LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 7
Chapter 7 Nonsense
‘Not someone else, but someone dear to the Empress Dowager.’
She was angry that she had left such an unseemly task entirely to her.
This was too much.
She handed the request back to the servant.
“Tell him that Leuven Palace is not available for rent.”
“It’s… I understand, Your Majesty.”
With a determined look on his face, the servant finally gave up and left the office.
Half a day had passed since the servant was sent away.
Sepia teased the nib of her pen.
It was a pointless exercise, as her work was already done.
She was halfway there when.
“… Ahh!”
The sharp nib scraped across the back of her hand and down her fingers.
A stinging pain shot through her and a trickle of blood soaked the paper.
“Ouch.”
There was more blood than she expected, and she was embarrassed.
She quickly wrapped her handkerchief around the wound and the bleeding stopped, but the pain lingered for quite a while.
‘Should I just go back?’
At this point, she thought it best to finish work early today.
It was then that Sepia was about to call her maid.
There was a commotion outside the door.
‘Why is it so loud?’
At that moment, the door to the drawing room swung open.
There stood Sepia’s husband and his lover.
‘Are they really here?’
She had been worried that they wouldn’t come, but she never thought her suspicions would be true.
She was almost overwhelmed.
But on the other hand, the situation was ridiculous.
‘I’m sure Demios knows what the Palace means to Viscountess Swan.’
If he’s come all the way here knowing that…
It was not fair to keep the Emperor waiting.
Sepia rose from her seat and asked.
“What can I do for you, Your Majesty?”
“The Empress should know better.”
Of course she knew better.
The problem is that he giving ridiculous orders.
Sepia steeled her resolve once more.
“Leuven Palace is not available for rent, Madame Swan is already in residence.”
The Empress Yerdial had died of an unexplained illness.
It wasn’t contagious.
But her flesh was rotting away, and even the Emperor and her children refused to approach her.
It was Viscountess Swan who cared for the Empress until the end.
After her death, Madame Swan wanted for nothing.
All that was left was Leuven Palace which was rented out indefinitely.
She had done enough to deserve the favor of staying there.
‘I wondered if there was a political motive for sending Madame Swan away.’
Why now?
Madame Swan herself was far from political in the first place.
So there was only one reason.
‘It must be for Lady Titian.’
He wanted to give the woman who bore his name the best treatment.
She had known long ago that she would come to the Imperial Palace.
But to covet the Palace of one who already owns it, and to do so in the name of Demios.
Her gaze fell to Titian.
She flinched under Sepia’s gaze and ducked behind Demios.
Demios glanced down at Titian, who had his arm around him, and then at Sepia.
“You don’t even invite we to sit down. Is it that you don’t like Titian that much?”
It’s not a question worth answering.
Who can be kind to her husband’s lover?
Discomfort is a natural reaction.
But instead of following the natural course of events, he had already begun to see her as a wife who had been duped into speculation.
This left Sepia with only one option.
Sepia speak at Madame Lemodie.
“Tea, please.”
“Ah, yes, Your Majesty.”
The maid hurried out of the office.
In the meantime, Sepia sat alone at the head table, and the two of them sat side by side on the sofa.
Soon three cups of tea and refreshments were on the table. But no one was about to touch them.
Demios’s gaze swept over Sepia and landed on the back of her hand.
“What happened to your hand?”
“I just scratched it accidentally.”
Sepia wrapped her hand around the wound.
Titian listening to their conversation, leaned her head against Demios’ arm.
When she acted as if she was scared and uncomfortable in this position, Demios’s gaze snapped back to her.
“Titi. It’s not just the two of us, so straighten up.”
“Yes. I’m Sorry.”
She had a new nickname.
It made Demios’s voice sound even more affectionate.
After tending to Titian, he turned to face Sepia again.
She soon forgot about her injuries.
“In that case, you must have greeted her. Today, I came to ask you a favor.”
Sepia sighed, unable to hold back any longer.
