“If not, then what is that state you are in? What is this situation?”
“That is…!”
“You had better explain it well, Lev.”
Before Lev could even say anything, Guien cut him off coldly. Outside the terrace, the sound of people murmuring about the Emperor’s consort grew louder.
“He must have tried to seduce a young noble.”
“My goodness, how wanton! How could he do such a thing?”
“They said he was a prostitute from Toulon. Seems it was true.”
“How could His Majesty take in someone like that? A disgrace to the Empire.”
They acted as if they were whispering among themselves, but it carried clearly all the way to the terrace.
Of course Lev heard it plainly, and so did the Emperor. Lev closed his eyes tightly, then opened them.
“If I say I have been wronged, will you believe me?”
“Well…”
Guien unfolded his arms and tilted his head to the side. His gaze left Lev and went to the nobles who had crowded onto the terrace. The whispering fell silent for a moment. None of them could even meet the Emperor’s eyes and all looked down at the floor.
Lev, on the other hand, looked up into the air and let out a sigh as if in disbelief.
“Fine, so that is how it is.”
If they would not believe no matter what he did, then fine. He only had to do something that would flatten all their noses.
At last Lev’s eyes, turned toward the Emperor, grew firm.
“I have never done such a thing.”
The Emperor’s gaze, which had been on the nobles, returned to Lev. Just then, seeing the twisted smile on his consort’s lips, Guien’s eyes took on a curious look, and suddenly Lev, walking quickly, pressed close.
At the same time, their two lips met in an instant. No, that kiss just missed.
Lev brought his lips to just below the Emperor’s lips as if kissing him. Of course, from any other angle it would look exactly like a kiss.
“Huah!”
“Uhk!”
“Oh my. Oh my, oh my!”
“Kyaa… heavens!”
Screams and gasps came from all around. Guien was just as surprised. More than that, he noticed the trembling of the lips that had touched his chin. For an instant his eyes flashed.
Instead of pushing Lev away, Guien cupped the back of his consort’s head. The round head that fit into one hand flinched and pulled back slightly.
The clumsy attempt failed. Rather, Lev’s lips that had barely brushed ended up caught by Guien.
Lev tried to flee in shock, but with the back of his head held fast, he could not budge.
“…”
After not letting Lev go for a while, Guien suddenly pulled his body away, which had been pressed close.
Only when Lev met those eyes with a subtle gleam did he barely come to his senses.
“Do you understand now why there is no way I would do that to them?”
Lev raised his hand to his chest as if to hold down his pounding heart. But he could not stop his voice from trembling.
“I see…”
Guien’s eyes narrowed. He smiled as he looked at his consort, whose emotions were rippling but who was trying somehow to act as if nothing were wrong.
“Steward!”
“Your Majesty, you called.”
The chief steward, summoned by imperial command, came running quickly from beyond the terrace.
“Take Lev away.”
Seeing the steward come near, Lev rolled his wet lips inward and then let them go.
“Your Majesty.”
The Emperor looked at Lev as if to ask why. Lev forced something like a smile.
“I do not trust myself to go back alone. Please go with me.”
He made his tone a bit softer and lower. To anyone who heard it, it would sound less like a request to the Emperor and more like an invitation.
Sure enough, from here and there came cries that the Emperor’s consort was truly brazen and rude.
But Guien wore a smile whose meaning could not be read.
“If you put it that way, then of course I should go with you.”
Guien spoke in a gentle tone and offered his arm. Lev willingly set his hand upon it.
Just before leaving the terrace, Lev felt a gaze that seemed sharp enough to stab him. Unexpectedly, it was the senior valet over Marco.
Suddenly he suspected that that valet might be the one who had orchestrated this affair.
As at the start of the ball, the two of them entered alone. The nobles who had surrounded them drew back hesitantly and opened a path as if parting. The gentle stream of music had already cut off.
Only the Emperor and his consort walked side by side through the hall to the Stair of Glory.
At last, as soon as they reached the foot of the stairs, Lev came to an abrupt stop and spoke in a low voice.
