Dazzled by the bright sunlight, Arundel rubbed her eyes and got up.
Looking at the clock, it was past noon. After getting drenched in the rain yesterday and soaking in warm water, her body had become so lethargic that she fell asleep almost instantly.
‘No one came to wake me up…’
Even though she was the empress, no one had come looking for her until noon. Arundel listened to the growling of her stomach as she stared intently at the bedroom door.
‘Surely they’ll bring me food…?’
No matter how much the empress was disliked, he would have to keep her alive if he wanted to torment her! With a feeling of doubt, Arundel wondered if she should ask for lunch to be brought to her first.
Arundel, who had never expected to have such practical concerns, realized once again the reality of her situation.
Knock-knock-
Just in time, there was a knock on the door, and Arundel quickly tidied up her disheveled hair and straightened her clothes.
“Your Majesty, We have brought your lunch.”
“Come in.”
Three maids entered the room, carrying food.
“We tried to wake you in the morning, but you showed no signs of getting up, so we skipped breakfast.”
Relieved by the maid’s words, Arundel sighed. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like they were neglecting or tormenting the empress. The lunch was also satisfactory.
While setting up the lunch, the maid also placed another item next to the meal.
“What is this?”
The maid seemed uneasy at Arundel’s question. As she had felt before, it seemed to cause the maids great difficulty whenever they had to speak with her.
“Your Majesty, you asked for ink last time…”
“Hmm. Right.”
Arundel feigned remembrance with a cough. As expected, the maids quickly left the bedroom after completing their tasks.
“Ink, why would I need ink?”
After finishing her lunch, Arundel turned the ink bottle brought by the maid this way and that, pondering the actions of Empress Irina.
Arundel sat at the bedroom table and looked out the window. This place was so quiet and secluded that one wouldn’t know if a war broke out. It was as if it was completely separated from the world.
“Did she write something out of boredom…?”
The basic use of ink was for writing. If she had drawn a picture, she would have asked for paint. Then there should be a pen or paper in the bedroom.
Arundel walked around the bedroom looking for anything related to the ink.
“There’s nothing.”
Thinking about it, she still didn’t even know how long she had been the empress. What Arundel saw through the mirror of projection was after yesterday’s events.
If the true owner of the body, Empress Irina, had written something, it would certainly help to understand the situation. Arundel, who had been sitting on the bed thinking deeply, suddenly got up.
‘The garden!’
She remembered a scene from the future she saw in the mirror of projection. Empress Irina’s only pleasure was spending time in the beautiful imperial garden.
However, sadly, after seeing her there, Zion burned down the entire imperial garden overnight. The colorful garden was instantly reduced to ashes, turning black and white.
Thinking about it, Zion really tormented the empress terribly. Remembering the empress wailing in that garden made her feel uneasy.
As she entered the garden, the fragrant scent of flowers brushed Arundel’s nose. The early summer garden was full of beautiful purple hydrangeas.
‘Since she spent a lot of time here, if she wrote something, wouldn’t she have written it here?’
But the problem was that the garden was too vast. Where in this garden, which seemed to be at least 100 square meters, could it be hidden?
As she turned her head with that thought, Arundel spotted a house made of transparent glass. Inside, there was a table and chairs, which seemed like a nice place to spend time.
Arundel entered the glasshouse and sat on a chair. However, unfortunately, there was no paper or pen in sight.
Having exhausted her energy walking around, Arundel, who was a bit tired, decided to take in the scenery from the glasshouse for a while.
‘I hope the garden doesn’t burn down this time.’
It was too precious a space to be lost as a means of Zion’s torment. The garden felt like it had been carefully tended for a long time.
As she admired the scenery for a while, Arundel’s eyes caught a birdhouse made of wood.
The intricately made birdhouse had ample space, perfect for birds to rest or build their nests.
‘Could it be there…?’
As Arundel reached into the birdhouse, she felt something hard. It was a pen and a book with a hard cover.
“I found it!”
Arundel brought the book and pen to the table. When she opened the book, she saw beautifully written words. It seemed like a diary, with dates written on each page.
Arundel silently rejoiced.
However, unfortunately, the book was not only entirely made up of diary entries, but also contained poems and passages written by Empress Irina, who enjoyed writing.
And between the pages of the diary, there was a family photo.
In the photo, there were four people: Empress Irina, her father, her mother, and a lively-looking woman with chestnut-colored hair who appeared to be her sister.
‘They really don’t look alike.’
The three family members, excluding Irina, looked very much alike, but the atmosphere and impression were different as if Irina was the only one picked up from somewhere else.
However, since it was not an immediate concern, she quickly flipped through the pages to find other clues.
As she was quickly flipping through the pages, Arundel’s hand suddenly stopped.
[March 16th. He came to see my father. I’m so afraid that he has discovered the truth. I hope it’s not true.]
[March 20th. I hoped it wasn’t, but he indeed knew the truth. What does he want to do with me?]
[March 25th. He wants to make me the empress. What is he planning to do by making me the empress? Every day is so frightening. I just want to run away.]
Empress Irina had not mentioned the ‘truth’ explicitly, which was exquisitely done.
Arundel continued to turn the pages. She hadn’t recorded anything for a while after March 25th. It took quite a few page turns to find another entry.
