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Episode 10
Jenaden glanced at the door Sarubia had disappeared through.
Quite some time had passed, but there was still no sign of her coming back.
He quietly spoke to the knight standing beside him.
“Go find out where the Empress went.”
The knight bowed his head once and quickly left the ballroom.
Jenaden let out a small sigh.
Then he spotted Duke and Duchess Bronard standing nearby.
Many nobles were already gathered around them, trying to talk to them as if they wanted even a moment of their attention.
Seeing that, Jenaden’s brow furrowed.
Jenaden quietly cursed under his breath, so no one could hear him.
He turned around and was about to walk in another direction when the knight who had gone outside hurried back into the ballroom and knelt before Jenaden.
“Your Majesty!”
“What happened?”
Jenaden raised one eyebrow.
The knight looked at him urgently.
“……Her Majesty the Empress has collapsed!”
“What are you talking about?”
The Empress collapsed?
Without paying attention to the murmuring people behind him, Jenaden hurried out of the ballroom with the knight.
At the end of the hallway, he saw several Imperial Guards.
As he approached them, he saw Sarubia looking pale and being held in the arms of a female servant.
“Sarubia! What happened?!”
“I heard a scream coming from the hallway, so I went to check. Her Majesty the Empress was lying there, and some man was holding her.”
“A man?”
Jenaden asked, and the Imperial Guard nodded.
He immediately looked to the side and gave an order.
“Bring him here.”
Two Imperial Guards immediately dragged the man over.
The man kept his head lowered.
Jenaden looked him over with a sharp gaze.
Where the hell did this guy come from?
Jenaden was about to scold the guards, but he quickly calmed his anger and gave another order to the guard standing beside him.
“Go get the Imperial physician immediately.”
He turned around and looked coldly at the man kneeling on the floor.
“Raise your head.”
The man’s shoulders flinched at Jenaden’s words.
After hesitating for a moment, he slowly raised his head.
Jenaden was looking at him with an icy expression.
But the moment he saw the man’s face, he was completely speechless.
Why is the face of the first love I’ve searched for all this time standing right in front of me?
Jenaden’s fingertips trembled.
Golden hair that seemed to ripple like waves.
And emerald eyes that were sharp, unlike hers, yet looked the same.
He remembered the garden of the count’s mansion where he had first met his first love.
He could still see her face as she had smiled brightly and said:
“Hello, Your Majesty?”
The man watched Jenaden’s shocked expression and then gave a small smile.
Looking straight into Jenaden’s eyes, he spoke.
“Hello, Your Majesty.”
From far away, the sound of the Imperial physician running toward them could be heard.
Jenaden could do nothing but stare blankly at him.
One day, she suddenly appeared in front of Sarubia.
Elaine had eventually become someone who was always by Jenaden’s side.
Sarubia didn’t know.
Or perhaps she had noticed it all along but had deliberately pretended not to.
The fact that those two exchanged affectionate glances whenever they thought no one was watching.
“What is your name?”
Sarubia had asked her one day.
Elaine smiled sweetly and answered.
“My name is Elaine, Your Majesty.”
“Elaine.”
“Why do you ask?”
“No. It’s just that it sounds a little like a boy’s name.”
Sarubia had carefully said that, and Elaine stared at her for a moment before smiling.
“Does it?”
But there was sadness in her eyes as she smiled.
Sarubia had wanted to ask her why she was looking at her that way.
But she didn’t ask anymore.
Not long after that, Duke Bronard was killed by Jenaden.
The Bronard ducal residence was also destroyed.
Along with the death of her parents, Sarubia learned of Jenaden’s betrayal.
Her body and heart were both completely devastated in an instant.
Before she was deposed as Empress, Elaine had come to Sarubia’s room.
Unlike usual, Elaine had come wearing a gorgeous dress.
When Sarubia saw her like that, she gave a mocking laugh and turned her head away.
“Did you come here to tell me that you’re the one in my place now?”
“Your Majesty.”
“How much must you have laughed at me behind my back while smiling at me to my face……! I must have looked like such an idiot……!”
“I wanted Duke Bronard to understand what it feels like to watch everything you love fall apart.”
At Elaine’s calm words, Sarubia’s eyes turned red.
She bit her lower lip tightly and held back her tears.
“Duke Bronard destroyed my family. He killed my family.”
Sarubia sharply turned her head toward Elaine.
Her eyes were cold.
“You’re just like my father.”
Sarubia’s whole body trembled as she shouted.
“Get out……! Get out of my sight……!”
“Your Majesty the Empress…… No, Sarubia.”
Elaine looked into Sarubia’s tear-filled eyes.
“The only thing you did wrong was being born with the blood of the Bronard family.”
“So?”
“From now on, just live quietly. Then you can be free.”
Sarubia didn’t want to look at her anymore.
She sharply turned her head away and lay down on the bed.
When she closed her eyes, a completely dark world welcomed her.
She heard Elaine leave the room.
Sarubia squeezed her eyes shut even tighter.
Tears overflowed from her eyes and soaked the blanket.
Soon, the sound of her crying filled the room.
Sarubia’s eyes slowly opened.
She blinked, and the blurry world in front of her gradually became clear.
A familiar ceiling came into view.
What happened……?
While she was still dazed, she heard Jenaden’s quiet voice beside her.
