Queen's Bedroom
"I'm… Her Majesty servant, right…? If my memory does me justice, I… should be Her Majesty's servant. The chapel's business has nothing to do with me, does it…? Shouldn't this sort of stuff be Her Majesty's vassal's business? Tell me again how it has to do with me? There's no point in me handling this because it's not my job in the first place. Queen Sisi wouldn't be happy even if I succeeded, right…?
Is this Her Majesty's joke? She just gave me a vague command, but no specific details for the job. I still need to fulfil my daily duty of taking care of her, right…? How am I supposed to have time for this job, as well?" I brooded as I headed back on the same path to the front palace.
We passed by the same flowers, but there was a black and white silhouette as well as cheerful smiles this time. I looked over in the direction of the voices. To my surprise, I saw Leah's bright smile. I had never seen Leah smile so happily before. She ran around in the flower garden. Maria silently stood to one side. She didn't stand far or close; she just silently watched Leah play in the garden. It was a harmonious scene that could bring peace to one's state of mind.
Queen Sisi stopped in her tracks and silently looked over. It was supposed to be a blissful and harmonious scene, but Queen Sisi's gaze on them injected concern into the scene.
"Queen Sisi stepped out from a swamp of blood. Now that she's seeing Leah play around in the flower garden, will she get angry and try to do something?" I worried.
I carefully sneaked a glance at the side of Queen Sisi's face. I wanted to figure out what she was thinking from her expression, but she was never one to write her feelings on her face. She had a subtle smile on her face as she watched Leah with her arms folded. Veirya silently stood behind Queen Sisi . She, too, followed Leah's movements with her eyes. However, she folded her arms instead of putting them on her sword.
"What is Queen Sisi thinking?" I pondered.
"Let's go," commanded Queen Sisi.
Queen Sisi turned and continued on her way to her residential palace. She didn't comment on Leah, but I didn't know what she was thinking, so I was still awfully nervous. I didn't know if I should ask her, but I didn't know how to ask, either.
"Should I just apologise? If Queen Sisi doesn't have any opinion, though, I'll be in trouble for presuming her thoughts to be ill will, right?" I mused.
Veirya didn't express anything. She silently watched Leah play in the garden. I figured that Veirya would express something if Queen Sisi wasn't happy. Previously, Veirya attacked after Queen Sisi was enraged. The two came as a bundle.
"Welcome, Your Majesty!"
The ladies-in-waiting welcomed Queen Sisi in sync. Queen Sisi greeted her ladies-in-waiting with a dimple then took off her outer coat with their help. It was then my turn to temporarily leave the place as I didn't have the right to enter her residential palace. As I planned to turn around, Queen Sisi abruptly called, "Little Doggy, come in with me this time."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
I didn't know why she told me to come along and, evidently, neither did the ladies-in-waiting. Nevertheless, Queen Sisi's words were a command.
I followed Queen Sisi into her spacious room. It was my first time in it. Thanks to the efforts of the ladies-in-waiting, it wasn't a mess. In the centre was a large bed that was covered with dark red bed curtains. On the ground was thick carpet flooring. Queen Sisi kicked her shoes aside then stepped onto the carpet with her feet in black stockings. As she walked, she undid her dress's laces. Queen Sisi's enchanting body suddenly revealed itself to my eyes. She wore a purple undershirt and lace panties. Her black stockings were held against her ample thighs. I knew that it wasn't appropriate for me to stare, but my I couldn't resist the urge.
Queen Sisi wasn't bothered about me staring. Instead, she calmly climbed into her bed as if nothing was an issue. She snapped me out of my daze with a chortle and stated, "I have placed the information pertaining to the chapel on the table. If you want to know more, go and take a look. Little Doggy, I don't need you to run around. You're one of the people around me. You don't have a chance to thoroughly investigate, but you still need think of an appropriate strategy for me to deal with this. As I said before, I want to crush the entire chapel. I assume that your head isn't just to house your eyes to gawk at me, right? So, don't let me down!"
So, Queen Sisi discovered I was checking her out before…
"Yes Your Majesty."
Queen Sisi seemed to roll over: "I'm going to have a short break now. Stay here and read through the information. If you do anything to me… mm… if you make me feel good, then I shall forgive you. If you annoy me, however, I'll be sure to torture you, so watch yourself."
I was sure that the last part wasn't genuine. Queen Sisi would kill me either way. She'd call Veirya in to kill me and drag me out as soon as I even tried to approach her. I ambled to the table carefully. I knew that I was only to read the information pertaining to the chapel. I was not to read anything else without permission. I was in Queen Sisi's room. Everyone wanted to come in but didn't dare to. Queen Sisi was right behind me. I, in fact, could feel her heterochromia eyes silently observing me.
All of the documents related to the chapel were actually letters. The same person sent the letters; his name was Achilles. I assumed him to be Her Majesty's most trusted person. I surmised he was in the North.
The chapel had seized control of business and provisions in the chapel, so the chapel essentially controlled the North. Queen Sisi's command was likely useless there. Given that scenario, what was the most important thing? It'd be to recapture the North. Regardless of whatever the chapel did, the North was still Queen Sisi's territory. I needed to come up with a plan to take back the North. If we weren't going to combat the chapel in the imperial capital, there was a plethora of ways of getting at them, then…