Since when had Theodore begun saying such nonsense? Of course he couldn't ignore his wife.

Blanche had to keep herself from cowering as she felt how everyone around her stared at them. “Actually, you have to follow her every step. The empress should be with you when you talk to the nobles. And I shouldn't be anywhere near you. So, I will just go back to my corner and-” She wasn't even able to finish.

Theodore frowned at her as he cut her off. “What are you talking about? I'm not letting you stand there in the corner the whole time. Since you seem to worry, the empress is already with the guests. And she can also talk to whomever she wants on her own. I don't necessarily need to accompany her.”

The concubine shook her head with more vigor and replied in a whisper. “That might be true, but that doesn't give me a reason to frustrate her whole family by showing up. Shouldn't I, you know, avoid you a bit in public? To balance out the damage that my clinging to you during the past year did? Just so that our relationship won't be even more obvious than it already is.”

Theodore looked at her as if she had just grown wings, and his face fell. “Why are you suddenly talking about that? You never cared about... Did something happen?”

She held back a sigh and slouched her shoulders. It had been a horrible idea to bring up a subject that had previously only been her lover's worry. If she continued like this, she would draw even more attention to them. It was bad enough that many of the guests were already staring at them and probably wondered what she had done to perplex the emperor this much. But the longer the couple stood here in the center of the room, the more people would notice. So, it might be better just to go with him. After all, there was no way that her previous self would have refused.

Blanche forced herself to smile and waved her hand around in the air. “That was a joke. I just repeated what you always tell me.” That didn't seem to help.

Theodore's frown deepened, and he stepped closer to her as he spoke with more emphasis. “I never phrased it like that. I don't want you to avoid me, and I wouldn't call anything you do ‘damage’. I would never-”

She quickly interrupted him by shaking her head. “No, no. I didn't mean it like that. As I said, it was a joke. I was exaggerating. Don't take all of my words so seriously.” She truly was a horrible liar. Even she herself could hear that she was uncomfortable. Blanche shrank in herself as she felt the gazes of many of the guests on her. It took all of her self-control to not shiver nor turn around to meet their eyes. Instead, she just focused on her lover, who was slowly relaxing.

Theodore let out a deep breath before he replied. “Thank the gods. Don't suddenly say things like that while we are in the middle of a ball. I didn't know that you were joking. But I don't think that you should make jokes about things like this either. If you think that I want you to avoid me, I really messed up during these past months.”

“No, I don't think that.” It just would be better to not antagonize the heroine. And hiding their relationship would be better for that, but apparently, all of Blanche's choices were limited. By now she had given up her plan of not accompanying her lover and wanted him to hurry to the Duremonts so that they wouldn't feel offended. “Let's not stand around here for any longer. Go greet your guests.” She gestured towards the Duremonts. For a minute, she considered voicing an excuse about being hungry and hiding by the buffet so that she could disappear, but she wasn't fast enough.

Theodore quickly revealed that she didn't have a choice. “Naturally. And you'll come with me.” Her lover refused to move until Blanche did, which meant that she had to follow him now.

So, she forced herself to straighten her shoulders and walked forward. Luckily, Theodore at least had enough common sense to walk slightly in front of her, instead of next to or behind her. He led her to the group of aristocrats that were still chatting at the same spot.

When the couple got closer to the people surrounding the duke, Blanche spotted Seraphina, who was speaking with her siblings. She would have liked to disappear into thin air, but unfortunately, that wasn't possible.

As soon as the nobles saw that the emperor was approaching them, they turned their attention to him. Thus, the concubine could see the faces of all the family members who were present and quickly confirmed the roles that those people played in the novel. Most of them weren't a threat but only side characters that were supposed to emphasize how great the heroine's family was.

Except for one person.

The empress' father, Henry Duremont, was the most influential duke in Artias. He was also Theodore's biggest supporter. He had the option to withdraw his support in an instant in case that he felt like his daughter's honor had been stained. Right now Henry was standing next to his wife, Elaine Duremont, and just glared at Blanche. His eyes narrowed, and a deep frown appeared on his face when he saw that Theodore brought his mistress with him. That wasn't a good sign.