“Are you awake?”
“Your Majesty…….”
Sarubia sat up in bed.
Jenaden turned around and gestured for the servants standing in the room to leave.
After all the servants had gone, only Jenaden and Sarubia remained in the room.
Jenaden looked at Sarubia’s still pale face and let out a small sigh.
Sarubia ran her tongue over her dry lips once before speaking.
“Your Majesty…….”
“Are you feeling all right?”
She nodded slightly.
Jenaden wanted to ask Sarubia something.
“That man who made you faint…….”
Ah. So he found out.
Sarubia squeezed her eyes shut.
“He looked so much like Diana…….”
“Elaine…… No, Diana……?”
What is he talking about?
Sarubia’s eyes widened in surprise.
Diana?
It was a name she had never heard before.
Jenaden looked at Sarubia with a confused expression, as if he couldn’t understand why she didn’t know the name.
“Diana Costel. That’s the name of my first love, the woman you said you would introduce me to later.”
“What?”
Elaine Costel.
She was the woman who had taken Sarubia’s position as Empress and stolen Jenaden’s love.
But now he was saying that her real name wasn’t Elaine.
It was Diana.
Sarubia was completely confused.
“Your Majesty…… So you’re saying your first love’s name isn’t Elaine, but Diana?”
“You didn’t know her name either?”
“Ah…… I did know. It’s just that the man I saw looked so much like Diana…….”
“So that’s why you collapsed?”
Sarubia nodded.
Why did Elaine become someone named Diana?
And who is that man who looks exactly like her?
“Your Majesty. Did she have any other family? When I looked into her before, I remember that she didn’t have any.”
“When she was young, she always met me alone. The Count and Countess never really spoke to me either.”
“I see.”
I need to meet that man first.
Sarubia raised her head and looked at Jenaden.
“Where is that man?”
“I had him locked up in prison.”
“What?”
“Whatever the reason, he’s the person who made you collapse.”
Is that really the only reason?
Jenaden probably had plenty of questions for the man who looked exactly like his first love.
So the only thing he could do was keep him there.
“Then what is his name?”
“Duke Elaine Hyden. He is the man who inherited the ducal title of the Hyden family.”
“Elaine?”
His name is the same too?
Sarubia’s voice trembled.
Jenaden continued in a calm voice.
“He was supposed to come to the palace after my birthday celebration to officially receive the title of Duke. Apparently, he attended the birthday masquerade ball before that.”
“I know the Duchess Dowager of the Hyden family handled everything. I didn’t know they had such an elder son.”
Elaine…… and Diana……
That man who looks exactly like her.
The pieces in Sarubia’s mind still didn’t fit together.
For now, she thought the first thing she needed to do was have that man released.
“Your Majesty, please release him.”
“But that man……”
Jenaden looked as if he wanted to go to the man immediately and ask about his relationship with his first love, Diana.
What if those two meet before I can introduce Diana to him?
What if that causes our agreement to fall apart?
She wouldn’t allow that to happen.
Sarubia let out a small sigh.
“Your Majesty, have you forgotten your promise that you would let me meet Diana?”
“……That……”
Jenaden’s eyes trembled.
Sarubia decided to lie to him for his own sake.
“She is somewhere nearby. I know how you feel right now, Your Majesty. But isn’t Duke Bronard more important at the moment?”
Jenaden’s shoulders flinched.
Sarubia looked at him with a firm expression.
“Don’t let your emotions control you. Even if he does have some connection to Diana, it’s dangerous right now. What if Your Majesty goes and asks him about it? The news will definitely reach my father’s ears immediately.”
They still hadn’t gotten a proper chance to strike back against Jenaden’s father.
If Diana appeared now and shook Jenaden’s heart, everyone could end up in danger.
Jenaden looked at Sarubia with uncertain eyes.
Eventually, he let out a deep sigh.
“All right. We’ll release him for now.”
I mustn’t act rashly.
Sarubia made up her mind.
After Jenaden left, Sarubia got out of bed and walked toward the window.
Sunlight was pouring through the window.
Sarubia’s mind was a mess.
She couldn’t even figure out where to begin or what she should do.
She bit her neatly trimmed fingernail.
He said the son inherited the ducal title.
Then does that mean this man named Elaine Hyden is the son of the Hyden ducal family?
But his face looked exactly like Diana’s.
What on earth is going on?
Knock, knock.
Someone knocked on her bedroom door.
Sarubia stopped thinking and turned around.
“What is it?”
“Um, Your Majesty…… Duke Elaine Hyden said he would like to apologize to you.”
“Elaine Hyden?”
Did Jenaden already release that man?
He came here immediately after being released?
“For now, tell him to wait. And have Asta come in.”
Sarubia called Asta into the room.
She couldn’t meet him while still wearing her pajamas, having just woken up.
Asta entered the room and immediately helped Sarubia tie her hair up neatly.
Then she helped her change into a dress.
“Thank you. Now go out and tell him to come in.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Asta bowed and left the room.
Sarubia sat on a chair and stared at the bedroom door.
For some reason, she felt nervous.
The door slowly opened.
The figure of the person standing outside gradually came into view.
A tall, handsome figure.
Golden hair.
And emerald eyes.
“Please, come in.”
Sarubia bit her lips tightly as she looked at him.
