Blanche spent every second of her free time with Theodore, so she easily noticed it when her lover was doing something special. She obviously noticed that he needed to leave to go to his office with Leon too. She just suspected that this meeting might not have been about a political topic at all, but she didn't point that out. When time passed by, she couldn't help being quite smug about it though.
The day before Blanche's birthday, Theodore found a lot of excuses to leave. He claimed that it was some truly important political matter, but the fact that Leon wasn't with him said it all. The secretary had been left here to ensure that she wouldn't run off and accidentally see something made for her, and Blanche found it a bit funny to see him annoyed upon being used as an unwilling accomplice in this scheme. She couldn't help teasing him. “Are you sure Theo doesn't need your help with that incredibly important political conflict that will shape the future of our continent? While you've been sitting here drinking tea, Theo has been quite busy with crucial matters.”
In response, Leon just narrowed his eyes at her. “Don't make fun of me. You know exactly what this is about.” He waved around the pages in his hand as if that would tell her what he meant. Though, he didn't explain it either. He just switched the topic. “Instead of joking around with me, how about you focus on something helpful? Did you prepare for your big event tomorrow?”
Blanche hadn't been able to think about anything else for days, so this was an understatement. “Naturally. I am as prepared as for every ball.” She wanted to explain how Theodore would merely take care of her dress again, but she didn't get to.
Leon had already begun his lecture. “This can't just be any ball. This is much more important, do you understand? Now that we know that the empress will divorce Theodore, we need to push you into the foreground even more. We need to present you as a member of royalty. Not just any member. You'll be the emperor's sole wife. This means that you have to take on some responsibility too.” He gave her a stern look.
Blanche couldn't do anything but nod. After all, Leon was right. She needed to take some responsibility for her lover's stupid plan. If she would be royalty, she should prepare for that. Especially for the specific thing that worried her most when she would become Theodore's first wife. Slouching her shoulders, she nodded. “I'll remember what you said. First, I need to be dignified and smile. Then I have to be authoritarian enough to seem nice but collected. I have to like every present and praise the visitors in flowery words without acknowledging that it's odd for me to suddenly act like I have a higher rank. I promise to interact with the nobles more too. I'm the host, so I'll begin the conversations and lead them after.”
That long speech was made up of everything Leonard had told her, and he seemed glad that she had repeated all of it. “Good. Don't forget that. Should we go through conversation starters again?”
“No. Please don't. I have enough of that for now.” Blanche would probably remember those stupid phrases in her dream by now since she had read them so often last week. Since Leonard looked like he might still try to torture her with those, she hurriedly changed the topic. “How about we focus more on...something aside from etiquette? We did go through the waltz often enough last week, and I feel like there should be room for more important topics. Can you show me something helpful for my future as a member of the royal family?” She had to learn a lot, so she might as well use her free time when she had nothing else to do.
Even Leon wasn't sure what he could just suddenly address. “Frankly, there are many things that could help you even when we already began a bit. What do you want to hear?”
Blanche was a bit lost. She truly didn't know what mattered most in such cases. She shrugged. “I think I have to focus on the history of Artias and the royal family more. But that would take a while. Maybe there's something else we can do right now.” She paused for a bit and thought about what she might do to help her lover in the future. If there was something a royal wife would do, it was probably supporting her husband in the office. This might not be something she should officially do unless she became empress, which she refused to consider, but she could help in secret anyway. That led Blanche to ask her question. “What does Theodore do the whole day right now?”
Leon's expression didn't budge as he replied. “He prepares your birthday.”
A sigh escaped Blanche's mouth. “I mean aside from that. In the office. What does he focus on most? What could people help him with?”
Leonard obviously knew what she meant and became much more serious about the matter quickly. “Getting help in the office is always good. Frankly, half of the work is just going through documents and contracts while trying to find errors or differences that seem odd. You could do that after getting used to it without much training. As long as you have the constitution lying next to you, checking on some laws is easy, especially when we would gladly accept help while searching for specific paragraphs. You could also compare numbers and find mistakes there. Before the preparations for this party began, Theodore mostly went through his usual documents. He also...” Leon paused for a moment before coming to a conclusion. “I could just show you.” He leaned forward to lift a few papers he had brought with him. Then he walked around the table and sat down next to Blanche while showing her the pages. “Do these numbers tell you anything?”
