✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧
Translated by: Sienna
✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧
When the Empress, Mercedes, first saw Cornelia, she had expected her damned daughter to approach her with her head down, as usual.
But what she saw instead was Cornelia just briefly lowering her head and passing by.
‘How dare she ignore me?’
A filthy stain that marred her perfect life.
That’s what Cornelia was to the Empress.
So it was only right that Cornelia should be good to her.
She had kept her alive and well, given her imperial property that should have belonged to her son, and married her off to a prestigious family, so it was only right that she should repay her for the favor of raising her.
But for the first time in her life, the daughter who should be begging for her affection is ignoring her, even in front of her niece, who looks up to her.
For the first time in her life, Mercedes felt her anger rise to the top of her head.
“Stop! Cornelia!”
In response, Cornelia turned around.
“You called for me, Your Majesty.”
“What are you doing right now?”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Why are you disrespecting your mother?”
At the Empress’s hysterical voice, Cornelia looked at her with a puzzled expression.
“What do you mean, ignoring you? Surely I’ve greeted Your Majesty.”
“Is just nodding your head the kind of greeting fit for an Empress?”
“It’s against etiquette to greet someone who hasn’t called you. Moreover, didn’t Your Majesty ask me not to attract your attention?”
When she said not to attract her attention, she was obviously referring to something she had said in the past.
However, even if she said that, wasn’t it proper for a child to affectionately seek attention from her mother?
Frustrated, the Empress raised her voice.
“Since when have you been so good at following etiquette? Can’t you just greet me properly?”
“Cornelia Odile Blant, greeting Her Majesty, the Empress, the moon of the Schwanhild Empire.”
The greeting was impeccable, to the point of being faultless. The issue was that it wasn’t the kind of greeting one would exchange within a family.
The Empress’s eyes narrowed.
‘Is she mocking me now?’
Cornelia bowed her head while the Empress was still dumbfounded.
“If there is no further need for me, I shall take my leave.”
At the unilateral announcement from her daughter, the Empress touched the back of her neck and raised her voice.
“Where do you think you’re going so impudently before I’m done speaking?”
Cornelia shook her head.
“I thought you’d continue to ignore me as always after receiving my greetings. Well, if it upsets you, I apologize.”
Although she was apologizing verbally, there was no sincerity in her words.
At this point, it was clear. Her daughter was defying her.
‘How dare that insolent thing……!’
The outraged Empress raised her hand.
“Auntie, I think Cornelia is feeling remorseful, so please forgive her.”
“What remorse? Have you not seen what she’s doing to me right now?”
Upon hearing this, Medaline approached the Empress and spoke softly.
“Yes, but you must forgive her.”
Her niece, who was pleading, reached her ears.
“You had something to say to Cornelia.”
Indeed, it was, as her niece said. There was a reason she had called her daughter, whom she usually avoided looking at.
‘Yes, I’ll have to be patient for now; it’s all for my son…….’
The empress spoke patiently and calmly.
“I will grant you forgiveness this time, but later…”
“That’s strange.”
“What?”
“I don’t recall making a mistake worthy of seeking forgiveness.”
Finishing her words, Cornelia raised one corner of her mouth.
It was a clear sneer.
‘How dare you…..!’
Until now, she had endured with a purpose in mind, but she could no longer tolerate such insolent behavior.
The Empress raised her hand to strike her unruly daughter’s cheek, but her hand was caught in Cornelia’s grip, halting its movement.
“What are you doing…….”
“The Empress once told me before, when I was about to be married, that the moment a woman is married, she becomes a member of that house.”
“So what? Are you telling me not to reprimand you because you’re now a member of another household?”
In a whisper only audible to the Empress, Cornelia said, “Yes, because there’s a child in my womb.”
Upon hearing this, the Empress furrowed her brow.
‘So what?’
She was the Empress and the mother of Crown Prince Fritz, the future Emperor.
Although scolding Cornelia, who was carrying the heir of Blant, might draw criticism from the nobles, she wouldn’t care.
‘If she’s pregnant, we might even secure the Blant estate for our son. That cunning fox Blant has been getting on my nerves lately anyway…’
But the Empress was forced to pause by Cornelia’s next words.
