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Chapter 49 - I Have Returned, Empress
She felt murder in the air all of a sudden and tried to get to her feet. The source of the hostility acted faster, however; the blade of a black sword was touching her throat. “Wh-who…?”
Who was it that dared to enter the empress’ palace, trying to kill the empress’ lady-in-waiting…?!
Cecile let out an exclamation then, wide-eyed. “Your Majesty, what are you doing?”
Your Majesty? At those words, Tania rolled her eyes around and saw the man holding his sword at her. He had black hair, black eyes, and graceful looks… and he radiated an aura of immense intimidation that was by no means on account of his sword—it was the emperor.
He shot a glare at Tania before snapping up the strawberry in the empress’s hand for himself, and only then did satisfaction color his eyes. “I have returned, Empress. But why didn’t you come out to welcome me? And what’s this? Why are you feeding her by hand?”
Tania thought to herself as looked at the scorching fire in the emperor’s eyes. I heard the emperor fell in love with the empress, but nope. This is less ‘fallen in love’ and more ‘totally gone gaga’.
* * *
“Whew, seriously…”
The saintess looked at the imperial palace with admiration on her face. She had summed up the description of the place in a single sentence that went, ‘The Imperial Palace was the most magnificent and beautiful building on the continent.’ After that, she thought no more of it, yet that single sentence had ended up creating something so impressive. “4D is sublime.”
The word magnificent alone could not do it justice. The imperial palace was located in the north of the capital. Countless buildings big and small were connected back and forth, resulting in something that resembled a gigantic living organism.
Especially in moments like now when the sun was setting, it felt as if the palace had become another huge sun as its white walls became dyed red under the sunlight.
The saintess popped the fried snack she was holding in her mouth as she took in the sight. The crispy, well-fried flour and the powdered sugar sprinkled on it composed the perfect blend.
“Good thing I put in the setting of the best eateries of the empire being clustered up in front of the imperial palace,” she said and munched away at the snacks she bought for a long while. Only after finishing them, and pouring the leftover sugar and crumbles in the paper snack bag into her mouth, did she finally turn away to look at the name of the building before her.
‘Imperial Detention Center’
The saintess shrugged upon reading the name before muttering to herself. “I suppose I should go pick her up since I’ve enjoyed myself enough?”
* * *
“Milady!”
Irene turned to look at her maidservant, who ran over with a face that was happy to see her. “Hey! Why did you come only now!”
Unlike herself, who was feeling terribly upset all day long, excitement was plain on her maidservant’s face. Moreover, there was even something that looked like snack crumbs stuck by her mouth. The sight of it all annoyed Irene to the point of screaming. “Why are you here only now!”
“Did you forget? Milady said, ‘You won’t be able to enter the main palace with your low status anyway, so wait for me in the outer lobby. Actually, just go out of the palace and play while you wait. It’s been a while since I met His Majesty so it might take longer. We’ll have to talk to make up for the missed time, after all.’ and only gave me the outer palace entry pass before going off. Thanks to that, it was hard even getting into the detention center here. Nothing like this would’ve happened if you gave me the inner palace entry pass from the start.”
“…”
Every word she spoke was correct, but for some reason, it sounded like she was saying, ‘It’s your fault you ended up like this.’ and that irritated Irene. She had hired this girl of unknown origins for her mysterious knack of figuring out her mood and for her subservience, but now it seemed the time had come to fire her.
However, just as Irene was about to cry out ‘You’re fired!’, a paper bag was suddenly and smoothly stuck out in front of her.