I Hoped You Weren't Alive At Times ✓

Ch 52

8.3 The Emperor Wants to Know the Empress (2)
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When Yvonne entered the Empress' Palace, the handmaidens announced that the Duke was there. It's not out of expectation at all.

Yvonne put her face in order and entered the drawing room. The Duke's sparkling eyes touched her skin like the scales of a snake. Smooth and unpleasant sensation.

"So, what were you talking about?"

The tone of the questioning was so sweet that it didn't match the look in his eyes.

"There wasn't much to say. He was fighting over whether to award Clyde Anssen or not. Dunya and Roden seemed to think they might find fault with it."

"That's all?"

"What else can they talk about in my presence?"

"Yes, that's what I'm saying. Why did he make you stay there then?"

But that was a question Yvonne could not answer. Because she didn't really get the hang of it.

"You didn't think anything nonsense while I was away, did you? You're stuck with him."

Yvonne frowned slightly at the vulgar words. It's a crap idea, it's something she'd been doing a lot lately, but that doesn't mean she's 'stuck' with Karloi.

"No way. You even put a spell on me. What is there to doubt? If you did it once, it will last at least several months."

"Do you think magic is universal?"

The Duke giggled, which sounded strangely self-helpful.

"Magic is not omnipotent, eternal, or complete. If magic was like that, why couldn't Bernie unify the continent?"

The Duke murmured.

"If so, why haven't you killed Croytan yet?"

Yvonne thought the Duke was a madman. Of course it's always been a thought, but it's just an inertial curse. But now it was all sincerity. He's crazy. Maybe he had been crazy for a long time. The Duke's eyes were half-rounded. A person with eyes like that can't be sane.

What does a lunatic do with a product that has run out of its use? She wished he could throw it away nicely, but then he wouldn't be a lunatic for nothing. Yvonne couldn't help but think about how long she and Denise would last.

"Child, I'll never trust you."

Seeing the Duke's terrible distrust, Yvonne only vaguely guessed Karloi's intentions. Her heart ached at the same time as she realized.

"I think the Emperor was aiming for this. To openly make me stay there and make the Duke suspicious of me."

"You tried to drive a wedge?"

"Yes."

"You have no idea what that means, do you?"

The grinning Duke's face became more frightening as the gloom deepened.

"The fact that you made such a plan is that you left a room for doubt. I thought it would be possible to do this."

When she remembered Karloi holding a knife in her hand, her heart started beating anxiously. Yvonne tried to keep her calm.

"Then I must have done my job well. I'm doing what the Duke ordered me to do."

"What did I tell you to do?"

"To curry favor with the Emperor."

Yvonne had to get the attention in a tense state, as the Duke only looked at Yvonne without answering. A long time later the Duke grinned.