Luciano's question about whether Camille hadn't known about the engagement could be answered easily.
Theodore looked to the side while replying with anger in his voice upon remembering the incident in the Vasquez mansion. “We told her. After she proposed that Cedar should do the same thing your father told you to do. During your sister's baby party.”
Luciano paled a bit at that. Of course, he wouldn't react kindly to being reminded of the drug incident. “What? Her Majesty actually suggested...that? And Cedar...”
Blanche hurried to speak up. “Refused. He did it in a more aggressive manner than you did and told her that she was insane. That upset his mother a lot, and then Theodore came to help us. He explained how this was treason and threatened her a bit. Leon almost broke her leg because she annoyed him, and then they got your father and arrested him. He will have to take the fall for that injury now.”
Luciano blinked a few times upon learning so many new things at the same time before nodding weakly. “That is fine. It's better to get him in prison than to trouble Lord Astame.” He paused for a moment and stared at the floor. “It's just...horrible how... I thought that my father was the only one that was so sick. But apparently, that woman is too.”
Theodore gave him a cold look. “You're not the only one with a parent that is nothing but a disgusting excuse for a human being. The dowager empress and your father were friends when they were younger and basically forced your mother to marry your father so that they could use each other's power. Human lives or others' well-being mean nothing to them. Do you understand why I hate her now? I should have tried to kill her before she could attack me. But it's too late for that now. I will have to ensure that she doesn't have any supporters anymore. Your decision to go against her is a wise choice for you and your family. As long as you are on our side, we will protect you, but I can assure you that the dowager empress will not like it if you turn away from her.”
Luciano balled his empty hand and kept his gaze glued onto the floor for another moment. “I made that decision while being well aware of how Her Majesty will act. But even my mother, who knows best what her sister is like, agreed that this is for the best. My father was the power-hungry one. We just want to live in peace. If we want that, you are the best choice to be the emperor. So, we will support you. That is why I wanted to tell you everything I know about my father's plan. He didn't tell me every little detail, but there were some bits that he had to reveal.”
Blanche looked around for a moment. The ballroom was almost empty except for the guards, servants that were cleaning up already and Leonard, who stood near the door. Surely, it was unlikely that someone here listened to them, but it would be better to make sure that everything went by without risks. “That would be good. We should go to Theo's office to discuss confidential matters though.”
Theodore nodded at that. “Definitely. We will go there now. Follow us.” He linked his arm with his lover's one and led her toward the exit.
Luciano trailed behind them, and Leon followed with some distance as well. While they walked through the palace, all of them were silent, which created a strange atmosphere. But still, no one said anything until they reached the office.
Leonard began making tea despite him normally insisting on not being a maid and served it while the others had sat down in the seating area.
Blanche cuddled against her lover and rested her head on his chest while drinking some of the tea, which she had just received.
It took a moment until Leon was done and took a seat on the armchair. He pulled out a notebook and a pen and gestured toward the emperor.
Theodore immediately spoke up. “First of all, I would like to know what kind of crimes your father committed. We aren't sure what thoughts went through his head and don't have details. We have some suspicions, and he confirmed them by accidentally revealing a bit. Still, it would be better to hear it from a witness too. A chronological order would be best.”
Luciano tightly held onto his cup. He was silent for a few seconds and looked like he was lost in thoughts. Blanche almost thought that she should ask again, but after a short while, he replied. “I think the first thing I noticed was that he is pretty greedy and power-hungry. Father was never content with what he had and wanted more. If you asked him why, he couldn't really respond with anything but that more money meant more power and vice versa. Aside from that, his ego has always been...fragile. Mother and I weren't allowed to talk back on most occasions. The only time I was able to justify speaking my mind was when I had ideas that improved our business. Then he praised me despite me not having listened to him. But otherwise, he got angry fast when someone had a different opinion. I don't think he ever... No. I never saw whether he hit Mother, and she never told me, but it probably happened. He hit me too, so it wouldn't be surprising. But of course, I didn't see him as a bad person despite that.”
Hearing that alone made Blanche feel a bit bad. But she knew that pitying Luciano wouldn't help now. She stayed quiet and let him explain.
Luciano paused for a moment and shook his head before he looked up again. “I'm sorry. You didn't want to hear all of that. I'll move on. Even when I was younger, I saw Father dealing with strange people. He always had the tendency to speak to people that didn't seem like they were trustworthy. Muscular men in dark coats that carried weapons even in our estate. I never liked them. In addition to that, I often wasn't allowed to deal with Father's stores directly. When I secretly peeked at the documents, I saw that he wasn't in debt like I feared but that he had committed every crime that you could imagine. Embezzlement, tax evasion, smuggling illegal goods. Everything. He even got involved in some court cases. He bribed the judges to execute some people earlier to prevent them from being able to flee. He then took over their businesses and their trading deals.”