Demios’s brow narrowed, but he had to say something.
“I told you it was unreasonable. It’s Madame Swan’s residence, not anyone else’s.”
That should have been enough to get the point across.
This was a woman who had cared for Demios’s birth mother to the end, and was now living out her days.
She sure he has more than a passing acquaintance with her.
But it was purely wishful thinking on Sepia’s part.
“Perhaps Madame Swan can stay in another Palace.”
“…You want me to tell Madame Swan to move Palaces because of His Majesty’s government?”
Her own mother’s benefactor and no one else?
It was ridiculous.
But Demios seemed to think otherwise.
“I don’t know what the problem is, and I don’t mean to throw Madame Swan out of the Palace, but I doubt the Empress is just making a fuss because you doesn’t want to give the Palace to Titi.”
And again.
He turned Sepia into a center for speculation.
But it didn’t stop there.
“Again, it is not a sin for Titi to bear my name. How can you call yourself Empress of the Empire if you persecute the innocent? I doubt the Goddess would approve.”
Innocent.
And the qualities of an Empress.
The words, which she had hoped Demios would not utter, drove a spear into Sepia’s heart.
She desperately suppressed the emotion that ran through her veins.
She couldn’t stop the redness from her eyes.
“… Doesn’t make sense.”
“What?”
The question didn’t faze Sepia.
She could only stare down the pain that lodged deep in her chest.
Demios was about to speak up. Titian put her arm around him and held him tightly.
“Your Majesty…”
Titian’s eyes were wet with tears.
From the moment Sepia had mentioned the word government.
Demios, noticing, rubbed the corners of her eyes.
Then Titian began to sob, thick tears dripping down her cheeks.
“It hurts so much.”
Her violet eyes were filled with tears that made her look vulnerable.
Demios, who had been soothing Titian, glared at Sepia.
“The government. How rude of you to say that in front of Titi.”
Once again, it was Sepia who was the offender.
But a word had to be said.
“Is there any other way to say it than that word?”
The Beastman have only one goddess, Yecasia.
Yecasia is said to have given birth to a pair of wolves called Drodians, from whom the current royal family is descended.
It was also unprecedented for the name to be given to a male member of the royal family other than a married couple.
‘So she is neither a mistress nor a lover.’
Not a wife, but a woman through affection.
What else is there to call it but government?
Demios shut his mouth, as he should. He hadn’t said anything wrong.
His mouth twitched, as if he had nothing to say but wanted to retort.
Titian placed a hand on Demios’s breastbone.
“Your Majesty, I’m fine, don’t argue with me. The government… is just as the Empress said it would be.”
She smiled bitterly.
Her snow-white lashes fluttered as she pitied her plight.
Demios gazed down at his sorrowful lover, and his eyes gleamed with determination.
“This is the second time, Empress, that you’ve pointed your sword at Titi.”
She felt like a victim in a court of law.
A sinner with no one to defend her.
“It is not a sin that Titi bears my name. If you have no intention of apologizing, then give her the Palace. It’s the only thing the Empress can do.”
He was determined to get the Palace, no matter what.
Sepia bit down hard on the flesh in her mouth.
As she looked at him, Titian rubbed her cheek against Demios’s chest.
“Your Majesty, I really don’t mind.”
“But did you not love the camellias that bloomed there?”
“I did, but… I was greedy, I suppose, and I didn’t expect the Empress to be so upset.”
Titian dropped her gaze when she saw Sepia’s eyes on her.
She hid her face in Demios’ chest, as if she didn’t dare to make eye contact.
‘I offended you?’
Sepia had never been one to raise her voice in public.
She wasn’t angry, just stating the facts.
Demios sighed again, this time trying to soothe her.
“Empress, Titi hasn’t been well since she was born, you can tell by looking at her.”
Sepia knew.
Albino born in the wild are fragile, easy to spot, and quickly killed.
But not all individuals were like that.
If an albino could be the Empress of a herd, was it really that weak?