Theodore spent the following days showing Blanche that he loved her more than anything else. He had begun to bring gifts way too often and voiced his devotion to her even more often than normal. The two of them were almost glued together like before, and their daily routine didn't change much.
The only difference, aside from him showering her with even more gifts and affection, was that Theodore regularly repeated that he would never blame her for what had happened in any way. Blanche was more than happy with that, especially when Theodore also let her talk about her family and her time with Sefare whenever she wanted to. Simply being able to open up about this to someone was an incredibly relieving feeling. Still, Blanche decided not to talk to anyone else about this yet since her mental wounds were still too great. She told herself that she would speak to Stella and her friends as well as Leon and Owen at some point while introducing herself properly though. The latter two already knew everything since they had researched this matter with Theodore, but telling them her real name in person was something Blanche still wanted to do. Later, when she wouldn't cry because of that anymore.
Theodore fully supported her in her decisions. He just repeatedly told her that everyone was on her side and that no one would harm her. His words suddenly felt much more reassuring now that Blanche knew that he was fully aware of everything there was to know about her past.
The question of how he had figured it out when the letter had just been part of the reason was something she didn't ask. Blanche simply couldn't voice those words, and she decided that it was better not to press. She just enjoyed her lover's affection for the time being.
While the couple had just gotten closer, other people hadn't been too happy during the past few days. The empress seemed to have given up on arguing after being rejected one too many times. Seraphina didn't visit the emperor's office anymore nor did she approach him at any other time.
Theodore was rather content with that and used his newfound freedom by taking more walks with his lover. It almost seemed like he wanted the whole palace to know about them. During the past week, he had brought her to every imaginable spot here and continued their cuddling and kissing even when people passed by. If anyone had been particularly blind until now, they surely understood the true nature of the relationship between the emperor and Blanche by now.
Today, he hadn't chosen a new spot though but brought her to the tailor's office. While Madame Charture took some measurements, Theodore sat on the sofa and watched his lover.
Blanche had the sneaking suspicion that the dress she was supposed to receive was more special than most before since they insisted on measuring her again before even creating the gown. She had more than enough attires by now, but she didn't complain and let the tailor work while gazing at the emperor. “So, you won't tell me what kind of design you came up with? Madame Charture said that you were the one giving her instructions for the past months, but that you designed a dress yourself is impressive.”
Theodore showed her a soft smile. “I didn't do it myself. I just had to choose the colors, fabric and style. I knew what I wanted to see on you, so I had to find a way to make that into reality.”
Madame Charture happily chimed in at that. “Naturally. After all, the dress has to match Your Majesty's uniform for that day. Ah, I can't believe that I won't be present. I need you two to wear it for me once before. I bet that it will look so wonderful.”
The emperor's grin widened at that. “Madame Charture. You promised not to reveal anything.”
The tailor hurried to hide her mouth behind her hands. Then she turned an imaginary key in front of her lips and threw it away. “I won't say anything else.”
Blanche looked at her lover and scanned him with confusion. Naturally, his face didn't reveal the truth to her, but that only made her more curious. If he was going as far as to create matching outfits, there had to be an important event. She couldn't think about anything though. At least at the first moment.
After she thought about it for a bit, she remembered that Northern Ocrea's crown prince would arrive in about a month. Maybe they were planning for that. But it would be strange for them to dress up excessively for a diplomatic meeting. She took a moment longer until she realized that there was another little event that would happen another month later. At least she believed that it would be a little one.
“Theo. Say, I doubt that you want us to dress up for the prince of Northern Ocrea. And there is only one other event that will happen soon after that. Don't tell me that this is for my birthday.”
Her lover's smile was enough of a response, but he also spoke up to confirm her guess. “You got it. I didn't think that you would find out that quickly. Next time, I will have to plan a surprise less suspiciously. I won't tell you about your presents now though. That part of the surprise has to remain.”
