章 18: Protection

Ave, feeling the tension straightened up as she realized her mistake. It seemed waving was frowned upon here. Noted.

And so she decided to play along when she heard the blonde woman comment on her state of mind. The blonde woman was obviously the Empress, she decided, as the other woman with black hair seemed too soft and gentle to be the infamous ruthless Empress in the future history.

Ave had already seen how people apologized when they were in the wrong, and so she quickly bowed her head toward the blonde woman. The only person she feared was the Empress and no one else.

"My apologies, Your Majesty. You were indeed right, I've lost my mind to the accident, my memories are all hazy."

Empress Elara's brows rose as she watched the princess pay respect to the fourth consort while she was seated there, being ignored. If there was one thing Elara hated the most, it was when a lower consort received respect over her, which had never happened until now.

The Empress cleared her throat to make sure Selene hadn't missed her presence. When the clearing of her throat didn't gain the girl's attention as she was too busy apologizing to the fourth consort, who looked over the moon happy, Elara said,

"Go take your seat. We've all heard about your memory—"

"I wasn't apologizing to you, ma'am. I shall not take my seat until Her Majesty says so." Ave said as she dramatically fell to her knees and bowed her head to the fourth consort, who she believed was the Empress. She had no business with any other person but the Empress, and she was hellbent on impressing her today.

The Empress must be amazed by her! After all, if there was one thing she recalled about the Empress in history, it was how she liked being worshiped over the other consorts! And Ave would impress her by doing just that.

Princess Selene's audacity caught everyone by surprise, and made the Empress almost puke blood at the disrespect. Did...did she just cut her off mid-sentence?

Meanwhile, Consort Seraphina was blushing so hard she could hardly stop grinning. For the first time in a long time, someone had finally made her feel mighty in the presence of the Empress. She had always been stomped upon, and her opinion had never mattered to anyone as she was the least favored consort.

Though she had never liked Princess Selene, she was so pleased with her that she lifted her chin up high and said, "You may take your seat. You shouldn't be bowing like that when you haven't fully recovered. I heard you had a head injury."

"Yes, Your Majesty. My head still hurts from time to time, but that doesn't mean I won't pay respect to you," Ave said as she deliberately stood up, grabbing her head and swaying from side to side like she'd pass out. To further impress the Empress, she turned to the other woman, who she believed was the fourth, least favored consort, and said weakly,

"I would have paid respect to you too, but my head hurts so much I think it might explode if I bow again."

Ave saw the look of rage cross the woman's face, and if looks could kill, she'd have been dead and buried by now. However, seeing the pleased look on the woman she assumed was the Empress's face, she felt proud and at ease that she'd definitely won the Empress's heart and ignored the other woman glaring at her.

"Son of a sword," whispered the third prince in amusement as he saw how his mother had been scorned indirectly for the first time. "My old woman just got insulted by her own servant. Interesting." He smirked in amused disbelief.

"What's wrong with Princess Selene?" whispered Isolde to her twin, "She didn't just bite the hand that feeds her to impress Mother?"

Celeste shrugged unconcernedly. "Who cares. I heard she's been acting all crazy lately. I can see she's definitely crazy, look how unkempt she looks. Finally, I look prettier than her."

Ave could sense the mixed reactions from the others at the table, but she didn't care what they thought now that she was under the protection of someone powerful. How easy it was to impress the woman. She smirked as she looked around, her eyes landing on Lucian, who was looking at her with an expression she couldn't read.

'Tsk, not even you can hurt me now. If you try me again, I'll report you to the Empress,' she conveyed that to him with her eyes, or so she thought.

Just to be on the safe side, she bowed slightly to the Emperor, and he acknowledged it with a small nod before he permitted her to sit down.

Didn't she just say she couldn't bow again because her head was hurting? Everyone thought as they watched her pay respect to the Emperor. That meant she just didn't want to pay any respect to the Empress!

Her indirect insult to the Empress caught everyone off guard, and there were a few stifled chuckles around the room. Even Lucian couldn't help but feel a flicker of amusement at her audacity.

The atmosphere began to relax, if only slightly, as they all took their seats, with Ave plopping down on the empty seat next to Lucian, much to his chagrin.

Immediately everyone settled down, a line of royal servants began to walk in with several trays of food with lids and set them down on the long table.

Ave, who had been starving as she hadn't eaten anything else apart from the breakfast served to her in the morning, all thanks to the man sitting next to her, felt her mouth begin to water at the delicious aroma reaching her nose.

She could barely wait when the servants dropped a large tray with a lid over it in front of both her and Lucian, and when she hurriedly tried to reach out to open the lid, a hand reached out to grab her wrist and pulled it back down under the table.