Lady to Queen

“Duke Witherford has arrived, Your Majesty.”

Patrizia did not say much, but the door was naturally opened. The high-end reception room of the Imperial Palace was very soundproof, and Patrizia was drinking her favorite peppermint tea while organizing her thoughts. Duke Witherford greeted her with utmost courtesy.

“I greet Your Majesty the Empress, the Moon of the Empire.”

“… Welcome, Duke. Please take a seat here.”

Patrizia faced the Duke of Witherford in a more reserved way than usual. Duke Witherford was beyond scared as he looked at the face that was deep in thought, and asked her a question.

“Has something happened, Your Majesty?”

“Duke.”

Patrizia began to talk about the reason for calling him.

“I will ask directly. What do you think of the Duke of Efreni?”

“…”

It was natural that an answer did not automatically come out with this sudden question. She calmly spoke again.

“A lot of people have already been gossipping about the relationship not being good between Duke Efreni and Duke Witherford. Are my words wrong?”

“Your Majesty, unfortunately they are not.”

“Alright.”

Patrizia then asked him with sincerity.

“Duke, if I had a way to destroy the Duke of Efreni for good.”

“…”

“What would you do, Duke?”

“Your Majesty, what does that mean…”

“Answer my question. It is literally what I just said.”

She asked him to make a choice with a dry voice that did not fluctuate in volume.

“I am telling you to choose, Duke. I hold the chance to destroy him. I hold that very key.”

“…”

“I need someone who can help me. If I can help it, I want to avoid making my hands as dirty as possible.”

“Then, going by Your Majesty’s words, Your Majesty holds the key to destroying the Duke of Efreni…”

The Duke of Witherford swallowed a gulp of dry saliva.

“Do you mean to tell me to choose?”

“Indeed. After all, two have to be better than one alone.”

She laughed with a low voice, and said to him.

“That means that even if you provide a negative response, there will be no change in my intention.”

“… Your Majesty.”

Duke Witherford pulled up the corners of his mouth, and smiled.

“If there is a way to bring him down, I am capable of doing just about anything.”

The Duke of Efreni was from the family of a lowly Baron, and had risen up the ranks as fast as lightning. That alone, made the Duke of Witherford, whose descent was only of pure blood, not like the Duke of Efreni.

In fact, the decisive issue had come after that, because the Duke of Efreni had sneakily copied the business previously organized by the Duke of Witherford, and had a great deal of success with it, resulting in great loss and damage for the Duke of Witherford. That was why the Duke of Witherford hated the Duke of Efreni very much.

“Your Majesty, please tell me. What must I do in order to be of help to Your Majesty?”

“…”

Patrizia silently gave him the total amount of seventeen letters. He asked her what it was with his eyes, and soon began to read the letters slowly. After a long time, he had a taken aback expression on his face, as his hands began to shake.

“Your Majesty, this…”

“Does the Duke know what His Majesty the Emperor had experienced?”

“Yes…”

When Duke Witherford replied cautiously, Patrizia calmly continued her words.

“Then the Duke will know what kind of chaos will ensue from this?”

“…”

“Of… course, Your Majesty.”

He offered an opposing opinion in a trembling voice.

“However, these letters will not be enough, Your Majesty.”

“I know that. However, you know, Duke…”

Patrizia spoke to him in a relaxed voice.

“As a matter of fact, these letters are enough, Duke. Alyssa had already been executed, and Duke Oswin would not be able to talk about this issue, and there is no guarantee that he would even know about it in detail. If so, the only thing left would be the two people in the letters, and the Duke of Efreni. So the evidence, even if you search all over for it, will be difficult to discover.”

“The most effective way would be to inform His Majesty of this, and send this letter to the council meeting instead…”

“Not that way, Duke.”

Patrizia shook her head firmly.

“You are mistaken about something. This is a crime of treason. It is not even an insult to the Imperial Family. I can show this letter to His Majesty. However, if the Emperor directly punished the Duke of Efreni for this, it would only be for His Majesty’s revenge. He would become a tyrant. Do you want it to turn out like that?”

“Then, how would Your Majesty want things to unfold?”

