The couple ended up sitting there together for a while as Blanche tried not to get emotional while sharing her citrus pie with blueberries with Theodore. Her lover did his best to console her, and luckily, that worked out quite well. Blanche quickly had to laugh at his stupid jokes and didn't focus on her grief for her deceased family anymore. When she finally looked at the clock, she hurriedly decided that they had to get ready now.

As the concubine had expected, her lover still didn't give up on hugging her, which made dressing up rather difficult. Especially when he tried to coax her into wearing a blue gown with golden accessories again. She refused countless times and used the excuse of her still needing to wear the second purple dress he had given her for their anniversary along with her butterfly ornament. The gown with black tulle and countless small butterflies sitting in the skirt was a bit too fancy for a small tea party, but at least those weren't the royal colors.

Theodore still couldn't help doing something that would cause people to wrinkle their noses at them. He chose the white uniform again and managed to retrieve a purple sash from somewhere, which meant that he would match more with his lover's attire than with his wife's. That was almost normal now after the countless events during the last weeks, so Blanche could only hope that no one paid special attention to it.

In the end, they managed to get ready despite their discussions and their desire to cuddle more and arrived at the ballroom in time. From the balcony, one could already see that the terrace with the buffet and the grand table was empty still.

Blanche took a moment to count the chairs and paused. “There are four people within the palace that will attend. The dowager empress and Cedar will come too. And then the Duremonts with three people, the Lamonts with two and the Vasquez family with three. There are only thirteen chairs though. That is one too little.”

Theodore rested his arm on the railing while gazing down at the servants that were hurrying around. “No, it isn't. Did you forget me banning Duke Vasquez from the palace? He is going to show up here with our dear dowager empress to force me to accept it because he assumes that I don't want to cause trouble in front of the guest. But I don't care one bit. I will throw him out after reminding him that he will have to apologize to you if he ever wishes to attend a ball again. I believe that he will be a bit upset because I put him in prison, but I can deal with that. If he snaps again, I will provoke him until he attacks me and can use that as a chance to show him what making me angry means without anyone being able to interfere.” A small grin appeared on his lips while he said that, but his eyes showed a glint of fury. No one in their right mind would wish to provoke him.

Blanche scanned him from the side as she thought about her last meeting with Claude. “It's been a while. But I couldn't ever forget how angry he was back then. I still don't know why. It makes sense for him to be upset that I didn't follow their plan anymore, but that couldn't be why he blew up that quickly, right?” She sighed quietly. “A part of me doesn't even want to see how he'll try to find excuses. I know that it's stupid, but I had hoped that I would never meet him again.”

Theodore reached over to grab her hand and looked over at her. “Just a bit longer. Then you will never have to see him again. I fear that we have to live with him becoming angry again though. He will probably not react kindly to all of this, but I won't back down either. Whether this is related to their stupid plot or not, we will win. Shall we?” He squeezed her hand and waited for her to nod before he led her down the stairs.

It was strange to see so many servants attending no one since the guests weren't here yet. Blanche was used to coming later when everyone was there already. But now her lover already brought her to the table before anyone arrived and placed her on the seat on his left side. The concubine tried to argue that this was the empress' seat once, only to be met with a long lecture about how those rules were completely useless and way too old. She gave up after that and chose to stick to her lover's request. Hopefully, no one would point out that she was sitting on the wrong chair. Maybe she could also stand up when the guests came and make sure that Seraphina sat down before her. Then this problem could be avoided.

Unfortunately, the empress and Crown Prince Linden arrived a few minutes later. The heroine kept a straight expression at that display, which meant that she had probably expected it. She led the prince to the other short end of the table and sat down with him there without saying anything.

For a moment, all of them were quiet. Before anyone could try to make small talk, a servant announced that the guests had arrived. The four of them rose but didn't walk to the main gate to greet the others. Instead, the servants went to pick the guests up. It only took a few minutes until the three families arrived. The Duremonts and the Lamonts were walking together while the Vasquez family accompanied the dowager empress and the second prince.

As always, the two factions were recognizable way too quickly.

It had been a while until Blanche had seen the Vasquez household, but nothing much had changed. Claude was still smirking as arrogantly as always. Luciano tried the same, but he seemed to be a bit paler than before, much like his mother. Selena was smiling too, but her expression seemed to be a bit too stiff. Her rounded belly had disappeared after her child was born, but that was about the only thing that made her look different aside from her obvious skepticism about this meeting.

The group of people approached the table and everyone but the dowager empress bowed to the emperor.

