Chapter : 03
Just as it had been in the past, the palace was filled with the Duke of Abihi’s people.
From Jann, her aide, to the attendants, cooks, and even the gardeners.
Of all the people Rete encountered on her way to the bedroom, there wasn’t a single one who wasn’t connected to the Duke of Abihi.
“I can hardly believe I get to see Your Majesty here in the royal palace… I, Lil, am truly overwhelmed. This is the home you’ve returned to after twelve long years, so please don’t think about anything today and get plenty of rest.”
‘Well, it’s hardly surprising. Even Lil, the maid who accompanied me throughout my life in the Empire, belongs to the Duke.’
Rete’s eyes grew cold as she looked at Lil.
The night before she was scheduled to have tea with Alburn Abihi, Lil had come to her and suddenly handed her a letter of resignation.
‘I really want Your Majesty to approve my resignation…’
Lil had said that she would leave her position as a maid after her tea time with Alburn Abihi.
At the time, Rete hadn’t understood why she was leaving so suddenly, but now she knew.
Lil had already known what was going to happen during that tea time.
“I thought you, at least, wouldn’t betray me…”
Rather than anger at the betrayal, a deep sadness washed over her.
Lil had been the one person who had helped Rete endure her horrific life as a hostage.
The fact that someone she had trusted and relied upon like a sister for twenty-two years had tried to kill her was excruciating.
But this was no time to wallow in such emotions.
“Lil.”
“Yes?”
Lil, who had been looking around Rete’s bedroom, approached her.
The brown eyes looking up at Rete were filled with joy.
Lil really did seem happy about Rete’s return.
Had this been before her regression, Rete probably would have been completely fooled by Lil.
‘But I won’t be fooled anymore.’
After all, Lil had been the one who personally brought Rete the poisoned tea.
“Is there anything you need, Your Majesty?”
Rete intended to cut her off slowly. Very slowly. She had given Lil far too much of her heart to simply cast her aside at once.
So, rather than hurt herself, she would use Lil for as long as she could.
And once Lil had served her purpose, she would coldly discard her.
“Bring me a pen and some paper.”
Until that moment came, she intended to keep Lil by her side.
After receiving the pen and paper from Lil, Rete sent everyone else out of the room.
She sat down at the desk and began organizing her thoughts in writing.
Before her regression, she had failed to gain the support of the nobles.
They had been afraid of retaliation from the House of Abihi.
In the end, she had tried to create a new power base, and she had chosen merchants for that role.
As long as they could fill the empty royal treasury, she had not cared about their nationality or social status.
That had made the kingdom wealthy, and even the Cornelli Empire, which had mocked her for associating with commoners, could no longer look down on the kingdom.
She had protected the country by piling up gold.
“I never imagined they would destroy it from within.”
Her mistake had been watching only for foreign enemies and overlooking the enemy right under her nose.
That mistake had led to her death, and with her death, the tower of gold she had painstakingly built had crumbled.
At the hands of Alburn Abihi.
Rete’s pen stopped as she wrote the name Alburn Abihi.
‘I will protect this country, so do not worry.’
She remembered his shameless final words.
Protect the country?
If he had truly cared about the country, he should not have interfered with everything she tried to do, and above all, he should never have killed her.
After her death, Arvey had no one capable of protecting the wealth that had served as the kingdom’s shield.
It was fortunate that time had turned back. Had events continued as they had, it was painfully obvious that Cornelli, desperate to plunder Arvey once again, would have seized the kingdom’s wealth.
“What a bastard.”
Rete muttered under her breath and drew a line through Alburn’s name.
She knew how to protect the country.
Therefore, she needed to lay the groundwork to make that protection even more secure.
First, she had to get rid of Alburn.
To do that, she needed to create nobles who would risk everything to take her side.
‘But how?’
The longer she pondered, the more dots appeared on the paper.
Then, abruptly, the pen tip that had been tapping against the paper came to a stop.
“…Marriage.”
The greed of nobles was always beyond imagination, so there would certainly be those who coveted the position of royal consort.
Especially among families that had once wielded power comparable to that of the House of Abihi.
The kingdom’s royal consort, the husband of a powerless queen.
It was a position that might allow a noble family to drive out the House of Abihi and inherit its power.
It was obvious how sweet such a position would look in the eyes of the nobles.
Marrying a queen who was under the Duke’s scrutiny meant boarding the same ship as her.
If they tried to get off that ship halfway through, death would be the only outcome.
The family of the royal consort would have no choice but to support her.
As luck would have it, there was a royal council meeting scheduled for tomorrow morning.
That would be the starting point.
The starting point for making things different from the past and correcting the mistakes she had made.
‘This time, I will never let you control me.’
Because this time, everything would be different.
The next morning, the dissatisfied voices of the nobles who had been summoned from early morning filled the audience chamber.
“Did you hear the news?”
“Of course I did. Honestly, I’ve had quite a time of it because of that.”
“Well, I can’t say I don’t understand Lord Hoshikov’s position. However, perhaps because Her Majesty spent so many years living abroad, she still doesn’t seem to fully understand the situation.”
“Exactly. How could she threaten Lord Hoshikov by invoking the Duke of Abihi?”
The night before, more than a few nobles had been shocked upon hearing that the Queen would be attending the royal council meeting immediately.
After losing the war against the Cornelli Empire, the royal family had borrowed an enormous amount of money from the House of Abihi to pay the massive reparations.
While the royal family struggled to repay those debts, it went without saying who had taken control of the kingdom’s real power.
“Her Majesty is entering!”
At the attendant’s cry, the nobles fell silent.
The Queen walked through the hostile and curious gazes and took her seat upon the throne.
As she surveyed the attending nobles, her gaze stopped at an empty seat.
The corner of Rete’s mouth twisted upward in displeasure.
“There is someone who has yet to attend.”
“That is…”
Jann, who was waiting behind her, fidgeted nervously at the Queen’s sarcastic remark.
He looked at the empty seat as though he were about to cry.
It was the seat of the Duke of Abihi, who had yet to arrive.
Since it was unfortunately the seat closest to the Queen, the empty space seemed even larger.
“How should I deal with such an incompetent—”
“Duke Alburn Abihi is entering!”
Rete’s words were cut off by the attendant’s announcement.
Jann’s gaze, along with those of the nobles, turned toward the door all at once.
A handsome man walked in, his glossy hair smoothly swept back, completely unlike the blond hair Jann had clumsily tried to imitate.
He usually favored dark-colored clothing, and today he was dressed in formal robes of deep navy blue.
The contrast only accentuated his striking appearance.
From the moment he crossed the doorway, his piercing blue eyes remained fixed on Rete.
Thud.
The sound of the cane in his hand striking the floor rang out unusually loudly.
‘A cane?’
Her gaze caught on the cane.
In Arvey, it was customary for male nobles to use canes.
Yet although Alburn obsessively adhered to every outdated etiquette from head to toe, he rarely used a cane.
He claimed it got in the way.
His steps were unusually slow as he leaned on the cane.
Yet even that somehow made him appear refined and noble.
Alburn Abihi walked with the leisurely air of someone who had simply come out for a stroll.
The tall, broad-shouldered man, unusually large for someone from Arvey, stopped beneath the dais.
His gaze as he looked up at Rete was persistent, like a predator examining its prey.
The oppressive presence he exuded made Rete tighten her grip on the armrest of the throne.
As though mocking her reaction, the corners of the Duke’s mouth lifted ever so slightly.
Then he offered a flawless, concise bow according to proper etiquette.
“Pleased to meet you, Your Majesty. My name is Alburn Abihi.”
