“Doesn't he have any respect for the mother of the future emperor at all? Doesn't that make her the future dowager empress too? He should be careful not to make her angry, or she might get revenge in the future.”

Blanche was completely taken aback by that. Until now, she had been sure that those servants were sympathizing with Seraphina and that they would despise her and Theodore now. But it didn't sound like that was the case. So, she continued to eavesdrop.

The male servant corrected his colleague quickly. “No, no. The next dowager empress will be Her Majesty, our current empress. I'm fairly sure that this title is about being the wife of the previous emperor. But that's not important. The mother of the royal heir will also have a significant amount of power, so a duke should be careful with his words. Especially since His Majesty obviously dotes on his lover. Angering her will only hurt the Duremont household in the long run. Look at how eager the other ducal houses are to gain power. They can't take that risk.”

The second maid responded in a questioning tone. “Are you sure about the title thing though? I feel like there could be a problem because of this. After all, the empress has always been the mother of the next emperor. There has never been an exception. At least not in the last six hundred years. So, there might be a lot of discussions now. It's going to be interesting for sure. But no matter who has which title, the one that has His Majesty's favor is clearly the more powerful one. And that is obviously Lady Blanche.”

The maid with the high-pitched voice spoke again. “But she won't be called like this much longer, will she? She will become Lady Estien soon, right?”

The male servant laughed at that. “You really need to learn more about proper etiquette. A wife of the emperor is part of the royal family. She will be called Her Royal Highness.”

“Isn't that just for a princess though?”

“No, it isn't, you philistine.”

The other maid chimed in at that. “There you go using fancy words again. Bragger. I think that she would be called Her Majesty too. But Gloria will surely give us the correct title if it's time. So, we don't need to worry about messing up. I bet Lady Blanche would even be kind enough to forgive that. You saw how mean some people are, and she never treats them the same way they treat her. She truly changed my opinion of her in the last few months.” Which proved that her memories of the past might be a bit confused. “I never thought about her as a kind person before and only believed that she was arrogant and caused trouble for us servants. But in reality, most people treated her awfully, and whenever she protested, she was portrayed as the bad one. We only heard about that recently through some hearsay, but it definitely makes more sense now. I regret how I thought about her in the past. When she becomes royalty, I will give my best to serve her.”

The younger maid spoke up in response. “Me too! She gave me cake when I was in the kitchen and smiled at me. She is very kind and pretty. And she is a commoner, so she might be able to bring some interesting improvements to our capital. She'll be a great...whatever you should call her in the future. I hope that it's not Her Majesty. After all, we would have three people with that title then. We really need to ask Gloria. Do you think she'll be mad? She's still on Her Majesty's side, isn't she?”

Blanche didn't listen to anything after that as she felt blood rushing to her face. This was the first time that she had heard people gossiping about her without any ill intentions. In fact, they had praised her and had been on her side regarding what had happened during the banquet. She had been speechless upon noticing that, but as soon as they started talking about a possible marriage to Theodore, she felt her heart pounding.

She hurried to move backward and turned to the hallway. She would rather use another way than pass by those people and make them realize that she had listened. Her face felt like it was burning by now, so she lifted her hands to cover her cheeks.

Being Theodore's wife sounded wonderful. Heavenly. The possibility alone made her heart jump with joy.

But marrying him wasn't possible. It shouldn't be. Unless...

Blanche hurriedly shook her head to herself as she walked out of the side entrance. She couldn't strive for things that she would never get. That would only disappoint her. That her lover wanted her to have his children and that he would allow them to become members of the royal family and make one of them the ruler was enough of a blessing. This, along with the fact that he wouldn't be with Seraphina because of this, was dreamlike already, and the concubine couldn't demand any more. She wasn't a proper noble. There was no way that she could ever become Theodore's wife and have a wedding in a white dress with people cheering on their union.

The longer she imagined that, the more her heart screamed at her. She wanted that kind of wedding. But more than that, she wanted to give Theodore the ultimate promise of her eternal love. And that she wouldn't ever be able to do that hurt. Maybe she should ask him whether he would act out a mock wedding with her, but that would probably only remind her that she could never have the real thing.

“My Lady!” A voice pulled her back into the present.

Blanche stopped abruptly and turned around to her maid. “Yes?”

