“Of course! You are the most beautiful woman in the world. Your covetous silvery hair is as smooth as velvet, and your sapphire eyes shine more than jewels.”
The nanny praised Bluebell with all the metaphors she knew. Only then did a natural smile bloom on Bluebell’s face.
With confidence coming back, Bluebell grabbed the edge of her skirt and ran out to Carl entering the door.
“My Carl!”
Bluebell always welcomed Carl like this. It looked like a dog that welcomed its owner.
“I missed you.”
“…Are you okay? I heard you were in pain.”
She made a fuss about calling Carl in the morning, and the maids seemed to have told him that Bluebell was sick. Bluebell blinked her stiff eyes. She looked as if she suffered from fever because she had been swollen from crying for a long time.
“I had a fever and…”
“It’s not good that you are sick so often. What did your doctor say?”
Bluebell was angry at Carl’s awkwardness. Her ‘sicknesses’ were because of him. She cried so much and was eventually in pain, but because he barely showed his face, it made her feel worse.
She tried hard to erase her irritable expression from her face and said with a bright smile.
“I guess it’s because I’m not used to living in the castle. When I was living in a mansion, there were familiar people around me, and it was comfortable… I think there’s a lot to care about in the palace, and most of all, I’m lonely… I’ll be fine if you come more often. My doctor said I wasn’t sick either. It’s a disease of the heart.”
Her words gave Carl a troubled look. Bluebell was nervous on his stiff face.
‘Perhaps I should not have said I liked it better at the mansion… He’s not going to tell me to go back, will he?’
Bluebell quickly turned away in case he asked her to go back to the mansion.
“You’re tired too, aren’t you? I heard it’s your daily routine to stay up all night because of a lot of work! That’s why you don’t even have time to come see me. Let’s go to the bedroom.”
She led Carl into the bedroom. He followed Bluebell into the bedroom with a reluctant look. Bluebell led Carl to the bed. She slowly tried to strip Carl of his clothes and he jumped out of his seat.
“I came here because you said you were sick, but I think you’re better now. So I’m going to go back.”
Always the same pattern. When Bluebell managed to lead him into the bedroom, he was soon out of bed.
‘Conceive a child? What nonsense! I’m sure he doesn’t want to see a prince from me. If Sienna gets a baby first, I’ll really be abandoned. Joanna laughed at me for being the second empress! If she knew my marriage had failed, she’d laugh at me all her life! Not only her, but everyone in the world would feel I am pathetic and pitiful.’
“Huhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Bluebell burst into tears with frustration and anxiety. Just a moment ago, she greeted herself with a smile, but suddenly, she let go of her voice and burst into tears, and the embarrassed Carl.
“Bluebell?”
But Bluebell cried louder.
“Bluebell…”
It was no use calling her name again. Her cry only grew louder.
“I want a baby, too!”
“What?”
Carl was more troubled by her words rather than her sudden tears. He has been through many difficult tasks, but this time, he was perplexed.
“I want to have your first child. But like this, like this…Huuuhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
“That’s…”
Carl managed to soothe her with a great effort. Bluebell asked why he didn’t sleep with her even though they had been married for quite some time.
He was thinking how he should explain to her. Bluebell’s tears dried up at the sight. She spoke with a straight face.
“If you’re trying to be considerate of me and give me a lame excuse, don’t do that. Because it hurts more. Please be honest with me. Why on earth do you not want to sleep with me? Do you hate me that much?”
Carl sighed deeply and said, “I don’t hate you, Bluebell.”
Bluebell closed her eyes at the thought that it was his turn to say ‘but’ after his words.
“But I don’t have feelings for you as a woman. We’ve been seeing each other for a long time since we were too young. I feel like you’re a precious sister. There’s nothing more than that.”
“You should have just said no to me! You should have rather hated me because I’m ugly. How did you…”
Bluebell burst back into tears that had barely stopped.
What did he mean by ‘a sister’? While the two had never shared a drop of blood? She’d rather try to be prettier if he said he didn’t like her because she’s ugly, or if he said he didn’t like her personality, she’d try to fix herself.
