The concubine had intended to apologize for interrupting the other woman, but apparently, the tailor hadn't had an issue with the situation. Still, she spoke up. “I'm sorry for not letting you finish measuring first. We can do it now.” She was about to let go of her lover when Madame Charture shook her head.
“Please do not apologize, Lady Blanche. I was already finished. You gave me a chance to draw my newest ideas. If His Majesty truly wishes for a banquet that lasts for seven days, there needs to be a different dress for each day. Rest assured that I will make all of them as gorgeous as possible.” It seemed like the tailor was as excited about this as the emperor.
Theodore didn't even question that idea and happily agreed. “Thank you for your hard work, Madame Charture. I will inform you if I have any special wishes. For now, just prepare as many wonderful ideas as you can. We'll use as many as possible.”
Apparently, Blanche was the only one here that worried about the consequences of their actions. She would definitely not have a chance to convince her lover to change his mind, so she could just give up before even addressing it. She would just need to go along with this and try to brace for the outcry that would develop once the emperor began realizing his plans. For now, it seemed like her birthday would become a stressful event, but she couldn't prevent that, so worrying didn't help. She just watched the two others beaming about the ideas they had in their minds.
Theodore met her gaze and took her hand. “Don't be so concerned. I will make sure that it won't be too much for us. There is still a lot of time before our next event will arrive. You will look beautiful in that dress.”
Madame Charture vigorously nodded. “The sketches are gorgeous enough, and the final result will be even more wonderful. I will finish it as soon as possible.” Directly after saying that, she returned to staring at her notebook and drew even more things onto her paper.
The emperor grinned at that. “I see. We look forward to inspecting the result. Do your best. We will leave for now.”
The tailor muttered a quiet “Goodbye” without looking up. Apparently, she was so absorbed that she didn't even hear anything else.
Blanche still addressed her once more. “Thank you for your assistance. Have a nice day, Madame Charture.” She received a muttered reply that she barely understood, but she didn't mind much.
Theodore slowly guided his lover out of the room and shut the door behind them before turning to her. “I know that you dislike it when too many guests are there, but I promise that everything will be fine. There is no way that anything bad could happen. There will be as many guards as possible, and I won't allow anyone to cause trouble.”
Blanche squeezed his hand while they began walking in the direction of the office with Owen and Stella trailing behind them. “I know. That's not what I worry about. I will have to get used to being in front of a lot of people anyway if I want to be your wife. So, I just need to force myself to appear in public for a while. It will be fine at some point.” She gave him a small smile while leaning against him. “I just wish that specific people wouldn't be present, but we can't do much about that.”
Her lover paused for a moment, and a smirk graced his lips. “Maybe. But we can show them how unhappy we are about their presence. I should have told you already, but I thought that keeping it a surprise a bit longer would be good. I made sure to frustrate the dowager empress and her followers a lot in the past weeks. The trial against Duke Vasquez revealed some of his crimes, and he will have to close a few of his stores. Naturally, I was unable to damage my dear brother directly, but I think his mood will be quite sour right now. That was some sort of revenge for what he did when he came here. It's not much, but it will be enough for him to understand.”
Blanche felt like she shouldn't be this petty, but she began grinning upon hearing that. “Thank you. Anything that trims that person's arrogance is very much welcome. I would love to know what you did.”
“Nothing big, of course. Just some smaller things. Like making sure that their followers are being investigated. It's surprising to see how many of them committed fraud and tax evasion. We can ask them to pay back a hefty sum as compensation or send them to prison. In any case, it will lower their reputation and take away some of their wealth. I will be happy to connect all of those crimes to their leader later. I also exchanged a few servants in the mansion in which my beloved family is residing. Those are the most loyal people I could find, and they come up with some very interesting methods to annoy someone without being found guilty. It's amusing to hear what they did. But the most frustrating thing must be me getting rid of some of their more special followers. The people without a noble title that do the dirty work. Most of them are already in prison or moved on to their next life. With every day, their forces and sources of income are declining. It's a satisfying feeling to see how all of this develops.”
Blanche replied with a smirk. “I can imagine that. They are in need of some education. Maybe they'll understand that you are the most powerful person here in a while and give up at some point. Wouldn't that be for the best?”
Theodore sighed quietly at that. “It would. Unfortunately, ignorance cannot always be cured by experience. I don't expect them to give up any time soon. The dowager empress only lives for revenge, so how could she admit defeat? It would be wonderful if they just left. Cedar might do that when he knows that he will lose and gets too frustrated. He just does all of this for his mother anyway. I bet he wouldn't care for the throne if she wasn't here. But the dowager empress will never be satisfied as long as I am alive and well while governing Artias.”
