Chapter 72
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Sponsored chapter by LC (⅖) ❤️
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Whether or not someone impersonated Count Nasau in name only was of little concern to the Emperor. If the name of Nasau was somehow sullied by those who dare to dishonor him, he welcomed it.
The emperor raised a hand to stop the guards, then turned to the man who had collapsed and could barely stand up.
"Do you wish to save your life?"
The man nodded vigorously, and the kravat, which looked like a fortune, came loose and sprawled.
The emperor spoke bluntly.
"No matter what you say you are or what you have, I know you are not Nasau."
The impersonator swallowed hard.
"But if you tell me the full details of how you became entangled with Nasau and where he is now, I will let you leave Hyreth with your life intact."
It took a while, but eventually the imposter bit the carrot.
"I am, in fact, a butler who worked at the residence of His Excellency the Count of Nasau................."
The Emperor's golden eyes flashed, and one of the guards rushed over in a panic, whispering something to their captain.
Even in the darkness of the cell, the captain's complexion darkened.
The Emperor frowned and asked.
"What is it?"
"I beg your pardon, Your Majesty, but I must hurry upstairs."
The guards were always fussing.
Emperor Karl nodded curtly and continued to question the impersonator. He hadn't anticipated the uproar in his own court.
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The sound of carriages leaving the palace could be heard one after another.
Louise sat alone in the luxurious carriage, staring down at the pearl around her neck.
To Caius, it was as precious as life itself.
With it, he could prove his lineage once and for all and regain his place. Without it, he said, the process would be much more difficult, impossible by peaceful means.
But the pearl was around her neck, and the man was not coming back. Her heart pounded in her chest.
The reason he had gone to great lengths to step foot in the palace and show his face today was because he needed to win over at least one more noble person to his side before the event.
But if it went wrong today, what would happen to him?
Their relationship had been one-sided from the start. Louise may be his queen of choice, but she was only a pawn on a chessboard.
And there were plenty of them in this castle.
Viscount Leto, who gave her a cloak, or Lady Hessen in her yellow dress.
Caius, on the other hand, was a player.
He could move Louise around to suit his plans, but he didn’t need to tell her where she was going next. She was just one of 16 pieces.
In fact, Louise was forced to follow him without knowing exactly what happened at the ball.
The player didn’t know that the Queen had a heart, that she worried and prayed for him. He didn’t need to know.
It was a chessboard that would be thrown away if she disappeared, so for her own peace of mind, she had to hope he would return.
But was Louise really just a queen?
No, she was not.
Louise Henriette Ermoli von Burg, or Ermoli with the Pearl for short.
Louise was the queen with the pearl.
And it was a pearl the Emperor had been searching for for 20 years.
Unlike Caius, who harassed Louise for the pearl's return, perhaps the Emperor would pay a high price.
She pressed the pearl firmly against her restlessly beating heart.
Perhaps Caius was testing her again by leaving her alone with the pearl at this moment.
Or maybe he hadn’t found in her the guts to run to the Emperor at all.
Perhaps she would regret this moment in the future, when she would be abandoned by him. But then again, she didn't want to be the second Ermoli to betray Caius.
Heidenberg's nemesis, her mother's will said.
Louise could only wait for the man.
Clutching her precious pearl.
She sat motionless for a long time, as if her feet and back were glued to the carriage.
Even if she was arrested and all of this ended like a futile dream in midsummer, she would leave her name by Caius's side, as promised.
The second generation of Ermoli, the one who protected him.
The carriage door opened only when Louise's patience was almost at an end.
"Your Highness!"
Louise breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Caius.
"Let's go."
The carriage pulled away before he could take his seat, the door not even closed.
Caius reached out and barely closed the door.
With a sharp intake of breath, he removed his mask. A few strands of his neatly combed bangs spilled over and covered his forehead.
His uniform, with its blue markings and golden epaulets, was much simpler now. The cloak that someone had wrapped around him in the ballroom was nowhere to be seen.
Louise sighed once more.
Just looking at the man's face, half of her worries flew away. Her heart, which had been racing restlessly, quickly found its rhythm.
Perhaps her greatest fear was never seeing Caius again.
Caius would probably laugh at her foolishness if he knew that was her greatest fear, even more so than sneaking into the imperial palace and secretly plotting treason.
"..................Thank goodness, you're safe."
That single word replaced Louise's complex ramblings.
The man, finally catching his breath, smirked.
"I told you her name was Charlotte. Lady Hessen was very resourceful.”
The fact that he hadn't run off with the 5,300-crown pearl was not on his list of things to be grateful for.
Intent on removing his uniform, Caius concentrated on unbuttoning his collar. He didn't see Louise's face stiffen, so he continued.
"It seems the Count of Hessen has made good use of his sonless in educating his eldest daughter. She’s very confident, and since you're the same age as she is, I gave it a try, and it exceeded my expectations."
Louise wiped away the agitation that had briefly crossed her face.
"Did anything happen.................. inside?"
Caius threw off his uniform top and leaned back against the backrest in his shirt. He rested his head on Louise's shoulder as he relaxed.
Heat rushed through her as he drew closer. The heated ballroom came flooding back.
"I just met someone I was curious about….”
The horses trotted away.
Today was supposed to be all about making his presence known to the nobility of the capital, for there was no better way to let them know he was alive than in person.
It was also to give him one last chance to show his face. A chance to change from a shipwrecked, tilting boat to a shiny new one.
The country was in a mess, and the less bloodshed the better, everyone agreed.
Caius had no plans to let his personal vendetta spill over into politics or diplomacy; he was always a man of practicality.
After the ball, no further meetings were planned, just a quick scattering of bodies to hideouts as quickly as possible.
Of course, he didn’t share all his plans or his collusion with the nobles with her, but as far as Louise knew, he did.
She had many questions about who he had met and whether he was in danger.
But Louise didn't want to hear Lady Hessen's tales of strength of character, for compared to her, she could do no more than wear a costly pearl around her neck.
Even if she expected him to abandon her one day, it would be heartbreaking to see a woman capable of taking her place at any moment.
Louise deliberately said something else.
"I was worried when I saw you were late, so I was thinking of hiding the ..... pearl and going out to find Your Highness."
Caius straightened and laughed. His shirt, which he had undone a few buttons out of frustration, looked as comfortable as if he were right at home.
"You're new to Parma Castle, and you're trying to find me, and what did I tell you about there being over two thousand rooms here?"
Louise stopped talking.
Of all the people who had helped him today, she was probably the only one who had never been to the Imperial palace before. Even the private soldiers disguised as nobles should have had some practice.
The only ones who hadn't practiced were the world's forgotten prince and her with the pearl.
Caius gripped Louise's cheeks with two fingers and released them firmly.
"Ouch................"
"To think of leaving a pearl worth 5300 crowns hidden in a carriage."
But then he gave it to her, unguarded.
Because he trusted her, or because he didn't think she was capable of running away?
Louise still didn't know the answer.
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