Cecil sat in a large bathtub, staring intently at the ceiling. A beautiful mosaic of small tiles could be glimpsed through the white billows of steam, although its beauty went unnoticed by her. Her gaze, which had been distrait for a lengthy period of time, now slowly moved to her arms and flickered to attention instantly the moment it rested on the tender red marks marring her skin.
“Aaahhhhhh.”
With the scream still escaping her lips, she plunged her head into the water. A moment later, the flurry of servants rushing outside the bathing chamber could be heard, accompanied by their voices.
“Your Majesty! Are you alright?”
“We’ll be there for you shortly.”
Cecil raised her head in a snap, and shouted above their chatter.
“Don’t come in!”
She heard their voices at the door peter out as they retreated, and sighed in relief. She turned her attention to the welts and bruises on her arms and poked them gingerly with her fingers.
“Uh…”
She whimpered at the sharp pain; pain that assured her with full certainty that last night’s ‘work’ had not been a dream.
‘I did it.’
The phrase floated through her head. She tried to vocalize it.
“I did it.”
Cecil’s shoulders slumped once more, watching the water drip from her hair. She had slept with that notorious emperor. It wasn’t a shocker yet she was struck with amazement; it was only natural that a first night followed the wedding but she couldn’t figure out why that fact was so surprising.
‘Why am I still alive? No, rather than that…’
“It was absolutely good…”
Cecil who spoke out aloud thus far, shut her mouth. No, this confession must have been a result of the neutralizer. What did this woman’s mouth mutter of its own volition? Cecil, who couldn’t slap her mouth silly last night, inflicted those slaps on herself now as she leaned back against the tub. She remembered the last words of the emperor as he left her bedroom this morning.
[I want to stay with you longer, but I have to clean up the mess involving the guys I disposed of. I’ll finish it as soon as possible and return to your side so just relax for now. Let’s discuss the things we couldn’t yesterday after my return. I should have done it at night actually but I didn’t have time to make it up to you. I’ll see you later.]
Then he leaned over her, his firm lips covering hers again. Cecil, exhausted from her struggles throughout the entire night, remained still as she accepted his kiss. It wasn’t until she began to stir, breathless and dazed, that she realized that the emperor had very likely fallen for her. What’s wrong about being desired after so long? And as he left the room, he had kept turning back to glance at her over and over again.
‘I told you novels are merely novels.’
She recalled the oft-repeated phrase of the palace maids whenever they lent her a book. What did they say?
[Princess, this is all a mere fantasy. Fantasy. Only a fictional man and woman in a novel. Don’t mistakenly think that a real man of flesh and blood would possess such beauty, sweetness, kindness and charisma. There’s no such man like this in reality. They all went extinct a long time ago! I’ll give you a gold coin if you actually encounter one!]
They said that, however…
“Yes, there is…”
And he is none other than her husband. At that moment, Cecil’s face flushed red.
‘My husband…’
He’s the emperor of this empire; to think she dared refer to him as her possession. Even though she let her mind go on its rampage last night, she still considered her claim on him so very wrong. How dare you speak of the esteemed emperor in that manner? The emperor is a man of his own, without belonging to another.
‘I need to be careful with my tongue.’
She remembered some of the knights that nearly ate her alive when she was leaving the wedding hall. If they could say, ‘Punish her tongue! If you don’t wish to inflict punishment on her tongue, punish her whole being then!’, it wouldn’t be strange if they were raring to boil her alive. Cecil caressed her arms, engrossed in her centered around the knights, and watched the steam climb higher up the walls of the bathing chamber. She began to write on the walls with her finger.
My husband.
As she was busy writing and chuckling to herself, a low, deep voice materialised from behind her.
“What are you doing?”
“Aaahhhhhhhh!”
As a result of her flailing around from surprise, water splashed onto the walls, erasing the scribbles. Cecil looked over her shoulder, her voice rising in a shrill scream.
“Your Majesty! Wh-Why are you here?! “
“There’s nowhere I can’t go in the Imperial Palace.”
“Ahhhhhh… I see.”
Realising she’d asked him a silly question, Cecil began fumbling for a towel. She’d seen herself in the mirror before her bath. Her forehead which had been plastered to the floor last night, now bore a slight bump that had taken on a fine blue colour.
‘I’m so embarrassed…’
With the emperor standing confidently before her, her shame somehow multiplied. She needed something to conceal it. As her hand made to grab to the towel near the tub, Estian’s hand shot out in a blur and caught the towel before her then flung it away. She heard the soft plop of the towel hitting the potted plant in the corner of the bathing chamber.
“I was wrong.”
She had no idea what she had done wrong, but when she saw the vase crumble from the force of the towel missile, she felt as if she had sinned although she definitely hadn’t. At her words, he nodded as if in understanding.
“…”
“It’s okay. Just remember not to cover up your body the next time you’re in front of me.”
“I see. However, I don’t have anything dangerous on me. All the servants examined me before I came in…”
She remembered the conversation that took place with the servants yesterday prior to entering her new chambers. When she quizzed why she was only allowed to don shimmery, translucent attires and if they had anything more substantial that could cover her up instead, the servants had replied tactfully without batting an eye,
“We know what you’re capable of hiding on your body.”
