The man spoke in a cold voice, but walked towards the window and buttoned up his blouse.

Patricia slowly caught her breath. She counted the time she could remember. Meeting Princess Julia on Epi Street to find the necklace and swinging her sword at Pamila came to mind one after another.

So she still couldn’t remember events from the more distant past.

“This is our hideout in the Loche Mountains.”

A hideout of the Heun clan hunters.

“You’ve been unconscious for four days. At first I thought about notifying the imperial family, but I didn’t contact them thinking it would be better for you to decide directly after regaining consciousness.”

“The imperial family didn’t look for me after four days without news?”

“Of course, they seem to be quietly searching the Kaosan area, but we’ve cleaned that area thoroughly.”

“……”

He also reported that Princess Leak, who appeared to be the only one related to the empress’s disappearance, had been in a carriage accident.

The carriage accident occurred when a carriage fell off the mountain slope on the way to the Leak duchy. The princess’s life was not in danger, but due to fractures in her arms, legs and neck, she was avoiding meeting people due to nervous exhaustion.

“How can I trust you?”

“Haa. Piercing my heart like this. To your lifesaver.”

Heun clan hunters. Did I get hit by their poison arrows, lose my memory, and come back to their den? Her shoulders, back, and calves were burning and she felt intense pain.

However, above all, Patricia was curious about Eva’s well-being and Pamila’s life or death.

“I lost my memory after being hit by a Heun clan’s poison arrow not long ago.”

“I know. And this time we saved the empress’s life. If we had been a little later……”

The man standing by the window turned and slowly walked over.

“Well, now that you’re awake, what do you want to do? If you want us to notify the imperial family, we’ll do so.”

“Is it too much for me to go to the imperial palace?”

“Yes. You were in danger with a high fever until this morning. The imperial physician will come and make a judgment.”

He sat cross-legged in the chair in front of Patricia, folded his arms and stared at her. His appearance was quite burdensome, but strangely his eyes were trustworthy.

“Send word to the imperial palace.”

“I’ll do that. Would you like to eat something now?”

“First, what about my maid Eva?”

“The empress’s maid was stabbed in several places, no less than the empress. Fortunately, she has regained consciousness, but her right hand is crushed and she won’t be able to hold even a sheet of paper in the future.”

“It’s enough that she’s alive. Pamila… is dead, right?”

“Do you think the empress’s sword killed her? You did stab her in the side of the neck.”

“Ah, is she alive?”

Patricia showed more intense emotion at the fact that Pamila was not dead than at her own awakening.

“Where is she now? Is she here?”

“When I went there, she was screaming and struggling to be saved, so I got rid of her because it was too noisy.”

“Haa!”

Patricia wiped away the tears flowing down her cheeks.

“Tell me I killed her.”

“It might be something you’ll have to pay for later. We need to be clear about these things. I killed that red-haired woman.”

“No, I, I did it.”

“Well, if we hadn’t gone, she might have died from excessive bleeding. Two men who had dozens of daggers on their bodies also died. One is in a state where poison has spread to his thigh, but we kept him alive. We might need testimony that the empress ordered the assassination.”

“Empress Pamila… I should have done it.”

“Seeing you being stubborn, I guess you’ve regained some strength.”

Bark pulled the bell cord. A sturdy young man in a black suit and two maids entered.

“Cay, bring a meal that’s easy to digest. Disinfect the wounds and change her clothes. But don’t leave the bedroom. If you have any more questions, ask Cay here.”

After giving instructions to Cay and the maids, Bark walked towards the door.

“Did you say Bark?”

Bark turned back at Patricia’s words. Their gazes met in mid-air.

“Thank you.”

Haa, those bright blue eyes are still the same.

Bark whistled lightly while looking at her blue eyes. After landing a bird that flew in from outside on the tip of his middle finger, he left the room.

“I, I, I greet Your Majesty the Empress.”

The man called Cay, not knowing the proper etiquette, stuttered a greeting while flustered.

“Be at ease. Cay, was it? Where is my maid Eva now?”

At that moment, a small commotion broke out outside the door and whispering voices were heard. The two maids pulling a mobile tray opened the doors on both sides.

“Mr. Cay. The maid there……”

“Your Highness, Risha…… Your Highness”

Eva’s voice was heard. When Patricia painfully turned her neck, a sound of something brushing against the floor was heard.

Patricia lowered her gaze. Eva was sitting on the floor, propping herself up with one hand and dragging her lower body across the threshold.

Unlike her usual self, Eva called out to Patricia in a sharp voice.

“Your Highness, no, Your Majesty the Empress!”

“Eva!”

When Eva heard Patricia’s voice from the bed, she stopped moving. She stretched her upper body and neck as much as possible to look up at the bed where the sound was coming from.

The man called Cay nodded to another man and went to Eva. They supported her from both sides and brought her to Patricia’s bedside.

Eva endlessly wiped her tear-streaked face with her left hand and rubbed her eyes. When the two men propped Eva up against the bed, she reached out with a trembling hand and touched Patricia’s cheek.

“You’re alive, thank goodness. Thank you, Lady Aldisha has protected you.”

“Eva too.”

“Your Majesty, I’ll be shameless and touch you a bit.”

