𝘌𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘙𝘰𝘴𝘦|𝘙𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘌𝘮𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘴🥀

New Years|part 2

The two women parted away making Miranda kiss the back of Navier's hand as the nobles clapped politely before whispering again which Miranda took notice of.

"Thank you for dancing with me, empress. Everyone must be talking about how beautiful you dance." Miranda thanked loudly, smiling at the blonde before a group of ladies and men came over to the two.

"The ball is very beautiful, Your Majesty. You are so kind for giving a gift to your husband's mistress too?" A woman questioned before the group let out quiet laughter making Navier's face fall before she answered.

"I never gave Miss Rastha a gift, she must be confused or misunderstood something." Navier stated as Miranda nodded in agreement as the nobles looked unconvinced.

"Navier haven't gifted Rastha any gifts so please don't spread rumors about the Imperial family. Please tell me where you got that information from." Miranda questioned, softly glaring at the group as they immediately became quiet before the young man spoke up.

"Rastha told some of us that you gave her gifts as a sign of friendship." He answered, looking at the ground to avoid the anger that was seen within Miranda.

"I see. Thank you." Navier responded stiffly as she felt a headache coming. Seeing that was all, the group of nobles walked away to chatter again about what happened before Miranda made her way to Rastha who was in the corner chatting with men.

"Rastha, may I have a word with you? Alone." Miranda asked causing the two men to walk away as Rastha played with her hair.

"Yes, sister?" Rastha asked, still happy from the attention she was receiving and the gifts. Now her favorite person was here too, she was over the moon.

"Why are you telling people that Navier gave you a gift? She didn't." Miranda asked, disappointment laced in her tone making Rastha freeze up.

'Huh, she did give me a gift.' Rastha thought, biting her lip softly before crocodile tears started to flow seeing how upset Miranda was.

"Sister did give me a gift, it was under her name.." Rastha trailed off, seeing how Miranda let out a sigh before patting Rastha's head. Making Rastha blush at the sign of affection.

"Rastha, do not address Navier as that. You are not friends. Navier didn't send it, Sovieshu must have." She said mostly to herself as she tried to comfort the girl. How stupid was he to do that when Rastha would obviously tell people about the gift.

"Oh." Rastha muttered to herself, feeling upset that the gift was not from Her Majesty before embarrassment came forward, realizing that the truth might come out which can cause her to be stunned again. Seeing that Rastha went pale, Miranda decided to help the two women save face.

"I bet you feel embarrassed and upset that you were tricked, hm? You can tell everyone what happened to save yourself." Miranda suggested innocently, playing with Rastha's hair as she let her soak the idea in.

"Rastha can do that but his Majesty might get upset with Rastha." She meekly replied, Sovieshu was her only way of living right now. She couldn't lose that right now, his affection kept her safe.

"Just tell him I forced you to, you can use me this once." Miranda assured her before ushering her to the gossiping group to make it known, watching the scene unfold before her attention was cut to someone else.

"You said we can talk afterwards, Empress." Heinley said sadly as he walked to Miranda, looking like a rejected puppy. A small smile came onto her face before she let out a laugh at the prince's expression.

'She has a nice laugh.' He thought, blushing from hearing it as he quickly covered his face in embarrassment to save face. Miranda regained her composure before trying to comfort him.

"I didn't forget you, Heinley." Miranda reassured him, deciding to pat his head to cheer him up. The encouragement immediately worked, a bright smile replacing the gloomy expression.

"Was there anything in particular that you wanted to talk about?" She questioned, glancing at Rashta speaking to the nobles before talking to the prince.

"Rastha made a mistake, the Empress never gave me a gift. Rastha was tricked." Rastha weeped softly to the nobles as they began to pity her.

"How cruel! You and the Empress were used as pawns!" A nobleman tsked lightly, knowing who exactly did this. The Emperor who started a love duel towards the two women in the first place.

"I never knew His Majesty was this cold.." A woman gossiped to the crowd, Rastha bowed her head down as a smile made a way on her face. Miranda was right, no one is angry at her. They pity her even more now.

"You know Ergi?" Heinley asked Miranda once he heard the name slip out her mouth. This makes the plan even better, allowing more progress to be made.

"I do, I knew him for a very long time." Miranda answered before wondering how Heinley knew him. She never heard her friend speak of knowing him.

"How good are you at lying, Your Empress? I have an offer." He questioned, the usual happy looking expression falling off his face.

[I'm going to leave it on this note, I'm not going to tell you how exactly Miranda answered until later on when we see those choices affect things.)