“You have Rohan.”
“...Still.”
“You have to stay healthy so that when Claudel returns, we can spend time together again.”
Hannah reluctantly nodded her head at her words.
“From now on, send me a telegram right away.”
“Are you sure that’s okay?”
Madame Cronach nodded.
“He owes me. Even if you send a telegram in your name from now on, he won’t be able to interfere with our work.”
“Yes.”
Hannah’s heart was heavy.
“What happened to us? Can’t you really tell me?”
Madame Cronach kept quiet about the details no matter how many times she begged her out of frustration.
“Arbor’s prophecy can’t be told to just anyone.”
Even after the sacred tree had already disappeared as kindling, she was still keeping to her mission.
“After everything is over. I’ll tell you then.”
“After we find Claudel.”
“Yes, I will.”
Madame Cronach hugged Hannah tightly and patted her back.
“So you have to stay well until then. If you stay safe and well, that alone will be a great help to me.”
It would have been even better if Claudel had stayed well too.
Madame Cronach tried to calm her growing cold heart.
Unlike the lie that she had come to Rowen in a hurry by order of Kaian since she had to ride the carriage alone with the quick-witted Madame Marcel for about a week, there should have been no suspicious signs.
“I’ll tell you the news.”
After hugging Hannah again, Madame Cronach left Rowen Castle.
“What’s the prophecy?”
She had imagined tens of thousands of times that Valquiterre would be able to strike down a sword full of resentment in an instant.
However, when she saw Kaian, she might not be able to do that.
She had doubts in her heart. She resented Kaian for driving a child who had grown up alone without a place to lean on, but what he had done made her look into the past that she had been ruminating and blaming herself for her entire life.
“If I hadn’t told Arbor’s prophecy back then.”
If Valquiterre became King, the kingdom of Oberon would be engulfed in war.
There was no way she would want to tell such a prophecy to a fifteen-year-old boy. She repeatedly asked Arbor if this was true and if this was what he meant, but the tree was unwavering. She had never heard from her ancestors how to deal with such a serious prophecy.
“You have to stay healthy so that when Claudel returns, we can spend time together again.”
Hannah reluctantly nodded her head at her words.
“From now on, send me a telegram right away.”
“Are you sure that’s okay?”
Madame Cronach nodded.
“He owes me. Even if you send a telegram in your name from now on, he won’t be able to interfere with our work.”
“Yes.”
Hannah’s heart was heavy.
“What happened to us? Can’t you really tell me?”
Madame Cronach kept quiet about the details no matter how many times she begged her out of frustration.
“Arbor’s prophecy can’t be told to just anyone.”
Even after the sacred tree had already disappeared as kindling, she was still keeping to her mission.
“After everything is over. I’ll tell you then.”
“After we find Claudel.”
“Yes, I will.”
Madame Cronach hugged Hannah tightly and patted her back.
“So you have to stay well until then. If you stay safe and well, that alone will be a great help to me.”
It would have been even better if Claudel had stayed well too.
Madame Cronach tried to calm her growing cold heart.
Unlike the lie that she had come to Rowen in a hurry by order of Kaian since she had to ride the carriage alone with the quick-witted Madame Marcel for about a week, there should have been no suspicious signs.
“I’ll tell you the news.”
After hugging Hannah again, Madame Cronach left Rowen Castle.
“What’s the prophecy?”
She had imagined tens of thousands of times that Valquiterre would be able to strike down a sword full of resentment in an instant.
However, when she saw Kaian, she might not be able to do that.
She had doubts in her heart. She resented Kaian for driving a child who had grown up alone without a place to lean on, but what he had done made her look into the past that she had been ruminating and blaming herself for her entire life.
“If I hadn’t told Arbor’s prophecy back then.”
If Valquiterre became King, the kingdom of Oberon would be engulfed in war.
There was no way she would want to tell such a prophecy to a fifteen-year-old boy. She repeatedly asked Arbor if this was true and if this was what he meant, but the tree was unwavering. She had never heard from her ancestors how to deal with such a serious prophecy.
Could she really tell him something like this?
It was a prophecy. Since she was just a messenger, did she really have to tell him everything, even if it was an absurdly horrible story? If that was the case, wasn’t it too bad for Valquiterre, who was the subject of the prophecy?
She tried to put aside her human doubts and act as she had learned without any reservations, but as a result, she lost everything. The lives of the people of Plogne were too heavy. And her husband, Evan. Madame Cronach decided to somehow return the resentment she had carried to Valquiterre. No one would just go out like that after hearing a prophecy. But because of her prophecy, Evan ended up taking his own life.
'Leonie. What's wrong?'
'Huh?'
'You seem worried after the Queen's visit.'
'Why are you asking me that? You know I can't tell you.'
Even though he lived in the village of Plogne, Evan was still a member of the Kingdom of Oberon. He could not fully become a part of Plogne, so he was excluded from the prophecy and the work of caring for the tree.
When someone came to visit Arbor in the village, the entire village would wear hoods and masks to hide their identities, but Evan was excluded from that work. He was not a child of the tree in the first place, so he could not participate. She could tell the other villagers about the prophecy, but it was a secret from Evan.
The fact that he lived with her as a couple for so long while being openly excluded from the village where everyone knew about the village except him made her realize how much Evan loved her.
He shouldn't have told Claudel that. The frustrated Kaian's appearance resembled her old self when she heard the news of her husband at the castle of Valmonde and cried out. She couldn't blame him for his faults because she had committed the same sin, so she decided to put aside her daughter's case for a while.
"It's been more than ten years since I became the sword of Plogne."
She planned to settle her long-standing grudge first.
