Shea smiled softly at Elias’ words.

The customers ached to interrupt this moment between mother and son. Of course, he loves it, they thought. Everyone here is desperate to have some of her food too!

Casually ignoring their passionate stares, she led him into the kitchen and handed him his favorite food, vanilla pudding. “You were sick all night, so something easy to swallow will be best.”

“Okay. I love pudding!” Elias looked ecstatic as he swallowed a spoonful of pudding.

Shea pressed a light kiss against his forehead.

Only then did she notice the customers. She took the boy in her arms and turned to the group with a noticeably different expression. “What? Why are you all staring?”

The customers felt slighted. You don’t have to treat us as lovingly as you treat your son, they thought, but at least be nice to your customers.

“Shea, put Elias down,” her mother said. “He can walk on his own, and he’s gotten too big for you to carry around all the time.”

“I’m strong enough to carry my son.”

It was an admirable answer. The customers had to admit that she was commendable, but they still felt wronged. Would you please put down your child and start running your business? They didn’t even particularly want to be treated well. They wanted her to put down her son and sell her food.

Having realized what they wanted, Shea smiled cynically and turned to Lucy. “Go ahead and sell everything in the fridge.”

“Everything?” Lucy gaped.

Shea nodded. “I made too much, and we can’t finish it on our own anyway. Make a good sale today.”

“Okay!” Lucy bustled into the kitchen with a bright smile and began bringing out everything Shea had made.

The customers brightened visibly with each new item.

“Ooh, strawberry tarts and lemon merengue pie!”

“There are chocolate croissants and vanilla pudding over here.”

“Blueberry loaves and macarons!”

And when the rainbow cake and roll cakes were revealed, the customers cried out in joy. “It’s a national holiday! Hooray!”

All because of a few cakes.

Amidst the cheers, Lucy gave them a lovely smile. “We’ll only charge one silver per item today.”

Eid and Edward huffed in exasperation. A silver coin bought a whole cake at most bakeries, but here, they were charging a silver coin for a slice of cake or a small pastry. It was easily twice the price of other bakeries, undoubtedly overpriced.

But no one objected.

When Shea said it as though she was being generous, everyone grinned as if it really was. In fact, they acted like they didn’t care about the price.

“One of each!”

“I want the whole thing.”

“Me too. This one!”

“Leave some for the rest of us, you jerks!”

It was utter chaos.

At the appearance of the rainbow cakes and rolls, the emperor and Edward sat up. They had never seen anything like this, even at the palace. Neither of them was particularly fond of sweets, nor had they ever paid much attention to them, but this was definitely different from anything they’d seen.

The Maxwell brothers completely forgot their duties as bodyguards and guides and leaped into the chaos.

“This food is what keeps me alive.”

“This is the only good thing in my life! It’s my only ray of hope under the rule of that damn tyrant.”

They weaseled their way through the crowd to get their hands on what they wanted, relying on the sympathy of other customers or even a moment of hesitation. They unashamedly used the emperor’s name to get cake. Apparently having forgotten about the emperor, despite having brought him here themselves, the brothers ecstatically stuffed their faces with cake. They were on top of the world.

The tyrant didn’t care about the pulling rank, but he was baffled by their behavior. He sat still, his mouth agape. It was all so ridiculous that he couldn’t find it in himself to be mad. “Is this some sort of secret drug den?”

“That does seem likely based on the way everyone is going on a mad rampage,” Edward replied, “but I don’t think so.”

“I think those two are the craziest ones here,” said the emperor, watching the twins devour their cake like wild animals.

Edward nodded. This was to be expected from Abe, who’d always had a few screws loose, but even Ace, the usually cool-headed one, was acting insane. It was definitely strange.

Apparently completely uninterested in her customers, Shea looked over at the two of them.

“…?”

“…?”

They tensed as they met her gaze.

Shea grimaced and placed one hand on her forehead. “I must be tired. Why am I seeing things?”

