Chapter 12

12. Time to Stop Playing Empress

“How dare a lowly mistress be so disrespectful!”

Duke Ahillo was furious. Mrs. Bertolt also wore an expression of agreement.

But I felt a little differently.

‘Perfect. An opportunity to figure out Helene.’

If I had called Helene separately, rumors would have spread that ‘the Empress is persecuting the Saintess.’

But if we were to meet and talk in an official setting, Enrique was always glued to my side, making it difficult for us to talk alone.

So, I was grateful that she came to me like this.

I chuckled and crossed my legs, changing my posture arrogantly.

“Let her in. I should hear what she has to say.”

“There’s no need for that, daughter. Why would you do that?”

“Calm down, Father. After what just happened, the Saintess must have something to say, too, right?”

Duke Ahillo seemed to cherish his daughter very much.

Well, that’s probably why he filled the Empress Palace with only his close aides.

“Hello!”

Helene, who had entered the drawing room, greeted me cheerfully.

I had ordered Duke Ahillo to be moved to another room and the teacups to be cleared away beforehand, and it seemed like I had done well.

If he had seen this, he probably would have clutched the back of his neck and collapsed.

Helene waddled in, carrying a pile of something in her arms. She didn’t bend her knees properly when she greeted me, and she omitted honorifics.

It was a blatant display that she didn’t need to follow the Imperial Palace’s rules because she wasn’t affiliated with the Imperial Palace.

“Oh, now that I think about it, this is the first time I’ve come to visit first. I’m quite shy, so I’ve been distant until now… I hope we can visit each other’s palaces and become close friends in the future! Like friends of the same age!”

Helene took a seat without being told to sit. Not even across from me, but right next to me.

Mrs. Bertolt, who was just bringing in the teapot and fruit on a trolley, faltered ever so slightly.

I pretended not to notice and finally turned my gaze to Helene.

“If I had known you had such a bright personality, I would have spent more time with you.”

“Hehe, thank you for the compliment.”

Mrs. Bertolt’s pupils were shaking, shocked by this informality, lack of manners, and disregard for etiquette.

Nevertheless, the Head Maid hid her emotions and silently poured tea, standing like a shadow.

The fragrant peach oolong tea, with its strong peach scent, was my favorite tea. The honey-drizzled peaches that came with it were also something I didn’t want to give to Helene.

But if I didn’t eat at least this much, it would be difficult not to vomit while looking at her innocent face.

I elegantly raised my teacup and nodded.

“So, what was your name?”

“You don’t know my name…?”

Helene’s eyes widened as if she hadn’t expected to be asked that.

It was the very expression that made me want to punch her.

“I can’t know unless you introduce yourself. You didn’t introduce yourself when you came in.”

After gently admonishing her, Helene, who had looked dazed for a few seconds, barely managed to regain her composure.

“I’m Helene. Please feel free to call me Helene.”

“I’m glad you said that, Helene.”

“Yes! Then what should I call you?”

“Empress.”

“……”

Helene was speechless again at my curt reply.

Mrs. Bertolt’s shoulders trembled as she pushed the trolley and left the drawing room. Seeing her struggling to hold back her laughter, I chuckled inwardly.

Helene and I had each landed a blow on each other in a short moment.

She probably wanted to tell the maids outside about this as soon as possible.

I put down my teacup and smiled as kindly as possible.

“I trust you didn’t expect to be able to call me by my name. You’re not so lacking in judgment, are you?”

“Ah… yes.”

“His Majesty the Emperor calls me Empress, so shouldn’t you do the same?”

“I will, Your Majesty the Empress. I was thoughtless.”

So, she wasn’t an easygoing person after all.

Helene was quick to recover and respond to any attack.

That’s why I was even happier.

If I crushed her and she just whimpered and died, it would be difficult to torment her for a long time.

She had to come at me like this.

“About the upcoming banquet, Your Majesty the Empress will surely do well. But in case you need any help, I brought some samples of the things I ordered. You can use them as much as you want!”

Helene smiled brightly. Then, she picked up a branch with red berries from among the items messily laid out on one side of the table.

“Originally, I was planning to decorate the banquet hall with this holly to give it a wintery feel. As you know, holly symbolizes peace. And the desert kingdom is summer all year round, so they probably don’t know much about winter.”

