“I’ve heard that too. Not as much as the South Continent, but even the royal children of the Shatterneil Kingdom are required to take sword classes when they’re young.”
“But there are no royals who consistently learn swordsmanship like Your Majesty the Empress, probably. Especially not ones who are also skilled.”
“That’s true…”
I was slightly tense.
Learning swordsmanship is not wrong, but if it was learned secretly, not officially through the royal permission, that fact could have been problematic.
As if Grand Duke Martins knew exactly what I was worrying about, he opened his mouth with a small smile.
“Your Majesty the Empress, you shouldn’t have hidden that.”
Meaning why had I hidden it until now.
“I haven’t, ever hidden anything.”
I didn’t have a comeback.
“So, it wasn’t that you tried to hide that you can use a sword, but that you wanted to hide the fact that you’re a skilled swordsman?”
“I told you, it’s not that.”
When I blanched, Grand Duke Martins nodded perfunctorily.
“I just remembered a story I heard from my knight because you had your fist clenched. There was no other intention.”
The look in Grand Duke Martins’s eyes was that he would just let it pass.
The Duke often showed me such an indulgent look.
Every time that happened, I thought the bruiselike gray color around his gray eyes suited him quite well.
Unknowingly, my left fist started to rise, but I barely managed to hold it down with my right hand.
“So, Your Majesty the Empress, don’t be tense.”
Did I look tense now?
Actually, I was at a loss as to how to react to Grand Duke Martins’s words.
Laughing would seem tense, and getting angry would seem like I was snapping at him for no reason.
“You seem to have little sleep, Your Excellency?”
I subtly changed the subject.
“No, but since I came to the Lapion Empire, my nights have been a bit troublesome.”
“Why?”
I was the opposite.
Since coming to the Lapion Empire, which has a lower temperature than the Shatterneil Kingdom, the times I woke up several times at dawn decreased.
“Isn’t it natural for someone from the Shatterneil Kingdom, which is warmer than here?”
Grand Duke Martins asked me as if it was strange.
“Well, it’s different for everyone.”
“The night in Lapion seems rather chilly even in early summer. I’ve heard rumors, but experiencing it firsthand, sometimes I feel a chill at night.”
Grand Duke Martins said, rubbing his arms with both hands.
“I’ll order the servants to place thicker blankets and larger heating stones in the room where Your Excellency is staying.”
Grand Duke Martins looked at me with slightly surprised eyes.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
When I tilted my head, he had an interested expression.
“Now you really seem like the Empress of the Lapion Empire. It wasn’t long ago when you were a bathhouse maid in the Kingdom.”
“That’s because now I am indeed the Empress of the Lapion Empire. Still.”
I added the last word, feeling a strange selfloathing.
And I didn’t like Grand Duke Martins’s condescending tone.
Shouldn’t he refrain from such tone if he’s trying to play his role faithfully?
But it was also difficult for me to argue with Grand Duke Martins one by one.
I’m just a proxy empress.
So it wouldn’t do me any good to antagonize Grand Duke Martins.
There wouldn’t be any major benefits to getting along with him either.
“Oh, I think I’ve been rude again. I should always be careful what I say in front of a swordsman.”
Whether he read my disgruntled expression or not, he awkwardly apologized.
“I would love to have a sword fight with Your Excellency sometime, but I guess there won’t be a chance while I’m on the Empress’s seat?”
Unconsciously, like a habit, I cracked each joint of my fingers.
Grand Duke Martins frowned as if he really disliked that sound.
Well, it wasn’t intended as a threat.
It was just that my finger joints were itchy.
“I actually think it wouldn’t be bad for Your Majesty the Empress to stay in that position for a long time. Ha, ha, ha.”
Grand Duke Martins laughed awkwardly.
I chuckled at the tense demeanor of the Duke, but quickly regained my composure, twisting my neck from side to side.
The sound of my cracking neck echoed crisply in the silent reality room.
“I would appreciate if you could leave now.”
“I heard that His Majesty the Emperor is spending the night in the bedroom of one of his concubines.”
Despite my warning, the Duke started to glance at me with a few phony coughs.
“……Yes, of course it is.”
While it was a normal procedure, my mood was the problem as it wasn’t as smooth.
“Your expression doesn’t look so good?”
Such a cunning human.
I glanced sideways at the sharpeyed Duke.
Even as he avoided my gaze, his mouth kept making playful comments.
“By now, it would probably be time for him to have a glass of wine with the mama of the harem in the bedroom, wouldn’t it?”
“……”
“Oh, is it past the time for conversation?”
“What are you trying to say, Duke?”
Pulling the silk shawl I had draped around me a bit further forward, I feigned a tired expression and asked.
“Just as I said at the beginning. Even though you’re the Acting Empress, I thought you might not feel too good tonight, so I just wanted to keep you company.”
“You seem more like a spectator disguised as a conversation partner?”
“Haha, that can’t be.”
“If you’re done observing my reactions, it’s time for you to go back and sleep.”
As I got up from the sofa, the Duke also reluctantly stood up following me.
Knock, knock, knock!
Just then, Sharon rushed into the reality room, swinging the door open with an urgent knock.
“Your Majesty the Empress! His, His Majesty the Emperor is coming to the bedroom!”
“The bedroom… my bedroom?!”
“Yes!”
Why on earth would he come to the Empress’s Palace on the day he had a ceremony with the concubines?
There was only one thought that came to mind.
‘Does he know… my true identity? Have I been really caught this time?’
It seemed like I wasn’t the only one thinking that.
When I turned my gaze to the Duke, he too was staring at me with quite a surprised face.
“Duke, has His Majesty found out about our…”
“Our affair?”
“!”
Rinel’s cold voice stabbed me in the back of my head.
“Oh my goodness! Your Majesty, when did you… come to the reality room…!”
Sharon’s surprised voice overlapped with Rinel’s.
It seemed my voice had leaked out through the open reality room door.
Caught off guard, the Duke and I kept staring at each other.
Rinel, perhaps finding this suspicious, kept glancing back and forth between me and the Duke with a frown on his face.
His neat and beautiful features were deeply furrowed.
Male lead is a Love-Obsessed Merman
When he discovers she has gone, he risks everything to pursue her on land, enduring agonizing pain to transform his tail into human legs…
One-line summary: Male lead chases female lead. The male lead’s love is a bit sick, an invincible love brain.
Synopsis
During a voyage at sea, Jiang Yang accidentally captures a merman.
Servant: I heard that mermen are fierce and brutal.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman obediently rubbing her palm like a puppy: “You call this fierce and brutal?”
Servant: I heard that mermen have no human nature.
Jiang Yang looks at the merman with wet puppy eyes, obsessively calling her ‘A Yang’ like a childish infant: “You call this having no human nature?”
With great difficulty, she releases the merman back into the sea and returns to shore.
Who would have thought that in less than half a month, the merman, who should have been freely wandering in the South China Sea, would shed his scales, endure the pain of losing his tail, transform into human legs, and come ashore to find her?
He kneels at her feet, rubbing her palm, with merman tears rolling down: “A Yang, don’t abandon me.”
_____
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