Elaine, the duchess, had a polite smile on her face and patted her husband's hand lightly to calm him. That was probably necessary since the duke was very honest when he felt like his daughter was being disrespected. Henry had no qualms about criticizing the emperor and didn't bother to hide his anger, so his wife had to step in.

Similarly, Seraphina's eyes became cold like ice when she spotted Blanche which only emphasized her already intimidating aura. She only lifted her chin, but that was enough to make her seem a hundred times more threatening. She didn't say anything about being upset, but she showed it. After all, she didn't move from her position between her siblings to stand next to Theodore which she would have normally done.

As expected, the others weren't pleased either.

Allen stayed close to his sisters and kept a stern expression, which was definitely grimmer than a while ago again.

Sophia and her husband, who had been talking with Seraphina, stopped when Theodore approached them. They looked rather concerned even though they usually didn't get involved in any conflicts.

It was also the same for the Marquess of Bellfaux, who along with his daughters, stood next to Duke Duremont while trying to hide his dismay.

The Bellfauxes were close to the Duremonts and thus, often spoke with them at events. The heads of the families had been friends for decades and also met regularly in their free time. For this reason, their children had also been in contact. The marquess' eldest daughter, Madeleine, was very close to Seraphina while his younger daughter, Briana, was Allen's fiancée despite their rather great difference in age.

Both of the sisters didn't attempt to hide that they were unhappy about Blanche's presence. Though Madeleine still kept a somewhat dignified expression while her sister didn't care.

Briana turned up her nose at the concubine and linked her arms with Allen's as if she wanted to show her claim on him. In the novel, she hadn't appeared often, and when she did, it had been with her fiancé. Even in those few scenes, she had exhibited a bratty behavior that rivaled Blanche's, but it had been justified by the recent death of her mother, whom she missed dearly. So, no one was angry with her in the end which was quite unfair considering that the villainess had lost her whole family, and nobody pitied Blanche in the finale.

After witnessing all of this hostility that was directed at her, Blanche would rather turn around and avoid them, but that wasn't possible. At least she could confuse them with her improved manners for now and hope that they would ignore her in favor of chatting with Theodore afterward. They always ignored her, so they could do it today too, right?

Blanche's gaze wandered across the people once again, and she saw another person next to Henry that she hadn't noticed before. She should have expected that Evelyn Lemares would be with the Duremonts, but still, it made the concubine want to grip her lover's hand. That woman was the vile creature that had murdered Sophia's daughter. Blanche didn't have any intention of interacting with a person capable of murdering a child, and even being in the same room as Evelyn made her feel nauseous. However, explaining this to Theodore without revealing that she had knowledge of the future wasn't possible, so she had to endure it.

But as always, Theodore seemed to notice her inner turmoil without her needing to speak up. He leaned close to whisper in Blanche's ear. “Don't worry. Just stay by my side, and be polite. They won't do anything.”

Certainly, the people here couldn't harm the emperor's lover while he was watching, but they could insult her behind sugarcoated words while glaring at her. This wasn't a great danger, but Blanche didn't look forward to that anyway. Especially not when her lover getting so close to her would upset them even more. She would have liked to run away, but she had no choice but to ignore her reluctance to step into the families' circle. She nodded to signal that she had understood the emperor's words and followed her lover.

As they reached the group, Theodore greeted the Duke and the Duchess of Duremont with a flawless smile. “I'm glad to see that your whole family is present, Your Grace. I am pleased to meet you and your wife again. I hope you arrived here without any problems.”

The couple returned the greeting with a bow and a curtsy. Henry was the one that replied first. “Greetings to His Majesty, the emperor of Artias.” The curt greeting proved that he was in a horrible mood, and it could only get worse from now on. “Of course, we couldn't miss the opportunity to visit one of the royal family's renowned events. Luckily, there haven't been any difficulties on the way here.” He was polite, but his freezing expression said everything.

After that, the two men talked about a few superficial topics, but Henry never hid his anger. That could only mean trouble later.

The Duremonts had always been the biggest supporters of the emperor, and they had been acquaintances from Theodore's early childhood on. This was why the emperor had gotten engaged to Seraphina in the first place. Through this marriage, he would secure her family's backing and strengthen the ties with them. But ever since he had taken Blanche as his lover, his relationship with Henry had worsened.

