The Empress put down the knife she was holding with a loud noise and lifted the half-empty wine glass. While the attendant was filling the glass, the Empress whispered something to the Emperor.
A look of displeasure flashed across the Emperor’s face for a moment, but he soon smiled kindly.
“The Empress said that the current lord of Landhill has no son who can inherit the land.”
At the Emperor’s words, sighs and empty laughter erupted, unidentifiable.
It was too small and insignificant a land to be given to the Prince who had done all kinds of dirty work for the imperial family for so many years. Giving the land meant that Carson would take the position of a Count.
“Glory to the Keynes Empire.”
Carson, who had bowed his head in affirmation, straightened up and looked the Empress in the eye. The empress smiled faintly and spoke to the Emperor again.
“Come to think of it, Landhill is right next to Lesonia.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Then, you can stop by Lesonia and take your sister to Landhill.”
The Emperor said it as if it was nothing, but it took a lot of effort and patience for him to get his sister back. Carson found it quite funny.
Wasn’t Louisianne von Raymond his father’s daughter before she was his sister?
“It’s a shame.”
His sister was the reason he had to live as an imperial dog in the trembling palace until his old age, and the only reason he had willingly endured it all.
Carson looked at his mother’s seat, which had been empty just last month. When she was alive, his mother had been a woman far from greed or ambition.
She was just a foolish woman who lived and died for love.
The slight glimmer of resentment toward the Emperor that had occasionally crossed her face was not even a trace at the end of her life. She had once been a beautiful woman who had fascinated the loser of this great empire for quite some time, but in Carson’s memory, his mother was just a woman with a sickly complexion and a sad, pitiful face.
His father was serious when it came to running the state, but not when it came to women. His fiery love could not last more than four seasons.
That is why Carson did not trust a man’s love. He thought that there was nothing in the world as vain and empty as the word love. The Emperor’s love was especially so.
“Yes, Landhill is not far from the imperial capital, so you can take care of the imperial affairs as before. What do you think?”
Carson had a hard time holding back a hollow laugh when the Emperor asked him what he thought.
“What else do I have to think? If I can be of some help to this empire as a Count, I will be satisfied with that.”
Unbeknownst to the Emperor, after the trade with the small country of Yamanta was concluded, the authority and all material benefits were given to the private merchant group owned by the Empress. Since it was in exchange for his younger brother’s soldiers, Carson had nothing to regret.
“Yes, then. Let’s decide that.”
Carson immediately knelt down on one knee and received the order.
He returned to his seat and glanced at his mother's empty seat again.
His mother's cause of death was poisoning. The poison that had slowly eaten away at her life for a long time was a fact known to everyone in the royal family, but it was a truth that no one should know.
And that truth was also a device that reminded Carson of his helplessness every day.
Carson had no lingering attachment to this royal family. He was a realistic person.
All that was left for him was to find his younger sister, who had been sent as a hostage to a stranger's house at the young age of five.
The reason he had been entrusted with the child was because Count Graham, the Lord of Lesonia, was a distant relative of the Empress, but he was not foolish enough to not know that he had sent his younger sister to keep Carson in check.
It had already been four years, so she must have been nine years old.
The last time he saw her was when she held onto his little finger tightly and flinched, saying she didn't want to go.
Since he was ten, Carson had to protect his mother from the suffocating pressure and death threats. And when his younger sister was born, his sensitivity reached its peak.
In the end, he could not save his mother, but he had to protect his younger sister by his side. To get that, he had to clean up the trashy things his brothers, who were far less capable than him, had done, and he had to handle many things as if he were the only proper royal family in the imperial family.
“I will leave now.”
Carson got up to leave before the meal was even over.
Having recognized reality early on, he had already given up his desire for the throne before he was even ten years old. Unless the Princes fought and killed each other, there was no way Carson could become Emperor, beating out all the Princes who had strong maternal families behind them. It must have been from that time. He began to obsess over saving money.
Carson knew everything about how the Empress had grown. He had not been an outspoken sleuth about her affairs, but there were things that one would naturally learn if one interfered with the affairs of the Imperial Court.
And he had succeeded in amassing an overflowing fortune that the Empress did not know about. Once he had made enough money to buy a small estate, money made money from then on.
Money was always clear and honest to him. Nothing could secure his precarious position more than that.
If he had money, he could protect it. Whatever it was.