Theodore greeted them with a polite smile that didn't reach his eyes. “I am very pleased to see that all of you arrived here without any issues. That you came here to honor us with your presence and greet our guest is wonderful. I would suggest that we deal with the introductions when we sit though. It will take a while, and it would be nice to have a cup of tea while doing that, correct? You may sit.” He gestured to the table before waiting until the first people made an attempt to sit down and spoke up again. “But there is one thing I would like to deal with first.”

The emperor offered his arm to Blanche, and even though she inwardly cowered, she took it and allowed him to escort them toward their enemies. She already knew that this would end catastrophically, so she did her best to keep her expression blank. They ignored the dowager empress and the prince, which made Camille glare at her son while Cedar tried to cheer her up by whispering to her.

The emperor only stopped when they were right in front of the Vasquez family. He imitated the taunting smirks the duke was showing him before speaking up. “Say, Blanche. Wasn't there something that caused some issues a while ago? If I remember correctly, you worried about someone getting senile. He got really upset about it back then, but it seems like his memory is truly in need of some treatment.”

Claude wasn't able to hide the glint of anger in his eyes. Still, he held on to his grin without speaking up. The emperor hadn't addressed him yet, so he couldn't respond.

Blanche took a moment to notice that she was supposed to reply, so she turned to her lover and looked up at him. “You are right. There was something there. I believe His Grace, the Duke of Duremont and His Grace, the Duke of Lamont would also know about it. One was present, and one received a generous promotion due to this incident. Owen should remember too.” She didn't know whether she had overdone it with this, so she glanced to the side to search for her guard.

Owen was only standing two steps behind them and had an expression on his face that almost could be described as a cold one. It seemed like his ability to restrain his emotions was limited when he met so many people who were threats to the emperor and the concubine at the same time.

Surprisingly, Theodore wasn't much better. But it was questionable whether he even tried hiding his anger. He still had a little smile on his lips, but his eyes spoke another language. “So then. I feel like enough people remember that occurrence clearly. Then please tell me why you seem to have trouble remembering that incident, Your Grace.”

Duke Vasquez could finally speak at that. His smile faded a bit while he met the other man's gaze. “How could I forget that day, Your Majesty? A rather big misunderstanding caused a lot of issues for me. Now it even seems like you are thinking badly of me because of that. I can assure you that it was never my intention to upset you though.”

The emperor let out a dry laugh. “Not your intention to upset me? Are you sure you phrased that correctly? I remember telling you that you are not to enter the royal palace unless you apologize to Blanche properly. Since you haven't seen her ever since then, that couldn't have happened. So, why are you here? Either you must truly be senile, which would mean that everything Blanche said was right and that you never had a reason to complain. Or you are purposefully making me angry. Both might not be good for your reputation or the trials you are facing right now. Please tell me an excuse that is supposed to make up for that. I doubt that you will be able to explain this.”

Claude's smirk widened. That couldn't mean anything good. “I sincerely apologize for disregarding your wishes. However, Her Majesty, the dowager empress invited me, and I could not-”

Theodore cut him off. “No.”

Duke Vasquez actually seemed to be a bit taken aback by that. “Pardon?”

The emperor's expression darkened. He spoke up in a more authoritarian tone while looking at the other man with disgust in his gaze. “I said no. First of all, nothing anyone tells you enables you to ignore my wishes. Nothing is more important than the emperor's word, and you just admitted to disregarding my orders purposefully. That doesn't mean anything good for you. And secondly, the dowager empress has no right to decide who enters my home. She currently resides in a manor in the back of the royal estate. That doesn't give her permission to freely invite people into the palace. Especially when she knows that I have some issues with said person.” He turned his gaze to the dowager empress and stared at her.

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Camille glared at him with hatred in her eyes. She looked like she was seconds away from snapping at her eldest son. She would probably have done that if Cedar wasn't holding onto her arm and pacifying her.

Theodore didn't seem to give up here though. He glanced at Claude before continuing. “Since you seem to be senile, it is understandable that you would forget about this kind of thing. But...” He ignored the other man's apparent rage upon hearing that to look at the dowager empress. “You aren't telling me that you are slowly forgetting about the rules in this nation too, right? This is not only related to ignoring the emperor's orders but also to common courtesy. You do not invite others into someone else's home. How will you justify that?”

Camille narrowed her eyes at him. “You could not have been more impudent. I am your mother, so you should show some respect.”

“Since you obviously don't respect my decisions either, I feel like I need to do the opposite in the future. I may have to be more strict.” Theodore gave the dowager empress a freezing stare. “You should agree with me dealing out punishments as it is my right as the emperor. Why are you acting behind my back and doing something that could be seen as the punishment being revoked?”

The dowager empress barely seemed to be able to contain her temper at that. “You-” She didn't come far.

Cedar put his hand on her shoulder and whispered something to her, which made her close her mouth again.

