The large door at the end of the hall opened, and a woman with her entourage of beautiful maids came out. It was none other than Margaret Elrose. The most loved concubine of the emperor. The mother of the beloved second and tenth princesses and the sixth and eighth princes. To Claes, she is known for her beauty, grace, and charm, and she looks relatively younger than her actual age, but to Victor, she is a vindictive woman who he wants to burn in the middle of the city square. It took quite an effort for him not to strangle her right now. This was the woman who schemed against him, who used him, and has made a living hell of his life and Julian's.

The woman marched towards the prince in a very bright wine-colored gown with a wide skirt that looked heavy and too large to easily walk in. She looks like she is well prepared to receive an important guest. That thing has so many laces on it; it boggled Victor. Most women don't wear such heavy gowns unless it is a celebration, and yet this woman thinks there is. Her long curly brown hair is tied up beautifully, she carries with her what looks like a very beautiful red folding fan, and her bosom is lifted up and almost exposed since the torso of the gown is very tight. Is she still breathing? Victor thought. Rufus has to shush at the officers for looking like a loon at her. It is disrespectful and could lead them into trouble.

The concubine reached the iceberg-looking prince.

"Greetings, Prince Victor." The concubine bowed at him, and her maids followed. "We formally welcome you back to the palace." She smiled brightly. The sight of her smile made many of the nobles look at her with awe. She was a beautiful woman. "The emperor is taking his time, so it would be my pleasure to escort you to a waiting room."

Seriously? One of Victor's eyebrows is raised. Is she trying to make fun of him or something? Why is she formally -? Wait. In his last life, concubine Elrose also formally greeted him and escorted him to a waiting room. That is where she acted very close to him, trying to establish a familial bond because she was aware at that time that the third prince lacked family relationships and is desperately seeking them. But in fact, this was just a ruse from her, and she used a man's need for love from family for her own gain.

All the woman wanted was to be empress and her son to be emperor. She saw all the princes as competitors and would find ways to ruin them to get them off the list of succession, and she saw the third prince as another obstacle that should have been ruined after the accident with her daughter. Instead, the third prince flourished in battle, and she was frustrated about it. Even more, than that, the man is the son of the empress.

Even now, the empress continues to be her biggest obstacle. The woman may not care about her son, but she still holds considerable power. So Margaret made many ways to gain favors from both the noble society and the public and used her favor from the emperor to get what she wanted (within reason). She did this by always looking concerned, hosting charities, and even personally greeting visitors to increase her exposure and popularity. It was her effort to erase the people's view about the empress and put herself on the pedestal without making it obvious that it was all her effort to get into that position. But Victor knows her too well now, and he can't help but internally sneer at the woman because he knows something that most of the nobles here don't.

The men behind Victor were confused as the prince did not respond. He is just looking at the woman blankly. Rufus is familiar with this woman and is glaring at her subtly. He can't risk angering this woman as she is, after all, well-loved by the emperor.

"Who are you?" Victor's clear cool-toned voice penetrated the room, and everyone became quiet. Victor could see concubine Elrose's shoulders became stiff, and so was her entourage of maids behind her. The nobles all gaped at the prince, while some thought his voice was so penetrating it felt like sharp ice was growing around them.

Most people don't know this, but Margaret Elrose hated one thing. And that is that people don't recognize her. She was always the life of the party, the center of attention, and she loved that people knew who she was. She has long prided herself on her popularity, that surely everyone should have heard about her by now. But the prince standing in front of her just asked her who she was.

Margaret thought the prince was playing stupid, but she could not read the stoic man's face. She tried to play it off. "It seems the young prince has forgotten. You were very young when we last met. I am Margaret Elrose, daughter of Duke Elrose."

There was a long pause. "Ah, yes." Prince Victor gave a small smile, and Margaret now looked satisfied. Only the next sentence made everyone even more surprised. "I didn't know Concubine Elrose has become empress."

Some of the nobles (probably those from the opposing factions of Concubine Elrose) looked upset and insulted by the prince's statement while Margaret beamed. "Oh, thank you for the compliment, Prince Victor, but I am not empress (yet). But I was promoted as noble consort years ago." She stated.