Blanche took away the documents. She recognized this way of listing numbers vaguely. She might also remember seeing something like that on her father's desk. “Those are...taxes, right?”
It was almost an insult that Leon grinned at that. “Oh, you noticed. Impressive.”
“I can read too, Leon.” She turned the paper while pointing at the title with annoyance. “My father dealt with this often. These are the numbers of the store's revenue and the percentages they needed to hand over with taxes. The extra twenty percent here must be included because it's a luxury store, I presume. They earn a lot, so I can see why Theo checks on this. Especially since...” She noticed it just before Leonard lifted his finger to point at the title of the owner. Blanche immediately read through the numbers again and then received a separate page from Leon. She checked both and compared the numbers, only to let out a laugh after. “Look who it is. Our favorite duke owns this store. It seems like he didn't do his taxes well though.”
Leonard clearly found that amusing too. “Yes. Certainly, suddenly forgetting to write down a few hundred-thousand gold coins in the official documents is something that can happen accidentally. It just happened to be at numerous spots too. Really unfortunate. Well, Theodore knew exactly what he would find upon searching. He seemed to be aware of where to start from the beginning too, and now we have this. Duke Vasquez' first trial might be over, but he'll lose many of his stores in the next few weeks, no matter whether blames this on some of his workers.”
That was certainly a pleasant thing to witness.
That Theodore seemingly knew exactly where to search for what was a bit stranger, but it didn't have to mean anything, right?
The thought made Blanche's smile fade for a moment. As she caught herself, she threw it out of her brain as she did it with everything she didn't want to remember and just beamed at Leonard. “That's nice. What a great birthday gift this would be. Do you have other examples too? Locating signs of tax fraud seems to be a great way to get rid of our enemies, so I want to learn.”
Seemingly, Leonard didn't mind that. He went along with what Blanche had asked of him and showed her a lot of documents from the office. This filled the time until the emperor returned easily.
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As Theodore came back into the room and hugged his lover from behind, he was offered a strange display. He didn't seem to have expected her or his secretary to work. “What were you doing?”
Blanche showed her lover a bright smile as she pushed the paper toward his face. “Taxes.”
Theodore had to lean back a bit to be able to read. Upon seeing the document that confirmed Duke Vasquez's sloppy attempt to hide some earnings from his store, he had to grin. “I mean, it's a good idea if Leon starts teaching you, but...” He leaned down to kiss the side of her head. “One day before your birthday might be unfitting when you will be busy tomorrow.”
Blanche raised an eyebrow at him. “Well, what is more important? Taxes or birthday balls?”
Her lover just shrugged. “Royalty also has to appear in public and impress some people, so I'd say both. We can leave taxes to others in an emergency, but we have to go to events no matter what.”
Leonard, who already gathered all his documents into a big stack, replied while sorting some pages. “That is true. For now, focus on social connections and etiquette. Politics, history and economy are all important, but that should wait for now. Though, it might be good practice to just give you documents and let you find the mistakes on your own. We can continue with that next time if you want to.” He gave the concubine a questioning look.
Blanche found herself nodding without thinking about it. She might not turn into a genius with documents because of this, but even if she could just sort out writing mistakes and wrong numbers for Theodore, that could make his work easier. “Sure. I'll be royalty. I need to know what taxes are. And the whole other stuff, of course. I trust that I'll be in your care. But for now, go rest. You deserve it.”
Leonard didn't have to hear that twice. He bid the couple farewell and ran off quickly.
This left Blanche alone with her lover, who still stood behind her and hugged her. It wasn't odd for him to be so cuddly, but she found it a bit odd that he hadn't even talked to Leonard much. This worried her so much that she spoke up quickly. “Is something wrong, Theo?” She tilted her head back to look into his face. “You look upset.”
