If You Dare to Violate the Saintess - Chapter 14

Sophia chose her words with care. Isadora herself had suffered greatly over the previous Saintess during her years as Empress.

The late Emperor had taken no other mistress, yet he had visited the White Tower so often it had torn Isadora apart. Mercifully, no child had been conceived with the Saintess, but it was still something no wife should have to endure.

“Shall I look into the situation discreetly?”

Sophia maintained periodic contact with Clarisse, the Saintess’s handmaid. Isadora had long been uneasy about the Saintess’s existence.

“That would be wise.”

“Understood.”

Sophia bowed and withdrew. Isadora rubbed her temples, feeling the onset of a headache.

“The men of Orbien… Why must they all fall for bewitching creatures like the Saintess?”

To Isadora, the Saintess was nothing more than the Emperor’s concubine. Her sweet honeymoon had ended far too quickly, and years of watching the late Emperor traipse to the White Tower and back had left her thoroughly disgusted with the institution.

“This mistake must not repeat itself.”

Above all, the Emperor needed an heir. The Saintesses Lumines had served as the Emperor’s concubines, yet never once conceived a child. That was the one blessing for the Orbien imperial house.

But conversely, it meant Lucian had to produce an heir with Rosalyn.

And with the wedding night already gone awry, there was no telling whether husband and wife’s intentions would ever align.

* * *

Lucian did not open his eyes until well past midday, waking to a vicious headache. Whether he had stripped in his drunken state he could not recall, but he found himself naked and alone in bed.

“Water…”

The head chamberlain, who had been standing at the ready, swiftly poured from a clear glass pitcher and placed it in Lucian’s hand. He drained it in long, greedy gulps. Only then did his mind begin to clear.

“Where is Ezra?”

“Waiting outside. Shall I summon him?”

“Yes.”

Lucian gave a casual response and pulled on his trousers. Not long after, Ezra entered and bowed.

“I greet His Imperial Majesty..”

Lucian nodded, leaning back against the headboard.

“I drank too much. I’m feeling a bit out of it.”

The previous night, Lucian had drunk himself to the point of barely being able to stand. Even Ezra, who had served him his entire life, had never witnessed such a spectacle. Lucian customarily enjoyed his drink but never went to excess.

“I believe the imperial wedding celebrations simply led to one glass too many.”

Ezra studied Lucian’s complexion and carefully spoke again.

“The Empress Dowager is deeply concerned that the wedding consummation did not take place.”

At that, Lucian pressed his fingers to his temples. The mere mention of the imperial wedding only sharpened the throbbing in his skull.

“I report with the utmost deference that… The Empress Dowager has issued an order barring Your Majesty from visiting the White Tower until the wedding night has been consummated.”

Lucian’s brow furrowed sharply.

“How dare the Empress Dowager make such a decision on her own whim?”

Isadora’s precautionary measure only provoked his defiance.

“I am the Emperor of this realm. There is nowhere I cannot go as I please.”

Ezra’s expression grew troubled.

The Empress Dowager regarded the Saintess as a grave concern. But with Lucian bristling like this, Ezra could already sense things spiraling beyond anyone’s control.

“I… Her Majesty the Empress waited for you until dawn. She was reportedly weeping the entire time.”

“Every word I hear only adds to this headache.”

“However, the wedding night did not take place, and there was no sheet-burning ceremony atop the Empress’s Palace… The entire palace is in an uproar.”

Even Lucian could not dismiss that.

Honoring the betrothal to the princess of Bellotien was an Emperor’s duty. But his mind was already so filled with another woman that no room remained for Rosalyn.

In a drunken dream, he had taken not Rosalyn but Asteria. The dream had been immensely vivid, inflaming his lust. The image of Asteria’s doll-like pale, flawless face twisted in ecstasy, her beautiful lips parted, the vivid image lingered before his eyes still.

“Tell the Empress Dowager this: there is nowhere I cannot go, but I will resolve the matter of the wedding night one way or another. And tell her to concern herself no further with where I choose to set foot.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Ezra bowed properly and withdrew. Now he faced the terrible task of visiting the Empress Dowager’s quarters to deliver this difficult message.