My Contract Husband Resembles the Male Protagonist - Chapter 32
Somehow, I felt that saying any more might risk a charge of royal defamation.
Even though it was just Dale and me here.
I clarified again.
“Being the Empress would mean living almost cut off from the outside world. It’d be suffocating to live under the strict rules of the imperial court, and also…”
The male protagonist would be obsessed with me.
Remembering what the protagonist did in the original story was horrifying.
He confined the Empress and made her look only at him.
Constant obsession, monopolization, and then turning away from her.
Such love was out of the question.
“And, the Empress is not allowed to intervene in state affairs, right?”
“…”
“Being confined in the Empress’s palace and living a boring life, there’s nothing else I could do.”
I provided a reasonable pretext.
About 60 years ago, a rebellion by external relatives almost destabilized the empire.
Since then, a law was enacted prohibiting the Empress from intervening in politics, diplomacy, economics, and even minor matters of the Imperial Court without a special reason or the Emperor’s permission.
“So, I don’t want to be the Empress!”
“…..!”
“I want to help His Majesty from a very, very far distance! Really far! So far that even if I rolled around the empire for a year, I wouldn’t get close, just a quiet, ordinary imperial citizen… that kind of subtle help! That’s enough for me, indeed.”
“The constraints binding the Empress are indeed too many…, I agree.”
Dale murmured quietly.
He seemed to seriously consider my words.
“That’s it.”
Dale nodded, as if he had understood.
“I know. Plus, how frustrating would it be? The Empress is the second-highest ranked person after the Emperor, but having power and not being able to use it would be even more suffocating.”
“Miss Enya’s words are correct.”
He stroked his chin with a look of realization.
“The Empire’s flawed customs are the problem.”
* * *
[These days, His Majesty is gathering the ministers to prepare reforms for the Imperial laws.]
Receiving a letter from a secret source within the Imperial Palace, I broke out in a cold sweat from the chill.
‘Why suddenly a bill?’
The newspaper was filled with continuous coverage of his actions.
Lowering port taxes through treaties with other countries, the Emperor’s knights successfully completing beast hunts and returning – such news lined the pages.
The Emperor was just doing his job as usual, so why did my heart racing?
“Ugh, this feels bad.”
Maybe I feel this way because of the conversation I had with Dale a few days ago? Or was it the unsettling coincidence of timing?
“It’s weirdly similar to what I’ve been thinking.”
I shook the newspaper.
I’ve thought about it occasionally in the past; the news of him in the newspapers, or the Emperor’s personality as depicted by my father at home, seemed similar to mine.
I definitely didn’t want to get involved, but there was this odd feeling of not disliking him because we seemed alike?
‘No. I dislike the Emperor.’
I tied up my hair and quickly headed to the Lord’s castle.
“How are you today?”
I went up to the Lord’s room with the medicine I had prepared.
After consistently administering the medicine for about a week, the Lord’s previously pale face had regained some normal color.
“Ah,” he coughed, “You’ve come, Miss Anne.”
“Are you okay? No worsening or anything?”
“Your medicine seems to be very effective. Ha ha.”
The Lord chuckled as he adjusted his hair. Now, he could lightly walk around the castle.
He had been slowly poisoned, not with a toxin that would hit all at once but one that spread very gradually—a method requiring continuous exposure to the toxin.
There were no symptoms until it reached a certain threshold, and then, suddenly, boom.
It was something that could never happen naturally.
For your information, it was a spy from Hexagon who poisoned my grandfather.
‘Who did this to the Lord of Grunwald?’
Someone who could approach the lord closely and naturally.
“…..”
We weren’t alone in this room.
Adelaine was also there, standing silently.
