A noise woke her up not too long after she had fallen asleep. Blanche peeked through her half-lidded eyes and tried to identify the silhouette next to her in the dim moonlight that fell through her window. She took a few seconds before her hazy mind was able to recognize him. “Theo?”

Her lover slowly sat down beside her and held his hand against her cheek. “I was too loud, wasn't I? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up.” Even her clouded consciousness allowed her to notice how tired his voice sounded.

She leaned into his touch as much as her lying position allowed her to. Then she drowsily patted the free space next to her and moved a bit to the side. “Come sleep. It's late.”

“Actually, it's pretty early in the morning.”

She ignored his reply and kept on pointing to the other side of the bed.

Theodore didn't wait for a third invitation and climbed onto the mattress. He pulled a part of the blanket over his body and cuddled against her before he whispered into her ear. “Good night.”

She didn't want to fall asleep immediately so that she could talk to him about his day, but her consciousness already slipped away. Maybe that was for the better since he could sleep too.

Much later, another creak made Blanche stir. She didn't even manage to open her eyes this time. She felt a kiss on her forehead, but her brain was too clouded to react, so she fell back into a deep slumber.

When Blanche awoke fully the next time, it was bright outside, and the spot next to her was empty. A pit of disappointment formed in her stomach. If she had fought her sleepiness for two minutes, they would have had a chance to talk, but now Theodore had returned to his office without exchanging more than a handful of sentences with her. Blanche lifted her head to look around.

Stella was currently tiptoeing through the room without making a single sound. She seemingly hadn't noticed that her mistress was awake already and set the table, which had to mean that they would eat here.

Apparently, Theodore wouldn't meet his concubine for breakfast either.

Blanche sat up and leaned her back against the cushion. “You're really quiet, aren't you? I didn't even hear you prepare everything.”

Stella whipped her head around to face the bed, and a smile replaced her surprised expression. “So, you woke up on your own. I wasn't sure whether I should give you a little nudge at the usual time. Yesterday, we went to bed later than normal, and you might have wanted to make up for that lost sleep.”

The concubine stretched her arms in front of her chest and let out a yawn. “No, I just need a few minutes, and I will be full of energy.” She lowered her hands back onto the mattress and used them to push herself onto her feet. She watched her maid arranging the plates for a moment before her curiosity got the better of her. “Do you know whether Theo left very early? Did you even see him? And did he say something?”

An amused grin adorned Stella's lips, and she made a gesture towards the table. “Another servant informed me that His Majesty was about to go back to his office and handed me this.”

Blanche didn't wait for her to finish her explanation and rushed to the table, on which an envelope was lying. She ripped it open without hesitation and pulled out the handwritten letter. It was shorter than what her lover usually left for her and thus stressed the content of the note.

Apparently, Theodore had to focus all of his attention on negotiating with Northern Ocrea now and would have to contact his ministers to summon them to the palace. This meant that he wouldn't be able to see her in the following days. As Blanche lowered the paper back onto the table, worry filled her mind. Of course, it was disheartening that she wouldn't spend time with her lover, but she was more concerned about his health.

Whenever a major issue came up, Theodore drowned himself in a troubling amount of work without taking a break. Since he refused to involve anyone aside from Leonard, the greatest portion of duties remained his. He always put the nation's well-being before his own, and while that made him an ideal ruler, he risked damaging his body by ignoring his needs. No matter how young and vitalized he was, too much labor would take its toll on him. If he continued to act like this, he might get a chronic sickness just because he couldn't estimate where his limits were.

“You're so clever and such an idiot at the same time.” Blanche shook her head to push away these depressing thoughts. By the end of the novel in about ten months, Seraphina would propose splitting the workload and giving more tasks to the ministers. This would instantly grant the emperor much more free time, and due to the laws the heroine would recommend, he would still have full authority about all the final decisions.

Until then, Blanche could only help him by allowing him to vent to her and distract him from the ever-constant flood of arising problems. But she wasn't able to do that when he didn't spend a single minute of his day with things other than working and sleeping.

She plopped down onto the chair and rested her elbows on the table. Even though she didn't know much about politics, she cursed the person who had come up with Artias' form of monarchy. Forcing the ruler to take care of so many aspects of the country wasn't efficient, and it surely wasn't beneficial for the emperor.

The concubine absentmindedly picked up her fork and pierced an apricot piece with it.

Stella sat down on the other side of the table and spoke up. “I'm sure His Majesty won't refrain from meeting you for long. Solving this problem can only take so long.” Seemingly, her mistress being silent had given her enough information to guess what was going on.

The concubine looked up. “Was my expression that revealing?”

