Apparently, someone had stolen the empress' jewelry and placed it inside Blanche's and her maid's room. Now Seraphina's attendant accused Stella of being a thief, which certainly posed a big issue.

Blanche paled when she heard that. There was no way that Stella had stolen jewelry from anyone. Her maid wasn't the type of person that would do something like that. For what reason? No one could take the empress' belongings and get away with it. It was obvious that that would be discovered rather sooner than later. The concubine opened her mouth to refute all of this, but Seraphina already continued.

“Lady Blanche, there is no need to defend your maid. I did not believe that she or you were guilty for one second. This is an obvious plot by our enemies, but it seems like some people refuse to understand despite me telling them to quieten down multiple times.” The empress gave her maids an annoyed look, which proved that she was done with this whole situation.

Theodore was quiet for a moment before speaking up. “And despite them being so loyal to you, they didn't manage to shut up and listen to you once? That is disappointing.” He looked at the two maids, who were cowering under his gaze. “I hope that you have a better reason than saying that those things were in their rooms when it comes to such serious accusations. Speak up.”

It almost sounded like a threat, which was why one of the attendants didn't even dare to open her mouth. The second maid, the more confident one, was shaking too, but she replied even if it was in an uncertain voice. “Your Majesty, there is no doubt that those items were placed in the rooms of Lady Blanche and Stella. The obvious conclusion is that they were the ones that stole them. What else would make sense?”

Theodore sighed and hid his face behind his hand. “You really don't use your brain to question this even once.” He lowered his hand and stared at the maid with icy hatred in his eyes, which suddenly didn't remind Blanche of the calming sea but a raging storm instead. “This is the simplest scheme anyone could have used. You steal things and put them in someone else's room. Then you coincidentally reveal that something disappeared and lead the investigation to the person you want to get rid of. Even a toddler could imitate this by blaming their younger sibling when something is broken. If you think about it like this, all of you are even more suspicious than anyone else. You had free access to the empress' rooms after all.”

The maid's face got red at that, and she seemed to lose some of her composure. “We would never dare to touch Her Majesty's things. Of course, one can always see it from another angle, but we can't disregard the facts. A witness saw her at Her Majesty's room.” She pointed at Stella, who narrowed her eyes at that.

The emperor turned to Stella and spoke up in a tone that was a bit gentler but still not really kind. “Did you ever enter the empress' chambers without permission or retrieve her personal belongings?”

Stella met his gaze with determination in her eyes. “I did not, Your Majesty. I have no interest in stealing things for my personal gain. If I did, I would have taken My Lady's items to which I have free access almost all the time. I was raised in the palace, Your Majesty. That I never took anything in the past years should prove my loyalty. Naturally, My Lady would also never steal anything, so these accusations are baseless.”

Seraphina's maid lost her temper at that. “Don't act so innocent! All of us know that-”

Theodore cut her off. “Did I ask you to speak?” He silenced the woman with that. He remained silent and tapped his fingers on the table for a moment before resuming. “It is quite obvious that it wouldn't make sense for a maid that was raised in the royal palace to suddenly become greedy overnight. Especially since her mistress has enough jewelry so that she barely remembers which pieces she has worn already. It would be easy to take some items, but this maid never did that. Why would she go to the empress's room, risk being seen and steal things that will obviously be missed? That must seem strange to all of you.”

Blanche wanted to stay quiet, but she couldn't hold back. “Exactly! Stella would never take anything that isn't hers. She was in my dressing rooms often enough and never even touched anything unless I told her to bring it to me or it had to be cleaned. I know her better than all of you. None of you ever talked to her for more than a minute, so you have no right to judge her. But she's been at my side ever since I came to the palace. Obviously, I know that she is innocent.” She had been a little louder than she had wanted to and only paused to keep herself from yelling when Theodore patted her back. But she still couldn't close her mouth. If Stella was blamed for this, the maid would have to leave the palace. There was no way that Blanche could let that happen. “Stella could never have done that either. She is with me at all times. When she is waiting by the door because I'm with Theo, Owen is with her. When would she have stolen anything without people watching? And why would the guards at the empress' room have let her in?”

