Let Me Apologize Instead
‘If I still had the mana I’d had before the seal was placed, I wouldn’t be struggling this much over this level of expenditure.’
She would need to find a way to compensate for her lacking mana besides magical tools. Perhaps the answer lay in Aura, exchanged for mana.
There was another way to break the seal besides having Herais remove it himself: shattering it with mana equal to its power.
But that required exquisitely precise control over the amount, and with the mana Regina had now, she couldn’t recklessly tamper with the seal.
“There’s so much to do.”
The mutter slipped out before she could stop it. Regina formed and dissolved hand signs with her fingers, watching the flow of mana with her own eyes.
The mana Conrad had filled her with last night amounted to two weeks’ worth.
As long as nothing went wrong, she had enough left to last a week.
If she had to use a magical tool even once after that, her mana might be exhausted and cut off midway.
‘And that’s not all.’
A mage whose mana was sealed slowly died. Herais knew that too, which was why he had left Regina beyond the barrier.
Whether she died at the hands of a monster or slowly from mana depletion, in any case he had probably considered her as good as dead and seen no need to assign anyone to watch her.
“Your Majesty, His Majesty the Emperor is here.”
The announcement pulled Regina out of her private thoughts. Lifting her head, she found Conrad already looking at her.
When she met those deep blue eyes, impossible to read, Regina found she could not quite draw a full breath.
“Regina.”
At the voice that sounded almost tender, Regina gave a small jolt and her shoulders trembled.
His eyes curved softly, but there was not a trace of a smile in the depths of them.
“I have something to tell you anyway.”
As if she had been waiting for the chance, Regina rose from her seat. Conrad’s right brow lifted, then settled back into place almost at once.
“What is it?”
“I’m going to the Grand Empress’s Palace today.”
“…Were you invited?”
When Regina gestured toward the maids, one of them brought out the invitation she had set aside.
The Grand Empress’s Palace tea party was scheduled for the hottest hours of the afternoon, so there was still time before she had to leave.
“An outdoor tea party at this hour.”
Even Conrad, who rarely showed himself in social circles, looked incredulous.
“Have you eaten?”
“Not long ago.”
When Conrad spoke with concern, Regina added, “I’ll be back soon.”
“You’d better be. If not, I’ll go to the Grand Empress’s Palace myself.”
“There’s no need for that.”
Regina reached out and took his hand. Her own was soft and well cared for, the hand of a mage; it enclosed Conrad’s, hard with calluses from gripping a sword.
At the gentle sensation brushing over the back of his hand, Conrad finally felt the fog in his mind clear.
After all, Regina was strong enough that he needn’t worry so much.
Her mana should be fine too.
She had done that much with him last night, so she ought to be overflowing with mana by now.
Conrad set his small worry aside, but then his gaze fell on Regina’s dress.
He had ordered new dresses for her a while ago, but Chloe had refused to release palace funds.
So he had brought in a designer at his own expense, yet he still hadn’t heard any report that Regina’s measurements had been taken.
The Grand Empress is behind this.
Someone had disappeared in the middle, and no report had come in.
Normally, the petty work of guiding visitors through the palace should have been handled not by knights, but by lower-ranking attendants or soldiers.
But because this involved clothes for Regina, Conrad had directly assigned his closest knights for security.
If the designer had truly gone to the Grand Empress’s Palace, then the other knights should at least have come to report it.
The fact that news had been lost somewhere in between meant something else must have happened to the knights.
I’m keeping an eye on it for now, but it’s infuriating.
When his eyes met Regina’s, who was staring straight at him, Conrad curved them into a round smile. He could deal with this later.
What mattered right now was whether Regina had a decent dress to wear to the tea party.
“Open the Empress’s wardrobe.”
***
It was only after changing dresses five times that Regina finally made it out of the bedroom, already feeling tired.
Still, Conrad’s choices had been impeccable. He was the one who had selected a dress so perfect for her that no one could possibly object.
