Subjugating the Female General (29)
The guard had his blade halfway drawn when Adrian's hand smashed down on the hilt and rammed the steel back into its scabbard. Her left hand shot out and locked around the other man's throat.
"Ghhk—!!"
She had both of them subdued in a heartbeat. Adrian turned on the maid.
"Is that certain?"
"I—pardon?"
"What you just said! Is it true? That House Vendelin has been swept up in a charge of treason!"
"Ah! Yes! There's a merchant who comes to the palace often — I heard it from him. It's probably true."
"Ghhhk—!!!"
Rage poured into the hand around the guard's throat. His face darkened; another second and he would have blacked out. Adrian saw it and let go.
"Cough! Cough!! Duchess Adrian! Return to your room!"
The guard clutched his neck and bellowed at her. Adrian's fists were clenched white. For a moment the corridor hung on a knife's edge, a fight a single breath away — then she turned on her heel and walked back inside.
Even if she broke out of here now, there was nothing she could do for House Vendelin. The anger was real, but she had to think coldly. The only person who could help her was the Emperor.
Afternoon came. He did not.
She paced the room, restless and trapped. He hadn't come yesterday either; she'd told herself he would come today. If he stayed away again, she had no idea what she was supposed to do. Time crawled. Every minute only wound the anxiety tighter.
Has he lost interest in me already? And if he does come back — what then? If I ask him, will he even listen?
The more she fretted, the deeper Dong-hyun sank into her thoughts. Evening fell. He still did not come.
Unable to sit still any longer, Adrian opened her door again. The guards, already wound tight, ripped their swords free and leveled them at her.
"I apologize for this morning."
She bowed her head. The men blinked, thrown — a woman of her rank, apologizing to them. They hadn't expected that.
"N-no, Your Grace, there's no need to go that far. We heard what was said. We understand."
They waved the apology off, almost comforting her. The blades had already slid back into their sheaths.
"Would you happen to know… where His Majesty is?"
One of the guards scratched his head.
"Truth is… I'm not supposed to say. But since you asked, I'll tell you this much. His Majesty hasn't been in the imperial palace for two days."
"What?"
Adrian stared at him. Two days. That meant he had left the palace after visiting her that morning — which explained why he hadn't come yesterday, or today.
"Do you know where he went?"
"Well… that I genuinely don't know. All I heard is that he rode out at the head of a force."
"A force…?"
The words landed strangely. She ransacked her mind for any reason the Emperor himself would take the field and came up empty. But that wasn't the urgent problem. The urgent problem was that she could no longer ask him to spare her family. If he had marched out with an army, he wouldn't be back for a week at the earliest.
Do I move now?
Two guards in front of her. She could put them down in a blink if she wanted to.
The men, oblivious to what was turning behind her eyes, kept stealing glances at her face and her figure. Palace duty had given them a high standard — and Adrian still sat in a different league.
Footsteps sounded at the far end of the corridor.
Adrian's gaze had just gone cold when she felt the new presence and checked herself. The person coming toward them was the last one she expected.
Empress Yuria, a maid in tow, was walking straight to her door.
Yuria…?
Adrian had seen her once, at a banquet. She had never imagined the Empress would come looking for her. Not when she was the woman sharing the Emperor's bed. Yuria could not possibly think well of her.
Yuria walked up without hurry and stopped in front of her.
"Adrian? Shall we go in?"
She looked Adrian dead in the eye as she said it.
"Ah… yes. Of course."
Adrian had no idea why she was here. She complied anyway.
Yuria left her maid in the hall and stepped into the room alone. She sat in the chair beside the bed, crossed one leg over the other, and regarded Adrian with a look of cool, practiced arrogance.
"Curious why I came?"
"Yes. I am."
"Mm. Thought so. And given the difference in our stations, me speaking up to you feels a little off. I'll talk casually, yeah?"
"As you wish."
There were nearly ten years between them, but Adrian didn't particularly mind the drop in register. The Empress of the Krantz Empire carried that kind of weight.
