Chapter 3

“Hmm……”

As sunlight slipped between her brows, she slowly lifted her heavy eyelids.

“Huh…?”

The moment she opened her eyes, the unfamiliar surroundings and the sensation against her cheek instantly drove away the remnants of sleep.

“I’m sure I fell asleep on the sofa……”

She remembered tossing and turning for a long time until dawn before finally managing to fall asleep.

Until then, she had definitely been on the sofa.

‘Could His Majesty the Emperor have carried me here……?’

Just in case, Theodor blinked rapidly.

But she soon shook her head. He had been so cold; there was no way he would have done that.

With a faint sigh, Theodor recalled Raud’s appearance from the previous night.

Those intensely red, utterly cold eyes.

One thing that had seemed strange was that his gaze had sometimes appeared to be slightly off, as though he were looking behind her.

“His touch, though, was really……”

Warm.

He had merely been trying to remove her chains, but if she said her heart had fluttered because of his touch, she would probably be insane.

Blushing, she carefully got up.

Just as she naturally began to straighten the bedding, there was a knock at the door.

“Your Highness, it’s Gentle.”

Unlike yesterday, her voice was full of excitement.

When she entered the room, her face was likewise glowing with delight.

“G-Good morni……. No, good morning.”

Theodor could perhaps manage it if she were simply being cautious, but she still wasn’t accustomed to speaking informally to someone.

Forcing herself to correct her words, she smiled awkwardly.

“Your Highness!”

“…Huh?”

“Congratulations!”

Gentle suddenly took both of Theodor’s hands and excitedly shook them up and down.

“What……?”

“Didn’t you spend the night with His Majesty the Emperor!”

Her cheeks were strangely flushed with excitement.

Unable to understand what she was talking about at all, Theodor merely opened and closed her mouth.

“Your Highness! This is an incredible thing! Because His Majesty the Emperor has never—!”

“Never……?”

“He has never spent the night with any of the women in the harem.”

At Gentle’s words, Theodor’s mouth fell open.

“…What does that mean? He said there was only one thing a secondary consort was supposed to do……”

“There may be many women around him, but His Majesty has never spent the night with any woman other than Her Majesty the Empress. You are the first! That’s why I told you yesterday that he might not come.”

She seemed even more excited than Theodor herself.

Theodor blinked slowly, looking slightly surprised.

With his obviously handsome appearance, well-built body, and lofty position, he had everything one could expect from a man who might have a harem full of women.

The fact that someone like Raud had never spent the night with any woman except the empress was honestly astonishing.

“But there’s no need to be so happy, Gentle. I also……”

However, there was one problem.

“What?”

“Nothing happened.”

Nothing had happened with her, either.

She smiled awkwardly at Gentle’s bewildered expression.

“Uh…… Is that really true?”

“……Mhm.”

Theodor lowered her head deeply, as though she were a criminal.

A strange sense of guilt at failing to fulfill her role tightened around her throat.

“……Hmm. But His Majesty the Emperor……”

Gentle’s gaze turned toward the bed.

“It seems His Majesty wants to use Your Highness for something.”

“Hm? For what……?”

“Look at this.”

She slightly lifted the blanket. A red mark remained on the white sheet.

“Nothing happened, yet he deliberately left even this kind of trace…… Hmm.”

Gentle tilted her head this way and that, deep in thought.

People generally believed that the emperor of the Lasol Empire was a womanizing libertine who was extremely fond of women, but the truth was different.

It was not the emperor but the empress who had created the current harem.

Whenever a new woman was brought in, Raud had instead openly shown his discomfort.

Even though there were twenty women in the harem who had received no title at all, he had never spent his first night with any of them. By that alone, he could be considered quite a faithful man.

Then what on earth was the emperor thinking?

She discreetly glanced at Theodor.

No matter how generously she looked at the situation, it was difficult to believe he had fallen in love at first sight.

Although the burn scars on her face had faded somewhat, they were still there. Her body was painfully thin, and her hair was so dry and coarse that it looked like straw, as though someone had done something strange to it.

Then there was only one answer.

“Perhaps he wants to create someone to take all the abuse and use her to reorganize the harem.”

Gentle unconsciously muttered the words aloud.

“Gasp!”

It didn’t take her long to realize that her thoughts had escaped her mouth.