Upon hearing that, Blanche felt her blood drain from her face. This case sounded far too similar to what had most likely happened to her family. Luciano spoke about multiple cases though. Had Claude ruined many people like that? Had many families lost their lives because of a power-hungry monster like Duke Vasquez? The thought alone filled her with a mix of utter dread and hatred for Claude. Her lover seemed to notice and hugged her tightly, but Blanche couldn't calm down anymore.
Luciano didn't notice what she was thinking at all. He didn't meet her gaze and just tried to keep himself from shaking as he spoke, his honest feelings openly seeping out. “I wanted to scold him and make sure that he stopped that, but...” He exhaled and gazed at his cup as resignation took over his expression. “But back then, I just quietly put the papers into the cupboard again. Talking back never ended well, as I said. That was about five years ago, and there were a lot of documents, so I assume that he's been doing this for a long time. I tried to get him to burn the evidence when I got older, but for some reason, he never did that.” Luciano took a break to drink a sip, and his gaze wandered to the concubine. He just seemed more dejected now. “And then, two years ago, you, Lady Blanche, appeared. It struck me as odd that rumors about a nameless girl showing up and charming the emperor made my father come to the conclusion that she must be called Blanche. Even before he met you, he described your appearance and told me that you were one year younger than I was. That was pretty strange considering that he shouldn't have known who you are.”
Ah.
So, Claude had already discussed her presence in his plan with others then. He had been wanting to use her after killing her family and ruining countless others, just to get a chance to win power.
It wasn't like Blanche hadn't known this, but the reminder made her grit her teeth. It took a lot of effort to speak as she balled her fists. “He gave away that he knew me already. Then I presume he already hoped that he could use me without any issues.”
Luciano weakly nodded, averting his eyes again quickly as he resumed. “Yes. But I didn't question it until he began telling me about your past piece by piece and mentioned how you were working for Sefare. Back then, Father also called you naive and said that you believed that you could become empress. He claimed that we would only have to feed into your delusions and that you would make sure that the royal couple would divorce. Then getting rid of His Majesty would make Cedar the next heir. That much made sense, but treason is the most stupid thing one could try. Especially by using such an obvious method. So, I told Father not to get involved with that. He just replied that we wouldn't kill anyone but let the two factions have their war. I didn't understand that back then, but I also didn't ask. So, a year passed without anything special happening except for one thing.”
The noise of Leon's pen remained a constant companion while the duke's son explained. It seemed like the secretary was writing down everything that he could, and he was rather quick while doing that. There hadn't been much of a leeway for him, but he managed to write without ever asking for a pause.
Luciano confirmed that with a single glance and still waited for a moment before being sure that Leon had finished. Then he resumed. “Every few weeks, Father made a servant come to him and gave them a pouch with gold coins. I don't know where they brought it, but it seems like they didn't meet just one person but different people each time. Bribing people wasn't new to my father, so I shouldn't have cared. But I believe what made it strange to me was that I occasionally saw what Father handed over. Those were letters signed with the names of Your Majesty and the king of Ocrea.” He glanced at Theodore. “Father was a minister at that point, so I thought that he was maybe reading through your ideas first so that he could get rid of errors, but that wasn't the case. He wrote the letters himself and sent them along with the people that visited him. Then he received letters with the royal seal and ones with the Ocrean seal when they returned. He used some wax to glue the seals to the envelopes he used and somehow managed to reuse them like this. Of course, I wasn't sure back then. Now I know that he was the one that falsified the letters to Ocrea's king, but I only understood much later.” He stopped to drink another sip from his cup. It almost seemed like he was only doing it to give himself some time to think about what had happened and about his behavior.
Blanche was fine with a break as well. She met Theodore's gaze. Neither of them spoke, but they both knew that they had just heard more about Claude's attempt to create a war between Northern Ocrea and Artias. Needless to say, this was important. But from now on, they could only hear more. After all, the story wasn't over yet.
