“Her Majesty is dead.”
Emotions were contained in the eyes of Kaiden, who lost his vitality at Duke Ruskun’s words.
“Shut up.”
The Duke sighed and looked at Kaiden. He didn’t expect Queen Evelina to die. No one did.
There were quite a few people who hated the Queen because she was the daughter of the Marquis of Logias. However, everyone believed Kaiden’s words rather than the hatred.
It was also revealed that she was not the real daughter of the Marquis of Logias but an adopted one. Everyone close to Kaiden knew that she was a great help to Kaiden’s mercenary days.
“You have to go back. The sun will rise soon.”
The wind that drove the rain sounded like a woman’s cry. Despite the Duke’s words, Kaiden couldn’t take his hand off the tombstone as it was wet from the rain.
He looked at it with empty eyes again when he remembered that Evelina’s body was asleep underneath it.
“Your Majesty is no longer alone. As the Emperor, the subjects to rule…”
“You know why I wanted to be emperor, Weimar.”
Duke Ruskun’s shoulders drooped when Kaiden called him by name. Because what Kaiden wanted now seemed to be a comrade, not a servant.
“…Does it matter now?”
Ruskun Weimar replied with a sigh. He decided to come out of the military relationship and treat him like a comrade-in-arms, as he had hoped. Otherwise, Kaiden was really going to collapse.
Previously, on the battlefield, people cheered when it rained. Even though there was water to drink, it was difficult to find water to wash. In addition, Kaiden was more resourceful and used many strategies when it rained.
But unlike the haggardness on the battlefield that they saw before, Kaiden seemed like a man who would soon collapse.
He looked thin after skipping meals, and didn’t seem to drink water properly. His lips were dry, and he didn’t know whether rain or tears flowed over them. The intense eyes, which were red and bloodshot, lost their light like those of a lifeless leopard.
Ruskun Weimar was terrified because it was the first time that Kaiden had collapsed this much.
“I should have met her before I became an emperor. If I had known, it would go this fast.”
“Then you wouldn’t have been emperor. Because she would have died before then.”
Weimar said unkind words to him like cold raindrops.
“It would have been better if I had told the truth and got married when I returned as a prince…”
“Then the Marquis of Logias would have abandoned Her Majesty. And Her Majesty must have died a miserable death.”
“Weimar.”
“You were only 15 years old when you were reinstated as a prince. Her Majesty was 11 years old.”
Ruskun Weimar couldn’t bear the sorrow that fluttered around his eyes whenever he spoke coldly. But it had to be delivered correctly. That way, he’ll come to his senses.
“Your Majesty already knows. Even if you visited Her Majesty then, she would not have loved you as much as she does now.”
“…You don’t know that. Lina remembers… Even when she couldn’t remember, she loved me.”
Kaiden’s voice was shaking.
Unlike summer approaching, the raindrops were heartlessly cold. It was a cold temperature, as if the clouds of Tenesi in the north were coming and were about to sprinkle snow.
“That’s because Your Majesty had the power to become emperor and correct everything.”
“What if it’s not? What if it’s not because of that, but if she really liked me?”
“I guess so. She must have loved Kaiden Abelard. So much…”
Ruskun Weimar did not believe Evelina at first. But if you recall her demeanor and the confused or Kaiden-like expression* in her eyes. It was also fitting that she had the same feelings as him that she didn’t have an eye for acting.
*TN: I’m assuming he means similar to how Kaiden looks at her so lovesick
At first, though, her eyes were full of vigilance, and she smiled falsely, but not before she died.
Ruskun Weimar had been sold to mercenaries during childhood. He was the quickest-witted person ever.
Apart from Evelina not noticing her feelings on her own, he knew both her and Kaiden’s feelings. That’s why he tried to understand everything when he acted uncharacteristically, unlike an Emperor. Because he knew what Evelina was in Kaiden’s eyes.
“That’s how she saw you, Your Majesty.”
Only then did Kaiden look back at Ruskun Weimar.
“The past is irrevocable. And even if you went back in time, Your Majesty would not have had a better option.”
“How can you guarantee that? If I told her everything the first day I saw Lina and asked her to trust me….”
“Then would she believe it? A woman who voluntarily took medicine given by the Marquis of Logias and lost all her memories? The one who didn’t know she was raised abused and begged for my parents’ lives?”
Weimar dragged his hands down his face as if he regretted talking emotionally without realizing it. Then he sighed and said.
