“My lady… I…”

Millie spoke while trying to hold back her tears, her shoulders trembling uncontrollably.

She confessed everything, from the story of her and her sisters to the dirty plot Grace had devised to drive Arabel out.

“For my sisters, I put you in danger, my lady… I reported your every move to Head Maid Bridget. Hic, hic.”

Millie, not having the courage to look at Arabel, bowed her head.

“You saved all of us, my lady, and yet I… to you, to you…”

Unable to finish her words, she fell to her knees. It was only natural to be punished and driven out. Even the sound of crying bursting from her throat seemed brazen, so Millie bit her lips hard.

At that moment, a pair of slender arms wrapped around Millie’s shoulders, conveying a warm comfort. Without saying a word, Arabel held Millie’s back firmly, her head a full size taller than Millie’s. Her small, thin embrace was stronger and more comforting than anyone else’s.

Millie buried her face in Arabel’s shoulder and burst into loud sobs like a baby.

‘Worried about you, Mary and I sent a letter to the imperial palace as soon as we arrived at the convent. Didn’t you receive it? We were told it was delivered to Head Maid Bridget.’

When Adele, whom she reunited with at the convent, said this while wiping away tears, the perceptive Millie could guess.

Head Maid Bridget, who had received Adele’s letter, hadn’t passed it on to Millie. She must have thought that if Millie knew her sisters were safe, she wouldn’t listen to Grace.

As Millie’s clenched fists trembled with anger and betrayal, Adele took both her hands and said,

‘I was so confused then that I didn’t even ask for the lady’s name… Later I heard from the guards that the lady who helped us was staying at the annex as an empress candidate. Sister, please go find her and tell her thank you.’

‘Make sure to tell her we’re taking the medicine she sent us regularly.’

Mary’s noticeably plumper cheeks rose as her lips, no longer coughing, showed a bright smile.

Not knowing that Millie had been assigned to the candidates’ annex, Adele told her about what had happened, and the name of the lady who had saved them from Baron Baron’s trap came from her lips.

‘It must be mother sending her from heaven. Isn’t her name pretty? Lady Arabel.’

“Not knowing that… hic, hic… kkeuk kkeuk, I didn’t know and tried to… harm you… waaah.”

Tonight, after seeing her sister, she had tried to hide a man’s underwear between Arabel’s bed mattresses. Just imagining Arabel being driven out with a shameful false accusation because of her made her feel sick. She couldn’t forgive herself.

She felt too guilty to even ask for forgiveness. Arabel’s hands patting her back after hearing Millie’s confession were so warm… Millie shamelessly began to cry her heart out in her arms.

How much time had passed? Wiping her tears and snot with the back of her hand, Millie lifted her head from Arabel’s shoulder and said quietly.

“My lady, please… let me have an audience with His Majesty the Emperor. I beg you.”

“Millie, if you tell the truth, you might be punished too. You could be driven out of the palace.”

As Arabel shook her head with a troubled look and answered, Millie bit her lower lip firmly.

That’s why she absolutely had to meet the Emperor.

It was obvious that Lady Arabel would try to bury this fact because of her. Even if she knew about the forces trying to harm her, she would endure it to protect her people.

The reason why the lady suffered the ordeal of being framed as a thief by Lilibet’s scheme last time was because of Rosa. The lady who forgave the treacherous Rosa didn’t report Lilibet’s scheme to the imperial investigation team for fear that Rosa might be harmed.

Grace would recruit someone else and plot another scheme even if it wasn’t me.

She was a villainess who wouldn’t give up until her scheme succeeded if it failed. She would keep tormenting the lady until she was driven out of the palace. And behind her stands the Duchess of Le Sang.

“Please, my lady. Let me see His Majesty.”

At that moment,

“Since you’re pleading like this, I’ll listen to what you want to say.”

A long silhouette appeared from the darkness and came close behind Arabel’s back.

Red eyes glared sharply at the bowing Millie in front.

Present. In front of Arabel’s annex second floor bedroom.

“For grandmother and aunt to come together at this late hour, your relationship is indeed close enough to make others jealous.”

The Emperor, easily over six feet tall, brought his gaze over the crowns of the women gathered in front and greeted the Empress Dowager and the Duchess of Le Sang. All eyes turned to the unexpected appearance of the Empress Dowager and the Duchess, the highest-ranking women among the imperial ladies.

“I stopped by the Empress Dowager’s quarters and was on my way back when I heard there was a big commotion at the annex, so I hurried over.”

The Duchess answered calmly, trying hard to hide her flustered expression.

By now, a soldier’s underwear should have been found in Arabel’s bed, and her maids should have been caught and interrogated… But after following the soldiers who had entered Arabel’s quarters after some time, they found the Emperor firmly guarding her bedroom.

