The Tyrant Couldn’t Fall Asleep

Izaya, who slowly raised her body, called the maids.

"Your Majesty. Did you call?"

Izaya tried to instruct the maids as planned. But somehow their expressions were strange.

"What's going on?”

"Oh, that's why roses were piled up in the garden behind the empress' palace."

The rest of the answer was absurd, and Izaya reaffirmed.

"Roses?"

"Yes, it seemed to be a new kind of rose planted a while ago.”

With that, Izaya hardened her face.

‘It's a pretty expensive rose, but who did this for me…? Is it the fault of those who are dissatisfied with the imperial family?’

"You haven't caught the culprit yet, have you?"

"No, I woke up early in the morning..."

"This is proof that the security of the empress is so poor that the environment is easy for people to enter and exit."’

She looked serious for a moment, and Izaya soon laughed.

The maid's face was full of anxiety.

"Don't worry too much. Whoever committed such atrocities, I won't let anyone do anything to my people.”

"We're... We're the people of the Empress?"

She was an Empress who usually felt far away from Melanie.

Izaya was always with the emperor or Melanie, and Melanie advised them to watch their mouths because she was reluctant to talk to the empress.

But they were excited for no reason by what she just said.

"Then, will you dress me up?"

"Oh, yes!! Then let's get ready with what the chief maid has prepared…”

"If you prepared it in advance, it must be casual clothes. I want to dress up fancy today."

The maids looked awkward.

"Oh, the head maid is away..."

"Then you can choose one for me, right?"

"But..."

"It's okay. All the dresses in my closet are pretty. Don't feel pressured."

At Izaya's words, the maids looked blank and bowed their heads.

"Yes, I see."

Soon the maids brought clothes and accessories. A gorgeous red dress.

Izaya smiled brightly.

"I like it. Will you pick clothes for me next time? Erica, Zelda."

The maids answered as if they were ecstatic.

"Yes, of course."

Soon after the decoration began, Izaya opened her red lips.

"I want to refresh myself, so please get ready to drink tea in the garden in a little while."

After saying that, she looked out the window.

Exactly the direction of the entrance to the imperial palace.

* * *

"Welcome. Duke Lauchen."

Melanie was more polite than ever. However, the Duke's expression was not good.

“I can’t see her today.”

Originally, Izaya came out at the entrance to the Imperial Palace and greeted Duke Lauchen.

However, it was not understood that Melanie greeted him alone today.

"Where is she?"

Melanie looked embarrassed at the Duke's question.

"Well, she’s in the moon palace."

He didn't want to believe it, but it was true.

When he heard it, Melanie felt cold in the Duke's blue eyes.

"What's the reason?"

"I happened to ask her, and she slapped me, saying, ‘don't meddle too much’."

"What? You should've stopped her by talking about me".

"I told her that it's still breaking the will of the duke… But she threatened to replace the head maid if I continued to be cocky again."

Speaking, Melanie looked at the Duke's reaction.

‘You don't believe me yet.’

That's understandable. Izaya was a very good daughter to the Duke.

‘But what if the good daughter rebelled?’

Melanie opened her mouth.

"In addition, even though I told her that the Duke was coming today, Her Majesty pretended to not have heard, but was only focused on organizing the place where she moved."

The Duke opened his eyes surprisedly, and soon stared at Melanie with suspicious eyes.

"If your words contain lies, I will not let you go."

Melanie didn't care about the threat.

"Yes, of course."

Soon after the moon palace was seen, Duke Lauchen coldly told Melanie.

"I'll check it out myself, so go away."

"Yes."

As Melanie stepped away, the Duke glowed fiercely.

‘Did you become rebellious now?’

Izaya was a good daughter who had never disobeyed her father.

‘But as Melanie said... The drawing room must be empty.’

As he said, if the drawing room was empty, the duke was planning to visit the empress's room. With the intention of scolding her.

However, the duke could not do as he thought.

"Welcome. Father."

Izaya was welcoming him.

It was decorated more splendidly than ever.

"Father, I've been waiting for you. How was the inspection?”

The Duke felt strange when he saw his daughter's face welcoming him.

‘Didn't she say that you were negligent even though you knew I was coming? It's different from what I heard from the girl.’

But that's also for a while.

"Father?"

The duke smiled at his daughter, who looked at him curiously.

