Previously
Helio and Liliana share a tense but intimate night where Liliana boldly critiques his relationship with the Empress Dowager, leading Helio to confront her about her pity for him. Despite the heavy atmosphere, they reconcile, and Liliana asks him to promise not to neglect their future child as their own parents did to them.
Helio had watched Liliana sip the soup until she scraped the bottom of the bowl, and only then did he let her go. At that moment, her face had worn an unmistakable look.
‘The food is delicious, but I have no idea why I’m the one eating it.’
The thought had practically been written across her forehead, making it hard for him to hold back his laughter.
Back in his office, as he returned to his duties, the memory of her face brought a faint smile to his lips. Beside him, Terenz, who had been helping organize documents, abruptly stopped what he was doing and stared at Helio in a daze.
Helio’s tone was harsh, his face stiffening, which prompted Terenz to lower his head in embarrassment.
Helio briskly signed one of the papers and set it aside, then tossed the next one onto the floor after skimming barely a few words.
Terenz started to move to pick up the paper that had drifted away, then froze.
Though Helio occasionally seemed fond of teasing, he despised troublesome matters.
Unlike other members of the imperial family who kept rare beasts, Helio had never shown the slightest interest in such things. He might care about horses, but that was hardly the same as showing affection and tender concern.
Lately, if there was anyone Helio tended to like a pet, it was only one person.
Queen Liliana.
Terenz quietly bowed his head, thinking to himself,
‘Just as I thought.’
Helio abruptly stopped reading his papers, his amusement vanishing. Sensing he had said the wrong thing, Terenz stood tense.
Helio rested his pen in its stand and propped his chin on his hand.
He frowned, as if the matter were an annoyance. Then, lost in deep thought, he rested his chin in his hand again.
Terenz felt a touch of bewilderment considering the image of Liliana in Helio’s mind; it seemed far more amusing than he could have imagined.
From Terenz’s perspective, Liliana was merely a petite girl—bold in her speech, easily bored, and stubborn to a fault. How she had managed to catch Helio’s favor remained a mystery.
‘Perhaps it isn’t love in the conventional sense…’
The imperial palace was hardly a place where anyone expected enduring love anyway. It was likely better for a consort to be treated like a caged bird—kept and admired over time—than to endure the trials of endless affection.
Once his thoughts settled, Terenz gathered the papers that had fallen to the floor and stacked them in a corner.
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked at the door. Helio nodded, granting permission to enter.
The person who stepped inside was the head butler, yet unlike his usual composed self, he looked utterly flustered. He appeared as anxious as if food from the Empress Dowager had arrived at the Emperor’s palace.
No, his face was even paler than that.
Seeing him, Terenz suspected something grave had happened.
The head butler announced precisely what Terenz anticipated:
Silence fell over the office. Helio began tearing the paper he had been reading, and in that suffocating stillness, the only sound was the tearing of parchment.
Terenz swallowed his nerves and asked cautiously. Helio gave a slight nod, and just as the butler turned to leave to carry out the order—
The butler hurried out to usher in the Empress Dowager, who was waiting outside.
Helio did not pause in reading or sorting his documents even as his mother approached. He kept skimming papers, tossing them aside, and tearing them without hesitation if he found them useless.
He stopped only when the Empress Dowager reached the office. While Terenz quietly withdrew so they could speak, the butler had no choice but to stay to serve tea, unable to escape.
The butler showed the Empress Dowager to a table at the side of the study. She took a seat, but Helio remained standing, rigid and cold, without even turning to face her.
Helio looked at his mother with cold eyes, folding his arms.
At those words, the Empress Dowager gave a bitter smile and picked up her teacup.
Helio had been about to retort with sharp words, but he stopped dead in his tracks. His blue eyes widened for a fraction of a second, then narrowed into an icy glare.
Helio let out a scornful scoff, as if he could not believe his ears, but the Empress Dowager did not counter.
Striding over to her, Helio dropped abruptly into the seat across from her, leaning forward with piercing eyes.
His tone was haughty, as though expecting the Empress Dowager to shrink back upon hearing it. But she did not flinch.
Still holding her teacup without taking a sip, she answered with quiet grace.
Helio’s harsh stare slowly wavered, and he leaned back from his rigid posture. Resting against the back of his chair, his expression slackened.
The Empress Dowager smiled at his question.
Helio answered with utter certainty, as if he had already known.
The Empress Dowager gave a nod.
The Empress Dowager recalled the events of earlier that day.
She had been pondering what food to prepare for the following morning.
Suddenly, the head maid had entered to announce Queen Liliana’s arrival.
She had quickly ordered her shown in, and before long, Queen Liliana had appeared before her, dressed in immaculate attire.
Upon entering the reception room, Liliana had dropped to her knees before the Empress Dowager.
Hearing those words, the Empress Dowager had understood the purpose of Liliana’s visit.
When she had heard the Emperor had gone to the Emerald Palace, she had sent food there, but this time the dishes had not returned empty. When she inquired into the reason, the answer was that the Queen had eaten the meal, not the Emperor.
The Empress Dowager had signaled to one of her maids, who helped Queen Liliana to her feet.
When the Empress Dowager posed the question so lightly, Liliana had looked up in surprise. The Empress Dowager smiled, realizing that her casual remark might have sounded terrifying to Liliana.
Liliana frowned for a fleeting second before quickly composing herself and nodding.
Her hands were clasped tightly against her stomach, a clear sign that despite her calm expression, she was nervous.
Liliana lightly wetted her lower lip with the tip of her tongue, then parted her lips.
The Empress Dowager let out a sigh, leaning back against her seat.
Liliana’s head bowed naturally.
The Empress Dowager showed no bitterness about being confined to the palace, seeming instead to accept it as the natural price for what had happened.
Yet even if she voiced such thoughts now, what could possibly change? The Emperor’s heart had closed long ago.
Unless the child from the original novel came into the world, nothing would thaw the ice between them.
Even so, the thought of leaving this solitary woman alone in an empty, ornate palace weighed heavily on Liliana’s heart.
She closed her eyes tightly, opened them, and spoke:
“It is far too late to mend the rift between you.”
At Liliana’s words, the Empress Dowager’s expression shifted.
Thankfully, she showed no anger toward Liliana, yet looking upon that sorrowful face was far from easy.
Liliana took a step toward the Empress Dowager and said,
The Empress Dowager looked up at Liliana, suddenly struck by how vastly different Liliana was from the Emperor.
Perhaps this concern for the Empress Dowager was merely an extension of her concern for the Emperor himself.
Liliana knew she was meddling in an affair that was none of her business, but she could no longer back down.