This Time Will Be Different (2)
The road to the imperial palace was longer than she had expected.
Unlike the way she had entered by the side path, the main gate of the temple was busy with nobles and servants alike. She couldn’t simply ignore those who greeted her, so Regina kept walking with a gentle smile on her face.
Her graceful, composed steps made it clear she was a woman of true breeding. For someone who was supposedly nothing more than a baron’s daughter, her movements were remarkably restrained, and even the nobles who had looked down on her with open suspicion had no choice but to revise their opinions.
“Welcome, Your Majesty.”
When Conrad and Regina arrived, the chief steward bowed deeply.
“Everything is ready.”
The bedroom door opened, and Regina and Conrad stepped inside.
By then, red light had already begun to spill across the windowpanes. The glow, so much like the color of Regina’s hair, washed over the bedroom floor in soft, rippling waves.
Regina stared at the breathtaking sight, momentarily lost in it.
At times like this, when the sun began to set, she used to stop fighting and prepare camp with the rest of the mage corps.
The forests still swarmed with monsters and remained dangerous, but when dusk settled over them, they had their own strange beauty.
One person would kindle the fire with mana, another would straighten the tents, and another would draw the barrier.
She could almost hear the murmuring voices of those preparing supper, the report of an aide relaying the events of the day from somewhere nearby.
“Bring in the empress.”
Conrad’s single remark shattered the nostalgic scene before her eyes.
Servants waiting outside appeared and bowed their heads toward Regina.
“This way, Your Majesty the Empress.”
She hadn’t even had the wedding yet, and they were already calling her “Your Majesty the Empress.” It sounded as if Conrad had given them prior instruction.
Suppressing her unease, Regina calmly followed the servants.
Seeing her composed manner, the imperial palace’s chief steward smiled with quiet satisfaction behind her back.
Regina was led to the bath and soon surrounded by attending maids.
Perhaps because she had been tense the whole time, the warmth rising from the bathwater made her feel slightly lightheaded.
I want to catch my breath for a moment.
If she stayed with Conrad, he would drag her into his pace again. Before he came back to the bedroom, she wanted even a little time alone to think.
“Could you hurry a little? I’d like to get back to the bedroom as soon as possible.”
The moment she thought of the mage corps, a wave of longing washed over her. The sunset she had just seen only deepened the pull of old memories.
The maids, who had been moving briskly about, hesitated for a moment, but Regina, already lost in other thoughts, didn’t notice.
Slipping free of their hands as they tried to dry her hair, Regina went back to the bedroom alone.
“Wow.”
“Oh my goodness.”
The maids looked at one another, their cheeks flushed red, but none of them could bring herself to speak easily. After a brief silence, one of them licked her lips and said,
“I-I think Her Majesty the Empress must really love His Majesty the Emperor.”
“Right? His Majesty the Emperor told them to hurry with the first-night preparations, too.”
That wasn’t really what had happened.
Conrad, wanting to finish appointing the empress before the Grand Empress could interfere, had ordered the preparations for the wedding night the moment he finished signing the marriage vow document.
The chief steward, who had understood his intention, had driven the servants and maids mercilessly. It wasn’t that Conrad had personally urged them on, but the maids naturally assumed he was simply too consumed with love for Regina to wait a moment longer.
“And they haven’t even had the wedding yet…”
“Oh, what does that matter? She’ll be wearing the empress’s crown all the same.”
“But still…”
If that sort of talk reached people who loved to pick at flaws, the story might take on a different shape. Swallowing her concern, one maid glanced around.
Her companions caught on and hurriedly changed the subject.
“St-still, they do look very happy.”
“They do! Both Her Majesty the Empress and His Majesty the Emperor!”
“Maybe we’ll be hearing a baby cry before long?”
“That might be a little too far, but… I suppose it could happen.”
The matter of an heir was more important than anything else.
Especially now, when Prince Cain and the Grand Empress Chloe were both coveting the throne. If a child were born between Conrad and Regina, the balance of power in the palace would shift completely.
