Chapter 27
The imperial guards following behind the emperor also clanked away in their armor, growing distant.
Her head spun from the extreme humiliation. When she came to her senses, Hilderud had flung the basket aside and was briskly heading somewhere.
Having frequented the imperial palace for a long time, she knew where Godfrid’s bedchamber was.
That was only natural, as she had seen countless scantily clad women loitering near his chambers, trying somehow to catch his eye.
Hilderud had hoped that the emperor’s refusal of all those temptations might not only be a simple lack of interest in women, but perhaps also fidelity to his betrothed.
“My lady, what business brings you here?”
“I have matters to attend to, so open the door.”
Two guards were posted at the door. One of them, who looked more seasoned, spoke up.
“His Majesty is not inside. And we cannot simply allow someone into the bedchamber…”
“Are you certain? Do you truly believe your words right now speak for His Imperial Majesty’s will?”
When Hilderud confidently pressed forward, the guard grew slightly flustered and closed his mouth. As she glared at him with raised eyes, the guard stammered and continued.
“Of course, Lady of Kärnten, you are the most noble among His Majesty’s guests. However, the bedchamber is an intimate space, so even so, without His Majesty’s permission…”
“Then go and ask His Majesty this instant and report back!”
The subtle implication carried by the words “intimate space” properly got under Hilderud’s skin.
She emphasized the authority of her uncle, the Margrave of Kärnten, once more, threatening that she could, if she so wished, decide the fate of a lowly soldier like him at any time.
Unable to withstand her forcefulness, the man eventually set off with reluctant steps to find the emperor. That left only the young guard with a face not yet touched by a beard standing before the door.
Hilderud, as if he was not even worth speaking to, motioned with her chin for him to step aside.
The young guard hesitantly opened his mouth.
“Er…”
“What? Move aside.”
“Sergeant Lucian said we must wait until he returns with His Majesty’s permission…”
“Did I not tell you to open it this instant? Do you take me for some nobody? I am the emperor’s betrothed. Are you ignoring my uncle, the Margrave of Kärnten, right now?”
The young-looking guard faltered and stepped back as she pressed him.
Hilderud scoffed.
As if that Lucian or whatever his name was, a guard who seemed to have nothing but age and no backbone whatsoever, would truly have gone to fetch the emperor.
Pushing the door open with all her might, Hilderud finally saw the small woman stretched out coquettishly on the bed, and her eyes turned inside out.
“You vulgar Aitalosian slave wench.”
The face, with its wide blue eyes open in considerable surprise, was infuriatingly fair. Hilderud charged toward the bed, intent on seizing that pale hair at once.
“Do you enjoy spreading your legs and luring in another woman’s man? What, did you think because he showed you a little kindness, you could snatch the seat of the empress yourself?”
“What in the world is going on?”
Before she could grab the silver hair, a woman had stepped in. She glared back with her green eyes raised.
“This person is under His Imperial Majesty’s protection and is a princess of Aitalos. You cannot treat her carelessly!”
“And what are you?”
Hilderud looked Melgardi up and down.
Her dress was plain, and her face was one she had never seen among the nobility. Only a slave would attend to a slave. She must be a maidservant working in the imperial palace.
Having figured this out in an instant, Hilderud decided to correct this wench’s manners first.
“Taringian though you are, you attend to that b***h? Know your shame!”
Slap-.
“Melgardi!”
Lena screamed. Before she could even try to stop it, Melgardi was struck across the face and had her hair seized.
The woman who had suddenly barged in wore a gold necklace and a velvet dress adorned with gold thread. Her attire alone made their difference in status glaringly clear, so there was no way she could fight back.
Lena’s entire body trembled uncontrollably. To her, Taringia was a terrifying place. The emperor, its ruler, was the man who had trampled and destroyed her life completely.
The Taringians all despised and insulted her. The great castle was full of such people.
And so Lena shrank even smaller.
Only Melgardi had treated her kindly. She was the one person who did not hate Lena simply for being Aitalosian.
If she could not save her, it felt as though the last thing that had allowed her to remain human would crumble away.
“Stop!”
She rose and shouted, but the woman paid her no heed. In her urgency, Lena had no choice but to seize the woman’s wrist.
“Let go.”
“I said stop!”
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