“Take all the abuse?”

“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I only meant to think that……”

Startled, she opened and closed her mouth, not knowing what to do.

“So, Gentle, what you’re saying is……”

But the blue eyes looking at Gentle began to sparkle instead.

“His Majesty the Emperor intends to use me as someone to take all the abuse so that he can reorganize the harem?”

“……It’s only my speculation……”

“Someone to take all the abuse…… I can do that well.”

“What?”

At the unexpected words, Gentle instinctively raised her head, which had been bowed.

Theodor’s flushed cheeks came into view.

“Tell me, Gentle.”

“T-Tell you what?”

“What can I do, and how should I do it, to help His Majesty the Emperor?”

Gentle blinked rapidly, unable to understand the situation.

Theodor was a person of a position that allowed her to severely punish Gentle for the careless words she had just spoken.

Even though she was from a defeated nation, she was still a princess and was now a secondary consort.

But was it merely Gentle’s imagination that Theodor actually seemed excited by her suggestion?

Unable to answer easily, she swallowed dryly.

“I think I can handle being hated. I’ve had plenty of experience with that.”

“…Your Highness.”

“I want to be useful to the imperial palace somehow……. But I don’t think they’ll give me any work to do……”

Theodor blushed shyly as she fidgeted with her fingers.

“……I’ll ask His Majesty about his intentions sometime later. For now…… I think it would be best to pretend that you spent the night together……”

“Mhm, I will.”

“Yes. And today, Your Highness, you have no other appointments except for one. It’s just that the appointment is……”

“Hmm?”

Gentle looked at her and smiled awkwardly.

“Isn’t this completely absurd?”

There was only one appointment.

“Where on earth did he find a woman like that!”

It was to have tea with the women of the harem as a way of introducing herself as the new secondary consort.

“I thought His Majesty only looked devotedly at Her Majesty the Empress! But perhaps he has unusual tastes after all!”

“Exactly! How could His Majesty the Emperor, who is called the ruler of the continent, sleep with a woman who possesses neither beauty nor intelligence!”

More than twenty women all gossiped at once.

Putting on the most composed expression she could manage, Theodor calmly lifted her teacup.

Yet despite her expression, her face had gone deathly pale and her fingertips were trembling.

“Isn’t this completely ridiculous? And she’s been made a secondary consort, too? Even Lady Emmanuel, who has the highest status among us, wasn’t granted the position of secondary consort!”

“A bastard princess from a defeated country, and such an unattractive one at that……. Ugh, it makes me furious just thinking about it!”

With the person being discussed sitting right in front of them, razor-sharp words flew across the table.

Her hair had been neatly combed, the burn scars had faded, and she was even wearing the pretty dress Gentle had brought her.

Although she looked completely different from how she had in the Selene Kingdom, her circumstances remained unchanged.

Theodor lightly pressed her teeth against her lower lip and tilted her teacup.

She had told Gentle that she was good at being someone others could hate, but no matter how much time passed, listening to blatant criticism and ridicule right to her face never became something she could get used to.

‘Still, I just have to endure it.’

Being insulted cost neither money nor physical strength. If this was the role the emperor wanted from her, she could do it as much as necessary.

If she simply endured like this, perhaps he would say that she was at least a little useful.

For some reason, Raud’s face flashed before her eyes.

Tilting her teacup, she simply endured in silence.

“Look at her. She doesn’t even bat an eye. How shameless…….”

“Why are you all so angry?”

Just then, a clear, ringing voice cut through the insults and ridicule.

“Who is being so shameless?”

“Gasp! Greetings to Her Most August Majesty the Empress of the Lasol Empire.”

“Greetings to Her Most August Majesty the Empress of the Lasol Empire.”

The women who recognized the owner of the voice jumped to their feet in surprise.

‘That woman is…….’

Theodor, who had been repeatedly lifting her teacup, also hurriedly stood.

Her blue eyes slowly turned toward the woman approaching her.

The same brilliant golden hair as Raud’s shimmered dazzlingly as it reflected the sunlight.

The way she approached looked almost like sunlight itself, making Theodor slightly narrow her eyes.

“You are Theodor.”

Secrita de Marde Lasol.

She was the eldest daughter of the only ducal family in the empire and the Empress of the Lasol Empire.