Episode 31: Princess Vesti Caroline
“T, thank you, Your Majesty.”
I was worried that I might have looked stupid when I stuttered. Raymond looked at me gently and soon turned around.
“Wait, Ray, are you confidently telling another woman that she’s pretty, in front of your wife?”
Daria shouted, teasing in an exaggerated voice, but Raymond just left us as we were without a word. As I saw his steps getting faster and faster, I was full of regrets.
“Hmph.”
Daria snorted as she saw Raymond disappear. Perhaps it was a pity that she couldn’t make fun of him more. At this time, the place where her mischievousness headed was none other than me.
“What do you think, Chloe?”
“What?”
“I mean Raymond, isn’t it suspicious? At this time, there is no need to pass by this place.”
Unlike Daria, who lived in the Imperial Palace for a long time, I didn’t know much about Raymond’s daily life. Even in the previous timeline, I just took care of young Estelle in the nest he prepared and didn’t take a step outside.
So I couldn’t readily respond to her.
“I don’t know…….”
“And if you go that way, you’ll find a dead end.”
“What? Then why didn’t you tell His Majesty?”
When I was surprised and asked, huhuhu, Daria laughed with a grim look. Soon after, Raymond walked back with a red face.
“Hello, Ray? Are you just passing by again?”
“…….”
Raymond did not respond to her greetings, but instead stared at her with a scary look. With the pressure that he could kill people with just his eyes, I flinched and shrank.
Then Raymond turned away from us with a rough dry face while Daria’s laughter resonated high in the sky.
* * *
Daria had two more maids besides me.
Marquis Elijah Gemma, who had been friends with her long before she married Raymond, and Vesti, Duke Caroline’s daughter.
The fickle Daria would often change her maid, only those two had been in her maid’s place for nearly a decade.
Since Marquis Gemma is a married woman, she visits the capital three times a week, not staying in the Imperial Palace like me.
However, Princess Vesti Caroline, Daria’s cousin, visits the Imperial Palace more often, she was an unmarried woman like me.
“I’ve never seen this face before.”
Vesti, who appeared just two weeks after I came to the Imperial Palace, came in without greeting Daria. After passing by Daria and burying herself on the sofa opposite the empress, she glanced at me and tilted her head.
“Where did Louis go? Daria, did you change your maid again?”
Daria frowned at her outspoken attitude.
“Louis is not here anymore. This is Chloe. Chloe, this spoiled child here is my beloved cousin and the famous daughter of Duke Caroline.”
I greeted Vesti, slightly pulling the corners of my lips.
“Hello, Princess Caroline, I’m Chloe Garnet”
“Chloe Garnet? Oh, the one who is getting sponsored by Grand Duke Ludwig! Come to think of it, I think I saw you from afar at the New Year’s ball.”
Vesti clapped with a bright face and shook her body.
“How much young lady Marquis Rosaline curses about you. So I was always curious, why is she jealous of a girl who is a relative of the Grand Duke? Now I know why the Marquis hates you so much!”
Topics that I didn’t really want came out constantly. As I rolled my eyes in embarrassment, Vesti grabbed my face.
“If the stupid Rosaline girl isn’t wary of you, then that’s just admitting that she’s an idiot.”
Vesti smiled and did not let go of my face. It must be Caroline’s family custom to grab and touch other people’s faces.
“But why did you come in as Daria’s maid? With the sponsorship of the Ludwigs, you could find a good enough groom. Do you want to be the mistress of the emperor?”
“Vesti!”
Daria raised her voice at Vesti, whose words were gradually losing dignity. I flinched because I saw Daria with an angry expression for the first time. Vesti let go of my face and snorted.
“Why? It’s not wrong. So far, more than half of the maids’ my sister brought have failed to seduce His Majesty and have been kicked out.”
Daria’s expression grew more grim, but whether she knew it or not, Vesti continued her words with a giggle.
“You’d better not look forward to it too much either. His Majesty, the Emperor, is more demanding in terms of aesthetics than I thought. Daria is trying to somehow have His Majesty’s child by changing so many maids.… oh do you know? Sister Daria once had a child…… hik!”
