Chapter 6

Friedrich raised his head while pressing his temple with a very complicated expression. He spoke in a subdued voice after being lost in thought.

“Regardless of everything else, don’t give away your life just because you feel sorry for someone. To your father, your time is more precious than any life.”

Rudbeckia lowered her eyes and touched her nape.

“…Yes. I’m sorry, Father.”

“Never do that again, for anyone.”

Friedrich looked at his daughter with worried eyes, his concern sounding like a command, though who knows where his thoughts had wandered.

“Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

Only after receiving his daughter’s confirmation did his stern expression soften slightly. But Friedrich’s worries didn’t end there.

“And don’t speak carelessly about His Majesty again.”

Friedrich waited for her response, and Rudbeckia nodded instead of speaking.

“Alright. Go up now. Aaron, you stay.”

Friedrich spoke to his daughter, breaking the uncomfortable atmosphere.

Rudbeckia looked back and forth between the two men. For some reason, she wanted to defend Benedict but held back.

Her memories with Benedict existed only for her. Though she didn’t love him, her desire for him not to be unhappy was entirely her own. She shouldn’t expect others to understand.

“Yes. Sleep well, Father.”

“Sleep well.”

She, who had awakened, wouldn’t sleep well, and neither would Friedrich or Aaron sleep comfortably.

Rudbeckia left a pointed glance as a greeting for Aaron, who would inevitably suffer because of her business, and then exited Friedrich’s study.

“Aaron, I don’t understand what you were thinking, going to Rudy’s shop with His Highness Benedict. You must know His Majesty will hear about His Highness’s whereabouts.”

Shortly after the door clicked shut, Friedrich opened with a gentle tone. But clear reproach lay beneath it.

Aaron stood straight and answered.

“I thought it better for me to be with him than for His Highness to go alone. I figured we were already being tailed anyway.”

“Tailed?”

“This morning, His Highness already met with Rudy. At the shop.”

“Alone?”

Friedrich asked again with an incredulous face. Knowing his father’s shocked feelings, Aaron calmly continued.

“So I judged it better for me to accompany him in the afternoon.”

It would only cause trouble if the Emperor heard Benedict visited Rudbeckia alone twice in one day. So Aaron chose to accompany him, assuming the morning meeting had already been reported to the Emperor.

“When did those two become like that?”

“Father, that’s…”

“Hmm?”

Friedrich, believing the two had already developed feelings for each other, rubbed his hardened face with rough hands, looking indescribably serious.

Aaron, standing firmly opposite, was equally serious, but his concerns differed slightly from his father’s.

“Benedict visited Rudy’s shop for the first time today. To buy medicine for internal injuries.”

“And?”

“Rudy gave spiritual power to Benedict. Benedict knew what that meant and went to return it.”

Friedrich’s eyes widened instantly as he understood Aaron’s meaning. His hand stopped rubbing his face and dropped to the desk. A heavy thud echoed through the study.

“Are you saying our daughter has feelings for him alone?”

“…Perhaps. That’s what I think.”

“Oh, Goddess Rever.”

Though it should have been fortunate news, Friedrich became suddenly displeased. Aaron, who had been misunderstanding since morning, had been in a bad mood.

Even so, neither men doubted Rudy’s heart. Giving spiritual power held enough meaning to be treated as family.

.

.

.

The pitiful reason Rudy gave was flimsy and trivial. That rather convinced them she was protecting Benedict even to the point of making obvious lies.

While her family was perhaps making understandable misunderstandings, Benedict’s blood relative was doing the same.

In the pitch-black night, several lamps lit the Emperor’s bedroom as bright as day. Emperor Nicholas’s expression, which until yesterday had received reports of failed attempts to kill Benedict with a bored face, was different today. His eyes were an equal mix of anxiety and interest.

The Emperor, unaware that Rudbeckia had given Benedict spiritual power, approached superficially.

“Is he trying to hide behind Diaz, or trying to survive by keeping Diaz behind him?”

Whatever it was, nothing sat well with him. Nicholas firmly trusted Friedrich’s loyalty, but he didn’t trust Aaron von Diaz who would succeed Friedrich.

The Diaz family would be eliminated when generations changed anyway. Nicholas disliked both the empire’s citizens’ trust in the Diaz family and their accumulated wealth and inherited excellent abilities.

Moreover, this generation even had a woman who could handle spiritual power, tsk.

