I miss you, Your Majesty
“From next time, I will pay more careful attention to the princess’s feelings.”
As Riella spoke politely with her hands folded, the embassy staff next to her also bowed their heads.
Greta reluctantly nodded, unable to show any sign of disapproval.
Meanwhile, all the gifts had disappeared from Greta’s sight, and the last thing left was a small blue box on the table.
“Why don’t you take that?”
Greta spoke with a lot of sarcasm, but Riella picked up the box herself and handed it to the princess.
“This is a gift I personally prepared, so can you accept it?”
“I’m not in the mood to receive gifts or anything like that.”
“This is a gift for your fiancé who is sick now.”
‘To Fabian?’
At that moment, Greta’s black eyes took on a mysterious glow.
“Of course, if the princess does not allow it—”
“Alright. Give it to me. I’ll tell him.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
Riella was confident until the end without a single hiccup.
Greta felt even more upset as she watched Riella move gracefully and take care of her people.
‘In the old days, she would tremble just by making eye contact with me.’
The sight of Riella smiling leisurely while surrounded by people made her stomach twist, but what annoyed her even more was the fact that she couldn’t make a single wrinkle in that dignified expression, no matter what she did.
“Are you just going to go? You came this far, why don’t you go and see Fabian?”
“I heard he is still resting.”
“Fabian was very eager to meet the ambassador.”
“If he gets up from his bed, I will meet him formally in public then.”
Even she brought up the fact that Fabian had missed Riella.
Riella turned around without a single regret, and Greta remained in the quiet room again, bursting into laughter.
“Fabian. Did you know? Riella was such a fierce girl.”
After everyone left, Greta came into the bedroom where Fabian was lying.
Fabian was asleep, intoxicated by the drug.
She couldn’t believe how lucky she was. If Fabian had been awake, if he had held Riella and cried in front of everyone, then Greta would have been unable to raise her head.
Because it must have been so humiliating.
“But I know. She’s definitely bluffing in front of me. Although she pretends to be fine on the outside, she is probably rotting inside thinking about you. That’s probably why she left this.”
With that, Greta smirked and opened the blue box Riella had given her.
‘How desperately she must have felt for the dying Fabian…’
“What’s this?”
All that was contained in the box were three or four cheap candies and a one-line letter.
[With this, I will consider all debts from my childhood paid off. Goodbye, Fabian.]
Greta threw the box on the floor and screamed.
“What do you think you’re doing, saying goodbye like that? You should be sad about what I took from you. You should be deadly jealous of me!”
* * *
That evening, the embassy residence at Lake Palace was bustling with activity again for the first time in a while.
This was because Riella, who had been away for a few days, returned again, and the gifts she had prepared to entertain the princess were distributed to the embassy staff.
“Really? Can we really share this?”
“yes. Since everyone has worked so hard, let’s consider this a reward. His Majesty also allowed it.”
“Wow! Ambassador the best!”
“I will find out how to refund or resell the garnet necklace separately. With that, we all have dinner together.”
“yes! It’s so good!”
In the center of the lake palace lobby, all the staff smiled in front of a mountain of gifts.
“It’s so nice to see the ambassador again.”
“We were so sad when we thought that Miss Riella would never come back!”
‘ah. those rumors…’
“I’m sorry. It was difficult for everyone because there was a lot of work to do while I was away, right?”
“No! I’m so grateful that you came back safely like this.”
‘Safely? It’s not like I was captured by a monster.’
Riella was pleasantly surprised that they hadn’t seemed to mind her pregnancy, her disappearance, or any number of rumors.
In many ways, it was a leisurely afternoon.
“Especially today, with the ambassador leading the way to the West Palace. We’ve all been hesitant to come because we’re so afraid of the princess!”
“But we can’t always rely on aide El. For some reason, the aide seems to be in a bit of a bad mood these days.”
“Yes. He is always under pressure. We’ve never seen him smiling before, right?”
“Come to think of it, he’s not here. I’m sure he’s in his office. Should I call him?”
As the conversation flowed to El’s current situation, Riella smiled and waved her hand.
“I will go to the office myself. and you guys can stay here and share gifts here.”
Riella headed to the office, leaving behind the employees who happily said ‘Yes’.
Even among the lake palace, Riella thought the office was a comfortable place like home, but when she arrived, it felt more unfamiliar and difficult than before.
‘After all, I received permission from His Majesty to go to work. Wouldn’t it be okay to just go in and see sir El’s face for a moment and then come out?’
Riella kept her hand on the office door and kept changing her decision.
‘But His Majesty has a restraining order against him, and it would put me in more trouble if I went to see him. ……But I’ve seen all the other staff, and it’s not fair to not see him, is it? But…’
After much deliberation, Riella decided to ask an employee who happened to be passing by in the hallway.
“Could you please deliver this to my aide? And the documents I need to check, please bring them to my room.”
“Yes. Alright. Ambassador.”
