"His Imperial Majesty Decreed has arrived. Your Highness please come to receive them."

"Your Imperial Majesty, your imperial consort accepts them."

"According to His Imperial Majesty Decreed send from heavens above, Empress Jae along with Beauty Belle Su will accompany His Imperial Majesty for an uncover civilian trip out of the palace in 1 weeks time. Do prepare all the necessity and ensure everything is in order. Empress Jae, please receive the decreed."

"Your Imperial Consort accepts the decreed."

Raising my hands up above my head while maintaining my kneeling position with my head hanging low, Eunuch Gao handover the decreed onto my hand and make his way out.

Once everyone has left, I still remain seated on the floor while clutching tightly onto the decreed.

"Missy Jae, what are you doing! Don't sit on the floor like this, you are going to catch a cold!"

Ignoring Yu-ji's words, my mind just went into space of thoughts and endless questions.

'Why did Xuan Di deliver such decreed? I did not say anything of what I desire during the lunch table.'

'What if this is a test? He is trying to test something out of me?'

'Did I behave in a certain way that trigger the cautious side of him?'

Pinching the bridge of my nose as a sign of stress, I slowly stood up heading to my bed chambers. Regardless whether is this a test or not, this is the best chance.

*** ***

'Swoosh'

The sound of my arrow cutting through the thin air, targeting straight at the red dot as the final destination. Reaching out for the 5th arrow behind my back, positioning it onto my bow, concentrated my strength onto pulling the strings on my right hand while steadying my left hand for aiming.

'Swoosh'

Ugh, it hit away from the target. I am definitely not in a good condition to train due to the lack of focus since I received the decreed.

Lowering the bow, I stood there blankly and once again wondered into space.

'Did he know that I wanted to go with them? But, I did firmly expressed that I wasn't interested in joining at the pavilion.'

'Did Beauty Belle Su convinced him? Then why did he agreed to let me join? Is there a hidden purpose? Judging by my understanding of his character, he won't do things with no reason.'

'Or is it the change in the way I interact with him that pique his interest? No way, he will never be interested in someone like me.'

'Sigh, this is not the time to think about such things. Since he gave this opportunity to me himself, I won't waste it.'

Looking up into the clear blue sky with the cold chilled air blowing into my face, I think I will need to be careful with how I act before him.

Heading back to my palace chambers to clean myself up, unexpectedly there is an uninvited guest.

"Your Highness, your lowly consort says her greetings to you." Beauty Belle Su greeted. As she look up, she realised Jae-in was wearing some sort of male looking attire which doesn't fit her taste at all.

Oh no, another problematic fly flew into my palace.

"At ease. What brings you here Beauty Belle Su?" I questioned as I walk past her and enter into my bed chambers to change into something comfortable and warm, knowing that she will definitely question my attire in her head.

Beauty Belle Su clicked onto her tongue as she is not please with the lack of respect Empress Jae is giving her. How dare she treat her like a transparent object and walk past her into her bed chambers!?

Swallowing the anger, she manage to continue her polite demure.

"As last night I received the decreed from his Imperial Majesty, I thought it is best for me to pay a visit to older sister so to plan ahead on what we should do during this trip out and also to cultivate some bonding relationship between us. Apparently, older sister have some misunderstanding of me which I would like to undo them."

'Pfft, pay a visit to my palace to plan for the trip out? Who does she think she is? Just a lowly beauty belle and trying to act as if she is the Empress?'

Returning back to the living room in my casual light green clothing and a blue outerwear, I headed to the main couch and took a seat. Automatically, Yu-ji prepared a hot tea the moment I sat down.

"Oh my, what do you mean by misunderstanding?" I gracefully sipped onto the tea and sparing a glance at her.

"Older sister, your little sister knows that you are in love with his Imperial Majesty and therefore, you can't accept any other woman being bestowed to be his woman. I understand how it feel, thought it hurts for me as well, but he is the son of the heavens that will never belong to one person.

From now on, your lowly consort will strive to work with older sister to serve his Imperial Majesty to the fullest as I am the only one who knows how you feel. I hope you will not have any bad blood with me as I also do not want to be hated by you."

As usual, phrasing things well and no direct intentions of insult, but behind every sentences it means something else.

"Of course, if sister wants to achieve this, being an older sister shall promise it and give it to you."

"What?" Beauty Belle Su look up abruptly as though she did not expect this reply.

"What do you mean what? You said that you want to serve His Imperial Majesty with me harmoniously right? Sure, why not? It is not a bad thing to have more than 1 person to serve him and share the load. You might never know, you might be the first to conceive a child and being an older sister, this will definitely be a good news as his Imperial Majesty has yet to have a heir."

"And don't worry, I get that he is the son of the heavens that belongs to the world and everyone under him belongs to him. In the past, I was too childish and selfish to not being able to see the bigger picture. From now on, I shall be practicing the right virtue traits of being a benevolence Empress of Xuan."

"Oh right, as for the trip, do not worry about the preparation of items. I will get them prepared, you sister can just focus on how to dress up beautifully to capture his Imperial Majesty's attention throughout the trip. And let's hope that during this under cover civilian trip, his Imperial Majesty will not deviate from your beauty to a possible lowly commoner."

A small smile creep at the side of my mouth as I look into Beauty Belle Su's eyes and witness that change in her face as I mentioned the possibility of Xuan Di bestowing a commoner as a consort into the Imperial Women Palace.

'Wanna play with me? You are too green for this.'