Chapter 2
Anyway, that stiff-necked emperor later ends up falling for the empress, and when he realizes she doesn’t have long to live, he cries and desperately tries to save her.
Even though the empress survives without his help. Still, she puts him through hell over and over again and then forgives him in the end.
Regretful male leads might be appealing in fiction, but having seen it firsthand, it seemed better not to accept someone like that. He openly mocked the empress by bringing his mistress into the palace. He deserved everything he got.
The empress’s shoulders trembled faintly. The emperor, sneaking a glance at her, sweetly flirted even more with his mistress.
How charming.
Lellia clicked her tongue, but quieted down when Sara elbowed her in the side.
The empress couldn’t bear to watch anymore and lowered her gaze.
“Your Majesty, I heard new jewels have arrived…”
The mistress cautiously glanced at the empress as she spoke, but the emperor raised his voice as if to be heard deliberately.
“She wants it, so of course I should buy it for her.”
The emperor’s smug grin made Lellia want to punch him in the face.
How must it feel to be insulted like that right in front of you?
“…I’m not feeling well. May I leave first?”
“No need. I’ll go too.”
Apparently, the emperor didn’t want the empress to leave before him. He got up with his mistress.
The attendants and maids followed after them, and the empress raised her head to watch their backs until they disappeared.
From behind, it wasn’t clear what kind of expression she wore. All that could be seen was that her shoulders trembled faintly.
And soon after that trembling stopped, the empress rose from her seat and slowly returned to her quarters.
The reason the empress suffered so much was because the emperor had been her first love.
He had only pretended to love her in order to use her family and then brazenly brought back his true love—the mistress.
Her family was thrown into chaos, but they couldn’t do anything. According to imperial law, nobles could not divorce unless their spouse died or had been missing for more than two months.
So the empress was left isolated, waiting in vain for the emperor, and eventually gave up.
She ran away.
Because that was the only way to escape the hell.
Not long after she left the palace, the empress discovered she was ill. Though she would eventually learn how to cure it, the long journey was grueling.
Lellia felt sorry for the empress. And yet—
“I don’t want to be beheaded, so I better hand in my resignation.”
She decided to leave the palace.
She had to survive—before growing attached to the servants. She had to return to her original world alive.
So when Lellia immediately wrote her resignation and handed it to the head maid—
“Bring me Sara.”
The head maid ordered someone to fetch Sara, but Lellia shook her head. The head maid kindly waved the resignation letter.
“Then can I tear this up?”
“…I’ll go bring her.”
Soon after, Lellia returned with Sara, and the head maid pressed her temples as if she had a headache.
“Sara. I think you’ll have to retrain Lellia. I’m busy, so could you handle it?”
“It’s not hard, but may I ask what happened?”
Without another word, the head maid handed over Lellia’s resignation. Sara’s jaw dropped.
“A resignation?!”
At Sara’s shriek, Lellia still didn’t understand what she had done wrong.
Apologizing profusely to the head maid, Sara dragged Lellia back to their quarters. Slamming the door behind her, she shoved the resignation into Lellia’s hands and shouted:
“Rip this up right now!”
“Why won’t they just accept it?”
“Because you’re not allowed to submit one, obviously!”
As Sara squawked in frustration, Lellia tilted her head, still not getting it. Sara sighed deeply, placing her hands on her hips.
“Clearly you’ve lost your memory since that day, so let me explain kindly again. Starting with the most important palace rule.”
“Is it boring?”
“Less boring than getting your head chopped off.”
Now that sounded fun.
Lellia suddenly became very interested in the rules.
Sara let out a dry laugh at her swift attitude shift and raised a finger.
“Rule one. You can’t resign unless you’re getting married or there’s an exceptional circumstance.”
“Why?”
“Once you’re a palace maid, you can’t let the palace’s secrets leak outside.”
“But they let you leave if you get married.”
Sara licked her dry lips and whispered softly.
“That’s just hostage-taking. If palace secrets ever get out, they’ll kill everyone.”
Lellia murmured with a face drained of color.
“Why did I ever come here?”
“Because it comes with wealth and prestige!”
I like wealth, but not prestige…
Sara looked at Lellia pitifully. How hard did she hit her head to become this different?
Even if she said she’d become a fool, people might believe it. Gripping both of Lellia’s shoulders tightly, Sara spoke sternly.
“There’s no reasoning behind this. It was made by the founding emperor, so it is what it is. The rules are the law. You just have to follow them.”
