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Chapter 05
Well, if Lana hadn’t been strong, she wouldn’t have been able to pull Anise out of the lake by herself. On the day Davin was away and Anise got into an accident, it was Lana who rescued me from the lake and gave me first aid.
“Miss, please go upstairs. I’ll make something delicious and bring it up.”
Lana spoke kindly to me before disappearing into the kitchen with the bag of fruit, and I headed with Davin toward Anise’s study on the second floor.
Since the windows had been shut while we were out, the air inside already felt a bit stuffy. Perhaps thinking the same thing, Davin first opened the windows for ventilation, then placed the documents he had brought from Mr. Smith’s office onto one side of my desk. Sitting at the desk, lazily swinging my legs back and forth, I picked up the newspaper Lana had brought that morning.
Hmm.
As I flipped through the paper, I frowned. Once again, there wasn’t a single article about everything I had gone through.
The emperor’s fiancée nearly died, yet no one even mentioned it? We even handed the criminals over to the police.
This definitely isn’t a normal situation.
Even the servants who had quit working here should have been gossiping outside, yet not a single rumor had spread. That silence itself was suspicious, and the police visiting this mansion also seemed questionable.
Every time we captured assassins who had broken into the estate and handed them over, a police officer I had never seen before would show up. That officer would panic upon seeing the assassins, say they would request immediate backup, and then disappear without a trace. Then the next time, yet another unfamiliar officer would appear.
Seeing the same thing happen every time we reported an incident made me suspect the enemy had infiltrated the police as well.
Davin, noticing me glaring at the newspaper, asked,
“Is there bad news in the paper?”
“Isn’t the bad news the fact that there’s still no news about me?”
At my answer, Davin’s expression also turned serious. Since he was the one who subdued the assassins and handed them over to the police each time, he probably understood even better than I did how suspicious the police were.
Was Duke Raphtan acting alone in controlling the police, or was the emperor turning a blind eye to it?
Was the emperor really uninvolved in Anise’s assassination attempt?
Ugh, what a headache.
Since he was both the ruler of the empire and Anise’s fiancé, whether the emperor was on my side or not would completely determine how I should act from now on.
Honestly, I just want to run away as fast as possible…
In the original story, the empire collapsed into complete chaos. Other nations constantly provoked military conflicts whenever they saw an opportunity, while ordinary citizens suffered under rapidly increasing taxes caused by military spending.
Yet even as the lives of commoners fell apart, the nobles indulged in luxury and obsessed over power struggles. Empress Lanie in particular had such an extreme sense of privilege that she had no intention of understanding the suffering of commoners.
Violent crimes like serial murders and disappearances occurred frequently everywhere, making public safety unstable, but the police only cared about nobles and ignored the problems of ordinary people. Then rumors spread that Empress Lanie herself was behind the serial murders and had fallen into black magic, kidnapping and killing women and children. Public opinion rapidly deteriorated.
In short, the future of this empire was total disaster.
Though things are still okay for now.
I recalled the peaceful streets of the capital I had seen with my own eyes earlier. It was hard to believe that such a peaceful-looking place would gradually turn into a slum.
My plan was to escape quickly and settle in another country before the original story truly began. I had even already decided which country to immigrate to.
But doesn’t immigration usually take a long time?
Wouldn’t a normal immigration process take forever? I also had to bring Lana and Davin with me. But since assassins were barging in every day, I started considering another option.
“What do you think about using all the evidence we’ve gathered so far to apply for asylum in another country?”
“Asylum?”
“My life is being threatened right now. Wouldn’t that let me move quickly to a country willing to take me in?”
After hearing me, Davin stared at me in shock for a long moment before asking in a grave voice,
“…Are you planning to leave the empire?”
“Ah… I just feel like the emperor might be working with the enemy…”
Since I still wasn’t certain, my voice lacked confidence. Davin looked at me with surprise before calmly giving his opinion.
“…There’s a high chance that imperial spies have infiltrated the embassies of every country. If His Majesty the Emperor finds out, he’ll personally stop Lady Anise’s asylum request. From the empire’s perspective, the emperor’s fiancée seeking asylum in another country because of assassination threats would be an enormous humiliation.”
“Ah…”
That made sense.
I nodded in agreement at Davin’s words.
In that case…
Rolling my eyes thoughtfully, I asked him,
“Then what about saying I’m in poor health and going abroad for recuperation, and applying for immigration once we’re outside the empire?”
Perhaps flustered by how persistently I kept bringing up going overseas, Davin blinked before answering again.
“Well… Lady Anise has never left the empire before, so that might attract attention too.”
“…She’s never left the empire?”
I was startled by his words. Davin gave a bitter smile as he explained.
“Yes. Since you’re engaged to His Majesty the Emperor, if anything happened while you were abroad, it could become an international issue, so you never considered traveling overseas.”
I reopened the folded newspaper and muttered,
“There are tons of travel advertisements for foreign countries though…?”
“Yes. Wealthy people like nobles and capitalists travel abroad frequently.”
I stared blankly at the advertisements for foreign resorts in the paper. She had all that money and still never got to travel abroad in her entire life?
Remembering the list of assets Mr. Smith had shown me, I asked Davin,
“…Was the old me perhaps the type who hated going outside?”
“No, Lady Anise enjoyed going out regularly. She just couldn’t go very far.”
At Davin’s words, I frowned. Anise had liked going out, yet it was as if she had been tied down by a leash, unable to travel beyond a certain distance. All because she was engaged to the emperor.
And in the original story, she was ultimately murdered for that very reason.
And on top of that, her fiancé the emperor destroyed all the evidence because he was threatened by the nobles, right?
Wow, what a completely meaningless death!
Feeling sorry for the former Anise, who had endured everything in silence, and furious at her fiancé, the emperor, I bit down hard on my lip.
The protagonists had told me that Anise and the emperor had a good relationship, but I simply couldn’t believe it. If they were truly close, how could he not contact her even once until now?
It’s already been over two weeks since I transmigrated into Anise.
If they really cared about each other, shouldn’t he at least have checked on her once during that time?
Of course, every person sent to deliver letters to the emperor had been disappearing lately, so maybe there was a reason he couldn’t send letters this way either. But even while thinking that, doubts still remained.
If the emperor realized communication with me had completely stopped, wouldn’t he try to investigate what was going on?
Which meant he probably hadn’t even attempted to contact me in the first place.
If that was the case, were the emperor and Anise really close at all? I doubted it.
It even seemed likely that the old Anise had been trapped in a suffocating relationship. Either way, I hated hearing that Anise had endured so much because of the emperor.
In that case, I’ll travel abroad in her place!
I’ll enjoy myself traveling and help Anise’s soul finally rest in peace!
While examining the travel destinations advertised in the newspaper, I asked Davin,
“What’s the first thing I need to prepare if I want to travel abroad?”
“First, you’ll need to apply for a passport through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”
Ah, so this world had passports too.
Just as I nodded, the ringing of bells suddenly echoed throughout the entire mansion. I lifted my head from the newspaper, and Davin’s eyes instantly sharpened.
It was the alarm signaling that intruders had entered the estate.
