The couple barely slept that night, and whenever Blanche managed to doze off for a few minutes, her lover was still awake when she woke up. That only led to her pulling him towards her again.

In the morning, they were as exhausted as they had been the evening before and decided to stay in bed. This was exactly the relaxation they needed after meeting a bunch of awful people. They did nothing the whole day except for cuddling and going to bed early. This caused them to be fully rested the day after that.

They spent the whole morning with each other and ate lunch together. Then Theodore announced that he had to go to his office to make up for the last days of not working at all and promised to see her in the evening. The concubine wished him that his work wasn't too exhausting and stayed behind in his room with Stella when he left.

As soon as he had closed the door behind him, the maid began ranting. “Who do those people think that they are? They are awfully brazen for someone that is His Majesty's greatest enemy. I heard parts of your conversation, and that was enough to make one thing clear. They feel way too safe. I hope His Majesty will take them down quickly. Then they won't dare to say anything to you anymore.” Stella slammed her hand onto the table before crossing her arms and pouting.

Blanche pushed away the memories of the party and leaned her head onto her palm. “Right now, I don't want to think about the dowager empress or Cedar. Knowing that they are here within the royal estate is infuriating enough. I can't even openly argue against most of the things that they said because they were clever. They either put on a friendly facade with sugary words, spouted generalized lies so that you can't pinpoint what they are referring to or told the truth. I just hope that the fact that I didn't bow to them didn't make them too angry. I don't really need anyone with so much influence despising me. Even though I don't particularly mind if they hate me just a little bit. Then they would leave me alone.” Despite her attempts to distract herself, her mind wandered back to Cedar's oddly familiar face. A shiver ran down her spine, and she shook her head to push those thoughts away.

Stella's eyes narrowed when she saw her mistress' reaction. “They were the ones being impudent. Those...those-”

“Don't insult them. I don't want you to get used to it so that you won't blurt it out when anyone else can hear you. No matter how much you dislike them, they are members of the royal family. There is no way that we can simply disrespect them.” Even if Blanche knew that Theodore would protect her and surely her maid too, she didn't want to risk anything. Her servant losing her position and having to leave the palace was the last thing they needed.

Stella leaned against the backrest of her chair while complaining even more. “I don't care about their bloodline. They are on trial for attempting to murder His Majesty. They can't pretend that didn't happen and act like they own the place. No matter if they are a prince or anyone else, there is no way that His Majesty will allow them to touch you. I would have liked to spit on those people, but that would lead to my execution.”

Blanche drank the final sip of her tea and scanned her maid's grimace. They should definitely do something relaxing, or Stella might explode. She would have to prevent her servant from doing anything that would cause the dowager empress to justify punishing her, so calming the maid down was crucial. “It would be best if you stayed composed. They will use anything that we do against us. So, please don't act rashly. Even if you hate them, like I do, you have to show them respect. Still, you should avoid them when you have the chance. I didn't tell you yet, but Harris was definitely right about our enemy being good at acting. The second prince is like a worse version of him that is full of murderous intent. Just mentioning that person sends shivers down my spine. I almost threw up from having him hold my hand.”

Stella nodded in affirmation. “It was obvious how disgusted you felt. It was a good decision to warn Darlene and Clark immediately. I left your side for a moment while His Majesty was talking to Duke Duremont to tell our friends and came back after that, which proved to be beneficial. They surely won't trust anyone in the royal family except for His Majesty now. And I'm sure that they'll spread this information so that the rest of the servants also share that sentiment.”

If the concubine remembered correctly, Darlene and Clark had been standing next to her maid during the party. It was good that they knew everything now. “What did they say about being warned by Harris? I assume that they weren't pleased. If I hadn't known that Theo's family consists of monsters, I might have doubted Harris too.”

The maid's expression became a bit softer. “In fact, Clark believed it immediately. He said that Harris was an...well, an unpleasant person but that he wouldn't lie about someone being a threat. Darlene was skeptical until that prince came in and started talking to you. If you remember the fact that he was putting on a fake smile like Harris does, you could see that that man was a walking threat to anyone on His Majesty's side. That he dared to make you uncomfortable made that even clearer. From the very moment that he took your hand, all of us resented him. You looked like you just wanted to run away, and still, I couldn't do anything.” She gritted her teeth and lowered her gaze onto the table. “I felt useless. I'm sorry for not being able to help.”

