44 - The Bride of the Great Lord is a Warrior from Hell
“Lady, His Highness has arrived.”
Henrik, who had been attending to Alisha’s teacup, said.
As he set down the teapot and stepped back, the door to the study opened.
Alisha rose to greet Reikart.
“No need to get up.”
Reikart went straight to the tea table and sat down.
Henrik prepared tea and placed it before him.
“You’ve arrived.”
“Yes, have you been well?”
Reikart lifted his teacup, glancing at Henrik.
Henrik, receiving the look, nodded and retreated.
Alisha, hearing the door close as she sipped her tea, set down her cup.
“When will the group coming to verify the Royal Dot arrive?”
Alisha spoke with a somewhat demanding tone.
“They will arrive this evening, or tomorrow at the latest. Is there such a need to rush?”
Reikart had not been informed of the exact date of the birth.
Alisha raised her eyebrows.
“And you’ve stirred up the Imperial Family well?”
Her face, as she sipped her tea, seemed only to say what she wanted.
“I’ve let the words slip appropriately.”
Reikart said with a reluctant expression.
“What did you say?”
Alisha retorted with a look of utter distrust.
Reikart showed his displeasure at the suspicious reaction.
“I told Lady Goggins to be prepared, as His Majesty might have other close friends besides her.”
“Well done.”
Alisha picked up her teacup with a satisfied look.
Lady Mode. Lady Goggins, who carried the Emperor’s first child, had a lover besides the Emperor.
Perhaps that could have been the case.
Alexi Tocqueville, a fallen noble.
Originally, Alexi Tocqueville was searching for Lady Mode from the Marquisate when he was caught by Grand Duke Tessen, the leader of the opposition to Lady Goggins’s entry into the Imperial Palace.
This time as well, Alexi Tocqueville was searching for Mode near the Marquisate when he was caught by Grand Duke Tessen.
Originally, Alexi Tocqueville, captured by Grand Duke Tessen, had a private audience with the Emperor.
The Emperor, realizing that the actual date of birth differed from the expected date and that Lady Goggins had a lover, would distance himself from her.
Lady Goggins consistently claimed that she did not know Alexi Tocqueville and had no relationship with him.
Amidst these circumstances, the Emperor, while understanding Grand Duke Tessen’s suspicious view of Lady Goggins, eventually grew uncomfortable with it.
In the end, Lady Goggins gave birth to the Emperor’s first child, whose Royal Dot was clear.
The Emperor’s wavering heart resulted in a subtle rift with Grand Duke Tessen.
Currently, Alexi Tocqueville was being held in confinement somewhere.
This time, Reikart did not allow Alexi Tocqueville to have a private audience with the Emperor.
He believed it was not too late to determine right and wrong after it was revealed that his Imperial Palace’s first niece was not the Emperor’s biological child.
The evidence that Alexi Tocqueville claimed to be in a romantic relationship with Lady Mode was also too weak.
Alexi Tocqueville claimed that he had received a handkerchief embroidered with her initials from Lady Goggins, and that he had gifted her a pendant engraved with the letter ‘A’.
“Well. I don’t think the Imperial Family siblings will react particularly to this information. My brothers will probably worry if they ever met Lady Goggins. My sisters will just try to get behind me.”
Reikart said indifferently.
His face, though he himself was a member of the Imperial Family, showed disillusionment with them.
Alisha’s face went blank at his words.
“Your Highness… you have no contact with Lady Mode?”
Alisha’s words were full of worry.
Reikart frowned for a moment.
“None.”
His voice was cold.
“Even if Your Highness doesn’t know, you might have seen her in passing, right?”
“His Majesty has never given me the time for that, so there’s no reason to suspect anything.”
Alisha did not dismiss her doubts.
“Don’t you go to parties?”
“I hate coming to Imperial Capital Baden because of parties, so would I really do that? When I go to parties, my seat is where His Majesty can see me. Don’t you go to parties? Why don’t you have any friends?”
That damn friend thing.
Alisha picked up her teacup, avoiding the answer.
She didn’t say that she didn’t need friends.
The day after she came to the Grand Duke's Residence, when she said something about friends being useless, Reikart gave her a look as if he were looking at a pitiful neighbor.
Reikart surprisingly had many friends.
The Imperial Family deliberately made friends for their children from a very young age.
Reikart proudly said that he wasn’t close to all of them, but he had a few good friends.
Besides childhood friends, he also had many Academy friends.
He said, again proudly, that he wasn’t friends with all of them, but they were relationships he could call friends.
It was truly unbelievable.
Alisha shook off the unpleasant thoughts and thought about the Emperor and the Grand Duke.
The Emperor cherished your first child, Princess Dorothea, very much.
Princess Dorothea was confirmed as a member of the Imperial Family on the day she was born and even received her name before midnight.
She was granted a palace in the Imperial Palace, even in the main castle, near the Emperor’s residence.
On the other hand, Lady Goggins, Dorothea’s mother, whose actions raised questions, was treated as if she didn’t exist by the Emperor.
At the same time, the Emperor distanced himself from Grand Duke Tessen, who had attacked Lady Goggins and Dorothea.
According to Reikart, the Emperor now cherished and supported Grand Duke Tessen more than any other of his siblings.
Grand Duke Tessen’s situation changed because of the conflict he experienced when Dorothea was born.
Alisha tried to minimize the conflict between the Emperor and the Grand Duke.
So far, things were proceeding as planned.