"Good. Then get on the bed, take your clothes off, and kneel."
"Excuse me?"
"Do I have to say it twice? Are you hard of hearing?"
The demand hit her sideways. Slave of the Emperor or not, did that mean she had to take orders from the Empress as well? And an order like this — one she could not simply swallow?
"Even for an Empress, that's going too far."
She decided not to obey. She could overpower Yuria right now and walk out of the palace if she wanted to. There was no reason to take a command this absurd.
"Heh. Still haven't figured it out, have you? You've got something you want to ask me for, don't you?"
Yuria didn't so much as blink.
"I beg your pardon? Ask you for what?"
"I heard you got a story from a maid. Or did I hear wrong?"
The meaning landed. Yuria was offering to save her mother and her little sister. Adrian understood — and bit down on her lip. Was she really going to let herself be toyed with by a girl years younger than she was?
"Mm. You get it, I think. You just haven't thrown yourself away yet. Fine. If you don't want to, you don't want to."
Yuria stood and started for the door without a shred of hesitation.
"W-wait!!"
Adrian stopped her.
"What is it?"
Yuria glanced back over her shoulder.
Adrian hung there, torn. If she broke out on her own and rode for the Vendelin lands — could she actually save her mother and sister? She couldn't be sure. Yuria, on the other hand, had the power to help her. That much was certain.
Under the Empress's gaze, Adrian hesitated a moment longer — then climbed onto the bed. She stripped, piece by piece. When she was naked she sank to her knees in front of Yuria, posture careful and meek.
Yuria watched with open satisfaction, then sat back down in the chair.
"So you've decided to take my orders?"
"Yes. I have."
"Whew. That body, though. How are your breasts that big? And they don't even sag."
She leaned in close, inspecting her. A small finger flicked out and snapped against one of Adrian's nipples.
"Nnh…"
A thin sound slipped out of her at the jolt.
"Wow. The spring in these is ridiculous. Sensitive, too."
Yuria rolled the nipple under her fingertip, playing with it. The little peak turned with her finger, swelling, tightening under the idle circling of her hand.
"Heh? It's getting hard. You're getting off on a woman touching you?"
Adrian realized, with a twist in her gut, that this was worse than anything the Emperor had done to her. This was more humiliating.
Yuria took both breasts in her hands and started to knead.
"God, I actually envy these. How are they this big and still this soft, this springy? Mmm. So these are what you used to seduce His Majesty."
She groped for another moment — then pinched a nipple between her fingers and twisted.
"Nngh—… I'm sorry."
It hadn't been Adrian who'd done the seducing. The Emperor had come to her. She apologized anyway. An affair was an affair, willing or not.
"So you know you should be sorry."
"Yes… Your Majesty."
"Hmm. 'Your Majesty.' I don't love that."
"Understood. Master."
"Eh?? Why would I be your master?"
Adrian had assumed that was what she wanted and had lowered herself as far as she could go. It wasn't.
"You slept with His Majesty. I slept with His Majesty. But I slept with him first, which means I outrank you. Right?"
"Yes. That's right."
Adrian wondered, not for the first time, where this was going.
"Wh-what??!!"
The words tore out of her before she could stop them. Call a girl years younger than her big sister? The humiliation was almost too much to stand.
Yuria pinched her nipple again.
"Nnghh—!!"
"You don't want to? I was being nice, giving you the chance."
"I—I'm not refusing. B-big… sister…"
"Heheh. Good. Then you'll swear loyalty to this big sister too, won't you?"
"Yes… big… sister…"
The words came out of her mouth like stones. She forced them through anyway.
"Stand up."
Adrian rose.
"Now spread your legs and squat down halfway. You know a horse stance, don't you?"
Adrian's body flinched. That posture would put her pussy on full display. But she was past the point of refusing.
Her legs opened. Her hips sank. Yuria looked straight at the closed slit between them.
The order she had most hoped would never leave Yuria's mouth landed anyway.