Despite Blanche's playful tone, her maid was completely serious. “When His Majesty can't wait for you to wake up, it's always because he has to deal with urgent manners. Otherwise, he would never disappear without saying good morning. And your reaction showed me that his note must have contained an unpleasant message. Aside from not being able to see you due to political issues, he never wrote anything that hurt you even once, so I can imagine that this was about his work.”

“You're right. His letters are always very sweet. His work is the only problematic part.” Blanche grabbed a croissant and began nibbling on it.

Stella took some fruits as well and started eating. She stayed quiet for a moment before her face lit up. “Ah! I just remembered that I went into the library on the evening that His Majesty spent with you. I found a whole section with books about cooking and baking. Most of the recipes sounded like they would be delicious. We could try them out if you want to.” That sounded tempting.

Blanche had made one cake after the other for the last weeks, and new ideas were becoming sparse. Trying to create meals that she had never eaten would be a challenge but also pretty fun. Since Theodore wasn't there, she had more than enough time to experiment with baking. Though she would have to enter the kitchen for that, which let the spark of excitement inside her die down again. “I would love to, but... I think that I shouldn't leave my room too often in the next few days. I want to avoid reminding the servants of what happened and let the rumors calm down for a little while. That I came out of the emperor's room in the morning has caused quite the uproar, and I'm sure that they are still talking about it.”

The maid grimaced and thus proved her mistress' words to be true. “Most people use their mouth more than they use their brain. You shouldn't worry about them, My Lady.” Stella was quick to defend her mistress, which made Blanche smile.

Even though their relationship had begun horribly, the servant had decided to forgive her mistress and granted her a second chance. The maid did almost everything for Blanche, and the concubine never even thanked Stella for that.

That thought crossed Blanche's mind, and she hesitated. Nothing was stopping her from voicing her gratitude, so why shouldn't she do it now? It was better to say things abruptly than to stay quiet about it and regret it later. With that in mind, she gathered the courage to speak. “Thank you for being here. I can't describe how glad I am to have you as my maid. I don't know what I would do without you.”

Surprise flashed across Stella's features before a bright smile appeared on her face. “I'm glad that I am able to serve you, My Lady. I'm very happy that we are friends now.” Her grin faded as she continued. “Before we started to get along, your only purpose seemed to be waiting for His Majesty. You often told me not to bother you, so I stayed away, like all the others. Mostly, you seemed as if you were annoyed the whole time, but sometimes, I caught a glimpse of another expression. You looked so lonely then. But then, one day...”

Stella lowered her gaze onto the table and paused. The smile returned to her lips before she resumed. “You woke up, and you were different. You changed the way you behaved and spoke. You were kind and opened yourself up to me. You stopped pushing others away. I don't know what happened that night, but I'm so glad that it did. Because that was the reason that we became friends. And you found other friends too! You haven't known them for very long, but Angelica, Darlene, George and Clark, even if he doesn't admit it, care about you.”

Blanche was quiet after her maid finished speaking. How was she supposed to react to these words when she was aware of how disrespectfully she had treated Stella in the past? Why was she encountered with so much patience despite her own inability to forgive others' mistakes?

Stella seemed to have misinterpreted the silence as she hurried to open her mouth and carried on. “You seem closer to His Majesty as well....” That was true.

The novel only added problems to Blanche's relationship with her lover, but despite that, her memories had somehow resulted in them being more honest with each other. For the first time, she and Theodore had discussed their feelings without any reservations. They had been open about their lives from the very beginning, but a little bit of self-doubt had always been planted in her mind. The memories about the book had watered this seed until it grew into a blooming flower. Revealing this to Theodore hadn't erased these worries, but at least trimmed the plant's leaves. She should have done that earlier, then the situation wouldn't have had to be this overwhelming to her and her lover.

When Stella began to move around on her chair, Blanche realized that she should finally reply and quickly did so.“I think so too. It's amazing that this happened, and I'm honored to be considered your friend. And I'm...” She shut her mouth for a moment before continuing. “I'm sorry for treating you the way I did. You never caused any trouble and complied with all of my commands. Not only that, you also fulfilled any tasks I gave you perfectly, and I still complained. I don't know why I acted so despicably around you. I shouldn't have ordered you around and-”

Stella cut her off by raising her hand in the air. The concubine paused, which gave the maid a chance to speak. “You never were that bad. Sure, you might not have been the friendliest, but you only behaved so extremely...harshly in front of others. When we were alone, you made some snarky comments, but that was it. I think that that personality was some kind of protective wall to shield you from the people around you. And I can't blame you for doing that. You were alone in the palace, and many disliked before you even met them because His Majesty brought you with him.”

