#088. The Only Survivor of the Love Triangle
Perhaps it was because she hadn’t fared well the last time she ignored my advice—this time, the young lady seemed to understand me, and after I left, she obediently confessed her guilt.
What a relief. Even with all the things I have on my conscience, I didn’t want to escalate the matter.
Thus, the execution of Young Lord Masthera was entirely the Empress Dowager’s decision.
If only Lady Starte were executed, then Lady Melek—still technically his fiancée—and Young Lord Masthera would remain bound. The Melek family must have found that situation distasteful.
After all, he wasn’t just an adulterer anymore—he was an adulterer entangled in a plot to assassinate the Grand Duchess, who then attempted a double suicide with his lover.
They had insisted on not breaking the engagement until now, but to suddenly call it off at this stage would also look bad.
Besides, the Masthera family was already so ruined they needed the Melek fortune just to maintain the marriage arrangement. They had no power to object, nor any reason to save a disgraced second son who had dragged down even the last of their family’s worth.
And so, the love triangle that had plagued me endlessly ended with two of its three participants executed.
Young Lord Masthera was executed without direct proof of assassination—simply because he drank poison alongside Lady Starte. That alone was enough to make the nobles cautious, and no one dared to gossip about His Majesty, at least not openly.
All in all, considering it was a hastily staged act, my little drama produced an excellent result.
The engagement was quietly dissolved, the adultery scandal erased, and the imperial authority even strengthened a little.
Of course, nothing in the world ever goes entirely as one wishes.
“Oh my, am I late?”
As payment for my scheme, I now had to endure an unwelcome visit.
“No, you’re right on time. I simply came early so I wouldn’t keep you waiting.”
Suppressing a sigh, I turned around.
I couldn’t greet her with a radiant smile. But I couldn’t be expressionless either.
A miserable face was out of the question. My eyes had to droop slightly, and my lips—neither quite smiling nor quite flat—had to remain ambiguous.
Wearing that carefully constructed expression, I faced my visitor.
She wore a simple black dress, a gray hat, and a white veil.
“I’m glad you agreed to meet me, Your Highness. I asked, expecting you would refuse.”
“My health has been poor, so I regret not being able to answer sooner, Lady Melek.”
Half-hidden behind her veil, the only survivor of that ill-fated love triangle smiled at me.
I couldn’t tell if she was glad, sad, or barely resisting the urge to slap me.
Lady Melek’s request for an audience had come the very day after the “assassins” were executed.
Since the engagement had been left unresolved, there was the risk that the nobles’ sharpened nerves might turn their attention toward me. Though I had already recovered, I remained in bed, pretending to be ill.
And then—an audience request, not even a sickbed visit. How absurd it had felt.
If His Majesty had known, he likely would have told me to ignore it. But really, what harm was there in meeting someone once?
If Lady Melek had any sense, she wouldn’t harm me. And even if she smuggled in a dagger, I was confident I could avoid it.
So I chose to wait until the execution gossip quieted down, then accepted Lady Melek’s request.
The meeting place was a small temple outside the palace.
The Retile Empire and the Jin Empire shared few similarities, but one thing they had in common was that religion held little power. Yet, the way religion permeated daily life differed.
In Jin, religion retreated into the mountains, separating itself from worldly affairs. In Retile, it scattered into small shrines and temples nestled around homes.
Thus, in the capital there were several small temples like this one—quiet enough, if timed well, to be used for secret meetings.
I had learned this fact while investigating the affair between Lady Starte and Young Lord Masthera. Now, I found myself using it to meet their victim. The irony was not lost on me.
“Another place would have been fine, you know.”
“Oh no, I always wanted to see this temple. But without a reason, everyone would stop me.”
Indeed, this very temple had been used for their trysts.
That she wanted to see the site of her fiancé’s secret rendezvous was something I could never understand.
Still, though I had played no part in Young Lord Masthera’s sentence, the justification for it had been tied to me.
So I decided not only to meet Lady Melek but to humor this incomprehensible whim of hers.
“Then I shall assume I was merely your excuse to come here.”
