Sienna was startled and made a noise. Marie smiled playfully at her.
“You must have been really great that day. If you see how deeply Valore had fallen into you. He said it was like a knight on a white horse. I asked if it’s an expression women usually use towards men, but he said it really looked like that. You were like a knight who came to save himself from danger.”
Sienna couldn’t get out of the shocking story that Valore’s first love was her.
“I wanted to get Valore and you together somehow, so I called my father to the palace and lied that I couldn’t have children. It’s not a good thing to do as a child, but I thought I should do it for my younger brother. Looking at my father’s face, which turned grey that day, I thought I had done something terrible.”
Surely the story must not have been told to Empress Arya. If it were, she would have stepped up and pushed for a divorce.
“On your wedding day, I remember how cold Valore’s was…”
Marie looked into Sienna’s eyes and showed a benevolent smile. Sienna lowered her head and whispered.
“I’m sorry.”
Overlapping her hands on the back of Sienna’s hand, Marie replied.
“There’s nothing to be sorry about, Empress Sienna. It’s Valore’s fault for starting a painful love. If you have to find someone to blame, you must condemn the goddess of fate.”
She said it was all right, but her voice was full of bitterness. Marie swept the back of Sienna’s hand, with her mouth closed for a while.
“It’s warm.”
Marie thought of Valore’s hand, which had only been cold at Sienna’s wedding. His hand that day was just as cold as the one after his death. While living or after dying, his hands were always cold. His hand must have wanted warmth, but there was no one to pass on warmth.
Marie thought she should have hugged him more warmly. She should have pat him on the shoulder and say it’s okay. Marie was filled with remorse.
It’s too late. Even if she realizes it now, she can’t do it anymore. She can’t give that warmth any longer.
“I wanted to take to my grave the fact that Valore’s first love was you. Because it would only make you uncomfortable.”
That was true. Sienna could not look at Marie’s face after hearing this story. She felt so sorry to express the feeling with discomfort. She hurt someone whether she knew it or not.
“But I’m telling you…because I feel sorry for Valore. Since he couldn’t express his feelings in his life, I wanted to tell you now on his behalf. I’m sure Valore is up there cursing at me for bullying you. My greed is…”
She was choking and barely kept spoking.
“My greed as the older sister of Valore is that I don’t want you to forget Valore. I wanted you to remember him not as the emperor’s brother, but as a man who once was madly in love with you.”
Looking at Marie’s face wet with tears, Sienna nodded. And answered sincerely.
“Yes, I won’t forget.”
Sienna said, wrapping Marie’s hand. Marie smiled at Sienna with a tearful face.
*
Pavenik noticed Carl’s nervousness in scouring the papers. After hearing that the priest Roy and the Empress were together, Carl, who had been to the Empress, had been in a bad mood since then.
Carl constantly glanced at the door as if waiting for her to come, but the problem was that the Empress does not visit the Oval Office.
Every time the door sounded, he looked at it with an expectant look, and then every time he confirmed it wasn’t her, he became more nervous.
“Why don’t you go visit her yourself?”
Pavenik, growing impatient, said to Carl.
“What do you mean?”
“Why don’t you just wait for the Empress, but visit her in person?”
“Why me?! What did I do wrong?!”
Carl said nervously. Pavenik said, looking at Carl.
“It’s not your fault, but women usually have a mind that waits for a man to bow in. The more they do wrong, the more they feel sorry and can’t come to apologize. In this case, you have to approach first. If you say ‘I’m sorry’ like a man, she’ll say, ‘Oh, he’s so generous!’ and then say ‘It’s my fault.’
Pavenik said, mixing his nasal voice as if he had become a comic talker, mimicking the female voice. Carl laughed at the sight.
“You’re not married, but you’re acting like you know everything.”
“That’s painful of you to say! To be honest, such wisdom is not only for the married. The reason why I’m so popular with women is because I know how to read women. Everything I’ve learned since I was a kid, getting slapped on the back by my older sisters, turns out to be worth it.”
Pavenik spoke proudly. He was proud that Carl seemed to be feeling better.