Partly, that made sense. But at this point in time, Blanche couldn't understand her previous actions, no matter how much she tried to. Her arrogant behavior might have been supposed to veil her fragile ego, but it was unlikely that a villainess would have that much depth to her character. The antagonist in “To Be Empress” was written to be hated by the readers, so giving her a reason to act evil was unnecessary. “That still doesn't give me an excuse to belittle others, who have shown me nothing but respect. That's why I want to-”

“If you apologize again, I'll take steal every single of your desserts for the next month.” The concubine froze in bewilderment at that threat, which caused Stella to grin. “I'm not joking. You said you were sorry multiple times now, and I said that it was fine. I can see that you changed, so you don't have to apologize over and over again. Alright?”

Blanche took a couple of seconds before returning the smile and nodding.

For her maid, the conversation was finished, and she began devouring the food on her plate, which her mistress observed in amusement.

Blanche kept quiet until she saw how her maid took a huge bite of her croissant. That made her grin even more. “You seem to be very hungry.”

Though the remarks had been of mischievous nature, Stella froze as if she had been caught in the act of doing something forbidden.

Quickly, Blanche raised her hands and made a dismissive gesture. “I didn't mean to say that this is bad. You can eat as much as you want.”

The maid relaxed again but evaded her mistress' gaze. “Thank you. It's just that I couldn't swallow much in the early morning. I'm glad that I can make up for that now. But anyway... Did I tell you about the moving dunes by the ocean already? I don't think I did. They were right next to the beach by my vacation quarters.” Just like that, Stella resumed blabbering about a different topic and didn't leave any chance for the other party to intervene.

Blanche ignored the sudden jump to another subject and listened to her maid for the rest of the breakfast. Did Stella feel uncomfortable admitting that she hadn't eaten a lot with her colleagues, or was she just hungrier than usual? The concubine didn't want to address this oddity if it made her servant unhappy, so she let it go despite her growing curiosity.

Though she couldn't help but notice that the maid ate as much as usual for both lunch and dinner. Stella's appetite had just been bigger in the morning, which wasn't absurd since she was usually present at two breakfast tables. Today might have been an exception if she truly hadn't consumed much food during her first meal, which would leave her hungry now. But the servant's reaction upon being made aware of that had seemed strange anyway.

In the evening, a guard brought another note by the emperor to Blanche's chambers. Unsurprisingly, it contained her lover's sincere apologies for presumably not being able to meet her for the following days. After all, he was constantly discussing his strategies with Leonard and the ministers when they arrived.

At this point in time, Blanche was already greatly worried about his health. She hadn't taken a look at the clock last night, but her lover couldn't have slept more than five hours at most since he had risen when the slightest ray of sun hadn't even been visible. If things continued like this, he would work himself to death before the novel's end. In hopes of cheering him up, she sat down and retrieved ink and paper from her desk.

Blanche wrote a short note, wished him a good night and reminded him that she loved him. She noticed that the knight who had delivered Theodore's message could possibly read it as well too late and chose to do something about it. So, she put the letter in an envelope and sealed it. As she did this, her gaze fell onto a handwritten sheet of paper that was resting in her drawer.

The letter to Sefare was still here. The one that she would never send because that might incriminate her. She still needed to destroy it.

A careful glance over her shoulder proved that she couldn't tear it apart this time either since Stella was watching her. So, Blanche tried to seem as inconspicuous as possible as she covered the letter with the empty sheets of paper and closed the drawer. She returned to the door and handed the guard her note, and he immediately set off to hand it over to the emperor.

The concubine went to bed with the conviction of throwing away the letter the next day, but she didn't have an opportunity to do so. After Stella gulped down her breakfast again, she left to bring the dishware into the kitchen. At that exact moment, a knight knocked on the door and handed Blanche another note from Theodore. Her lover had assured her that he adored her and hoped that she would have a beautiful day in message with a handful of lines. Naturally, she wrote a response, and when she gave it to the guard, Stella had already come back.

The gods had to have been playing tricks on her since the same thing happened for lunch and dinner, which made Blanche want to yell at those cursed deities. Out of fear that they, if they did exist, might resent her even more for that, she stayed quiet and planned to destroy the letter on the following day.

At first, it seemed like she would be successful. The knight arrived before breakfast was served, and they exchanged the new notes.

After eating, Stella announced that she would bring the dishes back. “I should be done in five minutes. Since I'm there already, do you want me to bring anything else from the kitchen?”

“No, I'm fine. You can take your time. It's not like we have to stick to a schedule.” Blanche anticipated her chance to finally get rid of that damned letter and waited for her maid to leave the room.

