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Chapter 9
The Empress had never intended to accept him as her son—not even the slightest bit.
She looked at him with disgust, as though he were the filthiest thing in the world, doubting and guarding against him at every moment. She constantly searched for an opportunity to cast him out of the imperial family again.
Even the suggestion to grant him the title of duke and territory on the frontier as a reward for his victories in war had been one of the Empress’s shallow schemes. She wanted to draw a clear line between him and the imperial family so that he would never dare covet the positions of her own sons.
The reason Ricardo Zenkishi had decided to quietly accept this marriage was because it would be the last time.
The last time he would tolerate the tyranny of the woman called his mother.
The last time he would honor the promise he made to the Dowager Empress.
Ricardo approached the window and looked down toward the room where the woman was staying.
In the end, she was merely a puppet who would be used and discarded by the Empress, and he had no intention of recognizing her as his wife.
Just imagining the woman rushing eagerly to the capital at the thought of becoming a duchess disgusted him.
A woman willing to accept the role of a duchess in name only.
Which meant she had probably already prepared herself to endure whatever kind of marriage awaited her.
His eyes turned cold.
Knock knock.
At the sound of knocking, he turned his head. It was the butler, Yan, along with several servants.
“Your Grace. Someone has arrived from the imperial palace.”
As Ricardo changed into the formal military uniform the servants had brought him, he read the letter Yan handed over.
It was an order commanding him to enter the imperial palace together with Stella Enrio and pay respects to His Majesty the Emperor.
*
Inside the carriage heading toward the imperial palace, I quietly stared out the window at Ricardo riding beside us on horseback.
Seeing his broad back sitting perfectly straight in his formal uniform gave off an entirely different feeling from when I’d encountered him earlier that morning.
“The male lead really is the male lead.”
Thinking back to being alone with him at dawn made everything feel unreal somehow. My heart even jolted strangely for no reason.
“He’s the man who’ll eventually kill me. Of course I’d be nervous.”
Shaking my head, I tried to erase the earlier encounter from my thoughts.
“Still, I hope nothing happens at the palace.”
Since we had been summoned together, I would probably meet all the imperial family members today. And after that would come the wedding.
Without realizing it, I tightened my grip on the curtain.
Just then, Molly muttered from across from me,
“I seriously don’t understand why Lady Keila ran away from a man like that.”
Apparently she had also been stealing glances at Ricardo through the open window.
“They called him a bloodthirsty monster, but all those rumors were lies.”
There wasn’t a single village in the frontier that hadn’t heard terrible stories about Ricardo. Some originated from enemy forces, but many had been deliberately spread by the Empress’s faction. If they wanted the citizens of the empire to fear him like a demon, they had to thoroughly suppress any glorified tales of his heroism.
“Hmph. Lucky you. If my husband looked like that, I’d die satisfied after just one wedding night.”
Molly sneered at me with jealous eyes.
“But I heard something interesting earlier.”
A crafty gleam instantly appeared in the way she looked at me.
“What do you mean?”
Covering her mouth as she giggled, she shook her head as though pitying me.
“That Duke Zenkishi already has someone who’s supposed to become his real wife. Apparently everyone at the ducal estate already recognizes only that woman as the future duchess. They say she’s the daughter of an incredibly prestigious family.”
The moment I heard that, one woman came to mind.
Yelena Guineiro.
The heroine of the original story—and the duke’s true lover.
“Come to think of it, she appeared in my dream too.”
I vaguely remembered the image of her sadly watching from behind as Keila was cast out by the duke.
Molly kept provoking me.
“They say no woman in the empire can compare to her beauty. I wonder how some country maid could ever compete with that. You’d better make sure you don’t accidentally bow your head out of habit like a servant.”
She seemed genuinely delighted by the situation, her eyes overflowing with mockery.
What she said about Yelena wasn’t wrong, but I hated the way Molly looked at me with pity while laughing.
“Maybe you should worry about your own position first, considering you came here just to serve some country maid.”
The moment I shot back, fury blazed in her eyes.
“You little—!”
“If I get thrown out of the estate, won’t you end up in an even worse position than a stray dog?”