“Don’t go empty-handed, just pick an armful of flowers. I heard you haven’t visited the Empress for a week? Please go comfort her Majesty because she would feel hated by you. Do you want me to get you a drink or something?”
“I’ll have Carbonic.”
“Carbonic? Oh! Does that really exist? I thought it was supposed to be legendary…”
Pavenik was surprised. It was a name he knew. There were some legendary anecdotes about Carbonic, so many people knew its name even though no one had tasted it. For that reason, there was a story that it was a legendary drink that did not really exist.
“A few bottles of liquor left in the imperial family.”
“It really exists.”
“I’ll stop by the liquor storehouse after the political meeting today. Will you come with me? I’ll give you a bottle.”
At Carl’s words, Pavenik thought today was his luckiest day. I can drink the carbonic that I thought existed only in legend. No, can I drink it? Shouldn’t I keep the whole bottle and show off to my descendants?
Dreaming of a day when he would boast of a bottle of liquor to his child, who had not yet been there, Pavenik followed Carl, but soon his dream was shattered.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I also don’t know why the empress is here.”
Carl, who happily attended the political affairs meeting, frowned at the words of Empress Arya and Count Ferrer. Why are the two people who used to be like enemies raising their voices together?
They asked Carl to bring Bluebell as the empress. Leipsden had to protect monogamy, even if he was an emperor. The request to bring Bluebell in the position of the empress was, in turn, urging Carl to divorce Sienna.
“Your Majesty, the officials are very concerned. It has been almost two years since the Emperor married the Empress. And yet you don’t have an heir…”
“Why don’t you finish what you say? Do you want to tell me or my empress that there is a problem?”
“That’s not what I meant. That’s not what this old man meant…”
“Ridiculous. Since when have you been in the same boat with that empress?”
At Carl’s sarcastic remarks, Arya squinted her eyes and said.
“He’s speaking with one voice because he’s worried about the state affairs. Shouldn’t we never let it slip if the people in different positions are making one voice? The Emperor and Empress are said to be young, but there is no heir to your throne. It’s a royal family whose sons are precious. Moreover, even though our former emperor was young, didn’t he not pass away so abruptly?”
“So, you’re worried that I might die suddenly like the former emperor? Ha! Funny, funny. I survived when food was poisoned and people with knives appeared at night. You don’t have to worry about that.”
When Carl was young, it was Arya who poisoned his food and sent an assassin. Arya said with a look of complete innocence while listening to Carl.
“Who sent an assassin or poisoned the Emperor’s food? I do not doubt your health, but I hope the Emperor understands our feelings. I am the wife of King Rodbius, the mother of King Valore, and the eldest of this imperial family.”
The officials raised their voices and begged for a new empress. No one stood by Sienna for this occasion.
-This is why I told her to take the gifts those stupid people bring. It’s no use living clean in front of them. They only think that another is on their side when they give gold and money to the person in the royal family. That’s the only way to relax. I told her to take it even if we were to stab them in the back later.
When he thought of Sienna, who spoke as if she knew everything but was clumsily in this respect, Carl was speechless.
“It’s not that I don’t know your concerns. But on second thought, although I and the Empress have been married for nearly two years, most of the time I’ve been away from the palace fighting the Castro war. We’ve been together for only a few months. So isn’t it nonsense to ask for divorce under the pretext of having no children already?”
Said Carl, glaring at his officials.
“I’m not asking you to divorce.”
Arya, who felt that Carl was trying to oppose the divorce from Sienna to the end, quickly changed her words.
“In our country, if the heirs of the imperial family become precious, there is a precedent in which the ancestors took in several wives. Moreover, you married Empress Sienna, who had the coming-of-age ceremony, instead of your original fiancée, the daughter of Ferrer, because Emperor Rodbius suddenly became ill. Originally, the person who was going to take the position of the empress was Lady Ferrer. So there’s nothing wrong with bringing her in as the second empress. I’m sure the empress will understand.”
“Take in Bluebell as the second empress. It’s not a good story for both Bluebell and the empress. I’ll pretend I didn’t hear this story.”
At Carl’s words, Arya smiled triumphantly and said, “No.”