Duke Duremont didn't appreciate that his daughter's husband had a mistress, and this was only amplified by the fact that the concubine didn't even have a noble background. Henry despised how much Theodore spoiled his lover and resented Blanche for the pretentious behavior she had exhibited. Henry naturally wasn't pleased about the emperor keeping such a woman in the palace while his beloved daughter was neglected by her husband. He couldn't dictate Theodore's actions, but he would always be on Seraphina's side which proved that he would be more than upset about this.

In the novel, Henry had even promised his daughter that he would immediately stop backing the emperor if she felt like her honor was being violated. The heroine had replied that it wasn't necessary for him to make such grand promises which was the only reason why he continued to support Theodore. Still, the atmosphere between Duke Duremont and the emperor was strained because of Blanche. This was noticeable to anyone that had even the slightest piece of information about the general situation and witnessed their interaction.

The emperor had made small talk with Henry for a short while the empress and the duchess also chimed in, but the tension never sufficed.

After their chatting was over, the most unpleasant part would follow. Blanche would have to greet the group too. Since she had arrived with the emperor, the people that spoke to Theodore would need to acknowledge her too. As this forced everyone to address a baroness so soon, it was obvious that this wouldn't raise anyone's mood. But it got even worse than Blanche had hoped it to be.

Seraphina's gaze was freezing when she addressed the concubine in the most aloof way imaginable. “I wish you a wonderful evening, Lady Blanche.” She didn't say more than that which proved how upset she was.

Blanche didn't feel much better. She just wanted to get it over with too. So, she curtsied and replied shortly too. “Greetings to Her Majesty, the empress of Artias.” That traditional greeting proved that she respected Seraphina, and at the same time, it should reveal some sort of distance. The concubine felt like that had worked out quite well, so she hoped that the rest of the meeting would be fine too.

But once again luck wasn't on her side. Technically, the person with the rank below the emperor and the empress would address the one with the lower status now. So, Duke Duremont should be the one to speak up, but Henry made no move to acknowledge Blanche.

The concubine was at a loss. Should she simply raise her voice in a moment during which no one was speaking? Definitely not. That would be the biggest offense she could commit. Should she stubbornly wait for her introduction and just stay quiet if Duke Duremont kept silent? That wasn't too bad. She would be fine with being invisible for the whole ball. But someone else didn't share that opinion.

Her lover wouldn't allow anyone to ignore her like this. A short pause came up, and Theodore showed the duke a smile that obviously made clear that he wanted the other man to be polite.

Blanche almost shrank in herself as looked up at Henry. She met his gaze and quickly realized from whom Seraphina had to have picked up her freezing stare.

Henry didn't bother to veil his disgust when he saw her. “Lady Blanche. How are you?” He didn't even try to conceal that he was only following the protocol and began the most meaningless small talk.

Still, the concubine made a curtsy and answered politely. “It's a pleasure to meet you, Your Grace. I am in good health and also cannot complain about any problems otherwise. I hope that Your Grace's family is in a just as gratifying situation.”

The group appeared to be stunned by her errorless response. The concubine hadn't been provoking, hadn't offended anyone nor had she ignored any social conventions. This didn't necessarily make the situation more relaxed though. After all, the people here would only become even warier from now on.

Henry's expression darkened again, but Elaine patted his hand and answered for him. “Thank you for your consideration, Lady Blanche. We are also in a satisfying standing at this point in time. I'm glad that the circumstances inside the royal palace are similar.”

Theodore glanced at her from the corner of his eyes and smiled. “Yes, luckily there aren't any complications right now. Even though our country has to face a couple of challenges this year, it seems that the capital itself is rather calm.” After replying, he moved on to address Allen, and they had a short conversation.

That ended with the concubine greeting the duke's son too, but this was much easier than talking to his father had been. Marquess Bellfaux and his daughters had to be spoken to next. Theodore indulged in some small talk with them, and they laughed about a few jokes.