After that, he had only three days to prepare to go to Landhill.
'I... did not kill. I never killed my husband. Please, believe me. Please.'
On the morning of her twentieth birthday, Ines woke up from her bed again with the same nightmare.
The infamous prison of Romfield is known as the hell of hell. The ten years she had spent there had left an indelible scar on her.
It was warm, but not enough to make her sweat. But Ines, sweating profusely, hurriedly walked to the window as if possessed, and opened it.
Fortunately, the scenery that unfolded before her eyes was not the hellish Romfield, but the garden of her house. Her heart clenched with fear, and she lifted her voice.
Everything she saw was exactly as she remembered it, so unless it was a vivid dream in the courtroom, it would be hard for her to believe that she had returned to the past.
Landhill, famous for its many high mountains, had more rain than other nearby estates. Watching the rain fall, Ines thought deeply about the day she was taken away by the guards.
It was a time when she had tried not to think about it even on purpose. However, since she had returned to the past, she could not just be afraid of something that had not happened.
It had rained on the day Joseph died, just like now. Ines went to the library early in the morning, following her husband on his way to work.
Although her father had strongly opposed her marriage, he had eventually given her excessive support for a commoner son-in-law.
But she couldn’t keep all the expensive books like before, and it was a bit embarrassing to order the two maids her father had sent her to borrow books.
The house wasn’t big, but the two maids were always busy taking care of the household. So whenever she had time, she would go to the library run by the estate and spend time there.
Her husband was so busy that she always had to go out alone. It wasn’t easy to go out alone without a servant or a carriage, but she wasn’t dissatisfied.
Except for the hardship of not seeing Joseph often, she considered herself happy.
Although it was early morning, there were still people in the library. After exchanging glances with a familiar woman who had just finished cleaning and passing by, Ines sat down in her usual seat.
It was a corner seat, but she liked it because the sunlight came in well. She read books until lunchtime, but that day she felt a little bloated, so she sat down at her desk for a while and dozed off, thinking that she had to go home, so she chose the books to borrow.
Ines vividly remembered the titles of the books she was going to borrow, such as ‘Lenin’s Song That Wakes Up the Dawn’ and ‘Your and My Shining Day.’
But no matter how long she waited, the librarian who would lend her the book never returned to her seat.
Ines waited for the librarian, gave up on borrowing the book, and went outside. Then, as she was leaving the main entrance of the library, she saw the librarian walking inside at a hurried pace. She thought about following her back in, but the rain kept falling, so she hurried her steps to go home.
And every day, Ines regretted the decision she had made at that moment.
If she had followed the librarian back into the library that day and left evidence that she had borrowed the book, Ines would not have gone to Romfield.
When she returned home, the security guards had already surrounded the area. And as if they had been waiting for her to approach with a puzzled expression, they arrested her.
“Miss, it’s time to go to dinner.”
Ines, who was deep in thought, was pulled out of her thoughts by Susan’s knock on the door.
“Yes.”
Normally, Ines would eat breakfast alone in her room. But today was her birthday, and on her birthday, the whole family would gather together and have breakfast together.
When she finished preparing and came down to the restaurant, her father and mother were already sitting at the table, chatting away.
Not long ago, she had remodeled one of the sunny living rooms into a space where the family could eat. The image of her father sitting looking out the large window and her mother standing next to him was etched into her mind.
Seeing the back of her father, Andrew Swenden, always made Ines' throat tighten.
A look of displeasure flashed across the Emperor’s face for a moment, but he soon smiled kindly.
“The Empress said that the current lord of Landhill has no son who can inherit the land.”
At the Emperor’s words, sighs and empty laughter erupted, unidentifiable.
It was too small and insignificant a land to be given to the Prince who had done all kinds of dirty work for the imperial family for so many years. Giving the land meant that Carson would take the position of a Count.
“Glory to the Keynes Empire.”
Carson, who had bowed his head in affirmation, straightened up and looked the Empress in the eye. The empress smiled faintly and spoke to the Emperor again.
“Come to think of it, Landhill is right next to Lesonia.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Then, you can stop by Lesonia and take your sister to Landhill.”
The Emperor said it as if it was nothing, but it took a lot of effort and patience for him to get his sister back. Carson found it quite funny.
Wasn’t Louisianne von Raymond his father’s daughter before she was his sister?
