Chapter 22: CH 22

(3rd PERSON POV)

“Mmm….”

Anastasia slowly opened her eyes.

She couldn’t come to her senses as she just woke up and was startled by the sight of Wilhelm earnestly looking at her.

“…..Your Majesty?”

“You finally woke up.”

Wilhelm stated in a low voice.

“You fell asleep and didn’t wake up at all. You must have been really tired.”

“Oh…”

Anastasia felt embarrassed.

Initially she was just pretending to be asleep, but exhaustion won out and she really did fell into a deep sleep.

‘….At least it seems like I didn’t say any nonsense things while I was asleep.’

Anastasia tried to observe Wilhelm, but there was nothing she could deduce.

“Are we almost there?”

[pr/n:…yet hahahaha.]

“Yes, we will be arriving at the Imperial Palace soon.”

Once Wilhelm finished speaking, silence came once again.

Wilhelm looked out the window without saying another word. Anastasia did the same to avoid the awkwardness between them.

‘….If I had known that this would happen, I would have just continued pretending to be asleep until the carriage returned to the palace.’

-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-

(3rd PERSON POV)

“Does anyone know where His Majesty went?”

“I’m sure that he knew we had a meeting today.”

“That is…he will probably be back soon.”

Meanwhile, Colton was struggling to deal with the nobles due to Wilhelm’s late arrival.

“Doing an inspection is good but His Majesty must still be punctual. Especially if we have an important meeting scheduled that he needs to attend. Are you sure that His Majesty will be coming back today?”

“Of course, Marquis Rodri. You may not know it but His Majesty has never been absent from any political affairs.”

That was indeed the truth, so everyone was quiet for a moment.

For Colton, the situation was excruciatingly unbearable.

‘Your Majesty! You said that you would be back by the time the political meeting started!”

It was true that Wilhelm had never been late before, which made him worried.

‘He was accompanied by the minimum number of escorts, but I wonder if something bad had happened….’

Of course, Wilhelm’s swordsmanship was not to be taken lightly. It was not something that happened very often, but it was still inevitable that he would become anxious in the event something unprecedented happened.

“Let’s not do this here. Let’s all go back inside the conference hall…..”

It was right when Colton was about to take the nobles inside, towards the conference hall where all they were supposed to be attending to political affairs, that they all heard something.

A carriage had come into the central palace, without any sound nor announcement of its arrival, and slowly stopped at the entrance.

Everyone could confirmed the identity of the carriage couldn’t help but wonder.

“…Isn’t that Her Majesty’s carriage?”

The scene that followed surprised Colton as well as the nobles who were there.

The Emperor had disembarked from the Empress’s carriage.

Everyone was surprised by the bizarre happening and looked at the scene with their mouths wide open.

But something even more surprising happened next.

Following Wilhelm, Anastasia also got off the same carriage.

“Your Majesty, you dropped your cufflinks……”

Anastasia approached him without a second thought, only belatedly discovering the gazes that were aimed at her. She then looked around to find an audience.

‘Oh, my.’

Everyone looked so surprised. As if they had witnessed something completely unexpected, and among them was her father, the Duke of Barantes.

‘…..Why is everyone gathered in front of the Central Palace?’

Anastasia was equally embarrassed by the unexpected congregation.

In fact, Wilhelm just casually accepted the cufflinks from the frozen Anastasia.

“Thank you, Empress. I didn’t even know that it was missing.”

(TN: Hahaha I had a feeling that Wilhelm did that on purpose, hehehe.)

[pr: he definitely did. Dude is smooth, without missing a beat even.]

“…….”

“Please return safely, Empress.”

“Ah…yes, Your Majesty.”

Only then did Anastasia come to her senses and nod her head.

Wilhelm walked straight to the place where all the nobles were standing, and Anastasia continued to look puzzled before making eye contact with her father.

“…….”

As soon as Duke Barantes made eye contact with Anastasia, he gave her a meaningful smile.

The smile, which looked somewhat mischievous, made her guess what he was thinking.

‘… It’s not what you think, Dad.’

Anastasia wanted to explain that it was all a misunderstanding, but she lamented that it was impossible to do so right now.

In the end, Duke Barantes disappeared inside the central palace without giving Anastasia the chance to resolve the misunderstanding. She touched her forehead with a troubled expression.

‘……I’m doomed.’

-ˏˋ ━━━━━━ ʚɞ ━━━━━━ ˊˎ-

(3rd PERSON POV)

The rumors spread like a wildfire. But it was only natural since there were a lot of witnesses present when it happened.

Rumors that the Emperor and the Empress had disembarked from the same carriage ‘kindly’ struck the high society hard.

“But what would have caused the cufflinks to fall off?”

(TN: Hmmm.. Very sneaky Wilhelm..)

“Oh…you’re not asking because you really don’t know, are you?”

“Think about it. What could have caused the cufflinks to fall off?”

“Oh my…! No way….?!”

“Since the Empress had changed for the better, His Majesty must have fallen in love with her.”

“It looks like the two of them will have a belated honeymoon, hohoho.”

“I can’t wait for the good news to come!”

Strange rumors were circulating within the society like a storm.

Anastasia tried to correct it, but since it had been passed down from person to person like wildfire, she wasn’t able to prevent it from spreading further.