Stella caught up with her a few seconds later and huffed while narrowing her eyes at her mistress. “You seem very good at running away for someone that claims to never exercise and is out of breath after climbing a few stairs. You can't storm away like that. I was worried. I mean, Sir Maillont here had no issue with following you, but I had to work hard, you know.”

The concubine averted her eyes without removing her hands from her face. “I'm sorry. But they said such kind things, and I...” Her voice trailed off when Owen gestured to something behind her. She slowly turned around, only to jump at the realization that she was already at the labyrinth. When had she gotten here? Had she truly run all of that way without noticing it because of a few words about her marrying Theodore?

That only served to tint her cheeks in a darker shade of red. Quickly, she forced herself to push those thoughts away and focused on her original goal. She turned to the entrance of the maze.

The empress' maids watched her with a mix of emotions, but the one that she had expected to be the most prominent one, anger, was barely visible. Instead, they looked nervous and almost a bit embarrassed.

Blanche stepped closer to them and lowered her hands, hoping that she wasn't too red. “Good afternoon. Uhm...” The situation was definitely too uncomfortable. “Is Her Majesty still inside?”

The attendants looked at each other for a moment before turning back. One of them responded in a quiet voice. “Good afternoon, Lady Blanche. Yes, Her Majesty is inside.”

After that, silence followed.

The concubine was a bit lost regarding what she should say, so she just put on a smile, which was supposed to be polite but probably revealed her uncertainty. “Thank you. Then I will speak to her for a short moment.” She waited for a few seconds, and when no complaints came and the maids stepped aside for her, she was even more taken aback. But she didn't point out their odd behavior and walked into the labyrinth.

Seconds later, one of the attendants called out to her though. “Lady Blanche, please wait.”

The concubine turned around and faced the maid, who immediately became quiet. It was a bit strange for someone who normally glared at her to be so meek now. “What is it? Feel free to speak up.”

The maid lowered her gaze and began fiddling with her hands. “I, uhm...only wanted to...” She paused for a moment and resumed in a slightly louder voice, but it still trembled. “Please don't jump to conclusions because of what happened with Kate. There is no way that Her Majesty would ever order someone to poison anyone. She never wished to harm you. So, please don't accuse her of anything.”

Now Blanche was the one accusing someone of something? Since when? She was completely bedazzled by that. “What? What are you talking about?”

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Before she could add anything else, Stella already chimed in. “What are you attempting to say with that? My Lady would never falsely accuse anyone! Such remarks are absolutely unnecessary. How can you-”

Blanche stopped her with a motion of her hand and met the gaze of the second attend, who looked like she was about to cry. “You both seem to know something that I don't. What makes you think that I would suspect Her Majesty? Theo has a suspect, and that person is definitely not the empress. Aside from that, I never believed that she would do anything horrible like that.” In fact, she knew that Kate would have poisoned Seraphina if everything had happened like in the original timeline. So, it was quite clear that the heroine hadn't been involved in that plot. Otherwise, Blanche might have been more cautious about the situation.

The attendants visibly relaxed. The one that had spoken before responded after a few seconds. She still sounded nervous, but it was better than before. “Thank the gods. It's just... There have been...many rumors about Her Majesty being the one that ordered Kate to hurt you. But obviously, she would never do that. We thought...that you might have believed that she would because of your bad relationship with Her Majesty. And one word of you is enough to make His Majesty pass judgment over anyone, so...” They had been worried about their mistress.

Blanche was a bit irritated because that person thought that she would seriously accuse Seraphina of being behind this assassination attempt without any evidence. But still, she felt like it was good for them to be so loyal. In that way, they were like Stella, and since she adored her own maid, she couldn't get angry at this. “You can rest assured. I never once suspected Her Majesty. Sometimes, when she glares at me, I fear for my life, but I know that she wouldn't use such underhanded methods.” To be honest, Seraphina definitely would if someone became a serious threat to the people she loved, but that wasn't the point. “So, I never said that she was the culprit either. I am aware that Kate was bribed by a servant of the Vasquez household, and since the head of their family is rather upset with me right now, things should be clear. You heard about both of these things from Her Majesty already, right?”

The attendants nodded while seeming a little embarrassed at the empress being caught giving away confidential information.

Blanche gave them a little smile and resumed. “You can calm down. There will always be unfortunate rumors about everyone, and we can only wait until they pass. Well then. I will go talk to Her Majesty now if you don't mind.” She actually still needed to hurry, or Theodore would have to wait for her.

