The concubine felt her knees threaten to give in when they reached the main entrance to the ballroom. Eight guards were positioned there or were patrolling the hallway. Some of them stared at her without hiding their surprise, but the others only glimpsed at her occasionally.

Blanche couldn't bring herself to care though. Right now, she was straining her neck to overlook the whole corridor, and still, there was not a single person except for the knights, her lover, Stella and Owen. She glanced at the clock next to them before turning to Theodore. “We aren't too early, are we? And not too late either. It's two minutes before five o'clock.”

The emperor confirmed her words by looking at the clock as well. “You're right. We came at the perfect moment. We have enough time to take a deep breath before going in.”

So, the concubine hadn't made a mistake. She spun around once more before lowering her voice so that the guards wouldn't hear her. “And...where is the empress?”

“She's inside.” Her lover replied without skipping a beat, but Blanche froze and took a few seconds to realize that he was serious.

“What do you mean, ‘inside’? You have to escort her!”

Theodore shrugged. “Apparently, she had no interest in that either.” A smile formed on his lips as he glanced over at his lover. “Maybe I also sent a servant to inform her that she wouldn't need to wait for me today. She can't complain since it's my birthday wish.”

The concubine was too bedazzled to say anything. His words almost made it sound like he intended to do something rather stupid. But he would never be careless enough to try something like that, right?

The emperor proved her wrong when he bowed to her and held his arm in her direction. He cleared his throat before smirking up at her startled expression. “Would you grant me the honor of allowing me to escort you today, Blanche? Remember that it's my birthday and that you promised to be with me the whole time.”

She should have known that something like this would happen. The concubine closed her eyes for a moment and inhaled deeply before looking at her lover. “You know what this will cause, right?”

Theodore responded without any worry in his voice. “I am fully aware of that. Please be by my side and let me show everyone that this place rightfully belongs to you.”

Maybe it was her nausea or her desire to be with the man she loved without needing to hide it or to share him with another woman. Either way, Blanche didn't have the energy to argue. So, she put her hand in his. “I hope you know what you are doing. Saying things like this will make people misunderstand.”

The emperor just beamed at her while he straightened his posture again. “I'm completely serious. I will prove it to you later. But for now, allow me one more thing. Will you have the first dance with me?”

Blanche froze at that again. A dance didn't mean much if it was only for one music piece, but normally, married or engaged people wouldn't waltz with anyone but their partner and possibly family members. Since the matter was related to the emperor, this was so much worse though. The first dance of the ball always belonged to the royal couple. Sometimes, they danced alone, sometimes, the other nobles were allowed to join. But in any case, that was an event for the empress and her husband. Why would he ask his concubine to accompany him now?

“Theo.” Blanche knew what he would respond with, so she didn't bother to explain. It was obvious that he knew about those conventions too. He just didn't care.

“It will be fine, believe me. I want to show them how perfect we are together. So?” Her lover pulled her hand toward him so that she took a step forward and was directly in front of him. “You won't reject me, right?”

Of course, Blanche wouldn't. She still thought that this was stupid. Well, whatever she did couldn't be more insolent than interrupting a royal wedding and stealing the husband, right? Blanche had done that already, so she might as well do this too. “We're already breaking every rule and norm of noble society. This much won't make anything worse when it's going downhill already.” Blanche averted her eyes as she fought her nausea, which was threatening to overwhelm her. “I can't dance that well though. You know that.”

Theodore lifted his hands to her cheek and caressed her skin until she looked up at him. His eyes met hers as he gazed at her with so much love that she felt like she would sink right into the dark blue of his irises. “You danced with me just fine when we were alone. Don't worry about anything and let me guide you. Are you ready?”

Blanche weakly nodded at that. She wasn't ready. She was the furthest away from being prepared for what could happen. This would go horribly wrong. She just knew it. There was no way that the guests would keep silent about the emperor ignoring his wife to dance with another woman. But by now, it was too late to change his mind. All she could do was give her best not to embarrass him and herself.

Theodore linked his arm with hers and addressed one of the guards. “Tell them to announce our presence.”

The knight didn't bother to hide how he scanned the couple in confusion before listening to the order. He opened the door and stepped inside before speaking up in a loud voice. “His Majesty, the emperor of Artias and Lady Blanche.” He had announced them as a couple. That was the first issue when he linked their names like that, but in the end, the rest was already bad enough.

The murmur from inside the room was audible before anything else. But all noises quickly died down when the door opened.

Theodore gave his lover a bright smile, which was probably supposed to soothe her, and waited until the way was cleared before moving forward.

Blanche could only imitate his pace and focus on her posture. She couldn't slouch her shoulders, trip or reveal her emotions on her face. That was much harder than it sounded, especially when it felt like the stares of the people were piercing her skin and leaving her vulnerable.