[April 26th. Tomorrow I will enter the palace as the empress. No one will help me. Everyone is afraid of him. I wish time would stop.]
If it was April 26th, it was just a week ago from the current date. That means she had only been the empress for a week.
That was the end of the diary.
A noticeable point was the frequent mention of her sister. In content not related to Zion, her sister ‘Eileen’ appeared often, and they seemed very close.
‘Then, might her sister know something?’
Arundel realized that she was not in a position to meet her sister hastily right now.
The mirror of projection did not show everything, but the family never appeared. If only she had been allowed to meet her family, Empress Irina would not have been so lonely.
Arundel decided to look for more traces of Empress Irina.
As she searched for traces of Empress Irina day by day, a week quickly passed. Unfortunately, apart from that diary, she could not find anything else.
Feeling a bit empty, Arundel sprawled across the table in the glasshouse chair of the garden. As things were not progressing, she became impatient and anxious.
‘Besides, that guy hasn’t even shown his face.’
Emperor Zion had not visited the empress’s palace once in a week. The only people she had seen all week were the maids who brought meals, and even they disappeared like the wind once their work was done.
‘Maybe it’s better he doesn’t come…’
After all, whether Zion was there or not, Empress Irina suffered just the same.
When he was absent, her heart dried up with loneliness, but when Zion, the only one who visited the empress’s palace, came, her heart would be devastated. He would smile brightly with his pretty face while throwing daggers.
As she lay sprawled on the table with these thoughts, the warm sunlight made Arundel drowsy.
After all, the only thing left here was time. No one would complain even if the empress lazily took a nap.
‘At least this is nice…’
Without resisting her drooping eyelids, Arundel closed her eyes.
‘When I was the Archangel, I spent busy days every day. I had to monitor the Demon Realm, manage the angels, and check on the Human World…’
Has she ever taken such a peaceful nap? With that thought, Arundel closed her eyes.
****
Arundel lifted her eyelids in a daze. It was dark around her.
‘What time is it…!’
Arundel was startled awake, not realizing she had slept so deeply.
And she was doubly surprised because of the person in front of her.
“Your…Your Majesty.”
It was because she saw the beautiful face of Zion right in front of her.
She almost had a fit at the sight of Zion sitting opposite her, staring intently, but she exerted superhuman strength to compose herself.
“You’re finally awake.”
Zion said, with his usual radiant smile.
To an outsider, he might seem kind, but in the mirror of projection, he often used that ‘smiling face’ to speak ironically and scratch at people’s insides.
“Uh, how long have you been here?”
“You don’t need to know.”
See? It would have been better if he hadn’t come. Arundel was nervously wondering what the emperor might do next.
But unexpectedly, he got up from his seat.
“I came to see if the bird in the cage was doing well, but it seems the foolish bird doesn’t know its own situation and is quite at peace.”
Arundel gritted her teeth at being treated like a foolish bird, but she couldn’t let Zion leave like this.
It had been only a week. Arundel didn’t want to talk to this psychopathic emperor either, but she couldn’t miss the opportunity to learn more about him. She didn’t know when he would visit again.
“Your Majesty…!”
Arundel hastily grabbed his wrist as he was about to leave. Zion’s expression turned murderous as he looked at his caught wrist. His smile was gone.
Zion coldly knocked Arundel’s hand off his wrist.
“Don’t touch me.”
Arundel froze for a moment at the sight of his eyes, which had become so murderously cold. She couldn’t even hear what he was saying.
“…What?”
“Don’t touch my body.”
As if something filthy had touched him, he fiercely knocked her hand away, and Arundel was momentarily stunned. She looked down at her own hand, feeling embarrassed.
“Why did you grab me?”
Zion still looked at her coldly and asked Arundel.
In fact, she had grabbed him because she couldn’t let him leave right away, and Arundel, who hadn’t thought about what to say afterward, blurted out anything.
“…Have you eaten?”
Arundel wanted to bite her tongue at that moment. To be treated so dirtily and to only ask about whether he had eaten.
Zion looked at him as if she was crazy.
“It seems to be time for dinner…”
Arundel said in a small voice.
“I thought you were just stupid, but you have no pride either.”
Zion looked down on her with a contemptuous face. Stung by Zion’s sharp words, Arundel clamped her mouth shut.
“If you were like your sly and filthy father, it would have been more fun to ruin you.”
Zion made a contemptuous face and left the garden.
After he left, Arundel went back to her bedroom. The cold dinner caught her eye.
Remembering Zion’s scornful expression, she had no appetite at all.
‘It seems to have gotten worse than when we first met.’
Arundel thought, trying to pull herself together. She suddenly felt that Irina, who had endured for three years, was remarkable.
It had only been a week since she entered the body of Empress Irina, but the scorn from Zion and the loneliness of the environment were harder to accept than she thought.
‘Earlier, it seemed like he spoke very badly about Empress Irina’s father.’
She couldn’t remember exactly because she was hit squarely by his venom, but Emperor Zion seemed to have a tremendous grudge against Irina’s father.
If so, the connection between Empress Irina and Zion must be with Irina’s family.
‘Then, I should meet Empress Irina’s family.’
