“And place more soldiers in front of Valier’s residence. Ensure she can’t step out.”

Henri passed Count Halstein with a stern face, unable to keep his hand still.

The soft, warm touch he felt seemed to linger.

Memories are not easily forgotten, even when the heart has moved on.

What he saw, heard, smelled, and felt—all imprinted with the memory of a first love.

From the receding figure of Henri, fresh blood streamed, staining the ground red.

“What are you doing? What’s happening?”

At Count Halstein’s words, Ermedillin jumped up from her seat.

“A ceremony for the empress will take place on the upcoming National Spirit Day.”

“What? That makes no sense. Wasn’t she supposed to march alone?”

“Yes, she will march alone.”

Nobles wanted to show the people a solitary emperor rather than a couple on National Spirit Day.

From their perspective, it was better for the emperor to be alone.

“Then why this sudden ceremony? What title am I receiving?”

What other title could she receive when she was already the empress?

Confused, Ermedillin furrowed her brows, prompting Count Halstein to explain.

“Your predecessor, the Duke of François, is dead. You need to succeed him.”

“??”

Ermedillin had been more concerned about involving Pellio in the duke’s death than the death itself.

She hadn’t considered that someone would have to take over.

“Why do I have to? I have a brother…”

“Prince Ermond’s whereabouts are currently unknown within Trivian.”

“But why give me a meaningless title when the domain and the army are gone?”

Ermedillin did not understand the status that the House of François still held within their domain.
Just as she had finally grown accustomed to life in the royal palace, Ermedillin had no way of knowing the conditions of the fief she had never visited.

However, Count Halstein thought that Ermedillin was pretending to be naive while fully aware of the situation in her fief.

“Still, someone must receive a title. Especially if one from the house of the Trebian Empire carries on the weight of that name.”

This meant that after confining the current Empress to her status, he would pass it on to the legitimate heir that the next Empress would give birth to.

Count Halstein was nearly outright in conveying his intent to promote Ermedillin.

Yet, once again, Ermedillin failed to grasp the true meaning behind his words.

“Well, if my original family name is to be restored, I suppose it’s not so bad…”

‘What? Restore what?’

For a moment, Count Halstein doubted his ears.

“Yes. Fine. But let it be brief. No one should attend, and it should be modest. My title ceremony must not cause an outbreak.”

This was exactly what Count Halstein had wanted.

Quietly subjugating the name of the house of Fransuar to the Empress.

How thankful he was that Ermedillin, who knew nothing, would willingly scale down the event.

‘Does she not even consider the possibility of being divorced and stepping down from her Empress position?’

“Yes, we will proceed accordingly.”

Before Ermedillin could change her mind, Count Halstein, who had swiftly left her quarters, found himself deep in thought.

The Ermedillin he knew was not this person.

She wouldn’t care about spreading diseases among the populace; if Duke Fransuar had died, she would have been the first to demand a title ceremony.

Therefore, Duke Batistine, who sought out Count Halstein, ordered him to inflate the event’s scale, like during the title ceremony for Ballier, even suggesting the insertion of infected patients.

Of course, Count Halstein did not agree with him.

He too held a deep grudge against Ermedillin, but he wasn’t so unprofessional as to not separate public from personal matters.

So he planned to persuade Ermedillin to scale down the event.

But then, that witch, claiming it was for the people, voluntarily decided to scale it down.

Count Halstein began to feel torn between his personal grudge and his loyalty as a faithful subject who wished for the empire’s stability.

“What’s going on?”

With Henri’s visit lifting his spirits, Ballier was about to head downtown to purchase new jewelry.

But then the royal guards suddenly blocked his way.

“We have orders from His Majesty not to let you step a foot outside.”

“What’s the meaning of this all of a sudden?”

“We’re just following orders.”

“Move aside at once! Do you know who I am? I am Duke Ballier! Not a common soldier to be held back!”

His newly acquired title didn’t intimidate the soldiers serving in the palace.

They were an elite group trained to give their lives for Emperor Henri if needed.

“Until His Majesty says otherwise, you cannot leave this gate.”

“Move! I won’t go out! I’ll just go to His Majesty and ask him the reason myself! Now move!”

No matter how much Ballier fumed, the guards blocking the gate did not budge.

Behind him, the maids were at a loss, rolling their eyes and just standing there.

‘What is this? What’s going on? Why am I being confined all of a sudden?’

His head was still warm from Henri’s touch, and now, without any notice, he was confined. Clearly, something ominous was happening.
‘Has the epidemic spread severely? No, if that were the issue, they would have informed me sooner. Henri has been gone for less than an hour; this is too abrupt.’

‘Could something have been caught? That can’t be. Count François would have taken care of it.’

In an unexpected situation, all sorts of ominous thoughts began to slowly fill her head.

The young woman in love was learning the bitterness and sweetness of life as she traversed heaven and hell within a few days.

The rumor that Vallier was imprisoned spread throughout the capital by Countess Elion, who had visited her.

Of course, the matter about the note sent by Ermond was confidential, so the rumor was altered to him being imprisoned due to the epidemic.

On top of that, another rumor began to spread that Henri would be riding alone in the carriage during the National Spirit Day parade without Vallier.

Most nobles knew the Empress would eventually be discarded, but since Vallier, her longtime lover, was standing by Henri, no scions of powerful families dared to covet the future Empress’ position.

However, these two coincidentally concurrent rumors gave every scion of the Empire the audacity to dream of aiming for the future Empress’ seat.

As the social season began, the atmosphere in the capital started to heat up at a rapid pace.