Chapter 198

 

* * *

 

After Claude and Isaiah left the mansion, Loretta was spending her days relatively quietly.

However, sometimes she showed a lonely appearance as if waiting for someone, sitting crouched at the entrance of the mansion.

The Duke was worried that the child’s longing for Melody was becoming very deep.

Even when the Duke made time to take her to good performances or exhibitions, she only smiled at that moment.

After returning to the mansion, Loretta seemed to only look forward to Melody’s return.

How on earth could he comfort Loretta’s lonely heart?

Then one day, an imperial attendant urgently came to the Duke.

It was a message from the Crown Prince, asking him to come for a moment as there was something he wanted to discuss.

As he was preparing to go out without delay, Loretta soon came and asked in a cautious voice.

“Father, are you perhaps going to the palace?”

Seeing her unable to keep her hands still, it seemed Loretta wanted to make a request to him.

Of course, the Duke quickly realized what the child’s request was.

“Yes, do you want to go together? While I meet with His Highness the Crown Prince, you won’t be able to look around anywhere other than my office or the garden.”

Loretta quickly nodded and hurried to prepare.

 

* * *

 

Upon arriving at the palace, Loretta walked around the lake in the imperial garden, fidgeting with the candy bottle she had put in her bag.

In fact, even though she was coming to the palace, she didn’t expect to be able to meet Evan.

Because after the Magic Tower Master became unwell, Jeremiah and Evan rarely had outside activities.

‘Still, I like coming to the palace.’

Loretta looked at the sparkling surface of the lake and recalled the day she had coincidentally met him here.

Naturally, her footsteps headed towards the temple.

Today, there was no one inside the temple as well.

Loretta sat behind the statue where she had hidden with Evan and took out the candy bottle she had put in her bag.

The newly made green candies clinked in the bottle.

Loretta gripped the glass bottle tightly with both hands.

“Evan.”

When she quietly called him, light gradually began to flow from the mana stone cleverly hidden among the candies.

“Wow.”

The translucent candies together absorbed the light, making it seem like the entire candy was sparkling.

“Evan is a genius.”

Loretta murmured secretly with the smooth glass bottle against her cheek.

“I want to meet you soon…”

“Who do you want to meet?”

At the sudden voice, Loretta quickly turned her head with wide eyes.

Soon, their gazes met through the statue, the man peeking at her from the other side.

He was trying to make a rather gentle expression, contrary to his thick and rough facial features. He seemed conscious of the fact that the other person was a young child.

“Yo-Your Majesty.”

Despite his efforts, Loretta got up from her spot with a very frightened face.

“What’s inside that is a mana stone, right? I haven’t permitted a young child to possess one.”

The Emperor looked around for a moment, then laboriously passed through the narrow gap between the statue and the wall and sat down next to Loretta.

However, it was difficult for a large adult body to sit in a narrow space, so he had to tightly press his thighs against his body.

“The young lady was sitting so well in this narrow place.”

“Your Majesty, that’s, I.”

Loretta tried to make an excuse to him while hiding the candy bottle behind her back.

However, the Emperor snatched the bottle she was holding with his thick hand.

“Ah!”

Loretta was very surprised, but she couldn’t dare take the bottle back from him.

Usually, the Emperor was very kind to Loretta, but the fact that she had arbitrarily possessed a mana stone was a bit of a different issue.

‘What should I do?’

Loretta was worried that this might harm her father or the family.

“Arranging it like this makes for a pretty decent decoration.”

“…”

“I should make something like what the young lady has too. What’s inside? An imitation gem?”

At the Emperor’s question as he lightly shook the bottle, Loretta bowed her head and answered.

“Ca-candy.”

“Oh?”

“It’s true. Do you want to see?”

Loretta took the bottle from his hand and opened the lid.

She quickly put the candy at the very top into her mouth and took out another one, holding it out in front of the Emperor.

He laughed out loud as if that action was amusing.

“Is the young lady showing me eating it first to prove it’s safe?”

When Loretta nodded while sucking on the candy, he ate the candy.

“It tastes good. When I was playing with my brothers in the garden as a child, the old ministers used to secretly hand these out one by one. The nannies hated it though.”

Loretta closely observed his expression.

The Emperor didn’t seem to have any intention of getting angry at Loretta or interrogating her about the mana stone.

“Brothers… you mean the Magic Tower Master?”

When she cautiously asked, he glanced to his side. It seemed he was offering her a seat, so Loretta quickly sat next to him.

Only after confirming that she was sitting comfortably did the Emperor’s story continue.

“Yes, Owen really liked sweets.”

“Did you two share them well?”

“We did. But later on, after the young youngest… was born, it seems I mostly yielded them to that child.”

