Chapter 37: Live To Sienna Pt.37
Sienna walked around the room, followed by silent footsteps. The reason could’ve been to admire the interior architecture, but she was putting on an act for the sweating soldiers as a girl who had grown up a military area far from the capital. She was now playing the eighteen-year-old Sienna. Not to mention royal court etiquette, she wasn’t even supposed to know the basic etiquette as a noblewoman.
Sienna walked around and stopped in front of a mural. A snake was playing on the legs of the Goddess of Beauty. The yellow-eyed, elongated, long-spaced pupils were appalling. The fine-grained painting was so vivid that it was thrilling.
What did Empress Arya think of when she looked at that painting? Did she think she looked like the snake? Or did she place herself as the Goddess of Beauty, who was caught by the ankles by the snake and was unable to return to the paradise?
If Arya was the Goddess of Beauty, Sienna would turn into a snake and sink her venomous fangs into her ankles. It would not be paradise. She would drive Arya into a snake pit and make her curl up in fear and pain. Like Arya had done to her, she also wanted to put Arya through hell.
She ran to Arya’s servant, who had fallen away while she was looking at the painting. Her mind was heavy, while his steps were consciously light.
“Sienna of the Waters, come on.”
Arya was waiting for Sienna in the drawing room.
When she had been young, she had been praised by rich men for her beauty that it would go down in history. Even though she now had a grown-up son, her beauty had never withered. Rather, time had added even more beauty to her, like a bloomed flower.
But, Sienna was not impressed by her appearance because she knew how ugly and cruel Arya was.
“Thank you for your invitation.”
Sienna curtsied without bowing. She then sat down on the sofa in the middle of the drawing room.
Arya’s facial expression remained unmoved by her behavior. The custom was for the highest ranked in the room to sit down first. Originally, Sienna should’ve sat down after being allowed to.
What was she going to do about it? Sienna didn’t mean to be polite to Arya, so now, it was time to play the country bumpkin. Sienna looked inside the drawing room with an exaggerated expression.
“Everything is so glamorous, and it looks so expensive!”
Sienna didn’t know how much Arya must have spent trying to decorate the place while wielding the emperor’s seal around like a corpse.
Arya accepted her words of compliment and replied thankfully, “I saw you play the violin well at the Holy Cognition Banquet. I really wanted to meet you because you were very memorable. Thank you for accepting the sudden invitation.”
Even though she was the empress, Arya spoke to Sienna in the most polite manner she could. It was her habit of gently loosening the conversation and courting her opponent. In the past, Sienna had easily given up her heart to her smile and her speech on the first day they had met.
“Thank you very much. I’ve been able to see the palace because of it.”
Arya picked up a teapot and poured tea into Sienna’s cup. It was only a simple move, but it was full of style. With a soft smile around her mouth, she looked very benevolent. If Sienna had not known about her, she would have thought Arya was the most beautiful and sweet person in the world.
This was the scary thing about Arya. Like a snake good at camouflage, she was adept at showing what her opponent wanted to see to gain favor.
Sienna smiled at her. She could not see herself in a mirror, but it must have been an awkward smile. A smile like Arya’s wasn’t made overnight, so a clumsy imitation would not make her look odd.
Sienna took the teacup she had been handed and savored the aroma. Arya wanted the best of the best, and the soft, mellow scent told Sienna that she could not have been better served.
“I was surprised by how good you were at the violin. Who did you learn from?”
“There was a soldier in the castle who was a musician. Unlike in the capital, where there’s only one interesting thing to do, Heidel is very free. I learned from him every once in a while.”
“I see. You just learned it from a soldier, but you sounded more like a musician. The guy must have been very good at it.”
“That’s too excessive.”
“On that day, I heard that you spent time with Prince Carl on the terrace. Do you know each other?”
There had been many people in the banquet hall who could’ve been Arya’s eyes and ears, so Sienna had expected her to get the information to her ears somehow, but when Arya asked her directly, Sienna became nervous. It was better not to tell a lame lie. Otherwise, Arya would try to verify the information, which would be awful because she could not have any suspicions about Sienna. Not yet.
“Yes. We have a deep connection.”
“Can you tell me what your relationship is?”
Sienna wanted her cheeks to redden like that of the girl in love she used to be.
“It happened when I was at the temple of the Goddess of the Earth. I found the prince groaning at the backdoor of the temple, by the Goddess’ blessing.” Sienna added, “I thought he was so mysterious and beautiful that I thought he was a Lion of the Goddess.”
“I didn’t know he was the First Prince. Anyway, as a believer in the Goddess, I was obliged to take care of the weak who came to the temple, so I brought him into the temple. Fortunately, we learned to take care of wounds using our own medicine from our soil. That’s why I was able to help him. When he woke up, he said he would grant me one wish in return for saving his life. So, at the banquet… I was very surprised. I couldn’t believe that he was the Crown Prince. It was exactly as Chelsea had said it happens in her fairytale books. Oh, Chelsea is my nanny.”
Arya listened attentively to Sienna, as if she were hearing a rare story. Whenever Sienna met her eyes, it seemed like a fire was going to burst forth from her chest. She didn’t know if she was saying all that to satiate Arya’s hunger.
Every time Sienna spoke, there was excitement in her voice, but fortunately, it gave the impression of a girl in love. Arya looked excited.
‘Yes, ask. Take the bait that’s shaking in front of your eyes. You may want a plaything to move around on your palms, but you don’t know that the toys in your hands are actually toads full of poison. I’ll watch your hands turn blue with a smile.’
“So, what did you wish for that day?”
“I’m embarrassed to say. Do I have to say it?”
“Did I ask you a difficult question? I apologize. I was just so curious about the story between Miss Waters and Prince Carl.”
“No, I’ll tell you. So, that is… I asked him to remember my name.”
It was a lie. What Sienna had told Carl had not been for him to remember her name, but to give her a divorce in five years.
“Your name?”
Sienna spewed lines like those of the heroine who had fallen in love with the prince in popular novels.
“I said I didn’t need any material rewards, and that I just wanted him to remember my name. I wanted to be someone unforgettable for the First Prince.”
She thought a lie of that degree would be alright. It was hard to tell lies from truth when they were mixed properly.
It was true that she had saved Carl and that he would grant her one wish. However, there was no way Arya could confirm that her wish had not been for him to ‘remember her name’ but to ‘divorce her.’ Unless Arya could ask Carl himself to find out, both were not materialistic wishes, so there was no way to verify them.
“That’s a very romantic wish.”
“I wish the prince felt the same way.”
Sienna reached out to the cookie tray on the table. The dishes on the table were beautifully baked, and the cookie seemed more decorative than edible, but after putting it in her mouth, she found out that the taste was excellent. The sweet smell of butter pervaded her mouth.
From then on, the conversation between Sienna and Arya had been no difference from the past. After finishing the meaningless conversation, Sienna stepped out. She told the servant who tried to guide her to the carriage that she could find her way back by herself. A glimmer of conflict appeared in her eyes time and time again.