Patricia truly watched the sword duel movements of the Emperor and Lord Bern without any ulterior motives.

She had dueled with Lord Bern several times. Unlike when dueling with Patricia, Lord Bern was extremely agile and swung his sword widely and struck decisively.

With the Emperor, she did it in silver armor in the Tamil Valley, and in the White Palace garden at Patricia’s request. At that time, he swung his sword casually as if playing with a herbivore.

Patricia gave her all both times, prepared to die.

In the Tamil Valley, there was nowhere to retreat. She charged in, ready to fall into the valley if the sword struck the gap in her sectional armor below the poleyn.

The second time as well, she was about to ask for Patrick’s life to be spared. She resolved to let herself be stabbed by the sword to make the Emperor take his right hand out of his pants pocket if she was about to lose, so she gave her all again.

But now she saw that neither of them had given their all against Patricia’s sword. Realizing this, Patricia bit her lower lip slightly and resolved to duel again.

The Emperor sometimes deflected the sword in one stroke, but sometimes he deflected Lord Bern’s sword in two strokes. Generally, to use such a technique, the first strike had to be strong and the second inevitably weaker.

But this Emperor, with incredibly powerful arm strength, pushed with the same force both times. The sound of the two swords clashing was loud and blue sparks flew.

Unlike Patricia, the maids standing around her had their gazes fixed on the Emperor’s flowing hair, sharp nose bridge and pointed jawline, appropriately thick and long neck, prominent collarbone, and above all, the chest, shoulders, and arm muscles they wanted to poke with their fingers.

“Wow. Look at those chest muscles…”

“I feel like I’m going to have a heart attack.”

“You can feel those shoulder muscles too. And what about those arm muscles and long legs.”

Patricia didn’t want to hear it, but her gaze followed along to every corner of the Emperor’s body as the maids recited.

When her gaze touched the Emperor’s body instead of the sword, an unfamiliar emotion arose. Like when they kissed on the Emperor’s terrace last night, her legs felt weak and she wanted to lean on something.

Firm and smelling of mint…

“He’s so nimble. A slim waist, and even his sides have taut muscles.”

His waist didn’t seem that slim though…

Patricia’s face turned bright red. Even unintentionally, lewd imaginings fluttered through her mind, spreading their wings wide.

“Your Majesty. Lady Terra is waiting in the rest room.”

Startled by Anna’s call, Patricia jumped away from the window and turned around, striding quickly. So much so that one of the hair rollers rolled up in her hair fell out.

Terra smiled as she saw Patricia entering with flushed cheeks and her hair full of white rollers.

“I greet the rising morning sun, Your Majesty the Empress.”

The madam carefully examined the empress’s bare face. With her white face tinged pink and no makeup applied, the empress looked like a freshly bloomed white rose.

She was beautiful just as she was.

No, it seemed meaningless to add powder and rouge to such beauty.

Though she was the imperial exclusive madam, she had done the makeup for countless noble ladies for over thirty years. In all that long experience, this was the first time she felt such bewilderment.

To reveal the empress’s beauty, she had to set aside her own desires. She couldn’t mar something that shone on its own with makeup. It was Terra’s true attitude and courtesy towards beauty.

Not knowing Terra’s intentions, the assistant was surprised. She doubted Terra’s skills.

She used hardly any of the various cosmetic ointments prepared, and even the color makeup was barely there.

The most effort was put into styling the hair. She carefully braided the hair into several strands, applying lavender extract.

She twisted the braided hair and fixed it with golden hairpins to create patterns. When all the pins in the assistant’s hands were used, it looked like flowers made of gold.

“How many lari pins did you use?”

“Thirty-three, ma’am.”

“Alright, make sure to tell the Aster Palace maid. They might forget to remove some by mistake since they’re similar in color to the hair.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Madam Terra personally dressed the empress in the white wedding dress embroidered with silver thread that sparkled, her own creation, and placed a white gilded lamb crown on her head.

“Lari. Go stand back there and look.”

Madam Terra was as fastidious as she was excellent in aesthetic sense. Most clothing atelier madams were obsessed with their own creations and chose makeup and accessories to match the dress in order to make the clothes stand out.

When the client was a noble lady, they would make a doll with a similar body type and set it up 3-4 days in advance, make plans, and carry them out.

There were no failures, and the efforts always paid off greatly and were acclaimed.

Terra first looked at and assessed the subject before deciding the direction of her work. Whether to make the clothes stand out, or the person.

Usually, people were lacking compared to her splendid creations. So she did her best to apply makeup to match her elaborate dresses. She did both the makeup and styling herself.

For Patricia, she had to set aside her own desires. Even her proud self-esteem was shaken. Still, in the end she only did basic makeup and barely touched it.

“How is it?”

Assistant Lari was genuinely impressed.

The pure white dress and white gilded lamb’s innocence harmonized with the light makeup, slender long neck, narrow straight shoulders, and slim waist, making her look like a goddess of fresh flowers. The words alluring and beautiful were not enough.

