Theodore's response came out without even a hint of hesitation as he clearly made Duke Vasquez out to be the offending party in the fight with Blanche. “I want you to bow down to her and ask for her forgiveness while you promise that you will never ever disrespect her like that again. It will be her choice whether she believes you, and if she doesn't, you can forget ever entering the royal estate again.”
That made the switch flip once more.
Claude began yelling again. “How can you tell a duke to apologize to a baroness who offended him? This is madness!” Despite Owen's previous warning that should make him stay still, Duke Vasquez whipped his head around to search for the help of his colleagues. “Doesn't anyone here see that this goes too far? He can't disregard our ranks like that just because of his personal favor. He-”
To everyone's surprise, Henry interrupted him. “Shut your mouth. You've embarrassed yourself and your family name, no, every noble in this room enough. Every single person here witnessed your lack of self-control and your obvious disrespect towards His Majesty and his words.” Duke Duremont's glare was filled with disgust and anger even when he defended whom he should be angry with. “You keep arguing based on your rank, yet do not treat the emperor with the necessary courtesy, which proves that you are not only out of your mind but also hypocritical. Ranks have nothing to do with your abhorrent behavior. If you were impudent enough to threaten another person, you will have to stand up to that now. Pull yourself together and act like a grown man instead of a child.”
Duke Vasquez tried to take a step forward, but Owen moved already and held the blade to his throat now, which made him freeze. Still, his expression revealed how clouded with rage his mind truly was. “She insulted me.”
Another minister chimed in at that. It was Henry's friend, Marquess Bellfaux, the one that treated Seraphina like his own niece, so the concubine expected a quite harsh judgment. Something else came out of his mouth though. “I can confirm that Lady Blanche questioned his mental abilities after he belittled Her Majesty and then claimed not to remember as soon as she addressed his insolence. I would not see that as an insult but a justified question after his impudent words.”
Blanche turned to him in shock. It made sense for that marquess and Henry to hate Duke Vasquez, but she hadn't expected them to take her side. It seemed like they disliked her less than they hated Claude, or they just saw this as a chance to get rid of one of their enemies while using the other. She could live with both options as long as that mad person finally left.
Theodore eyed Duke Vasquez with disgust. “I knew it. Then there is nothing else to discuss here. Leave.”
Claude closed his mouth and stared at the people in front of him while gritting his teeth. He refused to move for a few seconds until he spoke up while pronouncing every word with great clarity. “I will remember this. You will regret that this ever happened. When he is emperor, he will crush all of you.”
Theodore rolled his eyes as he waved to Owen. “I can assure you that whomever you may be talking about will not get his greedy little fingers on the crown. Keep this up, and you are doing me a favor by putting yourself on trial for treason. Bring him out of my sight.”
Owen obeyed immediately, and Claude moved along without putting up a fight. While Duke Vasquez was led around the corner, he turned his head around once more and made eye contact with Blanche. He mouthed something that was without a doubt a threat with freezing anger before he disappeared behind the wall.
Only then, Blanche relaxed. She took a few seconds until her nerves had calmed down, and she didn't feel tingles all over her body anymore. Now that she could focus on her surroundings more, she realized that her lover was still hugging her waist with one arm as she desperately clung to his side. She hadn't even realized that her fingers were tightly gripping the cloth of his sleeve. This was definitely not how they should appear in front of the ministers, especially Henry. But she couldn't bring herself to let go when her legs felt so weak that she might crash onto the ground without Theodore's support.
During the whole fight, she hadn't cried since she had been too nervous to even process in what situation she currently was. Luckily, she still wasn't crying, but her expression probably revealed her panic so much that it made her look like a complete mess. She didn't want anyone to see her like that, but burying her face in her lover's shirt wouldn't make the tense atmosphere any better. So, she hid her face behind her elbow and tried to hold her breath to keep herself from thinking about this too much. The danger was gone. She didn't need to be scared anymore. To her relief, it didn't seem like her self-control would waver. She could keep herself together.
Henry spoke up after a moment of silence. “This was a very unfortunate event, which should truly make His Majesty reconsider whether that person is fit to be a minister.” Which he probably saw as a win despite this whole mess.
