“Stop looking at it! If you don’t, I’m going to take it away from you!”
“I’m just appreciating what you gave me, I don’t know why you are so upset?”
“Don’t lie! You are definitely making fun of my embroidery!”
As she spoke with a face full of discontent, Carl shook his head but he couldn’t erase his smile.
“I knew before I got this handkerchief that you weren’t good at this kind of stuff.”
She replied while squinting her eyes.
“Hey, you’re making fun of me.”
“No. I’m proud of you. I really like it.”
Carl stroked his handkerchief. Feeling affection from his touch, Sienna said in a calmer voice.
“But… other girls really embroider beautifully. I couldn’t tell if I put in a dragon or an eagle in the corner…”
Sienna was simply not confident of making such splendid embroidery as the examples shown by Hain. So they decided to make it as simple as possible and embroidered a silver dragon symbolizing Carl in one corner.
The problem was that even the simple form was unclear because of the poor workmanship. It was so ugly that Sienna wished my handkerchief would fall asleep in Carl’s drawer forever, but he always seemed to be seen carrying it around. Whenever he did, she just wanted to hide in a rat hole.
‘I’m sure he’s trying to make fun of me!’
“Well, the wings are bigger than the torso, but they don’t look like eagles, so don’t worry.”
He never said they looked like a dragon either.
Carl, who was smiling at dissatisfied Sienna, wrapped his handkerchief around his wrist so that he could see the embroidery well. The handkerchief with an indistinguishable dragon settled on his wrist.
“Oh yeah, I should just wrap it around my wrist like this.”
“You’re making fun of me!”
“Hahaha!”
His laughter resounded loudly.
The knight guarding the door announced Jamie’s visit. After greeting, Jamie found a handkerchief around Carl’s wrist.
“Your Highness, is that a bat on your wrist?”
“Brother!”
Jamie noticed her and said, “Then… a pigeon meat?
“How does that look anything like this?!”
Sienna protested in an irritating voice, but seeing the handkerchief around Carl’s wrist, she could fully understand why Jamie said that. Bats and pigeons were actually Jamie being nice. At least he saw it as something with wings.
“This is a dragon.”
At Carl’s words, Jamie nodded with a serious face.
“Well… it could kind of look like a shadow of a dragon.”
Sienna said to Carl, with her eyes glaring.
“You see, so take that handkerchief off your arm. If you do that, I’m the only one who gets humiliated.”
“I was going to brag about this handkerchief from my wife, but…”
“It’s not a brag, it’s a disgrace!”
“I guess I can’t help that.”
Sienna sighed with relief as she saw him putting a handkerchief into his coat.
“By the way, why is Lord Waters here?”
When Sienna asked in a still annoyed voice, Jamie shrugged and said, “I’m not here to see you, I’m here to see the prince. This is the material you mentioned last time about the Canivali War.”
“Wow, you actually managed to obtain it.”
Carl said, shining his eyes on the red-capped book Jamie had brought.
Jamie and Carl became very close after fighting in the Mutu competition. After that, they would exchange war materials, simulate past battles, or share insights.
“Why don’t you join us, Sienna?”
Sometimes Sienna also participated in the debates with the two, but frankly, war was not one of her interests.
“I’m good. You two can share the boring war chatter. I have a previous engagement.”
“Previous engagement? With whom?”
“I promised to visit the Queen. Marie seems to be in a bad mood these days, so I wanted to talk to her.”
Jamie glistened at her words. Sienna asked him.
“So when does Lord Waters start with the Silver Wolf Knights?”
“I start 15 days later. I wanted to go to work earlier, but the administrative process seems to be slow because there are a lot of new knights who quit this time. They say it’s about 15 days fast.”
Sienna and Carl nodded. It may not be because administrative work was slow, but because Valore and Arya were fighting, but they didn’t bother to explain.
“I’ll be back then.”
Sienna went to the door. She was followed by the Knights of Phoenix.
The number of her knights also decreased significantly because they could not completely avoid the reform. Nevertheless, they were on a pretty good side. Many of the knights in the imperial order had to quit because they failed to pass the test, and sometimes, even an entire knights’ order was disbanded.
Hain was next to Sienna holding a baked pie. It was Marie’s favorite pie stuffed with oranges. Cinnamon powder was slightly mixed in, so the flavor was good.
Sienna stood in front of the palace where Marie was staying. The voice of Empress Arya was coming from inside. She raised her hand to the gatekeeper who was trying to announce her visit and restrained him.