“The best way to do this is not to go through His Majesty, but have the Duchess of Efreni punish the Duke. Honesty, with this, would he not meet his ruin perfectly?”

Patrizia grinned and added on.

“It would not be bad if the gossip of the nobles added to it as well.”

“How can I help Your Majesty?”

“I heard that the Duchess of Witherford has a wide social circle of acquaintances.”

“Ah, yes…”

Duke Witherford blushed slightly, and Patrizia slowly the corners of her mouth up, and smiled. The beginning of every wave, was a rumor.

“The content from the letters will become a little more inflated, and released as rumors. As you know, a rumor is always going to become more twisted and bigger the more it travels between the mouths of people.

“I fully understand Your Majesty’s will. Then how do you plan to go about telling this to His Majesty, and Duchess Efreni…”

“Lady Grochester will take care of the Duchess of Efreni, and His Majesty…”

‘I will have to directly end everything myself. Because the person who starts is also the one that has to finish it.’

“I am thinking of taking the reins, Duke Witherford.”

Yes, she thought that the time had come to really end it all.

“Is it not too difficult for us to meet these days?”

Rothesay said this in a voice that slightly complained. Petronilla gave a small laugh, as she felt his behavior was strangely only cute to look at.

“I’m sorry, Ro. There is something important that I have to take care of these days…”

“Then there is no helping it…”

Rothesay planted a small kiss on Petronilla’s forehead, and whispered.

“I am just saying that I miss Nil so much that I am not capable of doing anything these days.”

“Ahaha.”

Petronilla burst into laughter without realizing she did so, due to his explicit expression of affection. She shook her head as if he could not be stopped.

“Where do you learn such words?”

“My parents say them to each other all the time.”

So, all this man’s sweet nothings came from the Count and Countess Bradington. She thought they were a very content couple, and then muttered to herself.

“I want to live like that later as well.”

“Do not worry, Nilla.”

Rothesay gave Petronilla the most affection smile in the world, and whispered.

“I resemble both of my parents, so I can do this all day, without taking a break.”

“So, do you mean we should be wed now?”

‘Are you going to propose this discreetly like this?’ When Petronila laughed anxiously, Rothesay spoke to her with a playful smile on his face.

“Surely, I am not going to gloss over it with just this?”

‘Did you expect it? His words seemed to ask this, and Petronilla told him honestly.

“Well… honestly, a little?”

“Oh dear.”

This was difficult, he added, and Rothesay laughed, revealing his white teeth.

“This kind of thing is not a proposal, Nil. You may look forward to it.”

“I have not yet said that I will accept, but are you not too confident with yourself?”

“If it does not work.”

He spoke to her in a sweet voice.

“Until it does, I will do it.”

“…”

Petronilla got emotional in that moment because she could feel the genuine sincerity in his words. Her past self, and her present self. It was a happiness that was impossible to compare. She tried hard to push down her tears, and whispered to him.

“Thank you.”

Truly.

The next day, Patrizia placed her body in the carriage heading towards the Grochester estate, with what looked like an excited look on her face. It was her hometown, which she had not been able to visit for the past few months. Patrizia murmured to herself with a happy facial expression.

“How long has it been, since?”

“Are you that happy, Lizzy?”

Mirya had remained in the Empress Palace, while Rafaella had accompanied her as an escort. Patrizia nodded her head, and made a bright expression on her face, which had been absent for a long time.

“It has been almost a few months since I have been able to see their faces, so I am excited.”

“Yes, you have had to deal with a lot of trouble for these past few months.”

Rafaella nodded her head with a sad face, and soon spoke in a hopeful voice.

“Let us stay until late into the night, without a care.”

She did not know when she would be able to visit again after today. In a few words, it was a separation without promise of reuniting. Patrizia nodded her head as if she agreed.

“Yes, we should do that. Will you not be bored?”

“There will be Nil, you as well, and there is the Marquis and Marchioness of Grochester, so how could I be bored. If I have nothing to do, I can just sleep. It is useless for you to worry.”

“Then, that is relief.”

Patrizia put on a warm smile, and leaned back in her seat. Rafaella saw this, and told her tactfully.

“Sleep a littler, Your Majesty. Your sleep has lessened too much lately.”

