“As a member of royalty, you need to maintain some dignity at all times. I do not expect perfection since I believe that to be impossible. However, things like common knowledge, education about etiquette and the basics of politics, history and economy are crucial. Along with controlling your facial expressions. You will need to show the nobles of lower rank that they cannot dare to defy the royal family no matter what. If you cower under someone's gaze, that won't do.”
Blanche had been aware of that to some extent. Theoretically, she knew that being royal carried a lot of responsibility and pressure, but she had only pondered about being her lover's wife and representing him in public and not much more. She had had a few lessons with Leon almost daily, but it was unclear whether that would be enough. After all, being the emperor's wife meant that she couldn't embarrass Theodore in any field. “I understand, Your Majesty. I will ask Leon to give me more lessons.” Maybe they could use two hours a day instead of just one. She might not have a chance to bake then, but preparing for the future was more important.
Seraphina seemed slightly surprised at this. “You are attending lessons with Lord Astame? What did he discuss with you?”
Blanche nodded while fiddling with her hands. It would be embarrassing to admit what simple things they had dealt with when the empress in front of her was absolutely perfect. “Well, everything that you mentioned. Only that we aren't doing it in a very professional manner. He just explains things to me, and we have a conversation about it. I can ask questions or introduce my own opinion. It's rather simple, and we don't use the fancy words that probably describe all of this better. I think I understand the gist of most things. History is the topic that I have the most issues with. I just don't remember dates well. It's not much, but I can just estimate when some wars were or when some nations were founded. I think etiquette is going well since I'm most familiar with this matter, but theory is always different from reality.”
Seraphina leaned against the backrest. “I see. It should have been to be expected. Lord Astame should be capable.” Her expression was a bit darker now, which worried the concubine.
Had Blanche said anything wrong? Hopefully not. She wasn't prepared for stressful discussions now. She replied with an uncertain voice. “Uhm...yes. I believe that he is quite intelligent. He is Theo's advisor, so that would make sense.”
Thankfully, the empress' face neutralized again. “Naturally. Did you ever speak about politics with His Majesty?”
That question surprised Blanche, but she just replied normally. “Occasionally. He brings up things he is working on, and if I know something about it, we can discuss it a bit. He has more experience than me though. So, my comments might not always be useful or accurate. They might even be a bit...too simple-minded.”
The heroine's reply came immediately. As she spoke, she had stared at the cup in front of her, which ended up making it seem like she was mentally absent. “As long as you are learning, voicing new ideas and thoughts can never be stupid if that is what you were referring to. It also seems like you are more advanced in your education than I believed you to be. You should not treat your own stance as inferior because of your age, gender, rank or experience. People always learn new things, and especially those with controversial views can change the way that the world works. We will only evolve through new ideas. You seem to be awfully modest about your opinion.”
Blanche had been told that she wasn't too intelligent often, and she certainly agreed that she wasn't special when it came to her education. She simply couldn't compare to experienced people in this regard, and that was a fact. “Well, it is true that I never meddled with such matters before.”
Seraphina lifted her gaze to Blanche now. “I heard that you reformed the law with a careless thought that you just voiced once. That is very impressive. It was an interesting approach that I would never have chosen, but thanks to that, His Majesty's workload significantly decreased.” That was a lie though. She had certainly thought about this too since she should have proposed this without the concubine's interference. Seraphina acted like that wasn't the case. “Thus, he is able to focus on the more complex issues and even managed to prevent a war with Northern Ocrea. And despite the ministers thinking that they are much more powerful now, His Majesty is still in control of every little decision. I never believed that that would be possible.”
Blanche almost wanted to apologize. The empress was the person that had originally had this idea, and she had merely stolen it. She was sick of people praising her for something that wasn't her own accomplishment. “To be honest, I just said that it was unfair that all the ministers did was reject Theodore's laws. That was while we rode to the jeweler to buy the present for your birthday. Theo was drowning in work back then, and I hated seeing him endanger his health. So, I told Leon that the ministers should do more without taking away power from the emperor. That wasn't very intelligent or special. I just saw that Theo was drained from work and wanted him to have more free time.”
Seraphina nodded to herself. “That may be true, but you did tell a person that is in charge of designing new laws along with the emperor about it. You certainly had the intention to change something, and you thought about how to reach your goal. There isn't anything to be embarrassed about regarding that matter. My father refused to believe that you came up with it for quite a long time, but it seems like you truly were the one.”