After getting on the waiting carriage, Madame Marcel walked slowly toward her, carrying the last piece of luggage on her servant. When she saw her, she hurriedly got on the carriage.
Soon, the carriage began to move with a jerk.
“My heart aches.”
Madame Marcel said softly.
“I just thought the two were very good together.”
“They looked good.”
When Madame Cronach agreed, she sighed.
“But they weren’t. The Duchess has always said that she wanted to win the Duke’s heart. She said that was a problem.”
“...”
“In the end, she couldn’t win it, so this is how it turned out.”
Was that so? It would be more like the opposite.
Anyone who saw an unappreciated heart would think that it was something that was not won.
The foolish man who had easily won it realized too late that the human heart was so delicate and difficult.
However, for now, Madame Cronach only wished that the master of Rowen, who had fallen ill from the shock, would recover quickly.
The carriage, carrying the sighs of the women, diligently ran toward the capital.
***
Two months had already passed since I had stayed in the palace.
“The weather is nice today.”
When I first came to the palace, the plants in the hanging garden had been unsightly in February, but after being showered with spring rain, they began sprouting leaves and blooming flowers one by one.
I walked slowly around the garden, counting how many new flowers had bloomed the day.
“It’s really pretty. Even in a garden made with dirt, flowers bloom like this.”
Irena would have been very envious if she had seen this. The reason the flowers growing in the glass greenhouses in the north were not so attractive was not because they were grown with dirt, but because of the weather.
I closed my eyes on a cozy bench in one corner of the garden, enjoying the scent of the trees full of life.
Now my belly was swollen and round, unable to hide.
I began to hum a little.
Then, as if it were some kind of signal, the baby in my belly patted my belly as if to keep the beat.
“You like this song. Should I sing more?”
Since I had nothing to do, I focused on prenatal education, and before I knew it, I had become accustomed to it.
The baby became more active when I ate sweets, and he showed a different reaction to some of the songs I hummed.
As I learned about the baby one by one, time passed faster than I thought.
I was trying not to be lazy.
Sadness was eating away at me little by little.
It made my hands and feet heavy, and my head hurt.
Then, I thought that if my whole body was consumed, I would really not be able to move, so I intentionally went for walks more often and tried to move around in the space allowed to me.
Fortunately, the presence of the bookshelf was large, so I was able to spend my time without getting bored.
“You were here.”
“Bark.”
In the two months, Valquiterre had become much more friendly than before.
Considering that Kaian was busy with his lordship, it was impossible for him, the King, to be free.
Valquiterre came to see me more often than expected as if to comfort me, who was imprisoned.
There wasn’t a single day that went by without seeing him since coming to the palace.
“A gift from abroad, what is it?”
“What is it?”
When I showed curiosity, Valquiterre held out a box to me.
“Wow.”
When I opened the box, a small house model a little bigger than the palm of my hand appeared.
“What do you think?”
The house, decorated so cutely, seemed like something a baby would enjoy playing with.
“Who gave you this toy?”
“It’s not a toy. It was a jewelry box from the Kingdom of Orphen.”
“A jewelry box?”
Valquiterre pointed to where my hand was and saw a trace of something the size of a thumbnail embedded in it.
“The Kingdom of Orphen is famous for producing rare gems. They say that if it’s a very precious gem, they make a house that fits it like this.”
“Gems have houses too?”
“I brought it because it looked like a toy after I took care of it separately.”
“Thank you.”
It was a great comfort to me that Val was taking care of the baby.
It felt like it was making up for the fact that he hadn’t been welcomed by his father.
“Your belly has really grown. I’ll have to take extra care of you until a healthy baby is born.”
Now that I was wearing thin spring clothes compared to winter, my belly seemed to be more prominent.
“You might have a baby that looks like him. If a child with the symbolic color of Temnes is born, he won’t be able to easily reject it.”
I felt a little moved by the unexpected words.
“I, really... will that be true?”
Even if a baby with Vermont blood was born, would he be able to accept it? Since he had mentioned a successor with Vermont blood, it was considered completely unlikely, but my heart wavered.
Even for me, the reason the Duke of Vermont had officially listed my name in the family was because of the color of my hair and eyes.
Suddenly, my heart sank.
“I can’t stand to see a child with black hair or red eyes wandering around Temnes without a name.”
However, on the other hand, if you turn that statement around, it means that a child with Vermont red hair or golden eyes, who resembles me, would be absolutely unacceptable.
I felt like I was standing on a tightrope between hope and despair.
I felt my chest tighten and I felt like I was running out of oxygen.
Not wanting to talk about this topic any longer, I decided to leave.
“I’m a little tired. Can I go back to my room?”
As I got up from the bench, Valquiterre nodded.
“Of course.”
I greeted Valquiterre and hurriedly left the garden.
“The child has grown quite a bit. I guess it’s about time.”
Valquiterre smiled innocently.
“You truly love Kaian.”
He was determined to break Claudel’s pure heart toward Kaian.
“It’s fun to tease when you have a clear goal.”
I felt like I was standing on a tightrope between hope and despair.
I felt my chest tighten and I felt like I was running out of oxygen.
Not wanting to talk about this topic any longer, I decided to leave.
“I’m a little tired. Can I go back to my room?”
As I got up from the bench, Valquiterre nodded.
“Of course.”
I greeted Valquiterre and hurriedly left the garden.
“The child has grown quite a bit. I guess it’s about time.”
Valquiterre smiled innocently.
“You truly love Kaian.”
He was determined to break Claudel’s pure heart toward Kaian.
“It’s fun to tease when you have a clear goal.”
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