Seraphina used a short pause to speak up as she turned to her maids. “Did you hear that? Both Lady Blanche and Sir Maillont are witnesses that prove that this maid cannot be the perpetrator. Is that enough for you, or do you insist on bringing up this topic again and again?”

The more brazen maid shook her head vigorously. “You can't just give up because of some excuses, Your Majesty! Your things were stolen, and those people here are obviously the perpetrators!” She pointed at Stella and then Blanche. Seemingly, Theodore's expression was enough to convince her to drop her arm immediately. Still, she didn't stay silent. “Sir Maillont surely didn't stay with her the whole night! She could have done it while he was sleeping. And Lady Blanche could have been sleeping too. Or she could have-”

The emperor interrupted her with a wave of his hand. “If our logic is impossible for you to follow, we will play your game for a moment. Keep in mind that I am only doing this because I won't let you slander my fiancée though. Normally, I would never discuss matters like this with anyone, but I want to make it clear. People are using you to harm the empress, and you aren't even noticing it. So, I will give my best to explain it until you understand. Let's assume that this maid magically managed to enter the empress' room and leave with jewelry not once but multiple times.” He paused and scanned the expressions of Seraphina's attendants. “Why would she do that? Give me one logical reason why she would go through the trouble of going into a room she isn't allowed to enter to retrieve jewelry. Her mistress' belongings would have been open to her, so why would she try something so dangerous?”

The quiet maid lowered her gaze to the floor and looked like she wanted to cry.

The other maid, however, was happy to speak up even if her confidence had already been dented quite a bit. “That is because Lady Blanche wanted her to steal Her Majesty's jewelry. She ordered her maid to do it.”

The concubine narrowed her eyes at that, and she could swear that the maid almost flinched at that. That might have rather been because of her lover though.

Theodore put less effort into hiding his anger, and slowly but surely, his wrath seemed to ooze out of his aura. The atmosphere within the room had been horrible before, and now it was even worse. Right now, the emperor was still speaking calmly, but it felt like this might change every second. “I will once again remind you that accusing my lover of something like this will displease me more than you can imagine. But for the sake of making you understand, let us discuss that too. Why would Blanche need anyone else's thing? She has countless accessories already. She always says that she has too many, and she never even had the chance to wear all of them. I keep showering her with gifts, so I would know that those are of the finest quality.” He wouldn't have needed to sound so intimidating, but he continued in a tone that would make any sane person cower while underlining his favor quite openly. “Ever since Blanche came here, I only bought things with the intention of giving them to her, so I would never choose leftovers. Aside from the fact that Blanche would never steal, she also has no reason to do so. Why would she risk creating trouble when one word is enough for me to buy everything she could imagine in her wildest dreams? I'm serious about getting her whatever she wants, and she knows that. She doesn't need the empress' things, and settling for old jewelry that belonged to someone else wouldn't make any sense.”

Blanche could only nod while he was speaking but kept her mouth closed. She didn't want to snap at the maid, so she would restrain herself for a bit. Yelling probably wouldn't de-escalate the situation, and she hoped that it would be over soon.

After all, she was well aware that a single word from her could lead to more than a fight in this situation. If Theodore thought that this person upset her too much, he might throw the maid out of the palace despite Seraphina's attempts to stop it. If the people here were thinking clearly, they would try to calm the emperor down before it came to that.

But the empress' maid had another thing in mind. “But she doesn't have those exact pieces of jewelry! They were handmade for Her Majesty. And Lady Blanche also doesn't have a tiara!”

Blanche was starting to get annoyed with this. Couldn't that person listen for once? She spoke up before she could think about it. “I do.”

That made the maid look at her in shock before anger filled her.

Theodore, who just got more annoyed, groaned quietly before responding. “Exactly. Let's take one step after the other. Blanche's things are handmade for her too. Don't you think she would choose things she likes herself so that the custom items will match what she favors? She has a very different taste in jewelry than the empress does. Blanche likes accessories and dresses with way more decorations. She loves the things that attract anyone's eyes and twinkle in the sun. She adores all the things the empress dislikes. Why would she think about taking your mistress' things then? I would even go this far and say that Blanche's belongings are way more valuable. She has more accessories than the empress as well. So, your reasoning isn't logical. And like she said, she does own some tiaras. I bought her at least five by now, but there may be ten as well. Do you want to know the reason why you never found out? Because she didn't wear them. And she did that out of respect for the empress. But you had no idea, did you?”