In the meantime, Blanche quietly stood by her lover's side and struggled to keep all of her muscles motionless. She fought the urge to link her arms with his and stared onto the wall to avoid accidentally making eye contact with anyone. Listening to the repetitive small talk was tiring and almost made her feel like a child that was waiting for their parents to stop chatting.

But she would rather be silent than to speak. She didn't want to engage in a conversation with all the people who hated her. The only person in the group who possibly had a neutral impression on her was Sophia. Everyone else already stared at the concubine like she was a foreign object even if she didn't speak on her own at all. Or maybe that was exactly why they were so confused. Normally, she had chatted a bit more, mainly with Theodore, to hide her nervousness. But today, she wouldn't say a single word unless she was addressed first.

When the emperor greeted Evelyn, Blanche struggled to keep her expression unreadable. No one could see how much she loathed that woman until Seraphina's aunt showed her true colors. Still, Evelyn's overly sweet voice infuriated her.

When Evelyn spoke, she also put on a wide exaggerated grin. That alone made her unbearable. “It is an honor to be invited to a royal ball, so naturally, I couldn't dream about refusing.”

Theodore, who apparently wasn't as disgusted as his lover, let out a quiet laugh. “I'm pleased to hear that you enjoy the events in the palace. Everyone here is working hard to make sure that the guests will have a joyful evening.” With that, he finally turned to Count Ravillot and his wife and addressed them. This meant that the greetings would be finished and that they could finally approach other nobles, whose presence was less oppressive.

But to Blanche's dismay, the emperor didn't move even after she had said hello to everyone. Instead, he began a discussion with the whole group, and most of the people joined in. She didn't pay much attention to the conversation and looked around, only to meet Seraphina's gaze. A shiver ran down her spine, and she lowered her head to stare at the floor. A couple of seconds passed until she was sure that she could look up again. She hesitantly raised her head and was ready to focus her eyes onto the ground again if it became necessary.

Luckily, the empress wasn't staring at her anymore.

However, it felt like someone else was watching Blanche now. A short glance to her side quickly determined that Duke Duremont was the one glaring at her. His freezing stare had the exact same impact as his daughter's. A single glimpse of his expression proved that he definitely was Seraphina's father and the person who had raised the heroine, who was so similar to him when she got angry. Blanche unwillingly took a step closer to Theodore and focused on the conversation while being careful not to let her gaze wander to the duke again.

Theodore was in the middle of a sentence, so he hadn't even noticed. “I wasn't aware of that. What a strange development. Besides this, is there anything else with great importance going on right now?”

Immediately, the surrounding people became quiet and exchanged uncertain looks with each other. Duke Duremont was the one to open his mouth. “There have been many rumors surrounding a specific topic, and as Your Majesty knows, rumors are often rooted in truth. In this case, they are about the scandals of a noble family. Due to the numerous wrongdoings the family members have committed, the house of Besseta might fall in the near future. Though I do not know whether Your Majesty has been informed about that already.”

Even though Theodore appeared to be unaffected after hearing that name, Blanche saw that his muscled had tensed up.

The Besseta family was a sensitive subject for the emperor, and he had only opened up to his lover about it after being with her for a while. Six years ago, his father had died unexpectedly, and he had been forced to ascend to the throne at the age of twenty. In the first year of his reign, he had been forced to fight to earn the nobles' trust and respect despite his youth.

The dowager empress had begun to stir up trouble back then already, but Theodore had still considered her and his brother as relatives and ignored it. At least until a group of assassins had targeted Theodore at the annual hunting festival. He had survived the attack but was severely wounded both physically and mentally. In the investigation, no solid evidence was found, but many hints pointed to one conclusion. The dowager empress had hired the assassins to clear the way for the second prince to help him become the emperor.

Naturally, Theodore had been devastated by that conclusion. Still, he had insisted on another investigation, and suddenly, new evidence was brought to light. These clues had obviously been falsified, but they had to be accepted in the trial. The person who was found guilty of hiring the mercenaries thanks to those clues had been Count Besseta. And while every single one of Theodore's followers had been aware that the man had been framed, Count Besseta had been executed because of the overwhelming amount of evidence and a few other crimes that he had actually committed. Considering that that man had been convicted of treason, his family would normally have been executed as well, but the emperor had pardoned them.