They reached the office, and Blanche used that chance to wrap her arms around her lover. “That's unpleasant. But you will win. No matter what, they have no chance of defeating us. I will be by your side until everything is over.”
Theodore returned the hug and pressed a kiss onto her forehead. “Not just until then, please. I need you until the day I die. So, let me pamper you with everything I have.”
The concubine enjoyed him patting her head and nuzzled her face into his chest. “I will. Only if you let me indulge you in return though.” She slowly lifted her head to look up at him. “Don't overdo it. I know that you only spend a few hours working, but you shouldn't attempt to reach too much in too little time anyway. Take it slow.”
Her lover leaned down to put the tip of his nose against hers. “Of course. If I wanted to hurry, this would be over already. But as I said, I want to do this without spilling blood while being thorough. I'm not sure if that will work out well, but I'll try my best. Sometimes, it may be a bit exhausting, but I'm holding back. Nothing out of the ordinary will happen before Northern Ocrea's prince comes. As long as you are here to cuddle with me after work, I will be fine.” Slowly, he separated himself from her, not without lifting her hand to his mouth and kissing her. “Use your few minutes without me. I will return to cling to you in a moment.”
Blanche felt a smile tug at her lips. “Don't make me wait for too long. Don't you know that two hours without you will stress me way too much? Leon isn't here today either, so I will have to spend my time choosing something to do myself. How awful. Have a relaxing day.”
Theodore let go of her hand as he moved back to the door of his office. “Don't worry, my angel. I will search for you as soon as I'm finished. Enjoy yourself.” He moved inside while blowing a kiss to her.
She pretended to catch it and sent one back. She watched him receive the kiss in return before he disappeared into his office. The concubine barely dared to look to the sides to check what the guards thought about this cheesy display, so she spun around to face her maid and knight. “Well then. What should we do today?”
Stella put her hands on her hips while showing her a slightly dejected expression. “I would suggest going to the garden again since we tried that last time but didn't get very far. But I have the sneaking suspicion that something will keep us from enjoying the sun again. I think I heard someone saying that it will rain later.”
Blanche gazed at the windows, but the cloudy sky didn't give her much of a clue. “We could try it anyway. If it starts, we will just go inside again and make a cake or something like that. I want to go out soon too. It's been a while. As long as we don't run into any unwanted visitors again, it will be fine. Let's try.” She turned to the hallway that led to the foyer while purposefully avoiding eye contact with the knights by the office, with Owen and Stella joining her.
The group reached the entrance hall without any interruptions, only to find a small crowd in the center of the room. The concubine stopped by the railing at the top to look down and watched how the servants were trying to lower the chandelier. Apparently, that didn't work very well since the joints that held the ropes appeared to be refusing to work correctly.
For a while, she just observed how the group downstairs struggled before turning to her maid. “This is the first time I've seen them do that. Why are they getting the chandelier down? Will they replace it? That would be a shame. It's so pretty.” Even though getting a lighter one that might not crush anyone below it if it fell would be better.
Stella shook her head with a little smile on her lips. “You don't have to worry. Everyone here thinks that it's pretty. It's been here ever since the previous emperor's coronation. That's why the glass has to be washed with some water so that it will twinkle again. Once a year, they clean it. Normally, doing it more often would be better, but as you can see, there are some issues. Someone should really take care of the holding system. It's stable but almost a decade old.”
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Blanche glanced at the joints keeping the chandelier in place. “They do look rusty. Then why aren't people taking care of that?”
The maid shrugged. “As I said, it's stable. As long as it won't fall, no one cares much. Everyone just looks at the chandelier and not at the surrounding ropes.”
The concubine looked around for a moment. Multiple joints kept the ropes in place, and despite it seeming stable, her mind immediately came up with images of the chandelier crashing down. Maybe she just was too cautious. “I see. It might be best to check the ropes though. I feel like they might tear if they get too old, and that would be troublesome. I think I'll remind Theo later.” She paused for a few seconds before taking her hands off the railing and turning to her maid again. “Then let us go. We don't need to pressure them even more by watching how they struggle-” She cut herself off when she saw the wall beside her.
There was a portrait hanging there. That was normal since the emperor and the empress' painting would always be displayed in the foyer until the next royal couple took over. Then that portrait would be moved to the gallery of ancestors.
Blanche would know. She had fought about this with her lover once after demanding to be in the painting of him and his wife. After gaining the novel's memories and understanding how stupid that request had been, she had forgotten about it. At least until Theodore had surprised her by asking a talented painter to make a portrait of the couple. The result had been the most breathtaking painting imaginable. It was hanging in her lover's office and had been there ever since it had been drawn. At least the concubine had believed that.
