Welcome To The Imperial Palace (12)

“Lady, His Grace has arrived.”

Henrik, who had been inspecting Alicia’s teacup, spoke.

As he set down the teapot and stepped back, the door to the study opened.

Alicia stood up to greet Reichardt.

“No need to rise.”

Reichardt walked directly to the tea table and sat down.

Henrik prepared tea and placed a cup before him.

“You’ve arrived.”

“Yes. Have you been well?”

Reichardt picked up his teacup and glanced at Henrik.

Henrik returned the look with a nod and withdrew.

As Alicia heard the door close, she set down her cup.

“When will the party reviewing the royal dot arrive?”

Her tone was slightly pressing.

“By tonight, or tomorrow at the latest. Is there such a rush?”

Reichardt had not received an exact due date.

Alicia shrugged her eyebrows.

“Did you stoke the royal siblings properly?”

She asked while casually sipping her tea.

“I dropped some hints.”

Reichardt replied with a displeased look.

“What exactly did you say?”

Alicia answered with a face that clearly didn’t trust him.

Irritation flickered across Reichardt’s face in response to her suspicion.

“I said that aside from His Majesty, the Baroness of Goggins might have had a ‘friendly companion,’ so they should brace themselves.”

“Well done.”

Alicia lifted her cup again, looking satisfied.

Lady Maude—the Baroness of Goggins, carrying the Emperor’s first child—was rumored to have had a lover besides the Emperor.

Perhaps it was possible.

A fallen noble, Alexi Tocqueville.

Originally, Alexi Tocqueville had sought out Lady Maude at the Manners’ residence and was caught by the Grand Duke of Tessen, who opposed her palace entry.

Now again, Tocqueville had been found near the residence while searching for Maude and captured by the Grand Duke.

In her previous life, he had been brought before the Emperor.

That encounter led the Emperor to grow suspicious of the Baroness of Goggins, given her shifted due date and alleged lover.

She consistently denied knowing Tocqueville or having any relationship with him.

Though the Emperor initially sympathized with the Grand Duke’s doubts, he eventually found them uncomfortable.

In the end, the Baroness gave birth to the Emperor’s unmistakably legitimate first child, confirmed by the royal dot.

The Emperor’s wavering doubts culminated in a subtle rift between him and the Grand Duke.

Currently, Alexi Tocqueville was being held in confinement.

This time, Reichardt had not allowed Tocqueville to meet with the Emperor.

He figured it wouldn’t be too late to sort the truth after confirming whether the child truly wasn’t the Emperor’s.

Tocqueville’s claims of being Maude’s lover were flimsy at best.

He claimed to have received a handkerchief embroidered with her initials and that he had gifted her a pendant engraved with an “A.”

“Well. I doubt the royal siblings will react much. My brothers are probably wondering if they ever ran into the Baroness of Goggins themselves. My sisters will just latch onto me again.”

Reichardt spoke indifferently, his face one of a royal thoroughly disillusioned with his own kind.

Alicia’s face turned blank as she listened.

“Have you… had no contact with Lady Maude yourself?”

She asked, voice thick with concern.

Reichardt’s brows furrowed slightly.

“None.”

He replied coldly.

“You might not remember, but maybe you saw her in passing?”

“His Majesty never allowed me enough time in court for that to even be a possibility.”

Alicia still didn’t look convinced.

“You don’t attend parties?”

“The reason I avoided coming to the capital was the parties. Even if I go, my seat is always within His Majesty’s line of sight. And what about you? Do you not attend parties? Why don’t you have any friends?”

There it was again—that cursed friend thing.

Alicia raised her teacup, dodging the question.

She didn’t say, “Who needs friends anyway.”

She remembered how, just the day after arriving at the Grand Duke’s residence, when she said friends were useless, Reichardt had looked at her like she was a pitiable neighbor.

Ironically, Reichardt had quite a few friends.

Royals were intentionally given peer friendships from a young age.

Though not close with all of them, he admitted to having a few good friends without hesitation.

He even mentioned having academy friends.

Though not every acquaintance counted, he still considered many of them true friends.

It was hard to believe.

Alicia shook off the unpleasant thoughts and turned her mind back to the Emperor and the Grand Duke.

The Emperor had doted excessively on his first child, Princess Dorothea.

She had been recognized as royalty on the day of her birth and named before midnight.

Her residence was granted close to the Emperor’s chambers within the main palace.

In contrast, the Baroness of Goggins—Dorothea’s mother—was treated as a nonentity due to questions surrounding her conduct.

At the same time, the Emperor had begun to keep a distance from the Grand Duke of Tessen, who had challenged her.

If she believed what Reichardt had told her in this life, the Emperor had once favored the Grand Duke more than any of his siblings.

But that changed during the conflict surrounding Dorothea’s birth.

Alicia had been trying to minimize the rift between them.

So far, everything was going according to plan.

Once the Baroness of Goggins delivered safely and Dorothea’s name was decided, Reichardt would meet with the Emperor in private.

