"This isn't happening..."
Elaina ruffled her hair in frustration after seeing what happened. She even pinched her arm multiple times to ensure that she wasn't dreaming.
"No wonder he was extra sweet to me these days...turns out he was cheating on me!"
She sat down on her chair as she pondered on the incident that led to what happened right now. She recalled every event to ensure that what she saw and remembered was indeed the correct thing and this isn't just her imagination.
"Because I know how tiresome his job as the emperor of this kingdom weighs him, I decided to make some Solen Tea to help him calm down his nerves and also lift his fatigue... and yet the moment I was about to enter and serve him the tea and snacks I prepared for him on his office, I heard the voices of my husband and a woman. Peeking inside I saw the two making out on his office table. What is worse is the fact that he was making love with my f*cking sister!"
She pinches her arm again to ensure that what she is saying is indeed real and not something she was dreaming of in the middle of the day.
"OW!"
Seeing the red pinch mark on her left arm, she knew it was indeed the real deal.
"Dammit!"
Elaina can only slam her fists on her table angrily. However, she can't do anything about this. She does not even have any way to confront her husband about this matter, especially with him as the emperor.
Despite being the kingdom's empress and the one who manages most of the businesses that the Emperor owns, takes care of the stuff needed for the kingdom to flourish, and many other things, she still has time to tend to his husband, taking care of his needs and do her wife duties as well. In short, she is a loving wife who is also a great assistant in ruling the kingdom.
And yet...he was cheating on her! Not only did this break her heart, but her dream of building a happy family was also broken as well.
"What am I gonna do..."
Despite this big problem, she cannot say much about it. After all, this is the emperor himself doing the deed. And since he is the emperor, that only means one thing, he is the ruler, and everything he desires, he gets it.
In short, if the emperor decided to cheat on her, then she couldn't do anything about it as he could just legalize polygamy instead.
Still, she does not like it at all. She prefers to be the only wife of his husband as he has heard how chaotic a polygamous family who are also part of royalty and she can't afford to be part of that chaos. And the fact that the emperor is cheating on her only indicates that his love is shallow.
"If he prefers to have another wife other than me then I should better leave instead. I don't want to be with a husband who prefers to have another wife."
Elaina has decided. She no longer feels at home in this castle. It is time for her to escape knowing how this husband of hers is totally possessive. He would rather imprison her to keep her here in this castle than get a divorce.
"First things first. I needed to escape this place. And to do that, I needed to have a stable fund. Returning to my family is not an option as well. I bet they would be angry at me instead of supporting my decision as they would rather want the family to be with the royalty than my feelings."
Heading to the secret safe she kept inside her room, she opened it up and it revealed a few pouches full of gold that she had been saving for a few years ever since she began her position as the empress. It's not something she got by picking a few scraps of gold from her husband's business. It is her stash of money she received multiple times in some of her own businesses that are also part of the business of her husband. It's not much, but it is enough for her to live a stable life and start anew.
"That's it. Starting today, I will have to plan my escape and ensure that neither my parents nor my husband know about this ridiculous plan of mine."
With that plan in her mind, Elaina starts to formulate her new plan all night long. Of course, before the night got too late she decided to go and have some sleep.
...
...
...
The next day, she suddenly felt bad in her body. It felt like she is about to hurl something out but it is not a good feeling. It isn't a hangover as she didn't drink anything last night so why does she feel bad?
"Ugh, my head is killing me. I wanted to hurl..."
Elaina groggily went up from the bed and headed straight to the bathroom. There, she hurled whatever she had eaten last night.
"Ugh...I don't know why I am feeling this way..."
Thankfully, after a few minutes, she no longer felt bad and her nausea disappeared though she felt a bit unstable for some reason. She thought it would be something she did eat last night and she had a bad feeling about this and she decided that she would visit her doctor later.
After her preparations for the day, she decided to go on her normal day like nothing happened. Elaina has to make sure that she does not look like she knows of her husband's infidelity. She continued her usual business and continued her plans.
During the afternoon, her husband came to see her. Elaina was busy doing some paperwork and despite knowing that her husband was inside, she acted like she didn't realize the presence of her husband and acted busy for the sake of acting busy. She is holding back on confronting her cheating husband from his affair.
