“It’s winter.”
“I know. It’s winter.”
Sienna and Carl sat at the garden table and chatted.
The capital city was now facing winter. The hot summer passed in a flash, and the short fall ended as soon as it began.
Unlike Heidel, the hometown of Sienna, it was late autumn weather, even in winter. There was no snow and no icy cold wind. People just think it’s winter when all the red leaves were gone.
Feeling cooler air than before, the two drank tea. It was called the ‘wondering tea’ that Sienna has been drinking recently. The purple tea with a sweet and sour taste had a cinnamon-like scent, which suited the season of falling leaves.
Carl and Sienna spent more time together, even if they didn’t have a conversation over a particular topic. They enjoyed sitting together like an ordinary couple, having such a quiet, casual conversation.
“Winter in Heidel must be different from here. How was it?”
“Very different.”
Sienna rummaged through memories of her childhood in Heidel.
“It was so cold that I felt like my nose was going to fall off. Even in the boiling water, the ice would form. No matter how many times we burned the woods indoor, I could see my breath. I have icicles in my hair after washing up.”
Carl smiled and showed interest in Sienna’s explanation.
“It’s amazing that people survive in such icy weather. Doesn’t the blood of a living man freeze when it’s that cold?”
“Blood? Blood doesn’t freeze, but it often causes frostbite. There are many young people and soldiers who lost their fingers because of it.”
Carl looked at Sienna’s fingers with a surprised look. Sienna noticed that he was worried about her, and she stretched her fingers wide and shook them.
“I am fine. Look, I have all ten of them. I’m from Heidel, but I’m very sensitive to the cold, so I didn’t go out from the castle and stayed under a blanket on a very cold day. And even on days when it wasn’t cold, I wore a lot of clothes.”
“Good for you.”
Sienna smiled at the worried voice.
“Heidel has accumulated snow all year round. It’s also called the ice cap because it doesn’t melt.”
“Snow…I’ve heard of them. Beautiful and cold.”
It was Sienna who was surprised by Carl’s words.
“You’ve…never seen snow?”
“No. The place I was in was hotter than the capital city or had similar weather.”
As most of the empire’s borders were concentrated in the south and east, the battlefields where Carl fought in were often located there. Snow that didn’t fall in the capital couldn’t have fallen there.
“I think you’ve experienced everything, but it’s amazing that you’ve never seen snow before.”
“There’s quite a lot I haven’t experienced.”
“What have you never done?”
In Sienna’s question, Carl gave a moment of thought and said, “I’ve never stepped on snow, I’ve never met a dragon, I’ve never seen an Elf or a Dwarf. I’ve never been to a mountain where red and hot lava flows.”
Carl only laid out things that no one would ever experience. Sienna said with a smile, “I’m sure you haven’t even met a sorcerer.”
“I’ve met a magician.”
“Don’t joke around.”
“Really, though he was a dark magician.”
At Carl’s words, Sienna asked with a surprised look.
“Really?”
“There are quite a few black magicians and witches in the Castro Empire.”
“Are those witches really capable of magic or…spell? Can large balls of fire pop out of their hands or cause thunderstorms with a flick of their fingers?”
Carl shook his head with a smile at the curious question of Sienna.
“The Black Wizard is not the kind of wizard you think. You can’t make a fire in the air or spill ice in midsummer. Black sorcerers usually attack under a curse.”
“What curse?”
“They make the soldiers get skin rash or complain of dizziness, and they make the barracks infested with rats.”
At Carl’s words, Sienna burst into a laugh of absurdity.
“Is that the only way to attack?”
It was funny that they were only sending a rash or rat to fight a war. At Sienna’s reaction, Carl shook his head with a grave face.
“One or two soldiers may not have a big impact on the battle but if hundreds of soldiers are out of focus or start to vomit, it can influence the battle.”
“Hundreds of soldiers at the same time? That’s great. Then how did you catch it?”
“I was lucky. It would never have been an easy battle if we hadn’t caught those witches quickly.”