The maid balled her fists, and her expression showed that she was slowly getting desperate. “But this isn't just because of the jewelry! It's because of the things connected with it. That woman always wanted to claim Her Majesty's position! And now she tries to do it by taking small items first, and you support that by trusting her blindly.”

Theodore laughed at that. There was no happiness in his tone and only bitter fury. It sounded terrifying even to Blanche. When he stopped, he still put on a fake smile that only made him seem even more intimidating. “That is ridiculous. Why would she need to compete with anyone or wish for another position when she obviously has an advantage? Name one thing the empress has and my angel hasn't. Even if there was something, which I'm sure there isn't, Blanche would only need to ask me for it, and I would give it to her. No matter what it is. Besides...” His smile widened a bit as he stared the maid right in the eyes.“You forgot about something rather simple. You don't need to claim things that will be offered to you and be yours in the near future. Correct?”

By the gods. That sounded quite wrong.

Blanche furrowed her brows a bit as she looked at her lover and opened her mouth to point that out, but she wasn't quick enough. Her attention was already pulled back to the empress' attendant, who didn't plan to end this even now.

The maid slowly seemed to understand that she wouldn't win this discussion and spoke anyway, her arms extended in a wide gesture while despair crept into her voice. “Isn't this whole conversation completely one-sided? Your Majesty, you cannot always judge based on your feelings! You defend her even when she commits crimes and is found guilty.” She was the one saying that.

Blanche hated being accused of crimes she hadn't committed, of course she did. So, she snapped back this time, letting her anger increase the volume of her voice a bit. “That is funny coming from you. You keep blaming me when you have no proof that I actually took those things. You just hate me enough to want me to be guilty. It doesn't work like that though. If you think about it seriously, you would be the first suspects. You were the ones having free access to Her Majesty's belongings, and you hate me enough to wish to get rid of me, so you might as well have brought those items to my room.”

Of course, the maid didn't like hearing that. She seemed even more upset than before. “I would never do that! I have been serving Her Majesty ever since she came here, and I never betrayed her! You cannot blame this on me.” She whirled around again, tears appearing in her eyes by now. “Your Majesty, please listen to us. What if Lady Blanche really was responsible here? Would you still protect her?”

Yes. That was quite obvious.

And Theodore proved that immediately. He put one of his hands on the back of his lover's head and stroked over her hair while addressing the maid, this time without a fake smile. “I have to admit that I would protect her no matter what. She could do whatever she wanted to, and I would legalize it by changing the law. But in this case, there isn't a guilty party within the palace. It's plain to see. You are just desperately clinging to a version of the story that fits your tastes. If Blanche was as vile as you believe her to be, you wouldn't be standing here. Don't you believe that one word of her would be enough to make me throw you out?”

He finally made the obvious thing known to everyone.

The maid froze at that. She glanced at the concubine, who met her gaze with an expression that betrayed her anger, before lowering her eyes to the floor.

Blanche had to admit that she was quite angry with this maid now. She usually wouldn't insist on anyone being blamed harshly when they had such valid reasons to believe her to be guilty. In this case, the maid's persistence had ruined it though. At this point, Blanche was so upset that she felt like a punishment was in order. After all, this maid didn't listen to the empress despite being asked to stop numerous times, challenged the emperor and even accused another noble of thievery. This wasn't something you could just sweep under a rug.

Theodore seemed to think that too. He didn't even give that maid another chance before speaking up. “Now you are awfully silent. It seems like you are beginning to see that you are walking on thin ice. But let's return to the original topic. Why does it not make sense for Blanche to be behind this? If all of these reasons don't convince you, let me ask something.” He turned to the empress. “When did the items disappear?”

Seraphina clenched her jaw before speaking up. “Your Majesty, please forgive my maid for this. She doesn't wish to-” She cut herself off when she saw the emperor's expression. “I do not know when they disappeared. But I assume that it was about a week ago since we went through the jewelry before Prince Linden's arrival, and nothing was missing there.”

