Lady to Queen

Meanwhile, Patrizia had a welcoming expression on her face when she finally saw Petronilla, who had arrived at the Empress Palace late in the afternoon.

“Nilla, you came late?”

“…”

However, despite her cleara greeting, Petronilla had a dark look on her face. Nevertheless, Patrizia smiled calmly, and asked Petronilla.

“Looking at the expression on your face.”

“…”

“It seems there was some progress?”

“Lizzy, Your Majesty the Empress.”

Petronilla hesitated, and then opened her mouth with a firm voice.

“We may be able to completely ruin her.”

“Alright.”

Patrizia smiled brightly as she nodded her head.

“I do not know what you have managed to discover… But I expected as much.”

The relationship between the two people, the Duke of Efreni and Rosemond. But it did not end there. Petronilla spoke in a troubled voice.

“If we make sure to finish Rosemond, the Duke of Efreni will also be over.”

“… Is it to that extreme?”

Patrizia was briefly interested in what Petronilla had said, but soon spoke without a care.

“However, it does not matter. All I want is the destruction of Rosemond. If even the Duke of Efreni is ruined in the process, then that would mean that he has also committed a crime.”

Patrizia laughed in a relaxed manner, and muttered to herself.

“So, even if the opponent was to be the Duke of Witherford, and not the Duke of Efreni, I would not care.”

“It would be better to read it once, than listen to it a hundred times.”

Petronilla sent out all the maids around the vicinity, and then handed over all the letters she had brought from January’s room to Patrizia. In January’s jewelry box, there were probably the letters that Rosemond had on scribbled roughly. After Patrizia received a total of 17 letters from Petronilla, she slowly began to read up and down each one. Her originally calm expression began to slowly become distorted after she read the 4th letter, began to make a facial expression of disbelief when she reached the 9th letter, and finally after she finished reading the last letter…

“Ha.”

She burst into empty laughter. There was quite a reason for that. Patrizia started laughing like a madwoman.

“Ha ha ha ha ha.”

As she laughed like that, her facial expression was mixed with an acknowledgement of, ‘touché’ as well.

The death of the successor brought deep sorrow to the Duke of Efreni’s estate. Since the Young Master Henry had been a warm person, and kind to all, everyone in the Duchy paid their respects for his death.

However, one person was excluded.

“Ahahaha.”

January quietly killed the sound within her room, and then burst into a low laugh. Henry was dead! He was the only successor to the Duchess! Although Henry had not been overly friendly to January, he had usually treated her with the utmost courtesy as possible, but she was not a woman with enough affection to be able to praise Henry in this situation.

She just laughed happily just thinking about the situation, thinking about how the future with her son becoming the official successor of the Duke, and after raising Rosemond to the position of Empress, she would be able to drag the Duchess down from her title. Of course, if this situation was revealed to anyone else, the perpetrators would be the one to be chased out more than anything, so she had to laugh quietly.

-KNOCK KNOCK

At the sound of the knock, January quickly organized her laughing expression into a terribly sad-looking expression.

This kind of behavior was extremely abominable, so if anyone who was by her side observed all this from start to finish, it would be enough for their teeth to chatter angrily and curse such impudence. She made a tear mark by applying saliva around her eyes to appear as if she felt she had lost her own child, and then rubbed her eyes roughly to make them more red. Only then did she open the door and face the butler. She asked.

“Butler, what is the matter?”

“…”

He handed over a single letter without a word. It was a letter from the Imperial Palace, specifically, Rosemond. He said to her.

“It is a letter from Marchioness of Ethyller, Madam.”

“Oh my, the Marchioness?”

She accepted the letter with a surprised expression. She closed the door, still not erasing the sorrow that was showing in her eyes. But as soon as the door closed and the butler’s face was hidden from view, she smiled as she ripped opened the letter, and hummed a tune to herself internally. Rosemond, why on earth did this woman send letters so often? January, read the content written with fancy penmanship on a white envelope, and soon laughed again without a concern.

“Three days later, three days later she says…”

January quietly muttered to herself, and soon began to write a letter to an unknown receiver. It was a short letter with the following information. ‘After three days, please make sure the Empress’s footsteps will never return to the Imperial Palace from the Marquis of Grochester’s home.’

“It seems the Young Master Efreni has passed away after all.”

Petronilla said this in a gloomy voice. The Young Duke of Efeni had still been young. The news that he had passed on to heaven at such a young age, brought depression to Petronilla anyway. Patrizia expressed her condolences briefly.

“Oh dear.”

‘The Duchess of Efreni is probably out of her mind.’ Patrizia thought in this way, and asked Petronills.

“Then the Duchess should be returning immediately.”

“With her son’s body. The funeral is going to be held in her home country it seems.”

“Oh dear.”

She expressed her condolences once again, and turned the wheels in her head. The Duke’s only successor had died. If that was the case, this meant that the only remaining heir was the mistress’ young son.

“Lizzy.”

“Hm?”

“Is Madam January’s young son going to become the next head of the household?”

At Petronilla’s words, Patrizia briefly made a thoughtful expression, and then called out to her with her nickname.

“Nil.”

“Hm?”

“Right now, if the content of this letter is the truth…”

She slightly stretched out the tail of her words, and continued.

“Then it may not end up becoming like that.”