But the picture in front of her was unmistakably the one of Blanche and Theodore.
Blanche blinked at the portrait a few times in hopes that her eyes were betraying her, but that wasn't the case. Even after stepping closer, she didn't see anything but the beautiful painting of her sitting on a chair with her lover standing behind her. Both of them had beamed at the painter so that the whole canvas seemed to be full of joy while also being terrifyingly realistic. Why was this here?
The concubine almost pressed her nose against the painting and carefully ran her fingers over the golden frame. It didn't make any sense for this to hang here when Theodore had wanted it in his office. Her mouth opened, but the words were stuck in her throat. She slowly turned to her maid while pointing to the portrait. “I'm not imagining it, am I? This is...the picture from his office.”
Stella didn't seem nearly as irritated as her mistress. She was surprised but in a pleasant way. “It is! It's gorgeous. I never had the time to look at it for long, but it's truly wonderful. It's strange that we never saw it here before though.”
The concubine gazed at her maid in disbelief. “Because it's from Theo's office. What is this doing here? People aren't supposed to see, you know? I mean, that is why we put it in the office in the first place. So that he can look at it whenever he wants while most guests won't see it. But here... Why did he even move it? He loved the original position.”
Stella began beaming at that. “Maybe he wanted everyone to know. He changed his mind about keeping your relationship a secret, so he doesn't have to hide such a masterpiece from the public. Why did no one tell us about this yet? I can't believe this didn't cause rumors that spread among the servants. I was sure that I would be aware of everything that is happening here because of their nosiness. Now that won't even help me anymore. How disappointing. But, well.”
To Blanche, it was unbelievable that her maid was so happy about this. There clearly was an issue here. “Stella. This isn't somewhere Theo can flaunt his relationship at. This spot is for the portrait of the emperor and the empress. That was the picture that hung here before. Where is it?” She took a step back while letting her eyes roam across the walls.
Her heart almost skipped a beat when she found the painting on the other side of the door. Surely, it was still here in the entrance hall, where it belonged, but it wasn't in the center anymore. From downstairs, one would see the portrait of the concubine first.
That was horrible.
Blanche almost started panicking as she considered whether she should run to Theodore and ask him what had happened immediately. There was no way that he had purposefully asked someone to do this. Some servant had to have made a bad joke. Or... She glanced at Owen.
The knight wasn't surprised at all. That could just mean that no one was fooling the emperor.
Upon thinking about it further, it was likely that this was indeed Theodore's work after all. Blanche couldn't let that slip. She spun around and intended to storm to her lover's office again.
Stella called after her. “My Lady, wait! Where are you going?”
The concubine replied while rushing around the corner. “I'm asking Theo to change it back!” She had to admit that she hadn't paid attention to her steps, but she was still shocked when someone appeared directly in front of her. She jumped back at the last moment to prevent the collision. When she recognized the other party, she was even more glad to have managed to do that.
Before her, one of the empress' maids stood. The woman stumbled back a bit while her surprise quickly got replayed with annoyance. Unfortunately, she wasn't alone.
“Did you hurt yourself?” Seraphina's voice sounded from behind her.
The attendant stepped to the side to reveal the empress and her other maid while seeming rather unhappy. “I'm fine, Your Majesty. There was only an unexpected...obstacle.”
Blanche almost rolled her eyes. She had given her best to avoid a collision, and now she was being glared at for that. But just lowered her head and made a curtsy.
Behind her, footsteps sounded as Stella caught up with her. “My Lady, what-” The maid interrupted herself when she saw the people around the corner. Then she bowed. Her expression probably didn't seem happy right now, but the concubine couldn't tell since she looked down.
Seraphina waited until no one tried to speak up anymore before opening her mouth. “Good day, Lady Blanche. You seem to be in a hurry. Did something special occur?”
“Good day, Your Majesty.” Blanche straightened her posture while trying to weigh up her options. Either she could lie and pray that the empress wouldn't notice the painting while passing by. Or she could tell the truth and risk getting some unpleasant comments from the other woman. In the end, there wasn't much of a choice. She wasn't to blame for this, but she could get in trouble for lying. The heroine in the novel had been able to tell when someone was lying easily. Since the concubine's expression was like an open book, Seraphina would notice immediately.
Still, it made Blanche uncomfortable to tell the empress about this issue. This certainly would cause another fight with the emperor, and none of them needed that. “I...uhm...” She forced herself to describe the situation without naming any details. “I just saw something strange in the foyer, and I wanted to ask Theo about it. There is no need for Your Majesty to worry. I'm sure that everything will be fine in a moment. I will just have to leave for a bit.”
