I locked eyes with a woman walking from the far end of the long corridor. It was a face I had never seen before.

It was a common occurrence, so I didn’t care. It could be a family or friend of someone working in the palace or someone coming for an interview for a job.

But something was strange.

‘…Huh?’

The young lady’s eyes flashed fiercely when she saw me. I didn’t know who she was, but her expression seemed to recognize me.

“Em! Pe! Ror!”

The young lady took a deep breath, and her loud voice echoed through the corridor.

Her face was certainly unfamiliar, but strangely enough, her voice was very familiar.

‘What, what is this?’

Even though the distance is so far, her sharp voice sounded as if it was right next to my ear. It was even noisy.

I’ve heard this voice somewhere before…

“……Ah. I remember now.”

I stopped walking as if entranced and unknowingly took a step back.

It was the immature voice of Jaelim’s younger sister, who I had spoken to in the corridor with Jaelim when selecting maids!

Immature! Spoiled! The one who made a fuss wanting to be a maid, Jaelim’s younger sister!

It was Iana Askal.

I had never seen her face, but I couldn’t forget her intense voice and speech.

“Em! Pe! Ror!”

Iana screamed loudly with her arms spread wide, and then, with an affectionate look as if meeting a longlost younger sister, she charged at me.

‘We only met today!’

I briefly wondered whether to run away or accept Iana’s hug.

‘After all, a hug is a bit…’

And at the moment I decided to run away and turned around, Iana, who was charging frighteningly fast, quickly ran up to me and embraced me tightly.

“Empress! I saw you at the party and memorized your face so I could recognize you from afar! Empress! I wanted to see you so much! I wanted to greet you at the party, but there were too many people…….”

I hadn’t even said a word yet, and my mouth was already dry.

“Ah! Do you know who I am? My brother Jaelim Askal is the Emperor’s assistant! I’m Jaelim’s sister, Iana Askal! I applied to be the Empress’s maid before, but I was really, really unfortunately eliminated…….”

I was out of my mind with Iana’s voice relentlessly pounding my eardrums. I decided to sort things out one by one.

“Um. Yes. Iana.”

I first comforted Iana’s shoulders and gently pushed her away from the embrace. Usually, this makes the other person back off, but with Iana…

“Kyaa! You know my name!”

“You told me, didn’t…… Ugh.”
She didn’t pull away but buried herself even deeper in my embrace. Thanks to her small frame, she looked just like a little sister as she snuggled tightly against me.

“Chirp. Chirp chirp. (Child, take care. I must go now.)”

Perhaps thinking it was too much to handle, the shameless Mu attempted to flee.

Look at that shameless god! When did it ever love humans? Behold the back of that shameless god as it tries to abandon everything and flee!

“Kyaa! A hamster!”

And Mu’s escape was tragically thwarted. Iana seemed to have the ability to recognize moving objects with her dynamic vision, for she turned her eyes towards Mu as soon as it moved.

And then she caught the fleeing Mu with both hands.

“This hamster is the very one the Empress is raising! Rumors are rampant that the Empress is raising a hamster!”

“…Is that so?”

“Yes! Didn’t you know? The clothes the Empress wears, the jewelry she puts on, they all become trends! Some commoners, hoping to follow in the fortunate Empress’s footsteps, are even catching house mice, naming them ‘hamsters,’ and raising them, or so I’ve heard!”

Iana laughed innocently. Then she pressed her cheek against Mu’s soft back and nuzzled it with a blissful expression.

“But this hamster is so cute! What’s its name? Ah! Did I perhaps handle the Empress’s hamster too casually?”

Shouldn’t you be more concerned about snuggling up to me so casually instead of handling the hamster?

Iana was truly like a beloved youngest sister, spoiled with affection.

I watched Mu flail in Iana’s hand, trying to escape, and smiled like a devil.

“It’s okay. That hamster likes to be gripped tightly in the hand.”

“Chirp chirp! (You wicked child!)”

“Wow! Really?!”

“Chirp. (Ugh. Save me.)”

“Just hold it tightly in your hand, but don’t kill it.”

“Of course! Your Majesty!”

I wickedly smiled at Mu, trapped in Iana’s hand.

‘How dare you try to escape on your own! This is punishment for trying to run away alone!’

While Mu and I were engaged in an unseen mental battle, the innocent and naïve Iana blushed and confessed.

“I’ve always wished to converse with the Empress like this. Jaerim oppa always tells me not to come and play in the palace. Even when I come on errands, he sends me away quickly!”

“He must be worried about you.”

“Worried about me? No way?! Oppa hates me because I’m stupid and clueless! If I die, he’ll probably be the only one clapping his hands, saying it’s good!”

Her mistrust in Jaerim was skyhigh. Yet her pouting face was not hateful but rather cute.

“Enough about Jaerim oppa! Your Majesty, please come to the gathering I’m hosting sometime! Ah! Do you like dogs? Are you allergic?”

“Dogs? Hmm. I don’t have any allergies. Why?”

“That’s great! My gathering involves walking dogs together! Not just me, everyone wants to talk and get to know the Empress, they’re all clamoring!”

“Hmm. I’ll see about going later.”

“Really? You promise? When? When would it be convenient for me to send an invitation?”

Her pure, unadulterated confidence seemed to come from never being rejected. I didn’t want to crush that pure and audacious confidence.

“Not right now. The Eteria royal family is here, so… perhaps after the guests leave.”

“That won’t be long then!”

“…Hmm?”

“After the Eteria royal family leaves! My chambermaid is friends with the Eteria royal family’s cleaning staff. They said they’ll be returning to their homeland soon!”

This was news to me. The Eteria royal family had a predetermined period for staying in the empire, and that time was not even halfway through yet.

Could it be that Lisa’s condition has worsened? My worry overtook me.

“Ah. But the Eteria Empress seems sick these days… she looks really strange.”

“Really strange?”

“Yes. The Eteria Emperor doesn’t let anyone into the Empress’s bedroom. Even the cleaning staff and the Empress’s personal maids were all driven away. It seems the Emperor himself must be serving her!”
It was a familiar pattern that I had heard somewhere before.

“Although the original face was scary, they say it wasn’t a person who would get so angry… These days, everyone says it feels like walking on thin ice. And someone saw a glimpse of the Empress’s figure reflected faintly in the window. That person said.”

Iana leaned in as if to whisper a secret, lowering her upper body slightly.

“The Empress’s long hair looked white!”

“……!”

“But it must have been a momentary mistake! The Empress’s hair is black, so how could it look white? Right?”

“Sigh.”

“People said it might have looked that way because the Empress has been so ill and looks blurred.”

Iana’s laughter accompanied her trembling hand. It was a symptom similar to someone I knew.

Then, Iana’s eyes met with Mu, who was held in her hand. The black beanlike pupils murmured dryly.

“Chirp. Chirp. (That’s what I said. That’s rotten.)”

Come to think of it, Mu had always called Levanfell a ‘rotten child.’