Chapter 63
The Empress Palace.
The Empress’s tranquil drawing room, warmed by the afternoon sun and lingering with the faint scent of black tea.
Graham’s nervousness is palpable when he is summoned unexpectedly.
“Your Majesty, the Crown Prince is in class.”
“I see you didn’t make it to Halbern today.”
“He has much to do.”
The sudden rush to prepare for the tea party had stretched Pession’s schedule.
The Empress, the culprit, smirked.
“Well, what’s the matter?”
Empress Ageni, who was enjoying a cup of strong black tea in her relatively comfortable attire, interrupted.
“Graham.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“As the Crown Prince’s sole chief aide, what do you think of this situation?”
Graham’s expression hardened.
“May I ask again, if I may, what you mean by that?”
“Pession to…”
The voice was tinged with anguish.
“May… be left as it is, that is what I ask.”
The Empress’s deep blue eyes darkened.
“I would expect wise judgment from Graham, who is closest to that child.”
A moment of silence.
A complicated thought rises and falls. Graham sighs.
“Your Majesty, did you not wish His Highness Prince Pession to become acquainted with Lady Arellin?”
“Yes.”
Compassion, favour, or her own regret.
Empress Ageni smiled bitterly as she thought of the child, cute and sweet, with rose-stone eyes that held spring.
“However, it seems a bit… different from what I expected after seeing it.”
Graham broke out in an involuntary cold sweat. His mouth went dry.
“I’d lie to any safety, but I’ll tell you the truth on my honour.”
Graham insisted.
“It’s late.”
“Is it?”
“Even if you tried to stop him, The Crown Prince would not comply.”
“I see.”
“Are you not surprised?”
Graham frowned, secretly fearing that he had been given a bad name. Empress Ageni smiled.
“I thought so.”
Vaguely, from the time Pession had asked ‘why’ when told to do as much or as little as he liked, from the time he’d insisted on staying by Arellin’s side instead of turning round.
“It’s too late.”
Perhaps Empress Ageni had called for Graham to reassure her.
“I’m sure you know this, Graham, but Pession is too much like me and Ed, too much like him.”
He’s got the kind of personality that makes him run and not look back. Not even to look at it.
“If only she were healthy.”
It was a relationship with an end in sight.
A relationship with a predetermined ending.
Empress Ageni suddenly felt sorry for her son.
“Is there anything else you would like me to do?”
“Nothing.”
If you’re not going to stop it, you might as well not start it in the first place.
So Empress Ageni thought she would do nothing.
“I suddenly remember that day. When the Archduke of Halbern suddenly appeared and demanded my blessing for the birth of his daughter.”
“Then he was suddenly imprisoned in a northern castle.
The Empress Ageni, with her platinum hair as pale as the moon, her mesmerising violet eyes, and her wickedly impassive gaze, turned to him.
“Graham, do you think the Archduke of Halbern will be at this tea party?”
“No.”
“Neither do I.”
Her violet eyes sank into the depths.
“Poor thing.”
Graham suddenly wondered if Empress Ageni was referring to the Crown Prince or Lady Arellin.
“It’s so sad.”
But he couldn’t tell who it was until the end.
***
The twins’ satisfaction at arriving at the estranged Halbern mansion was overwhelming.
“I didn’t expect to see the “Grander Moon Series” here!”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a very, very rare painting that even my father collects!”
“Legend has it that if you collect all thirteen, you can see a dreamlike landscape left behind by Lord Grander.”
“Apart from that, each painting is worth a fortune and is highly collectible.”
There are only three paintings at auction, and the Duke of Sperom owns them all, and the Imperial family has four.
She was dizzy with the conversation about periods, styles, who owned them, and cryptic texts.
“Let’s have a meeting at…”
Despite the frenzy, the meeting with the twins went well.
“Arellirin, are you going to make tea and dessert?”
“No. I can’t be bothered.”
