“Forgiveness, my foot.”
“Then I wish you a comfortable rest. If there is anything inconvenient, please call for me at any time. I have instructed them to ensure you are treated with due respect.”
“…….”
“Then.”
After speaking in a polite tone, she left the room.
But the moment Dian Poitiers stepped out and the door closed, the look in Adele’s eyes as she stared at it turned fierce. Wasn’t that something the mistress of a castle would say to a mere visitor? Adele ran a hand through her hair and muttered as if spitting the words out.
“So the emperor’s mistress comes to greet me the moment I arrive? How ridiculous.”
An uneasy feeling surged up toward the emperor she had never even seen—her future husband. Adele murmured in a grim voice,
“Karl Ulrich Echmont….”
＊ ＊ ＊
Once the future empress arrived in the capital of Echmont, the wedding preparations proceeded at lightning speed.
Adele spent the entire day busy under the hands of the maids. From massages meant to loosen her muscles, to skincare, to hair treatments—there was no end to the care. Enjoying the sensation of her whole body growing pleasantly languid, Adele decided to think of it as simply handing herself over to them entirely.
“Next is nail care.”
“Do as you like.”
“Next is toenail care.”
“Do as you please.”
Whether the emperor came or not, whether his mistress came by to needle her or not—loosening her body came first. After traveling by carriage and ship for two months, even after a full night’s sleep her entire body still felt stiff and waterlogged.
“How long did you say until the wedding?”
“Yes, one week remains.”
“Hm. A week is enough.”
“For what, Your Highness?”
“To recover my body.”
“?”
“What’s for lunch?”
“As you requested, we are preparing a well-cooked meat dish.”
“Good. Finish up a bit faster. I need to eat something.”
＊ ＊ ＊
A week passed quickly. During that entire week, the emperor did not visit the future empress even once, and the rumor had already spread throughout the imperial palace.
“So the great romantic has arrived,” Adele remarked dryly about the situation.
“A paragon of pure devotion, indeed.”
She also vaguely sensed that Dian Poitiers was effectively managing all affairs of the imperial palace. Since she had not yet received the title of empress, Adele could only grasp this through intuition.
“So I’m the stone that rolled in later, is that it.”
Adele muttered this while gazing at the delicate sleeves of her wedding dress. A pure white wedding gown, lavishly adorned with gold thread. Just then, a maid brought over the crown she was to wear.
“You will enter wearing this.”
What the maid revealed upon opening the case was a platinum crown that gleamed silver. The maid carefully placed it on Adele’s head and then held up a mirror. Adele stared at her reflection for a moment before lightly furrowing her brow.
“Is it not to your liking?”
“Is there no gold crown?”
“A gold crown, you say—”
“I suit gold better than silver. There’s still time before the ceremony. I want to change the crown. Go and bring a gold one.”
When the maid hesitated, Adele coldly removed the crown from her head herself. In the end, the maids put away the crown Dian had chosen and ran to the imperial treasury to look for a gold one.
＊ ＊ ＊
Meanwhile, Karl was also being dressed in his ceremonial attire, with Dian attending to him. From the fabric to the design, everything about his outfit had been personally chosen by Dian.
As Dian’s slender hands trembled while fastening the buttons, Karl caught her hand.
“Dian.”
He called her in an unusually gentle voice. Dian’s sky-blue eyes wavered, then filled with tears that began to fall one after another.
“I’m sorry.”
She carefully rested her forehead against the emperor’s chest. She wondered if he would push her away—but as expected, he remained still.
Karl looked down at her small golden head. The pressure against him was so light that he worried she might break if he so much as tapped her.
She reminded him of someone else—someone who had once been just as small and fragile. Someone he had wanted to protect from the name “Empress,” yet also wanted to turn away from.
When he heard that a new mistress had entered the long-vacant Empress’s Palace, he grew so sensitive that he could barely sleep. The attendants cautiously suggested that he should at least meet the future empress once, but Karl refused every time. Just thinking of the title “Empress” made his stomach churn.
