“Perhaps, if I attend the banquet, Her Majesty the Empress Dowager intends to insult me. Moreover, if I actually show my face, it could attract more scandal to Your Majesty. I apologize for that part. But please show me. The world. Then I’ll do whatever Your Majesty wants.”

A dark room. Moonlight illuminated them side by side. Their eyes held each other.

“I want to go further.”

“…You make me fall for you again. You do.”

Carlos, who had lost his words for a moment, made up the sweetest words he could.

“Are you prepared?”

Then he asked, as if to a faithful knight.

“For anything.”

Mercedes answered in a straight voice. It felt as if her voice echoed and spread out.

* * *

“You’re going to have Lady Mercedes attend Her Majesty the Empress Dowager’s banquet?”

Early in the morning, the Emperor’s office was turned upside down. The mouths of the other aides were gaping open, except for Leopold, who had come to his senses and started to get angry.

“Yes. She wanted it.”

“Are you going to grant everything she wants? The Empress Dowager will surely try to use Lady Mercedes to tear Your Majesty down. You know that!”

“Leopold.”

Carlos laughed languidly. He suddenly looked very relaxed, even though he had been extremely sensitive and often irritable since the Empress Dowager returned to the palace.

Just like in the days when the Empress Dowager wasn’t around.

“Mercedes said she would pretend to be a foolish woman who flatters the Empress Dowager and thoroughly scrape her insides if I wanted. Haha.”

“…What?”

What kind of enormous bomb is this now?

“The Empress Dowager wields too much influence in social circles. We need to keep her in check. We need a new wind. And currently, who is the person people want to see as much as, no, even more than the Empress Dowager in the room?”

“…It’s Lady Mercedes.”

“Yes. Mercedes pointed out that blind spot.”

Carlos laughed loudly again, remembering how Mercedes’ eyes had shone last night.

“Just…”

He murmured.

‘I just brought her because I needed her.’

That’s why he was stupidly pretending to be in love, without revealing his purpose even to those close to him who had shared life and death.

How can she be this helpful?

She was more impressive than he thought.

He liked that. But he didn’t let those feelings sway him.

Except for those who had entered his fence, he would fully utilize anyone who had value. When the other person had served their purpose, he would discard them without hesitation.

That had been his unwavering principle since his boyhood.

“What’s the problem if she’s willing to step up? Besides, her etiquette is so perfect that even the Empress Dowager won’t be able to find fault. Maybe because Shaim is much more conservative than us, it’s to the point where we should learn from her.”

“But how can you trust her? And the Empress Dowager might not accept Lady Mercedes as we intend, right?”

“It’s not about trust. We can’t dare predict the Empress Dowager’s reaction either. Leopold. You know that I sometimes don’t even trust you, right?”

“Then.”

“Yes. We’re just putting her on the board. That alone will be helpful. Whether Mercedes acts as a foolish woman or a woman who becomes a threat.”

Carlos put on an arrogant smile.

In fact, when the Empress Dowager came to the palace with the intention of attacking Mercedes, he had thought it would be good if he could put her on the board.

But she avoids people. So he just thought of keeping her hidden.

He had to do things Mercedes liked and not do things she disliked, so that she would fall for him.

“Won’t it be very interesting?”

“Your Majesty.”

What should he do with Mercedes attending the banquet? Will she run to the Empress Dowager and beg to be made the Emperor’s companion?

Or… will she endure in front of the nobles who whisper that she’s a murderer, exuding that unique, captivating atmosphere of hers?

Whatever it was, her beauty and aura captured people.

If such a person were placed at the Empress Dowager’s banquet.

It was obvious that the social circles would be in an uproar in an instant.

“You know too, don’t you? A beautiful woman everyone will turn to look at once. A person with a perfectly noble attitude. Just by standing there, the Empress Dowager’s banquet will become chaotic.”

Carlos laughed. Even Leopold, who had become in charge of some of the aides at a young age due to his intelligence, found it difficult to oppose this time.

He had to agree with Carlos’ story that something would happen to make the Empress Dowager’s face crumple.

* * *

“I’m so glad that Her Majesty the Empress Dowager is finally holding a banquet. It’s been two years, hasn’t it?”

The Empress Dowager sent out invitations to hold a banquet a week after her return, to all the nobles in the capital. Without distinguishing ranks.

The young ladies and gentlemen who had prepared their clothes in advance and waited screamed with joy.

Thus, a month and ten days after the Empress Dowager came to the capital. The banquet was held.

Thanks to even the humble families rushing to attend desperately, the road to the palace was packed with carriages. The streets were in chaos due to the rare traffic jam.

Merchants walked around between the carriages that couldn’t move, conducting business, and as the start time of the banquet approached, some nobles who became anxious got out of their carriages and started walking.

The citizens secretly laughed at the sight of young ladies carefully walking while holding up their dresses.

Saying, ‘Even the noble sirs are nothing special.’

After such a commotion, the most splendid and important banquet in the room began for the first time in two years.

“I’m glad to be back in the palace after a long time, and I’m glad to see all of you. Please enjoy yourselves and return home.”

