Asked Bluebell, with a strain on her eye. Her frown, revealing the white part of her eyes, looked cuter than fierce or venomous.
Arya received a comb from the nanny and began to tidy up Bluebell’s hair.
“Then I’ll wait outside.”
Mrs. Kitroll, the etiquette teacher who followed in Arya, left because she was embarrassed to listen to the conversation between the two. She didn’t want to listen to stories she can’t handle, which was also the key to her long-standing role in royal etiquette.
Mrs. Kitroll also took out the maids from the room. The nanny coming out last looked at Bluebell with anxious eyes as she walked toward the door.
As Bluebell nodded, she left the room with an expression of helplessness.
“A lot of people saw your Majesty leaving Sienna’s residence this morning. Moreover, the Emperor’s look…”
Arya stopped as if she was embarrassed to say. Bluebell turned her head, faced Arya, and urged her to speak quickly.
“It’s said he had a pretty bad face as if he had a rough night. The strong smell of booze from Carl…he smelled like musk.”
Bluebell didn’t ask about the first word she heard today: the smell of musk. She could only infer that it had the same meaning as the “smell of love.” Arya had tried to smell Bluebell’s body as soon as Arya entered the room.
“It can’t be…”
Bluebell denied Arya’s words.
‘Carl couldn’t have chosen Sienna over me. The nanny told me, too. Yesterday I was the most beautiful one in the world, and everyone praised my beauty.’
Bluebell shook her head roughly. Arya hugged her and calmed her down.
“That can’t be true.”
“Empress Bluebell…”
Arya called Bluebell’s name with regret, but her expression was contrary to her voice. She had a pleased look on her face.
“He wouldn’t do that. Yesterday, I… I drank too much yesterday, so… I fell asleep! That’s why!”
Bluebell shouted, shrugging off the arms of Arya that held her. As was the case for any bride who was rejected on the first night, the compassionate touch made Bluebell miserable.
“Of course I think so, too. Your Majesty is truly in love with the Empress Bluebell. That’s why we pushed for your wedding. As I said before, in a place full of politically arranged marriages, I thought the Emperor and Empress Bluebell were truly in love. No, I still think so. But the only thing I’m worried about is…”
Bluebell urged her to speak out with an uneasy look.
“Because I know what kind of person Empress Sienna is.”
“What does that mean? What kind of person is she?”
“I don’t know if I can say this. No, pretend you didn’t hear it. I feel uncomfortable because it seems like I’m talking behind her back. I’m sorry, Empress Bluebell.”
Arya raised herself with a troubled look. Bluebell grabbed her arm as she tried to leave, with a look that says, ‘you’ve amplified my curiosity so you can’t leave.’
“Tell me! Her Majesty Empress Arya!”
Unlike her usual childish voice, Bluebell’s tone was coolly subdued. The sentence she spoke out was a request, but the tone was imperative.
“I’m hesitant to talk about the empress, and it seems to insult her, who is loved by the goddess of the earth.”
“Just tell me. I’m not going to tell anyone. I’m not going to make a problem.”
When she asked pitifully, Arya sat next to Bluebell as if she had no choice.
“If you insist… I’ll trust what you said and tell you. I think his Majesty the Emperor has fallen for the wickedness of Empress Sienna. Empress Sienna grew up in a remote area and is known as a pure and kind person because she keeps a close connection to the temple, but that’s not all. I bet you have noticed that?”
Bluebell nodded at Arya’s words.
She also thought Sienna’s reputation had a lot of exaggeration. She heard that Sienna handed out rice through the temple when many of its people were starving due to food problems after the gate to the south collapsed. But she thought it was done mostly by the temple and Sienna was just a name. She thought that the reputation Sienna gained led to the perception that Sienna was a straight and friendly person.
“In fact, I didn’t say because I’d be misunderstood, but Empress Sienna was not wearing robes the day after her wedding.”
Bluebell tilted her head. Neither was she wearing robes. Was she supposed to stay up all night wearing those heavy robes?
Because Bluebell couldn’t hide her expression, her face revealed her thoughts. Arya corrected her thoughts.
“It’s different from you, dear Empress Bluebell, whose robe was stripped of by the emperor. But the Emperor was not in the castle at the wedding of Empress Sienna.”
“My God!”
Bluebell burst out exclamations of surprise as if she heard that for the first time. However, rumors spread that Sienna took off her robes on the first night, and Bluebell knew about it.
On top of that, she heard that Empress Sienna may have a lover besides Carl. That’s why she hinted at Sienna’s relationship with Roy at the coming-of-age banquet.
“Then the next morning I visited her and found her changing clothes. What’s even more suspicious is that her robes were stamped with footprints that appeared to belong to a man.”
“Oh my! How could she?!”
“It’s the same as it is now, but at the time, I couldn’t mention it because Empress Sienna was listed as a member of the Holy Empire. The international situation was unsettled and could lead to a deterioration in relations with the Holy Empire.”
“But still…”
“Since then, I’ve thought of her as a strange, or bold woman. I mean, she brought another man into the bedroom the first night she married the prince. But Empress Sienna’s actions did not end there. It’s embarrassing to say this, but…”
She sighed deeply and said, “My son, Emperor Valore, was also tempted by her.”
Bluebell looked at Arya with her eyes wide open in amazement. She thought she might have misheard it.
“It’s all my fault. I must have not been a good mother. He was spoiled from growing up in the imperial family from such a young age that he fell for such a cheap temptation.”
Arya continued with another deep sigh.
“This happened when Carl was in the war as a prince. Former emperor Valore went to the Empress’ room every day. She made excuses that she was just helping him get relaxed by playing music for his Majesty.…”
She hesitated for a moment as if she could not speak.
“How did that…”
“The obvious thing is that because of her, emperor Valore did not take proper care of the state affair. Because of that, I had to face an unwanted political confrontation. But I couldn’t watch the Emperor neglect politics while finding comfort in his sister-in-law’s dress and drag the fate of the Empire into a fire pit.”
Arya drew her eyes as if she was still emotional when she thought of that time.
“My God.”
Bluebell was just spouting a startling exclamation at the incredible story.
“As a mother, I had to stop my child from being recorded as the worst emperor in history. Moreover, I’ve heard that Empress Sienna was very close to the priests of the land temple.”
She emphasized the word ‘close. The tone was signaling that they were sexually intimate.
“And this is just a rumor, but in the north, where there are not many men, Empress Sienna and her brother…I’ve heard that the relationship was something embarrassing to talk about. Well, it’s just a rumor.”
Arya cleverly told the story in a way that the rumor with her brother may be false, but the story before that was close to the truth.
Bluebell rubbed her arm and felt goosebumps. She thought Empress Sienna was married without love just because she wanted to be the Empress, but after hearing Arya’s story, Sienna was a woman with a very dirty and shady desire.
“So it’s not Emperor Carl’s fault that he can’t help but fall for her. There have been so many cases in history where evil women have blurred the emperor’s eyes and destroyed the country.”
“That’s disgusting. The empress is such a dirty woman!”
“It’s all my fault. I thought she was just a duchess’s mistress, a modestly grown one in the north…”
“How could that be your fault? It’s her fault for deceiving everyone.”
Bluebell took Arya’s words as if they were true, without filtering anything. It was because she lost her ability to judge rationally by being jealous of Sienna.