Seraphina's response destroyed her hopes of disappearing without the heroine learning about the truth. “Is this perhaps about the painting? You were not aware until now?”
Blanche froze at that and pressed her mouth into a line while nodding. When she processed the latter part, her gaze snapped up again. “Your Majesty was aware?”
“Naturally. This issue has been a topic for the past two weeks. Unfortunately, there was no way for me to voice my complaints more than once. When I asked His Majesty to perhaps exchange the two paintings, he refused. I am doubtful about him listening to you regarding this matter.”
The concubine felt her blood drain from her face. “So, Theo knew about this?” Of course, he did. She held back a sigh and resisted the urge to bury her face in her hands. What was her lover doing?
It was nice that Seraphina was so calm now because she had known before, but that was about the only good thing about this. Why was Theodore acting like this? Was he purposefully trying to upset the empress? If so, he surely had brilliant ideas. The only issue was that angering that woman wasn't much of a good idea in itself.
Seraphina replied without letting her face show her emotions. “Indeed. He was the one asking for a copy of the portrait so that he could hang it in two places.” That made it even worse.
Blanche had to hold back from biting her tongue. So, Theodore was petty enough to want to frustrate the empress without wishing to give up the painting he liked so much? Apparently, he was truly stressed right now. What good would it do for him when the Duremonts would hate him after this? At this point, it was surprising that Seraphina even put up with this. Blanche didn't know what to say about this. She bowed her head slightly. “I...I apologize, Your Majesty. This issue is unfavorable...” It was unpleasant for everyone here.
Seraphina's voice made her look up again. “Did you ask him to hang your picture here?”
The concubine immediately hurried to shake her head. “No, I did not, Your Majesty! I would never dare!”
“Then do not apologize. There is nothing worse than people feeling responsible for others' actions. It will not do you any good if you act like it is fine for others to criticize you because of His Majesty's decisions. While I am upset, I will blame the person that made this choice and not someone that was not involved.”
Blanche was a bit shocked at how calmly the heroine had said all of that. It seemed like Seraphina truly managed to control her emotions well as long as she wasn't faced with a person that tended to provoke her, like Theodore. The concubine was a bit relieved at that. “Thank you, Your Majesty.” Maybe she would be able to leave now without any further discussion. She could just go to her lover and inquire about why he had done this and end the day without having caused a huge fight. “Then-”
“It was a fitting coincidence that we met each other here. If you do not mind, I would like to have a conversation with you in private. There is something I wish to talk about with you. There does not happen to be anything that would require your immediate presence, correct?”
And immediately, Blanche's hopes were ruined again. It took all of her self-control to not let her face fall. “There is not. I do not have anything to do and do not mind conversing with you, Your Majesty. Please lead the way.” If she had even the simplest task planned for today, she would have used some sort of excuse to avoid the other woman immediately. After the last weeks with Theodore provoking his wife and refusing to see her, the empress had to be in a horrible mood. The concubine didn't really want to deal with that.
But unfortunately, wanting to take a walk was no reasonable excuse. Blanche would have to go into the lion's den without a clue what could be expected of her. Hopefully, it would just be another reminder to not dare to disrespect the most powerful woman in the nation.
Seraphina nodded, still without revealing any of her true intentions. “Very well then. Please follow me.” She turned around and strode forward as gracefully as always.
Blanche did her best not to sigh and slouch her shoulders as she followed the empress. She ignored the burning glare of the empress' attendants in favor of staring straight ahead to not accidentally bump into the heroine if they suddenly stopped. She followed the other woman to the other side of the building into a corridor that was next to Theodore's office.
It took her a moment to realize that they would enter Seraphina's office. Blanche had never been inside here, so she would be lying if she said that she wasn't curious. Still, the sense of underlying tension in the air that made her skin tingle outweighed that feeling. Being alone with Seraphina always made her hairs stand on ends for some reason. She could just hope that this would be over quickly without too many issues. After all, Owen would be with her, so she should be safe no matter what.
Seraphina let a guard open the door for her before going inside. The office looked like a simplified and smaller version of the emperor's with a desk standing by the window front. The left side of the room was covered with bookshelves and countless cabinets with folders inside them. Everything was sorted neatly with the colors matching and not a single book lying around. The desk was as tidy as the rest of the chamber, which created a stark contrast to Theodore's normally unsorted table. The right side of the room was similar to a seating room with two sofas facing each other and a little table in between them.
The room was neat, but Blanche was still about to panic. This conversation would be unpleasant, wouldn't it?