Murderous Emperor’s Inconvenient Behavior

Before Mrs. Stanton came looking for Claire.

After putting Alicia to bed, who had passed out from being tired, she went right to the study to find Richard.

“Richard, do you really think that Grizmen can be free if Alicia wins the favor of the Emperor?”

“Yes.”

Richard nodded firmly.

“It’d be even better if she became the empress, wouldn’t it?”

“I didn’t think she’d go that far, but you’re right. That would be the best case scenario.”

Richard raised an eyebrow with a smile on his face, as if he was a little surprised.

“So that meant it was true.”

Mrs. Stanton muttered and looked like she was thinking.

“Wasn’t it your idea? Alicia couldn’t have thought of that.”

“That’s not important. I just want to change this decision because Alicia is very against it.”

“That can’t happen.”

Richard just refused the refusal.

Richard’s face, which had been happy up until this point, became more serious.

“Don’t act like that, Richard. Try to convince His Majesty.”

“His Majesty is set on the decision. It won’t be changed,”

“Who on earth thought of this to begin with!”

Mrs. Stanton finally lost her anger.

“I suggested it.”

“What?”

“It’s good for Alicia, too. Why can’t you and Alicia see what everyone else does?”

Instead, Richard told Mrs. Stanton, she was wrong.

Mrs. Stanton’s hands were shaking as she held onto the bottom of her dress.

“Please think positively. Do you think I would want to put Alicia in danger? Trust me, there won’t be any danger.”

“That’s a load of nonsense!”

Mrs. Stanton got up quickly and walked away. She looked at Richard with eyes that were full of anger and blame.

“How could you do this? How is this good for Alicia?”

“Settle down, mom.”

Richard got up slowly and called her. His face hardened, as if he wouldn’t let anyone argue with him.

“I won’t leave it like this again!”

“What are you going to do about it? His Majesty will not see you if it has to do with this.”

“I have no reason to see that guy!”

“Mother.”

“I don’t want to talk to you for a while. I’m leaving right now.”

She turned around and left the room.

Bang!

The door slammed shut so hard that the whole house shook.

She gasped for air as she rushed to Alicia’s room.

To give up his younger sister so that Grizmen could be free.

No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t figure out why Richard did what he did.

Richard said that the choice could not be changed, though.

“I need to find a way, any way!”

Mrs. Stanton chewed her bottom lip and thought about what to do.

<Why am I dressed up like a maid?>

She stopped all of a sudden. She remembered what Alicia had said all of a sudden.

Mrs. Stanton frowned and spent a long time thinking.

After a while, she lifted her chin and started to walk more casually.

* * *

“Madame?”

Claire was surprised when she looked at Mrs. Stanton.

It looked like she had come to scold Claire in person.

“I’m sorry about…,”

“Come on in.”

Mrs. Stanton blew a cold breeze past her and walked into the room.

Claire stood with her hands folded in front of Mrs. Stanton to look nice.

When they walked into the small room, it was hot and stuffy.

“Turn back around.”

“Pardon?”

When Claire asked her again, Mrs. Stanton made a circle in the air with her index finger and looked annoyed.

Claire just turned around where she was.

She was clearly looking for somewhere to beat.

“Madame, do you think my calf would work?”

Claire took a deep breath and raised her skirt just a little bit.

“What are you doing right now?”

“Aren’t you gonna beat me or something?”

“Why on earth would I hit you!”

“Because I fell down for no reason…”

“That’s a sad thing, but that’s not why.”

Knock knock.

The maid came in when there was a knock on the door.

“Madame, did you call for me?”

The servant looked confused about why she had been called to Claire’s room.

“Doesn’t she look like Alicia to you, too?”

“Claire… what are you talking about?”

When she was asked a question out of the blue, the maid looked at Clare.

“Yes.”

“She has nothing in common with her. Miss Alicia is much…”

“No need to lie. This is for Alicia, so just tell the truth.”

“At first glance, she does look similar, but not when you look more closely.”

“That’s enough. If it can fool people for even a second, it’s good enough.”

Mrs. Stanton’s eyes were full of danger.

“What’s going on, Madame?”

“As you may know, Alicia is going to be a consort at the Empire.”

“Oh, Madame, when I heard that, I thought the sky was falling. What a crazy thing happened…”

“Don’t worry, that’s not going to happen.”

Mrs. Stanton gave Claire a deep look.

‘Why has she been staring at me that way for a long time?’

Claire rubbed her cheek for no reason.

“In place of Alicia, you’re going to the empire.”

Mrs. Stanton used her finger to point at Claire.

At first, she just stood there with a blank look on her face, wondering why she was saying something so obvious.

Alicia’s maid went to the Empire because that was the obvious thing to do.

“From now on, you are going to act like you are Alicia.”

“…”

“Now you’re not maid Claire; you’re Alicia, Duke Stanton’s younger sister.”

Thud.

When she finally understood what was being said, it hit her like a bolt of lightning.

“Because you are Alicia, you are the one who will marry the Empire, and you are the one who will go to the victory banquet.”

Mrs. Stanton’s face lit up with a smile of victory.

