I’ll Quit as The Empress

What happened now? The two men thought the same thing. It was fortunate that Liam’s father and the Emperor didn’t participate here.

“Why, you want to say that because of my bad behavior I got divorced and act like a wild horse?”

“······I never said that.” Serus wiped his face with a napkin. His face was stony with embarrassment.

“Didn’t you learn that from your brother?”

“I’m not close to my brother.” Serus said. But, his sincere answer made Rebecca very irritated.

“Hah, do you think that I’m now talking about your relationship?”

At her question, Serus blinked his again. Because in truth, he had little contact with his older brother since he grew up as Fabian’s close friend since he was a child.

“People in Perth say, if you drink alcohol, you will lose your memory, is it true? ” Rebecca asked with a cold voice.

Serus had little interaction with his family since he joined the Black Hawk Knights, so this situation somehow was so unfair to him.

“Oh! It’s because you don’t have a girlfriend. Which damn lady do you like, or do you like an opera theater singer as well?”

Her ex-husband had been such a bad memory to Rebecca. He blamed her for her slowness, but he bravely enough not to hide his affair. She was profoundly offended by the fact that Serus, who knew everything about his affair, dared to lift his head and sit in front of her like nothing happened.

“It was my mistake to call your name recklessly. I apologize if you were offended.” Serus raised himself up, and there was no more anger in him. “And I… really didn’t learn anything from my brother. Honestly, I didn’t want to learn anything from him.”

Rebecca suddenly became awkward. She wished at first that she could get mad at Serus, as she did with her ex-husband. Serus’s calm reaction, however, made her look like a crazy woman.

“I’m sorry for your divorce. I know it’s my brother’s fault.” Serus still wiped the wine’s drip and quietly said it. “My mother, Duchess Perth, and everyone in the world knows who’s to blame. If there are rumors that annoy you, it’s a fool’s word, so don’t mind it.”

Rebecca was now looking at Serus, frowning her eyebrows.

“At least, if my mother and I hear the false rumor, we promise to correct it.”

Liam had already kept an eye on the late situation, seeking to find the right timing to interrupt.

“The bad one is my brother. I know it well.”

Rebecca suddenly had lost her vocabulary.

“I apologize once again for being irresponsible in calling your name.”

Besides, the longer Serus spoke, the more he was able to block people’s mouths. To the point that Rebecca felt it was her fault to be called by that name.

“However, since it is my task to serve His Majesty, I can’t leave his side… So I hope you understand.” Serus bowed his head to Rebecca. He was the Emperor’s close aide, the head of Black Hawk Knights, and Perth’s son. Nevertheless, he lowered his head gently to Rebecca without any hesitation.

“Then, ······.”

What’s more shocking was that instead of leaving, Serus sat back in his chair. He finished using a napkin to clean the wine and picked up the dishes.

“I’m sorry, the dinner interrupt because of me. Let’s keep eating.”

Liam nearly opened half his mouth wide. He felt lost, and with a side glance, he looked at Rebecca. If Serus had protested something, he would have been angrier, but he couldn’t say anything about him when he behaved like this.

“Liam, I’m not feeling well, so I’m going back. As a Duke, you should entertain our guests.”

Rebecca barely said that. She then turned around and disappeared. There were only two men left for this wrong dinner, and Liam deeply regretted the meeting.

“Sir Serus…… what the hell are you thinking?”

“Yes?”

“No, I do not understand, no matter how hard I try. Is it possible to eat now?”

“Can you not?”

Serus wasn’t sarcastic, but purely asking back. He was a strong enemy that Liam had never encountered before.

“She’s my sister, but a while ago, she did too much. I’m sure you’ve got feelings.”

But Serus remained calm, “Oh, …..It’s all right, I lived as His Majesty’s aide, and there were a lot of humiliating moments, and I’m used to it because there are so many people who are upset about my brother already.”

“That much?”

“He’s a very competent man as a Duke, but in his private life he’s a very ‘noisy’ guy.”

It was as if he were talking about the story of someone else.

“The fact I was born after him can’t be helped ….”

“Well, you weren’t born that way because you wanted to.” Liam silently whispered to himself, and their eyes met.

“I understand, there is a lot of unfairness in the case of my brother.”

“Sir Serus…..You’re different from people’s prejudice.” Liam turned his head. But there was no sign of Rebecca.

“I can’t help it. People’s prejudice against me because they see me as half-my brother and half-His Majesty.”

That was one of Serus’s sufferings. His older brother, who had already made Perth’s son’s image, become bad. As Fabian’s close friend, he also had no choice but to give the impression that he was a cold-blooded man.

“That means you don’t want to.”

“Well …… I honestly don’t mean anything.”

Unconsciously, Liam nodded his head in sympathy for his situation.

“I think it’s best to stay in the Empire as it is. All I can do is hope that His Majesty will return quickly this time.” Serus confided after he heard Liam’s encouraging response.