Luciano paused for a minute or so before he forced himself to continue despite clearly hating the topic. “Then, at the beginning of the last year, a few things changed. Father talked about how he and Sefare needed to have you, Lady Blanche, meet an important person.” He looked right at Blanche now, but he lacked all confidence as he narrated this. “That is why he tried to approach you, but you kept avoiding him, which was probably for the best. Around that time, you stopped writing letters. At first, no one was concerned. It was a bit unfavorable, but they assumed that you would just return to writing as you normally did. But you didn't do that. Then, a bit later, we met in the capital, and as soon as I told-” He didn't get further than that.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Theodore had already stiffened and whipped his head around to his lover. “When did you meet in the capital? Leon didn't mention that when you went to the jeweler's store.”
Blanche felt warmth rushing to her cheeks. It had been so long that she had completely forgotten about that incident. She had gone out without her lover's knowledge, and that could certainly worry him quite a bit. But she couldn't stay quiet now that Luciano had revealed it. She stammered around for a moment before sheepishly replying. “The hole in the palace walls. Before I told you everything, I might have sneaked out once. But I only went to the capital and met Lord Vasquez before returning immediately.”
Theodore paled at that. He took a moment before he gripped her shoulders and brought his face directly in front of hers. “Do you know how dangerous that is? You could have been hurt or worse. I promised that I would always let you out if you took some guards with you. Why didn't you just ask me? But you went out without me knowing it, so I couldn't even have reacted if something had happened!”
Blanche couldn't really explain that she had been sure that they would follow the novel's story back then. She had searched for an emergency route that allowed her to flee, but fortunately, it had never become necessary. But telling her lover that would be impossible. So, she had to come up with an excuse. “I...uhm... I was bored. And I wanted to go out by myself so that I could look around. Nothing bad happened, and...” She couldn't bring herself to finish when Theodore gave her that look. So, Blanche sighed and gave up. “I'm sorry. Back then, I wasn't thinking clearly and just wanted to try something new. That was stupid, and I know that I could have run into some serious trouble. But I only did it once and never again. And I told you about the hole, and it's closed off now.”
Theodore didn't reply immediately. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a tight hug. He took a few deep breaths before whispering to her. “You little troublemaker.” He buried his face in her hair. “Don't ever do that again, you hear me? Don't try something that dangerous. I could have lost you because of some random bandit.”
The concubine returned his hug and let him pull her onto his lap. “I won't do it again. I never even planned on doing it twice. So, everything is fine.” She patted his head and tried to ignore how much her heart ached as soon as she saw how much her lover worried about her.
The couple remained in that position for a while without saying anything. At some point, Theodore raised his head, but he didn't let her go. “At least I finally found out about that after a year. I should have been more careful about palace security from the very beginning, and...” He cut himself off and took a deep breath before talking at a normal volume again. “Please continue, Lord Vasquez.”
Luciano nodded and watched the couple with sight concern. “I apologize for mentioning that, but it was important for the story.” He waited a moment, and when he didn't receive a response, he resumed. “So...my father heard about us meeting and immediately told me to win you over in some way. You were supposed to think that we were on your side and trust us, and he thought that I was the best option to ensure that. He had said that before we met too, which was why I gave you the address of one of my stores, but after that meeting, he was much more certain about it. As always, I listened to him without thinking about it. After all, being nice and occasionally a bit intimidating wasn't much of a problem since it wasn't a crime. Then you visited the store along with Lord Astame. I heard that you liked extravagant jewelry, so I thought winning your trust would be done best by gifting you something you like.” A little smile appeared on Luciano's lips, but his eyes remained somewhat sad. “In hindsight, I should have known that you were much more intelligent than my father gave you credit for. Obviously, receiving a gift from a stranger, who was later revealed to be your lover's enemy, would be odd. I apologize for that.”
Ah, right. He had gifted her a necklace back when she had visited his store first.
Blanche almost felt a bit bad when she saw that Luciano truly hadn't had any bad intentions, so she replied. “The necklace was pretty though. In the past, I might have kept it. But as you said, we were enemies at that time, so it was impossible for me to accept it. Theo made me a replica, and the original was sold. If your intention was making me happy, I thank you.” She gave him a small smile, which he mirrored.
“That is good to hear then.” Luciano stopped to drink some of his tea before resuming his narration. “In any case, the former empress' birthday party came. Prior to that, my father reminded me to continue trying to gain your trust, but at that point, I guessed that it wouldn't be easy. You were too cautious of me, which was the right decision at that time. When I told him that, he just said that I had to double my efforts. At the same time, I should do something to cause the royal couple to divorce.” He lifted his head to gaze at Theodore. “The easiest way to do that was mostly making Your Majesty and Lady Duremont fight. And that always happened when you chose Lady Blanche over your former wife. So, I was told to create such a situation during the birthday party. I could only imagine one thing that might cause you to ignore the empress during her birthday. I tried to make you jealous, and it worked well. A long dance was enough to do that.” He scanned the emperor's expression while saying that. “I am terribly sorry, by the way. I may have tried to make Lady Blanche jealous of Lady Duremont in hopes of a fight developing. Luckily, that didn't work though.”
