Chapter 17: 17

Late at night.

Philomel sat blankly in front of her desk. His face, which kept giving presents, flickered before her eyes.

Did he not have the confidence to sincerely celebrate his wife’s anniversary?

“It’s not my business. Never mind.”

Philomel nervously crumpled the letter she was writing. She tore it up and threw it in the trash.

What she was writing was her last letter to the Emperor. By the time Eustis sees this tomorrow, Philomel will be gone from here.

The pen, which opened the beginning with the conventional word ‘Dear,’ got lost on the letter paper.

Soon after that, I pressed the word ‘Dear Father’ with stroke after stroke.

“Because it’s the last time anyway…”

Philomel murmured as if to make an excuse.

The next morning, an envoy from Elita arrived at the villa.

The Emperor only showed his face when the envoys greeted him for the first time, and then disappeared. Compared to the past, when he didn’t even come out of his room for a week after his wife’s death, it was a huge improvement.

Philomel, on behalf of the imperial family, attended the ceremony to welcome them and treat them to a meal.

However, there was no order to enter the political meeting. On her birthday, it seemed to be Pollan’s consideration.

After the political meeting, Philomel’s birthday party is held.

The remaining time until the banquet is approximately four hours. Enough to finish the planned task. 

The young ladies approached and invited them to spend time together, but Philomel adamantly refused.

“Countess Deles. Shall we go out in a carriage?”

“I’m fine, but would it be okay if you didn’t rest? There’s a banquet in the evening.”

“We can come back soon. It’s not easy to stay indoors in such nice weather.”

“The sun is beautiful today.”

She climbed into the carriage with only Countess Deles, the escort, and the coachman. It was something that could not even be dreamed of in the imperial palace, but it was different in the detached palace, where everything was loose.

Even the maids who offered to pack food for me because I wasn’t going to be out for a long time refused.

Where we were going, we told the coachman the name of the village. It was the village I stopped by on my last visit.

“The princess really likes watching the lives of the people. After that, you’ll want to become a saint.”

Said Countess Deles, who was sitting on the other side of the carriage.

She immediately believed Philomel’s excuse to go to town.

Of course, she also freaked out when Philomel first said she would look around the streets in ordinary clothes.

“Don’t tell me you’re going to go out on the street again this time…”

“Don’t worry, not today.”

Philomel reassured the Countess and looked out the carriage window.

A spring breeze mingled with the scent of flowers, and blew in through the slightly open window. The carriage rattled all the way through the winding road.

After some time passed, the view of the small town began to appear.

A story of a certain woman came to mind over the quiet scene.

A foolish woman who, blinded by jealousy, swapped her child for the princess.

It was the mother of Ellencia and Philomel, who lived in that village.

* * *

The birth mother’s name, which I learned through <Princess Ellencia>, was Catherine Hounds.

She was originally a close friend of Empress Isabella.

Catherine and Isabella had the same hometown. Isabella was the daughter of a lord, and Catherine was the daughter of a wealthy merchant family.

When Catherine was young, she met Isabella while following her father who delivered goods to the Lord’s castle, and the two became friends.

Despite the difference in status, the two shared a friendly friendship. I could get a glimpse of Isabella’s free-spirited personality in the fact that she lived casually with commoners.

However, with the advent of the young Emperor, the gap between the two began to widen.

At that time, Eustis, who had just ascended the throne, was engaged in an active war of conquest.

A ruthless, bloody tyrant with no mercy to be found. That was the general opinion of Eustis.

Then, Eustis met Isabella at a country estate he visited for military stationing.

The two quickly fell in love with fate.

Eustis fell for a sweet woman, and Isabella also fell in love with a man who seemed lonely. Thus, the Emperor defeated all opposition and received the daughter of a foreign family as the empress of the empire.

Catherine entered the imperial palace as Isabella’s handmaid.

It was all thanks to her friends that Catherine, who was only the daughter of a rural merchant despite being rich, was able to become a lady-in-waiting to an empress who was hardly noble.

As a commoner, she became the empress’ maid, so it would be nice if she could be satisfied with that, but Catherine harbored excessive greed. She came to want the Emperor’s love.

She also had the Emperor in her heart from the first meeting.

“Just being a mistress is fine. I want to be your woman.”

What returned to Catherine, who dared to convey her heart, was the anger and contempt of the man she loved.

From the standpoint of Eustis, it would have been hard to tolerate because a friend of his wife betrayed his wife.

Philomel couldn’t understand what her real mother believed and did such a big thing as confessing.

Looking at Eustis, who becomes a meek sheep in front of his wife, I can only guess that she may have overlooked his tyrannical side.