Once Lady Goggins safely completed her childbirth and Dorothea’s name was decided, Reikart would have a private audience with the Emperor.
At that time, Grand Duke Tessen was scheduled to inform the Emperor about Alexi Tocqueville, who claimed to be Lady Goggins’s lover.
There was a minor problem, but Lady Goggins would have already given birth to the Emperor’s child, so it would be different from being embroiled in a scandal before childbirth.
Everything was flowing smoothly.
Nevertheless, Alisha was plagued by an inexplicable anxiety.
She would wake up suddenly in the middle of the night, compare past memories with the current situation, and then feel relieved.
Knock, knock, knock.
As Alisha set down her empty teacup, the study door sounded.
It seemed that dinner preparations were complete.
“Come in.”
Reikart said towards the door.
The door opened, and Henrik, with a pleased expression, entered and bowed.
It was too formal a gesture for simply announcing that dinner was ready.
“Lady Alicia, a letter has arrived for the Lady.”
Henrik’s face, as he looked at Alisha with moist eyes, overflowed with happiness and pride.
He seemed pleased that a letter had arrived for Alisha at the Grand Duke's Residence.
“A letter?”
Alisha was puzzled but not greatly surprised.
“Yes. It was sent by Princess Josefina Lirin, the Master of the Zephyr Clan.”
“Pardon……?”
Henrik’s cheeks couldn’t stop rising as he delivered the letter.
He looked as if he was relieved that his pitiful niece, who had no friends, had finally made one.
Alisha stared blankly at the letter being handed to her before finally coming to her senses.
The letter, transferred to her dazed hand, was unfolded in an instant.
[Dear Lady Alicia.
I would like to invite the Lady to the Zephyr Clan.
I sincerely hope you will join us.
From Josefina Lirin, Master of the Zephyr Clan.]
Alisha, having finished reading the letter, looked at Reikart with a bewildered expression.
“Just so you don’t suspect, I didn’t say anything to Josefina.”
Reikart said, making it clear he was trying to deny any involvement.
“Since Your Highness doesn’t look after the Lady’s social activities, perhaps His Majesty is taking care of it. Princess Josefina and His Majesty are close, after all. Or perhaps the Empress is taking care of it, since the Lady has been close to Her Majesty recently.”
Henrik was excited as if he had been invited himself.
He didn’t seem to notice that Alisha’s face had turned coldly stiff as she looked at the invitation.
His face, rejoicing that he had prepared the dresses well in advance, was purely happy.
“……”
If Alisha had to pick one person she least wanted to meet right now, it would undoubtedly be one person.
Josefina Lirin.
At this point, Josefina Lirin had unintentionally become engaged to Gregory Barker in Alisha’s place.
Was her anxiety a premonition of the Zephyr’s invitation?
It wouldn’t be long before Gregory Barker was caught having an affair with a married woman by her husband.
Alisha delved into her mind, searching for memories she had consciously avoided.
Her hand instinctively covered her head.
It wasn’t a metaphor; her head was actually hot and feverish.
“You can make friends this time.”
Reikart said with a carefree expression.
Without hesitation, he treated Alisha as someone who had no friends.
What the hell…….
On Imperial Capital Baden’s Main Street, a massive blue-gray mansion stood on the most expensive land.
Since most of Main Street was occupied by ateliers, workshops, and merchant guild shops, the mansion particularly caught the eye.
The blue-gray mansion evoked images of arrogant nobles rather than extravagant shops.
A towering gate. An endlessly sprawling, well-manicured garden.
Large, elegant sculptures and fountains placed throughout the garden, visible even from afar.
That was the Zephyr Clan’s salon, famous in social circles.
At the entrance of the mansion, a name was written like an atelier.
Great West.
A place called the Imperial Palace of Baden’s Main Street.
The first floor of the large mansion was connected to the garden and decorated like an art gallery.
The largest space in Great West had sofas and tea tables placed around the perimeter of the room, with the center left empty.
The distance between the tables was considerable, giving each table’s conversation independence.
However, the conversations at the neighboring tables were not completely blocked.
“Hic, ……sob…… how could he do this?!”
A sorrowful cry echoed from the central seat by the window.
It wasn’t dawn, but it was early in the morning.
The clan members who had come to the salon early glanced at the shoulders shaking with sobs.
“Viviana?”
“She’s out early.”
“She can’t enter the Imperial Palace, so she has to come here.”
The ladies sitting at other tables exchanged words secretly in lowered voices.
The girls only whispered, stealing glances at the pitifully weeping back, but did not step forward.
“To send a clan invitation to Alicia Lane! I’m disappointed in Princess Josefina…… sob…….”
Viviana, whose eyes had been red since entering the salon, cried even more sadly.
The lady sitting next to Viviana patted her as if subtly gauging the situation.
But it wasn’t an active consolation.
“Lady Viviana. It’s noisy, so please stop crying.”
Sunlight was streaming in through the window.
Platinum Blonde, draped long over slender shoulders, sparkled above the seat facing away from the window.
The light-colored hair, receiving the sunlight, stung the eyes more than the bright sunlight.
Viviana momentarily stopped crying at Josefina’s words, who was sitting alone in the seat facing away from the window.
“Jo, Josefina…….”
Among the ladies sitting at the table, there were other blondes besides Josefina.
Lustrous, deep gold blondes, and blondes with a beautiful mix of dark and light colors, paled before Josefina Lirin’s Platinum Blonde.
“What am I supposed to do about the Imperial Order?”