The hatred was still oozing out of Camille's speech and the way she acted, but she didn't look like she would insult Theodore anymore as she spoke up once more. “I only wished for a nice meeting with the most powerful people in the nation since it would be fair for our guest to meet all of them. In addition, ignoring our family members would be harsh. His Grace is your uncle. But the only reason I disregarded your decision is that I believed the matter not to be important enough to cause a fight about it. The issue is related to a duke saying something to a baroness and her complaining about it. I doubt that it is appropriate to punish him here.” Camille glanced over to the concubine, who just leaned against her lover and narrowed her eyes at the other woman. That caused Camille to add something. “Apparently, the concerned person still is unaware of the fact that she has to show respect to the royal family.”

Theodore sighed and replied in a tone that seemed exhausted at first but hid much more wrath behind that facade. “Apparently, another person doesn't remember that I asked Blanche not to bow to members of my family. Why would she ignore my request? Since you haven't been very nice to her, you should be happy that she wasn't bothered by your disrespect yet. After all, you were completely right with your previous sentence.” The one about respecting the royal family. “You should respect Blanche from now on.” He didn't say anything else, so the dowager empress didn't understand the innuendo, but Cedar did.

Cedar smirked at the couple, and the concubine was more relieved than ever to know that he couldn't speak up before being addressed. After all, he might reveal that there was a new engagement that could add a member of the royal family, and she didn't need more stress today.

Or had he shared the news already? His expression didn't give away much.

Blanche tightened her hold on her lover's arm as if that would protect them from the prince's intentions.

Theodore lifted his other hand and put it onto her hands while gently stroking over her skin with his thumb.

Camille wasn't happy about this little gesture and was even less content about her son's words. She glared at them with so much rage that it wouldn't be surprising if she suddenly had a heart attack. “You speak as if I would need to care about the opinion of a lowly baroness. Are you out of your mind?”

The emperor met her gaze without cowering, even though it looked like that woman wanted to murder him. “If I am correct, being a member of the royal family does not permit you to disrespect anyone around you. If you attack Blanche, it won't do you any good. It is only logical that people will begin to worry about your manners if you keep picking on an innocent young woman while criticizing the emperor. I feel like you should rethink that. But enough of that. We were focused on another issue.” He turned to Duke Vasquez without bothering to fake a smile. “I must ask you to leave now.”

Claude certainly seemed to be surprised by that, which was strange in itself. Theodore had banned him from entering the palace, and he had come anyway. What had he expected? “Your Majesty, is that not a bit harsh? That day is already in the past. It has been almost three months. We should see beyond that little misunderstanding.”

Theodore's behavior changed within a second. He didn't just seem slightly irritated anymore but furious. Anyone who saw this would remember how intimidating the emperor could be when he wanted to for a long time. “That misunderstanding was caused by you insulting my lover repeatedly and threatening her. I don't see how I could misunderstand that. When I addressed your insolence, you refused to listen to my orders and had to be removed from the palace by my personal guard. There is no way to excuse that. It seems like I wasn't clear before, but I can be as direct as you need me to be. You will either beg for her forgiveness or leave immediately before I send the knights to drag you out.”

Claude completely lost his grin at that. It was unclear whether this was because of the other's words or because Theodore had called Blanche his lover. He looked to the sides while checking whether anyone else was bothered by those words, but aside from his own family, no one was surprised. He appeared to become a bit more desperate at that. “You cannot be serious, Your Majesty. Doing something like this in front of our esteemed guest is disrespectful toward him and Northern Ocrea. You cannot insist on creating an uproar because of a small quarrel. I and Lady Blanche both said things that we did not mean, so I will not demand an apology either. It would be best to just forget about this matter.”

Blanche frowned at that comment and glared at the duke. She surely had been honest about everything she had said that day. After all, he had insulted Seraphina and tried to blame it on the concubine when another minister, who happened to be a friend of Duke Duremont, approached them. Then she had told him to stop and had been yelled at for that. She didn't quite understand what she had done to upset him that much, and that only served to increase her dismay. “I disagree.”

That response caught Claude off guard already, and it got even worse.

Theodore looked over at her to brush his fingers over the side of her face before he turned to the speechless duke. Seemingly, the Vasquez family wasn't used to seeing the emperor show his affection this openly in public, but they would learn that it had gotten much worse by now soon. Theodore gazed at him with a freezing look in his eyes before speaking up. “As you can hear, Blanche doesn't agree. And even if she did, you wish to tell me that I should ignore your insolence because we have a guest? Don't make me laugh. I can and will insist on this matter being dealt with seriously. Make your choice now.”