Everyone who saw Regina along the route to the Grand Empress’s Palace was left gaping with their mouths open.
Her upright posture, her steady stride, the long white line of her neck like a deer’s, and the dress that left her shoulders bare.
“Y-Your Majesty the Empress.”
“I greet the moon of the Empire!”
Though she wore no proper accessories, Regina’s presence drew every eye and left people unable to think straight.
Regina responded gently to every variation of greeting without once letting her warm smile fade.
By the time she reached the Grand Empress’s Palace, greetings from those visiting the imperial palace had become a steady stream. Even people who had once looked down on her for being born into a baron’s house were bowing their heads and competing to greet her.
They seemed to be straining themselves to make sure Regina noticed them somehow.
It’s the same wherever you go.
Like flies swarming anything that looked as though it might be worth picking clean.
She had seen it in the Ferman Empire too, so Regina could brush off their greetings without a second thought.
These people, too, would change the moment they realized Regina could not give them what they wanted.
So she did not let herself be tossed about by their shifting reactions. Their admiring gazes toward her continued unabated.
“I greet the moon of the Empire.”
The mustache of the head attendant who had come out to meet her in front of the Grand Empress’s Palace seemed especially prominent today. Regina smiled gracefully and answered his greeting.
“Today’s etiquette is quite to my taste.”
“I’m honored.”
The sun was at its highest point in the sky. The maids had shaded her with a parasol, but the reflected sunlight from the marble was still scorching. Regina didn’t care in the slightest.
What, were they going to leave me standing in the garden at most?
At worst, she might get a dousing with water; at best, she would be kept waiting for a long time. With that assumption, Regina calmly followed the Grand Empress Palace attendant’s lead.
Far ahead, in the middle of the garden, she could see the Grand Empress Chloe. A very large awning had been set up over Chloe’s head, while the opposite side had nothing at all.
“You may come this way.”
When the attendant guided Regina toward the side without any shade, she walked a little more slowly.
Even so, Chloe found nothing to criticize in Regina’s movements, and irritation surged through her before she skillfully buried it beneath a smile.
“I greet Your Majesty the Grand Empress.”
“Welcome, Empress.”
Chloe casually used the title Empress. Regina widened her eyes and thanked Chloe with an air of delight.
“My, to be addressed that way by you…. I’m honored.”
“Though this was a hasty marriage, I can hardly call the Emperor’s first consort an imperial concubine.”
Chloe’s words were a reminder to keep in mind that Regina was little better than a concubine who had never had a proper wedding. Yet Regina only answered with a smiling face.
“Oh, how fortunate. To be recognized as part of the imperial family. I had been wondering if Your Majesty did not recognize me at all, since the head attendant in this palace is so terribly rude.”
She was implying that Chloe should manage the behavior of the attendant who dared treat a member of the imperial family so casually.
Chloe could no longer smile. That was all the more true because she hadn’t heard what had happened to the attendant.
When Chloe’s cold gaze landed on him, the head attendant flinched and shook. Sensing that something really had happened, Chloe let out a thin sigh.
“If the head attendant of my palace has offended you, then I’ll apologize in his stead.”
“Oh, there’s no need for that.”
Regina waved it away, saying she could never accept an apology from the Grand Empress herself. But that wasn’t all.
“Though there was also the regrettable matter of the people you sent to the Empress’s Palace embezzling funds and bringing in items unfit for the imperial household, that was still the servants’ own misconduct.”
At the clear implication that Chloe couldn’t properly manage the people in her own palace, Chloe bit down on her lip.
If only the Grand Empress’s own people were here, she might have been able to keep a tighter rein on the conversation, but Regina had brought a rather substantial retinue with her.
Not only maids, but attendants as well, were lined up behind her in a long procession, and Chloe could plainly see what Regina’s intent was. In the end, Chloe had no choice but to step back.