Arya’s voice was full of anger. On the contrary, Queen Marie’s voice did not leak out, so from the outside, only Arya seemed to be talking like a madman.
“It’s already been three years. I can’t believe you still don’t have news about pregnancy! It makes no sense. There’s even a nasty rumor going around that the emperor doesn’t have a seed or that you don’t have a womb!”
The Queen’s people were embarrassed and could not even make an eye contact with Sienna.
Sienna beckoned the gatekeeper to announce her visit. When Sienna’s name was called, the sound that was coming from inside suddenly stopped.
After a while, she entered the Queen’s guest room through the door.
“Your Highness the Queen. How have you been?”
Sienna greeted Marie with courtesy first. Arya glared at Sienna fiercely.
“Sienna the Crown Princess doesn’t even see me.”
Marie looked at Empress Arya with a blue complexion. Sienna smiled reassuringly at her, then turned her head and looked at Arya.
“I heard a rude voice outside the door, so I thought the Empress called a clown or a singer, but I must have been mistaken. Your Majesty the Empress.”
“There’s nothing you can’t say. Is it because you’re a motherless-grown tree or because it’s a countryside in the North? That’s why people don’t change.”
Arya uttered a harsh word, but Sienna did not bat an eye. Rather, she replied with a smile.
“I’m just ignorant, but I don’t know why you are accusing the Queen. You’re raising your voice to the point where we can hear your voice coming out of the door.”
Arya scolded the Queen as if it was okay, but in Leipsden, where the emperor’s authority was the top priority, the Queen’s authority was ahead of the empress. The empress’s scolding of the Queen was technically above her authority.
“Well, I came here because I heard something bad about the Queen. She shouldn’t let this kind of rumor out in the first place…”
When she tried to blame Marie for her inability to have children, Sienna stopped her.
“Are you doing this because of some ignorant rumors? Aren’t you the one who knows better than anyone that a rumor is not something to believe in? I may have heard unimaginable rumors about the Emperor and yourself but not about the Queen.”
Siena was suggesting the rumor that Valore was a child Arya had with some vagabond poet and was not a descendant of the imperial family.
“How dare you!”
“So I’m telling Your Highness not to let the rumors take hold. Moreover, the Emperor has been with the Empress for only three years now. Both of them are still in their prime, but you are hasty. Only when they feel at ease a baby can follow. Moreover, you have Prince Carl, so there’s no need for a quick succession.”
Sienna scratched Arya’s heart, citing Carl’s name.
Arya bit her lips at the sight of a smile of triumph that had spread around Sienna’s mouth. Her smile seemed to say that the seat of the emperor belonged to Carl next.
Arya shook off her skirt as roughly as if it had been dirty, and went out. In her heart, she even thought that she wanted to take out her tongue for mixing words with Sienna and wash it in water.
‘She’s not afraid to use her tongue. Prince Carl is the successor, so what’s the rush? This bitch!’
Sienna’s words were not wrong, which made Arya even more annoyed.
At a time when Valore’s health was poor, the power he held felt like a castle on the sand. Right now, the nobles clung to her for power, but if Carl became emperor, they would change overnight.
“These bats.”
Although she came out after harassing Marie, it was Valore that made her mind uneasy.
He had been weak since he was young. It made her worried that he might not be able to have children. It took Valore’s child to consolidate power.
Arya didn’t want to lose power. She bit her lower lip in anger. She bit so hard that blood formed around her mouth.
“Your Majesty the Empress, are you all right?”
One of Arya’s knights asked, sticking out his handkerchief. She took the handkerchief for granted and met the knight’s eyes.
Arya had never cared about her knights before. For Arya, the existence of knights was like a shadow. They were the ones who had to protect her without bothering her.
But now that she faced the knight that gave the handkerchief, she regretted why she didn’t care about them ever. The knight had brown hair and dark brown eyes that looked just like Valore.
“Yes, it doesn’t have to be his child.”
“Pardon?”
When the knight asked, Arya smiled softly and patted him on the shoulder. Apart from how terrible things were planned out in her head, she was enchanting.
Even though she was old, her beauty did not fade at all. Rather, it gave off a rich fragrance.
“No, it’s nothing. Thanks for this handkerchief. I’ll use it well.”
The knight gave a blank look at Arya’s smile. Obviously, she had a charm beyond her age. Realizing that he was committing great inadequacy, the knight hurriedly bowed his head and withdrew.