn't get too excited. She turned to Stella, who seemed to be ready as well. “Let's take a little walk in the garden now that we have the chance. I would like to see the winter garden one last time before we're gone for two months.”

Her maid nodded, and they climbed down the stairs.

Blanche was still lost in thoughts, even though she had proposed to move to get rid of all of her concerns. She couldn't stop pondering about the novel. She gave in with an inward sigh and went through the events that would happen in the near future. Theodore and Seraphina would sit in a carriage together and arrive at the mansion first. They would take their time to look around together.

For some reason, the villainess had arrived a bit later and had immediately whined upon seeing her lover and asked him to show her around. He had declined that by saying that she shouldn't walk too much because of the injury that she had just complained about.

Blanche immediately stopped her movements at that thought, which almost made Stella bump into her, but she didn't even notice that.

Hadn't her original counterpart explained that she had slipped on the stairs and injured her knees, which had created some pretty ugly bruises and scrape wounds? Because she had insisted on taking care of that first, she had arrived a few hours later than the emperor and the empress. Right now, the concubine wasn't hurt, so she had the chance of arriving in time. She definitely couldn't be too late and let the main characters spend time alone together. That meant that she couldn't injure herself under any circumstances, especially not by doing something as careless as slipping on the stairs.

Stella's voice pulled her mistress back into the present. “My Lady, what's wrong? Did you forget something?”

Blanche quickly replied with an excuse and continued walking. “No, no. I just thought that I left one of my favorite earrings here, but I put them into the suitcase.” As soon as her mouth closed, she focused on her feet. She would have to climb down one more staircase to the first floor, and then she should be safe. Instead of using the smaller ones in one of the corners of the palace, she steered towards the big one in the entrance hall. The steps were broader there, and she wouldn't have to squeeze through the narrow hallways and had more space, which allowed her to take her time.

When she reached the stairs, she stopped completely and took a deep breath before directing all of her attention to the floor. She dug her fingers into the railing to make sure that she would be able to stabilize herself in the case that she actually tripped and fell. Her other hand was gripping her dress to lift it slightly so that she wouldn't slip because she stepped onto the fabric. Now she just had to go down extremely slowly, and then there was no way that she would hurt herself badly enough to have to postpone the journey. Even if she did get hurt, she would insist on departing at the same time as the carriage with the royal couple.

Blanche tensed all the muscles in her body as she took one step forward before bringing her other foot onto the same height. Then she repeated that process. It already became clear that she would take an eternity after a few steps, but she didn't care. She still had at least forty minutes to climb down, which would be more than enough time to cross the entrance hall and get into the carriage. She ignored anything else but her careful motions and managed to reach the middle of the staircase without any problems.

Still, she didn't dare to become boisterous, not if that would give the main characters a chance to bond. She kept her head down and stared at the floor the whole time without acknowledging anything else. She took one more step, and now there only were a few left before her feet would touch the even ground. Then she would be able to breathe out in relief.

She was almost there, with only four steps being left, when a voice called out to her and something moved in the corner of her eyes.

“Blanche!”

For some reason, that was enough to scare her so much that she flinched and loosened her hold onto the railing. Blanche had already leaned forward a bit to keep an eye on any bumps that might be under the carpet though. She hadn't expected to suddenly lose her greatest source of stability and panically attempted to grip the railing again but only disturbed her own balance by doing that. She tried to stabilize herself by taking another step forward, but her shoe got stuck on the carpet as if this was a bad joke.

Before she could do anything, she stumbled forward. Blanche raised her hands to protect herself, squeezed her eyes shut tightly and braced herself for the impact, but that never came.

Instead, a pair of arms was wrapped around her and pulled her against a man's chest. That person used the force of her fall to spin her around before gently setting her down onto the floor. The concubine opened her eyes slowly and looked directly into her lover's face. She had already had a feeling that it would be him who had saved her, but now she could be sure.

Theodore scanned her face carefully and only gave her a cheeky grin when he determined that she was fine. “Someone seems to be a bit careless. You can't walk around without paying attention to your surroundings.”

Blanche's heart was still pounding in her chest at the prospect of slamming onto the ground without any chance to protect herself, so she barely managed to respond. “Thank you... I was trying to prevent that from happening, but...” She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down while loosening her grip to not accidentally scratch her lover with her fingernails. She narrowed her eyes at him before opening her mouth again. “This is your fault, you know? Everything was fine until you scared me.”

