Chapter 37 --37
The smell of cooking food filled the quiet kitchen. Elara poured the eggs into the pan and stirred slowly, watching them solidify, letting the repetitive motion settle her thoughts.
She was exhausted. Her body was weak. The paperwork wasn’t finished. The other princesses would retaliate soon. The Emperor’s support was conditional. Her household was half-empty and she was standing alone in a kitchen at four in the morning cooking her own food because she’d worked through dinner and forgotten to eat.
In her old life, this would have been a Tuesday.
Elara plated the eggs, turned off the hearth, and sat at the small staff table in the corner. She ate quickly, efficiently, tasting nothing but processing fuel.
When she finished, she washed the dish herself—no point waking servants for that—and walked back through the empty halls to her chambers.
The two knights were still at their posts, still perfectly still. They didn’t comment on the fact that a princess had just cooked her own meal. They simply bowed as she passed.
Elara returned to her desk, picked up the pen, and pulled the next stack of documents toward her.
Three more hours until dawn. Enough time to finish the budget review and start drafting new household protocols.
She dipped the pen in ink and kept working.
Elara was halfway to the Merchant Quarter when a palace runner caught up to them, gasping for breath.
"Your Highness—the Emperor summons you. Immediately."
The timing was too precise to be coincidence. Someone had reported last night’s events, and now there would be consequences.