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Chapter 18
“Did you sleep well?”
“You know what a young lady’s marriage means? It means a sculpted handsome man like the Crown Prince greeting you good morning. It means shortcake on the breakfast table every morning instead of hard baguettes.”
As soon as Aleksei greeted her, Lara’s words suddenly came back to Angelina.
Lara, you were wrong.
He’s just a hard baguette.
Angelina thought so as she looked at the man whose face was so dry it seemed ready to crack.
“Yeah. Where are you going?”
“To the deck.”
Leaving only that short reply behind, Aleksei turned away.
A husband who gave dry good-morning greetings was hardly going to show the kindness of explaining himself.
Rather than question him, Angelina simply followed along.
The two men went up to the deck and stopped in front of the captain.
“Allow us to formally thank you again for rescuing us.”
“Ah, it’s you two from yesterday. Did you sleep comfortably?”
“Yes, thanks to you.”
“By the way…”
The captain fully turned his shoulders toward them.
“How did you end up aboard that ship?”
The captain’s tone was unusually serious. Startled when their eyes met, Angelina hesitated.
“We…”
“You could say we’re novice sailors,” Franz interrupted smoothly before she could continue. “A distant uncle of ours was a captain, and when he passed away, he left us a ship. Out of curiosity, we invited some acquaintances and headed out to sea, only to get caught in a storm and swept far offshore.”
“That was reckless of you.”
“We regret it deeply.”
Franz scratched his head sheepishly.
“Still, since we’ve already come this far, we’d like to travel a bit more. Where is this ship headed?”
“Tordi.”
“Where did you say?”
“The final destination is the Tordi Continent. Where are you from?”
“…The Kingdom of Rio.”
Aleksei snapped back to his senses and answered the captain.
If they looked too shocked, the captain might grow suspicious. There was no way he wouldn’t know the unspoken rule that there was neither trade nor exchange between Tordi and Latria, and that people from the two nations never set foot on each other’s land.
This time, the captain looked genuinely surprised.
“From Rio?”
“We were heading for Berhen, but after the storm, we completely lost our bearings.”
“You drifted very far indeed. A common mistake among novice sailors.”
“How much longer until we reach the Tordi Continent?”
At Aleksei’s question, the captain laughed and pointed toward one side of the sea.
Land.
The very thing they had longed so desperately to see.
“Less than an hour.”
“…Thanks to you, it seems this will turn into a fine journey.”
“When does this ship depart again?”
“In five days.”
“And where to?”
“We’ll pass through Halland and the Kingdom of Rio before heading to Berhen.”
Then all they had to do was hide for five days and board this ship again.
“Since this is your first time here, let me tell you something. You’ll need to obtain a travel permit from the Foreigners’ Administration Bureau before you can board. The Tordi Empire manages such matters particularly strictly. I’m sure you can guess why.”
A method for identifying Latrians.
The Latrians discovered this way were slaughtered mercilessly, which was why the Tordi Continent had become a hellish land that Latrians would rather avoid even in death.
Aleksei gave an awkward smile and nodded.
“I’ll remember that.”
The captain’s eyes widened slightly at the silver coin he received, but soon he broke into a broad grin.
“Well then, enjoy the little bit of sea voyage you have left.”
After the captain left, Aleksei remained standing there, staring at the approaching Tordi Continent.
The land that had made his father ill.
The land that had led to Marquis Agert’s death.
And the land where their blood would be spilled if their identities were discovered.
Of all the worst possibilities, this was the one he had never imagined.
Aleksei let out a deep sigh and turned toward Angelina, his only ally. As if she had heard his thoughts, she stepped closer.
“So the place we’re going… is the Tordi Empire?”
“Yeah.”
“Then what’s going to happen to us?”
Angelina had also heard the rumors about Emperor Raol Garcia. The stories were horrific and cruel. Just seeing how desperately the soldiers had protected Marquis Agert’s corpse proved those rumors were true.
“No one can find out who we are.”
“Will we be able to go back?”
“We will. No matter what it takes.”
Behind Aleksei, the land drew closer and closer. High above it, the flag of the Tordi Empire fluttered in the wind.
Even while praying only to survive this crisis, he had never imagined things would develop into something this terrifying.
“This is going to be a very long honeymoon.”
