/
The Eldest Daughter Walks Down The Flower Path - Chapter 63 - Belle Reservoir
5-6 minutes
※ This novel’s chapters have been split into halves, but they’re numbered normally to make things simple. Moving forward, the TL will be posting as often as she can to compensate for the length. You can read more about this on the TL's note at the end of chapter 1~
Chapter 63
Translator: Yonnee
—
Sitting comfortably and leaning against the high-back chair, which was the seat reserved for the imperial family, Empress Adrianne opened her lips to speak.
“What a crude play, and it’s based on a romance novel or whichever. It’ll be popular for a moment and then it’ll disappear. Don’t you think so, Olivier?”
Olivier nodded. He was sitting gracefully on a small chair, his legs crossed.
“Your Majesty is right.”
At his answer, the empress smiled thinly.
‘Cute thing.’
As far as she knew, this was Olivier’s second time watching a play.
And besides that, she knew that he read the original romance novel a lot.
It was a very cute hobby for a man who had already reached the age of adulthood.
‘He must be doing that because he doesn’t want to be hated by me. How adorable, this doll. Really.’
All kinds of rumors were rampant between the former Empress Ziartine’s son, Third Prince Olivier, and the current Empress Adrianne.
However, Adrianne wasn’t interested in such rumors.
For her, only the truth mattered.
And the truth was, Olivier was following her like a loyal dog.
‘Unfortunate child.’
Olivier lost his mother as soon as he was born.
So, unfortunate Olivier was terribly despised by his father, the emperor.
‘I can’t believe you don’t have a mother or a father. It’s a life that I don’t even want to imagine.’
In that unimaginable life, Olivier was terribly hurt and completely ruined.
Before facing Olivier for the first time, Adrianne thought that Olivier might become a political rival against her son, Charles, who was the first prince of this empire.
But that wasn’t the case.
As he grew up without a mother or a father, without any affection from the cold employees in the frosty imperial palace, Olivier had become merely an empty shell without any emotions.
It was all too simple to spare some scraps of affection to this empty shell of a doll and make her his.
“But since we’ve come this far, let’s just enjoy this. There must be a reason why all the ladies say that it’s very fun.”
After hearing her words, Olivier turned his head and looked at the stage.
Adrianne smiled as she observed him.
Olivier was loyal to Charles just as he was loyal to her.
If Olivier, who was the former empress’ son, were to support Charles just as he did now, then Charles’ position would be further strengthened.
‘We have ‘that’ too, and it should be enough, but… the more cards, the better.’
The curtains of the stage opened, and soon, actors appeared.
Adrianne looked at the stage, an empress-like, benevolent, dazzling smile on her lips.
However, that smile did not last long.
* * *
With emotionless eyes, Olivier watched Adrianne.
Adrianne was not a fool.
By the middle of the play, Adrianne could no longer hold that smile up.
She probably noticed what this play meant.
And this was part of his plan.
‘This is just the beginning.’
No one would ever notice.
Because everything was moving under seemingly calm waters.
His mask, which was the cause of the movement of all of those things, was perfect—just as his plan was fool-proof.
He looked towards the stage without enthusiasm, but his gaze suddenly stopped at one place.
That flame-like red hair caught his attention at once.
“……!”
It’s her.
Her clothes were completely different, but he could recognize her at only one glance.
The woman he met at his nineteenth birthday banquet at Marquis Russell’s estate.
Leaning against the railing of the box seats, she was seated at a balcony obliquely below the seats reserved for the imperial family.
‘How?’
But the question was soon answered.
The man behind her, who had his legs crossed while he was deeply buried in his chair without any intention of hiding his boredom—it was definitely Marquis Russell.
‘So that is Your Highness’ preference?’
Yves Russell’s strangely saccharine voice back then echoed in Olivier’s ears.
‘Did that man see through me? I must have been too careless because I was outside the capital.’
Displeased by the fact that he was caught by Marquis Russell, Olivier turned away from him.
Then, he froze.
He had no choice but to do so.
Because… she’s smiling.
The moment he saw her smile, he could feel something like a breeze or a wave that washed away everything within Olivier.
The voices of the actors, the audience filling the theater, and the empress behind him. They all disappeared.
And while everyone else vanished, only she remained.
With hair so red that it seemed as though one’s hand would share the same color once it’s touched, a pale complexion that rivaled the moonlight, cheeks that resembled roses as they blushed.
And an unhesitatingly bright smile.