The gate swung open slowly, revealing the symbol of the highest-ruling authority of the Empire—the Imperial Palace.

The Imperial Palace was quite different than the Royal Palace back in the Kingdom, Elric thought. The Royal Palace was a single but large building that provided every functionality necessary for the King to rule with whereas the Imperial Palace was constituted from multiple buildings. The only thing that linked these buildings were a series of walkways and corridors that allowed for people to go where they needed to go.

He stepped into the palace without further ado. Like the square before it, the palace’s floor was made entirely out of white marble and had a halberd-wielding guard guarding every several meters of the place. It was slightly puzzling to see how strict the Empire was when it came to security. Did Karthian rulers have a history of paranoia and assassination attempts? 

His eyes spotted the armor of a nearby guard and saw the mark of the Paladin Order on them. Were they the reason why? Was a chivalric order like the Paladin Order so highly valued by the Empire that it became tradition for them to be responsible for safeguarding the lives of each successive emperor?

Under the emperor’s guidance, the group was lead past several buildings, each one leaving Elric with a burning curiosity on what their purpose was. Even now, Elric still had no idea what was the point in having so many buildings built like this.

Elric didn’t know how far they walked when they finally came to a brief stop in front of a marbled fence. This one was different from the other walls Elric saw before; it had multiple golden light fixtures attached to the top. A light-emitting device like this was identical and nostalgic to the ones Elric saw back in Crazy’s laboratory. When enough mana was supplied, these devices were capable of emitting enough light to resemble daytime in a part of the forest at night. The issue was that regulating the amount of mana these devices got was extremely difficult to get right, making the illumination more of an annoyance than it was a service and thus very few people used them unless necessary. 

Subsequently, Elric wasn’t sure how the Imperial Palace managed to get a hold of so many of these magical devices. 

When the gates opened up, Elric’s eyes lit up at the sight of the resplendent garden beyond. The verdant-green grass looked more like a soft and smooth carpet of green. The flowerbed and stands to the left was equally captivating in aesthetic. They played a shining role to the statues within the garden, magnifying the overall beauty of the place and helping to show any visitor the excellent craftsmanship of the people involved.

A unique-looking pavilion was erected on the right side of the garden. Made of marble and containing multiple stories, the pavilion had beautiful patterns expertly etched into it without seemingly sacrificing the integrity of the material. Complex shapes, patterns, and images were combined into one to form a single cohesive masterpiece of a building.

This pavilion was where the banquet would take place. That was made evident to Elric when he and the rest of the group walked into the room and saw the delicacies placed on top of the huge table inside. But while his eyes burned with an avaricious appetite, his stomach remained silent despite the temptations laid out in front of him. Disappointment and eagerness flickered back and forth between his eyes as if he was unsure of what he should really be feeling.

The sight of Fantasia’s indecisiveness was very comedic to the others. Somiret and his sister shared smiles while Hughesin shook his head. The duke wanted to smile and laugh at her reactions. Memories of how she ravenously partook in Somiret’s food before only reinforced his opinion that she was spoiled rotten by her uncle, a characteristic Hughesin could honestly say didn’t match her usual reserved and charming self.

“I must say,” Somiret leaned in to talk to Hughesin on behalf of Fantasia, “are you really planning on continuing this torture for lady Fantasia? Let her be at ease.”

Elric’s eyes lit up at the minister’s words. He turned to face Hughesin, eagerly waiting for the duke to come to a favorable decision for him.

That did it for the duke. The pleading eyes of the one he cherished had the man ready to speak at once. “Miss Fantasia, it was never my intent or wish to see you in so much pain. Yet the Imperial Palace isn’t a place where one can freely find a change of clothes…”

Someone came up from behind at that moment to interject, “Is that so? Given the number of rooms in this place, I’d daresay it would be a simple matter to use any one of those rooms to change, would it not?”

Hughesin didn’t even need to turn around to know the owner of that voice; the Emperor of Karth, Emperor Hecaris III. A man Hughesin would never dare to retort back to.

Everyone moved apart at once when the emperor approached, leaving Hecaris III to smile at the group. Normally, Elric would’ve been honored to be approached by the ruler of such a powerful nation, but this wasn’t a normal situation. And he was sure he wasn’t the only person feeling that way.

“The consideration of Your Excellency is certainly heart-touching. It would be an honor if the proper preparations are made for my sweetheart.” Hughesin was sure to stress the last two words.

Hecaris III didn’t respond, prompting Hughesin to look up from his bow to see what was the matter. The emperor was just standing there in shock with his mouth slightly ajar.

“Strange.” Hughesin thought to himself. What a peculiar sight from the emperor. Even if he thought his companion was stunningly beautiful, there wasn’t a need for the man to look so surprised. But how could he protest against the emperor of all people? The only thing he could do was wait for the other man to recover.

Somiret was also thinking of the same thing roughly on the other side. Was something about this moment meant to be so shocking that the emperor would so readily lose his decorum?

When Hecaris III did eventually snap back to awareness, the first thing he did was uncork the small bottle of carved-out jade and drink the pink liquid within it in one gulp. It took a moment for the liquid to properly reach his stomach before Hecaris III looked ready to speak again.

But why? The minds of Hughesin, Somiret, and his sister raced furiously to analyze the situation. The emperor was acting far too strange now to be considered fine. If he was trying to exaggerate his shock, then an act like this was far too shoddy to be socially acceptable. But whether or not that was the case would be impossible to find out until the emperor decided to divulge whatever secret he had.

Only one mind had enough of the clues to figure it out: Elric. Elric understood the emperor’s reaction to him just now meant the man definitely knew he was a woman. It was just a matter of knowing what the man drank. He remembered the prince drinking from a flask earlier when he saw him. This was definitely a tincture made by Madoshi on Flania’s command. Given the circumstances, Elric was already starting to feel confident about his guesses. 

The emperor coughed once to dispel the awkward air. At his beckoning, a servant came forward with a silver platter in hand. The platter in turn had four different floral arrangements frozen in ice. All four arrangements were made with roses, but the feature that differed between them was how the golden ribbon was tied or knotted. This was a gesture with meaning behind it.

While not an expert on the art of floral arrangement, Elric did recall reading about it somewhat. The way these roses were tied up all had different meanings—wild, illusion, mystery, and silence. Of course, what they represented and what Elric understood were two different things. He didn’t even know where to start with such information, but luckily for him the emperor was about to answer it for him. The ice around the roses flashed blue following Hecaris III’s spellcast before transforming into a gradual mist of vapor and evaporating away, leaving an intact and fresh arrangement behind.