The couple strode into the room, and the guests began whispering again. The concubine ignored that and forced herself to keep staring straight ahead without looking at anyone. She would only be distracted if she started searching for the people she worried about and tried to read their expressions. She didn't have time for that when she was with the emperor and needed to maintain an elegant appearance.

Theodore stopped with her in the middle of the room and squeezed her arm, which made her realize that she was way too stiff right now. He showed her his grin once more before turning his head to look at the crowd as he began his speech. “I would like to thank you for attending my birthday party. It is an honor to welcome all of you into the royal palace on this wonderful day. I am more than grateful to see those familiar faces again. The fact that you came all this way to visit this ball touches me. I look forward to interacting with you for the entire evening as well as tomorrow. I hope that you will have fun here and that you may use the time to distract yourself from all unpleasant matters that might trouble you. As always, the servants of the royal palace worked hard to ensure that everything would be flawless today. If there seems to be a problem, please do not hesitate to approach them. I shall speak to you more later, but for now, I will spare you the long speeches and declare that the first dance will begin.” Theodore paused for a moment before turning to his lover and resumed in an a little quieter volume. “Should they join, or do you want to have the dance floor all to ourselves?”

Blanche wanted to die of embarrassment. The way he asked her ensured that everyone would notice that he was asking for her opinion. The fact that the emperor asked anyone was ridiculous in itself, but obviously, it was even worse when he did it during his own party. However, keeping silent now would only prolong the uncomfortable situation. “Please let them dance too. I don't want even more people to look at us.”

Her lover's lips formed a wide grin. “Your wish is my command. Do you want to say something to them too?” He chuckled at her vigorously shaking her head and turned to the guests again. “You are all invited to join us. Please make the best of this evening. Honor us with some music, Conductor.”

The orchestra didn't wait long before starting to play a slow waltz.

Theodore let go of his lover to stand in front of her and offered her his hand after bowing to her again.

Blanche felt her heart pounding as she took his hand in hers. The emperor bowing to anyone would certainly make everything much worse, but it was over anyway. After this evening, countless people would want to slaughter her, with Henry being the first person on that list. So, she could only focus on not making a fool out of herself. She almost wanted to cry at the prospect of being forced to dance in front of so many people, but thankfully, her lover would guide her.

Theodore pulled her closer to him and put one arm around her waist while interlocking their fingers on the other hand. That certainly was much more intimate than a normal waltz should be, but correcting him would only pull attention to that fact. Theodore began moving slowly, and her panic rose to unreachable heights.

What if she wasn't able to match his pace? What if she stepped onto his foot? She barely practiced, so she wasn't prepared for dancing under pressure. It would be a catastrophe if she messed up now.

But her lover was completely calm even while she mulled over the mistakes she could possibly make. He looked deep into her eyes and whispered to her. “I'm here to guide you. Relax.” Those words somehow caused her to stop standing there stiffly.

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Blanche gave her best to join her lover's movements. It took one second, and he found a way to guide her into the rhythm of the music. Her feet almost seemed to follow the tact automatically, and she was speechless because of that herself. Still, she didn't dare to focus on anything else but her motions. She didn't look at the dancing couples that she saw from the corner of her eyes or chat with the emperor but merely repeated the steps in her head. The hardest thing to ignore was her lover's radiant smile, but she even refrained from mirroring his expression. She counted along with the music and had the intention of doing this until the very end.

At least she had planned on doing that before Theodore spoke up. “You are doing well. I told you that it would be fine, right? Now you only need to relax a bit and look at me.”

Blanche unwillingly obeyed and met his gaze. “Don't distract me. I can't mess up.”

“You won't. I'm here to lead you, and you can't imagine how many times I practiced dancing in my childhood. The moves are ingrained into my brain. You could wake me up in the middle of the night, and I would dance for you without making a mistake.”

The contrast of what noble children, especially those in the royal family, had to learn in comparison to the commoners' typical youth was incredibly big. All Blanche remembered was playing games and baking while spending time with her family. Surely, her mother and father had taught her the basic things like reading and writing, but she had never felt like that had been exhausting. She hadn't been pressured or forced to learn special things without being allowed to make errors in her childhood at all. In fact, she had been rather lazy and allowed her parents to pamper her. That might be the reason why she was unable to sustain herself now. All of this was another huge difference between her and Theodore.

Blanche nervously smiled at her lover as she pushed away those thoughts. “You seem to be a genius then. Going through such hard training in your youth must have been exhausting.”

Theodore smiled at her. “Actually, that wasn't the case at all. I never complained. The teachers were nice and most of them acted as some sort of protection against the people that weren't so kind. Cedar had it worse since his mother picked quite the horrible individuals for him. But enough about that. Let's focus on the present again.”