“Seeing things?” A customer who’d been gorging on pastries looked up, saw who she was looking at, and shrugged, nodding in understanding. “The hallmark of the imperial family is their golden hair, but blond hair is common enough around here. Are blonds forbidden from coming in here?”

“Maybe I should’ve kept up the sign prohibiting members of the imperial family from entering,” Shea mumbled remorsefully.

“Ahahaha! Right, that sign,” a second customer said. “Everyone knew about that.”

“I saw a few people turn away at that sign. Do you think they were part of the imperial family?”

Another customer snorted. “Yeah, right. The only surviving member of the imperial family is the current emperor. He got rid of the rest. He’s the only one left.”

“The empress would be part of the imperial family, too.”

“But there is no empress.”

That was true—and that was the problem. The Maxwell brothers and the handful of other nobles nodded. The current emperor, Eid Roux Vencroft, did not have a partner. He hadn’t married, to be exact. He felt no need to marry. No one was brave or foolish enough to force a tyrant who had no interest in marriage into one, so the emperor was currently a bachelor. And he didn’t plan on changing that.

But that didn’t mean he didn’t have any female companions. The nobles continued to throw their daughters at him whether he was interested or not, hanging on to some small hope. The emperor, who couldn’t be bothered to refuse them all, had sent them to a harem within the palace. It wasn’t officially a harem, although that particular building had been built for that purpose by nobles who held on to the infinitesimal chance their daughters might attract notice and ascend to the status of empress. It was perfect for that purpose.

The emperor didn’t bother to put a stop to the practice, and the number of young ladies joining the harem increased on a daily basis. He probably had no idea how many women were there or what any of them looked like. He hated clingy women. Whenever the need arose, he summoned any passing woman who caught his eye. This meant he’d slept with quite a few maids who then had to face the wrath of her jealous noblewoman or family.

Their fates were quite sad.

“They can join or leave whenever they want,” one man observed, “as long as they pay. That’s more like a hotel than a harem.”

“It’s brilliant if you ask me. They have a tiny bit of hope to cling to, so the palace makes money while avoiding complaints from the nobles.”

“Pretty clever. But that’s why Shea hates anyone related to the imperial family. She never liked them to begin with.”

Wait, why? the emperor wondered. He usually didn’t care about anyone’s opinion, but in this he felt wronged. He’d never even met this woman, and he’d certainly never done anything to earn her hatred. Being hated without reason was frustrating, even for a tyrant.

The customers answered his question soon enough.

“Makes sense,” the first one said. “Back when Sangria was starting to get popular, a whole gaggle of women came in and started ordering everyone around, saying that one of them was the emperor’s lover. Shea told them all to beat it.”

“Oh, right—I was there. It was crazy. Shea told her she sounded like a barking dog, and the woman got all red and screamed at Shea, asking whether she knew who she was talking to. Then Shea asked her who she thought she was.”

“Wow.”

“It was obvious that she wasn’t actually the emperor’s lover, but that’s what she claimed. She came in with a whole entourage, saying she’d earned the emperor’s favor or something. She couldn’t say she was the daughter of so-and-so. That would be embarrassing. So instead, she accused Shea of making a fool of the emperor’s woman, and guess what she said?”

“What?”

“‘Oh, are you a Vencroft? Then I apologize for not recognizing you.’ But she clearly wasn’t. So the woman got all red again and couldn’t say anything, and Shea kept making fun of her before telling her to shut up and get out. When the woman said Shea was mocking the emperor, she demanded to know what her relationship to the emperor was.”

“Hahaha! That’s definitely something Shea Grande would do!”

“But that woman didn’t give up and demanded Shea come to work at the palace for the harem. So Shea told her she would beg her for forgiveness if she ever did become a Vencroft. Then she kicked them out and put up that sign prohibiting imperial family members. The ladies of the harem would be admitting they weren’t part of the imperial family if they ignored that sign. Being barred from Sangria made them mad, but they couldn’t give up on the pastries, they’re so popular in high society. So ever since then, they’ve sent their maids to buy pastries.”