“Even if Your Majesty told you everything on the day you got married, nothing would change. Then you’d be more suspicious. She couldn’t believe it more.”
“I can’t live without Lina. I never thought I could live like that.”
He felt a sense of hopelessness that he couldn’t answer, so both Kaiden and Weimar eventually shut up.
However, Weimar decided to stand next to Kaiden until he wanted to go back to the palace. Hoping that Kaiden will get back on his feet.
~~~~
Evelina was in search of her lost memories of her past, which she wanted to believe were her dreams.
She stopped taking medicine, but she was already neutralized. She was searching for painful memories hidden by the medicine.
“Why should I take this medicine?”
Evelina was only 11 years old at the time. She really had to take the medicine given by the Marquis every day after she became the daughter of the Marquis of Logias.
“Because your heart is weak. This will make your heart stronger.”
The Marquis of Logias laughed and said, Evelina was scared to go back to the poorhouse.
“Yes, I understand.”
I took the medicine without hesitation. At the same time, she naturally lost most of her memories in the poorhouse.
The drug was a kind of hallucinogen called <Memory of Dreams>. When one took the medicine, they forgot all their unhappy memories, and only remembered happy and enjoyable things.
<Memory of Dreams> was a drug that was only prescribed for severely ill patients and the elderly with few days left to live. It was a narcotic painkiller.
That was what Evelina ate every time.
“Good job, our daughter.”
“Did you eat today?”
“Well, our daughter has a weak heart.”
Evelina lost most of her memory eating it. The unhappy and hard memories were almost forgotten, and only happy and pleasant memories filled her head.
“I think I have hives on my arm.”
Evelina said so as she watched the unknown marks fill her wrists and thighs.
“Take your medicine, Lina.”
She remembered for a moment that her father was drawing blood by inserting a syringe into her arm. But she dismissed it as a scary dream. She lost everything after taking the medicine.
So in a deep dream, she was searching for her memory.
She thought she would collapse if she admitted it. The memories she couldn’t admit.
~~~~
“You kept moaning when you were sleeping.”
“Because I had a nightmare.”
Evelina thought this terrible nightmare was truly cruel. She had a dream about her late adoptive parents, but she was so ungrateful. They raised her, who was not their own.
She trembled with disillusionment with herself.
“Ah…”
“What’s wrong?”
She suddenly felt a lump in her stomach, and it hurt. Then, when she realized Kaiden planted the seed in the belly, she became sullen.
“I must get some water today.”
She said that on purpose to change the subject.
~~~~
Evelina carried an empty bucket to raise water and went to the well.
The problem was that there were four people, so she had to go back and forth at least four times because she was not confident in moving two at once. However, she couldn’t stay still because she felt like a useless human being to do nothing.
Evelina thought that although she was specialized in using her head, she felt that she was not good at using her body. Her throat was resting so quickly, and she finally understood why her throat hurt every time she spoke with Kaiden.
“Stop.”
She frowned and shook her head as she realized for a moment why her neck had been so hoarse in her bedroom with Kaiden.
She didn’t like that the bucket was oddly dented. She found it strange that everyone outside the imperial palace lived like this.
When she lived in the capital, she lived in a perfectly equipped place, which came straight out when the water was turned on. However, outside the capital, water facilities were not provided, even if the water was clean and free to use.
It seemed natural to get it herself.
“Oh, my God, are you the same guest who came to the Ross’ house?”
“Oh, what a nice wife and husband.”
Evelina raised her head to the voices of women with slightly different accents. Then she said with a made-up smile.
“Hello.”
“Haha. You look much prettier with your smile.”
“What’s your name?”
“It’s Lena.”
As Evelina went near the well holding the bucket, two older women laughed and took it.
“Looking at your wrist, you will break while getting water.”
“Oh, thank you.”
Then they filled Evelina’s bucket with water that she had already floated.
“I was like this when I was a young.”
“Oh, my. I saw your maidenhood, what are you talking about?”
As the women giggled, Evelina laughed quietly. After leaving Kaiden, she felt fake with a smile, and couldn’t erase the emptiness that seemed to be empty.
“Thank you, ah….”
At that moment, Evelina was stabbed in the finger by a wire sticking out of the bucket handle.
Then the flowing blood soon entered the bucket that Evelina was holding.
Then, between dawn, dirty water filled up again, and the muddy water began purifying instantly.
Poor FL, her adoptive parents are POS