The concubine immediately glanced down at her feet. “I know. I need to concentrate, so we shouldn't talk too much.” She was silent for a moment but didn't manage to keep herself quiet. “I hate that there are so many people that wished to harm you. Well, and...Cedar suffered too. This whole situation was awful for both of you. You've been targeted ever since your birth, and even now, they can't leave you alone.” She seemed to feel worse about that than he did.

Her lover still grinned at her and carefully guided her through the dance without any issues. “I'm not too happy about that either, but well... At least you will be there to help me through it all. As long as you promise to stay by my side, I will never complain. Just continue to be with me and let me see your wonderful smile, and I'll be content. We're done with half of the music piece, by the way.”

Blanche felt how her cheeks became a bit warmer too. Her surprise about them being so far into the dance already faded into the background when he said such adorable things. “It's the same for me. If you are with me, I will be filled with bliss no matter what. Your love is the most important thing for me. I love you.” A wide smile spread on her face without her knowledge.

Theodore looked deep into her eyes when he responded. “I love you too. You don't know how much I have to hold back to refrain from kissing you right now.”

The concubine woke up at that. They were in the middle of a ballroom. She couldn't just begin to wallow in her overwhelming emotions when everyone was watching. She blinked a few times before averting her eyes. “It would be better to hold back a bit. We'll have the night for ourselves.” She paused at that thought before correcting herself. “Maybe not. We'll go to bed very late today, or rather very early tomorrow. And we need to attend the tea party then, so we might not have too much time.”

“Oh, don't worry.” Theodore smirked at her. “We will make as much time as necessary. This day is about us. We will need to go to bed very late this time. After all, I still need to show you your gifts today.”

Blanche sighed quietly at him before gifting him a small smile. “You really can't delay that until tomorrow evening? We might get some sleep if we go to bed as soon as the ball is over, but if you start giving me presents after that...”

“I can go without sleep on this wonderful day. I want to enjoy every second with you. And I have a surprise that can't wait until tomorrow. I'm getting way too excited just by thinking about it.”

That only served to make her curious. “You will keep me on edge the whole day, right?”

Her lover's grin was enough of a response. The couple turned again and just stared into each other's eyes for a while.

Blanche lost track of how much time passed and only noticed that they were done when the music got quieter. She stopped when Theodore slowed down as well. She thought that he would let go of her now, but he continued to stand in front of her motionlessly for a few seconds. “Theo?”

The emperor was pulled back into the present at that, and his smile softened. “I'm so happy that you are here with me.”

She was taken aback by that sudden statement, but she wouldn't deny that it made her heart flutter. “I'm very happy too.”

They were quiet for a moment before Theodore took a step back. He offered her his hand, and she took it, but he wasn't satisfied with that alone and linked their arms. “Let us move on to the next part then. This will be extremely amusing too.” He guided her forward, and she followed him without hesitation. Hopefully, he would bring her to a nice calm spot, where she could spend the rest of the evening, but his remark made this questionable.

This became even more obvious when he led her to the platform on which the thrones stood.

Blanche had ignored the stares of all the guests, but now she would be forced to look up and make eye contact with the empress. Surely, the other woman would be fuming right now. Blanche almost didn't dare to lift her gaze and was overly surprised when she finally gathered the courage to do so.

Seraphina was sitting on her throne and watched the couple with an indifferent expression. She wasn't angry? That seemed impossible.

It took the concubine a few seconds until she realized that this might be because Theodore had sent a servant to inform the empress about his plans earlier.

The empress was always trying to hide her emotions and only showed her fury when she was shocked by someone's behavior. That was why the villainess had always managed to upset the other woman with some insolent actions. But now that Seraphina had been warned, she was prepared for what would follow and should be able to veil her rage well.

At least as long as the emperor didn't make the situation worse. Though, it seemed like he was planning on doing just that.

Theodore grinned while leading his lover to the platform. He ignored the obvious dismay of his wife and the Duremont family as well as the confusion everyone around him had to feel and moved forward without looking to the side. He approached the staircase and climbed up the first step.

That was the moment in which Blanche stopped. She tried to be as inconspicuous with her movement as possible, but that didn't change the fact that she was forcing the emperor to slow his pace. This wouldn't please anyone. But she swallowed her concern and spoke up in a whisper. “You don't intend to bring me up there, right?”

Theodore glanced at the guests, and his smile widened. He tugged on her hand, which made her step close to the stairs. “Of course, I do. Come on. We're making everyone wait. We need to toast on Artias.”

The concubine's stomach tingled at that, but it wasn't a pleasant feeling like normally when her lover surprised her. She helplessly followed him up the stairs. Now she didn't dare to turn her head the slightest bit in fear of seeing the faces of the guests. So, she forced herself to look at the thrones, and her mood immediately soured.

