As soon as Theodore turned around, his face lit up with a bright smile. “Blanche!” He came over to her but didn't pull into a hug like usual. “What are you doing here?”
Blanche returned the beam and gestured to the head knight. “I wanted to give Owen a chance to watch over the training for once in a while. I didn't know that you were dueling the guards. Why didn't you tell me?”
“I didn't think this would be interesting to you. After all, fighting isn't your favorite topic.”
The concubine pretended to sulk at that. “But I am very interested in you. I want to know everything I can when it comes to you. How often do you go here?”
Theodore pulled off one of his gloves before patting her head. Immediately, her fake pout disappeared as she listened to him. “Once a day. I train for about an hour after finishing the things in my office, and then I bathe and come to you. But I might not continue to do this as regularly. I am quite content with my current skill. No one here has been able to beat me. You should have seen their faces.” Her lover ran his fingers through her hair before putting his hand on her cheek.
Blanche leaned against him and held his arm close to her with her own hand. “I can imagine. You're the best after all. But I'm a bit surprised that you managed to finish all of your work despite only using an hour a day at most. I know that you're efficient, but that is impressive. Since when did ruling a nation become this easy?”
The corners of Theodore's lips twitched as he replied. “Ever since a wonderful and intelligent woman came up with a law that allows me to work less.”
The concubine sighed inwardly before correcting him. “I didn't come up with it, you did. I only gave you the idea.” And that actually hadn't even been her idea.
The emperor just grinned at her without paying attention to her complaints. “You were the one that said it first, so you are the one who came up with it. That's not what matters right now though. Do you want to stay here a bit longer, or should I get ready now?”
Blanche shook her head. “I just came here. Owen needs a few minutes to get an overview. I don't want to disturb your training either. So, I will just...uhm.” She looked around for a moment and searched for a place where she could sit, only to remain unsuccessful. “I will stand here until you finish.”
Theodore's eyes narrowed slightly. “No, you won't. If you want to sit down, I will get something for you.” He turned to one of the servants that were currently cleaning a few swords and continued in a louder voice. “Get a comfortable chair from the terrace.”
The young man jumped up as if he had been hit by lightning and bowed to the emperor before storming towards the palace.
Theodore watched that and faced his lover again with a smile. “Now that that is taken care of, I can ask something else. Will you watch me fight? I can assure you that I'll win for you each and every time.”
Blanche had to fight the blush that was appearing on her cheeks upon having her lover order a chair for her in a volume that every person here had to have heard. Still, she gave her best to smile as if she wasn't embarrassed. “Of course. I know that you are going to win. There is no doubt about that.” Even though seeing Theodore duel made scary pictures appear in her mind.
“Good. Then you will reward me if I win, right?” Theodore beamed at her so that it was impossible to say no.
She hadn't had the intention to decline in the first place, but with him watching her with shining eyes, she would have given in either way. “I'm pretty sure that I always shower you in affection even if you did nothing, but I'll happily oblige.” She reached up and cupped his cheek before standing up on her tiptoes to steal a kiss from him. She obviously wasn't tall enough, but her lover leaned down to her while being careful not to touch her with his uniform.
The two of them disappeared into their own world until a loud thump sounded next to them.
Blanche turned in the direction the noise had come from with widened eyes and was even more surprised when she realized who had just won a fight there. Seeing a slender woman with long hair was unusual among the knights, so the concubine was rather taken aback upon spotting her there.
This was unmistakably Madeleine, who raised her fist in victory and yelled from the top of her lungs. “Yes! I won!” She stood next to a knight, whom she had apparently knocked to the ground, and grinned from one ear to the other. “I did it! I defeated you. I-” She was about to say even more, but one of the other guards quickly put a hand on her shoulder and whispered something. The woman immediately shut her mouth and turned to the emperor. She stared at the couple for a moment before lowering her head. She voiced a half-loud “I apologize” before staying silent.
Theodore chuckled before responding. “It's beneficial that you have this much energy. Put that into stabilizing your posture and using swifter movements. But you did a good job. Keep up the good work.”
