Chapter 12 Part 5
Rahil, who had been watching Anais’s reaction, looked satisfied and began eating as well. Food would be served at the ball too, but it was difficult for the emperor and empress to actually go and take any. Filling one’s stomach with only drinks was annoying too.
Rahil moved his knife and said,
“The offer I made in the carriage is still valid, so take your time thinking about it. Something you want to have, or something you want to do… But a wish for someone else is invalid. It has to be something entirely for you.”
Anais chewed the eel and nodded. The palace attendants watched the two of them with pleased expressions. His Majesty’s feelings for Her Majesty the Empress were as clear as fire, so everyone had guessed them, but they had not been able to know Her Majesty’s heart.
In truth, they had even been nervous because His Majesty seemed to keep doing something wrong. But recently, the mood between the two of them had become softer, and it felt as if good news might come soon.
‘His Majesty likes Her Majesty the Empress so much too….’
It had not been long since both of them had taken off their contraceptive rings. Even if it was difficult right away, perhaps it would happen in the near future.
They decided to wait for that moment with happy hearts.
* * *
“…How much time is left until the ball? My dress? Is the preparation finished?”
As soon as Theodore heard that Angelica had returned, he rushed out of his office. He had been wondering what he should do if Angelica did not come back before the evening ball.
“Angelica!”
Angelica, dressed in light riding clothes, turned to Theodore with an apologetic look.
“I only meant to clear my head for a little while, but it took longer than I thought. I’m sorry. Did you leave after waiting a long time? What are people saying?”
Does she really think this is something she can smooth over by saying it only took a little longer?
The servant listening beside them glanced at Theodore’s expression. Surprisingly, his master looked as if he could forgive everything.
‘They say love makes people foolish.’
His master was exactly like that. A position of rank had to be accompanied by the dignity and behavior that suited it. The current duchess might be noble by birth, but her behavior did not match her position.
If she had at least been responsible, she might have been respected even more than she was now. Some of the maids seemed to like the duchess, but not everyone felt that way.
‘When you have a master like that, the people below suffer.’
In order to make up for what their master lacked, the maids and servants had to move even busier. Something that would be finished if the master did just one part sometimes required the people under them to do six, or even eight, times the work.
That was not something that could be smoothed over with affection for her alone. They were paid to do their work, so they would obey silently, but complaints could always leak out somewhere.
‘And it’s not as if this is the first or second time she has suddenly disappeared like this.’
Some of the knights assigned as the duchess’s guards had already begun to complain. Of course, those words had not yet reached the duke’s ears.
“Where were you?”
His expression was the same as before, but only the servant noticed the strange tone mixed into his voice. The duchess, however, did not seem to notice.
“Here and there. I just went wherever there weren’t any people. I’m sorry. By the time I came to my senses, it was already late….”
“What was so hard for you? You’re even resting from work right now. Is it difficult just to sit in your place as my wife?”
It was rare for him to voice his dissatisfaction without even giving the maids or the people around them time to withdraw. Angelica looked at Theodore with startled eyes.
She stayed silent for a moment, then opened her mouth.
“I’m sorry I was late for the event. I didn’t know it had gotten so late. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to attend.”
“…….”
A lie. He thought she had slipped away from the beginning because she had no intention of attending.
Because it would have been uncomfortable for her to see Rahil’s face. Because unfamiliar feelings had appeared inside her, he thought she had avoided it because she did not want to see Rahil looking at the empress. No matter how one looked at him now, Rahil was completely in love with the empress.
But what good would it do to question her about that now? Feelings that had appeared on their own would only try to burst out more the harder they were suppressed.
Once the Harvest Festival ended, he only needed to take her down to the ducal territory. Once she was far from Rahil, and once news reached her from the distant capital that Rahil and the empress were expecting a child, she would quickly give up those feelings.
‘We have to attend the ball. I can’t fight with Angelica now. If she misses this too after missing the ceremony, it will become gossip.’
It was not just any event. It was an imperial event. A national event hosted for the first time after the emperor had gained an empress. The Duchess of Calix absolutely could not be absent from it.
Especially when considering the rumours that had once circulated between Rahil and Angelica.
“…This is my first time being in such a responsible position, so many things are confusing for me. So please understand things like this sometimes.”
When he had proposed to her, he had promised to understand her freedom, her willful and free-spirited nature. Back then, he had loved those things about her.
If he had not seen the longing for Rahil in her eyes, he probably would have apologized to Angelica right here.
After all, he was the one who had tempted a bird that flew freely through the sky to come down to the ground. He was the one who had tempted her to enter the cage called the ducal mansion.
“It’s just that many things are still difficult for me.”
Angelica whispered and avoided Theodore’s eyes. Theodore pressed his lips together and looked at her, then took one step closer.
“Is that really all? There isn’t any other reason?”
“What other reason? It does bother me that things are not going smoothly between me and Her Majesty the Empress, but not to that extent.”
Angelica said it with a smile, as if it were nothing serious. At her words, questions rose up in Theodore’s throat.
Then why did you leave my side for hours? Why did you miss an important ceremony?
But Theodore already knew the answer to those questions. She was not acting this way simply because the position of duchess felt heavy.
‘It must be a mix of many things.’
The sudden weight of her duties as duchess, the sense of loss from realizing that Rahil’s love had become someone else’s, and the pressure of having to leave her days as a young lady behind and become an adult. All of those things must have come together to create this.
It was a problem anyone could face, and it was not something that belonged only to her. It only felt like a greater loss because she had so much.
‘In the end, it will pass.’
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