The Villainess Wants To Retire-Chapter 154: Bewitched

She took it, allowing him to guide her forward as the procession reformed itself one last time. The servants melted away to attend to their duties, the guards resumed their positions, and the corridor opened up before them.

Behind them, quite deliberately choosing the opposite direction, Aldric and Ryse began their own retreat, their footsteps echoing in counterpoint to Soren and Eris’s measured pace.

For a moment, they walked in companionable silence, the kind that exists between men who have known each other long enough that words are optional rather than required. Then Ryse, because he had never met a moment of tension he couldn’t puncture with mockery, threw his arm around Aldric’s shoulders with the casual affection of old friends.

"So," he said, voice bright with barely suppressed laughter, "thirty days. That’s quite a lot of time to miss someone."

Aldric’s response was immediate and flat. "I did not miss him. I was too busy doing his job to miss him."

"Sure, sure." Ryse’s grin was audible. "That’s why you’ve been checking the arrival schedules every hour since you got word he was on his way back as I heard." 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

"That was logistical necessity," Aldric said, his tone suggesting this was a well-worn argument. "Someone has to ensure proper preparations."

"Right. And the fact that you personally oversaw the preparation of his favorite foods for tonight’s feast was also logistical necessity?"

"It was efficient resource management. And who did you hear that from?"

"... Through the grapevine."

"Tell me which one it is so I can chop it off."

Ryse’s laughter echoed down the corridor, bouncing off ice and stone with the kind of joy that suggested he was thoroughly enjoying himself. "Whatever helps you sleep at night, my friend."

They continued walking, the distance between them and the other pair growing with each step, though not so far that the corridor had swallowed either group entirely. The palace was vast, certainly, but these particular hallways stretched long and straight before branching, offering clear sightlines for quite some distance.

Aldric’s smile faded first, his expression settling back into something more serious, more troubled. The exhaustion that he’d been holding at bay through sheer professionalism began to show at the edges, deepening the shadows beneath his eyes.

"Ryse..." His voice dropped, losing its defensive edge and gaining something heavier. "I know Soren can be unpredictable, that he operates on a different level than most of us. But this..."

He gestured vaguely back in the direction they’d come from, though he didn’t turn to look.

"Bringing a woman like her here, to Nevareth, to potentially rule us..." The pause stretched long enough to feel heavy, weighted with all the concerns he couldn’t quite articulate. "Why would he do that? Why would the Emperor make such a reckless choice?"

Ryse’s arm slipped from Aldric’s shoulders as his expression shifted from playful to something more contemplative. He’d been expecting the question, had probably been waiting for Aldric to voice the concern that had been building since the moment they’d received word of Soren’s engagement.

"Isn’t it obvious?" Ryse said finally, his tone suggesting he found the answer both clear and troubling. "Soren’s been bewitched by the former queen of Solmire."

The words landed between them like a stone dropped into still water.

Aldric stopped walking.

Just stopped, mid-stride, as though Ryse’s words had physically arrested his momentum. For a long moment, he stood there in the empty corridor, processing, calculating, trying to reconcile what he’d just heard with what he knew of his Emperor.

Then, slowly, deliberately, he turned his head.

Looked back down the long corridor, back toward where Soren and Eris continued their measured pace in the opposite direction. The distance between them had grown considerable, perhaps fifty paces or more, but the sightline remained clear, unobstructed by corners or doorways.

And there, far enough away that details blurred but close enough that the essential truth was unmistakable, Aldric saw exactly what Ryse’s words had predicted.

Soren was smiling.

Not the political smile he wore for courts, the one that was all practiced charm and calculated warmth. Not the diplomatic expression he deployed during negotiations, pleasant but ultimately empty. This was something else entirely. Something real.

His entire face had transformed, softened in a way that made him look younger, less guarded. He was leaning slightly toward Eris, his head tilted in that particular angle that suggested complete attention, absolute focus. She appeared to be saying something, gesturing toward one of the windows that looked out over the aurora gardens, and he was listening with the kind of intensity he usually reserved only for matters of state.

But it was the smile that caught Aldric’s attention, held it, refused to let go.