Blanche put her hand onto the table, with her palm facing her maid, who quickly moved her hand onto it. “None of that was your fault. Getting involved would only have caused you trouble. If you were punished in some way, that would upset me more than choking down my disgust for a few seconds would. The only one that can stand up to his family is Theo. Maybe the empress too, but aside from them, anyone speaking up might be thrown into prison. So, please don't worry. We'll go into the kitchen now and make some pancakes to take this issue off our minds. How does that sound?”

Stella hesitated for a few seconds before slowly nodding. “I want one with maple syrup and butter.” Her voice still sounded like she was sulking, which made Blanche grin.

“Sure. We'll find that somewhere. We're within the royal palace after all. Someone will have any ingredient you could ever need.” She waited until her maid mirrored her smile before they stood up and prepared to leave.

The concubine still hadn't gotten used to exiting the emperor's room in the morning. The stares that landed on her as soon as she opened the door always made her feel like a stranger that didn't belong here at all. Over time, the servant's gazes had been filled with less dismay and more neutrality with some even showing traces of kindness. Today, it seemed like the members of the staff were especially happy.

It was weird to be met with so many smiles, so Blanche almost took a step backward to hide inside. Had something happened, and she didn't know about it? Had Theodore given them a raise to secure their loyalty? But what was even more confusing than that was that Owen was standing in front of the door. She blinked at the knight a few times before looking around. Her lover wasn't anywhere to be seen, so why was his guard here? Sometimes, the emperor had sent the knight to fetch her, so that could be it. “Uhm...good day, Owen. Is Theo waiting for me?”

Owen bowed to her. “Good day, Lady Blanche. His Majesty is currently working in his office. As far as I am informed, he did not explicitly ask for your presence. He said that you are free to visit him whenever you wish though.”

The concubine scanned the hallway again while ignoring the few nosy servants that had stopped to watch them. “I am aware of that. It's just that he's not here, but...you are. I don't want to be disrespectful, but that usually means that you have something to attend to here.”

Owen replied without batting an eye. “Naturally. His Majesty ordered me to protect you.”

Blanche blinked again and let out a small noise of confusion. “Pardon? I know he did so during our stay in the beach residence, but the summer vacation is over. You need to be ready to protect Theo again.”

“I thought that this was his plan as well. However, he did not take back his order and merely instructed me to be overly careful around His Royal Highness and Her Majesty, the dowager empress before the party.”

The concubine stayed silent for a few seconds. She didn't know what she had expected, but nothing else followed the knight's explanation. “So, he really appointed you to me?” Owen nodded, which made her bury her face in her palm. Right now, Theodore was in more danger than ever before, and his reaction was sending away his most skillful protector. Was he insane?

During the vacation, she had accepted it to some extent, but now the dowager empress was running around and aiming for her lover's life. Blanche needed to make sure that Theodore was being protected. Owen was his personal knight, so sending the guard to stay with the concubine for an unspecified amount of time was ridiculous. There was no way that she would accept this wordlessly. She might not have noticed this yet since Theodore hadn't left her side ever since she had returned, but just because she hadn't found out about it for the first four days, she wouldn't be silent.

Blanche looked over her shoulder and gave Stella an apologetic smile. “I fear that we will have to postpone your pancakes. I need to discuss this with Theo first.”

Stella returned the grin and nodded. “I understand. We'll have more than enough time later, so I don't mind.”

“Thank you.” Blanche steered towards her lover's office as she laid out her arguments in her head. She had to brace herself for a conversation that wouldn't change much due to Theodore's stubbornness. In fact, she was doubtful that she would be able to convince him to reconsider.

Even though she didn't want to admit it, a small part of her was calmed since she would be protected, no matter what happened. Cedar had scared her more than she wished to show her lover, so having Owen behind her was certainly soothing. There would always be a witness that could prove that she wasn't lying like this after all, just so that no one could suddenly accuse her of treason or things like that.

But in the end, her concern for Theodore's well-being was greater than her own fear. She would at least try to change his mind.

The concubine was so lost in thoughts that she almost passed by Clark, who was talking to someone in a secluded corner of the hallways. She saw him from the corner of her eye and raised her hand to greet him but quickly noted that he was in the middle of a conversation and stopped herself. She wanted to let him have his privacy, but as soon as she saw whom he was speaking with, her curiosity grew.