At that time, he would present the facts regarding Alexi Tocqueville and his claims of a romantic relationship.

Since the child would have already been born and confirmed as the Emperor’s, this scandal would not impact matters as much as it would have before the birth.

Everything was falling into place.

And yet, Alicia was plagued by an unshakable anxiety.

Sometimes she would bolt upright in bed, comparing past memories with current events to reassure herself that nothing had gone wrong.

Knock, knock, knock.

Just as Alicia set down her empty teacup, someone knocked at the study door.

Dinner was ready.

“Come in.”

Reichardt spoke toward the door.

It opened, and Henrik entered with a pleased expression, bowing politely.

His gesture was far too formal for someone simply announcing that dinner was ready.

“Lady Alicia, you’ve received a letter.”

Henrik’s eyes glistened with joy as he looked at Alicia, his face full of pride and happiness.

He looked delighted that a letter had finally arrived for Alicia at the Grand Duke’s residence.

“A letter?”

Alicia was puzzled but not particularly surprised.

“Yes. From the Master of the Zephyr Clan, Princess Josephina.”

“What…?”

The smile on Henrik’s face didn’t waver as he delivered the letter.

He looked like an uncle relieved that his poor, friendless niece had finally made a friend.

Alicia stared blankly at the letter being offered to her and only then snapped out of it.

She took it with dazed hands and unfolded it quickly.

After reading the letter, Alicia looked at Reichardt with a face full of dismay.

“In case you’re suspicious, let me be clear—I didn’t say anything to Josephina.”

Reichardt said with a tone that was clearly defensive despite his words.

“Since His Grace isn’t watching over your social activities, perhaps His Majesty intervened. He is close to Princess Josephina, after all. Or maybe it was Her Majesty the Empress, considering how close you’ve become recently.”

Henrik spoke as if he himself had received the invitation.

He didn’t seem to notice the cold expression hardening on Alicia’s face.

He was genuinely excited, like someone proud that the dresses had been properly fitted in advance.

“……”

If Alicia had to name the one person she least wanted to meet right now, it would be—

Josephina Lirin.

At the moment, Josephina was, through no fault of her own, engaged to Gregory Barker in Alicia’s stead.

Was it her anxiety that had foreseen this invitation from the Zephyr Clan?

Gregory Barker’s affair with a married woman was bound to be discovered by her husband soon.

Alicia consciously combed through memories she had been trying to avoid.

Her hand instinctively reached up to clutch her head.

It wasn’t a figure of speech—her scalp actually felt feverish.

“This is a good opportunity to make friends.”

Reichardt said with a completely relaxed expression.

He casually assumed that Alicia was the kind of pitiful person who had no friends.

This damned man…

On Baden’s Main Street—some of the most expensive real estate in the capital—stood a massive slate-blue mansion.

Most of the street was filled with ateliers, workshops, and merchant guild stores, making the mansion stand out even more.

Rather than an extravagant shop, the slate-blue mansion evoked the arrogance of a noble family.

Towering gates. A never-ending, manicured garden.

Statues and elegant fountains were placed all around, visible even from afar.

This was the salon of the famed Zephyr Clan of the social world.

At the entrance of the mansion, a name was displayed like an atelier signboard.

Great West.

It was called the imperial palace of Baden’s Main Street.

The entire first floor of the mansion was connected to the garden and decorated like a gallery.

The largest room in Great West was lined with sofas and tea tables along the perimeter, with the center space left open.

The tables were spaced far enough apart that each group’s conversation remained private.

However, that didn’t mean one couldn’t hear their neighbors entirely.

“Sniff… hic… how could they do this to me?!”

A sorrowful cry rang out from the central window seat.

Though it wasn’t still dawn, it was still early in the morning.

The few clan members who had arrived early glanced over at the girl with shaking shoulders.

“Viviana?”

“She’s here early.”

“She can’t get into the palace, so of course she’d show up here.”

Ladies at nearby tables whispered discreetly.

They only murmured among themselves, stealing glances at the girl sobbing so pitifully—none dared to approach.

“To send a Zephyr Clan invitation to Alicia Rain! I’m so disappointed in Princess Josephina… hic…”

Viviana, whose eyes were already red when she arrived, cried even harder.

The lady sitting beside her tried to comfort her while glancing around nervously.

But her comfort was lukewarm at best.

“Lady Viviana. It’s loud. Please stop crying.”

Sunlight was streaming through the window.

A shimmer ran along the platinum-blonde hair that cascaded down the slender shoulders of the one seated with her back to the light.

Hair so pale and luminous it glinted brighter than the sun itself.

As Josephina spoke from her seat facing the window, Viviana immediately stilled her sobbing.

“J-Josephi…”

There were other blondes at the table besides Josephina.

Some had rich golden hair, others had locks mixed with dark and light shades, but in the presence of Josephina Lirin’s platinum hair, all of it faded.

“What do you expect me to do about a royal decree?”