Distant memories of that ball came back to Blanche. She found it quite strange to look back at something that felt like it had happened an eternity ago. How much had changed ever since then. It was a bit strange. But Blanche didn't point that out and stayed quiet to let the story resume.
Luciano turned to the concubine again and quickly added more. “But then I saw that you were sick. I couldn't do much when you send me away though. When you fainted and had hallucinations, you looked so scared that I had to approach you even though my father told me to leave it alone to avoid attention. And then His Majesty helped you and carried you out of the room. Somehow, the situation had worked out as intended, upsetting the previous empress by making Your Majesty choose Lady Blanche over her. But that didn't seem to be enough for my father. After that, he told me to speak to the former empress. I was supposed to make her angry, but as you probably heard, that didn't go as planned. She was rather clear about the fact that helping a sick person was much more important than a dance. After that, I held back to avoid getting into even more trouble with the empress. I just focused on my own family and some business matters. In the end, I didn't do much until Sefare sneaked into the palace to meet you. He used a secret passage, which he later complained about being closed, so apparently, it was the one you used too.”
Theodore squeezed his lover's waist a bit tighter at that. He had heard about that already, but he probably wasn't too happy about it still. Blanche was just glad that he didn't get as upset as before again.
Luciano waited for a bit to let Leonard catch up with writing, which only took a few seconds. Then he could resume. “Sefare told us that you were throwing a tantrum and that you knew about our plan for some reason. Then Father explained that we should make sure that you returned to normal again. After all, our important ally wanted to meet you under any circumstances, and we couldn't keep delaying it. At that point, I asked who that person was. I didn't really expect to receive an answer, but I did. Apparently, Cedar wished for you to visit him in the south palace. I was a bit skeptical, but we tried our best to make you rethink your decision.”
Theodore stiffened again when he heard that and just pulled his lover even closer. She tried to calm him by patting his head, but it took a long time until he relaxed slightly. It was understandable. Blanche didn't like the thought of being invited by Cedar either. Especially since she knew that she would have visited him if she hadn't had the memories of the novel, the ones warning her that Sefare was an enemy, at that time.
In that case, she would have interacted with Cedar much earlier.
As she got lost in thoughts, Luciano had already continued his story. “But at that point, I was already sure that nothing we did would help since you were just too careful. So, we chose a different approach during the hunting festival. I would be the good one, and Sefare would threaten you. We explained that we wouldn't try to harm His Majesty, which you didn't believe at all. In the end, that didn't change much either.” His eyes wandered to the side a bit as he met Theodore's gaze with slight unease. “Unless one counts Your Majesty scaring my father and me near the end of the hunting festival. You truly seemed intimidating just by repeating my words to me to prove that you eavesdropped and telling me that you would cut off my hands if I came too close to Lady Blanche again.”
Theodore showed the other man a small smile. “And I was serious about that. You saved your limbs by staying away from her.”
Luciano mirrored his smile, but he looked a bit nervous. “I'm glad I listened. But I didn't have many chances to speak to her after the hunting festival anyway. It was time for summer vacation. As you already know, we went to Travuan. At first, it was a normal family vacation.” His expression darkened as he remembered the summer. “But at some point, my father stayed inside while reading a few books. Then he suddenly demanded that we travel to the swamps despite previously agreeing that we wouldn't go there. He somehow found a little store there and bought two things. Little vials with a blue liquid inside and some flowers. I only found out that this was poison later, but I returned home without knowing what it was. Then Cedar and the dowager empress somehow managed to invalidate their trial and got out of confinement. And almost overnight, my father changed his tactic. He said that he had much greater goals than just supporting the dowager empress and that I had to...” Luciano was obviously a bit embarrassed to voice this and averted his eyes while continuing. “To seduce Lady Blanche for that.”
That was the part they needed to listen to. Unpleasant memories of the drugging incident came back to Blanche, but she forced herself to stay calm. She had to listen and find out why Claude had decided on this part of the plan. This was the thing they hadn't understood yet after all. “I see. Continue.”
