Empty (8)

“You told me not to ride a Lusa.”

Alicia muttered with her lips closed so only Reichardt could hear.

As if he’d heard, Reichardt gave Alicia a radiant smile.

He lifted a hand and waved, acknowledging her.

“Honestly, I swear—”

Alicia muttered meaningless words loaded with fury, then put on an innocent smile.

Karan, who had been too startled by the Lusa to move, stammered as she approached Alicia.

“Y-Your Grace.”

“I’m sorry, Karan. His Grace has come, so I should go. I’ll come again.”

“I will always be waiting for you, Your Grace.”

Alicia gave Karan a light farewell and left the salon.

“Alicia.”

The people left inside the salon stayed there, holding their breath as they peered outside.

Because such a ferocious presence had appeared, they weren’t just pretending not to stare and stealing glances as usual—they were openly gawking.

It wasn’t much different outside the salon, either.

Everyone stood far off to one side, watching the Grand Duke and the demon beast he had brought.

Alicia walked straight into the heart of the confusion.

“Your Grace.”

Alicia acted as if she couldn’t see the Lusa at all.

“I missed you, Alicia.”

Reichardt said it sincerely.

Alicia did not, cluelessly, say, ‘We separated an hour ago.’

“Me too.”

Reichardt found it amusing that Alicia tried to behave like an angelic grand duchess specifically when people were watching.

As Reichardt stepped up to Alicia with a smile, he kissed both her cheeks.

Gasp…!

The watching gazes wavered in flustered shock.

The Grand Duke of Tessen was famous for ruling a land of death, but his blunt personality was even more famous than that.

They said there was no one among the royals as unsociable as he was.

A man who wouldn’t even hold his bride’s hand as they walked.

A man rumored to be a wall of iron who wouldn’t even acknowledge a woman speaking to him, whether she was a noble madam or a young lady.

That man walked up to his fiancée with a smile and kissed her.

Reichardt dropped to one knee before Alicia and looked up at her.

-No way.

-T-That can’t be!

The watching gazes were shaken once again.

As if to smash everyone’s disbelief, Reichardt took Alicia’s hand and kissed it.

“My lady, Alicia. Will you marry me? Please—grant me your permission.”

Reichardt proposed with perfect courtesy.

As if it were his first time, he put careful sincerity into every single word.

“I grant it.”

Alicia answered with a smile spreading across her whole face.

A few people, listening with bated breath, covered their mouths as if they might scream.

One young lady stamped her feet as if she were the one being proposed to.

Someone else ran off at full speed to flee the scene— probably to spread the news.

That evening, the imperial capital, Baden, buzzed nonstop with talk of the Grand Duke of Tessen’s proposal.

A state wedding.

Excited voices anticipating a royal wedding for the first time in ages did not die down.

Some people were already discussing where the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess would stay after the marriage.

The expectation and excitement spread beyond Baden to the entire Empire.

The next day, morning.

Alicia received an imperial order to enter the palace.

The Emperor summoned Alicia to a Grand Real Session.

The audience chamber was vast and magnificent.

The Emperor’s seat of honor stood at an impossibly high place.

“Lady Alicia.”

From that dauntingly lofty seat, the Emperor’s voice rang with majesty.

“I pay my respects to Your Majesty the Emperor.”

Alicia offered her courtesy with demure grace.

“Welcome to the imperial palace.”

The Emperor, who carried the air of a ruthless absolute ruler, offered a gentle greeting.

But he still sat high on the dais, and Alicia stood alone in the center of the enormous chamber.

“It is an honor beyond measure that Your Majesty welcomes an unworthy person such as myself.”

Only three people were in the audience chamber.

The Emperor, Reichardt, and Alicia.

By the Emperor’s command, Reichardt stood near the dais.

Alicia and Reichardt exchanged only a brief greeting with their eyes.

“Lady Alicia, there is no need to humble yourself so. If you marry Reichardt, you too will be part of the imperial family, will you not? Do not keep such distance among family.”

The Emperor said warmly, wearing a smile like an angel.

“To hear you speak of family—what gracious words.”

Alicia offered another careful bow.

The Emperor watched her innocent, moved-looking face for a moment.

Silence dragged on.

“…”

Reichardt, standing still like a statue, looked up at the Emperor.

The Emperor raised his brows at the gaze directed at him, as if to say, What’s the problem?

Alicia still remained lowered, flawless in her posture.

Reichardt’s stare sharpened into reproach.

At the golden-eyed urging, the Emperor clicked his tongue.

“Reichardt. What are you doing, not offering the lady a chair? Lady Alicia, my apologies. It seems my younger brother was so pleased to see you in the palace that he forgot his duties.”

Alicia did not particularly care about the elegant words that drifted down from the dais.

A petty little bout of nerves like this was nothing.

“Your Majesty, to grant me the honor of sitting in the audience chamber—I hardly know where to place myself. I am overwhelmed, truly overwhelmed.”

Alicia expressed her gratitude with refined poise.

“…”

The Emperor took Alicia’s pleasantries for granted.

Rather, he was faintly displeased by how unshakable she was as a visitor.

Reichardt brought Alicia a chair and returned to his place.

His face held no expression as he stepped back.

“I hear Reichardt proposed to you?”

The Emperor spoke lightly.

As if it were nothing.

The attitude was clear: he was pleased, but it was not something terribly significant.

Alicia smiled shyly.

“Yes. I received His Grace’s proposal.”

The Emperor did not fall for the shy smile on the innocent face.

“When would it be best to hold the wedding? A state wedding is an imperial matter, but we should hear the parties’ wishes as well. Is there anything you especially desire?”

At the leisurely question, Alicia looked to Reichardt.