In other words, there was no use in arguing. Lellia, nearly resigned, asked:
“I do have one question. You said wealth and prestige come with this job—but how can there be any prestige in this situation? We’re basically hostages.”
“Do you know what’s most important to a noblewoman?”
“Money? Talent?”
“Good grief…”
Sara clicked her tongue and looked at Lellia like she was hopeless.
“Marriage is the most important thing for noblewomen.”
Lellia was about to retort but kept her mouth shut. She knew arguments wouldn’t work here.
Assuming Lellia understood now, Sara continued.
“Becoming a palace maid guarantees a good marriage. Even if the noble house is crumbling, if their daughter becomes a maid, the palace helps them out. The third empress was actually a maid.”
She made it sound like one could become empress—but Lellia wasn’t interested. If it was the third empress, that meant there hadn’t been another empress since.
That also meant the odds were terrible.
Sara told her not to question it anymore, but Lellia was still curious. What secret could be worth this level of secrecy?
“What secret is so important they’d go this far…?”
Sara sighed.
Following the imperial rules was as natural as breathing, but Lellia seemed full of questions.
And this wasn’t something to explain lightly. Sara stiffened and said coldly:
“If you break the laws of the imperial palace, your life cannot be guaranteed.”
It sounded like a threat—but it was the truth.
As Lellia’s face went pale, Sara quickly changed the subject.
“If you really want to leave, you’ll have to petition Her Majesty the Empress or His Majesty the Emperor directly.”
Lellia’s expression brightened slightly.
“Then…”
“And no one who ever did that came back alive.”
Her brief moment of hope was instantly crushed. Lellia tore the resignation into pieces and threw it in the trash, then flopped onto the bed.
Sara grabbed her and yelled:
“Get up! You’re starting maid training again today!”
Lellia resented the author for not including information about maid resignations in the novel. As she sluggishly got out of bed, she asked one last thing, still clinging to hope:
“What if I escape?”
“Are you good at fighting? Better than the Grand Duke of Actylus? Or as skilled as the heads of the three major noble houses? Or their personal guards?”
Sara’s tone became more intense, and Lellia shrank back.
The Grand Duke of Actylus was the empress’s family. The duke was her twin brother.
“All of them? No, I’m not.”
“Then don’t even dream about it. The only people capable of breaking through the palace guards are the heads of the four great houses and their commanders. No one else has ever escaped.”
“Not even the emperor?”
“Hmph, that mouthy little bast—”
Sara quickly clamped her hand over her mouth in alarm. Lellia pretended not to hear anything and stepped out of their room.
Then how did the empress escape?
In the novel, all it said was, “The next day, the empress was gone.” There weren’t any details on how she actually escaped.
* * *
To survive, I have to stop the empress from escaping.
But… she seems to be suffering so much. Is it really okay for me to do this, just to save myself?
Feeling conflicted, Lellia—though she knew the story—asked Sara again, just to be sure:
“Sara. If Her Majesty the Empress escapes secretly, what happens to us?”
“We’d all be executed for failing to serve her.”
I’m sorry, Your Majesty.
But I’ll have to stop you from escaping.
Lellia made up her mind. If the empress escaped, it wouldn’t just be her who died—every servant would. This wasn’t something to take lightly. Fiction might only focus on the main characters, but in reality, innocent people could die.
“I’ll need to come up with another plan instead.”
Something that would help the empress live well without escaping.
Lellia revisited everything she knew from the novel. Maybe she could think of a clever plan.
After the empress fled the palace, she discovered something was wrong with her body and finally let go of any lingering affection for the emperor.
She couldn’t spend the rest of her life like garbage because of a man like that.
So she sent the emperor a letter stamped with the empress’s seal and disappeared completely.
Since she went missing and couldn’t be found for two months, the divorce became valid. But even without that, she had no intention of coming back.
The letter was short:
“I no longer love you. Don’t look for me.
As of today, the empress is dead.
I wish you and your mistress a lifetime of happiness.”
Whether it was truly a wish for happiness or just mockery, no one knew—but the emperor was devastated.
The emperor, unable to believe that the empress—who had always loved him unconditionally—would suddenly change, was shocked.
He stopped seeing the mistress and spent the whole day wondering what the empress might be plotting, only to realize she had been his true love all along.
He suddenly, absurdly, realized it—out of nowhere.
Maybe it was just for the sake of the plot, but still. And so, the emperor began his regret arc.
Now then… was there a way Lellia could escape?
“Maybe I could run away with the empress?”
But why would she take someone useless like me with her?
Lellia felt hopeless again.