Her lover's face just turned even more solemn. “Not exactly. It's just...” He breathed out slowly and then squeezed her shoulder. “Let us lay down.” He didn't have to ask again and could lead his lover to the bed quickly. Blanche wrapped her arms around him quickly and fell into his arms. That made Theodore relax a bit. Now he didn't look upset anymore and just a bit annoyed. Thankfully, he spoke quickly too. “There is still something else I need to tell you. One thing is...”
Blanche felt her heart skip a beat. This wasn't about...that topic, right? She didn't actually want to discuss that. “Is that about your secret? You need more time for that, right?”
A huge load fell off her shoulders when Theodore nodded. “Yes. I swear to tell you in a while. But the other part is more...urgent. I think that there might be some trouble during your birthday party.”
That was much better than speaking about his secret. Blanche found herself relaxing a bit. “I see. Don't take it to heart. What might happen?”
Theodore showed regret in his expression as he averted his eyes and explained it quietly. “I have done quite a bit to our enemies' forces in the last weeks. I have an unfair advantage, but I don't mind using it. Thanks to that, I revealed some of their crimes that will bring a few of the dowager empress' supporters to the brink of destruction. Whether it may be connected to corruption, theft or smuggling goods into the nation. There are enough things they did, including tax evasion, which almost all of them committed. I know that I am sometimes searching for the one flaw in their family's past, which is pretty backhanded. But with every household that I can weaken, my brother loses chances to gain something. At first, I took out the weakest families to keep them from noticing. As you know, I also began with the Vasquez family and left alone most other important figures. But recently, I started gathering evidence against Marquess Sefare.”
Blanche froze at that. “Really? Did you find something he did wrong?” She could only pray. She wanted that man to be punished for what he had done to her family.
“Plenty. He, like almost every member of Cedar's faction, committed some crimes and hopes that my brother would overlook them. That is awfully naive since Cedar isn't stupid, but well... Sefare also isn't as good at hiding his traces as others are. I could pick and choose which clues I want to present to the court, but I will use everything. I want him to be put in prison for the rest of his life, and I want to do it by winning a fair trial. If he should be named innocent, I would find other ways though. But due to the massive load of evidence against him, there is no need to worry about that. I'm sure that they know too. And from what I have experienced, the dowager empress is the type of person that always thinks about how to gain the most advantages. If she believes that one of her followers will be useless, she will get rid of them herself. Either to act like she was never affiliated with them or to put the blame for some other things on them.” He paused and looked up at the ceiling for a moment. “While the Vasquez family is still stable right now, at least officially, I think that Marquess Sefare noticed that I was tracing his steps. If he is as stupid as I believe him to be, he will run right to the dowager empress.” His eyes wandered back to his lover.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
Blanche nodded at him to signal that she had understood. “But that will cause her to go against him instead of helping him. She will sacrifice him like she did it with the Besseta family.”
Theodore gave her a little smile and stroked over her cheek. “Exactly. She will see how he loses power and money while becoming a threat to her if his crimes are revealed. Thus, I assume that she will try to cut him off soon while still profiting from it in some way. That means that she might attempt to get him to speak about your past because she thinks that it will upset me. Doing that in private would be the more subtle option. She could also try to do all of that in public though. She might condemn Sefare in front of as many people as possible to make sure that you are affected in some way. I would hope that she isn't stupid enough to plan that since I will easily turn it around to help us. But we have to expect that she will cause a scene and claim that she has found out that Sefare is a traitor that wished to kill me to gain some people's trust. I don't want her to do that on your birthday, but there might not be a way to prevent it from happening. So, we may have to deal with her arresting that man during the celebration.” This definitely had been some sort of apology, and his voice was filled with regret.
But Blanche just grinned at him. “Are you joking? I might not want to be branded a traitor, but having that man arrested would be a wonderful birthday present. Even if I would hate seeing that woman and her son, as long as Sefare gets what he deserves, it should be fine. After all, he has to pay for his crimes after what he did to my family.” She would definitely laugh at his misery. He had been the one to sacrifice her family without batting an eye. Blanche would never care for his well-being now.
