“Mom!” Edmund, who was taking a long course in etiquette, came running after finding Lizena. With a bright smile, he reached out as if to hold her, but she stepped back with a hard face.
“Edmund. Didn’t your etiquette teacher teach you not to run like this?”
Edmund looked up at Lizena’s hardened face and lowered his outstretched arm. And he bowed his head and said.
“Mother, you’re here.” Lizena narrowed her eyebrows at the still awkward etiquette.
“Madam Berti, didn’t I ask you to teach him?” Rizena turned her head to the etiquette teacher, Viscount Berti.
Mrs. Berti smiled humbly at Lizena’s sharp eyes. “Young-sik is still young, and it’s because he hasn’t learned etiquette properly. But at a young age, he’s pretty good at it.”
“I don’t want it to be pretty good, I want it to be perfect. Edmund is going to be a prince soon. Shouldn’t the prince of a country show his ignorance?”
Lizena stopped talking to Mrs. Berti and spoke coldly.
“……Yes, I will try. Youngae.”
“You don’t have to try. Today will be the last time Mrs. Berti teaches Edmund.”
“Yes?” Madame Berti’s face was stained with embarrassment.
“I don’t need a person who is satisfied with this.I’ll find a new man who is worthy of the Crown Prince, so please leave.”
Viscount Berti’s face flared up at her words, but Lizena ignored it coldly. As the Viscount of Berti was about to say something, a white-haired maid standing behind Lizena approached.
“Madam, I’ll see you off.” The maid took the viscount’s arm.
The woman, whose grip was so strong, was stuck. No matter how hard a maid works, such a strong power is strange. The gray eyes she met at that moment gave her goosebumps.
The Viscount looked at Lizena, but she was no longer in her mind.
Was Lizena’s attitude completely different from her reputation and what she had seen up to this point?.
“Madam, you better go out.” At that time of confusion, the maid spoke lowly.
The Viscount felt instinctively. If you talk nonsense, you’ll die.
“…Yes.”Yes.” The Viscount said quietly and quietly left the room.
Click- The door closed and Lizena lowered in front of Edmund and made eye contact with the child.
“Edmund. Look at Mom.” Edmund, who had been sullen and bowed his head, lifted his gaze.
“Edmund, you will soon become the prince of an empire. You will live in the imperial palace and become the emperor of an empire in the future. So you shouldn’t be so childish anymore. Didn’t I say that last time? I want you to be your father ”
“Right, Your Majesty is a stronger and more wonderful person than anyone else, so try your best to become a person worthy of his majesty from now on.”
Lizena looked at Edmund with a determined look. He knew he couldn’t understand all of her words. But if he says it so strongly, at least he won’t forget her words. Edmund frowned as if frightened at Lizena’s hardened face, and nodded.
“Good boy,” Lizena raised her body and stroked Edmund’s head.
Then the door opened and Lila, the white-haired maid and her faithful shadow, entered. Lila was not an ordinary maid, but an assassin she had collected in the Western Kingdom.
“Lila, did the Viscount Berti see you off ?”
“Yes. I gave her money and warned her, so she won’t spread rumors.”
“More than that. On the way home, I heard from the housekeeper, and they said that Young Master Leon had left. He quietly went away early in the morning, and the butler seems to have noticed it now.”
“……He left.” Lizena’s hand stroking Edmund’s hair stopped.
‘I don’t want my sister to cross the river of no return. I hope my sister is safe.’ Leon’s last words rang in her ears like a tinnitus.
“And she left this letter for you,” the maid said. Lizena turned around and received the letter.
When she opened the folded letter paper, a short sentence was written.
[I will never come back. It’s too late, but I’m sorry for making it all do by yourself, sister.]
Lizena’s hand, holding the letter, took strength. But when the paper was wrinkled and the letters were about to crumble, the strength in Lizena’s hands loosened.
Leon Sios. Her younger brother was a good-natured guy who didn’t fit the family of Sios.
“It’s a good thing.” Now that you’re gone, you can live without putting your feet in the dirty old water.
