After Cardan insisted that he could not send me to the underground prison, we met with the Empress Dowager in a modest drawing room.

If it weren’t for the teacup in front of me and the handcuffs around her wrists, I could have mistaken it for one of her favorite tea times.

I took a sip of my tea, purposely making a rumbling sound, and smiled.

“It’s been a long time, Empress Dowager. No, I should call you Princess Layla now.”

The Empress Dowager’s shoulders shook slightly. Not with fear, of course, but with anger.

But she skillfully composed herself and lifted her chin proudly.

It was a noble demeanor that made her look anything but guilty.

“I am wronged.”

The Empress Dowager raised one eyebrow.

“Didn’t the duke see it, too? I was doing the best I could for the empire under the circumstances.”

The Empress Dowager rolled her eyes as I leisurely picked up a cookie and munched on it.

“I’m sure the other nobles felt the same way. You’d have to execute half the nobility of the empire to try and turn my actions against me, wouldn’t you?”

As I listened, I stirred a few lumps of sugar into my teacup, then pointed a teaspoon at the Empress Dowager.

“I’ve thought this for a while. You, you see, even though you’re smart, you’re too smart.”

The Empress Dowager’s mouth dropped open in surprise at the sudden reversal, and I shrugged nonchalantly.

“Now that I’ve said it, I’m going to get straight to the point. You’re no longer a member of the Imperial family.”

“I haven’t even had a trial yet.”

Ignoring the Empress Dowager’s stern stare, I sipped my tea again.

I added sugar and it was just the right amount of sweetness.

I smiled in satisfaction and set my teacup down.

“It would have been nice if you had done something beneficial for the world with that fine brain of yours, wouldn’t it?”

The Empress Dowager mocked.

“What a way to introduce yourself, Duke.”

It was an obvious reference to my past behavior.

Apparently, the Duke of Baloa was notorious.

I swallowed a bitter laugh and continued.

“So now I’m going to try and do some good.”

I handed her a finger sandwich with a benevolent smile.

As if life in the dungeon wasn’t hard enough, the Empress Dowager squinted at the sandwich, then picked it up in defeat.

“I’m releasing you.”

She hadn’t even gotten the sandwich in her mouth when my next words froze her.

“What?”

“I’m sending you back to Esland.”

My mouth ached to repeat myself, but I managed to keep a friendly smile on my face.

The Empress Dowager eventually put down her sandwich.

She glanced back and forth between me and the sandwich with suspicion, as if she thought I had poisoned it.

“What are you up to?”

I shrugged.

“You’re right, you’re not guilty of anything, so I thought it best to wrap things up properly.”

I paused and drained my teacup. Perhaps it was time to end the conversation.

“However, if you ever show any sign of doing anything to harm the Empire again, your son will not be spared.”

“……My son?”

The Empress Dowager asked bluntly. Her expression was impassive, but I could see the muscles at the corners of her eyes tense slightly.

“You don’t mean the Emperor. I have no son, so I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The crown prince who died long ago, buried in the imperial cemetery with the rest of the royal family.”

I raised an eyebrow at the explanation. I’d vowed to be a good girl, but it seemed I’d have to put that aside for now.

“It means that if you don’t behave yourself, one day a landslide will overtake the crown prince’s tomb and his remains will be destroyed.”

At my words, the Empress Dowager completely froze. Only her fingertips trembled slightly.

I continued to ramble on.

“The mother who would have cleaned up the terrible landslide has also been exiled from the empire, so imagine how sad it would be for a child to be abandoned in the distant sea.”

The color drained from her face, and her breathing grew ragged. Her shoulders heaved with each labored breath.

“I want to be good in the future, so I need your cooperation.”

After a moment of silence, the Empress Dowager finally nodded.

“I see what you mean.”

I held out my hand, and she hesitantly took it. With the clinking of handcuffs as noise, I smiled.

“I hope we never have to see each other again.”

When I left the parlor, Cardan was waiting for me.

He’d said he’d leave the Empress Dowager with me, but he was too worried to leave me alone, so he stood in the doorway.

Before I could protest, Cardan swept me up in his arms.

“I can walk.”

Just then, I make eye contact with Empress Dowager, who is being dragged out by the soldiers.

I felt like hiding in a rat hole as she stared at us with bored eyes.

“What if you push yourself too hard and collapse again? It must have been hard to talk to her.”

I gave up, realizing that there was no way I could talk him down.

Cardan smiled in satisfaction and started walking away.

“Well done, I hope you’re right and we never have to see her again.”

“You’re not going to ask me why ……?”

As I cautiously raised the subject, Cardan raised his eyebrows.

“What?”

“It’s as if I just let the Empress Dowager go.”

“I know you, and I’m sure you did a good job.”

I coughed unnecessarily, embarrassed by the sincerity of Cardan’s answer.

“Hmmmm, I gave it a lot of thought.”

Even though Cardan said he trusted me, I wanted to explain my decision to him.

