Saving The Abandoned Empress

125 “Rumours”

Back to the present~

Eleanora felt happy as she was able to help Axion in this life.

He won’t be a knight in the third squadron but a famous craftsmen who will be the heir of the Spade family buisness.

Eleanora was walking when her eyes was suddenly caught into something shiny.

‘Whoa, it’s so neat and pretty… Daddy would look good with this.’

It was a blue coloured cuff buttons, like the duke’s eyes.

‘Yes! I would give this to him and coax him into giving up the idea of finding a son-in-law!’

‘Am so genius...’

Eleanora thought to herself as she approached the shop to buy the cuff buttons.

.....

“Please pack this up for me...”

“Wow...who is this?”

Another voice sounded from behind as Eleanora paid for the cuff buttons.

“Isn’t this the moon of our empire, Lady Dalton? Or should I say Dame Dalton?”

The person spoke as he approached Eleanora and she looked at him with wary eyes.

The person in-front of her was Terrence Droil.

A person who was notorious for being a playboy and gossip in the high society.

His mouth was venomous like a snake.

“Yes, it’s been a while; Sir Droil.”

Eleanora spoke as Terrence took her hands in his palms to kiss it as a greeting gesture.

‘Suddenly I miss the emperor… i never had to deal with unnecessary flies like this because of him in my past life.

Because he simply got rid of the tradition to kiss the ladies hands as a greeting posture in my past life as he hated it when others even touched his property, the empress.

After that incident in the banquet.’

[The incident in the past where the emperor killed a man because he was rude to the empress.]

“Please call me comfortably as Terrence, My lady… Who is as beautiful as the moon.”

Eleanora flinched as Terrence spoke and looked up at her with a wicked smile.

‘How rude!’

‘But just endure it. He is someone who loves to gossip. He must be baiting me on purpose.’

“I want to talk more but I have plans, so must go back now, Excuse me.”

Eleanora spoke as she took her hands away from Terrence’s grip and turned to leave.

“What plans do you have that made you run away like this, My Lady?”

Terrence spoke but he was stopped by the knights from approching Eleanora, who took the cuff buttons and prepared to leave.

“Goodbye.”

Eleanora spoke without looking back but Terrence’s eyes widen slightly as he saw the cuff buttons on her hands and smirked as he bid Eleanora.

‘Goodbye, my lady…’

‘It’s been a while since you return from the battlefield but you are buying cuff buttons for a man?’

‘Who are you giving them to? The emperor or…’

Thus the debate in the upper society started with this, Who is the owner of those cufflinks?

Her fiance, the emperor or her seem to be lover, the young duke of Raven?

And then the rumors of the cancellation of marriage between the imperial family and Dalton duchy spread, along with another topic.

The love story of Cedrick Raven and Eleanora Dalton, two people fall in love whose family was each others arch enemy.

The incidents of four years ago where the duke asked for a cancellation of marriage and trained her to be the next heir, then her friendship with Cedrick, along with the incident on the training ground where Eleanora ran off with Cedrick infront of the emperor lead to those rumors.

As someone also added fuel into the fire, the gossips spread more and more.

Where the emperor tried to separate them and the duke become the great father who loved his daughter to the point he is ready to go against the emperor.

But the gossip was different everywhere.

In the imperial palace~

“Your Majesty, The lady has bought cufflinks for you. I heard that she bought them a few days ago.”

Hearing Sir Brayden’s words, the emperor’s hands which was signing the documents stopped.

“...Why do you think so?”

Cathain asked while trying to hide the excitements in his heart.

‘She bought cufflinks for me?’

Brayden, who realised the changes in the emperor become happy.

‘Finally the emperor would stop tormenting us now!’

Since the day Eleanora ran off with Cedrick, the emperor didn’t stopped her but instead he tortured the people around him into training with him.

Venting his anger by beating up people in the name of training.

“Ahem...the cufflinks have special meaning, Your Majesty. You can only give them to someone you are very close with.”

Cathain pretended to not care but he was listening to Brayden very carefully.