“Is that so?”

“Holly has pretty berries and also contains the meaning of worshiping God, so I think it’s a very good choice.”

Ah, this is a bit of a shame.

I should have just told Helene to take charge of the banquet preparations and then watched her get humiliated.

Watching her confidently explain about the holly, I could imagine what would happen when the banquet hall was decorated with it.

‘The people of the desert kingdom recognize that everything in the banquet hall is edible. In their culture, it’s polite to eat everything in the banquet hall without leaving anything behind when you’re invited as a guest.’

In the first place, there aren’t many countries where flowers bloom a lot, so there’s no reason to decorate the banquet hall with flowers. But it would be strange to decorate the banquet hall with cacti just because there are a lot of cacti.

So, the desert kingdom traditionally decorated banquet halls with fruits or fruit trees.

That way, they could create a lush feeling, and the guests could eat fresh fruit at any time, so there was nothing bad about it.

‘But the berries of our dear holly are poisonous.’

If they ate it without knowing, they would experience vomiting and dehydration…

‘Huh?’

Could it be that she knew about that culture and did it on purpose?

Was she planning to heal everyone with the power of the Saintess when they were all in pain?

“Oh! And this is a paper summarizing the foods that En… no, His Majesty likes and dislikes.”

I didn’t know what she was thinking in her little head, but the way she was acting was becoming more and more interesting.

Honestly, if it wasn’t related to me and if Enrique wasn’t in the middle. If I had met Helene when I was a demon… I might have cherished her quite a bit. Cunning humans like this are amusing.

I didn’t even glance at the piece of paper and chuckled softly.

“I don’t know if you’re a Saintess or a mistress. If you’re a mistress, it’s an action worthy of praise, and if you’re a Saintess, it would be better to take care of even one more of your poor people in that time. Didn’t your great God tell you that?”

“Yes?”

“I don’t care if you’re a Saintess or a mistress, or if you’re doing both, but it’s time to stop playing Empress.”

I whispered softly and stroked Helene’s pink hair. Helene’s eyes widened again, and she looked flustered.

“P-Playing! I’ve never done that. I really wanted to help… I-I just worked hard.”

Her voice trembled as if she felt wronged.

I laughed like a girl and tucked Helene’s hair behind her ear.

“Oh my, you’re taking a joke so seriously.”

“!”

“Come on, have some peach? It’s a rare fruit to eat in this season, isn’t it?”

I personally picked up a fork and pierced the soft flesh. Helene’s lower lip was reflected for a brief moment on the convex surface of the polished silver fork as she bit it.

But when I held out the peach, Helene erased her resentful expression and wore an innocent face as if she knew nothing.

Rosy cheeks like a peach and an appearance that seemed like she would shed tears like peach juice at any moment.

It was a face that was completely different from me when I was a demon, and also very different from the current ‘Leonarda.’

I looked at Helene with a very fresh gaze.

‘Enrique loves things that are weaker than him.’

A not-so-cool sentiment lingered in my mind before disappearing.

It didn’t really mean anything.

“Um, Your Majesty the Empress.”

A few minutes passed, and we exchanged useless words about how sweet the peach was and so on.

Helene, who had suddenly put down her fork as if she had come up with a line that would stab me, spoke seriously.

“I believe that God will take care of Your Majesty the Empress. I mean it.”

“Yes, that’s probably why I’m still alive.”

I deliberately answered nonchalantly, driving a stake into the flow of the conversation. Helene clasped her hands together without paying attention, and it seemed like she was about to unleash a very powerful attack.

“And… I don’t want to be jealous or fight over Enrique. He’s a really precious person to me.”

Enri…

Come to think of it, I always called Enrique ‘Nike.’ Meaning that he was my victory and glory.

Victory and glory were the most precious things to me back then when I was obsessed with war, so I wanted to give him such a nickname.

‘But what’s the point of thinking about that now.’

I looked at Helene with indifferent eyes. Helene’s lips, like flower petals, were slightly parted, and she looked somewhat excited.

“So… so I’ll tell Enri to sleep with Your Majesty the Empress soon! As a friend of Your Majesty the Empress.”