This Villainess Wants a Divorce!

Chapter 4

Empress Evgenia’s palace was as lavish as her stature would suggest. This nation does have a lot of money, huh. The novel described the emperor as being thorough when it came to the country’s affairs. It was surprising that he let the empress be this extravagant.

“Your Majesty, Her Highness has arrived.”

“Let her in.”

I gulped nervously. The large brown door opened, revealing a sitting room furnished like a garden. A white brick path led up to an ivory gazebo. I spied a flash of red hair moving about under its roof.

This red hair belonged to none other than Empress Evgenia. I wondered why so many of the evil and greedy empress characters in these fantasy worlds had red hair. It was a mystery to me.

“Welcome, Carnelia.”

“Please call me Carna, Your Majesty.”

I smiled as coquettishly as I could muster and grasped the hem of my skirt. The empress smiled back at me benignly.

“Oh my. If I had known you were so adorable and well-mannered, I would have brought you in as a princess earlier. Now then, sit here.”

I wondered how she had already determined me to be adorable and well-mannered when this was our first interaction, but I supposed this was simply how noblewomen’s conversations went. I had experienced countless example conversations before entering the palace, but I shivered now that I was experiencing one for real. I did my best to keep a straight face and sat in the seat across from her.

“I heard you fell ill last night... Should you be out and about like this already?”

It was time to open up my translator again. She wasn’t actually worried about my health—she was asking why I had come to bother her.

“I believe it is tradition to greet Your Majesty and say good morning, even if the custom has faded out. I am lacking in many ways as a princess... so I want to respect the imperial customs as much as possible.”

“How mature at such a young age.”

Her tone was not convincing.

“Still, you didn’t need to over-exert yourself like this... I am not so strict that I would demand a good morning from a sick child. The ladies-in-waiting may call me a tiger empress, but don’t listen to them.”

I wasn’t stupid enough to take these words at face value.

“From what I heard, your illness was a result of inattention from the ladies-in-waiting,” she said.

“Yes...”

“The ladies-in-waiting in the prince’s palace are all there by my recommendation. I’m sorry. They are my responsibility, and I’ll discipline them. You mustn’t concern yourself too much with the outcome.”

In essence, she was telling me to stop bothering a busy person and to go back to my palace. I could tell she had deduced the real reason I’d come to see her.

“If I may... could I ask what sort of punishment they will receive?” I asked.

“Well...”

The empress trailed off and looked elsewhere. I had read about this in the book—these were her mannerisms when she was in a bad mood. Yet, I couldn’t retreat now. I would gain nothing.

“A warning to be on their best behavior and a few months’ pay reduction should be enough. Why? Do you think it’s not severe enough? You must remember these are girls with futures ahead of them. I hope you understand, Carna. Hmm?”

Futures ahead of them? Yeah, right. I knew the actual reason. It would be too much work to change up the prince’s palace’s personnel when she already inserted her own pawns into the mix.

I clenched my fist beneath the table so she couldn’t see.

“Your Majesty, I am still of use to you, aren’t I?”

“Hmm?”

“I plan to be Your Majesty’s loyal subject for the next several years. I promise. I will be much more useful than you imagine, Your Majesty. I can give you more valuable information than those ladies-in-waiting who do nothing but report the daily goings-on.”

“Hmm. Give me an example.”

Evgenia lifted her teacup and smiled scornfully. She seemed to be saying, “How valuable could your information be?”

“I presume Your Majesty is aware that the prince skips his lessons often.”

“Of course. His lowly birth makes him lazy. It’s hard to believe that a boy like that is first in line for the throne just because he was born first... It’s nonsense.”

The empress tried to portray equanimity as she talked maliciously about Caesar, but I could tell she was a bit surprised. She had probably known for a while now that Caesar had been avoiding the teachers Evgenia had assigned to him. But she was probably perplexed that I knew when I had only just entered the palace.

“Do you know where the prince goes off to instead of attending his lessons?”

“I heard he hides where others can’t see him and waits until his teachers leave. Hmph. And that is our first prince! He can’t compare to Noah!”

The empress seemed incapable of hiding her hostility at the mention of Caesar. Was this what it was like to be a mother? The idea of someone standing in the way of her son seemed unbearable to her.

“The prince leaves the imperial palace grounds during those times.”

“What?”