That wasn't really true, but Blanche had no way to refute it. She just gave in and nodded while mentally apologizing for stealing the other woman's idea. “That conversation did happen. I didn't believe that Theo would make it into a law, but at least it helped him in some way. I'm happy just with that.”
Seraphina was silent for a moment before responding. “In any case, it was good that you voiced that idea. Thanks to that, everything has been going smoothly. In a month, the crown prince of Northern Ocrea will arrive. For decades, we have been on the verge of war with them. That His Majesty managed to convince him to come here was a miracle. This is a truly important meeting for the whole nation. It may change the relations between the factions within the continent of Eswen immensely.” The empress stared right into the concubine's eyes while resuming. “That is exactly why I believe that there will be issues. Some people in the capital would love to see His Majesty's fall, and they will do whatever it takes. I doubt that His Royal Highness would be involved in such schemes since he wishes to take over the throne and needs a functioning nation for that. A war would be disadvantageous for him. But I am unsure whether there aren't other people that are a bit more ruthless. I fear that there may be someone that wishes for power and won't care about what happens in the process.”
Blanche felt her throat dry when she heard that. “But who would actually risk a war? Ocrea is powerful, and the territories by the border are covered with mountains that would make it hard to fight. Waging war may ruin us completely.” In the novel, that hadn't happened, but Artias had suffered greatly anyway.
“If I knew, I would tell you, believe me. I only know that there are people that are plotting to do something that no one here would find pleasant. I suspect that it may be someone influential in the capital, but it's too early to decide anything. Though I have not been able to find anything specific yet, my initial thought is usually rather accurate. Keep your guard up.”
The concubine nodded at that. “I will.” The thought of someone actually risking a nation's prosperity and hundred-thousand lives just to satisfy their greed was disturbing. Who could be so cruel? She pondered that for a moment while going through the faces of the people around her in her mind. She paused when she remembered how Theodore had prevented an escalation. The messenger, who had been executed by now, had smuggled false letters to the rulers of both nations. Apparently, that person had been hired by someone. Maybe this was related to the people that worried the empress.
Blanche thought about speaking up but remained uncertain. This was an extremely important topic, so she couldn't just tell anyone. But on the other hand, she knew that Seraphina, if anything, was absolutely loyal to Artias. If the heroine could use this information to find out something, it would be beneficial for both of them. Seraphina should use her skills to research about their enemies instead of focusing on Blanche's past in general. So, the concubine opened her mouth. “Theo actually worried about something similar.”
Immediately, the empress was glued to the other woman's lips. “Would you inform me of that? What was his reasoning?”
Blanche hurriedly began to narrate what she remembered without giving away anything that might cause trouble in the worst case. “The reason for the conflict with Ocrea was that someone exchanged the letters between our rulers, which Theo already mentioned during the last tea party. That person wrote much more hostile and aggressive things than the rulers had originally planned on sending. The messenger that brought the letters to Ocrea and back here was bribed by an unknown person. He went to some inn here in Artias before and after each visit to the palace and took the falsified letters someone had given him by new people each time. He was already punished accordingly, but the person that bribed him and wrote the falsified letters wasn't anywhere to be found. They must still be out there.”
Seraphina brought her hand to her chin and got lost in thoughts for a moment. It was strange how she could look so elegant while furrowing her brows and pondering obviously unpleasant matters. She only spoke up after a while. “I understand. Thank you for telling me. I heard something vague about that, but His Majesty did not believe it to be necessary to inform me of the details. This will be helpful. It proves that our opponent is wealthy enough to bribe at least a dozen people with so much money that those pawns would risk being put on trial for treason and ignore that Artias may go to war. That they can influence so many without batting an eye means that they are extremely prosperous. I would assume that they need to have the rank of an influential noble or be a very successful merchant. The first option is more likely and fits together with what I am researching. At least if my guess is correct. We will see. I will continue to give my best to find out who may be behind this.”
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
The heroine was probably the most intelligent person in the novel, so it would be calming if she took care of this matter. Hopefully, she would be successful, even though all of this went much further than what the book had covered, which indicated that Seraphina might not be able to get behind this so quickly.
Blanche still encouraged her. “Thank you. I hope that you will find something that can help us. We need to prevent anything problematic from happening when the crown prince arrives.”
Seraphina nodded. “The whole situation will be tense. If anything bad occurred, we would be blamed by the Ocrean king. So, the security measurements have to be as high as possible. Nothing can enter or leave the royal estate without permission. I fear that the dowager empress and the second prince may cause issues though. We should warn our visitor.”