It was Harris, who was leaning his back against the wall. He had crossed his arms and glared at the other servant in front of him as he impatiently tapped onto his upper arm. “I understood you just fine the first time. I just don't think that this is any of your business.” His voice was dripping with frustration as he tilted his head back to narrow his eyes at the other man.

Clark looked like he was just as infuriated. “This has nothing to do with it being my business or not. If you're too stupid to notice that you're a walking corpse by now, someone has to tell you. I can't believe that no one addressed that topic until now. Why is Gloria even letting you work?”

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“Because in contrast to other people, I'm actually doing my job and not bothering other employees. If you are bored, go into the kitchen and bake a cake or something like that.” Harris gestured down the corridor before crossing his arms again.

Blanche stopped and fought with her consciousness. She didn't want to stand here and eavesdrop, but she was interested in what the conversation was about. Then again, she had somewhere to be. If she wanted to reach the office without taking a detour, she would have to walk in the servants' direction. But passing by now would definitely interrupt them, and she didn't want to do that.

The discussion was heated, and from what it had seemed like, those two needed to have a proper fight once, or they might explode. The last time that the concubine had seen them argue, Harris had run away after she appeared, and she didn't wish to take away this chance for them to possibly solve a few problems with words. Luckily, none of the servants had noticed her yet.

For a moment, Clark didn't say anything, which was enough to make Harris speak up. “So, you have nothing to tell me. Good. Then let me leave now. Whether I'm a bit tired has nothi-”

The other man didn't let him finish that sentence. “A bit tired? Are you joking?” Clark moved his hand toward the other's face.

Harris jumped away from him, but the other man's fingers had touched his cheek already.

Clark lifted his hand to show it to his colleague. “If you were a bit tired, you wouldn't need bottles of powder to cover up the rings below your eyes. I know that you already used this during vacation. How long has it been? It looks like you haven't slept ever since then. I caught you drinking too. What's wrong?”

Harris immediately covered the skin under his eye with his hand. “Nothing. I'm just tired. I'm an adult, so I can go to bed when I want to and don't have to justify drinking alcohol. Especially not since it doesn't concern you. If you don't have anything important about work to say, excuse me. I need to finish my duties.” He averted his eyes, took one step to the side and was stopped by Clark putting an arm in front of him so that Harris had no way to pass by when he was cornered against the wall. He tried to push his colleague's arm out of the way but wasn't successful in making it budge even a little bit. “What are you doing? Let me leave.”

No response came.

Harris wrinkled his forehead as he looked up. “Clark, stop that.” His voice had a warning undertone now, but that sounded like he was forcing himself. In reality, it was hard for him to pretend to be intimidating when the other man was a head taller than him and definitely much stronger. And Harris seemed to be aware of that too. He was tense and scanned the other servant's expression with caution. When no reply followed, he spoke up again, this time louder but also with more uncertainty. “Clark.”

That made the other man open his mouth, but he had a much lower volume than his colleague. “I thought you never wanted to say that name ever again. Wasn't that what you told me?”

“You said that don't want to see my face and would rather leave the country or drown than speak to me, but here we are. It seems like both of us should pay more attention to keeping promises. But I don't really care. I told you to leave me alone. So, lower your arms and let me pass. I have better things to do than to stand here and argue with you.” To Harris' surprise, Clark really pulled his hand away so that he could leave. He skeptically eyed the other man's expression before taking another careful step to move away.

“You know that it won't solve anything if you run away. That doesn't erase the issue or...” Clark clenched his jaw before adding another word that didn't reach Blanche's ears. She only saw that it made Harris tense.

At that moment, Blanche decided that listening to them might not be very kind. So, she turned to Stella, who was watching the conversation with concern and whispered. “We should leave them alone. I didn't want to take a detour, but a bit more movement won't hurt.”

Stella nodded hesitantly, and they rounded the corner to walk around the other side of the building. During their walk, the women were quiet for a long time until Stella eventually spoke up quietly. “He never shows it, but Clark still cares about Harris, doesn't he? I feel like he always emphasizes how much he hates him, but it sounds like he fools himself more than anyone else. I can imagine that you'd feel some kind of sympathy for a close friend even when they turn out to be horrible people.”