Upon remembering what he had gotten for their anniversary, Blanche didn't even want to know what he prepared now. “Don't overdo it. If we have a celebration again, which I don't need, by the way, the nobles will bring me all kinds of jewelry. So, you don't have to give me too much. I'm still not done admiring the things you prepared for your own birthday. I glanced at everything, but I won't have the time to wear all of that in my whole life.”
Theodore slowly stood up and walked over to her but kept his distance not to obstruct the tailor. “You know that discussing with me is useless. Why are you even trying it? This year everything will be especially grand. Your gifts and the celebration as well. The party last year will be almost nonexistent in comparison.”
The concubine didn't like hearing that. Her definition of the word ‘grand’ was a bit different from his. When she saw things as lavish, Theodore often believed them to be normal. So, she couldn't help but fear what he was planning. Even though she knew that his expression just meant that she could spare the effort, she tried to reason with him. “But we liked the party last time, right? It was calm with only a few lesser-ranked nobles. No people that would cause issues. We could just say that a count is the highest-ranked person there this year too. If we use that excuse, the dowager empress and the prince can't show up either. Wouldn't that be better?”
The emperor's smirk faded. “Good try but no. Maybe she will be too prideful, but my brother will come just to annoy both of us. You could throw him out, but that would seem a bit odd to all the guests. We will have to accept him being there. So, we can just point out that he doesn't have an invitation in front of everyone. That is much more embarrassing. Even if I don't know whether he can even feel emotions like shame.” Slowly, his smile returned. “In any case, a bigger party is better. We need everyone to see the future wife of the emperor. It's quite obvious that we have to start treating you like royalty at some point. Just to drop a few hints until we reveal everything. All of those people will have to bring you a present and bow to you, so it's good to have as many there as possible. They need to understand that your rank is higher than theirs after all.”
She almost flinched when he mentioned their future marriage. “Theo, that...” She didn't finish that sentence when she saw that Madame Charture wasn't surprised. She turned her head to her lover and narrowed her eyes at him. “You told her?”
Theodore smiled at her with a radiant beam that erased any chances of her being annoyed with him. “I'm sorry. She will have to make your wedding dress, so I thought that I would give her some time to come up with ideas.”
The tailor's face lit up with a wide grin. “You don't need to worry about that, Your Majesty.” She whipped her head around to the concubine and began talking. “I have so many ideas that I could prepare a dozen dresses. White will look so good on you. That is the only thing I know for sure. The dress will be white, but the rest is a total mystery. There are so many styles that would fit you, but I can't decide. It needs to be perfect for a perfect day.”
Blanche was a bit overwhelmed, but hearing that part made her smile. “Yes. A white dress would be nice. A puffy skirt and a long veil too.” She turned to glance at Theodore. “That was what I always dreamed about having during my wedding even as a child. It would be nice to fulfill that dream.”
Unsurprisingly, Theodore affirmed that in a hurry. “You will receive whatever you want. I swear to make that day perfect for you, no matter what.”
Even though no one had addressed her, Madame Charture eagerly chimed in too. “Of course! You may tell me everything you imagined, and I will realize it. Rest assured that I will do my best to create the most wonderful dress you can imagine. Everyone will fall in love with the beautiful bride and envy the husband.” She almost dropped the measuring tape while gesturing wildly with her arms.
Theodore sighed quietly and gave his lover a grin. “Do you hear that? Even on our wedding day, I will have to be jealous. That won't do. I need to make sure that they know that you belong to me first. Naturally, everyone will know that I'm yours by then too. Now we only need to find a way to celebrate our union properly. How many days should the banquet be? Ten or is that too much? Maybe seven days. A week should be fine. You could wear a different dress each day.”
Blanche almost grimaced at that. The celebrations for the wedding with the empress had gone on for three days. There was no way that their festivities could go on for longer than that. Her lover truly gave his best to show who had his favor. The concubine scanned his expression for traces of amusement that would indicate a joke, but she remained unsuccessful. “I will be the secondary wife, you know? We need to make sure that it's not as lavish as your first wedding.”
