Chapter 8
“Tell me in detail.”
“Well, miss…”
As the maid recounted the incident from beginning to end, Kiyen gripped the hem of her dress tightly, struggling to hold onto her composure.
Good heavens, striking an imperial in the face!
The Empress took a deep breath, suppressing the trembling in her chest, a mix of fury and anxiety.
“For now, take the girl to the next room for treatment.”
She wanted nothing more than to strip Mintia bare and spank her soundly, shouting, “Do you realize what you’ve done?” But this was the palace, with countless eyes watching. And at this critical moment, when she was pouring all her efforts into making Volter the Crown Prince, causing internal strife with her natal family would do her no good.
Above all, the Empress had no other choice but Mintia to serve as her proxy in high society.
As Mintia was taken to the next room for treatment and vanished from sight, Kiyen’s rationality slowly returned. She made a concerted effort to maintain her composure in front of the maids.
“You, go to the marquis’s residence at once and inform my father of this. We must not upset the Emperor today.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
One maid responded politely and fled the tense atmosphere as if escaping.
Moments later, a sound came from outside the door.
“Your Majesty, Princess Eonel has arrived.”
Kiyen frowned. The stepmother and stepdaughter were notoriously at odds.
Eonel, now past thirty, and Kiyen, nearing forty, were well-known in the palace as bitter rivals.
It wasn’t that Kiyen hadn’t tried to play the gracious stepmother, even to a stepdaughter who rejected her, like a cunning character from a novel.
But Eonel was just as seasoned in navigating high society’s battles, deftly parrying every move.
Moreover, their age difference made them seem more like friends with a slight gap than a mother and daughter. As a result, people often forgot they were stepmother and stepdaughter when seeing them side by side.
Because of this, Kiyen had nearly been branded as the odd stepmother meddling in the affairs of her grown stepchildren.
Fortunately, before it was too late, Kiyen gave up on waging a power struggle with Eonel within the palace, narrowly preserving the image she had cultivated as the marquis’s daughter.
In any case, Kiyen hurriedly adjusted her appearance, sat down, and composed her expression.
“Come in, Princess.”
An hour earlier, as Eonel was having lunch, news arrived from the palace.
“What about Melly? Is she really so battered she’d throw a fit, as Father says?”
“Well… they say she didn’t even blink. In fact, right after being hit, she slapped her back and yanked her ears, making Miss Mintia cry. Her Highness… seems perfectly fine now.”
Tonight’s fit will probably come from Miss Mintia of the House of Cherie, won’t it? The maid swallowed those words.
At that, the corners of Eonel’s mouth curled upward, and she burst into laughter.
“Hahahahaha! Ahahahahaha!”
“P-Princess?”
“Oh, that’s my niece for you.”
Eonel wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, giggling.
“If she just took a hit without fighting back, she wouldn’t be an imperial. Well done. Whether it’s kindness or vengeance, you take a bushel and repay it in spades. Leave it to your auntie—I’ll handle the aftermath.”
With that, Eonel dressed extravagantly and headed to the Empress’s palace.
Upon arriving at Empress Kiyen’s palace, she had crossed paths with her father’s attendant on the way, who delivered a spicy imperial decree. Determined to sprinkle that decree right in the Empress’s face, Eonel sent the Emperor’s attendant back.
Eonel waited in the room she was shown to until the Empress arrived. She had sipped about a quarter of the fruit tea the maids prepared when Kiyen finally entered.
“Sorry to keep you waiting, Duchess.”
The Empress deliberately addressed Eonel not as a princess but by her title as a duchess. It was technically correct, as Eonel had chosen to forgo marriage, accept a ducal title, and leave the palace of her own accord.
Receiving the Empress’s greeting, Eonel smiled radiantly.
“It wasn’t too long a wait, Your Majesty.”
Eonel, too, refrained from addressing the Empress as “Mother” even out of courtesy.
“By the way, what brings you to the palace?”
Though she already knew the reason, the Empress asked casually, as if oblivious.
“I came to pay my respects to Father, as I often do, and thought I’d visit Your Majesty while I’m here. Does a daughter need a special reason to visit her father’s home?”
As if I came to see you. Eonel’s eyes curved into crescents.
The air between them crackled with tension, as if sparks might fly at any moment.
“I see. Since you’ve come this far, you should visit Melly too. Even though she and I aren’t blood-related, as her grandmother, I can’t help but feel for her. As you must have heard, Melly’s feelings must be quite hurt today. She’s probably longing for someone to take her side.”
“I was already planning to, even without your suggestion. With her parents and ‘grandmother’ gone, and only her grandfather and aunt left as blood kin in this vast imperial family, who else but her aunt would look after her?”
In saying so, Eonel subtly excluded Prince Volter from Amelia’s circle of blood relatives.
As the Empress’s expression began to crumble, Eonel decided the timing was right and spoke as if it had just occurred to her.
“Oh, on my way here, Father’s attendant gave me an imperial decree to deliver…”
“An imperial decree?”