Lizena approached the small candle on the desk. With a smile that she did not know whether it was disappointment or longing, she burned the letter left by her brother.
As she glanced at the last letter that had become a handful of ashes, the door swung open.
“An official message came from the Imperial Family.” It was the Marquis of Sios.
“What kind of letter?.” Lizena turned to the Marquis and said.
“I heard that Edmund is enlisted as a prince!” The Marquis seemed to be very angry.
“What you wished for has come true, so why are you so angry?” Unlike the Marquis, Lizena was as calm as expected.
After that, the marquis’ face became even redder. “There’s not a word or two about you! Other nobles also joined in and put pressure on it, but the official statement is that it’s Edmund’s name!”
The marquis raised his voice as if he were furious.
Lizena blinked at Lila to take Edmund away. After Edmund, surprised by the marquis’s senility, grabbed Lila’s hand and left, Lizena calmly sat down in the chair.
“I told you it would be like that.” She’s assuming Raymond won’t book her as Empress.
Raymond seemed compelled to accept it, but he always drew a line with her. Perhaps he will never forget Ellie. It was as if he had not yet realized his own feelings.
“It’s not the time to be so easy-going. You have to be the empress so that our great work will go smoothly.”
“Don’t worry, even if I don’t become the Empress, it won’t be in the way. As Edmund entered the throne, it’s almost as if half of the cause has been accomplished.”
“Ha, half? What if the emperor hires an empress from a family other than you and gives birth to a prince!” Marquis Sios shouted loudly.
Lizena was annoyed by the loud noise and narrowed her brows. As if nothing could be heard now, she waited for the marquis’s anger to subside.
The Marquis murmured lowly as he moved back and forth from his impatience.
“Yes, it was suspicious that Croft Young-ae stepped down so easily from the start. If I were to approach the emperor again, I would say, ….”
“It is true that Croft Young Ae has given up the position of Empress, because she left everything behind.”
“what?” The marquis, who had been frantic, stopped walking.
“It sounds like Croft Young-ae has left the Empire. Where she’s going is a secret. There’s no telling when she’ll be back…”
“Are you saying she may not come back?” The rust of the marquis was swept away.
He said, grabbing Rizena’s shoulder. “Rizena, you must somehow win your Majesty’s heart. You must become the Empress.” His eyes were twinkling.
His eyes were greedy, completely different from anyone who had hoped for her happiness. It’s not like she’s not seen it once or twice, but she’s starting to feel nauseated today. It’s disgusting.
Lizena got up from her seat, shaking the Marquis’ hand coldly. “I’ll take care of my work with His Majesty, so please focus on building Edmund’s supporters for the cause you want so much.”
Marquis Sios face twisted wildly as he thought he had been ignored, but Lizena didn’t mind and left the room.
As the soft music sounded, the foggy vision became clearer and clearer. As if returning to the past, the party hall within the Crown Prince’s Palace, which is now an abandoned palace, is shining brightly. And Raymond’s standing in it.
Raymond instinctively felt that this moment was a dream. terrible nightmare.
Many people gathered under the colorful hall were celebrating the crown prince’s birthday.
“Your Majesty, congratulations on your 27th birthday.”
“Since His Majesty the Crown Prince is so outstanding, the future of the empire is bright.”
“If the Crown Prince becomes emperor, our Egrita Empire will become the most powerful country in the continent in name and reality.”
Oh no, not like that. Haha.. The faces of those who smirked were stained with greed.
The Crown Prince, who had a satisfied smile upon seeing the guards, moved on. And his steps stopped in front of a woman in an old dress.
“I sent you an invitation out of boredom, but I didn’t expect you to come. That’s ridiculous. They don’t understand the subject. Don’t you think so?”
The prince’s voice, full of laughter, rang the party.
The nobles saw a woman in an old dress, and dressed like a prince.
“Not even a concubine, but not a courtesan that’s been ingratiate with my father. What kind of confidence did you come here with? If you have a mouth, say it.”
The prince tapped the woman’s shoulder. Once, twice, and the third time. Unbearable, Raymond grabbed the Crown Prince’s wrist.