Lady to Queen

Patrizia walked slowly to the location where her greeting spot was decided and discovered Lucio in his uniform standing 100 meters in front of the Hanlon Palace. It was not Patrizia who had caused trouble yesterday, but she was strangely troubled to see him. She looked as collected as possible, then approached him and greeted him with manners.     

"I greet the Sun of the Great Empire. Glory to the Father."     

"Empress is here."     

"As the Empress, I need to finish up my job well. If you do not want that, I will go back."     

"… Just stay."     

"Yes."     

Patrizia replied briefly and then pulled out the handkerchief. It was the white handkerchief she had borrowed yesterday. If she could, she didn't want to give it back by pretending she didn't know, but he had said it was precious, so she would have felt bad.     

She intentionally took out the handkerchief in front of the gathering of all the high-ranking nobles. She thought she had to do it like this so she could help herself a little more. As expected, she felt the nobles standing in the back looking towards her direction.     

"Thank you, for yesterday."     

"I was more sorry about yesterday."     

He made a small cough as if he was remembering yesterday's events. The nobles seemed to be in a frenzy to find out about the hidden information between the implied words, and Patrizia noticed this and laughed quietly. She was glad for some reason.     

And one more thing, that made her even happier.     

"I was worried because I seemed to have taken over the bed. Is your body feeling okay?"     

"I am a little tired, but I am fine. Is Your Majesty doing well?"     

Because of the presence of a woman who was hiding behind a tree right now and watching them.     

'Rosemond.'     

"I also seem to be okay."     

"That is fortunate."     

Her face, smiling brightly while saying that, wasn't for the Emperor. It was aimed at Rosemond, who was glaring at her from the back of a tree and grinding her teeth.     

She wanted to let her know that favor was like a reed, it could be shaken at any time, and broken at any time.     

"Thanks to both of your Majesty's from the Marvinus Empire, we were comfortable."     

At that time, a remarkable smile appeared on Patrizia's mouth. She replied to the envoy's words in the fluent Christa language.     

"I just wished you were comfortable. I'm afraid the preparations were insufficient and ended up bothering you."     

"Bother, Your Majesty. It's not like that. You can speak our language this fluently, so I and everyone in the group felt comfortable."     

The Duchess of Verica, who said that, turned her head to Lucio and gave praise.     

"You are a pair that really goes well together, Your Majesty. It is the glory for the Imperial Family and the Empire that you have obtained this wise and beautiful Empress."     

"Thank you for the compliment."     

On the surface, it was a really friendly atmosphere, but only one person, Rosemond who was behind the tree, was grinding her teeth giving off cold air. The moment she saw the scene, she intuitively realized that something was wrong.     

No, not yet. At least, the day when Lucio removed favor from her had to be after she had given birth to a prince that was to be the Crowned Prince. Before that, no matter what happened, his favor had to stay with her.     

After chewing her nails due to anxiety, she murmured something quietly and turned around. Rosemond's eyes were truly wild and horrifying.     

That afternoon, Patrizia was contacted by Petronilla from the Marquis of Grochester. It was about whether she could visit the next day. Naturally, Patrizia agreed, and she didn't make it obvious about her sister's long-awaited visit, but she still seemed quite excited throughout the day.     

It was finally the next day, and Patrizia had stayed up all night to finish what had to be done by the following afternoon to keep the time with Petronilla undisturbed. After she became the Empress, she was a sister who was even forgoing a visit to avoid becoming a nuisance to her. Patrizia awaited Petronilla with a slightly excited expression, as she had instructed a bunch of her favorite strawberry-flavored macarons to be baked in advance.     

As if not to disappoint her expectations, Petronilla arrived at the Empress Palace earlier than Patrizia expected. Patrizia welcomed her with her arms wide open.     

"Nilla!"     

At the time of the meeting with the wives of the envoys, it was Patrizia who was very sorry for not seeing Petronilla after seeing only the Marquess of Grochester. Petronilla greeted her with a loud voice, holding her twin sister tightly as if she were a child.     

"Lizzy! How are you?"     

Even after saying this, Petronilla asked with a little uneasy expression, "Ah… Should I say Your Majesty?"     

"Nilla, you know I don't like that very much. No one is here, with only the two of us in the Empress Palace, so what formality? Stop it."     

"Then I'm letting it go. Could you give me a cup of tea? I came in a hurry and so I'm thirsty."     

Patrizia replied to Petronilla's request, showing her teeth with a wide-open smile.     

"Of course. I also prepared a lot of Nil's favorite strawberry-flavored macarons. We can try it together."     

What Patrizia had ordered, the plate full of strawberry-flavored macarons and two glasses of milk tea were soon dropped off on the table. Patrizia kept smiling for a long time at the feeling of being able to spend time with her sister. For a long time, the couple talked about this and that, useless stories until at one point, they entered a subtle subject.