"Yeah, thanks to your wishes, I feel like I'm back safely."

Upon hearing that, Izaya smiled with her arms folded in the Duke's arms.

"I prepared some refreshments in the garden. Let's go."

Indeed, when he went to the garden with Izaya, a refreshment table was prepared.

In addition, the duke was immersed in thought when his favorite cucumber sandwich and madeleine were placed together.

‘It’s different too.’

He definitely heard that she was not preparing, but it seemed to have been prepared in advance.

‘No way, that girl...’

When he questioned Melanie's intention.

"Hurry up and try it."

Duke Lauhen was a tea lover, but at the recommendation of his daughter, he opened his mouth instead of drinking tea.

"Honestly, I'm flustered. I can't believe I moved.”

After saying so, Duke Lauhen, who looked at Izaya, was surprised.

Like pomegranate, red eyes seemed somewhat dissatisfied.

"What? What's wrong?"

At that time, Melanie suddenly came to mind in the Duke of Lauchen's head.

"She threatened to replace the head maid by slapping me in the face."

Soon, the Duke of Lauchen's eyes began to freeze coldly.

‘Yeah, the reason why she suddenly stopped sharing a room with the emperor and said that she would replace the maid I sent was probably because she was dissatisfied.’

Soon he hardened his face and looked up at his daughter.

"What's wrong with your expression? Did you find something uncomfortable?"

He thought he would talk about the room. However, the answer from Izaya was out of the blue.

"Oh, that's... The tea tastes weird."

"Tea? How does it taste?"

Curious about his daughter's intentions, Duke Lauchen sipped a sip of tea.

At that moment, at the subtle end of his mouth, he made an expression without realizing it.

"This is... a low-grade tea."

Does this mean that she was not ready?

It was when he looked at his daughter out of disgust. Suddenly, Izaya raised her body roughly.

Soon she approached a maid.

"You brought this tea, didn't you?”

Unlike the usual, the voice of the Empress interrogating was cold.

The frightened maid replied with a shiver all over her body.

"I just... I just brought the finest tea in the warehouse. It's the head maid who manages the warehouse.”

Bang!

Izaya, who hit the table roughly, ordered coldly.

"Call Melanie right now!"

He was shocked to see his unfamiliar daughter for a moment, and he noticed that the situation was going to be fun.

‘There seems to be something wrong with the maid, so I'd better watch for now.’

* * *

Hans carefully called the dozing Ern.

"Your Majesty."

However, despite the call, Ern rarely came to his senses.

‘I don't think you slept at all last night.’

Hans was looking at him in a bad way.

At that time, suddenly, Ern opened his eyes.

Hans approached the emperor breathing heavily.

"Your Majesty, what's wrong?"

As a result, Ern looked around.

"Never mind. I just had a dream."

"What kind of dream..."

"It's nothing.”

In response, Ern thought.

‘Yeah, I'm glad it's a dream.’

In a dream, Duke Lauhen strangled his daughter to kill her.

However, Izaya stretched helplessly and did not even resist.

‘Why did I have this dream?’

At that time, Hans carefully called him.

"Your Majesty."

"I said it's nothing.”

Hans carefully chose the words at Ern's voice, which was lower than ever.

"Your Majesty, that's not it, and I wanted to let you know that the Duke of Lauchen entered as soon as he arrived..."

"Why did you announce it just now?"

"I woke you up several times but you didn't wake up... Your Majesty, where are you going?”

Ern replied, clenching his fist tightly.

"I will send the Duke of Lauchen back before he meets the Empress."

When Ern replied like that and was about to leave the office, a difficult voice was heard.

"That... Her Majesty has already granted access. I'm sure she's meeting the Duke of Lauchen by now."

Bang!

Ernn raised himself by hitting the table.

Hans swallowed a dry saliva at the appearance of a crack in the table.

‘At this rate, I don't know what your Majesty will do...’

As Ernn's eyes faced the door, Hans opened his arms and blocked the emperor.

"You can't go!"

"Get out of my way."

He was afraid, but he had already done his job. Hans closed his eyes and said.

"Did you forget the words of the Empress? She told you to make sure you don’t neglect state affairs!"

Ern stared at Hans at that.

“Do you think I’m going to be involved in something like that?”

But unlike his words, Ern's body sat back on the chair.