Luciano quickly nodded. “As you might have noticed, I didn't try that. I didn't really have any chance of winning your trust, but to be honest, I was a bit too worried about what Father was planning too. After all, it didn't seem to be logical considering the rest of his plan. Especially because you had a fight that made him lose his position as a minister afterward. Father was absolutely furious, but he still wanted me to get closer to you.” He paused and balled his fists. “Even while he met with some people that helped the dowager empress. A pair of brothers, I think. He gave them money and told them to scare someone. I only heard about the attack on you two later, and it seemed like my father was a bit too angry at the mercenaries being dead to have no connection to them.”
The assassination attack during the picnic in the forest. That was where Blanche had met a pair of brothers. Theodore had killed the assassins in self-defense while assuming that Camille had sent them. Seemingly, this hadn't been her idea though.
And the narration only gave away more as it continued.
Luciano added the rest quickly. “Afterward, Father seemed to use another approach. He sent a servant to some tree near the royal estate with a lot of money. A day later, I noticed that one of the blue poison vials was missing. From what I heard later, I could conclude that he poisoned you through that maid.”
Blanche remembered that too. Of course, she did. The memory made her grit her teeth as she remembered how Cedar had claimed not to have been connected to that incident. Maybe he hadn't lied. Had that event let him find out that Claude was acting without orders? Probably. That might be why Cedar had warned them later. But that didn't matter right now. Blanche forced herself to listen.
Luciano took a deep breath before resuming. “At that point, I got really scared. All crimes had felt so far away before, and then... Suddenly, I heard about assassination attempts my own father planned. I didn't trust that. So, I confronted him.” This time, he took a much deeper breath and tensed even more before he pressed out something he clearly hated remembering. “Father didn't feel bad. He just cruelly analyzed what this attack would gain him. He said that both outcomes regarding the poisoning would be perfect. Either His Majesty would believe that you were paralyzed and would turn away from you, or he would take care of you and neglect his wife. Both would have helped Father in some way. At least he thought that, but the situation for us only worsened. An anonymous person, whom I expect to be Your Majesty, kept finding out about my father's crimes. Father lost more and more money and power.”
This time, Theodore nodded. His expression was grim as he spoke up. “I did do quite a bit. I take that your father reacted negatively.”
Luciano gave them a small nod. “At some point, he finally snapped and told me what he truly wanted. He wanted to rule the nation. For that, the two heirs to the throne had to disappear.” A smile spread across Luciano's face, but it seemed like he was only trying to comfort himself with this. “I told him that he was insane, which earned me a rather harsh scolding. Still, I insisted that Father had no legitimization to sit on the throne. Then he began laughing and put his hands on my shoulders. He looked like he had lost every bit of his sanity at that point. I was terrified, but I didn't dare to move. So, I was paralyzed as I listened to him saying that I should become emperor. I was speechless, which was probably better since asking him whether he needed a doctor would have gotten me into a lot of trouble.”
Blanche just tensed more. Now they would finally hear the unfiltered truth about the third party's actions in this conflict. She listened carefully while trying to calm her pounding heart.
Luciano obviously hated the topic but continued as calmly as possible. “Father then explained that I was the only descendant of the dowager empress' bloodline if both Your Majesty and Cedar were gone. He claimed that we have enough money and influence to win the noble's trust. And that the citizens would rather have me with some barely logical legitimization than someone who had no relation to the royal family. In his mind, the heirs only needed to disappear, and then I would be able to rule. He didn't listen to me saying that I didn't want that or my warnings though.” Luciano paused for a bit longer this time. It seemed like he was both tense and relieved to open up to someone at the same time.
Theodore and Blanche didn't rush him. They just held onto one another as their frowns deepened while they waited to hear more about the mind of the person that had deemed all of this cruelty fine as long as he made his son the emperor after.
Luciano struggled a lot now, but he forced out the rest as well. “He kept holding onto that plan even when Prince Linden arrived. I barely knew what was happening, but Father kept meeting strange people and paid them so that they would do something suspicious in the palace. Then the tea party happened. When Your Majesty threatened us, we got really scared, and Father was extremely mad when he came home. The only good thing about that was him telling us what had happened. He had falsified letters to Northern Ocrea's king to cause a war. He wanted to make it seem like Your Majesty's incompetence had led to Prince Linden dying. Then a war with Ocrea would have followed, and the Estien family would have been weakened so that he would be able to do something to Cedar. But Prince Linden left without anything happening to him.”
And of course, that hadn't stopped Claude. That man had just changed his strategy.