Theodore softly stroked over his lover's hair as he replied. “I already made that decision and only needed a fitting reason. This one should be sufficient. I thought about appointing His Grace, the Duke of Lamont to be the one to take his spot. Duke Vasquez will probably try to call me a tyrant for this again, but I will fill out his dismissal certificate today. I assume that all of you back my decision and are willing to openly state that too.”
The five remaining ministers all affirmed this loudly. Apparently, Claude's attempts to yell at the emperor in his own palace just now had shown them that he wasn't sane and erased any chance of them possibly supporting him.
Henry added something in his typical cool tone right after, which probably meant that he had just noticed that the concubine was cuddling with the emperor. “Please do so. Since our meeting is over, I will take my leave now. Good afternoon, Your Majesty.” He didn't even wait for permission to leave before turning away.
The other ministers bid their farewells too, and footsteps slowly moved away.
Blanche noticed that her lover barely cared about Henry's behavior. He was already guiding her into the office. She finally dared to open her eyes again and was surprised to find another person close to them.
Leonard was standing by the open door with a small object that she couldn't see in his hand. The secretary carefully maneuvered it behind his body so that she wasn't able to identify it. “Are you alright, Lady Blanche?”
She nodded meekly. “Yes. He didn't touch me. I...I don't know why I'm this upset.” She turned to her lover and allowed herself to dive into his extended arms. “I'm sorry.”
Theodore immediately shushed her. “Don't say that. You did nothing wrong.” He cradled her head to allow her to calm down. “I am the one that has to apologize. I shouldn't have left you alone with that bastard. I didn't think that he would snap this easily with other people around. It took much more to make him-” He cut himself off and drew in a deep breath. “I'm sorry for not being there. I'll be more careful from now on.”
Leon moved to the desk before pulling out a piece of paper and placing it in the middle of the surface. “The certificate of dismissal is here. We'll finish it immediately and send it out so that he has the news soon.” Then he walked over to the couple and made eye contact with the concubine. “I can assure you that you weren't in any danger at any time. Owen was there with you, and I was ready to intervene as soon as the door opened too. That duke might be insane, but he had no way of harming you.”
Blanche bit the inside of her cheek as she glanced at the closed door before looking back at the men. “Thank you. I knew that I wasn't alone, but still...”
Theodore gently ran his fingers through her hair. “I apologize if Owen's presence was not as noticeable as it should have been. I told him to move as inconspicuously as possible. I will change that approach though. In the future, he will bring a possible threat to the ground immediately. And I won't leave you alone with people that I know are psychopaths either. I'm sorry.” He carefully guided her to the sofa by the wall and sat down to allow her to climb onto his lap.
Blanche didn't hesitate to cuddle into his embrace and rested her chin on his shoulder. “No, it's fine. You couldn't have known that he would react this strongly despite other people being there.”
Right now, she felt conflicted and a bit stupid. She had come here intending to ask her lover to take Owen back to him, and now she had already brought herself into danger because she couldn't keep her mouth shut. Claude surely wouldn't be kind to her from now on, and she didn't know how deep his anger could run. Maybe it was better for the knight to stay with her. But at the same time, there was no way that she would be selfish and put her safety over Theodore's. She was unsure of what to do.
She tightened her grasp around her lover. “Just because I didn't hold myself back...”
The emperor pressed small kisses on top of her head to calm her down. “You are free to say whatever you want. There is nothing that anyone can forbid you. You could have insulted him without a reason, and I would have defended you.”
Blanche shook her head as she got a bit louder. “But I had a reason! He wanted to make it seem like I told him that I wanted to be empress. There were others too, and if they heard, they would definitely have been angry at me. I couldn't risk that, so I told him to quiet. Then he pretended to be surprised because I said something insolent. So, I replied that if he was too old to remember, he would have to go home and rest. I didn't even say extremely mean things. You and he always exchanged much harsher insults. They were more hidden then, but I still don't understand why he got this upset.” She bit her lip to prevent herself from complaining even more and pressed her cheek against her lover's chest.
Slowly, her fear was ebbing away and left behind a mix of anger and frustration. Claude's reaction had definitely been exaggerated. Either she had done something specific that triggered him, or he felt safe because of the dowager empress' presence, but her words still hadn't justified him getting this enraged. He had started provoking her, so why was he surprised when she fought back?
