Chapter 87
* * *
About a month later, a strange rumor began circulating in high society. It was said that the Empress had not been appearing in public because she had not been feeling well lately.
And there was another rumor that followed—that the cause was a symptom that appeared after she spent the night with the Emperor a month ago.
With cautious hope, the nobles sent various gifts to the Empress’s palace. Under normal circumstances, the Empress would not have rejected their offerings, but this time she announced that she would be donating them for the benefit of the Empire’s poor.
However, it was said that among the nobles’ gifts, there were certain items she had accepted personally. These were none other than medicinal herbs known to be beneficial for pregnant women.
The rumor that the Empress was pregnant spread across the capital in less than a day, and all the nobles began preparing gifts to celebrate the birth of a new imperial heir.
Around that time, yet another new rumor surfaced—if the Empress, who was a Guide, were to bear a child, wouldn’t that child also be a Guide?
Upon hearing that, someone asked curiously,
“Then… could Lady Haisley also be a Guide?”
* * *
Since then, Calix had become so difficult to face that even in her fox form, Lea was reluctant to visit him. Even though she knew he would worry, she could no longer bring herself to go to him.
It felt like she was receiving the punishment all at once for having arrogantly believed over the past five years that she could somehow help him. That day when the past overlapped with the present, Lea realized how much she had forgotten about the things she had done before her regression.
The realization that she had merely asked for forgiveness in words, without any true remorse, left her deeply ashamed of herself.
She began recalling, one by one, the wrongs she had committed against Calix and others in her past.
From the burn she had inflicted on Crown Prince Calix’s face, to the criticisms and false rumors she had spread that caused him trouble, to the pitiful act of granting him a single guiding session like a handout while he was wasting away from deprivation—and finally, to pretending it was a mistake when she cut his long, beautiful hair.
Recalling even the most minor of offenses, she could now understand why he had executed her in the past.
Yet despite all that, she had the arrogance to think she could make things right just because she had been given a second life.
‘I should have just gone far away to live.’
What lingering attachment made her stay close and torment him again?
“Lady Haisley, another stack of invitations has piled up for this week. Are you planning to decline them all?”
Rose, overwhelmed by the sheer volume of invitations, asked in exasperation.
“Yes. I’ll decline them.”
Lately, Lea had lost much of her motivation. She had even turned down meetings with both Zion and Derek.
Not just them. She was rejecting all the Espers who had requested guiding sessions from her.
Perhaps it was because she had finally come face-to-face with the contemptuous gaze of Calix, which she had feared all this time.
Having curled up in her own palace, she had no idea what was happening outside.
* * *
“So… then. Are you saying it’s not just a rumor?”
Zion had gathered the retainers of House Grayson and brought up the hottest topic currently circulating in high society.
“I was personally chosen by Lady Lea a long time ago, and I’ve been receiving regular guiding from her.”
“Regularly?”
“But Her Majesty the Empress only grants guiding as a reward, doesn’t she? I’ve heard that frequent guiding is taxing on the body.”
“Yes, excessive guiding is indeed said to be harmful. But Lady Lea told me that if Espers receive guiding at regular intervals, they become more stabilized. And as time passes, the amount of guiding needed will gradually decrease.”
“…It’s not that I don’t believe you, Young Duke. It’s just that it sounds so fantastical, it’s hard to grasp.”
At Zion’s words, silence fell over the meeting room. Everyone seemed deep in thought. Then, the Duke of Grayson, who had been quietly listening until then, finally spoke.
“Does this have anything to do with why you resigned from your position as the Empress’s Knight Commander?”
“…Since it’s classified, I can’t share too much. But I began to believe that, just like Espers, Guides also need to have proper qualifications.”
“Qualifications, you say…”
“Yes, Father. For Espers, their qualification is their extraordinary ability. But in the Cantabria Empire, most Espers place great value on chivalry. They don’t wield their power recklessly toward ordinary people or Guides.”
“That’s true. It’s a tradition that has been passed down for generations. Our strength must only be used against our enemies.”
“Exactly. In the same way, I came to believe that Guides must also possess certain qualifications.”
Though Zion said no more, everyone in the room understood what he meant—that the Empress lacked the qualifications of a proper Guide.
“All Espers know this: being deprived of guiding is like walking a daily path of agony lined with thorns.”
At his words, the retainers all nodded in agreement.
“If I hadn’t experienced it for myself, I might have also accepted the lack of guiding as something normal. Because that’s simply how we’ve been forced to live.”
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