Theodore was the one who spoke up first after their toast. “What a wonderful choice. I believe that this is a wine from Travuan, yes? There almost seems to be nothing else in the palace anymore, but I do understand why. It is simply the best wine out there. I didn't expect you to choose it though.” He glanced at Camille, whose face showed a trace of slight annoyance.

The dowager empress replied after she scanned the wine one more time. “This one is of great quality as well, and it does match my standards, but I was rather sure that I asked for white wine. So, I would like to know why my orders were ignored.”

Cedar chimed in with a bright grin. “Oh, I'm the one that asked them to change it to red wine. I apologize for that, but I believed that it might be better. If I remember correctly, my brother favors red wine, and Lady Blanche doesn't like white wine. Since none of us have an issue with red wine, I thought that this option may be better for the whole group. I asked them to bring white wine for you though.” He gestured to another flask on the tray of a servant. “There it is. That is your favorite flavor, correct?”

Camille stared at the wine for a moment before responding. “I see. How considerate of you. I would favor it if you told me before making such decisions though. I like to know what happens within my house.” With every sentence, that woman just became less sympathetic. She acted as if everyone belonged to her and should follow her every whim. When something wasn't to her liking, she immediately started arguing with her rank. She was the type of person that the concubine didn't get along with at all.

But naturally, Blanche didn't speak up. She just drank another sip of her wine before piercing a small piece of fried bell pepper with her fork and lifting it. She had thought about eating it for a while, but she would rather return a favor to her lover first. Blanche carefully blew on the piece to make it cool before balancing it all the way to Theodore's mouth.

At the moment that she did that, a complaint from Camille sounded immediately. “What are you doing? How can you-”

Theodore didn't hesitate to let the piece disappear in his mouth and chewed on it with a wide smile. That only served to make the dowager empress' face scrunch up, but he didn't care. Instead, he added another provocation and leaned over to his lover to kiss her forehead. “Everything tastes heavenly when you are the one feeding me. I'd even swallow poison if you gave it to me.”

Blanche couldn't help but feel her stomach churn at that thought. Their enemies might not take it as a joke, so it wasn't clever to voice something like this. “Don't say that. I'd never give you anything that might be bad for you. I love you.”

Theodore put his hand on her cheek and smiled when she leaned into him. “I know. That was only a metaphor to show how much I trust you. I love you too.”

Camille watched that interaction with a cold gaze while drinking her wine. Her eyes lingered on Blanche for a bit too long before she set the glass down and spoke up. “Neither of you seems to care for proper table etiquette. While that may not be necessary now, I feel the need to remind you to be more respectful in public. Others may be taken aback by your open exchanges, which are rather crude at times.”

Theodore lifted his fork as he responded with a grin. “It's called displays of affection. We're just overly romantic and like clichés. There is nothing crude about it. We cuddle, kiss and hold hands whenever we can. We are touch-starved, and other people never disturbed us much. In fact, they would probably be worried if we didn't hug for an evening since we normally cling together. So, I assumed that you already noticed that at one of the last events.”

Blanche didn't have to speak at all, but she still opened her mouth. “That is true. It was quite obvious to anyone present in the capital.” That was a small reminder of the fact that some members of the royal family hadn't even been here a few months ago.

The dowager empress glanced at her for a second without really hiding her disgust for the other woman. Then she faced Theodore. Her expression remained cool as she stared at her son with obvious dissatisfaction. “You should pay more attention to your reputation. As the emperor of Artias, you need to carry an aura of dignity, which is almost impossible if that person is trailing behind you constantly. Aside from that, you are also humiliating Her Majesty each time you do this. You are acting similarly to your father, and yet, he was never brazen enough to bring that woman to a ball as his escort. You must consider how Her Majesty is feeling when you are replacing her with such-”

Theodore didn't let her finish. “I am going to stop you right there because I assume that you will try to insult Blanche again. I will remind you not to do that one more time. It will not end well for you if she gets upset with you, believe me. About the matter with my father, there is only one thing I can say. He was a coward. He put the wishes of some arrogant nobles above his own feeling, and as you know, he never paid much attention to anything but his work. But, as I already said in the past, I am different. I am glad that you compare me to him because I have to be similar to one of my parents, and I'm content with being a little like him when it comes to how we take care of Artias. However, we do not have too many similarities.” Theodore paused to take a bite from his plate and gave his lover another mushroom before resuming. “I actually see myself as a person that happens to rule a nation and not just as the emperor. So, I have my own feelings, emotions and desires, and I will act upon them. I will put the most important thing first. And that is my angel right next to me. Besides, you don't need to worry about the empress from now on. She won't play a big role in the future. She doesn't care about me and has a lover. So, you don't have to compare yourself to her the whole time.”