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Theodore stroked over her hair as he hummed to signal that he had listened to her. “I thought that something like that might be the case. I have a general idea of what he is trying to do, and using you to strain my relationship with the Duremonts would fit in there. Maybe he is very sensitive to the whole rank system. He seems to be very proud of being a duke and is a very controlling person too. From what I heard, his wife and son don't have too many chances to talk back to him. So, when a baroness doesn't play along with his games, he might lose his temper quickly. Remember how he acted at the party? When I asked you to greet him, I thought that he would immediately cause a scene.”
Blanche remembered the face the duke had made after the emperor left with her too well. That had been one of the rare times that Claude had looked very angry. She nodded at her lover, who took that as a cue to continue.
“Along with the fact that he believes that the dowager empress will protect her most influential pawn, this could be enough to make him snap. I feel like he was always seconds away from lashing out and just held himself back because he waited for the right moment. Now he feels like it's there and is too arrogant to bow down to even me. So obviously, he won't show you any respect either.”
The concubine slowly managed to calm down a bit. Still, there was one thing she worried about. She tilted her head back to make eye contact with her lover. “Theo... Will there be problems now because of this? If so, I'm really, really sorry.”
The emperor gave her a bright smile. “I can assure you that there won't be any issues that I can't deal with. In fact, this show today will only convince the people that were present that Duke Vasquez is mentally unstable. That will damage his reputation and cause him to lose some of his influence. Thus, the dowager empress' faction will also lose a bit of their power. This whole incident will cast a bad light on her since she allows an insane person to support her.” He let out a chuckle and put on a taunting smile. “That serves her right. Hopefully, that will make them fight. She can't afford trouble right now, so she might truly scold him. After all, he gambled away his position as a minister and ruined the already barely existent trust of everyone here in him. Maybe it was good that we revealed his true personality today. After all, there were enough witnesses, so the story will spread. I can also use this to justify dismissing him because of that. And at the same time, I could prove that I will defend you no matter what to anyone here. Even the second most influential duke will have to give up his position for threatening you. And did you notice that Duke Duremont and his friend both took your side?”
“I did. And I found that a little strange. The marquess just agreed because he heard what Duke Vasquez told me. I'm surprised that he was able to understand that from a distance.” It was a bit weird that Claude had been careless enough to let him hear that too. That thought made Blanche pause. “Do you think that Duke Vasquez did this purposefully to cause some kind of reaction?”
Theodore shook his head after a short pause. “I considered that for one second, but it doesn't make sense. In that case, he would have given in before seriously making me mad. I mean, he lost more than he could gain now. Surely, Cedar could give him the title of a minister again, if that brat ever became emperor, which he won't. But everyone would still remember that Duke Vasquez is insane and even dares to disrespect the ruler of the nation. That stigma won't do him any good, especially since Cedar isn't stupid enough to openly support criminals either. So, it's a bit unsettling to see that Duke Vasquez's emotions are so much stronger than his self-control. He somehow seems to think that he can escape the consequences of his actions, and that might be dangerous. We should be careful around him from now on.”
A shudder ran down Blanche's spine. She didn't want to think about meeting that person again, but it was inevitable. She began drawing small patterns onto her lover's shoulder to distract herself from the vivid images of Claude lashing out at her. “What should I do when we see him again?”
Theodore paused for a small moment and stared into the distance. He thought about her question for a while before replying. “I'm honestly torn. On the one hand, I don't want to corner an insane person. As I already mentioned, people tend to get ugly when they feel like they have no way out, and a mentally unstable man will only be much more dangerous. But on the other hand...” He took a deep breath. “It would be very nice to get rid of one of our strongest enemies. He basically presented his weak spot in public, so we could use that to try to push him out of the race. I'm still unsure whether we should risk that too early on since another person might take on his role otherwise, so I'll think about it for a bit longer. Still, I refuse to interact with him like normal. During the next ball, I might just ignore him completely to see whether he would show his disrespect in front of everyone. Of course, that only applies if he can come to that ball at all. I banned him from returning just now, so it will take a while until we see him again.” Theodore got silent again and nodded to himself. “I'll think about something. Don't worry, I'll find a good solution.”
Blanche could imagine that her lover wouldn't treat Claude kindly from now on. That also meant that the duke would feel even more offended though. When the emperor was with her, she should be safe. But when she was alone, interacting with Duke Vasquez didn't seem like a good idea to her. She had hated that man before and felt intimidated, and now she surely wasn't any more eager to speak to him. She would favor it if she could just turn away and walk the other way as soon as she saw him, but ignoring a duke was disrespectful.
