The Woman Who Will Kill Me Has Arrived
The Emperor's order was flawless.
The paper was genuine.
The wax was genuine.
The Imperial seal was genuine.
Even the signature.
The only problem was that the Emperor himself was fake.
Or perhaps the Emperor was real enough.
He simply wasn't in any state of mind to issue that particular order.
I looked from the Emperor lying in bed to the decree in my hand.
"When do you suppose His Majesty wrote this?"
Adelia answered.
"In his sleep?"
"That seems unlikely."
The Emperor did not so much as twitch a finger.
Adelia snatched the decree from me.
She read it slowly, and the corner of her mouth twisted.
"I sealed off the imperial bedchamber less than half a day ago."
"Quick reaction."
"Your kind of person, then."
"I don't particularly care for diligent people."
The Inspector cleared his throat beside us.
"Shall I record that remark as well?"
"No need."
Adelia turned her gaze on the imperial messenger.
He remained on one knee, head bowed.
"Who gave it to you?"
"It was delivered through the Imperial Secretariat."
"Be precise."
"I received the sealed decree at the Archives, signed the Secretariat's delivery log, and came straight here."
"From whom at the Archives?"
The messenger hesitated for a moment.
"A temporary scribe."
"Name."
"Serena Eberhardt."
I blinked.
I was fairly certain I had just heard a name.
A very familiar one.
And not one I was particularly glad to hear.
"Say that again."
The messenger looked at me, puzzled.
"Serena Eberhardt."
Ah.
Right.
The female lead of this romance fantasy.
Serena Eberhardt was dragged in sooner than I expected.
What caught my eye before her, though, was the Captain of the Imperial Guard.
The same man who had been standing watch at the bedchamber doors only moments ago.
Dark grey hair.
A straight, sharp nose.
A solid frame that showed even through his uniform.
Leonel Kalstein.
Captain of the Imperial Guard.
And the male lead of the original novel.
At first he had suspected Serena, but once he learned she had entered the palace to clear her father's name, he became the man who would protect her with his life.
Except now the two of them were meeting for the first time not in the Archives, but outside the Emperor's bedchamber.
Because I had pulled Serena in earlier than the original story.
Leonel was not shielding her; he stood in front as the officer responsible for personally handing over the bearer of an imperial decree.
"I have brought Serena Eberhardt."
Leonel said.
Adelia's gaze settled on the two of them.
"The Captain of the Guard himself?"
"Because the matter concerns a decree of His Majesty the Emperor."
"I didn't even ask, and you're already mounting a defense."
Leonel's expression hardened.
"It is not a defense."
"Then step back."
He did not move.
Adelia's eyes narrowed.
"Don't make me say it twice."
A moment later, Leonel took one step back.
Only then could I see Serena's face properly.
Light brown hair, almost golden.
Calm green eyes.
Not a flamboyant beauty, but a face that held the eye.
The daughter of a fallen noble house.
Temporary scribe at the Imperial Archives.
The woman who had entered the palace to clear her father's name.
And, in the future—
the woman who would dig up Cassian Berdel's bribe ledgers and forged registers and send him to the gallows.
The woman who would take my head had walked in of her own accord.
I had no reason to be pleased.
"You delivered this decree?"
Adelia asked.
"It is true that I handed it to the messenger."
Serena's voice did not tremble.
"Who gave it to you?"
"It was left on my desk."
"You don't know who put it there?"
"No."
"A sealed imperial decree simply appeared on a junior scribe's desk with no explanation whatsoever."
Adelia laughed under her breath.
"And you didn't find that suspicious."
"The delivery log and the document number both matched."
"So you thought it was the Emperor's command and sent it on as-is?"
"Yes."
"Fascinating story."
Leonel spoke up again.
"Your Highness, Lady Serena merely followed the Archives' procedures."
Adelia turned to him.
"You know this woman well?"
"I knew her father."
"The executed Document Commissioner?"
Serena's fingertips twitched.
Adelia did not miss it.
"The traitor who tried to steal and forge an imperial decree. It rather fits the present situation, doesn't it?"
"My father was not a traitor."
Serena raised her voice for the first time.
Leonel looked at her.
I swallowed a sigh.
Yes.
This was a romance fantasy, all right.
A father's unjust death.
A fallen young lady.
The loyal knight who protects her.
A tyrant princess.
And one sycophantic vassal hovering at her side.
"Then why did your father die?"
Adelia asked.
"Because he was framed."
"By whom?"
"I entered the Archives to find that out."
"Impressive."
Adelia held up the decree.
"And the moment you arrived, you delivered an order written by an unconscious Emperor."
Serena's face went pale.
"Unconscious?"
"You didn't know that either?"
"The palace announced that His Majesty was recovering consciousness."
She was right.