“Hey.”

Nicholas called to someone standing in the corner as he rose. Then removing his robe and putting on sleepwear, his well-muscled body was revealed then hidden.

“I believe Marquis Hagen’s second daughter comes of age next year.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Hmm. Should we extend an invitation? Ah, leave that bastard alone today. He needs to attend tomorrow’s meeting.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Having finished giving instructions about Benedict, Nicholas headed to the small office attached to his bedroom rather than retiring.

He pulled out a letterhead engraved with the Lorkan Empire’s imperial crest from his office desk drawer. Dipping his pen in ink to immediately execute his thoughts.

“Still, writing to a young lady while wearing a robe seems a bit inappropriate. Now, what was that young lady’s name?”

“Elena von Hagen. She turns nineteen next year.”

“Elena, what a pretty name.”

With a rustling sound, Nicholas’s hand moved. The content inviting the young lady to the imperial palace was written in the Emperor’s elaborate handwriting.

* * *

The next day, Rudbeckia arrived at the imperial palace shouldering an unexpected errand after going to work at the shop. A senior from the Imperial School assigned to the Knights’ infirmary had urgently contacted her saying they had completely run out of needed medicinal ingredients.

It wasn’t a special enough errand to specify in memory. It happened occasionally. She remembered bringing medicine ingredients on credit around this time before too.

“Miss, I’ll wait here.”

“Alright.”

Upon arriving at the Knights’ Headquarters, Rudbeckia headed to the infirmary in a corner of the first floor. A small woman wearing a robe walking briskly might have seemed out of place in this building, but it was around lunchtime now.

She knocked softly before opening the door. May, Rudy and Irene’s senior who had anticipated her arrival time, was guarding the infirmary.

“Making such a precious junior run errands like this.”

“We both benefit since I’m buying at high prices.”

There was only one place in the capital that sold healing medicine containing spiritual power.

Since all others were located right next to temples, Rudy and Irene’s shop was where the Knights could reach out when urgent matters arose frequently.

“How did you come? Wasn’t it hot today?”

May spoke while separating the medicine and ingredients from the lightweight bag she had brought.

“I came by private carriage. I don’t mind the heat much, but Hugo is very sensitive to it.”

“Where is the gentleman? I should offer him some water.”

“He’s resting behind the building.”

“Thanks anyway. I requested the ingredients a while ago, but however things are going up there, it takes at least three weeks these days.”

“Three weeks?”

Rudy remembered hearing these words four years ago. Back then, she hadn’t thought about it carefully, but connecting it to how their shop was the first thing seized by the imperial army during the civil unrest made it strangely odd.

“Has the hot weather made them sloppy? Nothing satisfies me. Thanks to you, I can rest easy for now. Here’s 1,500 dongs.”

Rudy’s rolling eyes fixed on the bills as she recalled the past. She meticulously counted the money she would receive in front of her senior and nodded satisfactorily. May chuckled at her cute behavior.

“Are you leaving now? I’ll treat you to a meal sometime.”

“Sounds good.”

“Let’s go out together. I should greet Uncle Hugo while going for lunch.”

May cleaned up, saying she would leave with Rudy. Thanks to May’s constant chatter, Rudy had no time to be bored.

“Oh right, Rudy. You know Marquis Hagen’s youngest daughter, right?”

May asked while locking up outside the infirmary.

Rudy, who had been listening attentively to May, lost focus just for that moment. Still, she could hear what was being said beside her.

“Elena. It seems like she just had her debutante ball yesterday and had tea time with Her Majesty the Empress in the garden today. But guess who else was there? Rudy, wait a moment. This key is really stiff.”

Elena von Hagen. The second daughter of Marquis Hagen.

Rudbeckia remembered her too. Unlike the Marquis, she was a cute girl with red curly hair. When Rudbeckia was lying paralyzed, she had been considered the most likely candidate to become the next Empress.

In her past life, Benedict never took a single concubine until Rudbeckia died. But now that she was dead there, what would that place be like?

“Ah, got it! Listen, Rudy, His Highness the Prince was there too. Probably when Elena comes of age next year, the two will…”

May couldn’t finish her excited chatter. Benedict, who had come to the infirmary, was staring at them from three steps away.

Startled, May began to bow then quickly raised her head. Her junior had frozen stiff and wasn’t offering any greeting.

“We greet Your Highness the Prince.”