“Oh, not at all. To disregard etiquette and presumptuously request an audience with Your Highness while you were unwell—how could that be just an excuse?”
She extended her arm slightly, as if to suggest we walk together. Strictly speaking, I was more used to being the one offering an escort, but given our height difference, it probably looked better for her to lead.
I obediently took her arm and followed her steps.
From the signs of use, this temple wasn’t abandoned—but it was very quiet.
“I’ve long wished to thank you, Your Highness.”
For a moment, I thought I had misheard her. Then I wondered if she was being sarcastic.
“Everyone told me breaking off the engagement was the wisest choice. Or else they told me to be patient and wait for Ellend to return. But I heard it was only Your Highness who spoke up, insisting Ellend and Lady Starte be separated.”
Ellend—that was Young Lord Masthera’s name.
To hear words of thanks for that now, after his execution—it was difficult to take sincerely.
If she’d said it a month earlier, I might have believed her.
…No. If she had thanked me then, I would have thought it a request to meddle even more in their affairs.
“It was nothing worthy of thanks.”
The words left my lips automatically, but inside I felt the tangled mess of my own thoughts.
I had been given a new life, yet was living it the same way as before.
I hadn’t hated my past life, but neither had I been so satisfied that I’d longed to live it again. And yet, here I was, repeating it.
Had the first mistake been when the Emperor cast his gaze on me?
Or was the true turning point when I accepted the role of his “playmate,” or when I entered into dealings with the Empress Dowager? I could no longer tell.
At times like this, I wondered if life itself was just a wheel of fate, turning me back to the same patterns no matter what.
Why couldn’t I live differently, even in a new life? Was the problem truly me, all along?
“I know it’s hard to take at face value, but my gratitude is sincere.”
Perhaps my answer had been too mechanical. Lady Melek stopped and turned to face me.
Still that ambiguous attire—mourning clothes, or perhaps not. At least she didn’t seem to be hiding a dagger.
“Yes, I believe you. I only regret that things turned out this way.”
“For that, I offer my deepest apologies.”
She gave a wry smile. Strictly speaking, Young Lord Masthera had been executed for “aiding Lady Starte’s crime.” It wasn’t my doing.
So even if the assassination attempt truly had been Lady Starte’s idea, there was no reason Lady Melek should be apologizing to me.
“You have nothing to apologize for, Lady Melek.”
I spoke honestly. Her expression shifted curiously.
Tilting her head, she looked deep into my eyes—as if she could know me that way.
If all it took was eye contact to truly see a person, the world would be simple indeed. I couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle.
“…It seems you’re not upset at all.”
“Why would I be upset?”
I hadn’t been betrayed. Lady Starte and I weren’t so close that her attempt to poison me would wound me emotionally.
The culprits hadn’t escaped justice—they were punished.
If anything, sentencing them to death for a failed attempt was excessive.
Had Liana not labeled it “an attempted assassination of the Grand Duchess,” and had the culprits not been the troublesome Lady Starte and Young Lord Masthera, the verdict might not have been so severe.
And since I had carefully measured the poison dosage, I had no lingering aftereffects. Why, then, should I feel upset?
Lady Melek tilted her head lightly, gazing up at the sky with a strange smile before returning her eyes to me.
“Ah, now I understand Your Highness’s reputation.”
“My reputation? You mean the one that calls me a peculiar oddity?”
“No.”
It had been a joke, but she didn’t take it that way.
“They say you seem touched by a fleeting air, as if you don’t quite belong to this world.”
In a way, they weren’t wrong. After all, I was still dragging around a life from fifteen hundred years ago.
“If that’s true, then perhaps… perhaps you might understand how I feel…”
“If it’s only idle musings, Lady Melek, it may be better to keep them to yourself.”
I meant the advice sincerely, but she laughed softly, as if I were joking.
Why was it that people mistook my jokes for seriousness, and my sincerity for jokes? I would never understand.
“Regardless, I truly am grateful to you, Your Highness.”
Linked arm in arm, we stood very close.
And since she had leaned so near earlier to peer into my eyes, Lady Melek’s voice—though soft—was perfectly clear to me.
“For everything. Even the verdict of the trial.”
