Chapter 10
The emperor added playfully.
“From what I heard from Adrian Bardo, you’ve known Miss Agnes since childhood, right? At this point, wouldn’t you call it fate?”
Adrian quickly chimed in.
“That’s right, Your Majesty. You have no idea how much my daughter welcomed this marriage.”
At those words, Lionel’s gaze pierced Agnes like a frost arrow.
She welcomed it?
“Ha, as expected.”
Of course.
What on earth had he been expecting, holding onto lingering attachments.
Lionel swallowed a bitter smile at his own foolishness.
Agnes felt a gaze colder than the cold marble floor touching the nape of her neck.
Her round shoulders pitifully shrank.
However, she could not make any reply and simply waited for the remarks to continue.
Pretending to be pitiful is truly an art.
Lionel twisted one corner of his mouth that was stretched out refreshingly.
“What do you think, Duke? Is my praise toward you still uncomfortable?”
“……How could that be? It is the grace bestowed by Your Majesty.”
The light blue irises that had been sparking suddenly calmed down for a moment.
“I will do it, the marriage.”
The emperor smacked his lips reluctantly.
He had intended to make Lionel difficult by using further refusal as an excuse.
Because he unexpectedly bowed his head obediently.
“As a subject, how could I defy Your Majesty’s command?”
The moment he said those words, Lionel felt like biting his tongue.
But opposing the emperor’s mood in this place was akin to aiming a gun at the entire knight order.
At least not yet.
Someday.
When power has sufficiently accumulated, and the day comes when there is no need to bow before the emperor.
Then, he would repay this humiliation in full.
Lionel smiled smoothly as if drawn. Thoroughly hiding the boiling anger inside.
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“You said you’d prove your innocence. I had unnecessary expectations.”
After one commotion passed.
Lionel, who had been watching the stage prepared by the emperor, whispered lowly. Toward Agnes beside him.
“Indeed, seeing you rush to the banquet hall like that despite your condition, it seems that kind of thing doesn’t matter at all.”
At Lionel’s low, sunken voice, Agnes lowered her gaze.
Though faint, her bloodless face showed that her condition was somehow not good.
The emperor’s eyes, watching Agnes from a slight distance, sparkled.
At that moment, one attendant hurriedly approached the emperor and bowed.
“Your Majesty. The lead dancer of the imperial dance troupe scheduled to perform today has a high fever and cannot take the stage.”
“What?”
The emperor rubbed his brow as if troubled.
However, his eyes that gleamed with interest were like a child who found an amusing toy.
“Oh dear. What to do about this. It’s a celebratory performance I specially prepared for today.”
“Shall I cancel the performance?”
“That wouldn’t do.”
The emperor’s gaze meaningfully reached toward Agnes.
“It seems we need a new dancer to take the stage.”
“When you say a new dancer……?”
“As it happens, isn’t there a perfectly suitable talent right here.”
“……! Then, I will prepare the stage again.”
The attendant realized that the new dancer the emperor mentioned was Agnes.
The emperor made a languid expression like a full-fed leopard toward the seasoned attendant.
Meanwhile.
Agnes, unaware of the conversation between the emperor and the attendant, raised her head toward Lionel.
Perhaps he had been looking this way all along. Agnes’s gaze overlapped perfectly with the deep blue irises without any misalignment.
If Lionel’s eyes somehow looked sad, was that her illusion?
Agnes’s eyelashes, curving upward, trembled thinly.
“I was stupid for having even a little expectation toward you.”
“……You may not believe it, but I told my father that I would not marry Your Grace.”
However, Agnes’s words lacked much persuasiveness.
Because behind her, Adrian was licking his lips with a glistening tongue tip, more satisfied than anyone.
“As if that’s true.”
As if there was no value in talking further.
Lionel turned away from Agnes and moved his seat.
“Indeed, even I wouldn’t believe it……”
Agnes knew it too.
Words relying only on emotion have no persuasiveness.
In this state, saying I’m different from my father would not gain any trust.