Blanche glanced up at Theodore. She wanted to keep her thoughts to herself at first, but she quickly noticed that she was too uncertain for that. “What should I do if I meet him when I'm on my own? I don't want to talk to him, but simply turning away is unthinkable too.”
Her lover put his hand on her cheek and gently stroked over her skin. “You can decide for yourself. You can ignore him or belittle him. You can also act normally or ask for his apology by insisting that this was the emperor's order. Though, I doubt that you will meet him outside an event since I banned him from coming here. And in any case, you won't be alone. I told Owen to stay by your side for a reason, and now I surely won't change my mind. He could make that man silent forever if it's necessary to protect you. Though, that wouldn't really be subtle.” He gently nudged her cheek before giving her a soft smile. “Alright?”
Blanche nodded as she imagined a scenario in which she actually dared to greet Duke Vasquez by saying that she still wished to hear an apology. That would probably make him want to kill her. She shouldn't overdo it. It was never clear what an unstable person would do if she angered him too much. Even though she still didn't know what she had said to make him overly upset. It might be interesting to find out what exactly had caused him to lose his temper like this, but she just hoped that she wouldn't ever see him again. Unfortunately, that wish was unreachable since there was no way that he would simply disappear overnight, but she still could hope.
However, this wasn't an issue she could deal with right now. Theodore had just addressed the topic she had come here to discuss, so she should probably start to talk about this.
“About the matter with Owen... Are you sure that you are fine without him?” She was ashamed to admit it, but the knight staying with her would give her some feeling of safety. She shuffled around in her lover's lap to sit up and meet his gaze. “I don't want him to be with me when you are in danger. So, how about he comes with me when I go out while you are in your office? After that, he could return to your side. When I'm in the kitchen, I don't really need a personal guard.”
Her main worries were the visitors of the palace and the possible intruders that worked for the dowager empress. All of them wouldn't go to the kitchen, so she was fine there. But when she walked around in the garden, being protected might be nice. Still, she wouldn't be able to relax when she knew that her lover was without a knight. If they agreed on a compromise, she would feel less guilty.
Theodore didn't seem like he intended to discuss anything with her though. He immediately shook his head. “I can protect myself. I always carry a weapon with me or move around in areas where one is hidden for me to grab in an emergency. When I'm in my office, which is almost the only room I visit without you, Leon is here too. He doesn't look like it, but he can fight as well.” The secretary gave him a glare at that, but the emperor ignored it. “You can rest assured that I am already protected by two people of Owen's level. So, it's only fair that he is with you. You can't defend yourself, and everyone knows that I care about you. You might be a target, and I won't risk anyone getting to you. But you don't need to worry about me.”
Blanche did feel like saying that Theodore was on Owen's level might be a bit exaggerated, but she didn't point that out.
Her lover caressed her cheek again and grinned when she leaned into him. “Besides, we will be together most of the time anyway. Owen will be there to protect both of us. You just need to stay by my side for as long as possible to make sure that he's in my vicinity too. That might be best in the first place.” His smile faded. “I don't trust Duke Vasquez. I doubt that he will calm down and forget that this happened. He even promised us that he would remember. So, he might cause trouble for us in the future. I'm just interested in whether he will blow up again or whether he'll choose a more subtle approach. In any case, I want to be careful. Owen stays with you, or in front of the room you're in, and when he is sleeping, at least four other guards have to replace him.” He furrowed his brows. “Six might be better.”
Blanche hurriedly shook her head. “You don't have to overdo it. The whole palace is secured, and at night, I'm either in my or your room. The hallways are being secured by enough guards the whole time. So, it's fine if you just send two knights to be safe when Owen is gone. You should allow him to sleep longer too. I don't think he has any free time at the moment, and that makes me feel bad.”
Theodore returned his hand to her head and patted her. “You don't have to. It was his choice to work whenever he doesn't sleep. I regularly tell him to take off a few hours or to have a vacation, but he always rejects the offer. At some point, I will force him to take a month for himself but not right now. Currently, the situation is too tense. In any case, I want you to be with me as long as possible so that Owen and I can protect you. The palace may be safe, but unfortunately, we were forced to allow our enemies to enter the estate. You don't know what kind of dirty methods they use. They will find a way to bring others inside if they want to. That's why I wanted to be sure. I thought about appointing Sir Aldis as your personal guard too.”
