The queen’s wrath was tremendous.
The gifts that had arrived almost every day suddenly stopped all at once.
From Seorin’s perspective, it was meant to show just how much Earei’s actions had offended her, but to the servants and maids who managed the mansion, it immediately became a threat to their livelihood.
“It’s already been three days and nothing’s come. Not even food!”
One of the servants, moving under Marvin’s instigation, complained.
“There are noble clients lined up to buy Her Majesty’s gift collection, so what are we supposed to do now!”
A maid who regularly received kickbacks from Syureuseu vented her fury, worrying over the clients.
A closer look showed that their clothing and the quality of the food they ate were not poor at all.
Compared to the starving people outside, they were far better off, and in fact they even held a sense of privilege over ordinary commoners, as if they belonged to a higher class.
Though all of it had been done under Earei’s tacit permission, they did not feel even the tiniest bit of gratitude toward him.
“This is all because that man offended Her Majesty!”
“That’s right. He should’ve just stayed quiet. Why did he have to cause such a scene at the Revival Festival!”
And they had no shame, either.
The underlings had forgotten that all of this had happened because of the play they themselves had put on according to Syureuseu’s scheme.
Even though Earei had not actually been there, the underlings slandered and hated him simply because the gifts and supplies had stopped.
As a result, they even distorted the whole truth of the matter, blaming everything on Earei.
They had almost forgotten the fact that they had performed such an act themselves.
“Still, didn’t we get paid quite a bit this time?”
“We make way more selling the gift collection, so what are you talking about?!”
One of Syureuseu’s closest among the underlings tried to calm them, but those blinded by greed instead flew into a rage.
Even that close aide had not expected things to grow this bad, so he said nothing more.
Ironically, all of them had originally volunteered to be employed in order to enjoy the sense of duty and pride that came from caring for Earei, the hero of the common people.
But through Marvin and Syureuseu’s maneuvering, they had been given justification, and with money and food in their hands, they had become corrupt.
To them, Earei was the goose that laid golden eggs, but they did not want that goose noisily honking.
“Let’s not just sit here. We should at least send a letter. Write that he’s sorry and begging Her Majesty’s forgiveness.”
“What if that makes Her Majesty’s anger fade and she starts coming every day? Don’t forget. It benefits us more if the two of them keep just the right distance, not if they reconcile.”
“What benefit is there if the gifts don’t come!”
The maid searching for a solution shouted venomously.
“This won’t do. You know the letters we always hid? Let’s pick out one that sounds suitably apologetic and send that.”
“Come on, we burned them, threw them away, did everything. Would there be any left?”
“Later on, we got tired of it and just piled them up on one side, remember?”
“Oh, right? Then let’s check the ones he wrote recently first.”
“There aren’t any new letters.”
“Huh?”
The servant was startled.
Though they were in a cold war, the queen had continued sending gifts and Earei had continued writing letters, maintaining at least a minimal connection.
It was just that the letters had not been delivered because of their tricks.
“That man must be seriously angry too. Since the Revival Festival, he hasn’t written any letters and put them in the mailbox.”
“What, what did he do right?”
“Enough. Just go open the letters. If there’s something suitable, we can send that.”
“Sigh, I suppose we should at least do that. What trouble we’re all going through because of one man.”
Just as the underlings grumbled and were about to crowd toward the place where the letters were piled up, Syureuseu’s closest aide cleared his throat.
“Ahem, the thing is…”
“What?”
“Lord Syureuseu said we must take special care to ensure that no letters are delivered for the time being…”
“Damn it all! Does that make any sense? They’re already sucking and licking Her Majesty all they want, and now they’re telling us we can’t even send a letter?”
“Sucking and licking? What a damned scoundrel!”
“What? Damned? Go on, try it! Try it! How am I supposed to live with this injustice!”
They represented Earei’s position only when it aligned with their own interests.
In truth, they had not even noticed that the person they were supposed to serve had been acting strangely for three days, or rather, that he had made no presence known at all and left not even a trace that someone was living there.
Since they had not noticed, they could not even offer empty words of concern.
“Will anything change if we do this? Come on, let’s look at the long term. I’m dying here too. I’ve got three kids! I need money, money! But what can we do? Flip the table now? Rather than ending it all here, let’s endure for a few weeks. Then, once the gifts start coming again, we can keep eating well from then on. How could a river’s current be the same all 365 days of the year?”
“You think I don’t know that? We need to eat well all 365 days just to keep food on the table!”
They said “keep food on the table,” but they were more than well-off enough.
It was simply greed.
And did they know?
That what they thought would be only a few weeks of endurance would continue for months.
--
“I told you to stop!”
Seorin shoved Marvin away.
Marvin did not hide his displeasure as he repeatedly clenched and unclenched his fist behind his back.
It was his own habit for enduring his anger.