It was inevitable, due to the overload of work. Patrizia laughed faintly, as if she was someone seeking to be excused, and then quickly fell asleep.

When Patrizia opened her eyes, the carriage had already reached the estate of the Marquis of Grochester.

When Rafaella first opened the door for her, Patrizia carefully got off the carriage. The first people she spotted right before her eyes were her parents, the Marquis and Marchioness of Grochester. She smiled brightly and hugged her parents.

“Mother, Gather.”

“The Moon of the Empire, Your Majesty the Empress, we greet you.”

Instead of hugging their lovely daughter however, the Marquis and Marchioness of Grochester first greeted her respect. It was unavoidable that Patrizia felt the actions of the two people were unfortunate, even though she understood why, and her lips stuck out into a pout without her knowledge.

“I came here as the daughter of the Grochester family. Not the Empress of the Great Marvinus Empire.”

“This does not change the fact that Your Majesty is the Mother of all the whole population in the Empire.”

“Do not be too upset, Your Majesty. This is also a courtesy that should be a given, as Your Majesty’s servants.”

“Let us go in, Mother, Father.”

Patrizia laughed mischievously as she went inside the house with the pair of them. Then she saw Petronilla running out towards them.

“Lizzy?”

“Nil.”

Patrizia gave a grin, and greeted her. It had been a really long time since she saw her sister in their own home, and not in the Imperial Palace. Patrizia asked her.

“What is so urgent?”

“I slept late yesterday.”

Roughly, the reason made sense-her sister had met with the young son of Count Bradington until late at night-and Patrizia just laughed. She asked.

“Then will I be able to expect good news soon?”

“We are not like that!”

The startled Petronilla quickly denied this. She must have misconstrued Patrizia’s words. As she could understand to some extent, Patrizia broke into a fit of giggles.

“I was talking about marriage.”

“… I know that.”

Petronilla reddened a bit in the face, and looked down. She spoke in a shy voice.

“Now, let us talk later… Should we all eat first?

Patrizia had to put a huge amount of food into her stomach for lunch that day. There was no reason to starve while living in the Imperial Palace, but the Marchioness of Grochester constantly fed her with something. Fortunately, she ate with confidence because she was not the type to gain weight, but it was still too much food, and so Patrizia had a hard time breathing at the end of the meal.

After enjoying a cup of sweet tea for dessert, Patrizia had a chance for some one-on-one time with her father in the reception room.

“So, Lizzy. Is life in the Imperial Palace worthwhile?”

Patrizia answered the Marquis of Grochester’s question with an expression that showed she was a bit disappointed.

“As someone that had wondered about that, how come you had never stepped foot into the Imperial Palace?”

“I thought you would understand, my child.”

The Marquis of Grochester said this with a gentle smile.

“As you know, if I were to stay close to you now, then there would be no chance of good words spreading. I did not want to bring any trouble to you. Of course to the Imperial Palace and His Majesty as well. I should not be providing him with any unnecessary worries, right?”

“Even if that was so, you could have still visited. It is not like Father would do something bad.”

“The important thing is that it would not appear that way in the eyes of others.”

The Marquis of Grochester smiled broadly, and asked Patrizia.

“So, how is your life at the Imperial Palace anyway? I roughly already know as I heard the gist of it.”

“If you already know then why do you ask.”

She grinned, and told him the truth.

“My lacking relationship with His Majesty leaves much to be desired, and I am busy mutually growling and howling with the Marchioness of Ethyller.”

Although she pretended to be quite bright about it, the Marquis of Grochester quickly noticed that the meaning hidden in the words were not pleasant. He quickly changed the slightly troubled expression he was about to show on his face, and spoke to his daughter in an affectionate voice.

“I am sorry, that as your father, I can not be of much help.”

“Do not be sorry, Father. I am the daughter of the Grochester family.”

She shook her head calmly, and replied to his words with a rebuttal.

“I am already grateful enough that you have passed on his bloodline to me.”

“More than that, you said that your relationship with His Majesty is quite lacking?”

He looked at Patrizia with a look that showed he did not understand, and asked her.

“I heard that His Majesty’s favor has already left the Marchioness Ethyller though…”

“…”

At that moment, Patrizia had a flustered expression on her face.