Blanche thought back to her conversation with her lover again. Hadn't he mentioned something about a sibling of the crown prince? “I think Theo did so already. I'm not sure, but I remember him saying something about Ocrea's prince having a sister with whom he fights for the throne. Apparently, that caused him to trust that Theodore's brother may have vile intentions as well.”
The empress nodded to herself again. “That is calming. I only need to make sure that I read more about that topic before he arrives. We still have a month. Our enemies have plenty of time to prepare, but we do too. I will have to come to a conclusion soon.” With that, she rose to her feet and turned to her maid. “Please prepare the same books as always.”
Blanche took that as a sign that she wasn't needed here anymore. She stood up as well. “Then, I do not wish to disturb you any longer, Your Majesty. If you give me permission, I will take my leave now.”
Seraphina faced the concubine again. “You may. It was a pleasant conversation. Have a nice afternoon, Lady Blanche.”
The concubine lowered her head for a moment. “Thank you. May you have an enjoyable day too, Your Majesty.” She walked to the door while trying her best not to end the otherwise acceptable interaction by doing something embarrassing. She hadn't even reached the entrance when the other woman spoke up again though.
“There is one more thing I would like to mention.”
Blanche turned around. “Yes, Your Majesty?”
Seraphina's expression had become even more serious now. She almost looked a bit angry. “This is of utmost importance, so please do listen. I believe that the person that is doing their best to bring war to our nation is also the one that has been influencing the incidents in the palace occasionally. The biggest problem is that I doubt that they have any chance to succeed, but they are willing to destroy everything in an attempt to grasp power. Whether they win or lose, they don't mind sacrificing others. But of course, they are trying to win. And I suspect that they may try to use you in some way to reach their goal. Please be careful.”
Blanche felt a shudder run down her spine as she heard that. She nodded slowly while trying to come up with a way that she could accidentally help a person gain power. There wasn't anything, right? As long as she kept her guard up, it should be fine. She could not help anyone by doing nothing. She didn't have enough power to be used like that. “I will be careful. Thank you for the warning.”
The conversation seemed to be ended with that.
The concubine stepped out into the hallway and took a deep breath. Her head felt like she was spinning. There were too many things that filled her mind right now. She hadn't heard too many new things, but she felt like some of those were still extremely important to her. She looked forward to falling into her lover's arms in an hour. That would definitely help her calm down.
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Theodore came out of his office as soon as the two hours were over. Blanche gave him an extensive summary of the conversation she had had with the empress, and most of his reactions were exactly as she had expected them to be.
Her lover refused to move the painting away and claimed that everyone should see such a masterpiece. He argued that they didn't need to hide it anymore since everyone knew about them now and that he would still keep the original in his office while the copy adorned the foyer.
After Blanche began explaining what had happened after her meeting with the empress, he told her to be careful around Seraphina again while using rather harsh words towards his wife. He reminded her that Blanche didn't need anyone's support to become a member of the royal family and that their child would be fine without Duke Duremont. He didn't deny that he hated the empress and only noted that he was surprised that that woman had been able to read the mood. That certainly sounded like he wasn't too fond of his wife.
When Blanche mentioned the part about the threat that was currently still unknown, he began thinking and seemingly didn't come to a conclusion. He only decided that they would be extremely cautious with Crown Prince Linden here and that they couldn't take any risks.
He didn't just say that either. The next weeks made it extremely clear that he wasn't joking when he said that no risk should remain.
The guards searched every nook of the royal estate for possible dangers, and the number of patrols had been increased once again. As always, the servants were working hard to prepare for the prince's arrival. Everyone here knew how important the contact with Northern Ocrea was, so everyone seemed to be eager to do their best.
The facade of the palace was decorated, and the guest rooms for the prince and his companions were prepared with great care. The cooks were planning what to create on which day and tried to find out whether there was some dish from Ocrea they could imitate. The gardeners also put in more effort, and both the steward and Gloria ran around with instructions the whole time. Everyone had something to do during those hectic preparations.
Seeing that almost would have made Blanche stressed too, but thanks to her lover, that was impossible. Theodore was as calm as ever as if he wouldn't have a diplomatic meeting that could change the future of the nation and the whole continent forever. Even the concubine was taken aback by that. Whenever she thought about the meeting, she got nervous, even though she wouldn't be involved in the diplomatic discussions at all. She was scared of making some small mistake that would offend the crown prince and possibly ruin the possibility of the nations getting along. Her lover calmed her whenever she mentioned that. He was sure that the prince was a very reasonable person and that everything would go according to the plan since their guest had been warned about Camille and Cedar.