Madeleine's smile returned at that. “Yes, Your Majesty!” She hesitated for a second before resuming. “Good afternoon, Lady Blanche.”
The concubine was still a bit confused by the image in front of her, but she responded quickly. “Good afternoon. Are you doing well, Lady Bellfaux?”
Madeleine nodded. “His Majesty allowed me to train with the royal knights, so I'm very grateful. I am happy to be able to improve myself, even if it's exhausting.”
Blanche gave her a smile. “That's good to hear. It's wonderful that you can do what you like.” After all, a woman using a sword was frowned upon in noble society. If others found out, the concerned person's reputation would suffer, and their family would forbid them from continuing such a hobby. It was kind of Theodore to allow a woman to train in the palace, where most aristocrats wouldn't see her.
Madeleine thanked the concubine before being pulled away by another knight and beginning a duel with them.
Blanche watched her for a moment before turning to her lover. “I didn't know that she was this serious about sword-fighting. There aren't many women in our nation that would have fun while exhausting themselves and struggling to keep their hobby hidden.” The novel had mentioned this subject a few times, but the focus had never been on Madeleine. Her only role had been being Seraphina's friend, so her passion for physical activity had never been described explicitly. Learning about something like this only made the concubine ponder about the world that she was living in more.
Everything around her was similar to the book, but there was a difference. Not everything that happened was mentioned in “To Be Empress”, and even secondary characters from the novel were independent people in reality. This gave Blanche another reason to believe that their fate wasn't set in stone. She had already influenced everything anyway, so taking the last step and surviving her initial death day would be possible too.
A smile grew on Blanche's lips, and she stood up on her tiptoes to kiss her lover. He made her wait for a moment, which caused her to lean against his chest.
Theodore stiffened a bit before sighing. “You know that I wanted to keep you away from my dirty clothes, right?”
Blanche grinned up at him. “I know. But I want you to kiss me. Don't let me wait for two weeks like when we first met.”
“If you demand that, I can't help but oblige.” He finally lowered his head to press his lips onto hers. It only took a few seconds before her fingers were tangled and into his hair and his arms were wrapped around her tightly. When Theodore pulled away, he scanned her expression while catching his breath. “Something tells me that I won't be able to train any more today. Let's go upstairs.”
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Blanche felt a bit guilty about that. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you. I wanted Owen to spend some time here too, and the servant will bring the chair for no reason, so leaving would be unfitting.” But at the same time, she had no intention of letting go of her lover.
Theodore gave her a bright smile. “It's fine. Theoretically, I could continue to train, but that would be hard now that you made me think about other things. So, it's my fault. The servant can use the chair to sit on it himself while he cleans some weapons, so I think it should be fine. And you can bring Owen here on another day. He won't mind. Or he could just stay here for the day.” He glanced at the head knight.
Owen shook his head. “I will accompany you. I saw a few duels, and that gave me enough information that I can convey to them later when I come here to train myself.”
Blanche gave him an apologetic smile. “I'm sorry for pulling you away as soon as we got here. We will let you retreat for the day as soon as we enter our room.”
“As His Majesty said, I do not mind. I will have enough time to take care of everything later. Please do not think too much about it.”
The concubine thanked him for that before facing her lover again. “So, we can bring you upstairs now. You need to bathe, don't you?”
Theodore's grin widened. “Yes. I will definitely need help though. You have to join me, or I won't be able to clean myself properly.” He loosened his grip on her and took her hand in his. He pressed a kiss onto the back of her hand before pulling her towards the building. While they passed one of the guards, he turned to him and told him that he would return the next day. Then he left with his lover
Blanche waited until they had taken a few steps so that they weren't close to the crowd of training knights anymore before speaking up. “I was surprised to see Lady Bellfaux here. Did she ask for permission to practice here? It takes some courage to approach the emperor and ask whether you could train with his guards.”
Theodore turned his head to face her and gave her a soft smile. “She didn't ask. In fact, she simply started training here secretly.” He chuckled. “Apparently, she knew some guards, and they practiced with her whenever she came to see the empress. At some point, I caught her accidentally, and she was so apologetic and looked like she would faint out of fear. But I thought that it might be useful to have a female knight later.”