At Angelina’s murmur, Aleksei gripped the railing tightly.
* * *
“How is His Majesty?”
Empress Valérie stopped the royal physician as he exited after completing his examination.
Her husband, who had suffered from a high fever all night, looked drastically worse than he had that morning.
For the past six months, he had faced several critical moments, and each time the Empress had dealt with them calmly.
But this time, she had a terrible feeling.
Even as she tried to dismiss it as mere anxiety, her mind kept imagining the worst possible outcome.
Was it because Aleksei wasn’t here?
Empress Valérie swallowed a deep sigh. She could not show weakness in front of the physician. Straightening her back, she reminded herself of the composure expected of an empress.
“The fever persists, so it’s still too early to relax. By tonight, the high fever may return again.”
“It feels like the intervals between attacks are growing shorter than when it first began. That troubles me.”
“That is likely proof that his body is weakening further.”
“Is there truly no medicine left to try?”
The physician shook his head.
It was a conversation they had repeated countless times.
“If only we knew the cause… As His Majesty’s physician, I am ashamed.”
“I know how hard you have worked to uncover the nature of his illness.”
“My apologies.”
The physician bowed deeply and withdrew.
Empress Valérie returned to the bedroom and sat beside the Emperor’s bed.
While the physician searched through medical texts from all over the world, the Empress had also gone to great lengths to summon famous doctors from foreign nations.
Yet none of them could determine the illness or its cause.
“It is not a sickness of the body, but of the heart.”
The Empress murmured as she looked down at his pale face.
The once-healthy Emperor Raymond Werner had begun to collapse one year ago, after his closest friend, Marquis Antony Agert, died on the battlefield.
The long war had shaken the foundations of the nation and damaged the standing of both great powers. As neighboring countries’ attitudes noticeably shifted, even Emperor Raol Garcia of Tordi agreed to a ceasefire.
But the war could begin again at any moment.
Emperor Raol was the very man who had unilaterally broken the peace treaty established by his own father. His cruel and unpredictable temperament was infamous even beyond national borders.
The loss of his friend, the exhaustion accumulated over years, and the burden of the future eventually brought Emperor Raymond down.
The Empress guessed that he had first taken to bed simply because he wanted to rest, and that only his sense of duty—that it was not yet time for him to stop—had allowed him to recover again and again.
“You have endured well all this time. Please hold on just a little longer.”
At least until Aleksei returned from his journey.
Watching her son board the ship with the eyes of a true ruler at last, and the Crown Princess who would stand beside and support him, the Empress had finally felt reassured.
You will soon be able to rest peacefully.
Smiling warmly as she held her husband’s hand, the Empress turned her head at the sound of sudden commotion.
The doors burst open, and a servant rushed in with a deathly pale face.
The ominous feeling she had tried to suppress rose again.
“What is the meaning of this disturbance?”
“Y-Your Majesty…”
The servant was so out of breath from running that he could barely continue.
Empress Valérie rose from her seat. Once the servant reached her and steadied his breathing, he spoke.
“They say the Crown Prince has been kidnapped.”
“What? Kidnapped?”
“Pirates attacked during the wedding ceremony, and he was taken along with the passenger ship. One soldier who was thrown into the sea survived and has returned. He is now in the council chamber with the ministers.”
How could something like this happen?
The Empress glanced toward the bed, took one step forward, then faltered.
When the servant hurried to support her, she raised a hand to stop him.
Steadying herself calmly, she clasped her hands together and headed for the council chamber.
Though she maintained her usual composure, anxiety flickered in her firm eyes.
Several days passed after the search parties were sent out to sea.
There was neither good news nor bad news.
Nothing happened, yet every day was agonizing.
A husband suffering from high fevers every dawn.
A son and daughter-in-law whose survival remained unknown.
The Empress remained in the office, preserving not only the administration of the empire but also her own sanity.
If the Tordi Empire launched another war at a time like this, it would truly be the worst possible disaster.
The ministers held meetings every day. It was no exaggeration to say the fate of the nation hung in the balance.
“It has already been several days, yet they haven’t even found the pirate ship. I wonder whether the Crown Prince and his wife are even alive.”
“So you mean to suggest that the Crown Prince couple may already be dead at the hands of pirates?”
Count Liman coughed awkwardly, having been struck directly at the heart of the matter.