The emperor smiled seeing that his wife was busy and didn't notice him. He silently went behind her and suddenly hugged her which made Elaina shocked.
Alfred is a very handsome young man. And just from the look of it, he doesn't look like he is a ruler of a kingdom but a young prince. His blonde hair made Elaina sometimes think of the golden wheat fields that were ready to be harvested. His blue eyes are deep blue which somehow reminds her of a sapphire jewel, though this color of his eyes is pretty much common in line with the royalty. His nose also complimented his face in overall sight as well as his lips and even when smiling, he still looks regal while maintaining the air of friendliness.
His body is quite mature and masculine as well which is one of Elaina's types of men. His shoulders are broad and strong, and his masculine physique seems to have been perfectly made by a talented sculptor due to his daily training with the knights back when he was a young prince and even now when he has free time.
However, he has already proven himself to be a very capable ruler which made him gain the trust of both the kingdom's council of elders, the chamber of commerce, and even the populace of the kingdom as well. He also has been proven to be a very capable warrior in combat, leading multiple wars to victory as well, making him the "perfect husband material" for many girls and even to some wives who wish that their husbands have at least one feature that is similar to him.
To him, snagging a girl is very, very easy. At first, he thought Alfred would remain loyal but who would have thought the "Perfect husband" was not so perfect after all?
"Eh? Alfred?" Elaina's acting is pretty believable even though she is ready to wallop him multiple times.
"Busy with work? Sorry that I didn't get to visit you last night. With how busy I am with some paperwork and some meetings with other elders, I didn't have time to check up on you."
She knows he is lying but she held herself back. She needed to act natural. "It's fine Alfred. Besides, I am also swamped with work here. It's not like you are the only one busy."
Alfred kissed her forehead and smiled. "Don't worry. I will have a free day next week. How about we have that time for ourselves and forget all about the work?"
"Sounds good! I can't wait for that day to come!" Elaina smiled as she stretched her arms.
"Me too. After all, you are my beloved empress. I will always have time for you and I always appreciate the time we have together."
He then looked at the paper that Elaina was working on and frowned. "These are stacking up. How about I ask your sister to help you out? Now that she is my secretary, she could help you out on your job and ease your worries and problems."
Hearing that, Elaina suddenly felt her temper rising but she tried to calm down for a bit.
"Don't worry, darling. These are trivial stuff and if someone helps me, it messes up my track in doing things. It's best I do it by myself rather than ask for help. Don't worry, I get plenty of rest if things get real tough."
He kissed her again and patted her shoulder. "Don't work too hard, okay. I know the feeling but don't force yourself to do all of this in one day. Get some rest."
After checking up on her, Alfred waved goodbye and left as he was preparing to inspect the knights and check on some businesses along the way. Elaina can only slam her fists in anger at the table.
"Dammit, Alfred. If not for the fact that you are cheating behind my back, I would have been charmed again by your actions but for f*ck sake... I can't even think of those words being romantic again."
Elaina has already planned out her escape and it turns out that the day she will be escaping is also the day that they will be dating so it will be a risky one as well, however, she is prepared and she only needs to finish the final touches of her escape.
After calling the maids to help her change to her normal attire, she put the sword on her hip and left the castle to carry out her plans.
...
...
...
Despite Elaina being raised as a princess, she is not like the other princesses who only know how to act cute and have tea every day with the other girls. She is trained in swordsmanship, spearmanship, and even cavalry as well which makes her formidable even on her own. Although she is not as strong as her husband in terms of prowess, she does excel in her agility making her real fast in combat that even Alfred praises it.
Compared to the others, she hates wearing dresses when she is casually moving out to walk into the streets. This is why it is pretty common to see her wear casual clothes that are easy to move with and a sword on her hip. She also wears a brown beret, making her hard to link to her empress persona. If no one pays close attention to her face and mannerisms, then no one would think she is the empress.
As she was walking down the street, she remembered the feeling she had earlier this morning. Although the feeling has disappeared, she does not want to make matters worse especially since in a few days, she will be leaving. Therefore, she needed this check.
"A check to a doctor might be a good idea."
Little did Elaina know, that this would be the beginning of the changes that would be happening in her life soon.