For some reason, Blanche's heart clenched when she heard that. She wanted to agree with that statement so badly. More than she should. But she forced herself to stay silent for a few seconds as she directed her thoughts at the matter at hand. She recounted the conversations between the two servants that she had already heard. She replied in a low volume so that Owen wouldn't hear everything. “I don't know. I feel like there was a bit more to their fight than what we are aware of. I mean, Harris behaves differently when they argue from when he would fight with anyone else. He doesn't even act around Clark. Some things they said to each other stroke me as odd as well, but there is nothing we can do about that. But all of that concerns them and no one else. If Clark doesn't want to tell us, he doesn't have to.”

Stella remained quiet after nodding once and stared at the floor.

The concubine was a bit relieved when they reached the office after a while. While she spoke to Theodore for a bit, the maid would have enough time to think about the issues between her friend group and their opponent. Blanche bid farewell to Stella and Owen before automatically walking to the guards. She only realized that she wasn't supposed to ask them to announce her anymore at the last second and directly knocked on the door.

At that moment, one of the knights opened his mouth, but it was already too late.

The emperor's voice echoed from inside. “Come in.” He sounded strangely upbeat, so he had probably recognized her knocking pattern. It seemed like she still wasn't loud enough.

Blanche opened the door and stepped into the doorway. She glanced into the room and gave her lover a bright smile despite wanting to argue about Owen. Her smile only faded when she noticed that he wasn't alone. It was normal for Leon to be here, but six other men were sitting at the table, and they were looking at her with utter confusion, except for Duke Duremont and Lord Bellfaux, who were glaring at her.

She had interrupted a meeting with the ministers. That was probably the one insolent thing the concubine hadn't done yet.

Blanche almost wanted to back out immediately as she realized that, but this wouldn't help at all when she had already disturbed them. No matter how uncertain she was right now, she needed to apologize and leave. She cleared her throat as she tried to focus on her grinning lover at his desk and not the ministers at the table. Those nobles would definitely be angry as soon as they processed that she had dared to interfere during a meeting of the most powerful men in the nation. She needed to save everything she could at this point. “I...uhm...” Her voice barely functioned, and her brain scrambled to find the fitting words that didn't include her lover's name. “I apologize for the intrusion. I was not aware that there were guests here. I will come back at a later time.”

Theodore gave her a blinding smile. “That isn't necessary. We are almost done. You don't mind waiting for five minutes, right?” She thought that he was referring to her staying outside, which would have been fine, but he gestured to the stool next to his desk.

Her face fell at that. “Theo, that's-” She barely caught herself, or she might have told the emperor that his idea was stupid.

Her lover didn't seem to share that opinion though. He responded with a chipper voice. “You don't want to wait? If it's urgent, tell me now.” How did he manage to propose something even worse?

Blanche quickly shook her head. “It's not urgent, I'll wait outside.” She was about to leave without letting him argue back, but he was faster than she was.

“No, no. You can sit here for a moment.” Whatever Theodore was planning, this was the wrong way for sure. He was picking battles he shouldn't.

If Blanche refused now, she was basically defying the emperor's order, so she couldn't do that. It would be a nightmare, but she couldn't win here anyway. With an inward sigh, she closed the door behind her and gave her best not to look anywhere near the minister as she walked over to the stool and sat down. She strained all of her muscles to keep still in her position, which she hoped to be at least a bit graceful, without making a sound. She glanced over at the portrait of her and her lover to distract herself, but that was hard when she could feel everyone staring at her. Hopefully, her cheeks weren't as red as she thought them to be with how hot her face was feeling.

Theodore waited until she sat before continuing the meeting. “Now, I believe we were discussing the final details of our new law. Are there any questions about what I just explained? If not, we only have one topic left.”

Blanche made the mistake of scanning the ministers from the corner of her eyes. All of them showed very ugly expressions aside from Duke Vasquez, who had a wide grin on his lips, albeit a very strained one. None of them replied to the emperor's question, which made it rather obvious that they were beyond furious or at least irritated. But of course, the only person to dare to speak up against Theodore was Henry.