It felt like something inside her cracked when she saw the chair that had been placed next to Theodore's vacant throne. It wasn't just a normal one either. The chair was covered with dark velvet, and the frame was golden with many engraved patterns. It resembled the thrones in a way.

Blanche didn't think twice before realizing that she was in a dilemma. She couldn't refuse when the emperor brought her somewhere, and doing so while others were watching would be horrible. However, the other option was just as terrifying. Sitting down on that chair would indicate that she was fine with being placed next to the royal couple of Artias and thus claimed to be on their level.

Blanche had to refrain from tearing out her hair at this. “Theo, what is this?” She stopped again but didn't put in any effort in fighting back.

Her lover only grinned at her while he pulled her towards the chair. “Your seat. You could also sit on my lap, but I assume that you like this much more. Don't try to argue. This is very important, you'll see. You promised.”

She regretted that promise more than anything right now. But there was nothing she could do when Theodore guided her to the seat and gently pressed onto her shoulders until she sat down. The chair was comfortable, but Blanche couldn't relax at all and hurried to close her eyes. Now she was facing all the people in the ballroom, and it was clear that they would glare at her. It was a surprise that no one had started yelling already. She had expected that Henry would have caused a scene by now.

But the duke didn't say anything and the empress didn't either.

Theodore sat down in silence and waited for a moment until all noise in the ballroom had ceased before speaking up in a loud voice. “Even though I do not wish to bother all of you so soon again, it is now time for us to share a drink.”

That sentence was enough to make the servants begin to move. They were carrying glasses of wine, which they brought to all the guests. One maid climbed up the stairs to the thrones and presented three drinks to the emperor.

Theodore took the two red wines and handed one to his lover. Blanche inwardly cringed at him giving her a glass first, and her mood only deteriorated when he didn't help his wife at all.

Instead, the empress had to take her glass of white wine herself.

After a moment of silence, in which the maid climbed down from the platform and the servants gave away the rest of the drinks, the emperor lifted his glass. “I would like to ask all of you to join me in voicing a toast to Artias. May our nation continue to flourish and grow to be even more magnificent than it already is. Due to our combined efforts, we are becoming stronger every day. No one will have the power to strike us down. I want to increase our prosperity even more so that the citizens of Artias may live in peace with no worries. To do that, I need your help. I am asking all of you to remain loyal to me even when others promise you a simpler way of fulfilling your goal. I can assure you that I will never forget those who supported me and will pay them back by protecting the nation for the rest of my life. May Artias continue to be a beautiful and safe country with more and more allies on our side while we defeat our enemies.”

The guests mirrored his gesture and raised their glasses into the air while cheering at the emperor's speech. They didn't seem to think much about the hidden comment about his family and were just happy to be praised for their work, which was actually nonexistent in some cases.

Theodore lowered his hand again and turned to his lover. “I did well, didn't I?”

Blanche happily nodded at him. “They are eager to be called useful. You are good at choosing words that make others feel appreciated.” Only then, she noticed that no one was drinking yet since they were waiting for the emperor. So, everyone was staring at them interacting. She would have liked to hide somewhere, but that wasn't possible as long as she was sitting here.

Her lover didn't care about the unwanted attention though. He just beamed at her and spoke up in a careless tone. “I hope that I am good at that. I mean, I need to tell you how much I love you way more often than I already do. Of course, I have to be able to show you that I adore you too. Then, will you drink with me?” He moved his glass toward her, even though she froze and stared at him. He had to raise a toast with the empress first, so this behavior was completely unacceptable.

Still, Blanche gave up after he looked into her eyes for even longer. She couldn't deny him even if they were currently disregarding every norm of nobility in Artias. She didn't have the courage to gaze anywhere else, so she concentrated on his face while moving her glass toward his. Hopefully, she wouldn't spill anything.

Blanche barely dared to use any force, but luckily, Theodore managed to clink the glasses together so that the satisfying noise echoed through the room. Now the concubine only wanted to cower and hide her face while her lover turned to the empress and toasted in her direction too.

This would definitely cause another issue. Though, maybe people would stop paying attention to the errors they made today at some point when they couldn't count them anymore. It was futile, but she could only hope for that.

Theodore lifted the drink to his mouth and took a sip, which made everyone else begin too.

Blanche drank as well. She was pleasantly surprised by the sweet flavor of the wine. Most of the ones she had already tasted weren't this fruity, but she wouldn't complain about something so delicious. While drinking, she made the mistake of glancing at the guests.

They were still watching her.

That should have been expected, but she was a bit dejected nonetheless. She had favored them focusing on something else instead of judging her the whole time