They’d Catch On Soon Enough
“Since we can’t be certain when Martin will be back, would it be possible for us to hear Your Majesty’s intentions first?”
Shiren forced the words out in a voice that had gone tight with nerves, as if the sentence itself were stuck in his throat.
Conrad, resting his chin on one hand, let out a faint laugh.
“You know that Lena has become the empress.”
After signing the marriage contract, Conrad had announced the fact to the nobles of each house once the first night was over.
Even without that, the temple would have informed the houses eventually, but the news that the emperor himself had stepped forward to declare his marriage left the nobles in varying degrees of shock.
Some said the emperor seemed head over heels for the empress. Others thought he might have some other motive.
Shiren belonged to the latter camp.
He needed a force to keep the Dowager Empress in check.
Convinced that there was no way Conrad had married Regina purely out of love, Shiren swallowed hard and opened his dry, chapped lips again.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I want there to be no occasion for her to be displeased.”
“Pardon?”
“Do I need to repeat myself?”
“N-no, Your Majesty.”
Shiren could hardly believe these were the words of an emperor speaking to little more than retainers of a baronial house, and he blinked in confusion.
No noble would dare treat an empress personally raised up by the emperor with disrespect. Everyone already knew that much.
But if word leaked that Conrad had summoned his retainers to issue such a warning, the other nobles would be forced to reconsider Regina’s position all over again.
Honestly, I can’t believe this.
If Regina had been standing right in front of him, Shiren felt he would have wanted to ask how, with no apparent connection at all, she had ended up in a relationship like this with Conrad.
He held back the deep sigh threatening to burst out and bowed his head.
“I shall engrave Your Majesty’s words deep in my heart.”
“The empress said she wanted to meet you. Follow the attendant.”
As though he had finished saying everything he intended to, Conrad lowered his eyes back to the papers in front of him. The chief attendant of the imperial palace stepped forward at his command and led them away.
“This way, please.”
Still hesitating, the two men trailed after him, forgetting even to salute the emperor as they left.
Once they had disappeared completely from the audience chamber, Conrad clicked his tongue.
“I’ve heard mages are all clever, but these are surprisingly naive spies.”
If Shiren and Theodore had heard that, it would have stung their pride. Neither of them was the sort to show his emotions easily, after all.
But the situation was so shocking that they could hardly hide their confusion.
“If they hadn’t been hiding in the baron’s residence all this time, they’d have been exposed immediately.”
After delivering a second cool appraisal, Conrad gave a small gesture. From the darkness, someone who had been concealed stepped forward and dropped to one knee before him.
“You summoned me, Your Majesty.”
“I need to see the other one too. Find him.”
“At once, Your Majesty.”
Mir, the head of the emperor’s secret guard—those who concealed themselves to protect Conrad—saluted and vanished once more.
***
“Your Majesty the Empress, the retainers of the Madarin Barony have arrived.”
At the attendant’s announcement, Regina closed the document she had been reading.
The retainers?
Conrad had said nothing to her separately, but Regina understood the situation immediately.
They had become allies facing in the same direction, but no matter that they were under her command, they would still need to verify the enemy spies for themselves before fully trusting them.
And beyond that, it was no different from saying that he wanted to get ahead of any future trouble in case they ever became enemies.
At Conrad’s thoroughness, Regina let out a faint breath.
“Send them in.”
She had almost forgotten, after getting used to the comfort of a place far from the monster-plagued front lines, but this was enemy territory.
I must never forget that.
The fighting ahead would only grow harsher.
Taking a steadying breath, Regina straightened her back. When she turned her eyes, she saw the two familiar figures kneeling to her in greeting.
Where on earth did Martin go?
Right now, Regina needed Martin more than she needed the two men in this room.
He had a higher circle count and could manipulate mana more freely, so he might even have been able to help release the seal on her mana.
“I greet the high moon of the empire.”
Limutan was still standing behind her. Before Shiren could say anything unnecessary, Regina would have to send him out.
He really doesn’t have much talent for spying.
Shiren was a mage who loved research. But because he did not want to fight his sister over the family title, he had chosen to join the mage corps on his own.
That was also why he had volunteered to be sent as a spy to the Fredericks Empire.
The Adorf Viscountcy was a fairly powerful mage house, and there had been those who wanted to use him for a struggle over power.
He had run to escape that.
“Limutan.”
“Yes, Your Majesty the Empress.”
“Could you bring me the legal code that contains the tax laws? I think I may need it.”
“All of it?”
“Yes.”
The code dealing with taxes was not something a palace attendant or maid could remove from the imperial library.
Unless one was a noble with a title—and even then, someone connected to the Ministry of Justice—permission from the minister himself would be required.
In other words, unless Limutan went in person, there was no way to bring the code out.
“Then Your Majesty the Empress will have to remain alone while I fetch it.”
“Alone? Surely my retainers wouldn’t try to harm me.”
Limutan gave an awkward little cough.
“His Majesty the Emperor would be worried.”
“If that is the concern, then I’ll simply ask His Majesty’s permission.”
At the sight of her lifting a pen as though she were about to write Conrad a letter on the spot, Limutan could delay no longer.
“…I’ll be back shortly.”
Until Limutan had left the room, Shiren and Theodore could not rise from their places.
The doors to the reception room were not fully closed. Knights and maids were waiting outside, but Regina decided that much was acceptable.
“Get up.”
“Your Majesty the Empress.”
The moment he rose, Shiren moved closer to Regina, as if he intended to cast a sound-sealing spell.
“There’s no need.”
More precisely, he must not. The moment Shiren used mana, the knights outside might begin to wonder why no sound was leaking through.
“May I ask what happened?”
“As you heard. His Majesty saved me.”
“Th-then…”
Though he had many things he wanted to ask, Shiren could not get the words out. Theodore stepped in for him.
“What do you plan to do from here?”
“I’ll reclaim the glory of our baronial house.”
Regina’s eyes gleamed with mischief. Meeting those familiar blue eyes, Theodore and Shiren both looked a little brighter.
To speak of recovering the glory of a house made up of Ferman Empire spies was practically the same as saying she meant to find a way back to the empire.
If they were to achieve glory, they would have to return there.
“Then what would you have us do?”
Theodore asked her, hope in his voice.
At that moment, the many magical tools kept at the Madarin Barony rose in Regina’s mind. The tools she had experimented with and invented every time she had visited the Fredericks Empire.
Now, those things would become her strength.
“First, bring me the barony’s ledgers.”
“Understood, Your Majesty the Empress.”
The baronial ledgers contained coded records of where the magical tools she had collected over the years had been sent.
If those tools could be used here in the imperial palace, it would become much easier to deal with the Dowager Empress.
Right now, she lacked mana, so she would have to rely on magical tools for the time being. Knowing she could at least make up a part of what was missing, Regina’s eyes curved.
“Is there anything else you need?”
When Theodore spoke up, Regina asked the question she had been wondering about all along.
“Why didn’t Martin come with you?”
“Ah, after Your Majesty the Empress… went missing, he said he was going to contact the places that might be able to help us.”
“Then he should be told I’ve returned.”
“Yes, I shall do that.”
While Theodore answered, Shiren began to move quietly.
After confirming that the people outside had at some point created distance from the door, he cautiously came closer to Regina’s side.
“……”
A taut silence fell over the room.
Watching Shiren’s movements, Theodore subtly turned his body, shielding him from view.
Shiren removed a cuff link and handed it to Regina.
The cuff link resting in her palm quickly changed shape, becoming an earring instead.
---