Blanche blinked at him two times before she processed that statement. “Are you serious? Sir Aldis the empress' guard!” Taking away the knight of the most powerful woman in the country, who was definitely threatened by her husband's enemies, to order them to protect the emperor's concubine would cause so many rumors that no one would be able to count them. “That is extremely inconsiderate. The empress is in much greater danger, so it would be more logical to give her more guards. Do you know what the people will say if you voiced something like this publicly?” She raised herself onto her knees and supported herself on his shoulders as she leaned over him in hopes of showing how serious she was.
Her lover just smiled at her as he cupped her face and guided her to him so that he could press his lips onto hers. For a moment, she considered pulling away, but he was successful in making her melt, and she relaxed in his embrace. Theodore only separated himself from her when she was sitting in his lap again, with his arms tightly wrapped around her. He leaned his forehead against hers as he spoke up. “I would like to repeat that I don't care about other people. What I care about is your safety, and right now, you are the one that has the most problems with Duke Vasquez. To be honest, you are in much greater danger than the empress. Without the emperor's permission, she almost has no political influence and only a representative function. Even a blind person would have noticed that I don't care about her at all too.” Theodore moved his head away from hers to look into her eyes when he continued. “The only person I love is you. So, if someone wants to harm or threaten me, they will target you. I placed Sir Aldis by the empress' side for the time being, but I can revoke that order at any moment. For now, I will still leave him with her for another reason, but I won't hesitate to change that if it becomes necessary. Currently, our enemies are giving their best to seem kind and fitting to be ruling the nation, so they won't do anything too harsh. But that can change very quickly.” In some way, he was right about that.
Blanche still disagreed, but she doubted that explaining how Noah needed to keep Seraphina safe so that the Duremonts wouldn't snap now would change her lover's mind. As long as he wasn't ordering anything at this point, it was fine if he considered strange options. To be honest, she was tired of worrying after that exhausting incident, so she dropped the topic in hopes of Theodore forgetting this foolish idea.
Blanche allowed herself to distract herself from all the concerns in her mind. She stared into her lover's blue eyes and admired them while tangling her fingers into his hair. “I really love you so much that it's strange. You can just sit there and look at me, and my heart skips a beat. I would like that to be everything I have to think about.”
Theodore's gaze didn't move away from hers as he pulled her against him. “I can assure you that I feel the same. One look is all I need to turn into a mess that can only think about you. I will do everything in my power to protect you. I will even go beyond that if it becomes necessary.” He leaned forward to kiss the side of her neck. His lips ghosted over her skin and send pleasant shivers through her body. He stopped next to her ear and whispered. “Since we weren't interrupted by now, it seems like Leon is truly fuming. It's best that everyone left, or he might have thrown them out by force.”
A smile tugged at Blanche's lips. “I would have liked to see him hurling Duke Vasquez out of the window. It's a bit unfortunate that he didn't have a chance to do so. After all, he would have loved doing that. He has been complaining about that man ever since I can remember.”
Theodore chuckled and allowed her to press a kiss onto his jaw. “I would have been happy about that too. We're on the second floor after all. That would have solved many issues.” He paused and closed his eyes while she massaged his scalp. For a while, he just let out low hums before slowly opening one of his eyes. “If I remember correctly, you came here because you wanted to talk to me, right? What was it about?”
Blanche pulled back and cleared her throat to hide her slight embarrassment. “Actually, we just resolved that. I wanted to speak about Owen because I didn't think that I would need him with me. This incident today changed my mind though.”
“It's good if we have the same opinion now. That this happened was awful, but we earned quite a few achievements because of that. You can't imagine how happy I'll be to sign the paper that dismisses Duke Vasquez officially. I would like to see his expression when he gets it, but since I won't allow him here, I will have to settle for sending a letter.”
The concubine could definitely guess how cheerful Theodore was based on the wide grin that was visible across his whole face. She was a bit gleeful about Claude reaping what he had sown too, so she returned the smile.
But a short look at the table made her realize that the dismissal certificate wasn't the only document the emperor would have to deal with today. Blanche had only come here to talk to him for a moment and had already wasted at least half an hour. It seemed like she would have to leave now.