Chapter 120 - Secret Desires

 

Winding back to 15 minutes before Irene and her party’s arrival.

 

‘Lady Irene’s supposed to be coming today.’ Cecile took a deep breath and struggled to quell the excitement in her heart. Was this how it felt like before going on one’s first date? Restless with thoughts of her partner, Cecile felt her heart racing.

 

‘Although, I couldn’t tell His Majesty…’ Even though she had spent the last few days together with Estian, she had forgotten to inform him about her decision to call Irene. When she had tasked Kane with providing Irene access to the palace, he had accepted the request, albeit with a slightly troubled expression.

 

‘Everything proceeded smoothly up to that point, but…’ Cecile’s gaze wandered over to a handsome silver-haired young boy that was admiring himself in a hand mirror that he had scrounged from who knows where. She drummed her fingers irritably.

 

“Why are you looking at me like that?” The boy asked when he noticed the empress’s faze. “You’ll wear my face out. Pay up if you’re going to stare.”

Cecile’s expression soured—she would’ve socked him if he wasn’t an archmage assigned to her by the emperor. “Really, why do you even have to follow me here?” She grumbled.

 

“Why are you asking the obvious? I made a promise to Estian. My head will go flying if even a single hair on you is harmed. Yet you want me to leave your side? What nonsense is that? Do you just want Estian to kill me? Is that it?”

 

Richard had a point and Cecile was unable to refute him. Deciding it was pointless to argue with the archmage, Cecile turned her thoughts towards Irene. She was excited about her new handmaiden’s arrival. There was a lot she wanted to learn from Irene. Recently she had put aside her hobby of reading romance novels, and instead spent her time reading and studying up on imperial palace etiquette. Still, knowledge gleaned from written sources had its limits; perfection was impossible to attain through reading alone. Cecile lacked practical experience.

‘The problem is that I became empress with insufficient preparation.’ It wasn’t until after her ascendance as empress that Cecile came to learn that past generations of empresses had studied for periods ranging from several months to even several years before they took up the mantle. ‘Yet my preparations lasted only one month.’

 

Although this shortened time frame was partially the result of Estian’s whimsical decisions, it was also because no one expected Cecile to last long in her position in the first place. That was why she had only received the bare-bones crash course in the rules regarding marriage and the wedding night. ‘I forgot about wishing doom on the Kingdom of Navitan.’ In all the recent happenings at the palace, Cecile had forgotten this important matter.

 

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‘I should ask His Majesty to spare the maids at the royal villa though. I would’ve been totally ignorant if it hadn’t been for those maids. Would have I even properly survived, actually?’

 

Cecile wasn’t sure if it was an after-effect from having read that mysterious book during the Girgantia incident, but she still found herself unable to remember the names of her beloved maids. Fortunately, the rest of her memories were intact, so she assured herself that eventually the gaps in her memories would be filled if she were to meet with them again. She couldn’t help but reminisce nostalgically over her childhood memories spent with those maids. It intensified her yearning for their companionship.

‘When I think about it, I was oddly obsessed with clean water. There really wasn’t a spot in the palace without water.’

 

When she ran through her memories, many were centered around water—cleaning the stream flowing inside the royal villa, repairing the broken fountain, purifying the well, and on and on. On rainy days, they would lay out plates of various sizes to catch the water droplets that dripped through the roof of the royal villa. The pitter-patter sounds of the rain droplets were oddly melodic, and at times she had the urge to hum along. Strangely enough, the rain seemed to pour harder when she did. On any given day, there would always be cups and vases filled with water scattered about her room. It was such a common sight growing up that she had never thought to question it, but she began to realize how unusual it was after coming to the imperial palace.

 

Meanwhile, while Cecile was busy puzzling over her past, a certain somebody appeared at her side and slipped a piece of paper in front of her. “What’s this?” Cecile asked, turning to look at Richard.

“My setting,” he answered with a grin.

 

“Setting?”

 

“That’s right. Shouldn’t we clear up the setting about the handsome young boy that the empress is suddenly keeping by her side?”

 

Cecile thought the archmage was a peculiar man, but she was willing to play along. Turning her attention to the piece of paper, she discovered the page was filled from top to bottom. ‘When did he write all of this? No, more importantly, why is it so detailed?’ Cecile had intended to pass him off as a new attendant, but it was apparent that Richard had a much more intricate backstory in mind.

 

“Brought as a slave who belonged to a defeated nation…” Cecile read aloud. “Hold on, But there’s no slavery in the empire?” Certainly, there were those that were captured from defeated nations, but they were not kept as slaves. Rather, those people usually consisted of dangerous elements that had rebelled against the empire and were being held captive in the imperial prison.

 

Richard pouted when Cecile pointed out an inaccuracy within the very first sentence. “No can do. I must be a slave. It’s the only storyline that brings out the melancholic beauty within me,” Richard answered gravely.

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