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Chapter 17
After returning from the lake castle, Aella had slept for several days straight. She didn’t eat, didn’t leave her room, and spent most of her days only in bed.
Because of Aella, Xenia was anxious. Worried that something terrible would happen if she kept on like this, Xenia had forced her to eat soup several times, but Aella had vomited even that.
It seemed the successive betrayals by those she had trusted had left wounds on Aella that she couldn’t bear. Xenia’s heart was heavy, as Aella seemed to be escaping into sleep, too exhausted and pained to cope.
Xenia left the bedroom after seeing Aella asleep and came face to face with Media. The moment Xenia saw her, her face hardened.
After several days, Media had appeared with a truly brazen face.
How could she show up so confidently after pushing her closest friend to the edge of hell? After doing something so horrifying as throwing her friend to another man just to become the Crown Prince’s mistress.
“Aella is inside, isn’t she?”
Media asked, looking at Xenia.
Xenia let out a hollow laugh in disbelief. How dare she come here?
“Why do you seek Her Highness the Crown Princess?”
“Do I need a reason to see Aella?”
Media lifted her chin defiantly.
The fact that Seamus visited Aella every night churned Media’s stomach. She couldn’t understand how Aella could spend every night with Seamus, knowing full well that Media herself was Seamus’s mistress.
It seemed Aella had deliberately set out to take revenge on her. Media had come to find Aella to confront her about it.
“Lady Baldock is no longer a maid to Her Highness the Crown Princess. Therefore, you cannot meet Her Highness so freely. If you wish to see His Highness the Crown Prince, request an audience. I will inform Her Highness the Crown Princess.”
“Lady Diodis, what did you just say?”
At those words, Media looked at Xenia as if she couldn’t believe it.
Xenia quietly stared back at Media with cold eyes. Media’s facial muscles twitched at Xenia’s blatant hostility. All this from someone abandoned by the Crown Prince.
“Lady Diodis, do you dare speak so carelessly because you don’t know who I am? I am Aella’s closest friend. Like a sister to her!”
“A sister-like friend does not fool around with her friend’s husband.”
“Excuse me? You know very well, Lady Diodis, that Aella does not love His Highness the Crown Prince. Aella doesn’t love His Highness, but I do. Being honest about my feelings—”
“Nor does she put her friend in danger.”
Xenia cut Media off.
It was infuriating enough that she had deceived Aella and carried on with the Crown Prince, but what she had done—letting another man into Aella’s bedroom—was absolutely unforgivable.
“After doing something even an animal wouldn’t do, you should at least show some remorse. But I cannot allow someone like you, who shows no sign of repentance and struts around with your head held high, to remain by Her Highness the Crown Princess’s side.”
“What? You!”
Suddenly enraged, Media raised her hand. Just as she was about to strike Xenia’s cheek with her raised hand, Xenia grabbed Media’s wrist.
“Lady Baldock, a commoner cannot strike a noble’s cheek so carelessly.”
Xenia said in a stern voice and released Media’s hand.
“Wha-What did you say?”
Media trembled with fury at Xenia’s words.
She was indeed the daughter of the Duke of Petra, but not officially recognized. Both her mother and father were nobles of high birth, yet no one treated her like a noble.
That fact struck her anew and infuriated her. She resented the Duke of Petra for abandoning her. If only she had been acknowledged as his daughter, Xenia Diodis wouldn’t be acting so arrogantly.
“If you understand, stop causing a fuss and get out. Before I call the guard.”
Xenia pointed to the end of the corridor and spoke coldly.
“I will never forget this insult, Lady Diodis.”
“I didn’t know you were capable of feeling shame. How surprising.”
“Hey!”
Media’s eyes widened as she shouted.
Unlike Media, Xenia struck back with a calm voice.
“Yes, by all means, do not forget. How Lady Baldock betrayed Her Highness the Crown Princess, her dear friend. Never, ever forget.”
“You remember, Lady Diodis. The day will come when you regret this moment.”
Trembling, Media spun around and disappeared.