A chill ran down Kiyen’s spine, goosebumps prickling her arms. Amelia was always the Emperor’s tender spot. What kind of decree could he have issued because of her?
Kiyen swallowed hard.
“It’s nothing major. Just that Miss Mintia is banned from entering the palace until her debut in high society. Quite lenient for laying hands on an imperial, don’t you think? Well, she’s still young and doesn’t know better. I’d heard she was quite precocious, often summoned by Your Majesty for chats and lessons, but I suppose a child is still a child.”
Was the etiquette you taught her to slap others out of the blue? Eonel seized the opportunity to land another blow on the Empress.
Kiyen’s mental fortitude crumbled under Eonel’s casual attack.
Without waiting for her to recover, Eonel pressed on.
“What will you do now that you can’t see your beloved niece? She was rumored to be the only one to ease Your Majesty’s loneliness.”
Eonel feigned sincere regret, so convincingly that anyone unaware of their strained relationship might have mistaken it for genuine concern.
The Empress’s face soured as she caught Eonel’s sarcasm.
“If you’d summon me, I’d visit often to keep you company. Please call on your daughter frequently, Mother.”
Finally, Eonel called her stepmother “Mother,” and with that, Kiyen’s last shred of composure shattered.
“You must feel lonely and isolated living alone in that grand estate outside the palace. Come often to chat with your mother. The palace is always lively with young Volter and Melly. ‘You wouldn’t know,’ but having children makes time fly.”
The Empress hid her trembling lips, forcing a benevolent smile.
“Of course, Mother. I’ll visit often. By the way, I haven’t yet paid my respects to Father…”
As Eonel nodded, the Empress flashed a cunning smile. Was she finally losing her temper and standing up? Was Eonel’s pride wounded, ready to flee?
But that was a miscalculation. Far from standing, Eonel remained seated and continued.
“I’ll speak to Father later and ensure his anger over your niece is soothed, so don’t worry too much. He may not listen to ‘others,’ but he always hears me out.”
Eonel ruthlessly dragged out and crushed Kiyen’s last bit of pride.
Yet, Kiyen couldn’t deny that Eonel’s offer was tempting enough to set aside her pride momentarily. Mintia’s presence was vital to her.
There’s no better place than high society to shape noble opinion. Not grand events, but small, intimate gatherings were ideal for subtly building alliances. However, such gatherings were difficult for the Empress to attend.
As an empress, she was too prominent a figure to appear at trivial social events.
Historically, empresses managed this through their daughters, but Kiyen had no daughter to fill that role. That’s why she chose Mintia.
People often assume the political stage is driven by dukes, marquises, and counts—those who directly attend the Emperor in the grand hall, maneuvering through their own interests.
But more often, it’s the duchesses, marchionesses, and countesses—their wives—who move them. The high-value information exchanged at small tea parties influences their husbands and sons without their realizing it.
Kiyen couldn’t give that up so easily. She wavered briefly between her pride and ambition.
Biting her lower lip to suppress the rising anger, she faced her stepdaughter, who smiled without so much as a blink.
“What will you do?”
Finally, Kiyen made her decision. She couldn’t ruin her grand plan over a moment’s pride. She would make Volter Emperor and settle this score.
Suppressing her trembling voice, she spoke.
“So, what does the Princess want?”
For the first time, Eonel’s smile was genuine, lighting up her face.
“Give the Lavender Palace to Amelia. I heard you’re clearing it out amid the ongoing grand hall meetings regarding the Crown Prince appointment. It’s a palace filled with my brother’s traces. It’s a place of cherished memories of her parents for Amelia—wouldn’t it be heartbreaking for her if it’s cleared out?”
“The Lavender… Palace?”
Eonel spoke so casually that Kiyen thought she’d misheard.
The Lavender Palace! The grand eastern palace with its purple lavender gardens, one of the few palaces near the Emperor’s own. Second only to the palace where empresses traditionally resided, it had long been home to crown princes.
The Empress’s face twisted instantly. If Volter became Crown Prince and moved to another palace instead of the Lavender Palace for no reason, everyone would find it odd.
Yet rejecting Eonel’s proposal would paint her as a cruel step-grandmother to the poor orphaned granddaughter. Caught in a dilemma, Kiyen reluctantly nodded, swallowing her pride.
If she sent Volter to the Crystal Palace, adorned with stone gardens instead of flowers, and claimed he had a pollen allergy or some such excuse, giving up the Lavender Palace wouldn’t bruise her pride too much.
The Empress finished her calculations.
“Of course, we’ll do just that. Melly isn’t just any child—she’s the Emperor’s dearest treasure. Keeping her close will please His Majesty too.”
It felt like swallowing back her own blood.
“Then I’ll head to Father now, Mother. Oh, and you’d better send your niece out of the palace before she catches Father’s eye. I went to the trouble of persuading him—wouldn’t want it all to go to waste, would we?”
Eonel didn’t miss a chance to twist the knife in Kiyen’s heart one last time.
