"Are you for certain that we could trust her, Lux?" Elsbeth inquired.
Lux gave a pleasant smile, it wondered across his face. "Would you not be enticed to let a woman such as an Empress join this justifiable faction?"
"I would be, but milord, not a woman as cunning as her..."
Lux gave a wide grin. "That is what made it more thrilling."
Elsbeth's eyes widened. Could he be out of his mind? She looked scheming and not worthy of any trust, so why is he grinning as if he won first price in a game of Monopoly?
"Elsbeth, you still have far to go to reach a leader's mind. Though I guarantee you, I do not make moves that would cause harm to this faction."
Elsbeth gently lowered her head. On the contrary of whichever was transpiring on the other half of the party, Selestia's eyes rolled with irritation whilst she forcefully livened herself to stroll with His Majesty, the Emperor.
They were walking upon a lone park where only their presence was alive, other than the yielding trees that danced along the wind.
"I do not know where this unanticipated invitation to take a stroll may lead to, moreover, if you wish to exchange words with me, you could have settled in my room that privacy for both of us could have been served." Her words rung with the voice of impatience which made the man halt from any movement as corollary to her actions.
"A day ago, you were not this cold toward me," he spake though his back was still faced from her.
"I do know how to put up with people like you are." She paced forward, ahead of him.
Venemiah tilted his head. "You've known people like me before?"
Selestia could only walk faster, thinking that with that behavior will result no longer interrogation. No matter how hard she tried to walk faster, Venemiah followed close behind.
"Answer me, my Empress. You've known someone who harbor similarity with me? Was he someone stupendous or prodigious? Someone from childhood perhaps? Do tell me that the little details you find to fill my questions would bring me to knowing you more."
She dared not answer no matter how many times he repeat his question. It might have been just a slip of the tongue to say such words. She knew not that he would interrogate like this upon a trivial matter worth not to be known. Furthermore, it was a misstep to have blurted out something.
Who could have known that he could act as such? His irritation arose from the patient silence once he learned that Selestia has no interest in responding.
"In this instance, I order you to stop and speak. Speak when I ask!" he shouted.
Her tongue clicked on the roof of her mouth as she abruptly turned though with a rude demeanor borne on her countenance.
"How dare you speak to me as if you own me?"
"I do own you, you are in my land, under my rule, bound by my marriage, and held by my hands."
Selestia scoffed, "Have you forgotten how forcefully you've broken the barriers of my privacy yesternight to speak that way? I will have you know, I am wed under an alliance, not by love. Without my heart being bound with you, truly, I can never be yours nor will I be anyone's. For alone, I am Celeste's."
Selestia was austere, she wavered not and her countenance bore so much pride.
"If you think I will walk away, dare not. I do believe we do not have any more business with each other to this day. Go your way, Emperor."
Venemiah stood with his poise straightened. "No, not until I assure that the coachman will return you to my palace safely."
"I do not remember telling you that I will be dwelling in your palace tonight. Go your way, I can assure myself safety."
Venemiah found no words to speak, he learned that Selestia will not budge no matter how much he will struggle to push through, he parted ways with her. Grandel stepped forward from behind a certain tree nigh from them as soon as the Emperor's presence lingered no longer.
"That man might have been a devotee of yours in one of your past lives, Empress," he jested. "A sucker for the liar with his crown, I must say."
"Hope that none of the Emperor's devotees hear your epithet towards him," she responded.
"I did not know that wearing an Imperial crown makes someone less humorous." He rolled his eyes whilst he mumbled.
"I dare you next time to mumble inaudibly that when you speak nonsense, I'll hear none of it."
"Say, how was your wedding night?" Grandel continued to entice though deriving the subject further from what was before.
"My marriage bed does not have anything to do with you, nonetheless, my marriage bed is empty."
"Oh, I anticipated you will be sharing me details today, anticipating that was the reason why you called me here."
Selestia groaned. "Behave yourself, Grandel. I've come for a serious matter."
Grandel rested himself on the park bench, willfully as he listened. "I want you to break in the Imperial Palace as per my will to acknowledge my agreement with Lux."
"What are you talking about? You did not spoil me details that things could happen as such..." he complained.
"Your will to accompany me comes with a price, Grandel. It is your choice." Selestia looked at him. "Two weeks from now, numberless conglomerates will reach to me to acknowledge me as this empire's Empress. I cannot present myself without the brooch."
Grandel scratched his head. "Only if you did not show that damned whichever imperial heirloom thing, it would not have to take a toll on you."
Selestia raised a brow and glared at him. "Are you rebuking me, Grandel?"
Grandel prompted himself still. "I was not."
Selestia rolled her eyes at him. "I knew not of myself why I agreed to let you follow me here. I thought you could be of countless uses, unfortunately, you were just a tail."
Selestia lifted the skirt of her gown to pave a way for her feet to stride on. "Very well, I shall head to my residence."
She walked off, irritatingly. Grandel slumped his shoulders disappointingly. "I can't comprehend the reason to cause such dithery of hers nor this ballistic behavior she portrayed. She's awfully capricious, more than she usually is. For whichever reason, I doubt it would be because of me."
Grandel shrugged his shoulders, convincing himself that whatever intellectuality derived to her current state of such volatile comportment was not because of his jesting. Let alone that the occurrences earlier with him was not another headpiece likewise.
Grandel could only sigh. "Marriage might have been built by caprice."