Love Is a Crime?
“Lena.”
Conrad stepped down from the throne and, as if he had been waiting for this moment, held out his hand to her.
The nobles were astonished to see him lower his head and escort her with such formal courtesy.
It was nothing like the way he usually avoided noble ladies in the banquet hall, refusing even the slightest brush of contact.
“Oh my! I’ve never seen this young lady at an imperial banquet before. So that’s why she climbed onto His Majesty’s bed—without even the dignity of a proper noblewoman.”
Clara’s words spilled out the instant Regina took Conrad’s hand.
With a single stroke, Chloe reduced Regina to a shameless woman, then opened the fan in her hand and hid her face behind it.
The faint sneer was concealed by the fan, but the contempt in her eyes was not.
And Regina understood every part of it.
“I greet Her Majesty, the Grand Empress.”
Regina bowed with perfect, picture-perfect grace.
In truth, the court etiquette of the Ferman Empire and the Fredericks Empire was not all that different. Regina was therefore able to handle Fredericks etiquette as smoothly as if she had been born to it.
The difference between imperial etiquette and noble etiquette was only a sheet of paper; there was nothing to fault in Regina’s manner.
The nobles’ eyes widened at her poised bearing.
This was no banquet hall now, but an audience chamber. The most prominent nobles in the empire were watching Regina closely.
For an ordinary woman, it would have been normal to be so tense she could hardly move properly.
And yet the more they admired her fluid, natural movements, the more impossible it became to look away. Even after hearing every cruel word the Grand Empress had thrown at her, her elegant expression never changed, and that only deepened their admiration.
Chloe could hardly fail to notice the shift in the atmosphere.
Her words had been meant to suppress Regina’s momentum, but the public mockery had gone a little too far for the Grand Empress’s own dignity.
Just as Chloe realized that and was about to speak, Regina straightened her back.
“I was foolish and lost my parents early, so I grew up alone.”
Regina, who had instantly killed off the living emperor of the Ferman Empire in a single breath, remained utterly calm.
The man who was not much of a father had long since been dead in her heart, so she felt no hesitation. As for the mother who was still alive, Regina had never even properly seen her face; she was no different from someone already lost.
“What?”
“So I never learned the proper dignity of a noble house. I hope Your Majesty will be generous with me.”
Chloe’s grip tightened around the fan in her hand. When Regina saw the fan trembling in front of her face, she smiled softly.
It was only when Chloe found herself biting her lip at the thought that the smile resembled Conrad’s that Regina went on.
“Your Majesty, with a heart as vast as the sea, surely won’t fault me for losing my parents?”
Regina lowered her head, and her shoulders trembled slightly. Seeing that, the nobles all assumed she was swallowing tears.
If you say any more to me, you’re not even a human being.
Ever since she was young, Regina had been tormented by the legitimate princes and princesses of Ferman, and she had learned how to survive teasing and cruelty.
That was not all. After being sent on dangerous missions such as infiltrating enemy territory, she had also developed the ability to wear a different personality with ease.
So now, pretending to be a pitiable woman fallen in love was easier than soaking bread in soup.
Regina tightened the hand clutching the hem of her skirt and pinched her thigh; tears instantly welled at the corners of her eyes.
Having achieved what she wanted, she lifted her head and looked out at the nobles.
She pressed a finger to the tears gathered at the edge of her eyes, softened her gaze, and let her lips part.
“His Majesty saved me when I was in danger. To me, he is a knight I’ll never have again.”
As she recited the sort of line a lady in love might say, Regina swept her gaze across the room.
Then, toward the nobles who were watching the situation without a flicker of doubt, she said again,
“I fell for the sight of His Majesty wielding his sword at first sight. I was so in love that I couldn’t tell right from wrong. I committed the mortal sin of daring to desire the one I should never have coveted, Your Majesty, the Grand Empress. A fatherless girl like me was greedy for something far too grand.”
Regina dropped to her knees before Chloe. It was a shocking display for a noble lady.
Even Chloe was thrown off balance, unable to decide what to do, when Conrad stepped forward.
