The Empress' Scandalous Paramour - Chapter 24

“Thank you. You have a keen eye.”

“I was merely keeping watch for when you would return.”

The body heat from our contact was hot.

As I held his wrist, an intense yang energy poured into me.

‘Ah, I feel like I’m going to live.’

I vigorously absorbed Mereum’s yang energy and converted it into lifespan. The increased lifespan gave me that much more strength, thanks to which my head cleared up again.

“Can you tell me what happened?”

“Some members of the Quan began vomiting for some reason. The common factor is that they were the group eating near that table over there.”

He’s using inappropriately stiff honorifics.

It would suit him better to tell me to get lost informally.

Thinking that, I looked towards where Mereum was pointing and noticed something that ‘shouldn’t be there’.

It definitely wasn’t there when I last supervised the banquet hall.

It was a branch of the oleander tree.

“I command the Imperial Knights.”

Everyone was drunk to some degree, which heightened their state of excitement.

With the excuse that if someone wasn’t made to take responsibility and resolve this quickly, the situation could go to extremes… there was no reason for me not to act now.

“Make the saint kneel at once!”

As I stepped into the center of the banquet hall and shouted loudly, familiar knights moved swiftly. It was Duke Chadev and Duke Giovanni.

They grabbed Helene by both arms and made her kneel.

“What is the meaning of this, Empress!”

“What do you mean? I am holding you accountable for daring to act on your own and harming the guests. Do not get emotional.”

Enrique immediately got angry. His reddened eyes seemed to reveal his rage.

I likewise glared at him with a hardened face and approached Helene.

“Were you so upset that you couldn’t host the banquet?”

“Wh- what are you saying? There’s a misunderstanding…”

“You still don’t realize your mistake!”

“!”

Suddenly, Helene started hiccuping.

Amidst the silence, only the sound of Helene’s tearful hiccups was loud. It made it seem as if I was the one who said something I shouldn’t have.

Enrique approached me and spoke in an extremely angry voice through gritted teeth.

“Apologize to the saint at once. No matter if you’re the Empress, you have no right to do this.”

“Isn’t the obvious evidence right there? Get a grip, Your Majesty. Are you not ashamed in front of the guests?”

“On what grounds are you making this fuss? There better be a proper answer.”

I don’t doubt Cassandra’s words that Enrique was only looking at me, but his intentions were probably very different from her interpretation.

Perhaps Enrique was trying to find fault with me.

What other reason would there be for him to look at me, an eyesore?

I let out a hollow laugh and gestured with my chin.

Towards a certain table that Mereum had keenly noticed earlier.

“Oleander fruit causes acute abdominal pain and vomiting symptoms. But the saint came to me saying she would decorate the banquet hall with oleander.”

“Even so, is there evidence that Helene put that there?”

“I did not place it, Your Majesty. Because I know the banquet culture of the Quan. Then who put it there?”

“That’s…”

Of course, Helene wouldn’t have brought it herself.

But it can’t be denied that using oleander was Helene’s idea.

The palace maids all know that.

‘I don’t think or expect you to punish Helene severely. You two carry on your thousand-year love.’

But it could damage Helene’s image.

Once this banquet ends, Helene’s standing will greatly diminish.

I summoned the maids in charge of the area near the problematic table.

The pale-faced maids trembled and couldn’t even lift their heads.

“Originally, oleander is not used in this banquet. That is evident in the banquet plan I wrote. It states that edible fruits must be used and specifies the scope of what constitutes edible fruits. Then why is that here?”

“We- we do not know, Your Highness…!”

“Then did you see who brought it?”

The maids looked as if they would faint at any moment.

On top of the Emperor and Empress arguing, the foreign guests had vomited.

No maid would want to be in this situation.

“I- I dare to speak.”

Then, one maid stammered in response to my question.

“I… I saw it. Two maids in the attire of the Lily Palace brought it. Wh- when the food was being changed once…! I merely thought it was a new decoration.”

“Oh. And what is your name?”

“Sophia Evans. The eldest daughter of Viscount Evans.”

“You are not of the Empress Palace.”

Everyone working in the palace, down to the gardeners, wore badges indicating their affiliation.

The badge on Sophia Evans’ chest was undoubtedly that of the Emperor Palace here.