This time, the Emperor seemed to be observing Loretta’s reaction as he spoke.

“I know.”

“You know?”

“I’m also the youngest, Your Majesty. So my older brothers always yield to me. In everything.”

“The ducal family’s brothers really adore their youngest sibling.”

“Your Majesty also really adored your youngest sibling… Ah.”

Loretta realized that she had unknowingly made a very dangerous remark.

Because she knew to some extent about the stories of the Emperor and his brothers.

“I’m sorry…”

Just as she was about to quickly apologize, the Emperor shook his head and replied.

“Yes, I adored him.”

“…Your Majesty.”

“He was a child who unusually got along well with people. Everyone liked that child, but I loved him the most.”

In his expression that seemed to be rummaging through a very long time, Loretta felt a very strange feeling.

Because until now, Loretta had only been taught that the Emperor and his youngest brother had a bad relationship.

“I didn’t know… you loved him.”

“It’s just an old emotion.”

“…Does that mean you don’t love him now?”

To the cautiously asked question, he didn’t give any answer for a while.

Loretta waited for his answer while holding the candy bottle.

“…Let’s do this.”

After hesitating, he heavily opened his mouth.

“I, in the name of the Emperor, will forever keep silent about this moment of meeting the young lady. In exchange, you also keep my story like that.”

Loretta quickly nodded. It was a very welcome proposal for her, as he would keep silent about the mana stone.

“Samuel.”

He called that name very slowly. As if carefully taking out a cherished treasure.

“He really liked being by my side. He liked playing and sleeping with me more than his mother.”

“To that extent, it seems it would have been a bit annoying.”

“Well, of course it was sometimes. But it wasn’t very difficult to sincerely love the small child trailing after me.”

That seemed to be an answer to Loretta’s question of whether he still loved him.

That he still loved him.

Although it felt like he was somehow beating around the bush.

“It must… seem like I’m talking nonsense, right?”

“That’s not true.”

Loretta adjusted her grip on the bottle here and there, and every time the candy and the bottle collided, it sounded like stars shattering.

“It’s not bad to secretly like someone. I also have someone I secretly like.”

“…You, young lady?!”

When the Emperor asked with a deliberately surprised face, Loretta quickly pressed her fingertip against her lip.

“It’s a secret though.”

“Of course.”

The Emperor also firmly pressed his index finger over his lips, following her.

“It’s a secret, but I really want to see with my own eyes how the Duke will react if he finds out.”

“If Your Majesty keeps the secret well, I’ll have you attend as a witness when I tell my father.”

At Loretta’s suggestion, the Emperor laughed and replied that he would definitely attend.

“Good, I should cheer on the lucky boy who has won the young lady’s heart. So that the young lady can be happy.”

“But then, Your Majesty, won’t you tell him?”

“Me? Well, I don’t think that will happen.”

“Why?”

“Hmm.”

He fell into thought for a moment with his chin resting on his hand. Loretta waited so he could think sufficiently.

“Too many things have happened between us. Above all… my ardent love was nothing special to that child.”

Loretta recalled a page from the modern history she had learned before.

That Prince Samuel’s maternal family, Earl Grimes, had plotted treason and tried to assassinate the Emperor.

“Hmph.”

“So he must have been swayed by the sweet words of his maternal grandfather and wronged me. Well, it’s not something to complain about to a young lady. Anyway, it’s in the past.”

As he hurriedly tried to wrap up the story, Loretta lightly grabbed his arm.

With the thought of wanting to talk a little more somehow.

“Did he, I mean, did Your Majesty’s youngest brother say that?”

“…Hmm?”

“That he was swayed by grandfather’s sweet words and ended up harboring ill feelings towards Your Majesty.”

“No way.”

The Emperor shook his head.

“That child told me he knew nothing. But that’s an absurd claim.”

“Why?”

Loretta asked, bringing her face a little closer.

The Emperor was getting more and more uncomfortable, but he gritted his teeth and endured it in front of the beloved young lady.

“Because it was a fight to put Samuel on the throne. That child came forward… and betrayed me.”

Despite the Emperor’s explanation, Loretta somehow had a hard time agreeing.

“Above all, there was no evidence to support that child’s claim of knowing nothing.”

“Have you ever tried to find such a thing?”

“Well.”

The Emperor was about to answer that of course he had.

Since that day, he had caught all the people around Samuel who had colluded with him like catching mice and dragged them to the palace.

But once in front of the captured people, the Emperor asked nothing.

‘To be precise… I couldn’t ask.’

Maybe he was afraid to find out his beloved younger brother’s true feelings. That ‘Samuel tried to kill you.’

In the end, he didn’t properly interrogate anyone and just had them all executed.

Even until very recently.

‘Even the maid who ran away from the mansion in Kristonson…’