Theodore heard everything he had been interested in and immediately shifted his attention back to the maid. “Now then. Please tell me why those things would be in Blanche's chambers. She hasn't been in her room for the last three months. Ever since the poisoning, she avoided going there. Oh, wait. We were there once on my birthday, and I accompanied her. She didn't touch anything but the butterfly ornament, which I gifted to her, that day. Apart from that time, she never returned to her chambers because she sleeps in my room and stores most of her things there too.” Technically, they had also been in her room as Blanche had told him about her past, but he didn't seem to mention this. It didn't matter for his line of arguments anyway. “Why would she steal things and risk being found out just to hide them at a place she won't visit? It doesn't make much sense to me. Let me guess. The items also weren't hidden properly but placed on the bed or the nightstand so that you would find them quickly.”

The maid didn't speak up this time. She just stared at the floor with tears brimming in her eyes. She had truly been convinced that the concubine was troubling her beloved mistress again and wanted to defend Seraphina. But now, she noticed that she had been misled the whole time. It was almost a bit sympathy-inducing.

It seemed like Blanche just couldn't see others cry, or she would wish to help them. In fact, it felt like she would have to do that now too. She did want that maid to be punished, but her lover might overdo it without her intervention.

Theodore glared at the maid with an expression that could only mean that he wasn't pleased. And he made it very clear that he wouldn't keep quiet about things like this. As soon as he opened his mouth, he proved that he was extremely upset once again. “It should be obvious that you will not be forgiven without a punishment. You entered Blanche's room without permission and the one of her maid too. You probably ignored some guard's instructions to do that as well. Both are not well received in the palace. But that is the last thing you need to worry about. You are aware that Blanche is my fiancée, correct? Falsely accusing royalty of a crime can be punished by execution in some cases, are you aware of that? Aside from that, you personally made me angry by accusing my lover over and over again despite me giving you multiple chances and reasons to drop it. What should I do about this now?”

The maid paled at that. She fiddled her fingers as she closed her eyes and seemingly just hoped for it to be over. “I...I'm sorry.” That was a weak argument against the furious emperor.

Theodore narrowed his eyes at the woman. But he didn't address her and merely turned to his lover. “You were the one being accused here, so the punishment will be based on your decision.” That was good. “But personally, I think it's about time that I throw them out. Those maids disrespected you for too long. I don't feel like keeping them here any longer. They obviously don't care about logic and the loyalty they should show to a member of the royal family.” That was not good.

Before the concubine could say anything, the maid that had been quiet until now made a move. The servant fell to her knees and began crying. “We apologize, Your Majesty! Please don't throw us out. We never wanted to blame an innocent person. There was a witness that saw Stella at the door!”

Theodore seemingly didn't care about that display at all and replied in an indifferent tone. “That witness was Harris, am I right? There is one thing you need to know about that though. He is on our list of the people that are suspected to work with our enemies. With the second prince, to be more exact.”

The maids froze at that, and Blanche whipped her head around to her lover. The concubine's mouth fell open as she tried to process what her lover had said. There was no way, right? Harris wasn't a good person and liked to trouble others, but why would he work together with someone that threatened to kill the emperor?

The maids, who were friends with that servant, seemed to have even more trouble understanding that. The louder one lifted her head and spoke up again. “There is no way! He would never wish to go against you, Your Majesty! We've been friends with him for years and-”

Theodore cut her off. “I know. Don't bother with the circumstances. We will take care of it. He isn't doing it of his own volition. That is all I can say. You will obviously need to keep quiet about this, but we found out a while ago.”

Blanche could just sit on her lover's lap and blink as memories rushed through her head. She remembered a conversation between Harris and Cedar, the one in the pavilion. It had sounded like the servant despised the prince as much as she did. So, why would he help him? If it wasn't due to his free will, there was only one other choice. It only took her another second before the words of that day sounded in her head again.

Cedar had blackmailed Harris, hadn't he? He had said something about another person coming to harm if the servant didn't fulfill his orders.