“It’s a work of art.”

*

Harchen, dressed in formal attire, walked up and down the White Palace corridor three times.

Was this how he felt waiting for the princess who was said to have departed from Tane? Back then, one day felt like ten, three days like a month, a year.

Now.

You crazy bastard. Why are you so anxious?

No matter how slowly he walked the corridor, the rest room door didn’t open. He walked the corridor leading to the central hall again from in front of the door.

It’s not like the empress would escape through the window in that time. Is it because they won’t let him in? Why is he so nervous when he’s already seen her in a wedding dress before?

He took off his ceremonial gloves. After asking Calip for a handkerchief to wipe his hands and picking up the gloves again, the double doors of the rest room opened wide.

“Hah. Calip. Look away.”

Harchen stared at Patricia with his mouth agape.

He didn’t want anyone, starting with Calip and including Patrick, the platinum blond guy, or anyone else to see this beautiful woman.

Seeing him standing in the middle of the corridor clutching his gloves, dumbstruck and not even thinking of escorting the bride, Calip approached.

“Your Majesty. I’ll look away, so please escort Her Majesty the Empress.”

“Oh.”

Finally coming to his senses, Harchen silently bent his knee in greeting before taking Patricia’s hand. As he pressed his lips to the back of her gloved hand, his fingertips trembled.

His lips felt as if they were on fire as they touched the white lace glove with the rough texture of silver thread. He swallowed the stream of curses in his mind.

Though he could have linked arms, he deliberately held Patricia’s hand with one hand and slipped his other hand inside the train to wrap around her tiny waist.

Patricia felt uncomfortable with the emperor’s hand on her waist.

It was more uncomfortable to walk with her waist held.

“Your Majesty, your hand on my waist…”

As she was about to ask him to remove his hand from her waist, the White Palace entrance doors opened. There was a roar of cheers, and the Imperial Guard band in white ceremonial uniforms sounded a fanfare.

The celebrants had gathered, waiting to see the empress’s face even a little sooner.

Patricia smiled awkwardly at the crowd swarming like the pouring midday sunlight. Madam Terra’s assistant followed, rolling up the 7-meter train made of netting and lace.

Patricia was surprised, but the emperor seemed used to the crowd’s cheers as he calmly held her hand and descended the stairs to the waiting wedding carriage.

The wedding carriage was an open type, painted harmoniously in white with cream accents. The canopy to block the sun was also made of white muslin with three-tiered lace and decorated with a flowing chiffon drape in the back.

Small white gilded lamb flowers symbolizing purity and fertility were tied with lace and hung here and there. The wedding carriage decoration was also Madam Terra’s handiwork.

The wedding carriage was to depart from the White Palace, make a full circuit of Karsik Palace Road, and then head to Aster Palace.

When Harchen and Patricia boarded the carriage, assistant Lari placed the rolled-up train behind Patricia.

As the wedding carriage departed, the Imperial Guard knights and band followed, playing music.

The wedding carriage passed by the grand fountain with water flowing down in three tiers from multiple spouts, and through the garden with rose vines.

As they passed through the tree-lined avenue of metasequoia trees stretching on both sides, away from the gathered crowd, even the Imperial Guard band seemed to be catching their breath as it was quiet.

Quiet enough to hear the summer birdsong.

“Turn your head a bit. Let me see your face.”

Patricia couldn’t understand why the emperor was speaking like that. Isn’t it a bit ticklish and embarrassing to ask her to obediently turn her face?

The emperor took off his gloves and held Patricia’s lace-gloved hand.

“I’m afraid my hand will smudge your makeup, so please turn a bit.”

“I, I didn’t put on that much makeup.”

Patricia turned to face the emperor as naturally as possible. In fact, she had been breathless since seeing the emperor standing in the White Palace corridor holding white gloves, no, since seeing his bare upper body that the maids were describing in detail.

Harchen was surprised to hear she hadn’t put on makeup. Pretending to check, he brought his eyes close to her face. He touched her cheek with his hand. It was just her soft skin.

“Then, I’ll touch you a bit.”

Harchen pressed his lips to Patricia’s. What was meant to be just a light kiss gradually deepened. The shadows of metasequoia leaves and sunlight breaking through the gaps poured over their touching white faces.

As they passed the tree-lined avenue, the gathered crowd cheered and applauded upon seeing the emperor and empress kissing. Soon the Imperial Guard band played a lively march.

Harchen ended the deepened kiss with a short peck as if to show it to the crowd. He whispered in Patricia’s ear as she lowered her head with a bright red face.

“You’re so beautiful I can’t breathe, shall we cancel the wedding?”

“What? Why?”

Patricia, eyes widening in surprise like a blooming flower.

“This beautiful sight. So other bas- people can’t see it. Shall we just go somewhere with just the two of us?”

“This isn’t the time for such jokes.”

“I want it to end quickly and be alone with you.”