Chapter 79
The women’s mouths slowly fell open. This time, even Lady Matterson seemed a bit surprised. No one had expected such a reproachful tone to come from the Empress’s lips.
Yet Angela, the one who had taken the arrow, remained unruffled. What Angela felt from Anette’s words wasn’t hurt, but certainty.
Grace’s hand had reached Anette.
Even when they were actually bickering, Anette wasn’t the type to utter such words. The nasty remarks usually came from Angela’s own mouth instead.
“Let’s get up now. You’ve ruined my mood.”
Anette spat out irritably as she rose from her seat, and the flustered women began to stand up one by one, glancing around furtively.
The Marchioness of Chartier and the other ladies-in-waiting followed behind Anette as she turned away coldly, stealing glances at Angela. They knew how close Angela and Anette had become recently.
But nothing was more important to them than attending to Anette. As Anette quickened her pace, they averted their eyes from Angela and hurried after the Empress.
“Sigh, Miss Bilton.”
Once the Empress had left, Lady Matterson approached Angela. She was about to say something to Angela, who was sitting there in a daze.
“I have some advice for you, eek!”
Suddenly, Angela bolted up and dashed out of the greenhouse. Thanks to that, Lady Matterson, who had spilled her teacup and ruined her dress, shouted toward the greenhouse entrance.
“What, what, what kind of person is that!”
But by then, the one who needed to hear it was already gone.
* * *
Emerging from the greenhouse, Angela scanned the Empress’s palace. There was someone she wanted to find.
They had to be somewhere around here…
It was as Angela left the palace’s rear garden and headed toward the Empress’s bedroom. Someone grabbed her arm firmly. Knowing whose hand it was, Angela exclaimed delightedly.
“Tristan!”
Tristan looked at Angela with a puzzled expression. It was understandable. This was the first time she’d called out to him with such a welcoming look on her face.
He’d only intended to warn her that Anette seemed in a foul mood, so it might be better not to meet today. Tristan smiled brightly.
“Why the warm welcome, pretty one?”
He expected her to frown immediately at those words, but Angela’s expression remained smiling. Surprised by the unexpected reaction, Tristan released her arm and asked.
“What’s going on?”
“I have something to ask.”
Angela glanced around and lowered her voice so only the two of them could hear.
“When you went to the Kingdom of Taran, did Anette happen to meet a woman who looks similar to me?”
“Grace?”
The name slipped from Tristan’s lips without hesitation, causing Angela to pause. But she soon nodded, guessing that Kalian must have shared the information with everyone.
“Kalian asked me to look into it on purpose.”
“…”
“I couldn’t catch even a glimpse of her tail; she was hidden away so tightly somewhere.”
As Tristan shrugged and said this, Angela’s shoulders slumped in disappointment.
Of course, just because Tristan hadn’t seen her didn’t prove that Anette hadn’t met Grace. Still, if only things were a bit clearer…
Angela stood there with Tristan in front of her, lost in her own worries.
“Why are you still here instead of leaving?”
A sharp voice whipped through the air from behind. Turning around, she saw Anette striding toward her with her ladies-in-waiting.
“If you had any sense, you’d stay out of my sight for a while. Are you clueless, or do you just not care?”
Anette stopped right in front of Angela and demanded accusingly. To Anette, who was acting savagely as if possessed, Angela simply tried to apologize.
But Anette didn’t even give her the chance, latching onto something else to criticize Angela.
“What were you doing here with someone else’s knight?”
The accusation was absurd.
“A woman with a fiancé, no less.”
Even Angela had no response to this. As she just blinked, Anette added as if offering advice.
“You’d better be careful. No need to add ‘frivolous’ to the many rumors about Miss Bilton, right?”
“Your Majesty.”
It was Tristan who opened his mouth to explain. Angela stopped him and bowed halfway at the waist, showing respect to Anette.
“If I’ve displeased you, I apologize. I’ll be more careful in the future, Your Majesty.”
Anette sighed in annoyance at the sight and brushed past Angela, her skirts swishing.
Amid the general confusion, only Anette, who had spat out the harsh words, and Angela, who had taken them at face value, remained composed.
* * *
This wasn’t the time to just worry. That night, Angela planned to enter Anette’s dream.
It felt uncomfortable to intrude on Her Majesty the Empress’s consciousness at will, but there was no other way. The anxiety that she might encounter Grace there bent before her determination not to leave Anette like this.
Conveniently, Kalian had just left to receive a report from Vigo. Angela lay on her side in bed, closed her eyes tightly, and focused intently on Anette.
A familiar sensation came over her. The wave pushing at her back, the natural movement like riding a swell, and finally the curtain opening as if arriving at the destination. She felt she’d reached it.
She opened her eyes.
“Your Majesty?”
It was inside Anette’s consciousness.
As soon as Angela opened her eyes, she approached Anette, whom she’d spotted. Anette was bent over, covering her ears with her hands, and her condition looked off. Angela’s steps toward her quickened.
“Your Majesty.”
It was the moment Angela drew close and reached out her hand. An unknown force shoved Angela far away.
Tumbling across the floor as if flung, Angela scrambled to her feet, her wide eyes darting around in alarm.
“Grace? Grace, this is your doing, isn’t it?”
No answer came. Rising, Angela approached Anette once more, desperate to ease the pain she saw etched on her face.
But the same thing happened again. An invisible barrier, like a wall of energy encircling Anette, repelled Angela with force.
Sprawled out once more, Angela understood. Here, Grace’s will exerted a stronger influence than her own.
“Your Majesty, snap out of it!”
Angela tried again and again, approaching Anette only to be thrown back repeatedly.
“Your Majesty!”
Her cry was almost a scream. Then, drowning out her voice, a chilling giggle echoed through the space. Angela instantly recognized the owner of that sinister laughter.
