Evelina waited endlessly for Kaiden. She was in the room more beautifully and gaily decorated than ever, but Kaiden never came to see her after her detention was lifted.
Evelina headed to the Empress’ Palace with the thought that it would be impossible.
It was the Empress’ Palace that was splendid even when she used it before. However, although it must have been changed in a hurry, the interior boasted a completely different splendor.
In the past, furniture and objects made of luxurious mahogany wood were suitable for Evelina, and if it was a luxurious feeling with pink rhyolite and white marble, it was not now.
Now, the magnificent feeling was stronger as if it were completely representing the dignity of the Empress. In the past, it used to be cheerful for someone who just gotten married. The position of the Empress had been changed to an elegant taste to the extent that it seemed as if an appointed person would come from an early age.
“Where is His Majesty?”
Evelina could no longer call Kaiden by name. It was when he loved her that he allowed her to use his name.
But he didn’t come looking for her because he was sick of her. It was out of place to call him that anymore.
“He’s in the bedroom, Your Majesty.”
“Yes.”
Evelina moved with Lian, who was following her as if she were watching her. Now she didn’t even have a decent maid. There was no work in the palace left to her.
Evelina just spent every day in the room like a doll. She had no one to tell her to do, no one to do her duty, no one to ask for responsibility.
She was just a Queen abandoned by Kaiden. She even came back shamelessly with another man’s child. It was Kaiden’s child, but no one believed her.
So she headed to the bedroom on the third floor where Kaiden was.
“Tell His Majesty.”
Looking at the Guard, Evelina said weakly.
“His Majesty has just gone to bed.”
“Then I’ll wait until he gets up.”
It was just past ten o’clock, so Evelina didn’t think he was really asleep.
It was 10 minutes. Then about twenty minutes later.
“Will you report it to His Majesty?”
The sound of her footsteps echoed through the hallway, and Selena Verdeen stood next to Evelina.
“Oh, hello, Your Majesty?”
Then, when the gatekeeper went to speak, the door opened again shortly after.
“Only Lady Verdeen may come in.”
“Ah…”
“His Majesty says to leave.”
“No, tell him I’ll wait.”
Evelina said so and bowed her head. His answer brought tears to her eyes.
“I’ll speak to His Majesty, Your Majesty.”
“…please.”
Evelina had to keep her head down so she wouldn’t be caught crying. Selena Verdeen was heading in without hesitation through the open door, leaving Evelina behind.
Selena, who went inside, expression went cold as Kaiden stared at her. This time he wasn’t holding a gun. However, he was a person who would twist and break her neck without batting an eye even without a sword.
“Why are you angry, Your Majesty?”
“I called to warn you for the last time.”
Kaiden put down the bottle he was holding and walked closer to Selena.
“We. I’m sure we’ve seen each other when we were young.”
“Oh, did we? Oh my god. When was that? I don’t remember.”
Kaiden remembered Selena. The woman almost died when his biological mother, the former Empress, gave her cookies with medicine.
The real daughter of Marquis Logias.
“Ugh!”
“Don’t you know why I called you into the bedroom?”
“Let, let go… Keuk…!
Kaiden put his hand around Selena’s neck with a nonchalant expression. Selena’s big toe was barely touching her floor as he lifted her with his arm. She clutched his stocky arm tightly and groaned as if begging for help.
“Heuk!”
At that moment, Kaiden let go of his hand, and Selena fell to the floor.
“If I kill you here, word will circulate that you died after being raped by me. Then where will your wealth go?”
“Heo-eok, ugh.”
“And the relatives of the Marquis of Logias who hid you. And Tenesi. Everything.”
As Selena held her neck and managed to regain her breath, he said warningly.
“Should you be decapitated and hung on the wall to recover your senses?”
“Wh, what are you talking about… I don’t, know… Heuk…”
Selena had a hard time speaking. She coughed and tried to catch her breath, but her throat hurt so much. Her eyes were red with broken veins. The pressure on her neck made her breathless.
“Don’t be silly. I know you’re up to nothing good with the new king of Tenesi.”
“Ugh…”
“This is the last warning.”
After saying that, Kaiden thought about kicking her out, but he pondered. Evelina was standing at the door. He thought she would go back in less than half an hour, but she was still waiting.
He also thought that if the detention order was lifted, she might come to him. But now he didn’t want to see her. He didn’t want to forgive her. But his heart was pounding as if he had already forgiven her, and as if he was grateful that she was alive.