Genuine. Unguarded. The smile of a man who had forgotten, entirely, that anyone might be watching. The smile of someone who had found something precious and couldn’t quite believe his fortune in finding it.

Even from this distance, even without being able to hear their conversation or see the details of their expressions, the truth was written in every line of Soren’s body, in the way he moved closer to her as they walked, in the protective gesture of his arm offering support, in the simple, devastating fact that he looked happy.

Aldric had served Soren for years. Had seen him through political crises and military campaigns, through triumph and loss and everything in between. He’d seen the Emperor pleased, satisfied, content in the way of men who have achieved their goals.

But happy? Genuinely, unreservedly happy in a way that had nothing to do with duty or accomplishment?

That was new.

That was terrifying.

Aldric turned back forward, his jaw tight, his shoulders carrying a new weight that had nothing to do with paperwork or responsibilities.

"The Emperor," he said quietly, speaking more to himself than to Ryse, his voice carrying the resignation of a man who had just watched his carefully ordered world tilt on its axis, "has finally lost his mind."

Ryse made a small sound that might have been agreement or sympathy or perhaps just acknowledgment. He clapped Aldric on the shoulder once, firmly, the gesture somewhere between comfort and commiseration.

"Come on," he said. "We have a feast to prepare, and you look like you could use several drinks before dealing with whatever chaos tomorrow brings."

"Several seems insufficient," Aldric muttered, but he began walking again, his steps perhaps a bit heavier than before.

They continued down the corridor, two men walking away from the future that was being forged in their absence, toward duties and preparations and the comfortable familiar chaos of running an empire for an Emperor who had apparently decided that love, or madness, or whatever this was, took precedence over caution.

Behind them, far down the opposite corridor, Soren and Eris continued their own journey, unaware of the observation, unaware of the resignation and concern and reluctant acceptance blooming in the hearts of those who served them.

---

The corridor opened up ahead, revealing a set of elaborate double doors carved with patterns that suggested snowflakes frozen mid-fall. Her chambers, presumably. Her temporary sanctuary in this palace of ice and intrigue.

Soren slowed their pace, then stopped just before the doors, turning to face her properly.

"I know today has been..." he searched for the word, "challenging. Tomorrow will likely be worse. Vetra won’t let this stand, and the court will be watching every move we make."

"I’m counting on it," Eris replied.

Something in her tone made him study her more carefully, and what he saw there must have satisfied him because his smile returned, smaller now but no less genuine.

A soft whine drew their attention downward. Bjorn had followed them the entire way, padding along at a respectful distance but never straying far, his golden eyes fixed on Eris with that same unwavering devotion that had caused such chaos earlier. Now he sat at her feet, tail sweeping across the polished marble in slow, hopeful arcs, watching the exchange between the two humans with what could only be described as rapt attention.

When Eris turned toward her chamber doors, preparing to enter, the wolf let out a short, plaintive bark. Not loud, not demanding, just a soft sound of protest at the prospect of being separated from his newly discovered favorite person.

Eris paused, glancing down at the creature with an expression that suggested she was still trying to reconcile the absurdity of having acquired a massive frost-wolf’s affection within minutes of arriving at the palace. Bjorn stared back, tail wagging hopefully, and something in his expression, so earnest, so pathetically eager for acknowledgment, made her sigh.

She reached down, somewhat awkwardly, and gave him a brief pat on the head. The gesture was stiff, uncertain, the movement of someone who had spent far more time commanding armies than befriending animals. But Bjorn reacted as though he’d just been granted the greatest honor of his life, his entire body wiggling with joy, a pleased rumble emanating from his chest.

Soren watched this interaction with an expression caught somewhere between amusement and residual jealousy, though he was wise enough not to comment on his pet’s continued preference for the woman who had threatened to burn him alive mere minutes ago.

"Get some rest," he said softly. "Tonight’s feast is unavoidable, but I’ll make sure it’s brief. And tomorrow... tomorrow we begin."

"Begin what?"

"Taking apart an empire," he said simply. "One careful piece at a time."

She should have been disturbed by the casualness of it, the way he spoke of dismantling power structures the way others might discuss redecorating.

Instead, she felt something warm unfurl in her chest, something that might have been anticipation or might have been something far more dangerous.

"I look forward to it," she said.

And meant it.