Theodore gave her a little smile in return. “He will regret ever targeting the Laisters. I will make sure of that. Though...” His smile faded a bit as he switched to a more worrisome topic. “Regarding that topic, some things have...come up. You know that I researched what happened to your family a while ago, but recently, we managed to track the judge that was bribed back then. I feel like there might be a bit more to this.”
That didn't sound good.
Blanche's heartbeat picked up speed as she could only lay there and stare at her lover with wide eyes. “What do you mean? Did Sefare try something else too?”
“Unfortunately, I am not sure yet. There are some hints that another person might have been involved too, but I wouldn't fully rely on it yet.” Theodore gently reached up to cup her cheek. “In all honesty, I would like to avoid telling you now, just because we have no proof yet. As soon as I can be sure of what happened, I will tell you everything. I can guarantee that Sefare was responsible for your rescue from the prison, and naturally, the following attempt at making you commit treason. We will definitely have him surrender because of that. Even if the dowager empress has something in store for him, I will add something worse. There is no need for you to worry about it since I will take care of it. He will surely suffer as much as he deserves it.”
Blanche felt herself tense, but she nodded with vigor at that. “Please. I look forward to it. If you...find out about anything else, please tell me.” If there was really some mystery regarding her family, she had to know.
Theodore affirmed her request without hesitation. “I will. But unfortunately, that will have to wait. For tomorrow, I truly worry about Sefare. I'll try to ensure that everything goes by smoothly, but there may be some issues. I have a bad feeling about what the dowager empress may be planning. But no matter what happens, I'm by your side and will protect you from any dangers.”
“Then it's enough for me. I trust you fully. If you are there to guide me, I don't mind going in blindly. There probably won't be much more than a little conflict at most. After all, it won't bother us much if Sefare gets arrested and his reputation suffers.”
Theodore gently stroked her over her head. “Of course. I'm sure that it will be fine too. But just to make sure, you shouldn't leave my side that day.”
Blanche was still a bit worried about her lover's ominous comment regarding her family, but she still showed him a faint smile here. “It's my birthday. Did you think that I intended to do anything but cling to you that day? You'll be with me the whole time. Will you promise that?”
Theodore did. Immediately.
Her lover was oddly insistent on swearing that he would accompany her about a dozen times. Even when she told him that she believed him, he needed to repeat it once more. After that, he began to talk about gifts again and about how much she would adore the things he got. As always, he also asked whether she still had any wishes, which she declined again. Having him accept her past without hesitation was the greatest present he could have given her anyway.
But he seemed to insist on giving her even more. She was almost a bit scared about what he would come up with, even if she was filled with curiosity as well.
----------------------------------------
She had waited for so long, and suddenly, her birthday arrived.
Blanche awoke to lips covering her whole face with soft kisses. Her slight drowsiness quickly disappeared when she became aware enough to identify her lover. She opened her eyes, and a wide smile appeared on her lips.
Theodore already greeted her with a radiant beam. “Happy birthday. May my angel be blessed with even more love, luck and happiness this year.” With that, he leaned down to capture her lips in a kiss while interlocking their fingers. He left her completely breathless when he lifted his head again and grinned down at her. “But I won't leave everything up to fate. I will make sure to indulge you myself. Is that a good start, or do I need to put in even more effort?” As if the last one hadn't been enough, he gifted her another kiss that was even longer than before.
Blanche tangled her fingers in his hair and kept him in that position, even though she felt like the air was being sucked out of her lungs. She relished in the soft tingling that spread from her lips through her entire body and allowed herself to enjoy this sensation to the fullest. She only tugged at his hair when she couldn't go without oxygen anymore.
Theodore slowly released her with a big smirk plastered on his face. “Am I taking your breath away? Then I must be an unbelievably good kisser.”