The concubine finally understood why Harris had looked so tired for the past months and why he had warned her about the prince. Before she could help herself, she spoke up. “He is being blackmailed, right? I heard him talk with Cedar, but I didn't think much of it back then.”

Theodore gently ran his fingers through her hair. “Of course, you would find out so quickly. You are way too clever.” He pressed a kiss onto her head before resuming. “Harris is forced to follow that person's orders right now, but he gave his best to make us notice. He openly reveals that he is running errands for Cedar, makes mistakes in hopes of getting fired and hinted at this on some occasions. He is doing what he can so that we will corner him before a possibly harmful order comes. Seemingly, he worried about telling us himself since he fears that some other servants might reveal it to Cedar. Or he thinks that my brother can lie better than he can. Harris may be a good actor, but he has his limits too. It's just good that we found out. I am rather sure that he was the one responsible for bringing the items to the according rooms.” The emperor made a short pause to underline his following words. “After all, he has recently been seen entering Blanche's room with a strange box. Upon checking what it was later, the guards found some jewelry and decided to leave it there since they thought that it was a present. I thought about taking it out, but I assumed that something like this would happen, so I wanted to make sure. Apparently, I was right about that being the empress' jewelry. The remaining necklace is probably one of the unwanted gifts Cedar sent to make it seem like Blanche would freely wear something that was stolen from the empress. It's a petty scheme. Just something my little brother would try when he wants to get back at me for ruining his chances with Linden.”

The maid that was still kneeling on the floor was still speechless at that.

The second maid spoke up though. “So, Harris was ordered to lie by the second prince to make us accuse Lady Blanche? And he stole the things? But...how... How could he enter all those rooms? And why would His Royal Highness want us to blame Lady Blanche?” She sounded so desperate that the concubine's anger was almost fully replaced by pity now.

Still, Theodore sounded as unimpressed as always when he responded. “They need me to divorce. They want my throne, so they will have to kill me. And they have to prevent an empress from existing at that time because there might be discussions about her taking over when Cedar is rumored to be responsible for my death. They won't take that risk, and killing another person would make their plot obvious while also being difficult due to our countless guards. Causing a divorce is much easier. For example, through this incident. It was obvious that I would be on Blanche's side in this situation no matter what. If the empress believed her to be the culprit, she wouldn't be happy. They hoped that this, along with all the other things that will come up with, would strain the empress' relationship with me so much that she would insist on divorcing me.” He averted his eyes while continuing and gazed to the side of the room. “And you should know how popular Harris is. He can easily ask one of his countless friends for a favor and claim that he needs to clean something, and he will be let in no matter how secure that place is. That popularity and his way with words are exactly why Cedar wants to use him.”

Seraphina finally spoke up again as she walked over to her maids. “Do you understand now? I wished to explain that to you too, but you never listened. There never was a reason to blame anyone without considering whether someone else may have been involved too. I know that you did not wish to harm anyone with this, but you repeatedly accused innocent people.” She turned to the emperor and did her best to keep her expression stoic, but her tension was visible. “Your Majesty, please allow me to deal with their punishments by myself. I will make sure that they apologize properly and will reflect on their actions for a long time.”

Theodore let out a snort. “I know how close you are to them. Will you really give them a serious punishment? I doubt it.”

The empress was silent for a moment and pressed her lips into a thin line before responding. “I promise that I will treat them as I would treat any other servant. They will not make a mistake again. I am asking you with all of my sincerity, please allow me to deal with this.” She was desperate. That much was obvious. She probably feared that her servants might really have to leave the palace. “Please, Your Majesty.”

Before Theodore could respond, the standing maid also fell down to her knees. “Please forgive me! I apologize from the bottom of my heart! I didn't pay attention to reality and insisted on spreading baseless lies. But I only did that because I believed it to be true! I trusted the evidence I saw when I should have thought about it before jumping to conclusions. I will never make such an error ever again. Please give me another chance, I will never bother you again! I'm sorry, Lady Blanche! Please forgive me! I never wanted to do anything that could help the prince. I only wanted to help Her Majesty. Please...”

Now she apologized to Blanche despite being so brazen before? That required courage too. And now the concubine would have to come up with a good reply to this. Great.