However, since the real culprit had still been living in the palace, Theodore hadn't been able to let down his guard anymore. He had chosen the most desperate approach to keep his brother and mother from killing him and had in return falsified enough evidence to send them in confinement. To this day, Theodore had a guilty conscience despite only having protected himself and still wondered whether his solution had been the right one. When he had told Blanche this, she had affirmed that he made the correct decision, but that didn't solve anything.

The house of Besseta had suffered due to the head of their family being executed. They were branded as traitors in public and had lost a great part of their fortune and influence. It was rather surprising that they had been able to hold on until now for which Theodore felt guilty as well.

Since the Besseta family was closely connected with all those bad memories, it was understandable that Theodore had become tense as soon as the household had been mentioned. But as the ruler of a nation, he was used to hiding his real feelings, so no one except for his lover had noticed his reaction.

Blanche would have loved to intertwine their fingers and caress the backside of his hand with her thumb, as she often did. But she couldn't do so in public. Since she couldn't touch him, her only other choice would be to speak up to calm him. But that would only pull the nobles' attention to his weak point, so she stayed quiet.

Theodore handled the matter by himself anyway. “No, I haven't heard about that issue. Would you give me more details?” His voice didn't waver and thus, didn't reveal his inner turmoil, much like his stoic face, which made Blanche admire his self-control even more than she already had before.

Henry took a sip from the glass he was holding and put it down on a table before responding. “Of course, Your Majesty. The Bessetas are in debt, and they have lent money that they cannot return. They already had to dismiss more than half of their servants because they couldn't afford to keep all of them. Most likely they will have to sell their estate soon to pay back their allies. If they don't break down because of their debt, they will because there won't be any heirs. None of the noble families from the capital would be reckless enough to agree to marry one of the Bessetas' children after all. And if there aren't any wealthy people backing them, they will go bankrupt in less than five years.”

In public, the emperor would have to pretend that he didn't care about the downfall of the people who had tried to assassinate him. But since he knew that Count Besseta had been framed, it probably pained him to learn that this man's relatives still suffered because of the execution. The fact that Count Besseta had committed a lot of crimes that would have led to a severe punishment anyway wasn't very calming when the whole Besseta family was falling apart because they had been named traitors. But even though Theodore had to be thinking about all of that, he replied with an expressionless face. “That does sound serious. They seem to be in quite a predicament. Though as far as I know, they are the only noble household in the capital that is unstable right now.”

Elaine nodded. “Thankfully, the rest of the aristocrats are able to manage their finances and maintain their lifestyle.”

The empress held her chin before raising her voice as well. “Still, I am astonished that this hasn't reached our ears already. A noble family being threatened of losing their title is very rare as the inhabitants of the capital are rather wealthy. Something like this hasn't happened at all in the last fifty years.”

The duchess nodded again before responding. “That is true. But none of the things Henry said are set in stone. The Besseta family refuses to openly state how bad their current situation is. All the knowledge we have is based on gossip, but since countless sources describe the same circumstances, we can assume that the rumors correspond with the truth.”

All of this was true. Blanche remembered that the Bessetas downfall had been summarized similarly to Henry's words in the book. Those people would lose all of their money and eventually, their title in a few months. But no one aside from her could know that.

Theodore replied in a deliberately calm tone. “Well, as long as other nobles aren't deeply involved with this, we don't need to take action.” His words made clear that he intended to change the topic, and the others obliged. He turned to Blanche and smiled at her. “There is something we still have to settle. Lady Lemares, would you mind following us for a moment?”

That didn't sound good. Blanche felt uneasiness rise inside her.

Evelyn put on her sickening smile again as she answered. “Naturally, I will comply with Your Majesty's request.”

Theodore nodded and led his lover away from the group while Seraphina's aunt followed closely behind them.

Blanche's mind was already racing to find out what Theodore was thinking right now. Had she done something wrong, and he wanted to explain it to her in private? But she hadn't really had the chance to do anything at all. She had only stood next to him in silence. What was even more confusing that Evelyn was joining them. Blanche never had any contact with that woman before and her knowledge of the novel ensured that she also didn't wish to change that in the future.

She had a bad premonition about this.