Blanche allowed him to pull her up the stairs and observed him with a curious expression. “Why? I mean, why would she be any different from a male knight? I'm glad that you don't mind her having such hobbies, but I'm still a bit confused as to why that would be special.”
“Well, people don't expect a woman to be able to fight so well. If we ever got into a situation in which we need to expect a war with Ocrea, we could use that to our advantage to get rid of specific rulers. Right now, I doubt that it will be necessary though.”
Those words reminded the concubine of some of the political issues that she hadn't had thought about for the last weeks. “Right. I didn't ask you about that anymore ever since you wrote a reply to the crown prince. What happened to your letters? Did the king reply?”
Theodore slowed his movements until they stopped and pulled her into his arms. His smirk was enough of a response and filled Blanche with joy as well.
Had her lover truly managed to prevent the war with Ocrea? Despite the novel predicting that it would begin soon?
She gave him an expectant look.
Luckily, Theodore didn't force her to wait long. “We contacted the crown prince, and he replied in a friendly tone. And you know what I found out? The king of Northern Ocrea doesn't want to have a war either. He thought that we were threatening them.”
Blanche's eyes widened. “Really? So, it was a misunderstanding? We don't have to go to war?”
The emperor's smile faded a bit. “Unfortunately, this wasn't just a misunderstanding. We won't enter combat with them and will try to become allies, but there is another issue. Apparently, someone falsified the letters we sent to each other. We caught the messenger, who seems to have been involved in this, but his handwriting doesn't match up with the letters. This means that there was someone else that wished for war too. We're giving our best to work on finding that person, but there isn't a guarantee that we will be able to weed them out.”
Blanche's stomach dropped, and she lowered her gaze. “That's horrible.”
Why would anyone want to wage a war with Northern Ocrea? It was obvious that a military conflict would hurt both sides more than it would give them an advantage. After all, both nations had many soldiers and weapons, so there would be countless causalities if it ever came to the two sides meeting each other on the battlefield. There would be dead citizens, and the damages to the border territories would be fatal as well. This could very well ruin the countries or at least bring them to the brink of destruction. Possible follow-up wars could just make it worse. No one would gain anything from this. So, why did someone put so much energy into making at least two people get involved in their plot? They risked being executed for treason because of this, so they had to have a good reason.
Blanche was silent for a moment before making eye contact with her lover. Some people wished for the emperor's death, but would they go far enough to destroy their own home country because of this? “Do you think that those two are involved?”
Theodore shook his head. “I doubt it. They want to take over the throne, so they wouldn't ruin Artias with a war. At least Cedar wouldn't, and I think he controls his mother enough. In case of a war, they would lose all of the funds that they would need to improve the nation to gain the citizens' favor. Cedar isn't stupid enough to start a military conflict because of his desire to rule either. He isn't that reckless.”
That made sense, which only worried the concubine even more. It was great that they might avoid the war, even if she didn't know how her actions had led to Theodore discovering that the messenger was a traitor. Still, this issue would concern them a bit longer. “But who else would have enough influence to manipulate a messenger who has the trust of both you and the king of Northern Ocrea?” She paused at that thought. “What happened to that messenger? Did you interrogate him?”
Theodore raised his hand to her face and caressed her cheek with his fingertips. “He was the person we talked about when you ran into me outside with the group of knights before the vacation. The one we tried to coax into revealing information to us. He's...” Theodore averted his eyes. “He isn't a threat anymore. We barely had any results even after he opened his mouth. The person that rewrote the letters and handed him money always used different people to approach him. The messenger visited an inn near the capital whenever he was about to leave for Ocrea or come to the palace and met the people there. After he told us that, we needed to punish him for almost causing the nation to go to war. That is obviously treason...so...”
Blanche nodded to herself as she choked down her anger. That a person was so materialistic that they would betray the country just to gain some money was ridiculous to her. But right now, she had to convince her lover that she wouldn't blame him first. It was only natural that someone that risked a war on purpose would be executed. “I see. It's logical to do that. But that you didn't find out anything is unfortunate.” She raised her hand and tangled her fingers in her lover's hair. “You don't have to worry about me condemning what you do. I'm on your side no matter what.”
