"Yes. It is about the Empress Consort Adelaide and our child, Fariel."
The moment she heard it, it made her nauseated. This topic is very sensitive to her knowing that it might cause her future and the future of her daughter.
Without waiting any response from Beatrice, Fabian already indulged himself into the seat across her office. The sight of this made Beatrice irritated a bit. Without further ado, she also sat in the seat across him.
Now the two of them are both seated facing each other. The one that divides them is an oak round table that is filled with jasmine tea and some snacks served by Dame Veronica Rios.
"Veronica, please stand guard outside the office while you wait." Beatrice ordered her aide to which she obliged.
Veronica bowed and replied, "Yes, your highness."
After Dame Rios left the office, Fabian spoke out one of his objectives.
"I am planning to announce Fariel as the Crown Prince to the public at his birthday next year."
Beatrice didn't replied to him for a while, and instead took a sip of tea to calm her mind.
"…Isn't natural? It's your goal after all." She replied with a cold voice, her eyes are staring at her tea.
Fabian looked at her with venomous eyes, but this didn't affected Beatrice. She is trying to battle it directly with her calculating eyes.
"I know this is not only the reason you came to me personally. As you said earlier, you came to me to talk about her and your child." She spoke again, indirectly emphasizing Adelaide and Fariel.
"You should address Adelaide and Fariel more specifically, Beatrice." Fabian quickly responds with a high voice. It is evident that he is annoyed by her choice of words.
His reaction made her scoff internally. "Please let us get to the topic shall we, your majesty?"
Fabian didn't react any further and just sighed heavily. As much as he wanted to refute, he did not want to waste any time with petty arguments.
"Concerning Adelaide, I want to decrease your budget and give it to her, as she is the Empress Consort. Out of curtesy, I only decreased it by 10% instead of 50%. And once she is completely recovered, I want you to give some of your duties to her as well."
The words that the Emperor spoke made a terrible shock on Beatrice. She cannot stand those words that she quickly stood up from her seat and slapped her hands at the table.
"Your majesty…! I won't allow myself to be humiliated by this! The Empress Consort is not even knowledgeable at managing the palace affairs!"
'And what does he mean by 'out of curtesy'!? His shamelessness truly knows no bounds!' Beatrice is truly angered at that part, that her veins are being evident in her neck.
"I know that she doesn't have enough knowledge for managing the palace affairs, that is why I am going to hire two instructors. One for palace affairs and one for public affairs." Fabian quickly reasoned to her.
Beatrice became silent to think this for a while.
'His suggestion is reasonable enough if he really wants her to manage some of duties. The only issue remaining is if she will really be able to manage these things well. If the things she manages were thrown into chaos, then it will surely be passed down to me since I am the current Empress.'
After mulling it over, she calmed down and sat again. She brought out her composed self and spoke again.
"Alright, that seems the best possible solution on this matter. But for clarification, if everything goes wrong while doing her duties, she must fix it herself. Everything she does and says is not in my jurisdiction as the current Empress while she is just the Empress Consort. Those two positions are entirely different from one another. I hold a much important position and duties that cannot be shared by many people than the position of Empress Consort."
She declared all of these with a resolute voice. Her deep blue eyes staring directly into Fabian's emerald green ones with no intentions of backing down.
The Emperor was not fazed by this and instead amused by it a little. He smirked briefly before coming back to his emotionless face. He stood up from his seat and fixed his clothes, indicating that he is about to leave.
"Well then, this concludes our sudden meeting. See you on Bernice's birthday banquet, my Empress." He spoke with a mix of gentleness and sarcasm before kissing Beatrice's left back hand.
This action made Beatrice to feel disgusted, but she tried her best to not show it. She even felt infuriated when she saw the Emperor's cold and mocking eyes. The emperor soon left her office and Veronica quickly entered to check up on her master.
"Your majesty, are you alright?" She frantically asked Beatrice who is seating with an unreadable expression, her body is trembling evidently.
The moment the Emperor left her office, her mask full of courage and dignity came crashing down. Even without speaking, she knew for a fact that her position as the Empress is at stake when Fabian came to talk about Adelaide. She recalled some of the words she spoke earlier;
"Those two positions are entirely different from one another. I hold a much important position and duties that cannot be shared by many people than the position of Empress Consort."
'It's true. She is just an Empress Consort but she haves all the love and attention of the Emperor while me, the legitimate Empress who gives her everything to her beloved Gryphon Empire but gets nothing in return.'
"What else is the use of wealth and power if I don't have the happiness and love that I always long to achieve…?"
Her restrained whisper didn't escaped her aide's attentive ears. Having heard her say this question made her saddened. Attempting to cheer her up, she clasped both of her hands boldly, making Beatrice flinch at the sudden action.
"W-what is it Veronica?" She stares at her aide with confusion with her eyes.
"Don't give up just yet your majesty! You still have Princess Bernice by your side!" She says directly to her eyes as she kneels on the floor in front of Beatrice.
"I, Dame Veronica Rios swears an oath upon the God of Spirits Ureus, to protect both Empress Beatrice and Princess Bernice with the rest of my life up until the day I meet my end as your loyal knight and aide." She declares with a bold but determined voice, her eyes full of unwavering courage and pride.
"V-Veronica…! Do you not know that swearing an oath to Lord Ureus signifies that you cannot break your oath until the day you die?" The empress stood up from her seat and immediately crouched down to Veronica's level and asks her out of bewilderment.
Veronica didn't broke her eye contact with her master as she answers her question, "I know your highness. Breaking their own oath will be put to a curse of eternal damnation given by Lord Ureus in the afterlife."
"Then why…?"
"Because… I have always admired you. Even when we were both attending at the Scientia Academy. You are my role model as well as guiding light in our world full of selfish and greedy nobles." She replies with a tear in her eyes. She couldn't hold any longer and doesn't have any plan in doing so.
Seeing her shed tears made her unconsciously cry too.
They say keeping your emotions stay inside can make your mind descend to madness and do unthinkable things, so the both of them cried themselves out as a way of venting their emotions.
Veronica Rios, currently 26 years old. The second daughter of Viscount Rios. She ran away from her house attempting to escape the marriage her father arranged for her. Even though she saw how Beatrice was unhappy at how her father, who is one of the most prominent Dukes, ruined her future, this didn't changed the fact that she is still her role model that helped pick up her courage to escape her fate.
By the help of her eldest brother, she was able to enter the palace as a soldier. She trained day and night with the dream of being Empress Beatrice's loyal knight and aide in mind. Her months of hard work had paid off when she was promoted to join the Empress' 1st order of knights and was able become its captain a year and a half later. And then her dream finally came true when she was handpicked by the Empress herself to become her personal aide.
She witnessed all of her sufferings, shortcomings, happiness and desperations she experienced throughout the years she is by her side. But her will of serving and protecting not only her and the Princess as well will not falter even a little bit.