Theodore's response came immediately. “No way. That wedding was a joke. Apart from repeating vows from a century-old book that no one truly cares about, I only spent the day talking to the guests while I knew that you were crying. Do you know how horrible that was? I think that was the most awful day of my life. Well, not quite, but it came close. The only good thing was the evening. I spent my wedding night with you, remember? You did the right thing and dragged me out in front of all the guests. Like that, you could prove that I'm yours. This time, I will make sure to show the difference between an arranged marriage and one that was decided because of true love. I will be happy instead of wanting to cry the whole day. So naturally, it will be the grandest celebration this nation ever saw.”
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Blanche didn't even want to know what he was imagining. Just the thought of him planning festivities that would be known throughout the whole country made her cringe. It would be strange enough for him to decide to marry a commoner, and such a celebration would only pull even more attention to the issue. She truly didn't want anyone to point out the difference between that marriage and the one of the royal couple. But at the same time, she couldn't be angry at her lover when he talked about the wedding with Seraphina like that.
She stared at Theodore for a moment before replying in a quiet voice. “I knew that that day was horrible for me. But you never told me that you hated it as well. At the banquet with the Duremonts, you said something like that, but I never imagined that it would have been that bad.”
The emperor gave her a sad smile. It looked like he fought the urge to come closer and hug her since that would force Madame Charture to stop her work. So, he stayed put and just gazed at her with a longing glint in his eyes. “Obviously, I despised it. I knew that you were upset the whole day. You spent the whole week crying in your room. I tried to hide how much I resented it because we had fought about the marriage before. I wanted to agree with you and end the engagement so badly. If I had admitted how much I hated all of this, I wouldn't have been able to go through with the wedding. But back then, I was stupid enough to believe that I needed that family's power to reign. I should have broken off the engagement on the day that I met you.”
Then they could have avoided a lot of problems until now. But changing the past wasn't possible unless you coincidentally gained another chance to make things right.
Slowly, the corners of Theodore's lips rose, but his eyes remained full of sadness. “The only good thing I did was let you drag me out of the ballroom after the ceremony. You should have noticed that I was way too eager to let you pull me away from the guests. If I had been thinking clearly, I would have been convinced that I couldn't show anyone that we were together. But was I ever mad at you for slamming the doors open and waltzing in to pull me out? No. Because I was so thankful that you did that. I might have lost my mind otherwise. I saw that you were shaking and fighting against your tears, but you came to bring me back to where I truly belong.”
Now that he said it, it had been odd that the emperor hadn't told her to stop it and sent her back. He hadn't even tried to loosen her hold on him back then, and his complaints had been halfhearted, even though countless guests had been watching. Afterward, he hadn't even pointed out her indecency once and had just showered her with affection.
To Blanche, that day had always just been a reminder of her ignoring every imaginable rule in noble society once again. She remembered sobbing in her room while Stella tried to calm her down without infuriating her mistress. Then, at some point, she had stood up and gotten dressed with as many expensive accessories as possible. For some reason, the guards had only told her to stop but had never physically intervened, so entering the ballroom had been easy. She had just slammed open both doors at the same time and had put on the most confident smirk she could muster while almost breaking down crying.
Most guests had already left, but some of the more influential ones had been there. That day, she had also met the Duremonts, who had despised her before already, and immediately left the worst impression imaginable. Blanche had just rushed in and hugged her lover's arm while calling him by his nickname. Then she had said that she needed him and asked the others to excuse his absence. She had dragged him out without asking for his permission once and had thus reached a previously unimaginable level of insolence.
Though, she had never truly blamed herself for that one incident, even if she had acted like a brat. Her lover had been forced to marry another woman, so her brain hadn't been working correctly that day.
That didn't make it better, but at least it seemed like Theodore thought similarly. He hadn't resisted or been upset with her. He had just followed her all the way to his room and given in when she had desperately asked for his attention.