“Your Majesty. Please let me go now.”
“Why?”
But Guien tilted his head to one side as if he could not understand. He even held Lev’s hand, which he was trying to pull away, and fixed it in place.
Why is he doing this? Lev glanced up at the Emperor, then hurriedly lowered his eyes and said:
“I will change my clothes and return.”
So please let go. Lev glared at the Emperor’s hand on the back of his own.
“I will go with you.”
“Pardon? Where.”
“You said you did not want to be alone.”
That was not what he meant.
Lev, aghast, jerked his face up again. But Guien’s gaze was not on his consort. It was fixed somewhere in the hall.
“What is he looking at?”
As Lev, puzzled, tried to see that way,
“Let us go.”
Guien tugged Lev by the arm and started up the stairs. He moved so quickly that Lev had to all but be dragged after him.
Because of that, Lev could not check where the Emperor had been looking, nor notice that Michel d’Albret had been keeping his eyes on him the whole time.
All the way past the Stair of Glory to the dressing room on the second floor, an awkward silence fell. No, Guien was calm.
Only Lev, for no good reason, kept being nervous about him and did not know what to do. That was why he failed to notice that Guien had been looking at him all along as if he were adorable.
“Lev, this way.”
After arriving at the dressing room, Marco gave the Emperor a quick sidelong glance and called Lev.
Guien’s gaze briefly went to the valet, then he obediently let Lev go.
Marco took Lev to the very back of the dressing room, where clothes had been prepared in advance.
“I am sorry, Sir Lev.”
As he helped Lev take off his shirt, Marco spoke gloomily.
“Huh? For what?”
“I should have stayed by your side.”
“It was hectic. It happens. Do not worry about it.”
Lev had suddenly disappeared to the terrace because staying there while dancing had been too much for him. So it was only natural Marco had not followed. Lev patted Marco’s shoulder to say it was all right.
“More than that, Marco, I am curious about something.”
“Yes, please ask.”
Marco looked at Lev with eyes that said ‘ask as much as you like’. Lev hesitated briefly, then asked:
“You saw the nobles I got into it with on the terrace, right? Do you know who they are?”
“Of course. They are the second sons of the Alfonso and Alrode houses.”
Recalling those on the terrace, Marco answered as if it were nothing difficult.
“Alfonso and Alrode, you say.”
“Yes. Both are ancient great noble houses.”
“Is that so? Then… are they close with Ivan?”
“Ivan?”
Marco wore a puzzled look as if to say why that name here. Lev hesitated for a moment.
When he had discovered Ivan glaring at him on the terrace, a thought had popped up. That that valet might be the one who had sent the young nobles to the terrace.
If his guess was right, perhaps they were acquainted.
“Mm… I am not sure. I do not know whether they are close with Ivan, but the two houses are close with each other.”
“Really.”
“Yes. Both are among those most tightly allied with the Marquis d’Albret.”
“The Marquis d’Albret?”
Ah. Lev suddenly realized something. The reason that valet named Ivan had persistently harassed him.
To be honest, he had never understood why he was being hounded so doggedly. People say one does not need a reason to bear malice, but even so, he had thought it strange.
So everything that valet Ivan had done until now, and those two nobles, were all under orders from the Marquis d’Albret? If so, why?
“…Because of Michel d’Albret, no doubt.”
There was no need to think long. He, standing at the Emperor’s side, would surely be a thorn in the Marquis d’Albret’s eye. So he might have engineered an incident to occur at a ball where many people were gathered.
Perhaps that was why they had chased him to the terrace. To spread a rumor that the Emperor’s consort had behaved wantonly with young noblemen.
“I should have been more careful.”
If that was so, then nothing that could give rise to such suspicion should have happened. And certainly not something like that…
Suddenly recalling the kiss with the Emperor, Lev started and let out a scream.
“Uwaah!”
“Sir Lev! Wh-what is it!”
Marco, startled, hurriedly checked Lev. Lev covered his whole face with both hands and groaned wretchedly.
