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Surprised at how easily he agreed to do as she wanted, Eugene regarded him with some suspicion and examined his expression. Kasser gave her a light smile when he noticed her observing him.
“What? I’m saying I’ll do as you please.”
The carriage slowly came to a halt. After a moment, they heard the sound of someone outside saying “Your Majesties, I shall open the door now.”
Eugene called out to Kasser as he stood up from his seat. When he turned his head to face her, she felt a mixture of grateful and apologetic wash over her.
“Was I too stubborn? I didn’t mean to make you do anything too extreme.”
“You acting stubborn wouldn’t make the impossible somehow become possible.” he reassured her.
Above his face, she suddenly saw a vision. It was a memory belonging to Jin.
‘If there’s something you want, just ask for it. Your acting won’t make the impossible become possible.’
‘You’re no fun. Well, I want to see the treasure room.’
Before she could even begin to interpret what she had just seen, Kasser had stepped off of the carriage and was offering his hand to her. She took it and also stepped down from the carriage.
“Your Majesties, welcome back.” Marianne, who had come to welcome the two of them, bowed deeply. Eugene smiled a bit sadly as she looked at Marianne.
Since yesterday, her feelings when she saw Marianne had changed. It was mainly because of Jin’s memories that would come to her every time that she looked at Marianne.
It began right after she had her lucid dream. Eugene had started seeing Jin’s memories much more frequently. Before, they had mostly consisted of just familiar feelings or frozen scenes from the past, but now she could see moving pictures and even hear the words being said.
The way that the memories came was similar to before. There had to be some sort of reason or trigger for them. People, places, conversations, and many more…
But the thing that had her shaken the most was the memory she had seen yesterday when she saw Marianne was quite unpleasant.
She had been shocked at the very first scene she saw, in which Jin had thrown a cup of tea right into Marianne’s face.
‘How disrespectful. Don’t talk back to me, you swine.’ Jin had spat at her. Every memory after that had only been filled with similar instances. Insult after insult Jin hurled at the woman, who had raised the king, someone decades older than herself.
She always did look down on people born in the lower class, or non royal.
And despite knowing that it wasn’t her that did this, Eugene still felt as if the actions were her own. And she was deeply apologetic for it. But the more she saw Jin’s memories, the more she felt amazed by Marianne and her strength.
She continued to help her, Eugene, knowing the fact Jin had been cruel before.
From the memories as well, Eugene knew now how Jin had once spoken to others before. She knew if she were to have met someone like that before, then she wouldn’t have mistaken them for anyone else but nasty. Jin had always spoken to the king with a sickly sweet voice, a nectar filled with poison, but spoke the opposite way towards others, even Marianne.
As soon as the king went inside the castle, with a few servants scrambling after him for reports, Eugene fell in step with Marianne, both walking at a leisurely pace.
“Have you been able to see the tree, Your Majesty?” Marianne asked her.
“We did see it. But there were too many people there.” she answered, and Marianne nodded in understanding.
“It’s all anyone’s talking about these days, no matter where you go, it’s no surprise there would be a crowd. I’d like to see it too. “ she sighed.
“It’s really just a tree. You would be disappointed if you got your hopes up for something special.”
“I could never be disappointed. Even getting to see it with my own two eyes would be an honor.”
Eugene had heard from Kasser yesterday about the water that had filled the bedroom. He had said that Marianne had witnessed it as well, but Marianne herself didn’t mention anything about it or ask about it at all. Her attitude hadn’t changed one bit.
“A servant stopped by your office earlier. He had brought some documents from His Highness, so I placed them on the desk.” Marianne informed her.
“Really? I wonder what it is.” She mused. Eugene went into her office where she saw the envelope laying atop her desk.
She took the envelope, and opened it. She took out the documents inside to scan them.
They were documents she had seen before – the ones submitted by the candidates for the position of queen’s aide. She remembered that the king had taken these in order to take a look at them. But the stack of documents was much thinner than when she had last seen them.
‘Why are there only three candidates here? Oh… right. I’d asked him to make recommendations. I suppose these are the ones he’s recommending, then?’ she thought as she perused through them.
She looked through the documents of the three remaining candidates. Two in their late twenties, one in her early thirties. All three were female.
‘I guess these three must be the most skilled.’
Eugene, of course, had no clue who any of these people were. She trusted that the king would have recommended people who he believed would do the job well.
She had the thought that maybe Marianne would know one of these people, so she called her in to ask. And just as she expected, instead of simply shaking her head no, Marianne had told her that she would go and find out the general consensus on these people. This made Eugene happy.
“Thank you, Marianne.”
“Im simply fulfilling my duties, Your Majesty.”
“Oh, and also.” Eugene had almost forgotten about the memory she had seen as she was stepping off the carriage. But now she suddenly remembered it again.
“What is the ‘treasure room’? And where is it?”