The concubine used all of her energy to nod. She patted his head instead of answering and focused on getting some air into her lungs before speaking up. “You are. And I am the only one that will ever experience it.”
Her lover didn't waste a second before responding. “Exactly. I would like to kiss you again to prove my point, but then I would have to keep you in bed for the next few hours. It's tempting, but I think I will have to hold back. Your maid would never forgive us otherwise.” He sat up and slowly pulled her into a sitting position as well before gesturing to the side.
Stella was standing next to the bed with a bright smile on her face. “Happy birthday, My Lady! I hope that this day and the whole next year, no, your whole future will be wonderful!”
Blanche couldn't help but mirror the other's smile. “Thank you very much. With such amazing people by my side, there is no way that it could be bad anyway. I'm happy with all of you around me.”
Stella looked like she was about to cry about that and quickly turned away to wipe over her face.
Theodore watched that with a grin before whispering to his lover. “She's been all excited for the past weeks. She wanted to prepare a sweet gift and worked hard whenever she wasn't with you. But I still get to start. After all, I worked just as hard to find some things that may please you.” He leaned back again and resumed at a normal volume. “I assume that you don't want me to give you the whole portion right now. So, let's start with the most important things. Aside from my whole life, which you already own, I wanted to give you another promise of my love, but I proposed already. I considered wrapping a bow around me, but that might have been too much. So, I decided to give you something else now. Close your eyes.” He moved backward and grinned at her. “Don't cheat.”
Blanche complied and shut her eyes. She heard some rustling, and the mattress dipped beside her, which meant that her lover was back by her side.
He moved around a bit before finally allowing her to look again. “It's done.”
The concubine's eyes flew open, and her curiosity immediately grew when she found two items in front of her. Both were boxes, with one being about the size of a hand and the other being at least three times as big. The smaller one was only adorned with a few patterns while the bigger one was full of golden applications. She looked up at her lover, who watched her every movement with a smile.
“Go on. Open one of them. The order doesn't matter much, but I would start with the smaller one.”
Blanche did just that. She took the smaller box into her hands and gazed at the container for a moment before slowly opening it. The inside was covered with velvet that cushioned the whole box, and in the middle, a hair ornament sat enthroned. It was a butterfly. It looked a little similar to her purple one, but at the same time, it was completely different. This butterfly wasn't colored uniformly nor was it made of one material. It was made of gold and inserted sapphires. The wings were colored in blue with a thin golden frame and even thinner golden decorations were drawing delicate patterns on top of them.
The concubine could barely tear her eyes away from the skilled craftsmanship and stared at the clasp in awe. She took a long time before raising her head and speaking up. “It's gorgeous. How did you find someone this skilled? It looks perfect even though there are so many small patterns.”
Theodore gave her a victorious smile. “I'm glad that you think so too. I found the best jeweler in Artias to make this. She normally doesn't take any requests anymore since she retired a while ago, but when I said that it was a gift for my lover, she was convinced quickly. Apparently, I'm good at persuading other people through letters. In the end, she even wrote back that this was her favorite piece yet. She hopes that you will wear it as much as possible.”
Blanche could only nod, even though she had her qualms about taking out such a beautiful piece too often. She didn't want to break it after all. Slowly, she ran her fingertips over the surface and felt the thin wires that were inserted into the gems. She almost didn't dare to touch it in fear that it would be damaged in some way, but she carefully took it out of the box. When she looked at it from up close, it was only even more stunning. “Thank you. It's way too beautiful. I don't even know what to say. Thank you, Theo.” She showed him a bright smile, which caused him to return a kiss immediately.
When Theodore pulled back, he grinned at her and offered her his hand. “I will put it on for you.”
Blanche was hesitant for a moment before handing the ornament over with as much care as possible.
Her lover leaned forward and adjusted the clasp two times before letting go and gazing at her with satisfaction. “It's perfect for you. I knew it. I feel like I should get you a butterfly in each color imaginable.” That might not be too bad.