“So what does that have to do with me?”

“…”

‘Hah...So now you are trying to save your face after being shameless to the point you even hide your real identity to meet her?’

‘If you had nothing to do with it... We wouldn’t suffer so much for the past few days by over working!’

Brayden coughed a little before he started to speak seriously to the emperor, who was writting the documents again.

“Your Majesty, if a lady gives a young man who is not het family then it’s mean she is telling him that ‘You are mine’ by giving them the cufflinks.”

Clack!

The pen on Cathain’s hand broke and the ink ruined the papers.

But he had no tension about that as his mind of filled up with something else and his face turned slightly red.

‘L-Lover? Is she going to indirectly tell me her feelings?!’

‘As i expected, the duke was separating us from being together!’

The Dalton Duchy~

“My lord, there are some rumors about the lady.”

The duke’s aid, Raynor spoke as he rushed to the duke.

Alexander, who was polishing his sword froze as he looked at Raynor dangerously.

“Speak.”

Raynor swallowed his saliva before he started to speak.

“They say our lady has bought a pare of cufflinks for her lover...”

Raynor spoke hesitantly but didn’t imagined Alexander to chuckle at his words and replied.

“Leave them be...You don’t need to take care of that.”

“…”

‘Am i dead? is this why am imagining things like the duke just chuckled?’

The Raven Duchy~

“There are rumors going on that, Lady Dalton bought cufflinks for the young master.”

Cedrick and Jennifer who was drinking tea in the garden was stunned as they heard the report from their butler.

.....

Cedrick blushed as he heard that and felt a little happy in his heart as he asked shyly.

“I-Is that so?”

His birthday is coming soon, so did she bought them for him?

But his hopes was crushed brutally by his little sister.

“They can be for anyone but not for you, brother.”

“…”

Jennifer spoke as she took a sip of het tea elegantly and looked at her brother.

“Even if they were for you... Do you think the emperor would let you have them?”

“…”

Cedrick felt he was just hit by his little sister so brutally that he bleed.

‘Does she needs to be that honest?’

…

Where Eleanora, who had no idea about those rumors sighed as she looked outside.

‘The lady has been strange, right?’

‘Yes, usually at this time she would be training but she is hold up in the room for quite a few days.’

‘But there is no way for her to know those... The duke ordered everyone to keep their mouth shut.’

‘Maybe the lady is like this because the duke is not at home?’

Maria heard the others maid’s whispering between them and she couldn’t help but also wonder.

‘The lady looks so dispirited...’

“My Lady, would you like to take a walk? The weather is really nice.”

“Is that so?”

Eleanora spoke lazily as she sighed.

“You will feel fine if you take a stroll outside.”

“Shall i?... Since i have been inside for so long, am feeling stuffy.”

‘Stuffy?!’

Maria was stunned as she heard Eleanora, misunderstanding her words completely.

‘There was a time when the lady was so cheerful and rebellious but she has always been so lonely…’

Maria felt like crying as she remembered the past where Eleanora wanted to leave the house because Alexander wasn’t at home for a few days after the duchess’s dead.

‘Ele hates home! Father hates Ele! Nobody loves Ele!’

Eleanora, who was lazily gazing outside was stunned for a moment as Maria suddenly grabbed her shoulder.

“My Lady! Don’t feel dishearten! The duke will take care of everything?!”

‘Huh? Take care of what?’

“I will always be by your side, My Lady.”

Maria spoke as she hugged the confused Eleanora tightly.

“O-Okay...Thank you?”

Eleanora couldn’t understand Maria’s actions so she just thought of going along with her.

‘Why are they acting like am dying?’

Eleanora was frustrated because she couldn’t decide on whom to take with her as a partner on Rosette’s birthday banquet.

She had always attended royal balls and the emperor was the only partner she ever had.

She doesn’t even know many young man’s in the society.

Eleanora kept on thinking as she took a sip of her tea that Jennie brewed but suddenly a cold voice sounded from behind.

“So you were here...”