“We’re bringing some Greenlandic flower tea from the East Indies. Do you want some, Arellirin?”
Did ahe have to?
As if reading her expression, Noel reacted quickly.
“It would be nice to have at least one.”
“We’ll get one for you!”
Well, it’s kind of hard to say no to an offer, isn’t it?
“… Then prepare one for me.”
“Okay!”
She felt like she had been dried up by the twins’ faces, but she couldn’t refuse their sincerity.
“What are you going to do with the decorations and flowers?”
“We’re going marigold. Golden!”
“Well, the Sperom coat of arms is a golden heart on one side of a tilted, so it should be pretty, right?”
She settled on this one.
“Lily.”
For generations, the flower of Halbern has been the white lily.
“The rest, well, sort of.”
It would work, wouldn’t it?
“What do you want for a gift?”
“Just something appropriate.”
“Hmm.”
“Hmm.”
Ciel and Noel looked at her with clenched jaws.
“What’s that look.”
It’s a slightly pathetic look.
On anyone else, it would have been unbearable, but on the twins, it was unbearable.
“Arellin’s a bit faint.”
“Arellin is just the right amount of sweet.”
“Can you please not call me by my proper names at times like this?”
“Oh, what were they going to do without us!”
“I would have been definitively humiliated!”
“I would have died of embarrassment!”
“You wouldn’t die of that!”
This ‘favor’ from the twins was also suspicious in the first place.
In the novel, they were also favourable to the heroine, but they didn’t go out of their way to help her.
“Why do you guys like me?”
Second only to Pession.
It was the twins who looked puzzled by this legitimate question.
“Arellirin is our ‘friend’.”
“Arellerin is our ‘friend’!”
“You have lots of friends.”
“We don’t have many.”
“Is it as many as Your Highness, Aaron, and Arellin?”
Why not?
Given their personalities, it was understandable that they didn’t have any friends, but she was puzzled.
She couldn’t believe that she, no one else. Was considered by the twins to be on the same level as Pession and Aaron.
They’ve been best friends since the twins were born.
“Are you doubting our hearts, Arelliririn?”
“Are you twisting our minds?!”
The twins feigned anger.
“No, it’s not like that.”
She just felt a little strange and nervous.
“We just like Arellirin.”
“That’s right, we like Arellelin.”
“Why?”
Does it have something to do with the <Golden Eye> that the twins have? What value does it have to her?
Still in disbelief, the twins looked even more puzzled.
“Do you have to have a reason?”
“Can’t you like something and not have a reason?”
“I don’t think so…”
Ciel’s eyes softened.
“Somehow, I think Arellirin is more calculating than us Sperom.”
“We don’t try to calculate with our friends.”
She felt a twinge of wistfulness in her voice, and she thought about defending herself, but she kept her mouth shut. Maybe the twins were right.
“It’s just that it’s a little strange to receive such favours.”
Maybe not out of spite or malice.
She still wasn’t sure how to react to uncalculated favors or goodwill. Perhaps that’s why she more suspicious and defensive.
‘Pathetic.’
Is she as young in mind as she is in body?
“Ugh.”
Ciel’s golden eyes sparkled brightly as she kept her mouth shut, unsure of how to respond.
“Arelliririn, you’re blushing!”
“Hahaha.”
“I’m not blushing.”
“You’re blushing here.”
She was making a mental note not to fall for childish provocations, not to fall for them, not to put up with them.
Knock.
A knock on the parlour door opened and a familiar face entered.
“Mehen!”
Mum!
What are you doing here?
The twins were more excited than she was, jumping up in delight.
“Wow, it’s Sir Mehen!”
“Sir Mehen!”
The twins immediately ran out and clung to Mehen.
“Sir Mehen, are you coming to Sperom again today?”
“Sir Mehen, father says if we can have Sir Mehen, we can change the imperial law and get married!”
Mum was proposed to.
“I refuse.”