“If the Empress Dowager returns to Esland, she will no doubt try to seize the throne of Esland as she did in the Empire, and in the absence of the heir, Crown Prince Momad, it would not be difficult for her to take advantage of the chaos and seize control of the kingdom.”

“When you say that, I can see a future where the Empress Dowager runs amok in Esland.”

I shook my head.

“The Empress Doeager will surely go down with Esland.”

I gave a small laugh at Cardan, who looked at me as if to ask how I could be so sure.

“She’s creepily identical to me, so I’m sure she’d take the whole country down with her.”

At my slightly self-deprecating remark, Cardan glanced at me.

“Then again, maybe she could save the country at the last minute.”

I shrugged.

“I don’t know, maybe she wouldn’t be able to keep her wits about her.”

Cardan nodded briefly as if sympathizing with my playful answer.

“What are you going to do about Janet? With Momad gone, she’s practically the heir apparent to the throne of Esland…….”

It wasn’t hard to see what Cardan meant by his words.

“For now, Janet is in the palace, but she can’t live like this forever. If she ever had to live outside the palace, she would be easy prey for the Empress Dowager, just like last time.

“If nothing else, I hope we can settle that today…….”

I tugged on Cardan’s sleeve as he started to head back to the bedroom.

“Why don’t we stop by Janet’s palace and then head back?”

Cardan sighed and turned as if he couldn’t help it.

“Don’t push yourself too hard.”

***.

Since the last incident, Janet had been ‘imprisoned’ in her palace.

There are those among the nobility who believe that her sins are worse than those of the Empress Dowager, as she is pregnant with another’s child under her status as a concubine.

So it was decided that Janet would be nominally imprisoned in the concubine’s quarters until the situation was resolved.

Of course, her imprisonment wasn’t exactly harsh.

She was free to move about the palace and enjoy the same life she had enjoyed as a concubine. Even Peter was disguised as an imperial guard to “protect” her as a convict.

This allowed her to quickly mend her broken heart with the Empress Dowager.

Soon Cardan and I entered Janet’s palace. As they approached Janet’s parlor, a voice spoke from within.

“Strawberries are delicious.”

Janet chuckled.

I peeked through the crack in the door and saw her taking a bite out of a delicious strawberry.

She looked so healthy, so different from the way she’d looked when she’d stood dazed and drugged in a conference room during the war. It seemed that the doctor had been right when he said that both Janet and the child in her belly were healthy.

“Peter, you should eat one.”

Picking up the last of the strawberries, Janet smiled shyly and held them out to Peter.

“You eat it, you can’t even touch anything but strawberries because of your morning sickness.”

Taking the strawberry from Janet, Peter popped it into her mouth.

“Oh, what the…….”

Janet grumbled but smiled sheepishly.

The distance between them sharply narrowed as they stared into each other’s faces with honeyed eyes.

I couldn’t stand it and whispered quickly to Cardan.

“Let’s just go back.”

To my relief, Cardan nodded without a word. He looked a little fed up.

“She’s looking pretty good after being tossed around by the Empress Dowager.”

He muttered in a barely audible voice, and though I wondered why he was blaming Janet for that, I feigned ignorance.

“I was going to ask Janet if she would like to live in the ducal castle as soon as this is finalized, but that can wait.”

“Ducal castle?”

Cardan frowned, as if he didn’t understand.

“If you give Janet a ducal title in the name of house arrest, the Empress Dowager won’t be able to touch her.”

“It is your home, is it not, yet you would give it away so freely?”

“I don’t go there much anyway.”

I laughed, a big, hearty laugh, and Cardan’s face fell.

“You only fuss over that princess.”

I smiled vaguely, because he wasn’t entirely wrong.

It was clear to me now, but I wanted to protect Janet.

All of it, in a way that is sometimes frustratingly pure.

Maybe……. Maybe it was because I was thinking of Cecilia.

That’s why seeing Janet and Peter so happy made me both happy yet uncomfortable.

I stared at Cardan for a moment.

I was grateful that he hadn’t changed since I’d gotten my memory back, but I— at least— shouldn’t feel as comfortable with him as I did.

There were things I had to face if I wanted to be even remotely decent in his presence.

I tapped him on the arm.

“Now put me down.”

“No.”

But only a grunt came back.

I glared at Cardan for some reason, but he avoided my gaze altogether. Instead, he picked up his pace and headed for the bedroom.

“Well, I suppose I’ll just resign and move down to the duchy with Janet.”

My sigh at his silence brought Cardan to a halt.

I turned away from his disbelieving gaze and resumed my rambling.

“I can’t go anywhere I want to go, and I’m stuck in the palace…….”

With that, Cardan set me down.

Contrary to his fears, I was able to walk.

My feet barely touched the floor as I waddled off in a direction other than my bedroom, Cardan following closely behind.

“Where are you going?”

“Somewhere.”

Despite my nonchalant reply, Cardan continued to trot after me like an abandoned puppy.

“Don’t follow me. I swear.”

When I threatened, Cardan stared at me in shock, and despite the pitiful look in his eyes, I resolutely turned away.

There was somewhere I had to go, right now, on my own two feet.