After Media left, Xenia let out a low sigh and looked toward Aella’s closed bedroom door.
Xenia was worried that Aella might have let go of herself. Xenia desperately hoped that Aella would overcome this current pain.
—
***
“Kyaaah!”
A sticky purple liquid splashed onto Ther’s face. Wiping his face with an expressionless look, Ther looked down at the monster he had just struck down.
The countless tentacles on its black body writhed and then completely stopped moving. Ther stomped on a tentacle that had rolled to his feet and sighed.
“Ha.”
He hadn’t even arrived at the southern territory of Duke Pisanu yet. Monsters sprang out along every road leading to the territory.
He had expected to spend five or six months in the south, but the situation was more serious than he had thought. It might take over a year.
He didn’t want to keep Aella waiting for too long.
“Your Grace the Grand Duke, are you injured anywhere?”
Kallas approached Ther. Kallas’s face and armor were also stained with the monsters’ purple blood.
“How much farther to Duke Pisanu’s territory?”
“Once we cross Mount Melbo, it won’t be long.”
Kallas pointed to the mountain visible in the distance and answered.
“Any wounded?”
Ther asked, looking around at the mage knights he had brought from the capital.
No one seemed particularly injured, but they were all exhausted, sitting on the ground catching their breath.
“None. Shall we camp here for today?”
“Here?”
Ther looked at the setting sun with a bitter expression.
He wanted to push on toward Duke Pisanu’s territory without rest, but he had people he needed to lead.
The knights were exhausted, and if they encountered monsters crossing the mountain at night, he couldn’t guarantee their safety.
“Prepare it.”
Ther instructed Kallas.
After camp was set up, Ther mixed with the knights and shared the food they had brought. After finishing the meal, Ther moved a little away from the knights and wrote a letter to Aella.
—
*‘Ell, how are you?*
*I am on my way to Duke Pisanu’s territory now.*
*In a few days, I will arrive at Duke Pisanu’s castle.*
*Then I should be able to send this letter to you.*
*I am anxious. I have a pile of letters waiting to be sent to you.*
*I am waiting for the day I can sit at my desk and write to you.*
*I will explain in more detail then.*
*I’m sorry, Ell. For leaving you alone.*
*Please wait a little longer. I will come for you. I will definitely come for you.’*
—
It was difficult to write a long letter in these conditions. Folding the letter with a regretful expression, Ther thought of Aella.
“……Aella.”
The name he called out alone was so tender that a gentle smile settled on Ther’s lips.
—
***
The season that had been cruel to Aella passed. It was a beautiful spring for some, but for Aella, it had been a terrible season.
Neither alive nor dead, Aella let spring slip by. Spring passed, and the world became colored with the vitality of summer, but Aella had retreated into her own cave, just like right after the fire.
Her will to divorce Seamus had also been broken. Everything felt meaningless to Aella.
Finding everything bothersome and tiresome, Aella left all her duties as Crown Princess to Xenia and stayed shut in her bedroom, not coming out. The curtains were always drawn, so darkness pooled in the bedroom.
Aella’s world was full of darkness.
Seamus visited Aella, who had locked herself in the darkness, about once every three days. Sometimes he yelled at Aella, who was devoid of any vitality, sometimes he mocked her that Ther Motita had abandoned her, and sometimes he lay silently beside her and sought sleep.
Aella didn’t care what Seamus did beside her. Because none of it mattered.
Then one day, while eating breakfast, her stomach churned. Feeling a strong wave of nausea, Aella covered her mouth with her hand.
“Ugh.”
“Your Highness the Crown Princess, are you all right?”
“I can’t eat.”
Aella dry-heaved, drank some water, and rose from her seat.
Xenia spoke with a worried expression.
“I will call the royal physician. You felt unwell yesterday as well. You need to be examined.”
“……Yes.”
Aella nodded with a dazed face and headed to her bed.
Before long, the royal physician Xenia had summoned examined Aella, who was lying in bed. After finishing the examination, the royal physician smiled brightly and opened his mouth.
“Congratulations, Your Highness the Crown Princess. A child has come to you.”