And what if Evelina finds out he did this? At best, the heart that was turned to him could possibly completely leave.
He didn’t expect Selena to come so soon. And he didn’t expect Evelina to not go back.
He thought he’d rather leave this room. If Evelina saw Selena holding her neck, her eyes turning red due to a burst of blood veins, bruises on her neck, and trying to regain her breath by wheezing.
Then she wouldn’t come to see him again. He thought that could happen.
He couldn’t let that happen. He went out of the room like that.
When he opened the door, Evelina looked at him with a crying face.
“Your Majesty.”
He felt cold in his heart when he realized that she wouldn’t call him by name again.
“I must have told you to go back.”
“Your Majesty, let’s talk about us. I-I truly want to be with Your Majesty.”
“Take the Empress.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“…Your Majesty, please.”
But that’s how he left Evelina. He thought maybe if Evelina had called him by name, he might have been begging her on the spot.
And that prediction was not wrong.
~~~~
“Your Majesty, you’ve already forgiven her.”
Ruskun Weimar sighed as he saw Kaiden running away from the Empress’ Palace and into the tourney hall. He had not been able to leave the palace because of overtime. He came to find the Emperor who went to do military exercises.
“…”
Kaiden was disgusted with Duke Ruskun Weimar, who understood his condition just by looking at his actions.
“It’s better if you do this.”
He was advising Kaiden not as Duke of Ruskun, but as Ruskun, who was a comrade in arms. He checked the condition of Kaiden, who was practicing shooting with a gun.
The target board had only the marks pierced in the middle.
“You’ve already forgiven, and on the contrary, you seem to want to ask for forgiveness when you meet.”
– Bang!
The bullet that had been hitting only the middle shifted a little to the side. Then Weimar sighed and looked at Kaiden. Kaiden reloaded the gun as if he was invisible.
“How are you going to ask for forgiveness? Are you going to beg?”
“…”
“Then who will compensate His Majesty for his hard work over the past eight months?”
“…”
“You must already think nothing of it. In the meantime, I was worried that Your Majesty might be trying to kill himself again every day next to me.”
“…”
“After working all day, you took alcohol and sleeping pills in the evening. No matter how much you ate, I wouldn’t have thought it strange if Your Majesty suddenly died one day.”
Weimar didn’t talk nicely when his emotions began to be loaded again.
“Oh, by the way. On that day, he even tried to shoot himself with a gun.”
Kaiden ignored it and aimed the gun back at the target.
“But can you forgive her?”
“Evelina’s memory is not intact.”
“Can she act like that if her memory is not intact?”
Ruskun Weimar lowered Kaiden’s gun and looked straight. Kaiden’s height was huge among men of similar age, so there was a big difference. Ruskun Weimar looked up at him and looked straight at him.
“If her memory is not intact, can she play with people?”
“Lina must have felt that she had no other choice.”
“If she didn’t have a choice, can she trample on people’s hearts?”
“If that’s all there is to it.”
Kaiden couldn’t understand why he was speaking on Evelina’s side. But he didn’t think he was wrong.
“Oh, then how are you going to explain having someone else’s baby?”
“…I killed him.”
Kaiden did not regret killing Usher. However, after his death, he couldn’t understand Evelina’s behavior towards him. Didn’t she run away because she loved Usher? Then why was she telling him that she loved him?
“And he must have taken advantage of. In Lina’s blood…”
Kaiden had also completed an investigation into the business Usher Fronen was trying to do. All investigations into his close friend, Hecate, had also been completed. He questioned the woman who was Hector’s ex-wife.
“Then I ask, would Your Majesty have done the same if it had been a non-Her Majesty situation?”
Then Kaiden could not answer. But he could understand.
“No. Even so, I….”
“…Your Majesty.”
“How pathetic.”
Kaiden washed his face dry and handed the gun to Ruskun. Then he stared blankly at Ruskun Weimar, who was looking at him.
“If you’re going to bring the Queen into the palace, do as you, please. Still, I will not accept that child as a member of the royal family.”
“I’ll accept it. And if it’s born from Lina, it’s my child.”
Ruskun Weimar sighed and grabbed the back of his neck. He couldn’t say anything to that.
~~~~
That night.
Kaiden headed to the Emperor’s Palace’s bedroom where Evelina would be.
Istg this is stressing me out