Camille froze at that. “What?” It was unclear which of these words shocked her, and it might have been all of them. She just stared at her son with wrinkles etched into her forehead.

Theodore didn't give her a response though. He just turned to his concubine and offered her a piece of bell pepper. She happily accepted it and let him pat her head before giving him a portion of her plate in return.

Cedar calmly ate his food without paying attention to that, but the dowager empress' mood only seemed to deteriorate.

Camille narrowed her eyes at the couple before speaking up after a minute of silence. “You are aware that your work is the most important thing though, correct? This whole nation depends on you and your judgment. You cannot allow someone to cloud your mind with meaningless gestures that are only supposed to blind you. I heard that you barely visit your office anymore. You are even ignoring your guest, the esteemed crown prince of Northern Ocrea, whose favor we need to ensure a good relationship with his country. Instead, you are running around with someone that is here the whole year. You are aware that is not a good idea, right? You cannot neglect your work because of this.”

Theodore gazed at her with an indifferent look. “I'm not neglecting anything. Prince Linden is content with having this much free time to get to know our nation. He also spends time with another person, which we can use in a much more effective way later, but that doesn't matter in this discussion. I was explaining why I am not forgetting about the nation. You can believe that I am finishing all the documents that I need to go through each day. Sometimes, I even manage to go through the work of one week on one day. I don't avoid going to public events either. So, you don't need to worry at all.”

Camille gripped her fork tighter as she stared at her son with anger glittering in her eyes. “Do not lie to me. I've been the empress for a long time. I am not clueless about politics. It's impossible to finish all of your duties so quickly.”

Blanche chimed in at that even if it might have been better for her to stay quiet. “But he isn't lying. I am quite sure that I saw him working more often than you did in the past two years that I've been with him. He had moments in which he almost overworked himself, and now he finally got help, which is why he is more efficient now. You do not have to doubt his abilities. As someone who hasn't been in the capital for long, it might be better to just hold back with your judgment for the time being.”

The dowager empress glared at the concubine for a moment. She looked like she barely swallowed a few insults she would have liked to voice. “I am not doubting his competence as the ruler of the nation. I doubt his judgment to differentiate between what is truly important and what is only a temporary way to distract himself a bit.” She turned to the emperor again. “Both you and I are well aware of how much time your father always spent in his office. Those weren't just two hours per day. Besides, I was the empress. I spent hours working on countless documents too, so I know that you are lying.”

Theodore rolled his eyes while looking at his lover and gave her another bite from his plate before turning his attention to his mother. “You wouldn't know how difficult those were since you never really worked on those things yourself and made Cedar do it.” He ignored how surprised Blanche was about that while Camille glared at him.

“You-” The dowager empress didn't get to speak.

Theodore already continued. “But even if you were right about the time, you would still be speaking about things that don't concern you. You're awfully well-informed about my schedule despite never visiting. But there are some differences between my father's work and mine. First of all, he didn't have the ministers to support him like this. Thanks to Blanche, they take care of more things so that I'm not suffocating because of my workload anymore. She came up with a law that helped our whole nation in a revolutionary way, so it shouldn't be surprising that I have more options when it comes to designing my own schedule now.” He paused to lean over and kiss his concubine's nose. He looked at his lover with nothing but adoration in his eyes before turning back to the dowager empress and giving her a cold stare. “In addition, I have to say that I'm more efficient than him. I went through most of the documents I need to deal with once already, so I'm faster this time. There are some major categories, and almost all texts fit into one of those. That is why I know what I need to watch out for and how the layout will be. Thus, I can use my experience to find mistakes quickly and take care of them. And lastly, my father didn't have much motivation to leave his office. He lived for his work. I live for Blanche. So, it's obvious that all of my time belongs to her.”