Even if the concubine owned more than enough, she had to admit that those butterflies were some of her absolute favorites. She didn't even need a mirror to know how gorgeous the ornament was while sitting on top of her head, especially since the dark colors should contrast her light hair and eyes. She would have liked to check anyway, but she didn't have any time to admire this gift so much when another present was waiting for her. Especially not when Theodore looked like he couldn't wait for her to touch it.
Blanche still went slow and picked up the bigger box with even more care in fear of letting it fall. She placed the item on her lap as she admired the white surface with gold applications. She let her fingertips roam across the decorations and was surprised to find a small metal handle on the side. This only increased her curiosity, and she moved her hand to the clasp to unfasten it.
As soon as she opened the top, a soft tune began playing. A slow but happy melody was accompanied by two small porcelain figures raising and twirling around each other. There were a man and a woman. Both were wearing clothes in the royal colors and carried crowns on top of their heads. One was unmistakably Theodore with his blue hair and blue eyes. And the woman in a gorgeous ballgown with light alabaster-colored hair could not represent anyone but Blanche. That much was obvious. She couldn't bring herself to note that she was wearing the crown that was meant for the empress. And seconds later, that fact was already forgotten as she gazed at the box.
The small figures were holding hands and imitating a waltz as they spun around in pace with the music. The concubine stared at that display until the melody became slower and quietened down until it was gone. She lifted her head and stared at her lover as she opened her mouth to thank him, but she was too slow.
Theodore chuckled and reached for the box. He found the metal handle and turned it a couple of times. As soon as he let go, the music began again, and the figures danced once more with bright smiles painted on their faces. It was too beautiful.
This time, Blanche was unable to say anything at all. This present was too wonderful. It wasn't just pretty to look at and made by some kind of genius, it was also connected to their relationship. It showed them dancing together without a care in the world. She couldn't keep herself from setting the box aside to throw her arms around her lover. “Thank you, thank you...” She needed a few seconds to decide what else she could voice to explain just how much she adored this gift. “It's perfect. I will treasure it forever. I will put it somewhere I can see it all the time and enjoy listening to that music piece over and over again.”
Her lover gladly put his arms around her. “I'm happy that you like it. I thought about this for so long and barely managed to find someone that was able to make it. At least four different people worked on this. One made the box, one the figures. A third one created the mechanism to play the music. It was hard to get them to work together. But it was worth it in the end. I will certainly approach those people again if I have another request. I've always liked this sort of thing because Althea gave me a wonderful music box once. Cedar stole it, but I still treasure it a lot. Though, the music box all those people made for you is without a doubt the most beautiful one I've ever seen. I will look at it with you as often as possible.”
Blanche nodded happily and leaned toward him to kiss him. He gladly returned it, and within seconds, their arms were wrapped around each other.
The concubine almost gave in to the overwhelming urge to let him push her down and enjoy the morning in another way, but she couldn't do that. Two things were keeping them from allowing themselves to go that far. Firstly, she still had the butterfly ornament in her hair and wouldn't risk lying down with it. And secondly, Stella was here as well.
So, Blanche forced herself to pull back even if her lover kept clinging to her. She stroked over his hair as some sort of compensation and whispered to him. “Later. We will have the whole night to ourselves. During the day, we can do other things.”
Theodore nodded. “I know. We have a schedule, and there are so many things that I would like to show you. So, we can't already lose time within the first minutes of the day. But...” He leaned forward to rest his head in the crook of her neck. “It's tempting.” He gently nibbled on her skin, and she had to hold back from letting out any noises.
Blanche was close to dying out of embarrassment when she noticed that Stella, who was now turning away with red cheeks, was only standing a few steps away. Quickly, the concubine pressed her hand onto her lover's chest and guided him away from her. “We're not alone, so please. Not now. Let's save that for the evening when we have so much time that we can go as slow as we want to.”
The emperor gave in after a few pushes. “Alright. That sounds inviting enough to convince me. Besides, we really can't mess up the schedule now already. I promised your maid that she would be allowed to bring you her present now.”
That made Blanche a bit curious. She turned to Stella as she waited for her friend to speak.