For the palace servants, whose lives and deaths depended on the power of the one they served, nothing mattered more than whose hands held the imperial crown.
Now that an empress who might finally stabilize the palace had arrived, everyone was excited.
“This time will be different.”
“Yes, it definitely will be. What kind of man is His Majesty the Emperor? He wouldn’t have chosen just anyone as his mate.”
“Exactly.”
The maids, buoyed by one another’s agreement, laughed and went their separate ways to return to their stations.
As subordinates, they were not meant to worry about those above them.
They only obeyed orders.
And yet, seeing Conrad—who had always been so indifferent to women—treat Regina with such certainty planted a shameless little hope in their hearts.
They wanted their emperor never to suffer the same misfortune he had known before.
Back in the bedroom, Regina looked at the beautiful sunset still softly spread across the floor and smiled faintly.
Seated in the chair by the table, she stared wordlessly at that radiant light.
She thought of the subordinates who had once sat around the crackling campfire, talking idly among themselves.
Regina drew her legs up onto the chair and rested her face on her knees.
What became of them?
So busy struggling to survive, she had lost track of even those closest to her.
When things had exploded after the ambush born of Herais’s scheme, she had already been locked in prison.
They were all strong mages, so it must have been one of two things.
Her subordinates had been the mage corps, regarded as one of the Ferman Empire’s most vital military forces.
They had followed only her orders, so if they hadn’t been killed by Herais’s hand, they must have survived.
Even if she wanted to gather those who had survived by betrayal, it would be pointless, and the dead who had kept their loyalty were silent. How, then, was she supposed to ease their injustice?
“Haa…”
But how many could there really be? If they were alive, they would cross the Monster Zone if they had to, just to find her.
And yet she was alone now.
Looking down at the floor bathed in red light, Regina waved her hand. A tiny, faint shape flickered and scattered across the floor.
Then she noticed a bottle on the table and poured wine into her glass. She watched the form she had created with a distant expression.
Drip-drip.
As mana flowed gently and the toy-soldier-sized figures began to walk about, a smile tugged at Regina’s lips.
They were the people who had stood beside her at the border of the Ferman Empire.
So absorbed was she in their movements that she failed to notice the approaching presence.
Conrad opened the bedroom door, took in the scene inside, and paused. His gaze, fixed on the floor at first, slowly lifted and settled on Regina.
Still with her hair not properly dried, her knees drawn up in her arms, Regina looked blankly at the illusion she had made.
Longing?
He could only see her from the side, so he couldn’t read her emotions clearly. Keeping his presence hidden, Conrad approached her.
How long had it been since they’d shared mana at the temple?
And already she was casting magic.
“Are you worried about the mage corps?”
“……When did you come in?”
Regina’s voice, though soft, was taut with stiffness. Her face had settled into a subdued expression, as if she had been caught in a feeling she hadn’t wanted anyone to see.
“Just now.”
Conrad took hold of her damp hair and pressed his lips to the ends of it. When the scent flowing from her hair—one that should have smelled of roses—mingled with his own, he felt his chest tighten strangely.
Regina swept her hand through the air, and the faintly flickering figures vanished at once.
Conrad lifted his head and met the eyes of Regina, who was looking up at him. His gaze flicked to the wineglass in her hand, then shifted away.
“An empress drunk on her wedding night.”
“I’m not drunk.”
Regina muttered that she’d only had a little, and Conrad poured wine into his own glass as well.
The red wine was a color that resembled Regina, and yet didn’t resemble her at all.
Her eyes held the blue of the sky, her hair was darker than wine itself.
Seated on the chair beside her, Conrad brought the rim of the glass to his lips.
The smooth, spreading aroma pleased his mouth, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy the thirst he felt.
Was it because of the connection from their childhood?
She kept drawing his gaze. More than the sorrowful version of her, he preferred the proud, fearless woman he had seen before.
To think she could look so wilted like this.
Conrad let his hand fall onto her shoulder. When that slender, rounded shoulder was caught beneath his large, heavy hand, Regina lifted her head.
He liked that, in those wavering blue eyes, there was only him.