“Madame, that sounds like a very risky plan to me.”

The maid walked up to the door.

Claire, too, agreed with what she said and shook her head quickly.

“If we want Alicia to live, we have to take risks.”

“Please don’t send me, Madame! If I did something wrong, I’ll fix it, so don’t send me!”

Claire fell on her face and began to cry.

She thought she could finally live a happy life when she moved up from being a low-level maid to being the lady’s personal helper. But if she went to the kingdom instead of Alicia, things would get complicated.

She had to make sure that didn’t happen.

“Shut up! I’m trying to make you a noble lady, so why are you making a fuss?”

“But what does it matter if the Emperor cuts off my head?”

“You said it yourself, being a consort isn’t a bad thing.”

She stopped crying. She didn’t think that her words would come back to haunt her.

“But, Madame, that only applied to Miss Alicia. As a maid, I will die if I go to the empire.”

“You can be the Empress.”

“…”

She couldn’t say a word.

The word ‘Empress’ sounds nice, but it’s not easy, is it?

“So, did you just make up the words you said earlier? Did you lie to send Alicia to death row?”

The look on Mrs. Stanton’s face changed.

“No!”

Claire shook her head very hard.

“If it’s not a lie, then even if you go, you won’t die.”

“But I’ll get caught, because who would mistake me for Alicia?”

“Fine. I can’t stop you from talking like this.”

Mrs. Stanton spoke in a quieter tone.

Clare’s face changed quickly, and she looked up at Mrs. Stanton.

In spite of how hard she tried, she felt like she had done something. It looked like the offer would be taken away, which was a relief.

“I also did not want to do this.”

“…”

But she had a bad feeling that something bad was going to happen.

“In the future, I will have to stop sponsoring the Vallais Monastery.”

“Sponsorship…”

“The monastery is already having a hard time, and you have made things even worse.”

In her mind, she saw the Valles Monastery, which was in the middle of the mountains.

She could also see herself working hard under the hot sun.

Even though she worked so hard that her back hurt, the monastery never had enough goods. When donation money came in every once in a while and was given to the poor people, it was gone without a trace.

“Haley, bring me a pen. I have to write the head of the monastery a letter right away.”

When Mrs. Stanton told her helper to get paper and a pen, the assistant did so.

“Just a moment!”

Clare grabbed the dress skirt of Mrs. Stanton.

“Tsk, you’re wrinkling my clothes.”

Mrs. Stanton grabbed Clare’s hand and yanked the fabric for her dress out of it.

“I’ll do it!”

Clare yelled loudly.

She shouldn’t let go of the support.

Even though she was kicked out of the convent, it was where she went when she was a child with no one to help her. She also didn’t want to hurt the head nun, who had cared for her.

“What are your plans?”

Mrs. Stanton gave a sneaky smile.

“I’ll become Alicia!”

“Really?”

“Yes. It’s something I can do well.”

Clare gave a firm nod.

“That’s exactly what I want to see. Get up quickly.”

Clare quickly wiped the tears off her face and stood up.

“Tsk, tsk, you don’t have to cry if you’re not going to die.”

“If I get caught, I’ll die.”

“You have to try hard not to get caught.”

Clare sneaked a look at Mrs. Stanton, who was saying things that didn’t make sense.

“It’s not bad to be a hostage.”

Mrs. Stanton said in a calm voice, as if she were soothing a child who was crying.

Clare wanted to hit her younger self for saying those things.

“Just become the Empress.”

“…Yes.”

Claire’s shoulders felt heavy, and she started to break out in cold sweat.

“This is how you can be rich and help Grizmen become independent. We won’t have to struggle our whole lives.”

The future that was going to fall apart looked dark to Claire.

* * *

This was all done in the most secret way possible.

Mrs. Stanton told the maid and Clare to tell no one else in the house about it.

She told them that if they broke this rule, she would kill them herself.

So Claire had no choice but to obey the maid and go with her.

The maid washed and dried Claire’s body carefully, and then she put a fragrant oil on her rough skin.

She put a face pack on her face, filed her nails carefully, and also clipped her toes.

She put something in her hair and gave her head a gentle rub.

“Hmm.”

She put her arms across her chest and sighed. Claire’s hair caught her critical eye.

Claire was amazed as she took the ends of her hair out of a knot.

“Look at this. How can it be so soft?”

Because of whatever was done to her hair, it went from being knotted to flowing and shiny in a short time.

If she took this back to the world where she used to live, it would be a big deal.

“I thought it was just blonde, but it’s actually platinum blonde, isn’t it?”

The hair, which had been bleached to be white-blonde, shone with a magical light.

“We have a problem.”

“Why? It’s just pretty.”

Claire stroked her hair with care.

“Alicia’s hair isn’t curly.”

“Oh.”

Her hair was smooth and straight. The silky material that moved when she walked was beautiful.

“Let’s straighten it out for now.”

The maid dug through the shelves and pulled out a few long pieces of cloth.

The cleaner looked sneaky as she brought in the cloth that looked like it had been tightly twisted.

“Why are you making that face? It’s frightening.”

“You’ll know when we give it a try.”

As she said, the pain started.