In His Stead
Laniakea watched Hyperion swing down from his horse and forced strength into her trembling fingertips.
As her eyes stayed on him, the whole of the day flickered through her mind.
What an empress must do.
Fill the emperor's empty seat, and put this uproar to rest as swiftly as it could be done.
The moment she stepped into the Main Palace, she found the ministers who had arrived in the meantime already gathered. Looking them over, Laniakea quietly raised her estimation of Chelsia another notch.
The reason she had given her orders to Chelsia, after Hilde, was simple. The woman was every bit as capable as Hilde.
She herself had looked thoroughly astonished, though.
Only last night, Chelsia must have believed the Empress's household was wary of her family. And in truth, they had been. Even so, Laniakea had entrusted her with the task because that house, however hostile it might be toward Laniakea, was not hostile toward Hyperion. They craved his favor. Which meant that in this moment they would wish for his safe return more fervently than anyone.
So she had placed her trust in Chelsia and given her the work. And sure enough, when she looked upon the council chamber—where even more ministers had gathered than she had hoped—Laniakea was certain her choice had not been wrong.
They were still dawdling, though she herself had already entered. She opened her mouth.
"A great many of you are slow to your feet."
Surprise swept the room. The ministers had evidently expected her to seize hold of them the instant she walked in, weeping and begging them to tell her what to do.
Who would do anything so foolish.
Under imperial law, while the Emperor was absent from the palace, the Empress became his proxy. If she judged the hour an emergency, she could wield the same authority as he. And this was that emergency.
Laniakea considered first what she herself must do. Naturally, she had to set the Imperial Knights in motion and search for him.
Just then a minister standing nearby spoke.
"Please do not worry so, Your Majesty. His Majesty will be safe. If we dispatch the whole of the Imperial Knights at once to search the surrounding country, we shall find him before long. So if you would only leave the matter to us…"
"Send out every knight of the palace? Do you mean to advertise an ambush, and His Majesty's disappearance, across the entire capital?"
At Laniakea's words, grown colder still, the minister who had told her not to worry shut his mouth.
"The Imperial Knights will remain where they are. It will be enough for the special task force to move."
"But His Majesty's whereabouts are still unknown…!"
"Which is precisely why we must move in smaller numbers. Would you not agree, Minister of Military Affairs?"
The Minister of Military Affairs, seated a little apart from the rest, nodded.
"Your Majesty is correct. In a matter like this, swelling the search party only breeds greater confusion."
Once he sided with her, the other ministers fell silent. Among those faces were looks heavy with resentment. Laniakea committed every one of them to memory.
The men sitting in those seats stood to gain nothing if harm came to Hyperion. Even so, she could not lower her guard. For all she knew, they might already be passing information to the faction that had ambushed him, without even realizing it themselves.
The visit to the Academy was never a public schedule.
She knew they had deliberately refrained from naming a specific date to the Academy. From of old, against the chance of some mishap, a schedule was sometimes left deliberately vague, with the other party's consent. Had Hyperion not explained as much to her—and had the very example he offered not been the Academy itself?
"Is a visit to the Academy truly so dangerous a schedule?"
"Not as such. Only, leaving the palace with a small party is the first time since the coronation, so there is a great deal we ought to practice."
He had said he meant to conduct himself by imperial protocol, by way of practice for what lay ahead.
He weighed that schedule so carefully before he settled it.
Then he would certainly have been exceedingly careful about security. And yet the other side had known his movements all the same.
Even as she thought it, ministers who had arrived late were still filing into the chamber. When the seats were more or less full, Hilde came in and leaned close.
"Your Majesty, there is a matter I must convey to you at once."
"Will this do? I am not certain what more I ought to say."
"I see. Very well. When a more detailed report arrives, tell me again."
The exchange made no sense from front to back. Even so, Hilde bowed her head, murmured that she understood, and left the room. Laniakea deliberately put on the face of a woman who had just drawn a breath of relief.
"Has some new word come in?"
Another minister, reading her expression, asked in a rush.
"It is not yet certain enough to tell all of you. I will inform you as soon as the next report arrives."
At that, several of them shifted in their seats as if the frustration might kill them.
The empty words Hilde had whispered a moment ago were something Laniakea had ordered before she ever entered. A few minutes after the ministers were inside, Hilde was to lean in as though fresh news had come. She had been flustered, but she had not asked why such a thing was necessary. She had simply done as she was told.
Then on to the next thing.
Laniakea looked at the empty seat beside her.
"In a situation like this, the vacancy of the Minister of State Affairs is felt all the more keenly. When His Majesty returns, I must be sure to tell him the post should be filled as soon as possible."
Even now, there were those who stirred at the words Minister of State Affairs. From this moment, it mattered.
"Until the special task force of the Imperial Knights is ready, I ask that all of you remain here and wait for word. And I have urgent matters to discuss with each of you."
Having said so, she turned her gaze on the Minister of Military Affairs, the man who had lent his weight to her opinion only moments before.
"Minister of Military Affairs. Speak with me apart for a moment."
He rose at once. Stepping out of the council chamber with him, Laniakea found Chelsia waiting ahead.
"What I asked for?"
"The chamber next door has been prepared."
"Good. You've done well. Minister, come in."
He was the one who had taken her side in there just now.
But if word of this has leaked, the odds are highest that it came from the Minister of Military Affairs' side.
In the end, there was not a single person in that room she could truly trust. And so Laniakea felt it anew: how isolated she and Hyperion were within the Imperial Palace. Inside these walls, the only one with whom she could share everything at ease, and take counsel, was him.
It was only natural.
He is my husband.
It had not been a marriage born of love. Even so, they had not gotten on badly. Then each of them had found a reason the marriage ought to continue—a brief alliance, stretched a little further for the sake of what each stood to gain.
But she was not holding this place, worrying over Hyperion, for any such reason now. Because he was someone she could trust. Because he had been kind to her old friend. Because he had not laughed at a request of hers that might have sounded absurd; he had listened with real interest, and gone so far as to encourage her, telling her she might as well try it however she liked.
And so she wanted to keep his seat faithfully until he came back.
Half a day passed that way.
Not long after the council began, the special task force went out to search for traces of the Emperor. In the meantime Laniakea summoned the ministers one by one, and as she spoke with them she deliberately let a small piece of information slip between the lines of each conversation.
Only, what each of them heard was different.