The Emperor thought of his wife and spared Catherine’s life. He was concerned about the shock his wife would receive when she found out about her friend’s betrayal.

Also, even if Isabella knew all of that, she wasn’t the kind of person who wanted Catherine dead.

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“Do not appear before us again. If not, I will kill you.”

In the end, Catherine ran away from her hometown crying.

Shortly thereafter, Isabella became pregnant and suffered from homesickness as the delivery date approached.

Due to his wife’s earnest desire to have a child in her hometown, Eustis reluctantly allowed her to return home.

Sending the most competent doctors, magicians, and midwives of the empire, the emperor made a promise that he would come as soon as the due date approached. 

The first thing Isabella heard after returning to the palace-like lord’s castle was that a friend she thought had gone far away was back in her hometown.

Catherine was also pregnant.

This is the part I am most curious about, but nowhere in the book is it written in detail about how Philomel’s mother and father met.

It was only written that she had a child because she came into contact with a certain magician.

‘I guess it’s okay since they’re not the main character’s parents.’

Anyway, back to the main point.

Isabella, who had no idea what had happened between her husband and her friend, went to Catherine with joy.

Isabella sincerely welcomed her friend, but a monster called jealousy roamed in Catherine’s heart.

Two people were pregnant at the same time but in opposite circumstances.

Isabella, who gives birth to a child under everyone’s extreme care, and Catherine, who had to give birth alone.

Moreover, Catherine had not yet forgotten Eustis.

It was a really heartbreaking story for Philomel. Because Philomel’s real father was the owner of the Magic Tower.

‘If I had been involved with such a great man, I would have thought about living a new life. Why can’t you forget someone else’s husband!’

Philomel let out a long sigh as she glared at the innocent landscape.

‘Well, maybe there was a reason…?”

The biological father left behind the pregnant woman, and the biological mother could not abandon her attachment to another man. In other words, the two of them were likely just one-night stands from the beginning.

Philomel comforted herself with the feeling of being depressed.

It didn’t matter if the real parents loved each other or not.

The important thing was that Catherine had switched Ellencia and Philomel, putting herself in a precarious position.

It was Catherine who gave birth first.

The day after giving birth, Isabella went directly to Catherine’s house to see her friend, despite everyone’s disapproval.

But then something happened.

The empress felt sudden labor pains with several days left until her due date and almost passed out.

Rather than forcefully moving the empress to the Lord’s castle, the attendants decided to give birth there.

Catherine had to get out of bed.

After several hours of labor, the child was safely born, but Isabella, who lost too much blood during childbirth, became critically ill.

Even so, many doctors and wizards couldn’t save Isabella in the end. The moment the empress died.

That moment when all the people present except for one closed their eyes to pray for the empress’ rest.

By chance or fate, Catherine was near the cradle where the two children lay.

It was in an instant that she switched places between the two.

Fortunately for Catherine, there was not much difference in appearance between the two newborn children. Back then, Philomel’s hair color was closer to blonde.

Furthermore, because Catherine did not take proper care of herself during pregnancy, Philomel, a premature baby, was about the same weight as Ellencia.

Neither of them had yet opened their eyes, so the color of their eyes was even less known.

Later, when all the people who followed the empress died, even those who knew the details of the birth disappeared.

That’s what Eustis did when he saw his wife’s obituary in the capital.

Amid the surrounding chaos, Catherine quietly left her hometown and moved to a secluded village. To live while raising Ellencia as her own daughter.

“Your Highness, Princess. We have arrived where you said.”

I suddenly came to my senses at the coachman’s voice outside.

When the sound of the horses’ hooves stopped and the escort Martin opened the door, Philomel got out of the carriage.

“If there is a house with a green roof on the hillside in this village, that is the only one.”

When Martin pointed his finger, she saw a small house.

A two-story house with a green roof. Even the appearance of the hole in the roof being roughly patched up with a bore matched the description in the novel.

“From here on, the carriage can’t go up, so I guess I’ll have to go up myself. Shall I send someone to call the people who live in that house?”

Martin opened his mouth cautiously.

“I’ll go myself.”

Philomel shook her head.

And when they’re almost up the hill.

“That’s…”

A small but clear voice was heard.

Philomel turned very slowly in the direction of the voice.

“Do you have any business at my house?”

The first thing that caught my eye was blonde hair, as pretty as sunlight. Next, the familiar blue eyes. Even the two reddish cheeks are reminiscent of peaches.

Except for the color of her eyes, her face resembled that of Empress Isabella in portraits.

It was Ellencia.

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