Eva took Patricia’s hand with her left hand and rubbed it against her cheek. A maid standing nearby also sniffled, pulled her sleeve to wipe away tears, and then spoke as if she had made up her mind.

“Um, Miss Maid. Her Majesty needs to eat and take medicine.”

Only then did Eva let go of Patricia’s hand. The two men picked Eva up and took her to the next room.

“Please put my bed at Her Majesty’s feet, I beg you.”

Eva’s voice was heard from the next room. Patricia spoke in a slightly louder voice.

“Eva, I can hear your voice clearly. Don’t worry, I’m here.”

“Sob, yes, Your Majesty, I will do so.”

Patricia ate the mushroom soup fed to her by the maids. She could taste and smell the savory mushrooms. She also drank some herbal medicine.

The maids wiped her body with lukewarm wet towels, and a man who looked like a doctor came to disinfect her wounds and apply medicine. Patricia silently followed their instructions.

Judging by the slanted angle of the sunlight coming through the full-length window, it was late afternoon. It was quiet both inside and outside. Occasionally, the sound of birds flying around the terrace outside could be heard.

“Eva! Are you asleep?”

“No, Your Majesty.”

“They say Pamila is dead.”

“Yes.”

“I think I did it.”

“……Yes.”

*

In the Empress Dowager’s reception room, Diana looked around at the head of the guard, Bern, assistant Philip, the Minister of Internal Affairs, and Carolina, and said,

“Keep this confidential.”

“Mo, Mother.”

“Yo, Your Majesty!”

“This is surely an abduction.”

The Empress Dowager thought it was a love affair or an elopement, but she didn’t say it out loud.

“The day before, Julia had an audience, and she went to the shop on Epi Street. But she didn’t tell Bern she was meeting the princess.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Madam Lulu and the customers there saw the princess, but they didn’t see the empress in a robe or her maid.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“As the head of the guard investigated, the empress might have gone into that shop briefly and left through the back door. Julia is holding the sword hilt, but she’s still unconscious. To prevent the rumors from growing and the culprit from running away further, tell the head maid of White Palace to keep quiet and move quietly.”

“Shouldn’t we inform His Majesty the Emperor? Sending a messenger……”

“Philip, absolutely do not send one. Don’t contact the Emperor until the moment he returns after going through the approval process after the railway contract with Tane.”

Diana thought something else inwardly.

It was unpleasant that she had covered herself with a long robe to conceal her appearance and secretly went to such an outrageous underwear shop with her own family maid.

A virtuous empress would not dare to frequent such places as soon as the emperor left the palace.

Diana frowned as she thought of the First Princess Isabella. Secret Lady was Isabella’s regular shop. Isabella often enjoyed bolder trysts with her guard knight and eventually got caught.

Just two days ago, Isabella had barely been sent back after using the empress’s disappearance as an excuse to postpone her return to the Kingdom of Rubelin.

Diana said it was an abduction case and there was a culprit, but inwardly she suspected it was a love affair. She couldn’t upset the emperor, who had gone to make a crucial contract between the two empires, over such a matter.

Diana planned to uncover the empress’s affair and grasp her weakness before the emperor returned, to keep her under her feet.

Her innate energy attracted men. It was hard to believe her delicate body when she said she wielded a sword. The way she waltzed with her brother was also quite irritating.

Usually she lowered her eyes demurely, but Diana had seen how foolish her son looked when he occasionally looked at the emperor and smiled. From a mother’s perspective, it was a nauseating smile.

“Search that, Arteum in Epi Street, thoroughly as well.”

Carolina was startled by the Empress Dowager’s words. Having stayed at Arteum herself, she knew what her mother’s statement meant.

‘Surely not, Mother. Are you doubting the empress’s virtue and sincerity?’

Carolina waited until the assistant, including Bern and the head chamberlain, had all left. When everyone had gone out and she was alone with the Empress Dowager, Carolina moved closer to Diana and sat down.

“Mother. Surely you’re not suspecting the empress?”

“It’s clearly the empress’s love affair.”

“Mother, Her Majesty is different from Sister Isabella.”

Carolina recalled Patricia’s image, her cheeks turning pink as she seriously read the notebook Carolina had made for her.

“My lovely Lina, one cannot judge a person’s inner thoughts by appearance alone. At this point, I want you to seriously consider Prince Ralph of the Kingdom of Heya.”

“Mother, I don’t like Prince Ralph. His clingy gaze is burdensome.”

“A woman should be with a man who only looks at her to be happy. Like your late father……”

“Let’s talk about me later. For now, I’ll go meet Julia.”

Carolina cut off the Empress Dowager’s words in a cold voice, risking rudeness. She bowed slightly and left the reception room, walking slowly down the corridor.

She didn’t want to continue the conversation due to her disappointment in her mother.

Carolina witnessed how a narrow view and prejudice about people could enormously distort an event.

She recalled the Diarum poison soup incident the day after the empress entered the palace. Coincidentally, Julia had come then too, even though she hadn’t been invited.

Julia had also had an audience the day before the empress’s disappearance and was together at a place called Secret Lady. Was it a coincidence? Carolina felt her chest tighten and couldn’t breathe.