But as soon as the door swung, open it revealed a group of three people.

Angelica, George and Darlene were waiting in front of the door and jumped back a bit when they met Stella's surprised gaze.

For a moment, all of them were silent until Blanche stepped closer to the visitors. “What are you doing here?” The question came out differently than she had intended to. So, she hurriedly tried to keep the servants from thinking that she was hostile towards them. “Of course I'm happy to see you. I didn't mean to sound impolite. I was just taken aback by your sudden appearance.”

Fortunately, none of them seemed to be offended by her remark. George smiled at her and replied. “We didn't interpret it like that. We actually wanted to-” Darlene nudged him with her elbow, which caused him to glance at her before continuing. “There are a lot of...bored people that are roaming in the hallways. If you don't mind it, it would be better to talk inside.”

Blanche looked over George's shoulder into the corridor, where a couple of other servants were walking around in addition to the two knights guarding her door. Without hesitation, she moved to the side to allow her friends to enter. “Come in.”

The visitors exchanged unreadable looks with each other before complying with her request. Stella closed the door behind them as they spun around to inspect their surroundings.

Angelica muttered in awe as she stared at the ornaments on the wall. “Your chambers are beautiful.”

“Thank you. I like them a lot as well.” Blanche turned to Stella. “Could you please get the chairs from the other room? We won't have enough for everyone otherwise.”

Stella disappeared behind the door that led to a smaller storage area and returned with the demanded chairs a moment later.

In the meantime, the rest of the servants continued to look around. Darlene admired the double bed before she suddenly shook her head and spoke up. “Weren't we in the middle of explaining why we came here? So much luxury is really distracting.” With a different intonation, her words might have sounded derogatory, but the tone of her voice made it clear that she was impressed by the interior of the concubine's room. She waved her hand around before she resumed. “Anyway, what George meant to say is that we wanted to visit you because you stopped coming to the kitchen without a warning. For weeks, you baked a cake daily, and then you suddenly weren't there anymore, no matter which time we checked. Then we heard about the...”

Darlene paused, and it was obvious that the gears in her head were turning. Her voice got quieter when she continued. “Discussion with His Majesty. It was impossible to not notice since everyone talked about it, and the next day, rumors about you spending the night with him arose. So, it seemed like everything between you two was fine again. We thought that you would return to the kitchen again because of that, but you didn't. And that was strange, so we-”

Angelica cut off her colleague's monologue. “We were worried about you and wanted to see how you were doing.” She gave Darlene a knowing look, which caused the other maid to cross her arms.

“Yes, that is what I was going to say too.”

George chimed in. “You weren't.” He earned himself another nudge with this.

Blanche felt a smile form on her face. For the longest time, she had watched the staff's playful banter from a distance, but whenever she had approached them, they had been on edge. Seeing those three servants lowering their guard in front of her was always relieving. They had done so from the first time that they had met in the kitchen and were revealing more and more of their personality to her with every interaction. Just listening to their jokes was enough to lighten up her day. She was glad to have them in her life. “Thank you for your concern. I'm doing well. I only wanted to wait for the gossip to die down before I run around in the palace. In a few days, I'll start baking daily again.”

The servant's faces relaxed upon hearing that. “That's good to hear.” Angelica spoke with a soft smile. She glanced at George and nodded towards him, which caused him to speak up.

“Ah, I almost forgot. This is for you.” George placed a small iron container on the table and opened it. Then he pulled out a cake, which he lifted so that the others could see it. “Clark would have accompanied us, but he has to help the steward today. So, he made this yesterday as a little surprise to make up for not being here.” He carefully lowered the dessert onto the table and stepped away to let the concubine take a look at it.

The petite tart was topped with swirls of cream and orange fruit pieces that gave it a somewhat cute exterior. It was the most adorable cake the concubine had ever seen.

A grin spread on Blanche's face. “I can barely imagine Clark coming up with such cute decorations. Are you sure that he didn't get any ideas from the girls?”

Darlene quickly chimed in. “He didn't. He insisted on doing everything alone, no matter how often we offered to help him, and we did that numerous times. Clark did have some trouble with layering the cake and smoothing the cream, so he was cursing a lot. Still, he refused when Angelica told him that she could take care of that. He might not look like it, but when he wants to finish something, he puts all of his energy into that to create the best result.” This was obvious just from looking at the dessert.