The good thing about this rumor was that the fact that the public knows the two of them went to do volunteer work together and Anastasia’s reputation rose once again.

‘….No. It would have been better if no one knew about it.’

‘How could such a rumor spread about me with less than a year left before my abdication?’

‘It won’t be of much benefit to me nor Wilhelm in the future.’

That’s why Anastasia had been quite disturbed about this issue for the past few days.

“Of course, Her Majesty has a plan to handle this rumor.”

Even Madame Rochester was enjoying this situation.

Anastasia shook her head, as she tried to explain the situation with a tired face.

“It’s a misunderstanding, Madame Rochester. It really was just a coincidence.”

“Oh yes, of course. I’m sure it is.”

‘…. I don’t think that you really believe me.’

[pr: I don’t think anyone believes you. We’re just waiting on the confirmation now. *pat pat*]

“Your Majesty, Lady Lutent is waiting in the drawing room.”

“Melina’s here?”

Anastasia immediately put her pen down, and got up to go towards the drawing room.

Upon entering the room, Melina Lutent stood up with her shiny red hair fluttering.

“I see your Majesty the Empress, the moon of the Empire.”

“Please sit down, Melina.”

After a brief greeting, Anastasia’s gaze naturally caught hold of Melina’s colorful necklace.

It was the ruby necklace that she once owned. The one Melina had won as the highest bid at the auction.

“That’s the one that you’ve won right?”

“Oh…..”

At Anastasia’s mention, Melina unconsciously touched the largest ruby ​​in the center of the necklace, with a shy expression rarely seen on her face.

“Yes. It’s really pretty, isn’t it? The more I look at it, the more I’ve come to love it.”

“True, and it goes so well with your red hair. Oh, I was very grateful that you won the highest bid that day.”

“What? I know better than anyone else that Her Majesty needs to secure funds right now. Of course as a friend, I wouldn’t hesitate to help.”

“Oh, thank you so much.”

Melina then sat down with Anastasia.

Soon after, a maid came to serve some tea. Anastasia took a sip and then said.

“More than that, what brings you here today?”

“Oh my, you’re saying that again. I feel so sad. We used to meet everyday without you asking me about it.”

“Oh…I’m sorry. I made the same mistake as I did last time.”

“No, it’s okay. I understand that you’ve been so busy these past few weeks.”

Melina smiled and shrugged.

“You are doing a great job as the Empress. Even among the high society, your previous image is gradually being erased.”

“Really? That’s a relief.”

“Yes, and not only that, I also heard that your relationship with His Majesty has also been progressing these days?”

“Cough, cough!”

Anastasia choked on her tea when she heard Melina’s words. As she continued coughing, Melina kept on grinning as she handed her a handkerchief.

As soon as she saw the handkerchief, she remembered the handkerchief Wilhelm had given her and her fingers started to twitch.

“It’s not really like that. I don’t know why those useless rumors are circulating about. Please don’t get it wrong.”

Anastasia immediately rebutted as soon as she could speak again.

After contemplating for a moment, Melina couldn’t understand Anastasia’s reaction.

“But it’s not a bad thing either, right? In fact, your relationship was not good even from the start so I’m not sure why you’re worried about it.”

“…….”

“Does His Majesty the Emperor treat you kindly?”

With those words, Anastasia once again remembered the handkerchief that he had given to her.

The blood did not dry out well, so the stain remained. But Anastasia could not muster the energy to throw it away, so she folded it up and kept it in a corner of her drawer.

It may seem foolish to someone who knows nothing about the situation, but to her, it was probably the first and only gift from him.

In a year, after she abdicated and left the empire, she would take it with her and cherish it for the rest of her life.

(T/N: My gosh I just can’t help but become a bit emotional here.)

“It’s just so-so… Ahem. Melina, more than that…”

Anastasia, who was burdened by the situation, quickly changed the topic after roughly glossing over it.

“Would you like to become my handmaid?”

“…Your Majesty’s handmaid?”

“Yeah, you’re my best friend and I quite like seeing you every day, so I think it would be nice if you could become my handmaid.”

Before her regression, when she had gotten married, Melina soon became married as well and became pregnant.

So it was difficult for her to request Melina to become her handmaid, but now it was a different story.

‘Of course I was surprised when I found out that Melina wasn’t married yet. If it was the same timeline, she should have already been married by now.’

‘However, I don’t think that it was strange because it is just a minor issue that could be changed at any time as this only pertained to the settings of the extras.’

‘Anyway, I made this suggestion because I thought it would be nice if I had a reliable childhood friend who could become my handmaid.’

“…Well what do you think?”

However, contrary to Anastasia’s expectation that she would accept it immediately, Melina became speechless.

“It is so sudden….”

“Oh, of course. I understand. I’m not asking for an answer right away so please be at ease.”

Anastasia added quickly.

“Think about it and there is no rush for an answer. It’s just a light offer, so please don’t feel burdened about it.”

“…….”

“Of course, it’s okay to refuse. Even though being a handmaid doesn’t seem like it, there’s a lot of responsibility attached to it.”

“It’s not that. I have no problem with handling responsibility, however…I’m not sure if I would be able to serve Her Majesty well.”

“I only have a few friends who are as devoted to me as you are. There is no need to be worried.”

A smile naturally appeared on Anastasia’s face as she saw Melina smiling brightly back at her.