The second of the maids picked at her fingernails before speaking in a voice that was so quiet and shaky that it was barely audible. “If I may ask, what do you want to tell Her Majesty?”

The concubine hesitated for a moment, but there wasn't any reason to keep quiet. The women probably already knew everything from their mistress' narrations. “She mentioned the disastrous banquet yesterday, didn't she?”

One look at the faces of the maids made it obvious that she was right.

“Well, she wasn't in a good mood after that, and I want to apologize for that.”

“Why?” A voice sounded from behind the concubine.

Blanche spun around in a panic but calmed down as soon as she saw Seraphina. “Ah. Good afternoon, Your Majesty.”

The empress walked closer to her and scanned the other woman's expression in silence before speaking up. “Why do you want to apologize?” Great. She didn't pay attention to the normal conventions and went without a greeting. This meant that she was fuming.

Now the concubine would have to give her best to convince the heroine that she didn't have any ill intentions. “I am aware that the evening yesterday was horrendous. And no matter what I say or do, that won't change anything that happened. I know that you will not forgive or forget what-”

The empress crossed her arms, but her expression stayed blank. “No. Why are you apologizing when you didn't do anything?”

Blanche was startled by that and took a few seconds before speaking. “Pardon? But I...”

“Like I said. You did not do anything. You were only sitting there while eating your food. If someone spoke to you, you replied. If not, you were completely silent. And whenever His Majesty began another one of his plots, you were as uncomfortable as all of us, if not even more. You never did anything but eat or sit there like a picture of misery. So, it would be unfitting for you to apologize for the nonexistent issues you caused. There is another person that was fully to blame for all that happened yesterday, but he will not apologize. You should not try to take responsibility for someone else, especially not the emperor. In the long run, that will only cause problems for you. Especially now that you are a noble, your words carry a lot of meaning, so only apologize when you are at fault.” That was a long lecture, but it didn't carry signs of hatred.

Blanche blinked at the other woman a few times. Seraphina was seriously not mad at her? She almost couldn't believe that she had gotten so lucky. This would definitely lower the odds of the Duremont family wanting to kill the concubine because of the topic of the royal heir. “Thank you, Your Majesty. Then I'll...” It would be strange just to leave again now, wouldn't it? But she didn't want to stay here much longer because of multiple reasons. Theodore would wait for her, and she didn't intend on straining the heroine's patience even more. So, the concubine should just voice a few kind words and then go back. “Still, I would like to express how regretful I am to see that the banquet ended like that. I wish that it could have been peaceful. I'm very thankful that Your Majesty did not act on your emotions but tried to calm down the guests. Otherwise, it might have been worse than that. That is all I wanted to say. I would take my leave now if Your Majesty gave me permission.”

Seraphina's eyes wandered across the concubine's face for a few seconds while none of them spoke. Then the empress opened her mouth. “Please wait for a moment. There is something that I would like to ask you. If you don't mind, I would like to take a stroll through the labyrinth with you for that.”

Blanche immediately began praying at that. Hopefully, the other woman didn't intend to vent her anger when they were alone. “I don't mind. It would be an honor for me to accompany you.”

Seraphina nodded and led the way. She gracefully strode forwards, and the concubine hurried to follow her. Obviously, Noah and Owen didn't leave them alone but trailed behind them with some distance after the former one had greeted Blanche with a smile. That part was the most reassuring one about this.

The concubine was slowly but surely getting nervous anyway. If the heroine wanted this much privacy, the topic had to be serious. She definitely didn't look forward to this conversation.

After the disastrous evening yesterday, the empress wouldn't be in a good mood even if she claimed to not blame Blanche.

Still, the concubine had no choice but to follow. She didn't expect anything pleasant, but she would have to get along with the heroine if she wanted to continue to live here in the future and prevent being eliminated by some secret scheme. So, she would have to deal with uncomfortable situations like this instead of running away, no matter how cautious she was because of the other woman's calm behavior.

It was strange for the empress to be this collected despite the last evening, so it was almost to be expected that she only hid her anger until they were alone. But even after they moved to the center of the labyrinth, where no one else except for them and their guards was, Seraphina spoke in a voice with barely any anger. “Please step a bit closer. If we are going to talk to each other, it would be more pleasant to do so quietly.”