“Are you hurt?”
No. He was not hurt. He was just mortified.
What in the world had possessed him to do such a thing? Good heavens, a k-kiss. How could he…? No matter how wronged and angry he had been…
“I am going to go mad.”
How was he supposed to face the Emperor if he went back out there right now? No, more than that, what in the world had that man been thinking to do that, that…
Lev squirmed and writhed in agony as he recalled the sensation that had filled his mouth. His mouth tickled as if stuffed with cotton, and his face and neck and everything else burned hot and flushed with heat.
“Lev, what is wrong? Hm? Tell me what happened.”
Only Marco, who did not know the situation, threw out anxious questions. But Lev could not bring himself to say what he had been thinking. How could he say it?
“No. It is just… Marco, bring me some clothes.”
When Lev finally lifted his head after a long while, Marco’s eyes went round.
Now that he looked, Lev’s face was flushed red and blotchy. No matter how he looked at it, that was not because of pain or hardship, but the look of someone overcome with embarrassment.
“Ah… ah!”
At last Marco recalled what had happened on the terrace. The deep and intense kiss that Lev and the Emperor had suddenly exchanged amid a chill in the air.
“So you are embarrassed.”
Marco flapped his hands as he spoke. His eyes sparkled.
“What?”
Not seeing Lev’s expression that said ‘what are you talking about’, Marco dashed to the rack and brought new clothes.
They were the same color as the justaucorps the Emperor was wearing, and designed in a similar style. Marco had not brought this on a whim. It had only been possible because the Emperor had given permission for everything.
But he knew from the beginning that Lev would balk if he showed him this, so he had been waiting for the day an opportunity would come.
And now the perfect chance had come, so there was no reason for Marco to hesitate.
“Hey! This is…”
Lev, seeing the justaucorps embroidered with brilliant gold patterns, showed a look of surprise.
“Hurry, please. His Majesty is waiting.”
Marco pretended not to hear Lev’s objections and urged him. But Lev could not accept the clothes so readily.
The epaulettes adorning the shoulders, the golden silk lavishly decorating the neckline, the long dangling gold threads on the pockets and cuffs… And even the brooch like a necklace at the chest.
It was unmistakably a matching outfit with the Emperor. Even if he was the consort, there was no way he could wear something that openly broadcast it.
“Forget it. It is not as if everything is wet. I will go like this.”
Wanting at all costs to avoid wearing a set, Lev just snatched the justaucorps, threw it on, and darted out.
“Sir Lev!”
Marco cried out anxiously behind him, but of course Lev did not look back.
Guien, who had been drinking the tea the chief steward had given him, looked Lev up and down as he came dashing out and arched his eyebrow slightly.
“What is that state you are in?”
“What about the way I am?”
Lev pretended not to know what the Emperor was pointing out, though he did. Of course the Emperor did not let it pass.
“The top and bottom are completely at odds.”
Guien looked Lev up and down in his navy justaucorps and white trousers.
“I do not think so.”
“It seems your valet cannot do his job.”
Guien narrowed his eyes and sneered. It was only natural that Marco’s face darkened at the Emperor’s rebuke.
“Do not be spiteful.”
“Spiteful? Was that not what you were to me?”
“Me? When did I ever.”
“On my lips earlier…”
“Aaah!”
Lev lunged at the Emperor, who was dragging out the shame he had tried to forget, to cover his mouth. Of course it ended at the attempt, and instead both his arms were caught. With a crooked smile on his lips, Guien brought his face very close to Lev.
“How impertinent. To dare try to kiss the Emperor as you please not once but twice.”
“No, I mean, that is…”
As that unreal face came close in an instant, Lev’s eyes trembled wildly. It was far, far too close. No, more than that, every time those red lips fluttered, his gaze kept going there.
Looking up at his entranced consort, Guien spoke in a gentle tone.
“Now, go finish getting dressed.”
The merciless order fell. Only then, as if coming to his senses, Lev twisted his face.
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