Only then did I feel slightly refreshed seeing her face trembling with rage.
“Even if I’m cast aside, I’ll still be a noblewoman and a former duchess. But you’re just a miserable nobody with nowhere to go. So maybe you should think carefully about who you ought to serve if you don’t want to be abandoned yourself.”
After coldly throwing those words at her, I turned my gaze back toward Ricardo.
Just as Molly said, he already had a true love.
A kind and beautiful woman who had stayed beside him since the days he lived like a slave as a child.
Someone unrealistically perfect in every way—her appearance, personality, even her family background.
Yelena Guineiro, the heroine who had been so flawless that I couldn’t even emotionally relate to her despite her being the female lead.
“Of course Yelena ended up marrying Ricardo and becoming Empress. That must’ve been how the story ended.”
After the scene where Keila and Stella were driven off to the monastery and died, I had suddenly lost interest and closed the book. I never even read the ending, but it didn’t seem like there would be any major twists anyway.
As the image of Keila and Stella dying resurfaced in my mind, I suddenly wanted to smack the back of Ricardo’s head.
“Did you really have to kill the wife you cast aside to feel satisfied?! And why kill the poor maid too?!”
He had promised to spare their lives, yet his merciless cruelty made my teeth grind in anger.
While glaring at the back of his head, Ricardo suddenly turned around.
“Gah!”
Startled, I immediately pulled my head back inside and shut the curtain.
“Does he have eyes in the back of his head or something?”
Pressing a hand against my startled chest, I let out a small sigh.
A little while later, the carriage finally arrived at the imperial palace.
And compared to before, there were clearly far more people waiting for us.
After passing through several heavily guarded gates, we entered a massive hall.
Upon a marble platform sat the Emperor and Empress wearing crowns, alongside people who appeared to be their sons and daughters-in-law.
“You have rendered another great service to the empire, Your Grace.”
As Ricardo walked forward, the nobles greeted him respectfully.
After all, he was undeniably the Emperor’s second son and the commander who always stood at the forefront during war. To them, he was not someone they could treat carelessly.
The only person openly displeased by his triumphant return was the Empress seated above.
Rumors about the woman who would marry the duke must have already spread as well. The nobles exchanged glances before awkwardly nodding greetings toward me. Being high-ranking aristocrats, they looked distinctly uncomfortable acknowledging a young lady from such an insignificant family.
After walking for quite some time along the red carpet, we finally arrived before the platform.
Though imperial blood flowed through Ricardo’s veins too, to the people standing above, he seemed like only half a member of the family. Their eyes toward him were colder than those directed at a stranger.
“I have returned after fulfilling Your Majesty’s command.”
Ricardo addressed his father not like a son, but like a subordinate.
“I am pleased to see you returned safely. Were you injured anywhere?”
The Emperor, with his wavy dark-brown hair and mustache, asked after his son with the dignity of a proper father.
“I am unharmed. Thank you for your concern.”
Ricardo’s response was equally dry and formal.
Seeing the Emperor in person, he looked almost exactly like I had imagined while reading the novel.
Dignified and imposing—but somehow lacking firmness.
Maybe my impression was biased because I’d seen him endlessly swayed around by the Empress in the original story.
“You’ve worked hard, little brother.”
One of his sickly-looking brothers added quietly.
Even after saying only that short sentence, he broke into coughing fits. With the dark shadows beneath his eyes, he looked gravely ill.
It was clearly the Crown Prince.
“He looks seriously unwell.”
In truth, he was destined to die soon from chronic illness. It was a little unfortunate, considering he was probably the only reasonably decent-minded member of the imperial family.
As his coughing worsened, I found myself frowning with concern. It sounded violent enough that he might cough up blood at any moment. The others carefully exchanged glances, gauging the atmosphere.
“I can see why the Empress fears Ricardo.”
With the Crown Prince in such poor health, it was obvious that once the position of heir became vacant, a bloody struggle would erupt between Ricardo and the Third Prince.
The Empress feared that Ricardo might finally reveal the claws he had long hidden.
“And in the end… her instincts were right.”
Because after the Crown Prince died, Ricardo Zenkishi had begun openly revealing his ambition.