But now, Bluebell felt lost. Carl’s words sounded like there was no hope for their relationship.
Sienna faced another embarrassing situation. It was because Bluebell came to her place without any notification and raised her voice.
“It’s all because of you!”
“Empress Bluebell, what is wrong with you? You’re raising your voice in such a surprise visit. First of all, calm down, sit down…”
“Your Majesty!”
Bluebell pushed Sienna away. Sienna, who had not expected to be pushed, fell on her hips, and Hain was startled and approached her.
The knights ran around and surrounded Bluebell. Sienna, who could easily stand back up, stopped them because her butt was only a little tingling and didn’t get seriously hurt.
“That’s enough. Empress Bluebell must have something to tell me in private, so please leave us alone.”
“But…”
“I said, I want you to step aside because I’m going to talk to her privately.”
At Sienna’s order, the maids and knights went out. Soon there were only two women left in the living room. Sienna sat on the couch first and offered Bluebell a seat again.
“If you’ve calmed down a little, sit down and talk.”
Then Bluebell glared at Sienna fiercely and sat nervously.
“It’s because of you!”
And again Bluebell said something Sienna couldn’t understand. Even before Sienna asked, Bluebell spoke in an excited voice.
“It was originally my place! I would have been the only empress! But you showed up and took everything from me! You got married when he wasn’t even here, and now you’re taking him away from me. A whore!”
Sienna found out why Bluebell was angry but judged that it was not the reason to bear the severe insult.
“You are being too rude today, Empress Bluebell.”
“What’s so rude? I’d like to swear at you harder, but this is the only curse I know. You may have deceived Carl with that nasty tongue, but you can’t with me. You are not afraid to lure this guy and that guy into the bedroom…”
Sienna was so ashamed that she couldn’t stand it anymore that she picked up the teacup on the table and poured it on Bluebell’s face.
“Ahhhh! What the hell are you doing?!”
Although Bluebell was not hurt because the tea had gone cold, Bluebell was surprised by the sudden tea attack and jumped up from her seat. Sienna said in a calm voice, “I can’t listen to you anymore. You’re calling me a whore and nasty. You seem to have mistaken everything for a long time, but I’m the First Empress. I was the one who married Carl first.”
Bluebell said, wiping the wet face with her palm.
“That’s because! You were so…”
“It is true that Empress Bluebell and Carl were engaged before, but somehow I was the one who had the wedding ceremony first. Shouldn’t I, the First Empress, express my resentment to the Empress Bluebell? I’m the empress who had to sit and watch you become the second empress.”
Bluebell bit her lower lip at Sienna’s words.
“So stop treating me like a prostitute. As you said when you first came in, why don’t you stop speculating and keep your status as the empress with me and fulfill your responsibilities?”
“How dare you…”
Bluebell kept whining as if her anger had not yet been released. Sienna also forced herself to speak calmly but did not let go of her anger. Sienna shook her lips and spoke to Bluebell, who was only looking for an excuse to attack.
“You are the Empress. I don’t know what you thought about this position, but you have to do your part. You have a lot of eyes around you, so you shouldn’t just storm in here and make a fool of yourself.”
When Sienna scolded her for her qualities as an empress, Bluebell’s face turned dark red with fever.
“That’s only because!”
“It’s not the time for you to be so resentful towards me, but you should go find Count Ferrer and tell him to stop fighting against the Emperor by joining hands with Empress Arya. For the unity and glory of Leipsden.”
SMACK!
Ran out of words that could be used to refute logically, Bluebell could not stand it any longer and slapped Sienna on the cheek. The deflected wind did not give her full swing, but it was insulting enough.
SMACK! SMACK! Sienna, with her fierce blue eyes and ears, didn’t lose and slapped Bluebell’s cheek twice. Bluebell’s small face was left with red palm marks. Tears welled up in the eyes of Bluebell, who was beaten for the first time in her life. But Sienna felt no sympathy for her.
The slap was emotional enough, but Bluebell started it first. Sienna never wanted to apologize. Bluebell, who lost her courage before the fierce spirit of Sienna, walked out of Sienna’s room, panting.