The Duchess and the Empress Dowager swallowed dry saliva imperceptibly at this completely unexpected scene.

“The first to see the man who came out of Lady Arabel’s bedroom…”

“Are these women.”

The captain of the guard hastily picked up the Emperor’s words and brought out three of Grace’s maids standing in the middle line.

“Which lady do you serve?”

“Th-they are the maids from Lady Grace Le Sang’s family home, Y-Your Majesty.”

As the three maids bowed their heads deeply and answered in trembling voices, the Emperor said in a low voice.

“Raise your heads and look at me as you speak clearly.”

Though it was clearly a benevolent voice, goosebumps rose on their arms.

As they hesitantly raised their heads, cold red eyes entered their wavering gaze.

“Your eyes clearly witnessed this man fleeing from Lady Arabel’s bedroom. Is that correct?”

The Emperor asked, pointing with his raised chin at the soldier held by the captain’s hand. The maids’ bodies trembled like aspen trees as they barely squeezed out their voices to answer.

“Y-yes, Your Majesty.”

“So according to you,”

The Emperor reached out and grabbed the young soldier by the nape of his neck, bringing him to his side. The muscular, sturdy soldier’s body was dragged like a paper doll by the Emperor’s grip and stood beside him.

“Since this fellow came out of this bedroom where I was naked like a thieving cat, I must be in that kind of relationship with him.”

The maids, their faces turning pale, shook their heads and shouted,

“No. Absolutely not, Your Majesty.”

Things were taking a strange turn. Their testimony had now come to damage the Emperor’s honor. This was on a different level from putting another candidate in trouble on their lady’s orders. If they made a mistake, they could face execution.

As they glanced sideways at Grace’s expression while trembling uncontrollably, a chilling voice leaked through the Emperor’s teeth.

“I’ll give you one more chance. You’d better use your open mouths well. Did you see this fellow coming out of this bedroom where I’m standing?”

The three heads shook vigorously from side to side simultaneously.

“Your Majesty, it seems these foolish ones wagged their tongues recklessly, having made a grave mistake in the darkness. I will take them away and administer severe punishment.”

As the Duchess stepped forward and spoke in a polite tone, the Empress Dowager also chimed in with a benevolent smile.

“As matters in the annex are the business of the imperial inner court, this old woman will investigate thoroughly. It’s late, so please retire to your chambers.”

The corners of the Emperor’s mouth turned up as if amused, and he let out a laugh that seemed mocking.

“It seems our grandmother and aunt are the ones making a mistake.”

Looking alternately at the shaken eyes of the snake and the fox, the Emperor spoke slowly.

“If I hadn’t been here, it would have been a matter for the imperial inner court, but now that it involves the Emperor’s honor, the investigation becomes the Emperor’s authority.”

“Sob…”

One of Grace’s maids couldn’t hold back and let out a sob from her tightly closed mouth. The Emperor gripped the nape of the soldier standing next to him, who had his eyes closed and was not responding.

“Ugh…”

The soldier’s lips contorted in pain. The young soldier, nearly six feet tall, was lifted vertically by the Emperor’s hand, his feet dangling off the ground.

“It’s true that you tried to escape outside the annex. If not from Lady Arabel’s bedroom, from whose quarters were you trying to flee?”

Everyone gaped at the Emperor, who asked coolly without any change in tone.

Pressing one spot on the neck firmly with his thumb, the Emperor asked once more.

“I asked from which lady’s quarters you came out.”

The soldier’s face, which had turned bright red with blood rushing to it, gradually lost its color and became pale.

Between twisted lips,

“From… from Lady Grace’s bedroom…”

As it leaked out, the sound of people holding their breath was heard, and Duchess Caroline and Grace shouted simultaneously.

“What nonsense are you talking about?”

“Your Majesty, this man is slandering me!”

Ignoring the two women, the Emperor put the soldier down on the floor and grabbed the back of his head, tilting it to show his face.

“From now on, all of you gathered here must think very carefully. You need to use your brains well, even if they don’t work properly. Surely one or two among you must have seen this fellow fleeing from Grace’s bedroom.”

The Emperor said, looking at the guard soldiers and women in turn.

“I will personally give a great reward to those who speak the truth.”

At that moment, the color drained from Grace and the Duchess’s faces.

The Emperor was now… encouraging false testimony. He had turned the situation around like flipping the palm of his hand.

“Your Majesty… no one will testify. Because it’s not true… No one will make such an outrageous lie.”

The Duchess said, trying hard to steady her trembling voice. While silently threatening the women in front with her eyes.

The Emperor raised his hand and said one thing.

“From now on, anyone who objects to my words will be thrown into the underground prison regardless of their position.”

Though his face wasn’t angry at all and his voice wasn’t enraged, even the guard soldiers felt weak in the knees at the terrifying air surrounding the Emperor.