The concubine felt her heart skip a beat at that. She reached over to him and put her hand on his leg so that he brought down his hand as well to link their fingers. “I live for you too, Theo.” She only breathed that out, but the others seemed to have understood her.

Cedar immediately glanced at his mother, and seconds later, it became clear that he had guessed the dowager empress' reaction correctly.

Camille's mood seemed to be ruined completely now. She put her fork back onto the table with more force than necessary. “I already suspected it, but the two of you are truly not normal. Have you not noticed how unhealthy your relationship is? You are constantly touching one another, and being dependent on the other person like this only proves-”

Theodore cut her off with a wide grin. “Unhealthy? I would be interested in how you want to judge that when you never had a healthy relationship yourself.” His voice was dripping with mockery as he spoke. “I would merely argue that what Blanche and I have is based on mutual feelings. You couldn't know about that though.” Now he had done it. He had truly attacked his mother's absolute weak spot.

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Blanche almost expected something like she had experienced with the prince.

Cedar prince even leaned back and put aside his fork while turning to Camille as if he was preparing to intervene, but no breakdown followed.

The dowager empress' eyes widened, and she glared at her older son with more hatred than she had ever shown before. A moment later, her eyelid began twitching. But aside from that, she remained motionless as if she was unable to do anything but drown in her resentment.

Theodore paid no attention to that and picked up a napkin to clean his lover's mouth.

Blanche let him do that but kept her eyes on Camille in case something happened. But the other woman didn't move or say anything even after a few seconds passed.

Cedar seemed to take that as his cue to change the topic of the conversation. He cleared his throat before beginning. “It seems like our guests already finished their plate. Well, this course was rather small, so that was to be expected. I hope that you would not mind waiting for a little moment until Mother and I finish.” He said that, but his plate was already empty too since he had barely spoken and focused on eating. So, in the end, this was only a request for Camille to eat instead of fuming about this comment.

And the dowager empress listened. She gazed at her plate and began consuming the small pieces of her food one after the other while still having an unmoving stare full of hatred. Since no one was speaking now, it was quiet again until Camille finished. Then she chimed the bell again, and servants came in to exchange the dishes. This time, they brought a small portion of rice with some kind of cream sauce.

Once again, Theodore started by filling his spoon and giving Blanche a bit. She accepted that and prepared her own spoonful to feed him. She took a bit longer than him, but she wasn't doing anything special, so it was a bit strange for Camille and Cedar to stare at her. Blanche didn't let that disturb her though and focused on lifting the spoon without dropping anything.

But in the middle of her movement, she froze and stared at the meal.

The sauce was light brown with small vegetable pieces and spices inside. One thing stood out to her when she gazed at the bits that were mixed into the meal though. There were some pieces in her meal that weren't in her lover's dish. That stroke Blanche as odd, so she put the portion inside her own mouth. She didn't take long to identify what those pieces were. “You can't eat that. Those are the nuts you're allergic to.”

Theodore scanned her meal for a moment. “Walnuts? I see. Then it seems like you will have to feed me something from my own plate.”

Blanche nodded and hurriedly took his spoon to give him a portion. She tried her best not to show it, but on the inside, she was boiling. Those two on the other side of the table had definitely been waiting for her to give something to her lover that would harm him. They had known and still hadn't said anything when she had attempted to feed Theodore. The plan had probably been to let the emperor eat some walnuts so that he had an allergic reaction without the hosts being blamed because Theodore's plate hadn't had anything that would trouble him. In fact, it looked like his food was the only one that didn't have walnuts. That made it seem like the goal had been pinning the blame on the concubine for carelessly giving the emperor something harmful. Blanche could only thank the gods for letting her notice it early enough. Otherwise, something bad might have happened.

Theodore reached for her hand under the table and squeezed her before giving her a comforting smile. It seemed like he had realized before her, so it might have been fine in any case. That calmed her a bit, but she was still angry.