The decision should be clear from the very beginning. Claude would never bow to a baroness, so this option was unachievable. He would have to leave, but it was clear that he didn't wish to do so. He glanced from the emperor to the other guests and Linden before turning his head to Blanche. He had the nerve to address her. “Would it not be better if we collectively decide to forget about that incident? It might lead to a more pleasant outcome for both of us, Lady Blanche. I had a lot of stress due to my wife's pregnancy and was beside myself after the exhausting meeting with the ministers. I was already punished enough by my shame after losing my temper like that. So, we can just say that that day will be erased from our memories. What do you say, Lady Blanche?”

Blanche truly shouldn't be so brazen, but with Theodore at her side, she had no intention of holding back. She would not apologize for being threatened when she hadn't been at fault. She narrowed her eyes at Claude. “I fear that we do not remember the same conversation, Your Grace. You voiced things that would insult the royal family and Her Majesty. Afterward, I asked you whether you were feeling unwell and suggested you rest at home because I believed that you would never say such audacious things while thinking clearly. This caused you to accuse me of having insulted Her Majesty, which worried me even more. At that point, you began threatening me. One of the ministers is the witness for that, so you can rest assured that this was how it happened. There is nothing I did that would require me to apologize while you clearly crossed the line. I refuse to take the blame now. Since you obviously do not understand why you were asked to apologize in the first place, I will also not accept any apology you may offer in the future. Even though I doubt that you ever wished to swallow your pride to be sincere in the first place.”

It still wasn't pleasant to face a person that was about to explode, but since Theodore was here, it felt somewhat relieving too. For once, she didn't need to care about someone's rank but only about them wronging her.

It was pretty clear that Claude saw that differently though. It seemed like a switch flipped in his head at those words. He stopped hiding his anger altogether and glared at Blanche with way too much unjustified anger. “You surely feel quite safe with His Majesty at your side, don't you? You should rather think about what will happen when he is tired of you. Leaving the palace will not do you any good. You are nothing but a dirty, little-”

Luciano interrupted him with a hint of panic in his voice. “Your Majesty! I sincerely apologize for speaking out of turn, but I fear that my father is not in the right state of mind right now. I shall bring him back to the carriage, and we'll come back after he has calmed down.”

Theodore clicked his tongue and spoke without ever turning to the duke's son. “There is no need for that. He will not stay for much longer.” And that was all he said to Luciano before returning his attention to Claude. “We can safely assume that this was a threat and an insult at once. I recently put someone on trial for offending Blanche, so you should pull yourself together. Or do you wish to add more to your never-ending list of crimes? If so, continue. One more word, and Owen will be happy to escort you out again.”

Duke Vasquez clenched his jaw as he glared at the emperor. He obviously couldn't insult Theodore, but it looked like he was considering it. The more he thought about it, the more furious he got though. “It seems like disrespecting influential members of nobility has become the norm for you. Aren't you also insulting Her Majesty and His Grace, the Duke of Duremont with this? To put such a loose woman next to you while your wife and your most important supporter are watching is more insolent than anything I could have done. This concubine here has done nothing but cause issues and dared to offend me on multiple occasions. How long will you protect her? She will be nothing but a burden in a while. You should throw her out before she causes you to lose all the people on your side. She is a random woman from the streets, a who-”

Theodore's anger flamed up at that. But he didn't yell or attack anyone but only stared at the other man with something undefinable in his eyes. It was almost a death threat and silenced Claude within a second. “I will promise you one thing. I will ruin you for this.” His voice seemed cold, but there was much more wrath layered within than many people would recognize, but it made all the people in front of him widen their eyes. “By the end of the next year, you will have lost your noble title and any money or honor that you might have ever possessed. You will regret ever daring to utter every single one of those words and wish that you had grovelled at our feet, but you will have no chance to ever say anything else anymore. You will leave the palace now and be charged with trespassing the royal estate, insulting and slandering royalty as well as dismissing the emperor's repeated orders. Get out of my sight, or I will personally make you. You should remember how good I am with a sword. Leave. Now.”

It was satisfying.

Duke Vasquez didn't even search for help. He nodded hurriedly and turned around to rush toward the main gate.

A single motion by Theodore was enough to make four guards follow the other man. The emperor wasn't done though. He faced the rest of the Vasquez family, his voice still booming. “Do any of you wish to join him? If so, feel free to speak up. You may stay, but I expect you to know whom to bow to now. I didn't decide to erase your whole household yet.”

Both Luciano and Selena had lost their smiles and shook their head with disbelief on their faces. Of course, they didn't want to leave, and thus, they would have to act their best now even if that hadn't been the original goal.

The sight should have alarmed everyone present. But Blanche could only be happy as she saw how the people that had treated her like a toy suddenly gave in when an even more powerful person did the same with them. Maybe that would teach them how to apologize sincerely. A wide smile spread on her face, and she didn't even try to hide it this time.