The Empress Dowager sat in the highest seat and gave a brief greeting to the nobles lined up in the banquet hall.

That was it. But the start of the banquet was just beginning. The Empress Dowager would observe the young ladies and gentlemen with sharp eyes, and watch every move of the nobles.

Whether they were the most beautiful or the smartest didn’t matter.

No one knew the criteria by which the Empress Dowager chose people to call and talk to separately.

The important thing was that those who had such conversations would be the ones to benefit the most in the upcoming social season.

Everyone tensed up, straightened their backs, and took care not to let their tongues slip while dancing.

Originally, noble banquets in the Room were relatively free. People mingled regardless of gender, and no one was blamed for getting drunk.

But today was strangely calm and quiet. It was because everyone was trying to pick up and reattach the etiquette they had thrown away at banquets in order to catch the Empress Dowager’s eye.

And so, just as the Empress Dowager’s greeting ended and lively dance music began to play.

“His Imperial Majesty Carlos Rivera, the supreme Emperor of the Room Empire, has arrived!”

News of the Emperor’s appearance was heard. The nobles’ prediction that even an Emperor who despised banquets would have to attend the Empress Dowager’s banquet had come true.

The eyes of the young ladies aiming for the position of Empress sparkled.

“And his partner— Lady Mercedes, is entering.”

But he had a partner.

Mercedes, stripped of her title and status, was announced with just her name, without any modifiers.

Everyone was surprised.

Mercedes was undoubtedly the hottest name in the empire right now. The first woman the Emperor fell in love with and the first to be settled in the palace, the Emperor’s mistress, of lowly birth, a murderer…

She was said to be incredibly captivating. A seductress.

All sorts of stories were crying out about her, but the Emperor never, ever showed Mercedes outside.

Yet she suddenly appears at the Empress Dowager’s banquet?

As soon as she heard the announcer’s voice, the Empress Dowager leaned forward slightly and smiled only inwardly.

‘Seems she took the bait.’

She must have been lured by the word ‘partner’ and attended. Carlos, who really brought her to the banquet because the stupid girl begged.

It would be worth watching.

It seemed she could greatly embarrass Carlos at today’s banquet.

After all, loving a murderer. Wasn’t it shameful?

The Empress Dowager’s job today was to inflate that shame. To make a flaw into a bigger flaw, and then leave it as a scar. Hadn’t she spread information about the girl to her friends for this purpose?

And then she should extend a kind gesture to the girl who was hurt by the inflated shame. Embrace her like that, and use her thoroughly.

Later, just showing her outside would make Carlos uncomfortable and people would gossip, wouldn’t it? How thrilling would that be.

Fortunately, the girl was stupid, and came to the banquet on her own to face them. Had God finally helped her? For her son, the legitimate heir.

“Hmm… I invited that girl the Emperor is keeping these days… I didn’t really think she’d come. I wonder if she’s ambitious for the Empress position.”

The Empress Dowager deliberately muttered a little loudly. Her words were relayed by her maid, and then by the experienced nobles the Empress Dowager had planted.

As her discomfort had already been conveyed, everyone was whispering as she wished.

But as soon as the door opened and the Emperor and his lady entered, a small commotion arose and then silence fell instantly.

‘What’s going on?’

From the Empress Dowager’s high seat, the far end wasn’t clearly visible. The atmosphere felt strange somehow.

“The Emperor is passing. Make way.”

A solemnly dressed attendant escorted the two’s entrance. The nobles parted like waves.

From the door to the Empress Dowager’s high seat, a straight path opened up.

For a moment, the Empress Dowager almost fell over in shock.

The girl was decorated from head to toe in bright red ornaments.

That was the color the Empress Dowager had chosen to show herself off. An important color she had used symbolically for a very long time.

Therefore, no one ever used red when attending the Empress Dowager’s banquet.

But this girl… had used red.

“Oh… what do we do? She’s all in red.”

“I don’t know…”

“Be quiet. We might get caught in the crossfire.”

The nobles whispered among themselves as quietly as possible.

Meanwhile, the lady walked gracefully with an upright posture.

Her presence was not overshadowed at all, even standing next to the Emperor, who was praised as the most beautiful in the world.

When the voluminous red dress revealing her shoulders and collarbone was paired with her pale wheat-colored hair close to blonde and green eyes, it created an illusion of a rose blooming.

The dress was so lavish it was impossible to estimate how expensive it was. It was intricately embroidered with gold thread, and extremely voluminous with layers of netting and chiffon. On top of that, even her accessories were matched with intense red rubies.

The two reached the Empress Dowager, leaving the entire hall in shock as they walked nonchalantly.

The Empress Dowager, dressed in deep red from head to toe with a mature charm, and the beautiful young rose adorned even more splendidly as if to challenge her.

To which of the two should they turn their eyes, what should they say.

No one in the banquet hall knew.

Carlos, standing between them, felt like whistling.

‘For the dress, if Her Majesty the Empress Dowager has a color, use that.’

Mercedes’ suggestion had worked perfectly.