Chapter 05
Cassiellope looked with a weary expression at the maids splashing water on her body.
Using an entire bottle of perfume oil for a single bath. Her temples throbbed from the intensely fragrant rose scent, and her brow furrowed involuntarily.
It was supposedly a bath, but it was completely different from what she knew.
Wasn’t bathing originally about getting into water for cleanliness and then getting out? But she had already been trapped inside the bathtub for an hour.
“…Just how long do we have to keep this up?”
“My apologies, Your Majesty. Not even half the time has passed yet.”
“What…?”
“Your body must soak for a full two hours so the fragrance seeps into your skin.”
Two hours just for a bath? Recalling her experiences as the Empress, applying makeup and putting on dresses took twice as long. If so, how many hours must one spend to get adorned once?
Cassiellope shot up abruptly, looking incredulous.
The maids swiftly covered her body with a large cloth. Ignoring their disapproving glances telling her she shouldn’t leave now, she strode forward without hesitation.
Just as she reached for the bathroom doorknob, the door opened from the outside first.
“Please return to the bath, Your Majesty.”
“Are you telling me to waste time on such pointless activities right now, Madam? Do you know how many matters I could resolve in two hours? Instead of this, I should be—”
“Her Majesty, the Empress.”
At Casella’s call, Cassiellope’s movement froze stiffly.
“‘Pointless activities,’ ‘a waste of time,’ you say? From today onward, this is the duty of the ‘Empress.’ So… please return, Your Majesty.”
Casella’s gaze, usually cold enough to be aloof, was slightly averted from Cassiellope. Her expression seemed to say she didn’t want to say those words.
Cassiellope did not reply. She simply turned silently and stepped back into the bathtub.
After silently enduring the two-hour bath, Cassiellope sat meekly in the chair, leaving her body to the maids.
Looking in the mirror, she saw her usually dry skin beginning to take on a gloss.
Although she looked several times more immaculate than usual, she couldn’t help but feel shabbier than she normally did.
Did a role truly exist where she could work for the Empire from the position of Empress?
It wasn’t that she disregarded the existence of the ‘Empress,’ but she had never strongly felt its necessity either.
A position to assist the Emperor. Nominally, yes, but in reality, it was merely a link connecting the Emperor and a powerful family, born and raised in such a house.
Her situation was different from when they had intended to welcome Regis as Empress. Unlike him, supported by the power of the Euriel Ducal House, Cassiellope, dethroned from the imperial seat, had nothing behind her.
Her mother, the Empress, passed away shortly after giving birth to her. Like her father, who walked all paths alone after that, she too walked all paths alone. Regis was the same.
Whether the path was strewn with flowers or thorns, she endured silently. So, she knew better than anyone. That he didn’t need an Empress.
“You’ll do well, Rope.”
Applying perfume oil to her wet hair, Casella gave a faint smile. It was a smile filled with the conviction that Cassiellope would surely do so.
“…Madam.”
“Do not think it pointless. Things that were unseen from the Emperor’s seat will surely begin to reveal themselves.”
“……”
“Nothing has changed. Just as you have always done, walk your path.”
At the same time, Regis was sitting in the chair Cassiellope used in her office, reviewing documents.
No sooner had he adjusted his glasses, which had slipped down his nose, than the office door was flung open without notice from Knott.
Casella had come to find Regis after confirming that Cassiellope’s adornment had begun. The two, who strongly carried the blood of the Euriel Ducal House, resembled each other as if they were mother and child.
Pushing past the knights guarding the front of the office and flinging the door open, Casella bowed her head slightly towards Regis in greeting.
It was customary to lift the hem of one’s dress and kneel on one knee when greeting the Emperor of the Empire, but Casella ignored this.
“I trust you will understand that my impatient nature left me no choice but to be rude, Your Majesty.”
“…It’s fine. You may leave.”
At his command to the knights who had followed her in, the door closed, leaving only the two in the room. Regis set down the documents he was reviewing and rose from his seat.
“First, please sit—”
“You likely don’t have time to sit and exchange pleasantries with a mere Countess like me, Your Majesty. Having taken the noble position, you must have many matters to attend to, so let’s talk like this.”
“…Aunt. Please call me by my name as usual. I do not wish to be called by that title.”
At his words, a strange light swirled in Casella’s blue eyes. Her gaze, fixed on him, narrowed slightly.
“Knowing full well who deserves to be called that, you still did this?”
“……”
“How could you do this to that child!”
“…Rope, is Rope… alright?”
Casella barely suppressed the anger rising to the top of her head. She wanted to pour out harsher rebukes but couldn’t bring herself to do it.
He had worn an expression of indifference towards her scolding, but the moment the topic shifted to Cassiellope, his face contorted as if about to crumble.
“If you’re so curious, go see her yourself.”
“…I have no right to do so. Seeing my face would only cause her pain.”
“You, who knows that so well…!”
“There was no other way… To save Rope…”
The words were incomprehensible, but Regis’s mouth closed firmly, as if he had no intention of explaining the reason.
Frustrated by the lack of communication, Casella’s lips tightened.
“Please… take good care of Rope, Aunt.”
“Even without your request, I intended to do so. You should get ready too. Do you intend to make Rope look shabby?”
Regis’s eyes wavered. He couldn’t let Rope experience such feelings again. Once was enough.
Nodding in agreement to Casella’s words, Regis left the office.
In the empty corridor, only the sound of his footsteps echoed expansively. Step, step—The sound, which had gently settled, gradually began to slow.
Traces of Cassiellope remained in every space of the Imperial Palace.
The first room he passed was her bedroom.
She was always punctual for the morning meetings, even after staying up all night, which often made everyone wonder, but in truth, she was quite a heavy sleeper.
“Time to wake up, Rope. You’ll be late for the meeting at this rate.”
“Regis…? What time is it— Gasp! Why did you wake me up so late!”
He could almost hear Cassiellope’s voice, grumbling while skillfully getting ready.
Regis started walking again. Towards a sort of dressing room where her clothes were stored. Rows of clothes so similar one could only tell them apart upon very close inspection.
She always wore a white jacket embroidered with gold thread and a red cloak. The cloak of the Emperor, inherited from her father, the late Emperor.
“Aren’t these all the same clothes, Rope?”
“My, Regis, you’re more unobservant than I thought. Look here. The patterns are slightly different, see? I told you they’re all different.”
“If you say so, Rope, then it must be so.”
“Tch. I’m telling you, they really are.”
Draping the cloak over her shoulders after she changed had always been his role.
She had no interest in adornment, so after dismissing all her maids from her time as Empress, she always changed clothes alone.
But the cloak, she said, was inherited from the late Emperor, and she always asked him to drape it neatly.
In the dressing room without Cassiellope, the red cloak she used hung neatly arranged.
It was because he had taken it back after draping it over Duke Ikart’s shoulders yesterday.
Walking a little further, a garden where flowers bloomed all year round began to appear outside the window.
It was a place the late Emperor had created for the late Empress, Cassiellope’s mother, and she always drank tea there.
“I like it here, Regis. I never knew her face, but somehow, coming here reminds me of my mother.”
Regis stopped in his tracks. He had reached the end of the corridor. There hung a portrait of the late Emperor, Cassiellope’s father.
His clear blue eyes, the same as hers, seemed to ripple deeply.
“What am I to do now, Your Majesty…? I’ve prepared myself dozens, hundreds of times, but in truth… it’s hard to bear…”
The words, forced out with difficulty, scattered into fragments in the empty air.
Leaning his back against the corridor wall, Regis sank to the floor.