“Grace…”
At the sound of her name, Grace appeared right behind Angela, wrapping her in an embrace. Her lips hovered near Angela’s cheek as she whispered.
“Oh, if this were your dream, I’d tear open that heart of yours and devour it in one bite.”
Grace’s nails traced a sharp line down Angela’s chest. The words and actions were chilling. Still, realizing that physical contact in another’s consciousness was harmless, Angela shook Grace off and snapped fiercely.
“What are you doing to her?”
Grace let out a mocking laugh and gave a slight wave of her hand. Behind her, Anette’s knees buckled, collapsing as she clutched her ears, as if tormented by unbearable noise.
“Just showing her a bit of pain, that’s all.”
“Why… why are you doing this?”
The question slipped out, trembling, despite Angela’s reluctance to show weakness in her steady voice. Grace sauntered over, her heels clicking, and stroked Angela’s flushed cheek.
“Do you think I’m tormenting her?”
When Angela stood silent, holding her ground, Grace continued with a sneer laced with mockery.
“My dear, I’m tormenting you. If you’re in pain, you’ll leave yourself wide open, ready to let me in, won’t you?”
Let her in?
Of course. Grace hadn’t been visiting Angela’s dreams lately, and for some reason, it seemed she could no longer access them.
“Maybe…”
Did you ever do this to someone else, with the intent of ripping out their heart? Someone like… Yvonne, perhaps…
Angela wanted to ask, but as she hesitated, her consciousness began to stir.
Her trembling eyelids fluttered open, and she found Kalian sitting on the edge of the bed, gazing down at her.
Beneath his dark, piercing eyes, Angela felt as if she’d been caught in the act.
“Mm.”
Pretending to toss in her sleep, she burrowed into Kalian’s lap, rubbing her cheek against his firm thigh and using it as a pillow. Kalian gently stroked her hair.
Oh, his touch was so tender—she must not have been caught. Feeling him tidy her disheveled hair, Angela started to close her eyes again.
“Where did you go?”
Kalian’s question came without warning. Startled, Angela’s eyes snapped open, meeting his gaze.
“Wh-where?”
Reacting like that would only give her away, she realized, and bit her lip. Kalian continued to stroke her golden hair with the same gentle touch.
“Your hair smells of water.”
That couldn’t be. She’d felt the sensation of being carried by a current, but it wasn’t as if she’d actually been submerged.
“When you said you visited Mary, I thought I smelled water then too. It seems I wasn’t mistaken.”
His words carried a near-certain conviction, leaving Angela speechless. She had gone there, after all. Fidgeting, she sat up, twisting the edge of the blanket with her fingers as she spoke.
“I went to see Her Majesty the Empress for a bit.”
“I told you Grace might be influencing her, and you completely ignored me.”
Afraid that admitting she’d acted with certainty of Grace’s involvement would anger Kalian further, Angela mumbled, “That’s how it happened.”
“Her Majesty was acting so strangely, I thought I might find something out in her dream.”
Kalian looked at her, as if asking what she’d discovered. She considered hiding the truth but soon spoke honestly.
“It was because of Grace. I met her.”
Realizing Kalian could make such a grim expression, Angela continued slowly.
“Nothing happened. I confirmed that even if we clash in someone else’s dream, it’s safe. And it seems she can’t enter my dreams anymore. So she’s tormenting Her Majesty. To torment me. To weaken me, probably so she can take my heart.”
Finishing, Angela looked at Kalian like a prisoner awaiting judgment. His lips, which had been sealed, parted after a moment.
“You went to see Her Majesty today. Did anything distressing happen?”
Angela shook her head vigorously. This, she could answer confidently. Nothing at all.
“Not even a little, to the point I almost feel bad for Grace. So don’t worry.”
Kalian studied her with lingering suspicion before finally tapping his thigh lightly. Understanding he meant for her to lie back down, Angela nestled her head against his lap.
As she rubbed her cheek against him, a soft chuckle escaped Kalian’s lips. His anger had dissipated.
“I suppose I’ll have to start taking my subordinates’ reports with you sitting on my lap.”
An image flashed through Angela’s mind: Kalian, with a stern face, holding her in his arms while receiving a report from his subordinate.
She desperately wanted to erase it from her head. Somehow, she felt Kalian wouldn’t be the least bit embarrassed, which made her oddly irritated. Scowling, she said firmly.
“Absolutely not, so don’t even think about it.”
Kalian, met with her firm refusal, tilted his head and teased,
“Isn’t imagining it allowed, at least?”
His playful pout was so endearing that Angela’s furrowed brow nearly softened. If it had, she might have found herself helplessly perched on Kalian’s lap, facing Vigo.
* * *
“Really? Her Majesty the Empress?”
“I’m telling you, it was terrifying—my legs were trembling!”
“But isn’t she usually so composed? And wasn’t she close with Miss Bilton?”
“That’s what I thought too, but she practically lunged at her with fire in her eyes!”
A noblewoman, recounting the incident at the Empress’s palace to her gathered friends, rubbed her arms with both hands. Goosebumps prickled her skin.
“And Miss Bilton? What did she say?”
Convinced that a fight must have broken out, even with the Empress as her opponent, her friend pressed for details. The noblewoman, her voice taut with suspense, explained that this was exactly why she’d gotten chills.
“Miss Bilton, she—”
“…”
“Didn’t say a word!”
“…Ugh, that’s it?”
A brief silence hung in the air before a deflated reaction followed. Scoffing, the noblewoman elaborated with conviction.
“Have any of you ever seen Miss Bilton stay quiet after being struck? She’s the type who’d return a single blow with a hundred, yet she stood there silently. You think that’s no big deal?”
At her words, the eyes of the noblewomen widened in unison, gleaming with intrigue.