Theodore pressed his lips onto her forehead and mumbled without removing his lips from her skin. “Thank you. I really don't want you to be disappointed in me. I wouldn't be able to take that. Whenever you look at me with fear, my heart breaks, and I-” He didn't finish, but before she could ask why, he moved his head away and turned to the side. “How long are you going to stand there? If you want something, tell me.”
Blanche glanced at the spot he was looking at and froze when she saw one of the empress' attendants.
The maid was fiddling her hands and bowed her head. Her uncertainty regarding a conversation with the emperor was easy to see. She slowly moved closer to them and lowered her head even more. “I...apologize for disturbing you.” She stuttered while speaking and alternated between looking up and averting her eyes again. “Her Majesty wishes to invite Lady Blanche to Lady Ravillot's baby party.”
Blanche was taken aback by that. She let go of her lover and turned to the maid. “I thought we weren't allowed to leave the palace.” She glanced at Theodore.
He nodded in response. “Exactly. That's why the empress asked whether her sister could have a second small party for her daughter in the palace. Only the members of her family would come, so I agreed. Or rather, I had Leonard tell her that she could do it if she insisted. It will be in a week if I remember correctly. You don't have to go if you don't want to.”
The maid's expression scrunched up at that, but she quickly lowered her head to hide it. She was probably upset because of the way the emperor talked about his wife but didn't dare to show it. After all, she knew that he wouldn't keep quiet about her disrespecting him.
Blanche was silent for a moment. To her, it seemed weird that she would be invited to such a family event. There was no reason for Seraphina to do this nor for her relatives to put up with the concubine's presence. She scanned the maid a few seconds before speaking up. “I don't want to be disrespectful but... Why? I am not very close to the empress, so it wouldn't make sense for her to want me there. I won't force them to endure my presence just because she wishes to be polite.”
The maid quickly shook her head. “No, that is not why Her Majesty invited you. Lady Ravillot asked for you to attend too.”
That surprised Blanche again. She hadn't expected that Sophia would be close enough to her to ask for something like this. This meant that she was in a dilemma again. On the one hand, she definitely didn't want to sit at a table with Seraphina and her family, including Evelyn. But on the other hand, it was Sophia's party. If that kind woman invited her, the concubine didn't intend on refusing. She pondered about this for a while before coming to a conclusion. She was still in the palace, so she could leave any time she wanted to. She would go there and chat with Sophia a bit, gush about how adorable Grace was and then leave. “Alright. I will attend. Please tell Her Majesty that I am grateful for her invitation. Should I bring some sort of gift?”
The maid nodded before replying. “I will inform Her Majesty of your decision. She said that you are not required to bring anything, but the others will hand small presents to Lady Ravillot.”
“Then I will buy something for her too. Thank you for your help.” Blanche smiled at the other woman, who blinked a few times before bowing and leaving. She turned to her lover and allowed her expression to neutralize. “I have no idea what to get for her.”
Theodore chuckled and pulled her into his arms again. “Don't worry. I will ask for someone to bring you a few things to choose from. A couple of toys for the child and maybe some sweets for the mother. That will be fine.”
“Thank you. Without you, I would be panicking about this now.” To be honest, Blanche had no clue about what Sophia liked, so she had already worried about how she would find out what the other woman enjoyed. But it was way better to choose a few smaller gifts so that at least one would make the recipient happy.
Blanche had no experience on how to choose anything for such an occasion, so it was good that a merchant arrived a couple of days later. Her lover helped her make her decision, so everything worked out well. In the end, she took a doll, a small hair ornament that looked like a flower, a rattle and two stuffed animals. This should be more than enough to please a baby, even though it was questionable whether Grace would even pay attention to something like this already.
So, Blanche just packed those things in small gift boxes with Stella's help and asked the chef to make one mixed bag of sweets and one of salty snacks for Sophia. Along with a fancy chocolate bar with some special ingredients, this should be fine. And even though she was prepared and shouldn't worry about anything, she was getting more and more nervous when the day of the party approached.