“If I delay meeting the Emperor any further, the reason will be because of the Empress. Will you be okay with that?”
For Empress Mercedes, the Emperor was not an equal partner but a superior figure to be respected. If she offended him, it could harm her son.
‘Especially today, with that viper lurking around…’
In the end, the Empress had no choice but to relent.
Finally, the Empress glared at her daughter and said,
“Once you finish your audience with the Emperor, come to the Empress’s Palace.”
Having delivered her message, the Empress left before hearing her daughter’s response.
✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧
In the Emperor’s greenhouse, I sat sighing on the pavilion in the center of the pond.
‘I should have been more patient earlier…….’
Although I tried not to annoy the Empress, my habit of speaking out impulsively from my teenage years was not easily corrected, and I ended up touching her nerve.
I tried to make amends, but every time I opened my mouth, the Empress’s expression grew worse.
Still, I’m not too worried, perhaps because I’m not afraid of being hated by her now.
She never thought of me as her child in the first place.
Just a little while ago, it was the same.
‘No matter how much she hates me, she’s still going to try and get her hands on me when I tell her I’m pregnant.’
However, in my previous life, I failed to realize this fact early on, and it took me 30 years to give up on her affection.
‘Why would she summon me to the Empress’s Palace now? What could it be about?’
Knowing her usual aversion to talking with me and even going as far as waiting for me instead of just coming to find me, it was clearly not a trivial matter.
I continued to recall hazy memories.
‘What on earth happens around this time of year…… Oh, could it be that?’
Before my regression, there was a time when the Empress summoned me to the palace.
And what she said to me was…
“His Majesty the Emperor has arrived.”
With the sound of the attendant’s voice, the garden gate opened.
I hurriedly rose from my seat.
A dignified middle-aged man was entering the greenhouse.
Except for the platinum blonde hair, our faces are so similar that I could be recognized as his daughter without the need for a paternity test.
“It’s been a while.”
As the Emperor leisurely crossed the bridge over the pond, I smiled when he greeted me.
‘I suppose it’s time we got down to business.’
I lifted the hem of my skirt and bowed slowly toward him.
“Greetings, His Imperial Majesty, the Sun of the Empire.”
Seated in a chair arranged in the greenhouse, the Emperor spoke to me.
“Please, have a seat, Princess.”
My father, Emperor Leopold VIII of Schwanhild, the sole empire on the continent, still referred to me as a princess.
However, his calling me so was not an expression of affection. It was simply because he found it distasteful to acknowledge me as a mere noble, especially as a member of the Blant family, that he detested so much.
With such a temperament, the Emperor would assist me in divorcing Erich.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
As I took my seat across from him, the Emperor brought up the matter he wished to discuss.
“I would like to hear the reason for summoning me.”
Being the eldest son and heir to the throne, he was always straightforward and one who heard more complaints than praises due to his commitment to tradition.
In my case, it was the same.
He was always the emperor, even in front of his daughter, me, on topics he had no interest in.
Always trying to please him and bending over backward, the Emperor rarely granted my requests.
Even when I offered to be a watchdog for the duke, he hesitated and did not support me.
Even when Demian fell ill, he remained indifferent.
When I asked for a leaf from the royal family’s World Tree, I received the response, “If I save your child, what will you do for me?”
But this time, the situation was different.
‘You will have no choice but to grant my request, for I have the upper hand this time.’
✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧
The Emperor stared at his daughter, sitting in front of him, with a suspicious look.
‘You’ve been avoiding my contact all this time to cover for that brat…….’
He knew that Cornelia was in love with Erich Lennon Blant.
That’s why he didn’t believe her when she proposed an arranged marriage to spy on him in the first place.
Nevertheless, he proposed her marriage to the Duke of Blant, hoping that by marrying her, he could prevent the Duke of Blant from joining another family.
He intended to exploit the condition he set on the proposal as a weakness to be used when he needed it.
‘But what brings her to me now?’
He had called her to find out.
✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧
Hey readers! If you spot any errors in the translation, feel free to reach out to me on Discord or simply drop a comment below. Thanks a bunch! -Sienna
✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧
𝑺𝒖𝒑𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕 𝒎𝒆 𝒐𝒏 𝑲𝒐-𝒇𝒊