Duke Duremont's glare was more hostile today, which was probably due to the different accidents during the party two days ago. He raised his hand and opened his mouth as soon as the emperor gestured towards him. “Your Majesty. I do not wish to be harsh, but it seems to me that your judgment may be clouded at the moment. Allowing a mere baroness to take part in a meeting that consists of the most powerful aristocrats in Artias is an insult to our face. I am asking you to send her out immediately.”

The other ministers voiced a few muffled comments of agreement.

Blanche shrank in herself, but Theodore didn't look like he cared much. His smile had disappeared as he scanned the men with a cool gaze, which made all of them shut their mouths quickly. As expected, only one person would argue back, but Theodore was prepared for that too. When he was sure that he had all attention, he sighed and leaned against the huge backrest of his cushioned chair. “There are three significant flaws in that statement, so I fear that I cannot agree.”

Henry's eyes narrowed. “And what may those be, Your Majesty?”

The emperor rested his elbows on the desk and interlocked his fingers in front of his chin. “It isn't true that the most powerful nobles in the nation are here. I could name five people that would have to be here as well on the spot, and half of them even belong to the royal family. So, that argument doesn't make any sense. Secondly...” He lifted his hand and showed them two fingers. “Blanche has been living here for almost two years, which makes this her home. I have never heard of it being courteous to come into another person's home and to tell them to leave the room.”

Duke Duremont opened his mouth, probably to note that calling the royal palace a baroness' home was inappropriate, but Theodore continued without giving him a chance to speak.

“And lastly, I would argue that she did more for the nation than some other people here did.” Theodore's eyes wandered to Duke Vasquez, whose smile shrank at that. “Most of the things she did were connected to private issues, so I won't mention them to you. But it would be of interest for you to hear that the new law that all of you are so fond of was based on her idea. The one that makes work for us so much easier and allows us to deal with more complex matters in less time.”

A murmur went through the people at the table as they turned to Blanche in disbelief. She quickly shook her head as the blood in her veins felt like it would freeze. “That's not true! All I said was that-”

Theodore smiled and continued for her. “That we need a system that takes away a little power and some duties from the emperor so that he can take care of more important matters. You proposed to let the ministers deal with more tasks so that they can have more influence in improving Artias. You even came up with the sections we split our work in. So, that was very much your idea. I just made a law out of it.”

The concubine's body didn't know whether it should make her cheeks flush or drain the blood from her face. She felt both warm and cold at the same time with nothing to say about the stolen idea. At this point in time, she couldn't simply tell him that she had that thought from Seraphina's future self. So, she gave up complaining and just averted her eyes.

Marquess Bellfaux spoke up after a minute of silence. “I do not mean to sound offending, but I doubt that Lady Blanche has the political knowledge to have voiced those thoughts intending to create such a law.”

Leon chimed in at that. “I can assure you that she told me that with the full intention of implementing it in our constitution. She laid out a long list of arguments about why our form of monarchy might have worked for the last centuries but won't be able to last if we continue like this. She even asked whether a system in which different sections are being managed by the different ministers would be possible. In short, she explained a simpler version of our new law to me, and that was before Her Majesty's birthday, so she also couldn't have stolen this idea from anyone else.”

At least not unless she had magically gained memories of another person from the future.

The ministers were rendered speechless after that, even if that might mainly have been because the concubine had actually been audacious enough to propose a law to the emperor's advisor.

Theodore let them sit there in silence for a moment before speaking up. “In the end, it doesn't matter much whether you believe the three of us. It doesn't change the fact that she will stay here. If you hadn't complained, we might be done with the meeting already, and you could have left, but now we'll still need a few minutes. I will resume if no one has any further objections. If there are some, the concerned people may stay here after the meeting and can have a conversation with me alone.” That sounded like a threat, especially since he ended the sentence with a smile before immediately letting it fade again.

No one dared to complain anymore, even though all the ministers were still slightly upset. Henry was the only one being openly angry, with his friend whispering something to him to keep him calm. Claude actually looked like he was fuming too despite normally being happy whenever Duke Duremont got rebuked, but he continued to show his smile as if he was clinging to that.

Blanche avoided gazing in the direction of both of them and trained her eyes onto her lover as she listened to the topics that were discussed. She had worried about not being able to follow a political conversation before, but thanks to Leon's explanation of the few specific terms, she didn't have any difficulties. The arguments were easy to understand, and in her mind, she even added a few, but naturally, she had no intention of speaking up.