But apparently, crushing that plan hadn't served to lighten Camille's mood either. “If I heard correctly just now, it seems like Lady Blanche was aware of your allergy.” She narrowed her eyes at the emperor. “You cannot tell other people about your weaknesses so carelessly. Do you know how easily she could use this against you?”

Theodore's smile faded at this. He opened his mouth, but for once, his lover was quicker.

If there was something Blanche couldn't stand, it was being accused of being a traitor. Before she could hold back, she snapped at Camille. “You shouldn't say things like that so carelessly, Your Majesty. It sounds like you want to claim that I would harm Theo. I shouldn't need to spell out why that would be an issue.”

Of course, Camille didn't give in. She narrowed her eyes and looked like she wanted to throw her fork at the concubine. She raised her voice for no reason. “How dare you speak to me like that? You can't deny that you are from an unknown background and that you pose the greatest risk to Theodore. I wouldn't be surprised if you ended up being what eventually harms him. It would fit the suspicious way you just showed up in the palace.” The dowager empress was as careless as ever. She had really just mentioned Blanche's past to upset her despite being in front of Theodore.

Months ago, she might have ruined everything with that.

Now Blanche was just relieved since Theodore already knew all he had to hear. So, she didn't have to worry. She could just talk back to Camille. “Then you will be quite surprised to know that I swear to never ever harm my beloved. I'm on Theodore's side, like I always was. He knows everything about me, and I know all about him. So, my background is of no concern to you. There is no need to ponder whether I would ever turn my back on him.” That was the only hint she would give.

Camille apparently hated being scolded since she slammed her hand onto the table as if she hoped that this would intimidate the other woman. She only grew even louder. “You say that, but we all know what women like you are thinking! You're-”

This time, Theodore interrupted her sharply. “I would recommend you to keep your mouth shut about this topic. You won't accuse Blanche of having any vile intentions. I trusted her from the very beginning and was never careful around her. So, she had enough chances to get rid of me even without anyone knowing. Since she didn't use those, you should be able to comprehend that she will never hurt me. Besides, I don't want to hear you lecture someone about this matter.” He addressed her with a voice laced with poison.

The dowager empress clearly noticed how angry her son was. She tightened her hold on her utensils. “What do you intend to say with that? I sincerely hope that this isn't another one of your false accusations.”

Theodore frowned at her before turning away from his mother. “You may interpret it however you would like. That is your decision. But in the end, we both know what really happened.”

Once again, everything was silent, which only made the atmosphere even worse.

So, Blanche focused on her lover and took his spoon to feed him something from his plate. Theodore's expression softened as he happily accepted it and showed her a bright grin. But even then, his annoyance was still obvious. He couldn't hide that even if he wanted to since his eyes were way too expressive.

Despite that, Theodore was as gentle as always while feeding her something from her own plate. He took a moment while gazing at her in silence before turning to his brother and speaking up. “I'm surprised that you are eating walnuts, Cedar. Did you not inherit the allergy too?” His voice was supposed to sound cheerful, but there was some underlying seriousness here.

Cedar paused in the middle of eating before quickly swallowing and replying with a radiant beam. “It seems like I was lucky in that regard. I was rather sure that I would have it too since you and Father did, but apparently, I'm fine. As you can see, I can still breathe properly, and my eyes aren't getting red, so-”

Camille chimed in at that, interrupting her son without even glancing at him. “It does seem like that allergy is not always inherited directly. It was the previous esteemed emperor's weakness, and thus, it isn't strange for you to have it too. So, I am rather content with that since Cedar was able to eat anything in his childhood without needing to fear that servants were too careless to pick the right dishes.” She did sound quite proud of that, even though she technically hadn't gained anything. She even leaned over to Cedar to kiss his cheek as if to prove how close they were.

Though, it was odd for Camille to suddenly smile like that. Was she that obsessed when it came to making her second son ‘better’ than the emperor?

Theodore basically ignored his mother and stared at his brother, who still just beamed back at him, for a little longer before averting his eyes. “Is that so? I see. Then you were rather lucky. I assume I just remember it wrong then.” He sounded somewhat bitter while saying that, and the prince didn't respond despite his usual chattiness. Instead, everyone was just eating in silence.