So, Blanche pushed all the scenarios of how she could ruin the discussion out of her mind. She didn't have much time to think about that altogether though.
Theodore made sure to busy her with enough other things and pampered her as much as ever. She was almost drowning in gifts and affection, and she adored every single second of it. Even if the great number of presents worried her, she had no chance of refusing them when each of them was wonderful.
The days passed without any issues, except for the stress that the servants put themselves under.
There was nothing the concubine could complain about. As the emperor had predicted, Cedar didn't show up once, and Camille kept quiet too. The trials that moved in the background had progressed so that the members of the enemies' faction slowly lost some of their wealth and influence. Some of them had even been stripped of their title.
Only the process regarding the Vasquez family seemed to remain at the same point. No matter how many times one convicted them of fraud and tax evasion, they always blamed the vendors of their stores, and no evidence was there to go against that claim.
On the other hand, another trial had come to the desired conclusion. Evelyn had, unsurprisingly, been sentenced to a lifetime in prison, as Blanche had heard from Seraphina. The concubine didn't have any details though and just focused on her daily routine while wishing that woman the worst.
The lessons with Leon were as interesting as before and only seemed to become much more exciting each time. They slowly moved on to more complex topics that actually could be applied to the political decisions Theodore had to make every day. Thankfully, Leonard didn't ask her to read any books, even if he admitted that he had spent a lot of time working with them. He often summarized the chapters for her and encouraged her to discuss the subjects with him in a relaxed manner. The concubine didn't dream of saying that she knew a lot about politics now, but she felt more and more educated as time passed. Especially since Theodore began chatting about the laws he was currently working on each day so that she at least knew which issues were most important at the moment.
Blanche was rather happy with their situation. The only problem that was left was the portrait in the entrance hall. Her lover still refused to move it even when she had asked him a second time a week later. Afterward, she had dropped the topic, which had made her feel a bit guilty when she met Seraphina again.
Luckily, the empress wasn't mad at her though. The heroine was rather friendly at the moment despite keeping her stoic expression on at all times. That was obviously relieving, but at the same time, Blanche got tenser each day they coincidentally ran into each other.
Whenever she met the empress, the other woman invited her into her office for a few minutes. Then Seraphina asked questions about current political topics and waited for a response. When the concubine knew the answer, the heroine seemed oddly content, and otherwise, she explained it properly. Seraphina might also use this to find out a bit about what Theodore was doing since he didn't tell her anything personally, but that might not be the main reason. It was odd.
On the one hand, it was pleasant to have a calm conversation with the other woman, but Blanche couldn't help herself from being slightly confused by all of this. She had asked once and only received the reply that Seraphina needed to protect the honor of the royal family. The concubine chose not to see that as an insult and didn't address the topic ever again. After a few minutes, Blanche was always released and was as irritated as before as she returned to doing whatever she had planned. She didn't quite believe that the empress liked her now. Even if the heroine was always polite, one of the woman's attendants still glared with as much hatred as before. The other maid seemed to have calmed down a bit, but there wasn't any sympathy there either.
Like before, Blanche couldn't calm down whenever Seraphina was in the same room, so their meetings didn't fill her with joy. The concubine didn't bother to try to read Seraphina's mind though and just accepted the conversations. She used them as a way to go through the contents of her lessons again and just hoped that the repetitions would make it easier for her to memorize all of this.
Theodore was less happy about it. He always wanted her to retell what the other women had spoken about and seemed oddly relieved when he heard that they had just talked about politics. Still, he explicitly told Blanche not to trust his wife and reminded Owen to be careful around the empress. Apparently, the relationship between him and Seraphina was worse than anyone could have known. He was fully and utterly convinced that the empress was a manipulative and cold-hearted person that would sacrifice everything to reach her goal. He even mentioned they should be careful in case the empress tried to drug someone.
The concubine didn't know what to think about that, but she didn't even try to discuss it with Theodore. She rather promised to be careful about Seraphina before she waited until he was done and pulled her into his arms. Despite his dissatisfaction with his wife, he was still as affectionate as always with his lover, and she enjoyed that whenever she could.
Like this, the days passed by, and time seemed to move much quicker than anyone could have anticipated.
It felt like nothing had happened, and still, the day of the crown prince's arrival came.