Most of Caesar’s teachers had been assigned by the empress. In fact, this afternoon’s swordsmanship teacher was... Wait, what was his name again? I couldn’t remember. He was an extra.

Anyway, the swordsmanship teacher was the empress’s relative. Naturally, he had no intention of teaching Caesar proper swordsmanship. Yet, in the novel, Caesar managed to win the war as a master swordsman. This is because he found another teacher—or teachers, I should say.

A young Caesar heard many stories about commoner society from his mother, and he yearned for that world. As a result, he often escaped surveillance and left the palace. Later in the novel, he befriended a mercenary group, and they all met again on the battlefield.

Caesar learned how to wield a sword from these people, and unbeknownst to the empress, became a sword master. So, when she sent him off to war, she unwittingly gave him the opportunity to make a name for himself.

It was a predictable and silly story, but whatever. That was how commercial fantasies were.

“The prince learns swordsmanship from the mercenaries in the market alleyways. He doesn’t think the teacher Your Majesty assigned to him is trustworthy.”

“Can you... prove this?”

“Of course. There is a passageway in the backyard of the prince’s palace. I can explain how he leaves now... or perhaps later...”

The empress looked at me suspiciously. She seemed unsure of how much to believe me. Hey, I read the novel! Caesar secretly learning swordsmanship outside the palace was too big of a plot point to have changed.

“I don’t think it’s bad for the prince to be learning swordsmanship outside the palace,” I reasoned. “However, if people learn that the prince uses techniques that only lowly mercenaries on the street use, he might become a laughingstock.”

Evgenia said nothing. She listened with a serious expression.

“Even so, I thought you should know that the prince has made some achievements. I doubt he will make any significant contributions because of the teachings of some mercenary... but I thought it best that you know.”

“That is quite... reasonable. But how do you know all of this?”

“The prince is still just twelve years old.” I omitted the fact that I was also twelve and looked at her brashly. “I said some nice things to him—things like, ‘I am your wife and I’ll always be on your side.’ He fell for it instantly.”

“He did? But that can’t be... That skeptical boy...”

I felt a twinge, but I tried to hide it. Caesar rarely trusted other people. He had suffered at the hands of the empress from a young age. Yet here I was, claiming that he had decided to trust the wife Evgenia had found for him—all after a single night together.

It was impossible. I had to keep going though. I kept a smooth face.

“He will be going through puberty soon. Perhaps, as his wife, I was able to soften his heart.”

“Hmm.”

The empress still looked slightly skeptical, but she seemed to have decided that the things I’d said were at least worth checking out. That was enough. Once she received a report on the existence of the escape route and the fact that the prince was leaving the grounds, she would have no choice but to believe me.

“Your Majesty, I vow to be your loyal subject—your eyes and ears.”

I carefully put my hands atop her slender hands on the table. Anyone would think it was a heartwarming sight.

“Your Majesty still doesn’t have a daughter. I will play that role. I will be coming of age in two years.”

The empress was the rose of society and the mistress of this empire. Paradoxically, an empress’s identity prevented her from being active in society. Historically, she selected a high-ranking noblewoman or her own daughter as her proxy in society, but Evgenia didn’t have a daughter. She wouldn’t, either.

Some noblewomen did follow her commands. But wouldn’t it be a nicer picture with a daughter? So this was what I meant—I was suggesting that she use me, the princess she had selected, as her proxy.

“But you said so yourself. You will become my eyes and ears. Why would the prince trust you if he knows I am backing you?” she asked.

“Don’t worry, Your Majesty. I am confident in my abilities to wrap a twelve-year-old boy around my finger. And if I can’t do my job properly...? If I prove to be useless, Your Majesty can discard me.”

In other words, you will never find a reason to discard me.

I raised my chin haughtily. The information I was planning to feed the empress was information I knew from the novel. I didn’t need to wrap Caesar around my finger. Though, I needed to at least be friendly with him so that I could achieve a peaceful divorce.

“So what is it you want, Carna?”

“I want a fancy life. I do not want to be a simple figurehead princess, ousted along with the halfling prince. That is why I am choosing my side now.”

“Good God.”

The empress cackled in delight. She liked ambitious people because she, too, was ambitious. She was ambitious enough to try to put her own son on the throne. I drove the last nail in.

“I do not want to be looked down upon by some mere ladies-in-waiting. I am the third highest-ranked woman in this nation.”