The concubine remembered that day well. She had been so hopeless back then, and now it felt like everything could become wonderful anyway. But she didn't want to let her lover see how emotional that thought alone made her. She pressed her mouth into a thin line and blinked a bit to hold herself back. She quietly pushed away the memories of that day and the expression of disbelief that the guests had shown her out of her mind. “I'm glad that that won't happen again.” Those words left her mouth before she could keep them out of her mind. She had been so quiet that she hoped that no one had heard her, but it seemed like Theodore had understood everything.
He gave her a gentle smile and responded in a soft voice. “From now on, I will show everyone that I love you. You won't have to worry about me being stupid anymore. It will take a while, but our wedding will erase any doubts. I need to prepare something else first, and that will make the day unforgettable. I will make sure that even the people at the borders will gush about how romantic it was. Everyone will know about our happiness. There won't be a single person in Artias that will question whether I belong to you.”
Blanche let Madame Charture guide her movements to allow the tailor to measure her extended arm length. To do that, she had to turn away from her lover for a moment, but that was favorable since she didn't have to keep her expression straight anymore. The more they talked about the wedding, the more excited she got even though they hadn't had any intention of marrying any time soon. She was getting way too emotional now, and she needed to make sure that she wouldn't cry.
So, she tried to steer the conversation in the original direction again. “You do remember that we were talking about my birthday? I wanted to explain how a smaller party would be better, and now we are already discussing two celebrations. And it's the same issue for both. I want something small, and you want to make the whole country celebrate or something like that.”
Theodore didn't hesitate before replying. “Exactly. I thought about making our wedding date a national holiday.”
Blanche's heart almost stopped when she heard that. She dropped her arms and spun around despite the tailor's complaints. She stared at her lover in disbelief. “You're joking.” There was no way that he could do something like that. Not when the date of the wedding with the empress was a completely normal day. “I know that you're the emperor, but you can't just create a new holiday, right?”
Theodore's grin would have been enough of a reply. “One of the previous emperors did the same for the birth of his first daughter. That day is the spring festival now, and it's still being celebrated after decades. So, I deserve to do the same for our wedding. The people won't celebrate us, of course. We could name it the day of love on which you show the ones you care about that you love them. Something like that would be fun, wouldn't it? We'll come up with some great ideas. Since we have fewer holidays than our neighboring nations, it should be fine. Leon will complain about the laws that need to be changed first, but he'll manage. Even if he doesn't admit it, he supports us with his full heart. With every new day, he just likes you more and the empress less. He never was on good terms with her, but the more often he has to calm her down, the more annoyed he gets. As expected of his good intuition. He will happily help organize everything. I will give him a few days off in return, don't worry.”
Blanche still hadn't gotten over his idea, but her lover was already talking about completely different things. She barely managed to follow his logic now. She shook her head to herself as she tried to continue speaking about their original topic again. “Theo, just because you can do something, it doesn't mean that you should do it. We really don't need too much trouble for any of the events you are planning.”
Theodore waved his hand in a dismissive motion. “Why shouldn't we do something that we can enjoy properly? I can already imagine how wonderful it will be. Doing what we like will be the best that day.”
At this point, Blanche already knew that she had lost before even discussing it. She wasn't sure why she continued anyway, but she made one last attempt. “I know that we liked the party last year. It was small, and there weren't any problems. Everyone there was nice, and no one made fun of us. Isn't that better? Don't you think inviting dukes to the birthday of a baroness is strange? They don't know about me being your future wife yet.” Even that small sentence made her chest tingle. Blanche wanted to be married to her lover. She couldn't help it. She was looking forward to that so much that her heart began to beat quicker whenever she thought about it.
Theodore seemed to feel the same way. He stepped forward to her and put his arms around her waist. “They will know soon enough. And any person that dares to criticize us can gladly tell me their opinion in person. I don't mind shutting them down as soon as they open their mouths. I feel like I need to explain that a few more times. No one will make fun of you unless they want to make me angry. I can assure you that few people are that reckless. If they are, I will happily remind them of whom the most powerful person in this nation is. I won't be kind about it either. But the fact that you are a baroness has nothing to do with that. Apart from the fact that no one will dare to disrespect you because you deserve as much respect as anyone else, even the rules of noble society require them to be kind.”