“What crime could you possibly have, Lena? If you have any sin at all, it is only that you accepted me.”
His words were every bit as unrestrained. The startled nobles widened their eyes and watched the two of them.
Conrad looked as though he might leap down from the throne at any moment and gather Regina into his arms, and his restless movement left the nobles flustered.
“Conrad!”
“It is all my fault. I promised I would make you the most precious woman in the world, and yet I am an emperor who cannot even keep the words he spoke to my own woman.”
“No, Your Majesty. What fault could you possibly have? It’s all because I am lacking. Because I, with no parents, placed you in my heart.”
It was the third time Regina had emphasized that she had no parents.
At her deliberate repetition, Conrad clenched his eyes shut. His expression seemed touched with self-reproach, as if he blamed himself for making his precious person say such things.
“Love for me is a crime!”
Regina, still on her knees, leaned into him as though lamenting those words.
So pitiful was the sight that those nobles with softer hearts turned away.
Age made people more sensitive, not less. Some whispered that Regina was wretched, while others blamed the cruel hand fate had dealt her.
In particular, nobles who had lifted up a ruined house with their own hands and built their fortunes from nothing felt deeply for her.
“Falling in love isn’t a crime. Isn’t that right?”
The small murmur sent ripples through the silence of the audience chamber. It was also a calculated remark, one that acknowledged Regina as someone who had become intimate enough with the emperor for him to call her by name.
If Regina were ever to wear the empress’s crown, Chloe would naturally have to step down from the regency.
That would mean someone qualified had appeared—someone with the right to oversee the imperial household and, in times of need, stand in for the emperor.
Whether Conrad’s feelings were genuine or not, the fact that he was shielding Regina like this was no different from giving her his support.
The nobles, who had sensed the balance of power tilting ever so slightly, quickly added their voices.
The nobles who openly supported Chloe did not move, but those who had been watching from the middle began to shift their stance.
“Then, Lady Lena is from which house……?”
At the last possible moment, Marquis Ludvica dragged her family name into the matter as a final struggle.
“She is the eldest daughter of the Madarin Barony.”
“……Pardon?”
“I said she is from the Madarin Barony.”
Regina spoke with firm emphasis, then turned her face away with a sorrowful expression.
“I see. Since my family is so insignificant, you didn’t recognize it.”
Few nobles knew the Madarin Barony, which never engaged in public social activity.
But this was the audience chamber, where matters of state were discussed. That meant there were many nobles here who kept information in their hands.
“Isn’t that the barony that runs a trading company?”
“The one that always posts losses…… ahem!”
“I heard there’s a frail young lady there. Still, that makes sense.”
Each in their own way, they added a word or two while watching Chloe’s expression.
As those words began to confirm Regina’s status, Chloe snapped her fan shut with a sharp clack.
The murmuring died away at once. It was a moment that made clear just how much influence Chloe held in the Fredericks Empire.
“So, that young lady is Lena Madarin?”
“That is correct, Your Majesty, the Grand Empress.”
“If that’s true, then you’ll need to bring in someone who can verify her identity.”
Chloe smiled thinly, saying that if a noble of such high birth were to be received, everything had to be certain.
At her gesture, one person ran out of the audience chamber. Watching that figure leave, Regina’s face remained calm, but the tips of her fingers trembled faintly.
Has the Grand Empress noticed something? No, she couldn’t have discovered that I came from the Monster Zone. Surely not. Not this quickly…?
Then Conrad’s hand came down firmly on her shoulder. Regina drew in a sharp breath.
Slowly, the trembling ebbed from her body.
After a while, a man entered together with the servant Chloe had sent.
The instant Regina recognized that face, her gaze changed.
The distance from the chamber doors to the throne was too great for the man to recognize her in return.
“How fortunate. A suitably relevant person has arrived.”
Chloe had already finished investigating Regina.
Since she was only the daughter of some middling barony, Chloe had assumed a little pressure would be enough to make her back down.
If not, she had planned to coax her with the right amount of inducement and turn her to their side.
But Regina’s unyielding attitude had made Chloe change her mind.