“That’s a relief. I don’t want to see such a wizard forever. Rash, rat, terrible! I feel like I’m losing my appetite.”
While talking like that, Carl burst into laughter at Sienna, who was constantly putting cookies in her mouth.
“You’re not going to eat it all because it’s too sweet, are you?”
After emptying her own cookie plate, she even wanted the cookies Carl took a bite out of. Carl gave Sienna a piece of the cookie because he didn’t want to eat it all.
“Strangely, I can’t stop eating these cookies made of almond powder. Hain said if I didn’t cut this off, I’d have a belly hanging out, and you wouldn’t like it.”
Sienna didn’t grab Carl’s cookies and looked worried. Carl said, putting cookies in her mouth.
“Just because you have a fatter stomach doesn’t make you a different person. That won’t make me hate you.”
Sienna chewed on the cookies Carl had put in her mouth.
“Bring Carl in! Now!”
Bluebell flung the cup to the floor as she was annoyed. The teacup that hit the marble floor cracked with a rupture. Nevertheless, the anger has not subsided.
“Your Majesty…”
The nanny tried to soothe her, but Bluebell buried her face on the sofa and screamed.
This condition has been going on since Count Ferrer’s last visit. The nanny asked for the reason behind her sadness, but Bluebell did not answer. She could not help but think that Bluebell was under a lot of stress over childbearing after the talk with Count Ferrer.
In fact, Bluebell had more trouble with other things than the succession issue. It was because of her relationship with Carl.
But she couldn’t confide this to the nanny. No matter how much a nanny was like her mother, it hurt Bluebell’s pride to tell her that she had never slept with Carl.
She pretended to her father not to want to have children yet and not to know the trend. But in fact, Bluebell knew – how she could have become Carl’s wife, and what she should do to not end this marriage as a failure.
‘I can’t have a baby alone!’
Even after her marriage, Carl did not ask for Bluebell’s whereabouts.
‘This is the Empress palace!’
Bluebell knew that Carl was spending most of his time in Sienna’s palace. He looked for Bluebell’s residence with an expression of helplessness only when Bluebell made excuses for being sick or crying.
Bluebell became anxious. Before that, she just hated Sienna, but it became clear why she hated her so much. Sienna seemed to take her Carl away.
But it was a secondary problem. Wherever his heart was, it didn’t matter if she could only have a child. Even if Carl’s love for Sienna was bigger now, if she had a child, she would be able to receive his attention and the support of his neighbors considering how precious a successor was at this point
The only problem was that there was no chance to have children.
‘If Sienna gets a baby first…’
Bluebell ripped her nails with her teeth. There was no way to relieve the anxiety that came up from the bottom of her stomach.
“Your Majesty! The Emperor is here.”
The announcement of Carl’s visit surprised Bluebell. The maid had not yet cleaned up the thrown teacup.
“What do I do! What do I do?”
She stamped her feet. She didn’t want to show Carl that she was blinded by speculation and couldn’t contain her anger.
“Your Majesty the Empress?”
The nanny called her.
“What if Carl sees that and thinks I’m bad?”
The teacup was just lying on the floor broken, and Bluebell made a fuss as if something had happened. Having been under stress, she was thinking big about even the smallest things.
‘If he looks at that, he’ll see that I couldn’t contain my anger and threw out the teacup. What if he’s disgusted at the sight? What if he says he’s not going to come here at all?’
The nanny, who had been watching Bluebell for a long time, seemed to know what she was thinking. The nanny hurriedly ordered the maid to clean up the broken teacup and pulled the rug over it.
“He won’t know if you did this.”
Bluebell looked at the nanny with a crying face.
“Thanks, nanny.”
“It’s nothing. Will you greet the Emperor with that face?”
“No, no. I’m going to laugh. Because my Carl said my smile was the prettiest.”
Bluebell smiled forcedly, recalling his childhood words. Feeling sorry for her, the nanny smiled, making eye contact with Bluebell.
“I agree that your Majesty is most beautiful when she smiles. If the fairy in the fairy tale exists, it must look like the Empress.”
“You mean it?”