Thus, implicitly saying there weren’t any such clothes available to her.
Perhaps even the emperor was plagued with a similar concern, and came to verify for himself. Cecil rose from the tub, raising her arm to prove her innocence. Her chest was definitely fully bared to his gaze now as the water sluiced down her left hand to her torso, but this wasn’t the time to mind such trivialities.
‘I showed you so much last night and yet I’m starting to feel as if I should cover up.’
As she rose halfway, preparing to step out of the tub, the emperor suddenly bit his lip and his gaze darted elsewhere as he made to grab a larger towel and threw it to her.
“I get it. You should cover up.”
“…”
‘You told me not to conceal a thing only scant seconds ago, but you’re covering me up yourself.’
Apparently, there’s nothing to hide after all. This is it. Her chance. Before the emperor could change his mind and rescind his offer, she quickly plucked up the towel and wrapped it around herself securely. As she turned to meet his eyes afterwards, he suddenly reached out to her. She stepped back, surprised, and his hand stopped mid-movement.
“I’m trying to ascertain where you got hurt. I saw a doctor waiting outside but I thought it would be better if I checked up on you myself.”
Saying so, his hand neared her again and she closed her eyes at the cool sensation of his fingers touching her forehead as she settled comfortably in the tub. The moment his touch grazed the bruise and pressed it, she momentarily wondered if she’d end up transported to another world; as such is the brute force of a monster… yet his touch was surprisingly gentle.
“It’s gotten worse than it was in the morning. The bruises worsened.”
Even as she listened to his mutterings, she couldn’t understand his interest in her forehead.
‘Ah, maybe…’
‘Before entering the bathroom, I noticed the servants’ stares on me and their carefully held breath. It seems that the bruises on my forehead were thought to have been a product of the emperor’s actions. Well, that’s quite unfair and I’m afraid his reputation would be further impugned so I’ll get it examined.’
“I shall be going with you.”
“What?”
Her eyes widened at his statement
“What’s the matter?”
“No… I thought you couldn’t come here because you had something to do…”
“It’s over.”
His finger smoothed her forehead, his touch as light as a feather, so it wouldn’t hurt.
“All I have to do is wrap it up.”
***
Cain[1] felt that something was amiss. When he went to the office early in the morning, he couldn’t find Estian. The emperor had never been late and always seated in the office before Cain’s arrival, but now he couldn’t catch a glimpse of him at all. At long last, he entered the office while Cain was coming to terms after being thrown for a loop for the first time.
Somehow, Estian looked a little different than usual. He had been dealing with the unwelcome intruders last night so in retrospect, he shouldn’t be in good spirits. Yet Estian’s countenance didn’t evince a hint of ill humour. Cain ventured to ask carefully.
“How was it last night?”
There were four assassins in total. There hadn’t been an invasion in the palace for a while, and they attacked as if they had been waiting for the right time at the wedding.
“It was kind of… amazing.”
Cain nodded in understanding. The investigation team found that the four had nothing to do with each other. Each were sent by different people; this has never happened before.
“I’m sure you do. This is the first time.”
“It was smaller than I thought.”
“Really…?”
‘Was the assassin small? The floating corpse that had been defenestrated didn’t look that way.’
“Softer than I thought too.”
“What…?”
Cain shot him an odd look.
‘Just which part of the assassin’s boy was that soft? Did you pierce through the body easily?’
Estian hated coming into contact with others. It’s inevitable given his history. Even Cain, who’s been by his side and working for him for a long time, didn’t stand right next to him except when necessary.
‘And you touched the assassin? And he was soft moreover? He’s a sturdy middle-aged man. Where the hell is this conversation heading?’ Estian’s words continued as Cain’s head conjured up an increasingly dangerous situation.
“I think it’s prettier at night.”
“Your Majesty, I’m sorry, but who are you talking about…?”
“I’m talking about the Empress of course. What, who did you think I was talking about?”
“The assassin.”
“Are you crazy?”
The conversation had taken a wrong turn it seems. Cain’s attempt to to heave a sigh of relief was cut short abruptly.
‘Wait. What? What did the Emperor just say?’
While Cain fidgeting from being unable to formulate his question, the emperor sat down at his desk to sign a couple of documents. Then he suddenly stopped and stood up, and made a beeline for the door.
“Your Majesty? Where are you going?”
“I’ll be back in a jiff.”
Cain didn’t ask him who he was going to see. Estian returned a long while later after his abrupt departure. The metallic odour of blood accompanied him as he entered the office, along with an undertone of the scent of roses.
“Where have you been?”
“After seeing the Empress, I remembered the assassin yesterday and made some sculptures.”
“What do you mean by seeing the empress and carving a sculpture of an assassin?”
Estian threw the object in his hand at Cain. Cain caught it nimbly, and his eyes widened in recognition. It was a small piece of metal smeared with smatterings of blood and flesh.
“It’s…”
“I rummaged the body and found this. You know this emblem, don’t you?”
“Isn’t it a sign of the Saintess?”
“That’s right.”
There was cold glint in Estian’s eyes. The assassin who launched the first attack was after the empress, not him. Why on earth?
“I need to know why the saintess sent an assassin in pursuit of the Empress instead of me.”
[1] Commander of the knights and Estian’s right hand man.