In other words, she was someone with no connection to me at all.

‘At least on the surface.’

Madam Bertolt does her job well.

I inwardly smiled in victory and turned to Enrique.

“A testimony has come out. I must find out what maids of the Lily Palace were doing at this banquet. The guests would want that too, wouldn’t they?”

“…There’s no choice.”

Enrique reluctantly approved, and while waiting for the Lily Palace maids to be summoned, the banquet hall was engulfed in a cold silence, with even the music abruptly cut off.

Amidst that, a doctor entered and reported on the condition of the patients.

It wasn’t too serious, but his opinion was that they would suffer for about a day.

“Um, uh. Then, I’ll heal them with holy power.”

But it was right then.

Helene, who had been keenly observing the situation, cautiously raised her hand.

It was ridiculous how she was pushing holy power as if this was her chance.

‘However.’

It would have been better if she hadn’t said that.

Enrique also noticed Helene’s mistake and his expression darkened.

“My power can heal them instantly. Even though I didn’t bring that here… how can I turn a blind eye to the sick?”

Helene didn’t seem to have caught on yet.

She was about to get up, as if to heal them right away.

“Nonsense!”

Immediately, Cassandra shouted like thunder with an angry face.

“Don’t lay a hand on the warriors of the Quan!”

“Ah…!”

I told you.

I didn’t know what confidence Helene had in trying to host this banquet.

Helene, with her eyes wide open, looked as if she couldn’t understand why she was being rejected.

Seeing that this would ruin the diplomatic setting, I approached the fuming Cassandra and gently soothed her.

“It is good that the saint listens to the words of God, but she is ignorant of the culture of the desert. She would not have intended to deliberately insult, so I hope you will generously forgive her.”

“Hmph. I will hold back since the Empress says so… but it is unpleasant. I do not wish to see that face twice more during this banquet!”

As Cassandra shouted coldly, Helene slightly opened her mouth, not knowing what to do.

Her face, which genuinely didn’t understand why she was being treated this way, now even had a look of unfairness.

“…Stay still, Helene.”

“Your Majesty! What did I do wrong? Did I do something very wrong?”

“Stay still.”

This time, even Enrique could not defend Helene.

If she had stopped there, it would have been fine, but she said one more thing, making it impossible for Enrique to cover for her.

I spoke clearly so that all the puzzled people could hear.

“Where do you think you’re going? Whether it was a mistake or not, that remark just now was an act of defiling the pride of the desert warriors. So it is right to apologize.”

“Pride…? Me? I- I didn’t have that intention! I just wanted the sick to get better soon…”

Of course it wasn’t.

But in this diplomatic setting, not knowing becomes a sin.

“A desert warrior must not accept the power of another religion from birth to death.”

Enrique had no choice but to explain in a low voice.

The more he explained, the more damage Helene would take, so he probably wanted to quietly cover it up, but Helene absolutely could not accept it, so he had no choice but to inform her.

“If they receive the power of another religion’s blessings or healing, they lose their qualifications as warriors and become apostates. They can’t even enter their pride, paradise.”

“Ah… but I didn’t know that.”

Helene asserted her innocence again, as if frustrated.

At that, the ministers watching this situation became truly frustrated.

“Oh my, the saint… was originally like that?”

“Of course, it was excessive for Her Majesty the Empress to make her kneel… but still, in this situation, the saint should back down.”

“What stubbornness… in the future, the saint should not come forward in diplomatic settings. Her Majesty the Empress is trying to smooth things over somehow, but she keeps making things worse.”

“The person who gives good advice in domestic affairs…”

Enrique knew that the longer this dragged on, the more unfavorable the situation would become for Helene.

It was already a fight the Empress had won.

To what extent this was a scheme set up by the Empress, he didn’t know, but Helene had been caught in it.

‘She’s changed. As if she’s a completely different person.’

Could the Empress originally be like this?

Enrique asked himself.

He had deliberately further defended Helene and provoked the Empress to see her reaction.

‘In the past, even if she didn’t like something, she tried not to show it.’

Enrique wanted to know.

Whether the Empress was the same person as before, but her reactions changed because she simply stopped loving him.

‘Or.’

Whether a demon had possessed her…