Theodore still grinned at her and put his forehead against hers. “I'm sorry, but I can't help it. When I see you, I have to run to you and snuggle into you.” He kissed her with such passion that the air almost got stuck in her lungs. When he finally released her, he was giving her this wide smirk again and resumed talking as if nothing had happened. “Are you already prepared to depart, or do you need someone to get something from the capital? We could pause there if necessary.”

Blanche took a few seconds to breathe again before she was able to reply normally. “No, I don't need anything. All my things are in the suitcases, which should be brought into the carriage right now. If anything else comes to my mind, I would have to get it in Ibela.”

Her lover nodded and slowly let go of her a bit more but interlocked their fingers to make up for the missing contact. Naturally, she didn't complain about that and was happy that the odds of him ignoring her during the vacation were relatively small. That and Theodore's smile made her grin.

At least until Blanche turned her eyes away from him and looked around the room for the first time.

The entrance hall was completely full. Countless servants and knights were preparing the carriage, got ready to leave or had gathered to bid farewell to the emperor and the empress. Understandably, all of them were focused on their ruler, which meant that they had witnessed how Theodore had caught Blanche. That shouldn't be much of a problem considering that he had hugged her often in front of the staff, but he had also kissed her quite passionately just now. Remembering that while knowing that all the people here had watched them made Blanche's cheeks flush red as she looked up at him.

Her lover just continued to grin and turned to her. “Is everything alright? You don't have a fever, do you?” He raised his arm and put his palm onto her forehead to check her temperature despite obviously knowing that she wasn't red because of that.

Blanche pressed her mouth into a thin line to not accidentally say anything that made her embarrassment even more clear and glared at Theodore.

He let out an amused huff at that before leaning down to her with a playful grin. “If you act like this, I might-”

They were interrupted by Leon, who stepped closer to them quite suddenly. “That's enough. I thought you only do that in front of me, but seemingly, you like to bother the whole palace this early in the morning.”

Theodore straightened his posture and looked over to the secretary before responding. “Don't be like that. I haven't seen her since breakfast. That is more than enough time to justify a warm reunion.”

Leonard rolled his eyes. “You'll have the next two months to yourselves, so pull yourself together. Just go into a room before starting to hug because everyone else is going to choke on so much sweetness. And don't get too immersed in that either. Others might need something from you, and you tend to ignore your surroundings when you're like...” He gestured towards them. “That.”

Blanche glanced at Theodore's and her hands, which were still intertwined, before meeting Leon's gaze. “But we aren't doing anything too conspicuous now. We're just holding hands.”

“Sure. But before that, you were eating up each other's faces.”

That remark tinted her cheeks into an even deeper shade of red, which made her lover chuckle.

Leonard struggled to hold back a grin too as Blanche averted her eyes. “It's not that bad since you have plenty of time in the carriage that you can use however you like if you're quiet enough.” He quickly continued before Theodore or Blanche could say anything about that comment. “I don't really care about that. I'm just offended because I came here to bid you farewell. After all, you will leave for two months and make me do all of your urgent work during that time. And I still get ignored? I wouldn't have woken up this early if I had known that you wouldn't even acknowledge me.” He crossed his arms and turned his head to the side while pretending to be sulking.

Theodore shrugged and faced his lover. “See? He will be lonely without us. He definitely needs to fall in love soon, or he will cling to our children later.” While talking, he glanced at the staircase for a moment before focusing on his concubine and letting himself get distracted again. He stepped a bit closer to Blanche. Then he gently pushed away a few strands of her hair, which had become disheveled due to her falling into his arms. After that, he pressed a kiss onto her forehead without letting go of her hand while acting like it was completely fine for him to do that in front of so many people. In the end, he even turned around so that they were facing the entrance and whispered into Blanche's ear. “The preparations are almost finished, so we could depart a bit earlier if you want to. Then we might arrive at our stop along the way before the sun has set and can drive off early in the morning after that too. That could allow us to have some free time on our first day at the summer residence.”

Blanche was confused as to why he had decided to whisper this instead of saying it normally but didn't point that out and just replied. “Sure. I want to see the ocean as soon as possible. It would be good to get there quicker. Though, you would have to inform the others too. After all, they might have planned their schedule with one more hour to get ready.” She glanced at the servants to see how much baggage still had to be transported, only to find the staff members as well as Leon bowing.

Since Theodore had been here for a while, they couldn't be greeting him. There was only one other person left that could have arrived and needed to be shown such respect.

Great. This was just the person Blanche hadn't needed to see.