Then Dian, who had been resting her forehead against his chest, slowly lifted her head to look at him. She was trembling as she cried.
“Don’t cry.”
Dian shuddered at his low voice.
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty. Truly… truly, I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t cry. I promised myself I wouldn’t be like this, but the tears won’t stop.”
Dian pressed her lips to those of the emperor in his ceremonial attire. Once again, he did not move. His lips tasted the salt of her tears.
“Her Majesty the Empress is beautiful.”
When the emperor did not respond, Dian spoke words she knew would force a reaction.
“She asked me if I was a maid.”
At that, Karl’s body stiffened. Dian, pressed against him, immediately noticed the change. She swallowed as she rested her forehead against his chest.
Karl grasped Dian’s shoulders and pushed her away slightly. Staring at her with a cold, merciless expression, he pressed her.
“Didn’t you say that nothing happened that day—the day you went to greet her?”
“Nothing happened. Being asked if I was a maid was only natural.”
“So you heard such words.”
“No, Your Majesty. It’s just that I… I…”
Tears welled up again in Dian’s eyes and spilled over. Her tears soaked the emperor’s ceremonial clothes.
“I couldn’t answer that question at all. I… I dared not give her any answer.”
Dian lifted her hand and slowly caressed Karl’s face.
“I only need Your Majesty… Would that be possible? I… I only need Your Majesty. Perhaps I’m being too greedy.”
At the end of her words, Dian’s breathing grew ragged. These were the moments to which Karl Ulrich reacted most dramatically. Startled, he quickly grabbed her shoulders.
Her weak body often collapsed like this. Even that reminded him of his mother.
“Dian. Slowly—slowly, breathe.”
“H—huff.”
Clinging to Karl’s arm, Dian struggled for breath, but soon her legs gave out and she sank down.
“Is there no one outside?! Hurry and summon a physician, hurry!!”
At the emperor’s urgent shout, chaos instantly erupted beyond the door. In a fading voice, Dian murmured a spell-like plea as she clutched him.
“You mustn’t abandon me… Please… don’t abandon me, Your Majesty….”
With those words, Dian finally lost consciousness.
＊ ＊ ＊
Did he intend to make a fool of me?
Dressed in her wedding ceremonial attire, Adele stared straight ahead with icy eyes.
The murmuring grew louder as time passed, yet there was no one to ask what was happening, and no one to explain it to her. She found herself missing the people she had left behind in Gottorf.
The nobles thoroughly scrutinized the foreign princess who had crossed the sea alone. Thanks to an emperor who was late to his own wedding without warning or notice, ridicule even mixed into their gazes. It felt as though she had been thrown unarmed into the heart of enemy territory.
The more so, the clearer you must keep your wits, Adelaide.
When she even heard laughter among the nobles, Adele clenched her teeth, tightened her abdomen, and straightened her back.
—
“Princess. Remember that where you are going, the only one you can rely on is yourself. Your honor and your dignity are things only you can protect.”
—
Holding her hand as she departed, her nurse had said those words through tears.
Adelaide took a deep breath in and out, then turned to look at the attendant standing nearby. At the sudden movement of the doll-like future empress, the nobles fell silent all at once. The future empress flashed her golden eyes and issued a firm command in a clear, ringing voice.
“Since I will also need to sit while waiting for His Majesty to arrive, bring me a comfortable chair.”
The nobles attending the wedding are all seated—why should I be the only one standing? How undignified.
Adele commanded with a dignified expression, and the attendants hurried off to fetch a chair.
The future empress showed no sign of curiosity as to why the emperor had not come, or when he might arrive. She even ordered that the chair be placed not at the entrance of the grand temple, but before the high priest.
Once she sat in a position facing the entrance of the temple, the relationship between the empress and the nobles instantly reversed. As her brilliant golden gaze slowly swept over where the nobles were seated, a heavy silence descended upon the once-noisy temple. Her calm eyes, surveying the assembly with ease, paused briefly at one spot.