‘As expected…… I have no choice but to speak directly to His Majesty.’
It might sound absurd.
In reality, most nobles cannot even properly meet the emperor’s eyes, let alone have a private audience.
But it was worth trying.
The reason the emperor keeps Adrian by his side is not simply due to trust.
He can exploit that weakness.
Adrian has been offering a huge portion of the trading company’s profits to the emperor until now.
During the chaotic wartime, everyone was focused only on the front lines in front of them, so no one cared where the money flowed from and to.
Thanks to that, black funds could circulate without issue.
But now peace has arrived.
With internal affairs stabilized, that money not directly attributed to the imperial finances will inevitably become a problem someday.
Because of that, the emperor was quite troubled.
That’s why he prepared it.
A contract that can persuade the emperor through legitimate routes.
Agnes raised her hand and firmly pressed near her chest.
Inside her bosom was a proposal organizing a list of new imports.
Rare fabrics and spices from the southern barbarians that had never been introduced to the empire before.
For these goods that the Bardo trading company would exclusively import, Agnes attached an exceptional condition.
Originally, imperial taxes are exempted for goods imported exclusively by the company, but this time, she attached a term called ‘tariff’.
So that a portion of the product price is legitimately attributed to the imperial family.
For the emperor, it means he can openly swallow a share of the profits without any responsibility.
With this much, there might be a little room for negotiation.
“I hope my body holds out well until then……”
Agnes exhaled heavily, avoiding the eyes watching her.
Her whole body trembled like an aspen tree.
“Ugh.”
As expected, standing with crutches was still too much.
However, the wheelchair was destroyed by Adrian right before the banquet.
Saying not to disgrace the Bardo name by entering in a shameful half-crippled state.
“Oh my. Agnes, are you uncomfortable somewhere?”
Claire innocently linked arms with Agnes.
Since no one offered Agnes a seat, she was still standing.
Her legs, which had not properly undergone rehabilitation, found it hard to support her weight.
Cold sweat flowed down Agnes’s plump forehead right at that moment.
The emperor raised his voice deliberately so everyone could hear, with a very troubled expression.
“How can there be such a predicament. There is no protagonist to take the stage. Ah! Come to think of it, didn’t the young lady of Bardo say she dances?”
The emperor made an expression as if he had just remembered.
However, as if he had planned this situation long ago, he snapped his fingers.
“As it happens, she hopes to join the imperial dance troupe, right? What do you think, Miss Agnes. Won’t you take the stage?”
The emperor spoke lightly as if making a trivial request.
“Your Majesty, I beg your pardon, but my legs right now……”
“If you don’t help me, as the emperor, my face will be utterly lost.”
Still with a smiling face. The emperor cut off Agnes’s words.
The emperor’s gaze pierced straight through her.
His voice lowered, and his true nature revealed beneath the smiling countenance.
“Miss Agnes, I do not like refusals. Whatever it may be, if you’re going to make rash remarks, it’s better to keep that mouth shut.”
On the surface, it seemed like talk related to the stage, but in reality, it was not just that.
“Especially regarding marriage proposals. All the more if it’s about something already concluded.”
“……!”
“A commoner refusing an opportunity for social advancement is rare. So, when something contrary to my common sense happens, I can’t help but suspect.”
The emperor slowly drew out the end of his words and turned his head.
“That someone instigated the innocent Miss Agnes.”
At the end of that gaze was Lionel, surrounded by knights.
“Then, may I assume that someone is Duke Valheim?”
Agnes’s face turned pale.
Goosebumps rose on her back, and her fingertips grew cold.
“A hero respected by the empire’s citizens rebelling against me. Depending on who hears it, it could be interpreted in quite a dangerous way.”
The emperor was already looking one step ahead.
And if Agnes refuses the marriage, he is saying that it might not be her intention alone.
No, he was warning that he would make it so.
A dry swallow went down her throat.
Toward the heavily tense Agnes, the emperor burst into hearty laughter.
“It’s a joke, so don’t be so tense. I am generous to good children.”
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