We had made that announcement ourselves.
The consequences of revealing the truth a little early were already coming home to roost.
Serena looked at the decree.
"May I examine the document?"
"If you made it, there's no need to look."
"I need to examine it precisely because I did not make it."
Bold.
Exactly like the original female lead.
Adelia looked at me.
"What do you think?"
Why ask me?
Serena could not be the culprit.
In the original she was never the sort of person who forged imperial decrees to trap people.
Not in the early stages, at least.
"It would be best to let her see it."
"Reason?"
"If that woman is the culprit, she'll try to confirm where she made a mistake."
Serena's eyes locked onto me.
"And if she isn't?"
"She might find something we missed."
"Useful either way, then."
Adelia held out the decree.
Serena took the document in both hands.
And for the first time she looked straight at me.
Open wariness filled those green eyes.
"Count Berdel."
"You know me?"
"How could I not?"
Not a promising answer.
"You were present at my father's execution, my lord."
I had no memory of it.
Not my memory—the original novel never described that scene in any detail either.
"I was?"
Serena's gaze turned cold.
"You were smiling."
The room went quiet.
Adelia looked at me.
So did Leonel.
"I must have been smiling about something else."
"It was immediately after my father's head fell."
"Then the timing was rather unfortunate."
Serena's expression stiffened.
I knew.
It wasn't a good answer.
But apologizing for a smile I myself had never given felt equally strange.
This body had done it, after all.
Damn it.
Serena said nothing more and examined the decree.
The wax. The seal.
The edges of the paper.
The Emperor's signature.
Then she walked to the window and held the document up to the light.
A faint imperial crest appeared inside the paper.
Her eyes widened.
"This document was not written today."
The Inspector asked,
"You mean the state of the dried ink?"
"The body text was written today."
Serena pointed to the Emperor's signature.
"But the signature was made much earlier."
"How can you tell?"
"The ink is different."
"Doesn't the palace use the same ink?"
"Even with the same formula, the color changes depending on the season and how long it has been stored."
Serena indicated the lower part of the document.
"The body text still retains a bluish tint. But His Majesty's signature has turned completely brown."
I compared the two inks.
Looked at closely, there was a difference.
"So His Majesty signed it in advance?"
Serena nodded slowly.
"It is an Emergency Imperial Decree."
Adelia frowned.
"How does a junior temporary scribe know about that?"
"I learned of it while investigating the records of my father's case. The format of the missing documents and their control numbers remained in the investigation files at the time."
"Explain."
"It is a contingency prepared for situations—war, rebellion—when His Majesty the Emperor cannot draft documents himself."
Serena said.
"His Majesty prepares a very small number of blank decrees in advance, already signed and sealed, and stores them in the Secretarial Vault."
"Leaving the body text empty?"
"Yes."
"So anyone who fills in the content can turn it into an imperial command. I knew that much."
"That is why their very existence is top secret, and only the Document Commissioner and the Secretariat Director may view them together."
Adelia smiled.
"And that Document Commissioner was your father."
Serena's grip tightened on the paper.
"Yes."
"And after the blank decrees went missing, your father was executed."
"My father was the first to report their disappearance."
Serena said.
"Three Emergency Imperial Decrees vanished."
"Three?"
"Yes."
"Then why was he branded the thief?"
"A wax mold of His Majesty the Emperor's seal was found in my father's private archive."
"Someone planted it, then."
I muttered.
Serena glared at me.
"At the time, my lord Count, you also insisted that my father was a traitor."
"My judgment seems to have been a little shortsighted back then."
"Shortsighted enough for a man's head to fall?"
"I have been doing a great deal of reflecting lately."
The Inspector cleared his throat.
Serena looked ready to press further, then turned her attention back to the decree.
She rubbed a corner at the bottom of the paper with her fingertip.
A faint number appeared.
"This is the first one."
"Of what?"
"Each of the missing Emergency Imperial Decrees had a control number engraved on it."
She showed us the number.
One.
"This is the first of the three that disappeared."
Adelia asked,
"And the other two?"
"They have not been found."
The air inside the bedchamber grew heavy.
Two blank decrees already bearing the Emperor's signature and seal.
Anything could be written on them.
Anyone could be branded a traitor.
Anyone could be ordered to die.
In that moment, the ending of the original novel flashed through my mind.
The scene of Imperial Princess Adelia being dragged to the gallows.
A decree announced as a direct order from the Emperor after he regained consciousness.
An order to depose the tyrant princess.
And to execute her for treason.
But in the original, the Emperor was never shown issuing that command himself.
The decree was simply announced.
And everyone believed it was the Emperor's will.
I had believed it too.
The Emperor's order that sent Adelia to the scaffold.
Perhaps that decree as well—
had never been issued by the Emperor at all.