Blanche hurried to catch up to the other woman and walked beside her. That was a bit hard because of the hedges surrounding them, but she managed to move forwards without bumping into the empress. “So... What did you wish to talk about, Your Majesty?” It was probably about what had happened yesterday. There was no way that it wasn't connected to that. Seraphina was quiet for a bit longer, so Blanche worried enough to add something without getting a reply. “If it's about your displeasure because of the banquet, please feel free to speak honestly.”

The empress took a few more seconds before replying calmly. “It has something to do with the dinner yesterday, but that is not the only issue. Yesterday was part of the reason that I feel the need to bring this up, but the matter is a bit more serious than that. I wished to ask you something. Please respond sincerely. Are you aware of what His Majesty is planning?”

Blanche was taken aback by that question and almost stopped in place before reminding herself that she had to walk with the empress. “I...” She stammered around a moment before just forcing herself to voice her first thoughts. “I really do not wish to upset you with my response, but I have no idea what you could be referring to. Theo told me a bit about politics and that he obviously wants to go against his family, but apart from that, I do not think that he plans on doing anything special. Of course, he wants to protect the nation and make sure that Artias can stay peaceful and prosperous, but that is all I know. We will become allies with Northern Ocrea too.”

Seraphina shook her head. “That is not what I was thinking about. I meant what he is planning concerning you specifically. There is no way that you did not notice that his behavior has changed a lot during the past months. I would like you to tell me what you think about that. Why did he become so different, and what will change in the future?”

The concubine became even more confused upon hearing that. “Uhm... I know that Theo has been a bit more stubborn ever since the assassination attempt on you on the day of Duke Lamont's birthday banquet. He became less careful ever since then and worked hard to ease his workload so that...” She wasn't sure whether it would be good to tell her lover's wife this, but the empress had asked her to be honest. “He spends a lot more time with me now. And he sometimes says strange things.” Like that she could take all of his possessions or that everything that belonged to him was hers or that she could enter his office whenever she wanted. “He is better at fighting now too and started training, even though he used to hate that. But I don't think he truly changed that much. Aside from those trivialities, he is still the same person that he has always been.”

Seraphina was silent for a while, which only served to worry Blanche. The concubine was uncertain whether she had said something wrong but didn't know whether she would enrage the heroine by asking what it was. Luckily, the empress eventually spoke up. “I see. To me, it seemed a bit different. His Majesty changed very much. I assume that you rarely witness him becoming mad, but I can assure you that he is much stricter than before. Though, that would be expected when his enemies are gaining power.”

That reminded Blanche of something. “If I may ask, Your Majesty. Did you have a conversation with him just now?” Maybe they had reconciled and that was why the heroine was so calm. It would be good if that was the case since the empress' mood was crucial when it came to influencing Duke Duremont's decisions.

But the way that Seraphina's face scrunched up for a second showed that such a hope was futile. “It was more of a lecture than a conversation. His Majesty listened to me without saying anything for the first half and then listed countless arguments of why I am wrong without letting me respond. I would lie if I said that this did not infuriate me a bit.” The glitter of wrath in her eyes made it obvious that she wasn't just a little upset. She was beyond furious and used all of her self-control to hold back. “You should not expect to reach your goal by having an objective discussion with His Majesty. He used to be stubborn, but I am very strong-willed as well, so I did not think much of it. However, undermining his decisions is almost impossible now. If he does not listen to me, I doubt that anyone can change his mind. Well, except maybe one person.” She glanced at the concubine. “Feel satisfied with the fact that he favors you. As soon as you are someone he deems an enemy, there is no way to have a normal discussion with him anymore.” She sounded awfully bitter while saying that.

The villainess knew that well. There was no need to remind her.

It was odd that the heroine knew too though. Seemingly, the relationship between the royal spouses had suffered more in the past months than Blanche had thought. But that was understandable. Theodore had done everything that would enrage his wife and had shown problematic behavior in public for a while now. From addressing his lover without a title to taking his concubine's handkerchief during the hunting festival and spending a lot of time with her during events. He had done most of the things that would cause rumors and offend the Duremont family. It was surprising that Henry hadn't intervened until now, but it was only a question of when he would finally snap.

That moment would probably come soon. At least if Duke Duremont did plan on acting, which Theodore didn't seem to believe. Blanche wasn't sure yet.