Despite having eaten breakfast only minutes ago, Blanche's mouth watered upon staring at the present. A short glance in Stella's reaction showed her that the maid had retrieved three chairs and placed them next to the table, which meant that they could sit. The concubine turned back the visitors. “He was certainly successful in surprising me. I'm sure that the cake will be delicious. Please pass on my thanks to him. I will do that myself when I see Clark, but it is going to take a few days until I go out again. I'm relieved that you are here now. Staying in my room all day gets boring for Stella and me quickly. Since you brought the present, how about each of us eats a piece? We haven't had a chance to speak for a while, so would you like to sit down for a bit?” She gestured towards the chairs.

The visitors were quiet for a moment and exchanged a few concerned looks, which made Blanche uncertain. She hadn't said anything that could be misunderstood. Did they not want to spend their morning here and didn't dare to voice that? The silence continued for a while until it became unbearable to her.

“If you don't-”

Angelica opened her mouth at the same time, and the concubine interrupted herself to let the other woman finish. “We wouldn't mind doing that, but...we really shouldn't sit at the table with you.”

Blanche frowned and turned around to meet Stella's gaze.

Contrary to her mistress' expectations, the maid confirmed that her colleague's words made sense. “Angelica is right, My Lady. As servants, they theoretically shouldn't visit you without an invitation and join you at the table. Though since no one else is here, we can disregard that rule.”

George spoke up, but his expression already revealed that he wasn't convinced before he had even started. “That's not the problem. We don't want to make it seem like we don't respect you, so...” His voice trailed off, and he looked at the concubine as if he believed that she would affirm this.

However, Blanche's bewilderment only grew. “I don't understand why sitting with me is a problem all of a sudden. In the kitchen, we often did that too, and you never had a problem with it.”

Angelica refuted that. “Well, in that case, you visited our workspace on your own. Us coming to you and entering your room is a separate issue. Especially since a man is here too. We know that you nobles have a problem with that.”

To this day, it remained incomprehensible to Blanche why unrelated people of differing genders spending time together was considered to be frivolous. While it wasn't as frowned upon as it had been decades ago, many older aristocrats still wrinkled their noses when such a situation arose and advised the concerned nobles to stay away from each other to avoid ending up as unmarried. After all, they believed that no one would propose to a person who was known to interact with the opposite gender often.

The concubine didn't care one bit, much like the younger generation. “That norm doesn't even make sense. And it only mattered if two people were alone together in the first place, right? There are more than two people here, so we don't need to worry about that. Plus, you aren't nobles, and I don't care.” Darlene wanted to reply, but Blanche didn't give her a chance. “As long as no one can accuse you of breaking a rule, you can do whatever you want. How could anyone watch us here?”

Stella quickly added her own statement. “When His Majesty isn't here, I join My Lady for every meal and have done so for weeks without any problems. So, you don't need to worry about it. Besides, it would be impolite to refuse your host's request.”

That seemed to stop the others from discussing. Darlene sat down first with a muttered “Alright”, and Angelica mirrored her example after asking whether that was really fine. George was the last to join them at the table.

For a short moment, they were all quiet until Angelica raised her voice. “George? Would you hand me the knife, please?”

He did as he was asked, and while Angelica began cutting the cake, Darlene addressed Stella with a grin on her face. “The food Lady Blanche gets must be way better than the one that we always have. Of course, ours uses the same ingredients, but the chefs won't make anything special for us. There has to be a stark contrast. And you are able to live in such luxury too, huh? Is that why you won't eat breakfast with the others anymore?”

Darlene's remark had been made in a light tone, but that didn't keep Blanche from freezing in place. After she caught herself, she stiffly turned her head to Stella. “You aren't eating with the other servants anymore? I thought you loved being with them.”

The maid evaded eye contact, which proved that there was something more to this than her simply wanting to consume tastier food. Even after another moment of silence, she didn't say anything, which made her mistress question her again.

“Stella? I don't mind if you only eat with me and not a second time with the others, but why did you lie?”

It took another couple of seconds before Stella finally replied in a hesitant voice. “I didn't want to worry you, so I didn't mention it. But there is an...unpleasant person among the staff. They kept bothering me whenever I met them, and then they crossed the line a few days ago. I'm trying to avoid them, so I didn't feel happy about being forced to see that sly grin early in the morning for breakfast.”

George narrowed his eyes and spoke up. “Did he hurt you?”

Stella replied with a snort. “Of course not. He isn't nearly as clever as he thinks he is. Though I fear that I might hurt him if I have to talk to that person one more time and he is careless with his words again. I get angry just picturing his ugly face.” Having such a strong dislike for someone was unusual for Stella, but seemingly, her colleagues knew exactly who she was talking about.

The concubine would guess that she knew it too. There was just one servant that was hated this much.