Riella, who intentionally stayed far away and confirmed that the employee had entered the office instead of her, smiled in satisfaction and walked to her bedroom.
* * *
“Give me.”
EL, who was standing right in front of the office door, held out his hand to the employee as soon as he entered.
“yes? Ah, yes…The one the ambassador asked me to deliver—”
“I know. Give me.”
In fact, El saw Riella hesitating outside the door, unable to even come in.
Grabbing the doorknob, then shaking her head and pulling her hand away. The way she sighed, stepped closer, pouted her lips, and backed away again
Through the small viewing hole in the office door.
‘Stupid.’
That’s what El thought as he watched Riella, who couldn’t bravely open the door and enter.
He also thought that the note Riella left behind must be foolish, just like her.
[I can’t see you, but please give me the documents, I’ll make sure to get it checked out later, I’ll see you soon, thank you.]
But when he found himself staring at the message for a long time, he realized how stupid he was. It wasn’t Riella who was wandering aimlessly, unable to fully open or close the door.
The pressure from his superiors to capture anything, whether Ann’s descendants or Enril’s descendants, is increasing day by day, but rather than planning a plan to kidnap Riella, he is comically sticking to the door and spying on her.
“Give this to the ambassador. I have selected all the documents she needs to check, so she just needs to sign off on it.”
“Yes. By the way, aide. Does the ambassador need to sign off on this book as well?”
“No. That book….”
EL sighed with a complicated mind.
“It’s homework. She will know it when she sees it.”
El folded Riella’s note neatly and put it in the inside pocket of his jacket.
In the same spot where the gemstone, he’d been surprised by a moment ago, when Riella came so close to him, had heated his skin.
* * *
Riella, who returned to the room, walked lightly.
‘I felt like I had solved a lot of problems in a hectic half-day.’
She returned to work, dismissed the absurd rumors, and even indirectly conveyed her regards to El.
‘Above all, when I met Princess Greta again, I said everything I needed to say without trembling or being discouraged.’
‘Ah, not everything. Actually, I had something else I wanted to say to Fabian, but I decided to save that for another time.’
‘The gift of candy was enough to settle the matter.’
‘My heart sank every time I talked about Fabian in front of His Majesty.’
No longer would she remember Fabian as a fond childhood memory. There was only one person she wanted to remember in the future.
‘I miss you, Your Majesty.’
Riella thought of Herhan.
She thought of the sweet smell of his skin, and she thought of his blue eyes that were warm only to her.
‘I want to receive compliments. I was really brave today.’
‘I’ve been praised by the staff for being cool. So, just a little bit, I wanted to brag that I might have contributed to His Majesty’s reputation.’
Then Herhan will definitely smile happily.
‘He patted my head with his hand and said, ‘Good job, Riella.’ While doing so, he would softly call my name…’
“Lou. Has His Majesty arrived yet?”
“Yes.”
But for some reason, Herhan didn’t come today, even though she waited until it was dark outside the window.
Riella thought it was strange, but later realized that her expectations were even stranger.
It was natural for the emperor to go to the emperor’s bedroom, but she had expected him to go to her bedroom.
Perhaps it had become a habit after spending so much time alone in the Lake Palace.
“I guess he won’t come today.”
That could be true, she thought, but Riella’s voice dripped with regret.
Lou suppresses laughter at the sight of Riella sitting with her neck stretched out like a turtle and says,
“Instead of waiting like that, Miss Riella, why don’t you go to His Majesty’s bedroom?”
“Me?”
“Yes. I think His Majesty would rather like it.”
Riella’s heart was pounding.
The Emperor’s bedroom was a place she frequented as often as the Lake Palace, so there was nothing to blush about again.
“Then… I have something to tell him, so shall I come by for a moment?”
“Hehe. I’m fine if you go in and never come out!”
Riella with Lou headed to the main palace.
However, in front of the emperor’s inner room, the guard stopped Riella.
“What’s going on?”
Riella was confused. Until now, the guard of the inner room would recognize Riella first and open the door on his own, even before Riella had time to greet him.
“I came to see his Majesty. I have something to tell him.”
“Have you made an appointment in advance?”
“Oh, no…”
That was the second thing that confused her.
An appointment? Riella had never made an appointment to meet with the Emperor before.
“Wait here for a moment. I’ll ask inside and come back.”
After saying that, the guard went inside, so Riella had no choice but to stand helplessly in the hallway and confused.
In fact, at that time, Riella never thought that she would be rejected.
“He said you should just go back.”
“Yes?”
So when the guard finally delivered the emperor’s answer, she didn’t understand it for a while.
“Is his Majesty already asleep? Or are there other guests coming?”
“No.”
“Then…is he feeling unwell?!”
‘If that’s the case, then I should go in!’
As Riella, feeling anxious, took a step forward, the guard resolutely stretched out his arms and added an answer.
“His Majesty doesn’t want to meet you today.”
* * *