“In that respect, I agree, our hopes are the same.”

“Is that so?”

“Sir ….. If I can do anything to help, please tell me.”

“Then, one thing that you can do is pay attention to………”

So, the interests of the two men, which resembled water and oil, were balanced unexpectedly.

★★★

As Fabian had said, the trade routes with the Empire had returned to normal. There was also good news from Agriculture in the southern country that the medicines supplied by Fabian had succeeded in eradicating crop diseases. While it was not a good thing, it was lucky Fabian was able to stop here.

Above all, Evelyn’s quick judgment was able to procure scarce food from the East, so this year would pass safely. And she also released an order, as finance minister, to exclude the affected farmer from taxes.

“I can feel relaxed now ……”

“Thanks to you, many people must have relieved from their worries.”

The day after having dinner with Serus, Rebecca left the Duke’s residence and remained at the royal palace. She was regarded as a member of the Royal Family from the very beginning, so it was normal for her to go back and forth in the palace.

“But Rebecca. Is it alright if you’re not going back to the Duke’s residence?”

“Are you tired of me?” Rebecca’s face clouded at once.

‘No, I like you….., but I’m a little worried about people who coming from the Duke of Akshire twice a day to find Rebecca.’

And it was burdensome. But Evelyn couldn’t say that to Rebecca.

“It’s all right. Don’t worry about it.”

“That…… Sir Liam is looking for you…….”

“Oh, you can ignore him.”

Suddenly it occurred to her that she didn’t see Liam these days. Evelyn was sure that he must feel like dying every day since he needed to take care of Fabian and Serus, the two most troubling men.

“Do you feel uncomfortable with Sir Serus?”

“Why me? He’s the one who should be uncomfortable not me.”

“Ah yes, yes, you’re right ….”

Evelyn wondered, what the hell had happened that day? Because Rebecca stayed in her place for two days without opening her mouth.

“Did Sir Serus……have done something wrong? Oh, for him to go to the Duke of Akshire was already rude.”

“You think he’s rude? He doesn’t have feelings , emotions, no principles, no pride!”

Evelyn simply didn’t have a good impression of Serus. He was always like Fabian’s shadow. In front of Evelyn, the Empress, he never spoke or disclosed his personal thoughts.

“I don’t know what kind of person Sir Serus is. How many times I will say that I have no idea whatsoever.”

“That’s what I mean. Oh, my God, I poured wine on his face and I hated his expression. What kind of man is he?”

Evelyn’s eyes shook all of a sudden. What’d happened at dinner on earth? What was Rebecca doing?

“He apologized easily. And he admitted that his brother is a bastard.” Rebecca’s words were harsh, but her expression didn’t seem angry.

“I think he’s a better person than I thought.”

Rebecca glanced at Evelyn’s cautious words and bit her lower lips. “I’m pissed about that.”

It was also true that Rebecca’s temper was terrible and that she acted rude sometimes. However, she wasn’t a ‘hard’ woman nor a woman who didn’t want to admit her mistake.

“I thought he was the same bad guy as his brother, because he’s a son of Perth, but he’s not!”

“Because the brothers are not all alike.”

” ….And thanks to him, I think I’ve become a crazy woman.”

Rebecca muttered in despair. As time went by, her head cooled down, and her prejudice was cleared. She realized that she had committed something dishonorable. But Serus’ reaction was kind, and It was proof that he was totally different from her ex-husband.

“I need to apologise, right?”

“Maybe Sir Serus doesn’t care at all.”

“It looks like that. But I don’t want to be the same person as my ex. He was a human who didn’t apologize when a knife got in his neck. He didn’t even think about, or admitted he was wrong. I thought all men in the Empire were like that.”

Evelyn had often believed so. Even Rebecca’s ex-husband didn’t know his fault and didn’t even want to think about it. But Fabian, whom she met not long ago, wanted to know his faults. And he tried to fix it.

“That’s right. Sometimes we don’t really know about a person.” Evelyn patted Rebecca on the shoulder. Rebecca nodded as if she had decided something.

“I have to apologize for being mad. Of course, only for the rudeness!”

“It was….only wine that you poured?”

Rebecca, who noticed Evelyn’s worries about whether abuse might have happened, looked at her with a sweet expression.

“The only person I hit is Liam.”

Only

“Oh, I see.”

The hot temper Rebecca, she was already getting ready to go back to Duke’s residence.

“God, I hated it because when I went to my house, I had to see that awful thing.”

In recent days, when Evelyn talked about the Duke, Rebecca said she didn’t want to go back because she didn’t want to see something terrible.

“But you now know that Lord Serus is not a bad guy,” Evelyn said. But Rebecca opened her eyes wide, “What? Sir Serus? I wasn’t talking about him.”

“Don’t you know? That creature that I hate right now… ···· Oh, it’s terrible. It’s terrible anyway!”

Evelyn obviously misunderstood the situation a little bit.