“You mean you refuse to fulfill your duty…”
“That damned duty, duty! Do you have no duties as the king’s husband aside from bedding me?”
“…I did not expect you to acknowledge me as your husband.”
“It is ambiguous beyond words for Us as well, but since We did exchange a kiss of vows before God, Our conclusion is that it cannot be helped. If We dismiss you as nothing, then We become an immoral woman who cast aside Our first husband for something insignificant.”
It was the queen’s stubbornness and pride, refusing to accept that she was unable to see Earei over something unimportant.
“No matter what you say, only by fulfilling the quota can an heir be conceived, and only then can you see Earei.”
“Three years have already passed. Do you truly think a few days, a few more months of delay will change anything now?”
The queen was exhausted.
She had endured by clinging to the hope that once these disgusting times passed, she would be able to see Earei. But after the incident at the Revival Festival, she felt betrayed even by him, who had not understood her or waited for her, and cast herself into emptiness.
“If you had at least let me see his face, this would not have happened.”
Derbek and Hailan knew just how deep the queen’s love for Earei was.
They were certain that if she so much as saw his face or exchanged a single word with him, the two would embrace each other as if sparks had flown and cross the line, so they pressured the queen into cutting off all contact entirely.
Needless to say, Marvin and Syureuseu had been at the forefront of it.
‘If she’s such a faithful woman, why does she feel it so much when we do it?’
Marvin harbored that disloyal thought, but even he could not let it out of his mouth.
Silence fell, and Seorin ordered a guard to bring wine.
She told him to bring only one cup, poured for herself alone, and gulped it down.
When it grew excessive, Marvin, flustered, tried to take the bottle from the queen.
“Please refrain from excessive drinking.”
“Why? It is fine for that thing of yours to run wild inside Our body, but not for Us to run wild? How selfish. How selfish indeed.”
Only then did Marvin realize that Seorin had been deeply shocked by the events of the Revival Festival.
‘I do feel we pushed her too far. If we only tighten the noose without giving her any room to breathe, she is bound to spring back with her life on the line. I must restrain myself for the time being.’
Immediately after the Revival Festival incident, Syureuseu had also reproached Marvin.
Their relationship had always been poor, but it was the first time he had spoken against him directly.
Secretly summoning Earei and showing him the queen with them, and then staging things so that it appeared to the queen that Earei was rejecting her—both had inflicted wounds far too deep.
Marvin did not understand the most important reason and principle behind why those two were enduring in such an unsightly way: it was because they wanted each other.
“The Order and the people protested, asking why Earei did not appear at the Revival Festival, and We could not say a single word in response.”
“That is…”
“The root cause was you, yet no one helped Us. And after that, you still say that because you are Our husbands, We must share Our bed with you?”
Marvin could offer no reply to the queen’s resentment.
“It has been over a year since the letters stopped. He always said he would send Us letters… Since the day we loved each other, there had not been a single day when We did not receive and read a letter from him…”
The hand pouring the wine trembled.
It was sorrow and hurt.
“We sent so many gifts from an empty treasury, yet he said not a word, and at the Revival Festival, he finally could not bear it and rejected Us… When We were going to him in person… There, he dared turn off the lights and greet Us with darkness…?”
In the end, she threw aside the cup and drank straight from the bottle.
Marvin, horrified, snatched the bottle away, and Seorin flew into a rage.
“Your Majesty, this is too much!”
“Let go! It is all because We lack virtue. We ascended the throne in a woman’s body and forsook Our husband, so how could a child ever take root? Hoo… hoo…”
The queen fumbled off her clothes, then lay on the bed and spread her legs.
“Your Majesty?”
“Finish quickly. I want to finish quickly and sleep.”
“……”
For some reason, he felt a sense of humiliation.
Folding that humiliation away carefully, Marvin filled the quota.
Once what had to be done was over, the queen closed her legs and shouted again to the guard.
“You there!”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
“Go to Husband Hailan and convey this! Three months! If a letter of apology does not come from Our husband within the three months remaining before the social gathering opens, We will not fulfill the duty of succession! And We will not do it until that letter of apology arrives!”
“I shall obey your command.”
“Convey it clearly!”
As it happened, Syureuseu’s turn began the next day.
Marvin, whose own position had become awkward, was startled and challenged Seorin.
“What do you mean by that?”
“He is not here. He is… He may be calling Us a filthy woman. But if he still loves Us… there is no way that tender man would not say a single word of apology to Us…”
Seorin picked up the bottle rolling on the floor and brought it to her mouth again.
“Hah… This is too fucking shitty to play king… Ah! We never had a cock to begin with, did We?”
The queen giggled at her crude wordplay, unable even to open her eyes, drunk, then fell asleep among the pillows.
“Rei… do you know what humiliation I am… enduring for you…?”
Hoping to see him, even if only in a dream.