It is a rare occurrence for her to encounter a knight whose hands bear less evidence of battle, yet Marquis Rohas stands out in this regard. His palm exudes an unexpected softness and warmth, as if he has never before wielded a sword.

She would be lying if she didn't admit that she pleasantly felt the warmth in his hand. It was so different when she first held her husband’s hand.

Marquis Rohas remains unmarried despite reaching a mature age, having yet to enter into matrimony with anyone. He needs to marry soon, but he kept on refusing all candidates to be his spouse.

In the original narrative, the author displayed a disinterest in his personal life, resulting in a significant gap in the plot's coherence. The only thing she can remember is about his unconditional commitment to the Alvadiz Empire. He was one of the first soldiers who died in an ambush attack, which caused a huge casualty on the empire’s part.

Not only that, she was subjected to his death. 

It felt a burden, but she's guilty. 

"Marquis, I’d like to ask a favor before we get to Lady Stella's home," she mumbled.

The marquis tilted his head, and he looked at her, confused. He quietly stared at her before he nodded.

He remained reticent, yet she anticipated his reserved demeanor as a product of her own doing.

"If you must, please keep what you will hear today from his majesty the emperor," said Selena.

The sight of his attitude was disconcerting. He didn't react much, but he was instead silently listening to her. Indeed, Marquis Rohas is an unavoidable, restrained person. He only speaks when he feels like it and not if he refuses to talk. 

His character is an extra, and it has no significant role in the original, but she still considered the details of his past and current. She thought it was unnecessary to build up his strength and weaknesses, but she was damn wrong.

"Are you that very deliberate around me?" she asked.

He looked, and he shook his head refusing to speak a word. He did talk to her earlier, but now he refuses to speak, making it hopeless for the author to see it as a friendly hobby. 

"Marquis—" she was about to scold him, but the carriage halted, forcing her to slip on from her seat.

"Your majesty!"

Selena grabbed the front of the seat as she tried to maintain herself from smacking the floor. Although she managed to keep herself from falling, she was not positive how it went on and how she ended exactly on the top of Marquis Rohas. 

"Your majesty?"

She embarrassingly stared at him before his call took her back to reality. Not only did she stumble, she was just an inch from kissing the marquis! Which is a very unstable look for an empress with a husband.

She carefully lifted her back as she sat on the sofa, leaning on the chair. "I apologize, it was an accident," she said as she struggled to get rid of her unfaithful thoughts.

The marquis’ face turned pallid, and he nodded. She was shaken up as well. The carriage stopped so fiercely and it made her slide. Of course, if someone saw her in that position, they would immediately spread it like a disease and they would call her a cheating wife.

Even though her husband doesn't love her, this is not the reason for her to use infidelity and reason it with such excuses. She's not so brazen as to put her marriage as an excuse for her to make an affair.

But that was a mere mishap, and it does not mean much.

A few seconds of silence was replaced by a knock on the door. Marquis Rohas carefully opened the window in front of her and a man turned up.

"I apologize, marquis, we have arrived at your destination," he said, informing them.

Marquis Rohas nodded, and he opened the door as he got down first. Then the empress came, and he helped her get off. She tilted as she watched her hand rubbing his before she looked down, reminding herself that this was all a misunderstanding.

━━✣━━

The emperor sat in his seat as comfortably as he could. Looking at a book he was reading, while his secretary delivers a new batch of papers that he carefully put on his table.

He looked at the papers and at him before shaking his head. "Did the marquis escort my wife safely?" 

The secretary gave a long sigh, and he nodded. "Like you told us, we assigned some shadow knights as her majesty’s guards while the marquis protects her directly. We received news that nothing happened on their way, so please reassure your majesty."

He tilted his head. "I am not worried, I am just worried that she's staining the Imperial Family image."

His secretary silently growls. "I didn't even say anything yet," he complained. 

"But you were about to," the emperor said.

Well, the emperor is not exactly wrong. He was about to ask his majesty if he's worried about his wife. The emperor who never loved his wife was worried? That's a stupid statement, but what if he's wrong?

And what if the emperor didn't honestly tell them that he never liked her and he was worried? But of course there are possibilities. 

"Your Majesty, it is about Lady Elizabeth, the Grand Duke Helfe’s daughter. She is here again to meet you."

He swayed his head and looked at him with a dire look. "Did she send an appointment to meet me?" 

The secretary swayed his head. "She said it's an urgent meeting, and she also proudly said that she didn't need to ask for an appointment."

"And why is that?" He asked, making the secretary carefully find a word to convey the lady’s message. 

It's not something he wanted to say but had to say it. Lady Elizabeth is a woman who came from the high class who was always a rival to her majesty in a contest of beauty, brain and skills. She is cocky of her lineage and she is arrogant, and self delusional.

"Because she believes his majesty will make her the empress once you divorce her majesty," he said in a less traitorous way, but it still sounded as if the lady was rebelling against the empress.

Callisto gives a long silence. He was thinking about how this happened, because he wasn't aware of her at all. Indeed, Lady Elizabeth was a woman in high class, whom he danced with during last year's annual festival because the empress didn't attend, but that's the only time he met her.

She was then demanding, spreading words, but he didn't care. He let the rumors grow larger and become a bigger trouble. The empress must have heard of it, but she only caused her usual tantrum in her palace.

Besides, divorcing Selena is never part of his plan. She may have caused much in the last year, but before she even set foot and became an empress, Selena had done so much for the empire, and she supported it in any matter she could get.

She was not originally this tyrant, but losing her child must have caused the issue or something more than that. So he didn't even plan on divorcing her, despite his peers attempt to convince him to do so. 

It's too outrageous to think about it. 

She is still the empress of this empire and his wife, so how could a grand duke's daughter rant about her marriage as if it's going to end soon? 

"Throw her out of the palace, and send restrictions about the ladies’ banishment from the palace," he said in command, and he carefully nodded. 

"As your wish, sire."

━━✣━━

She was worried about nothing, since she thought that Lady Stella didn't want to see her. Indeed, she wrote a letter but didn't receive any reply, causing her to overreact, and now her concerns had been paid off.

Lady Stella left her husband, so she could live this simple life. She looks dashing yet, but quite ordinary as well. She was surprised that she's living in a small house in the capital, and looking at how she seemed very well acquainted, she guessed that simplicity made her full.

"Greetings, your majesty, I was expecting your arrival—" she hesitatingly said as soon as she realized the mess in her house. "I hope my house does not make you uncomfortable, but I will still offer you to get in."

Selena turns around and looks at Sir Rohas. "I beg your pardon. Will the Marquis be comfortable waiting outside?" 

Selena quickly glared at the marquis, who was quietly exclaiming behind her. "Will that be fine?" she asked, and the marquis nodded.

Selena then politely accepted Lady Selena’s invitation to enter, and Lady Stella asked her to sit on a small, simple and ordinary sofa from the living room—as the author calls it.

Then the lady asks for her taste, either coffee, juice or tea. Of course, it would be rude to not offer tea, and as the author is from another world, no one really cares about tea there, just plain black coffee and juice was enough for them to offer their guest.

But this is another world of a novel she herself created. It's quite ironic since tea is the herbal essence of life. She smiled and nodded as she accepted the tea. 

Awaiting her to show up, she couldn't help but acknowledge the simplicity that Lady Stella had chosen, but the empress was different.

‘How so?’

That's right, how so? If the empress is a ruler, doesn't mean her way of life is dictated by precedents set to discipline them. However, the empress is not just someone in a higher status; she is the mother of the empire.