The dowager empress suddenly seemed quite satisfied with this while the emperor distracted himself by feeding his lover.

Blanche returned the favor and gave Theodore a bright smile whenever he looked at her. At some point, they finished and started holding hands under the table.

After another group of servants was called, they came to exchange the plates again. This time, they brought a bowl of soup before hurrying away again.

Blanche took a minute to check the food to make sure that there weren't any traces of walnuts again. She was relieved but still a bit cautious when she didn't find anything. So, she poked around in her dish for a while longer until Theodore leaned toward her and whispered.

“It's fine. The servants changed our meals, just in case.” It should have been obvious that he would be careful enough, but she was still surprised.

Blanche trusted him and filled her spoon without hesitation to give him some of her soup after blowing on it.

Camille watched that with something akin to disgust in her gaze while Cedar just focused on eating his own meal. The dowager empress couldn't allow the couple to feed each other in peace though. She had to speak up just to disturb them again. “There is a request that I would like to have fulfilled.”

Theodore didn't let his lover wait and ate the spoonful she was offering him before responding. “I cannot promise anything before hearing what it's about. If it's nothing special, I will do my best.” Surely not. If the dowager empress asked, he would do all he could to deny her what she wanted.

Camille set down her spoon and folded her hands on her lap before speaking with a stoic expression. “We need a personal guard. I require one of the most skilled knights to protect us at all times. Cedar can fight better than all of your people combined, but he also needs someone to accompany him like it is becoming for the prince of Artias. Since Her Majesty and even Lady Blanche seem to have one, I believe that there is no issue in granting us the right to pick one for ourselves each.”

Immediately, Theodore's lips formed a smirk. “I'm surprised by that inquiry. Didn't you always insist that you never needed one? And what happened to Cedar's guard? He was always rather competent even when you had some issues with each other. Now that we are mentioning it, where is he? He didn't choose another job, right? He was way too loyal for that.”

Cedar didn't fail to show his brother a bright smile. “Unfortunately, we lost contact with him. In contrast to us, he was never confined to the south palace, so he moved around freely. One day, he just didn't come back home. We asked servants and knights to search for him, but he was nowhere to be found. We have no idea what happened, and naturally, I can't help but miss him. He was my guard for a long time after all. I can only hope for his well-being.”

The emperor still didn't stop grinning. “Oh, my. I apologize for that. Would you perhaps mind telling me the date?”

Cedar quickly replied. “I don't. It was the day of the annual hunting festival. It seems like that date just brings bad luck to our family. Something unfavorable seems to be happening way too often.”

That was all it took for Blanche to understand. The hunting festival had been the day on which Theodore had noticed that their enemies' best fighter was following him in the trees. So, he had lured him down and killed him with one motion.

That person had been the prince's personal guard. If that was the case, then Blanche felt even less than her already nonexistent sympathy for the dead man. Since he had attacked the emperor, he should have expected backlash. The concubine didn't care about how anyone else felt about that. She just kept quiet and ate some of her soup.

Theodore paused for a moment as he pretended to ponder something. “The hunt... I apologize. I do not remember much aside from the things that happened within the royal palace. It was rather stressful. There was a bear that suddenly attacked us, and some random man was climbing around in the trees too. Then he fell down and landed so unfortunately that he got pierced by a sword. Afterward, I still won with thirteen points. It was exhausting, so my memory might be affected as well. I don't think your guard would have traveled all the way from the southern palace to visit us though. So, I can't help you.”

Cedar let out a little laugh as if the topic was nothing important. “We did not expect you to magically know either. Thank you for your concern. I just tend to tell myself that he lives a happier life right now. Maybe we'll see him again at some point. Please do inform me if you recognize him anywhere and are able to contact me.”

The emperor showed him a bright grin again. “Of course. I think there are some easy ways to go meet him quicker, but I wouldn't recommend that. But that isn't the point, is it? We were talking about personal guards. I can't give you a guaranteed answer, but I will look into the matter.” With that, he led the conversation back to the original topic.

Honestly, it was already obvious that this promise was just a way of delaying this matter, and even Camille understood that. She wasn't pleased.