"Really? Why are you the one formally greeting important visitors?"

….

"What? I, I don't understand…" Margaret looked confused.

"Oh?" Victor tried to look surprised. "As I am a prince who has been gone for so long, I qualified as a high-level guest. And according to palace protocol, those who receive the visitors formally should be the empress or the empress dowager. In the instance that the empress is not available, it should be the prime minister or any of the other ministers and their aides. It didn't mention anything of a concubine or noble consort to be the one who will formally receive the important visitors to the palace."

The entire hall was silent, but the prince was not yet finished. "By formally greeting visitors first before the empress and the required ministers, visitors would mistake you as the "actual" empress of the empire. And this can create confusion and sometimes potential conflict because some nations might find it insulting if they found out that a noble consort is the one who has been greeting and receiving them instead of the empress of the empire. While I am more forgiving, you haven't been receiving any important visitors aside from me, did you? As the palace noble consort, you should have already been educated about this."

She did. She did, and everyone knew this. But most people often just forgo protocols sometimes that, at some point, they sometimes forget what it is all about. Margaret's face looked like she had been slapped. The empress was always absent, and many found it annoying that the empress was a shut-in and would refuse to attend many formal functions. However, some of the women found it endearing that Margaret Elrose had become the person who stepped up to the role without being selfish to covet the position of the empress, but they didn't realize that such a simple greeting was a very serious affair. As a noble consort, she should have known about this. This only made them realize that she was not a saint as she tried to picture herself to be but a wolf disguised as an innocent sheep.

Most don't know, but this was her intention. Margaret has been setting herself to become an empress and trying to one-up her at every turn. She wanted to make herself look like a goddess in everyone's eyes and wanted to make the officials and the visitors know she was the female in power because the empress and empress dowager was always absent and didn't fight her over any protocols (which is not true. She was just too blind to see the power of the true empress and the empress just let her do her thing because she wanted to let her make a fool of herself eventually). This is why many of the ministers don't like her because she was always there during formal greetings before they could arrive, and they felt like she should have known her place but decided not to argue because they didn't think it was this serious until the third prince pointed it out.

"I can't believe she would do this."

"It's like she is trying to tell the world she is the Empress?"

"How haughty of her."

"I didn't expect her to be a wolf."

"She should know her place,"

"It would explain why some of the foreign nobles refused to trade with us."

"It's a miracle we did not get into another war…"

Most of the whispered comments were an exaggeration, but Margaret Elrose still tried not to look furious. She has an image to maintain and tries to respond to something eloquent to counter the prince's statement, but she can't find anything to say because the prince is right.

In Victor's first life, he wasn't aware of the protocol. He just simply accepted Noble Consort's formal greeting. He never realized that was the straw that made Margaret Elrose be seen as a potential empress and that his actions stated that he was accepting of her as a "mother" or potential mother figure since the empress wasn't there. This is what leads to Noble Consort setting the stage that she was running the third prince's life because "she cared for him as his mother," and this is why even the emperor allowed the noble consort to have the authority to plan for him which also includes his wedding, the concubines or even the servants that assigned to him. His actions were an insult to his mother, the actual empress, at the same time. Victor is not going to make that mistake again. He may not love the empress, but he still needs some backing from her.

One of the ministers arrived and wasn't sure what was going on. He simply glared at the frozen noble consort and pushed her aside. This was when the woman finally got out of her stupor.

"I formally greet Your Highness, Prince Victor." The short man greeted him.

"I formally greet back, Minister Cords," Victor responded.

"The emperor will be a little late, but I have made some arrangements for you and your people to stay securely in one of the waiting rooms."

"Thank you," Victor commented and followed the man.

The general, Jason, Rufus, and the three officers were still stunned at their prince. There was just one thing in their minds when they watched him interact so sharply but also coolly at the same time towards the woman who schemed against him. "When did you become so eloquent?"

Little did Victor know a beautiful, blonde-haired man was looking above him from one of the balconies. It was his brother, Lysander von Claes.