The Emperor was about to gesture elegantly, as if to say Reichardt’s wishes didn’t matter— when—

“I wish to decide the wedding schedule in consultation with Your Majesty. I know a state wedding is the Empire’s affair. Before finalizing the marriage, I would like to request an adjustment of the marriage conditions, Your Majesty.”

A bold demand that did not suit her innocent face echoed through the chamber.

“An adjustment of the marriage conditions?”

The Emperor’s smile cracked for an instant, then returned.

“Your Majesty, I trust you have heard of the incident at the Great Temple.”

Alicia slowly erased the smile from her face.

“What does the Great Temple have to do with a marriage to Tessen?”

The Emperor drew a brilliant smile, deeper and brighter than before.

A dazzling smile.

Alicia wondered how many people had stumbled and fallen before that cunning expression.

“It is intimately connected, Your Majesty. Because from this moment, I intend to connect the two events—and turn them into a very big problem.”

Alicia shattered the radiant smile she’d been wearing.

She wasn’t smiling, yet she somehow looked as though she were smirking.

By contrast, the Emperor was smiling, but looked angry.

“A very big problem?”

Alicia admired the Emperor’s sturdiness, the way he could pull his lips up without wavering.

“Your Majesty, how much do you know about the Great Temple’s problem?”

“I have not yet received the formal report, but I know as much as I need to know.”

The Emperor answered without hesitation.

“There are still many monsters left in the Great Temple, Your Majesty.”

“I have considered that as well. It is a major issue, but it has nothing to do with your marriage to the Grand Duke of Tessen.”

Faced with an unreadable situation, the Emperor accelerated the pace of the conversation.

“How can it have nothing to do with it, Your Majesty? The ones who will go beat those monsters to death are me and His Grace. And yet—I don’t mind leaving the monsters there.”

Alicia spoke with breezy arrogance.

If there were a threat hidden in banter aimed at the Emperor, she could be dragged away and killed on the spot.

“What did you say?”

Alicia sank deep into the chair and sat at a slant.

“I said I don’t mind leaving the monsters in the Great Temple.”

With her neck tilted, she looked remarkably lax.

“Lady Alicia—are you saying you will stand by and let innocent people suffer!”

The Emperor tried to project the majesty of an absolute ruler.

“Your Majesty. Is not what happens on the Great Temple’s lands a matter for the Great Temple and the imperial house to take responsibility for? Who can demand such a burdensome task of me? Is it truly something worth risking my life and suffering for? This unworthy person does not believe so.”

Alicia’s posture was like a back-alley thug who’d come to collect a debt.

What she was saying was worse than violence.

“Imperial royals and nobles have duties. In proportion to the noble lives they have lived—”

At the Emperor’s words, Alicia shook her head with a little jingle-jingle motion.

“Your Majesty, why must I be the one to bear that duty? Because I’m capable? Then let’s do this. From this moment on, I know nothing about any of that. Please order the royals and nobles, who are living noble lives, to fulfill their duties.”

Alicia’s words were shameless obstinacy.

“I have not commanded you regarding that.”

“So Your Majesty did not. Then in the future as well, will you give no such order regarding that?”

The Emperor would swindle, but he would not lie.

“Lady Alicia.”

At the Emperor’s call, Alicia did not answer—she simply continued.

“Your Majesty. This unworthy person wishes to marry His Grace and live modestly. I do not desire much. Please promise me just one thing. Say that you will not issue any order to Tessen regarding anything connected to hell. Other than that, I have no further wish.”

The Emperor fell silent.

Alicia continued in a smooth voice.

“Think about it, Your Majesty. The moment we marry, my husband is sent off to a land crawling with monsters to fulfill the duties of royal blood. What if something goes wrong? And the Great Temple’s lands were the place I have seen aboveground with the greatest number of monsters living there. When would that task ever end? To marry only to become a widow—just imagining it terrifies me.”

Alicia rubbed her arms and put on an exaggerated shiver.

Seeing that, the Emperor’s lips curled up into a smile.

“Lady Alicia, do you not trust the Grand Duke?”

Alicia openly snorted at the Emperor’s bravado.

“Your Majesty. For six hundred years since the Empire’s founding, not a single hell-castle has been resolved. You ask if I don’t trust His Grace? No—I don’t trust the royals who failed to seal even one castle for six hundred years. While living noble lives, why could so many royals not handle even one task?”

Coldness settled over the dais.

“Insolent.”

“Insolent?”

Anger gathered on Alicia’s face.

“Lady Alicia—how dare you!”

The Emperor raised his voice in earnest.

Alicia did not back down.

“Your Majesty, have you forgotten how many women became the Grand Duke of Tessen’s bride and were offered up as sacrifices because the royals were incompetent? Or do you believe that for the sake of the royals’ peaceful lives, that degree of sacrifice is only natural!”

The Emperor’s face hardened into ice.

He looked at Reichardt.

Reichardt met his gaze and nodded.

“Lady Alicia. Do you not know you must never tell me that you know such things? Someone as clever as you. Do you think you can learn the imperial family’s secret and leave this place safely?”

No emotion could be heard in the voice that descended from the dais.

“Your Majesty. Are you threatening me? Do you think I’m the only one who knows the imperial family’s secret?”

The Emperor’s face rippled with shock.

“You…”

Alicia’s face remained calm.

“Do you feel sorry for Ingrid? Do you truly believe you sinned against her? And you know that telling me to marry His Grace is telling me to live the same life as Ingrid, don’t you? Were you pleased, deceiving me? Is forcing a marriage with misery already scheduled for His Grace truly how the imperial family ‘loves’ its own?”

The hand gripping the armrest on the dais trembled.