Blanche almost snorted at that. “I don't think that that is the case. Many people believe that the ones of a lower rank have to bow to them the whole time. That they need to lower their heads to me while I'm with you is frustrating to them, so they surely won't be in a good mood. At your birthday ball, they may have ignored it, but they won't in the future. What kind of rules would be important enough to outweigh their arrogance?”
Her lover grinned at her. It was obvious that he had a perfect reply to her question. “First of all, you are my lover. The woman at the side of the most powerful man here should be treated as politely as him. Especially since you are my fiancée. They may not know, but that won't change the fact that it's true. In addition, it's normal for nobles of lower ranks to invite those with more power. There isn't an issue about that, especially since I will personally sign the invitations. And when the aristocrats come, all of them will be guests of the royal palace. Since you live here, you are a host, and they need to treat you like they treat me as another host. See? Even if you apply those stupid customs and norms, which don't make any sense, we're acting politely. If they don't care about that and refuse to bow down to you, they either have to ignore the invitation of the emperor or receive my wrath after misbehaving. In any way, it will damage their reputation. No one here will trouble you without consequences.” For some reason, it seemed like he had been prepared to list all of those reasons to her.
Blanche looked up at him and sighed. “You really want a big party, don't you? Why do you insist on that? You surely understand my concerns, right? I mean, I won't complain if it really makes you happy, but I feel like it will be unnecessarily expensive and might infuriate some nobles. Last year's party was fine too.”
Her lover cupped her face and showed her a soft smile. “Sure. But we didn't show our relationship back then either. We only chose a small party to avoid the Duremonts causing issues. I wanted to be inconspicuous back then. I really used to be an idiot in the past. What was I thinking? I should have been eager to show you to everyone. It should be obvious that something has to change now that I finally woke up. After all, we will marry in the future. Others need to understand that before we even reveal it. Money and time aren't an issue for me, that much should be obvious. That isn't the main reason though. In reality, I just love you and want to give you all I can offer. Thus, it would be wonderful if you can enjoy the things I'm planning for you.”
A part of Blanche adored lavish celebrations. Without a doubt, she would love the gifts, the decorations and the food as well as the knowledge that everyone would be aware of her becoming Theodore's wife. But at the same time, she hated the judgmental stares they would get. Even if she believed that no one would criticize them, the nobles would surely believe that the couple was a bad match. The emperor and a commoner had too much of a power difference. That wouldn't keep her from loving him as much as before, but she didn't want to face such harsh words. She could do without that.
However, such criticism would probably arise no matter whether they had festivities or not. Her lover adored the idea of such a grand celebration, and he was stubborn enough, so she might as well leave the fun to him. If she wanted to be royalty, she had to accept things like this, even if it was just to prove that she was to be respected to the nobles.
Blanche sighed and paused for a moment before speaking up. “Alright.” She gave him a playful smirk. “So, you'll plan my birthday, an engagement party and our wedding? Please don't use up all of your funds for that.”
A bright smile lit up her lover's face. “Obviously, I will never be able to use everything. Don't worry. I'll do my best to make the festivities as lavish as possible, but they will still be wonderful and loving. I will prepare it in a way you will adore. Your birthday comes first, but the rest will be breathtaking too. I won't neglect any of those events.”
She surely believed that he would be able to plan great festivities. She had seen how hard the servants of the palace were working before a ball too often to doubt that. “I trust you in this regard. Just take your time. Even if you've done this a few times already, planning for so many people will be exhausting. Do it slowly.”
“Of course. I can't overwork myself, or I would need to spend more time recovering. Naturally, I will not limit our time together either. You are the most important part of my life. You will never have to wait for anything else to be finished.”
Blanche was about to respond in a just as romantic tone when she saw the tailor in the corner of her eyes.
Madam Charture was beaming at the couple and happily scribbled some notes in her book before drawing something. It seemed like the others had ignored her fully for a while. Now Blanche felt a bit bad, even if she assumed that the tailor didn't mind with how immersed she was in her work.