"The Empress of the Eastern Empire says very strange things. None of that would have happened."
"Even if Your Majesty Heinley doesn't want to admit it. In fact, it is the truth."
"Oh. Since when is an assumption the truth?"
"Because you always have such a wicked sense of humor with Rashta."
"Empress Rashta."
"Rashta just talks about the old days, what's wrong with that?"
Why wasn't Heinley as blunt as usual? Why did he allow her to continue to talk nonsense?
"Don't you remember the letters, Your Majesty?"
Ah. It's because of the letters.
He seemed not to speak firmly to Rashta for fear that she would talk about the letters we had exchanged in the past.
If it became known that I had exchanged letters with Heinley before the divorce, my enemies would be the ones who would be most happy.
They would accuse me of having had an affair with Heinley, and emphasize that the divorce was not Sovieshu's fault but mine.
After Christa's death, the position of those who followed her fell drastically. Although in the Western Empire, it wouldn't do me much harm to hear a rumor that I had an affair with Heinley, they might cling to that.
"Your Majesty Heinley, what Empress Rashta says is not a lie. Although now Your Majesty only has eyes for Empress Navier, before it seemed that you liked Empress Rashta."
Heinley pressed his temples as he heard about the letters. This time Grand Duke Lilteang intervened and said that Heinley really liked Rashta.
Heinley sighed as he looked at Rashta. He had the face of a person without a plan and seemed to be thinking about what to say in this situation.
"Empress Rashta, you are obsessed with my husbands." I ended up talking because I couldn't bear to see him like this, "Or is it that you are obsessed with me?"
***
"When did you start to be interested in this?"
"..."
"At first you weren't interested at all in nobility, gossip, and so on."
"..."
"Huh? Won't you really tell me? That's mean, I thought we were friends, huh?"
At his colleague's insistence, Joanson finally answered,
"I was always interested, but not enough to write articles about it."
Despite the clear annoyance in his voice, his colleague did not leave his side and asked another question,
"But how did an interest you kept quiet suddenly become so definite? How?"
"Why are you so curious?"
"Everyone is, not just me!"
His colleague exclaimed with a twinkle in his eye.
"It's surprising that you suddenly revealed such an interest in nobility, high society parties, gossip, and so on... but what's more surprising is that you spread all kinds of rumors as soon as you revealed that interest. You are now the most famous journalist in the Eastern Empire. Don't you know that?"
His colleague's words were true.
When Joanson began to smear Empress Rashta, not many agreed with him. It was the same when he began to raise suspicions about her.