“What do you mean?”

“If things go as we expect, the Duchess will probably adopt and bring in a child. The next successor to the family will be someone that she wants.”

“The Duchess has every right to do so.”

Petronilla nodded her head. The Duchess of Efreni was not following her husband’s surname. She was originally Lady Efreni, and the current head of the Efreni family was a mere Baron’s lad at best. It was a natural course of action for the Duke of Efreni to have followed his wife’s surname, and not continued with his own. Anyway, the only reason a son of a Baron managed to take on the position of Duke only was purely because the Duchess of Efreni had been the only child, as the daughter of the Duke of Efreni at the time.

That was why his title had only been established due to his position of being the husband of Lady Efreni. This meant that the Duchess of Efreni was not interfering with the Duke of Efreni’s position because she still loved him, but if things went awry, it meant that the Duke of Efreni had to return his title in some way. If that happened, January’s life would have amounted to a dog that chased after chickens.

“I cannot prepare for this alone. I should receive help from Duke Witherford.”

“I think the same way, Lizzy. There would be reason for suspicion if you were to reveal it all on your own. Everyone will think that it is not possible for you to be neutral about anything that concerns Rosemond anyway.”

“Mirya.”

Patrizia decided to put into action exactly what they were thinking about. There was no need to wait for the moment of destruction to fully ripen. While she watched for that moment to ripen, how many times had she endured, and how many years had she waited. Most of all, for matters such as this, the sooner it was done, the better. When the wily January caught on to what Petronilla had done, it could lead to a headache from then on. It was right to prevent such a possibility in the meantime.

“Please call for Duke Witherford. I would like for you to deliver the message that I want to meet with him at a convenient time for him.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I will do as you say.”

“I heard you were going to visit our family home two days later?”

Petronilla must have heard it from Rafaella, as she asked. Patrizia nodded.

“It is our mother’s birthday, and above all, I did not take care of my family much these days.”

“The two of them will understand. It is not a bad thing for you to visit our home. There is nothing that could pose a problem.”

“… Mhm. I think so as well.”

Patrizia calmly muttered to herself, as she leaned comfortably on the back of the chair she was sitting on.

“I miss them, our Mother and Father.”

The Duke of Witherford sent a letter the next day, saying he would visit Patrizia in the afternoon. Patrizia received the letter and made a troubled expression. It was a hard matter to reveal, but it was something that would be unveiled eventually.

If so, she had to break the news well to increase its effectiveness, and not just let it be buried. Patrizia sighed as she took a stroll around the garden.

“There is a need to find out.”

“About what, Lizzy?”

“About this matter.”

She spoke with added strength.

“I need more accurate evidence. Definite proof to be able to put this firmly on the chopping board…”

At that time Patrizia stopped talking. A stranger caught her eye. To call this person a stranger, it was a bit awkward to describe the person as such. Patrizia hesitated a little, and soon gave her greetings nonchalantly.

“I greet Your Majesty, the Emperor.”

“Empress.”

He averted his eyes away with an awkward expression on his face. After the episode of that day, the two had not met until this moment. Patrizia was uncomfortable with the situation for some reason, so she bowed her head down.

“That… Have you been well?”

Lucio regretted his stupidity right after he said those words. Was there nothing else to say? While he was trying to kick himself in his mind, Patrizia responded casually.

“Yes.”

Lucio was flustered by the perfect, short answer. If this happened, the conversation would be cut off from there. It made sense, since in the first place, she would not want to talk to him. It was just ridiculous that he was trying to continue the conversation somehow. Then, he heard a voice, as if by a miracle.

“Your body…”

“… Hm?”

“Is it alright now?”

Patrizia calmly asked him, without including any emotion whatsoever, but for Lucio who received the question, it was the most glorious thing. He replied to her quickly.

“I am alright.”

“…”

“Thank you, for asking.”

“… Yes.”

Once Patrizia had said those words, she began to take another step to resume her walk. Lucio hurriedly caught Patrizia, who was trying to get past him and go somewhere else.

“Empress!”

“… Yes?”

Patrizia slowly turned around and looked at him. She was elegant and beautiful. Lucio hesitated, and eventually spoke about a different topic, instead of the words that were in his heart.

“I am sorry for that day.”

“… No need to worry.”

“Still… I am sorry.”

He spoke in a slightly choked up voice.

“You will go to the Marquis of Grochester’s home two days later?”

“Yes.”

She certainly had not let this news be common knowledge. Patrizia thought that the security of the Empress Palace was weaker than she had expected. Meanwhile, Lucio said quickly.

“As much as you want… you can stay there before you return.”

“… Yes?”

“I am saying take your time to rest well, and then come back. You have gone through a lot of trouble.”

“…”

‘Then how good would it be, Your Majesty.’ Patrizia gave a smirk. However, to do that, the weight of her position was too heavy. She could not be away from her seat for a long time. The longer she stayed away, the weight of the documents she would need to review would increase as much. She said to him.

“I will go there in the morning, and I will come back at night, Your Majesty.”

“…”

As she said those words, Lucio sighed with relief internally. Patrizia could clearly tell what he was thinking, and as she turned back around and resumed her walk, she let out a grin without her knowledge.

“That behavior does not match him.”

Patrizia murmured these last words to herself.