It was after hearing a conversation that she felt something was wrong.
After successfully completing the auction as expected, it was time to go to the powder room and rest for a while.
“Come to think of it, I can’t see Lady Orangtin anywhere.”
“Where did she go? Have you seen her?”
“No, I think it’s been a long time since she’s been gone.”
“I haven’t see her since Her Majesty opened the auction earlier.”
While walking down the hallway to the powder room, three familiar voices were heard.
Anastasia managed to identify them. They were the three ladies-in-waiting of the Central Palace.
“Don’t tell me… She’s not with the Emperor, is she?”
As soon as she heard the worried voice, Anastasia unconsciously focused on the continuing conversation, nervous.
“No way. His Majesty went to put out the fire at Cysteine Palace.”
“I heard earlier that the fire at the Cysteine Palace has already been extinguished.”
“What? Then the Emperor…”
“Did he really have a secret meeting with Lady Orangtin at the Central Palace?”
“No way! His Majesty has never looked at any of us!”
“But we don’t know about their relationship. Maybe Lady Orangtin lied to us.”
Since then, the worried conversation between the three ladies-in-waiting had continued.
However, Anastasia did not hear any more of the conversation and headed straight to the Central Palace.
‘… no way.’
In her head, what happened not long after she arrived at the banquet hall was being played vividly.
~~~~
A few hours ago.
“Ah!”
Anastasia, who was putting her flowing hair behind her ears, frowned and groaned.
“What’s wrong, Your Majesty?”
“A hairpin keeps poking my scalp.”
“Oh, my God.”
Selene looked at Anastasia’s hair with a look of surprise.
“Would you like to go to the powder room? I’ll take care of it.”
“Thank you, Selene. I should.”
So the two headed to the powder room together. When they arrived and were about to go inside.
“Ah!”
As Selene opened the door of the powder room, A scream came through the door. Selene cried in surprise.
“Oh, there must have been someone behind the door!”
Anastasia was standing behind the door with a startled face, checking the face of the victim.
It was an unfamiliar face. Siena Orangtin, the lady-in-waiting at the Central Palace.
It was when Anastasia was trying to ask if she was okay after falling on the floor.
“…that?”
An unusual pink heart-shaped glass bottle caught Anastasia’s eye.
Anastasia was wondering what the strange bottle was, and Siena, who had been sitting down, hurriedly picked up the glass bottle that had fallen on the floor and put it into her pocket.
Anastasia stared at her behavior, confused. Siena looked up at Anastasia with a look of great embarrassment.
“Twah, Empress…”
“…Are you alright?”
Anastasia reached out to Siena with her brow slightly narrowed.
Siena hesitated, grabbed her hand, and rose from her spot.
Anastasia apologized.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know there was someone behind there. Are you badly hurt?”
“Oh, no, Your Majesty.”
“Are you sure you’re not hurt? Should I call the court doctor?”
Anastasia asked in a concerned voice.
“It looked like you fell hard.”
“Well, I’m really fine. I wasn’t seriously hurt. See you later.”
Siena left in a hurry, and Anastasia tilted her head and went into the powder room.
~~~~
‘It was a love potion.’
Somehow, she felt that the unique glass bottle was not unfamiliar, and she remembered reading it in the original.
Love potion.
Long after the departure of the extra Anastasia, it was a potion used by the jealous Vaudar imperial princess between Avelin and Wilhelm.
Drinking the love potion generated hot heat in the body immediately after that, dissolving the function of the whole body and brain, and dominating the mind.
And after drinking the potion, you fall in love with the first person within your sight in just five minutes.
The medicinal effect lasted only about a day, but it was strictly prohibited to use among magic potions because it controlled the human spirit.
In the original, the Vaudar princess secretly obtained the drug to drive a wedge between Avelin and Wilhelm and fed it to Wilhelm…
‘There’s only one conditional way to completely invalidate this drug.’
Anastasia hurried toward the Central Palace. She had to hurry. Otherwise it would completely deviate from the original novel.
“Your Majesty the Empress.”
When she arrived at the Central Palace, Colton asked in surprise when he saw Anastasia breathing in a disheveled manner.
“Why is the star of today’s banquet here… …. No, why are you running in such a hurry?”
“His Majesty, His Majesty…”
Anastasia managed to calm her breathing and asked.
“Where is the Emperor?”
“He’s resting in his room… Her Majesty the Empress?
Even before Colton’s words were finished, Anastasia quickly moved to his room.
It was a kiss with his spouse. Anastasia immediately kissed Wilhelm.
As she gripped his hot lips, she felt Wilhelm startle, giving his body a lot of strength.
‘You must have been surprised.’
Kissing someone who’s married to you will neutralize the potion.
It was a ridiculous solution even to her, but it was inevitable because it was said so in the original. She considered that the writer was aiming for the kiss scene of the male and female characters.
Anastasia kissed Wilhelm long until his potion was completely neutralized.
Wilhelm’s body, which had hardened, gradually felt its strength drain, and the hot body slowly cooled down.
At one point, Wilhelm lost his mind and collapsed in Anastasia’s arms.
“Ah….”
The moment Anastasia hugged him in embarrassment, Colton entered Wilhelm’s room.
“Your Majesty!”
Then he saw Wilhelm, who had fallen into Anastasia’s arms, and ran in amazement.
He, who received Wilhelm from Anastasia and helped him, asked in a voice that he did not know what was going on.
“Your Majesty, what’s going on?”
“…”
Anastasia turned her head and ordered, glaring at Siena, who was trembling at one side.
“Take custody of Lady Orangtin immediately.”
~~~~
“Wilhelm.”
Someone whispered in his ear with a shrill voice.
Wilhelm turned his head blankly.
His mother hugged him and looked at him with lovely eyes.
“I’m so proud of you, my son.”
“…Mother.”
Wilhelm`s expression was distorted in a heartbeat.
He looked as if he were going to die and his lips were rattling.
Even though he had something to say, he could not easily say it, and silence continued for a long time.
His mother smiled and waited patiently for her son.
Wilhelm spat out the frozen words in his heart only after a very long time.
“I’m not.”
“What?”
“I’m not.”
There was blood in Wilhelm’s eyes as he said it. He was red-eyed as if he was about to cry soon.
He shook his head and repeated the denial.
“Not me.”
“No. It’s right.”
When his mother nodded, Wilhelm shook his red-eyed eyes with a relieved look.
His mother said, gently sweeping her son’s face with a still smiling face.
“I believe in you. As a mother, I know best how good and upright you are.”
But soon afterwards he fell back to hell.
“But what’s important about it?”
It was then that he fully realized it. That no one believed what he said. That no one wanted to listen to him.
Even the mother who gave birth to him after ten months.
~~~~
“Oh!”
He opened his eyes with a deep groan.
Wilhelm breathed hurriedly, with bloodshot eyes as in the dream.
Although it was evident that it was reality, not a dream, Wilhelm still couldn’t come to his senses for a long time like a person wandering in a dream.
“…Your Majesty.”
A bewildered voice came from the side and woke his reason.
Wilhelm still kept his breath unstable and turned his head.
Anastasia with a surprised face was looking at him.
“Are you awake?”
… No, it’s a worried face. Oddly enough, he thought so.
That indifferent woman wouldn’t worry about him.
‘…but still.’
It didn’t matter either way. He was just relieved that he wasn’t left alone after waking up from wandering in that crappy dream.