Vesti, who continued to speak rudely with an attitude of not being afraid of the world, screamed at the flying hand flick and jumped out of anger.
“Now, did you hit me?”
Tears welled up in the corners of Vesti’s eyes as she opened her eyes and glared at Daria.
Daria looked down at her with cold eyes instead of answering. Then she slapped Vesti on the other side of her cheek one after another. The frictional sound of slapping and hitting the skin rang in the room sharper than expected.
Daria took off her gloves with annoying hand movements and threw them on the floor, but rolled the corners of her lips gracefully.
“Who told you to talk carelessly?”
“I, I’m going to tell my dad right now!”
“Tell him, your good-looking father.”
Vesti cried and wailed, but Daria just looked at her with a cold gaze. Watching the chilly gaze, my body shivered. I suddenly recalled the rumor about Daria that I had heard in my previous life.
She killed her uncle, Duke Caroline, and all his men, and became a duke herself.… And how cruelly she killed them…….
Perhaps her cousin, Vesti, was also one of the people she killed, so I held both hands for no reason.
“How can you start with a slap? This is why you lost your child like a fool and your man……!”
Bang!
With the sound of furniture being shattered, Vesti panicked and ran outside.
Daria, who threw the glass, was only staring at the door where Vesti went out without any sign of emotion, but I was so surprised that I didn’t know what to do.
“Whoo…”
It was only after a low sigh leaked from Daria’s mouth that I came to my senses and approached her side.
“Are you okay, Empress?”
“Yes. No, I’m not that good.”
Daria frowned, pressing her forehead as if she had a headache.
“She grew up generously with excessive affection from her father and brothers. Sometimes she scratches my insides, but today’s level was too high.”
“…….”
“You don’t have to pay attention to what Vesti said.”
Daria, who spoke firmly, suddenly squinted at my expression.
“What’s wrong?”
“No, uh..….”
“Did you hear it for the first time? The story that I miscarried a child once.”
“…….”
“And after that, I became a body that couldn’t have children.”
“Ah…”
When I heard Vesti’s last words, which I had only guessed, through Daria’s mouth, I lamented timidly. I suddenly felt like I was going to cry. It was a tear that had not flowed for a while since I met Daria.
I only knew that she couldn’t have children, and that it was Kailos who made her like that.
But that was before I met Kailos, so I didn’t know exactly how Kailos made her body like that.
Legacy…..
Having lost Estelle, I covered my red eyes with both hands at the cruel syllables.
Kailos, how many people have you made so sick? I’m in so much pain just to break that one person. How the hell are you going to pay for that crime?
“But it’s a rumor that’s spread all over the world.”
When I lifted my head, there was Daria with her lips curled up gloomily.
“It was rumored that I’ve had no children since then, so I naturally became a body that could no longer have children. However, according to the Palace doctor, there is nothing wrong with my body.”
“Yes…”
“Surprisingly, the secret attacks on me disappeared when the rumors spread like that. I guess there’s someone who doesn’t welcome a child between Ray and me.”
Daria swept her flowing hair and crossed her long legs.
“In fact, he wasn’t Raymond’s child.”
“……!”
“In the first place, Ray was only 14 years old, so what would he and I have done since he was a child?”
I was surprised and hardened. Daria smiled faintly and stroked my face.
“But this is a secret. So you can’t say it anywhere, Chloe. If you talk somewhere else, I’ll kill you.”
My hair stood up at the low threatening voice.
“Of course, you don’t seem to have anyone to talk to.”
“Your Majesty, but…….”
I plucked up my courage and looked her in the eye.
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“If you tell me such a huge secret…… You don’t know what kind of bad heart I have, it’s too dangerous.”
Of course, I had no intention of leaking her secret anywhere.
Nevertheless, the reason why I said this is because I remembered Raymond in the previous timeline. The man who loved me like a fool and gave me everything.
Raymond eventually died because he loved and trusted me.
I was already the woman who killed Raymond once. I was afraid that Daria, who believed in me and told me her secret, would follow in the same footsteps.