“It’s a shame.”
His sister was the reason he had to live as an imperial dog in the trembling palace until his old age, and the only reason he had willingly endured it all.
Carson looked at his mother’s seat, which had been empty just last month. When she was alive, his mother had been a woman far from greed or ambition.
She was just a foolish woman who lived and died for love.
The slight glimmer of resentment toward the Emperor that had occasionally crossed her face was not even a trace at the end of her life. She had once been a beautiful woman who had fascinated the loser of this great empire for quite some time, but in Carson’s memory, his mother was just a woman with a sickly complexion and a sad, pitiful face.
His father was serious when it came to running the state, but not when it came to women. His fiery love could not last more than four seasons.
That is why Carson did not trust a man’s love. He thought that there was nothing in the world as vain and empty as the word love. The Emperor’s love was especially so.
“Yes, Landhill is not far from the imperial capital, so you can take care of the imperial affairs as before. What do you think?”
Carson had a hard time holding back a hollow laugh when the Emperor asked him what he thought.
“What else do I have to think? If I can be of some help to this empire as a Count, I will be satisfied with that.”
Unbeknownst to the Emperor, after the trade with the small country of Yamanta was concluded, the authority and all material benefits were given to the private merchant group owned by the Empress. Since it was in exchange for his younger brother’s soldiers, Carson had nothing to regret.
“Yes, then. Let’s decide that.”
Carson immediately knelt down on one knee and received the order.
He returned to his seat and glanced at his mother's empty seat again.
His mother's cause of death was poisoning. The poison that had slowly eaten away at her life for a long time was a fact known to everyone in the royal family, but it was a truth that no one should know.
And that truth was also a device that reminded Carson of his helplessness every day.
Carson had no lingering attachment to this royal family. He was a realistic person.
All that was left for him was to find his younger sister, who had been sent as a hostage to a stranger's house at the young age of five.
The reason he had been entrusted with the child was because Count Graham, the Lord of Lesonia, was a distant relative of the Empress, but he was not foolish enough to not know that he had sent his younger sister to keep Carson in check.
It had already been four years, so she must have been nine years old.
The last time he saw her was when she held onto his little finger tightly and flinched, saying she didn't want to go.
Since he was ten, Carson had to protect his mother from the suffocating pressure and death threats. And when his younger sister was born, his sensitivity reached its peak.
In the end, he could not save his mother, but he had to protect his younger sister by his side. To get that, he had to clean up the trashy things his brothers, who were far less capable than him, had done, and he had to handle many things as if he were the only proper royal family in the imperial family.
“I will leave now.”
Carson got up to leave before the meal was even over.
Having recognized reality early on, he had already given up his desire for the throne before he was even ten years old. Unless the Princes fought and killed each other, there was no way Carson could become Emperor, beating out all the Princes who had strong maternal families behind them. It must have been from that time. He began to obsess over saving money.
Carson knew everything about how the Empress had grown. He had not been an outspoken sleuth about her affairs, but there were things that one would naturally learn if one interfered with the affairs of the Imperial Court.
And he had succeeded in amassing an overflowing fortune that the Empress did not know about. Once he had made enough money to buy a small estate, money made money from then on.
Money was always clear and honest to him. Nothing could secure his precarious position more than that.
If he had money, he could protect it. Whatever it was.
After that, he had only three days to prepare to go to Landhill.
***
'I... did not kill. I never killed my husband. Please, believe me. Please.'
On the morning of her twentieth birthday, Ines woke up from her bed again with the same nightmare.
The infamous prison of Romfield is known as the hell of hell. The ten years she had spent there had left an indelible scar on her.
It was warm, but not enough to make her sweat. But Ines, sweating profusely, hurriedly walked to the window as if possessed, and opened it.
Fortunately, the scenery that unfolded before her eyes was not the hellish Romfield, but the garden of her house. Her heart clenched with fear, and she lifted her voice.
Everything she saw was exactly as she remembered it, so unless it was a vivid dream in the courtroom, it would be hard for her to believe that she had returned to the past.
Landhill, famous for its many high mountains, had more rain than other nearby estates. Watching the rain fall, Ines thought deeply about the day she was taken away by the guards.
It was a time when she had tried not to think about it even on purpose. However, since she had returned to the past, she could not just be afraid of something that had not happened.
It had rained on the day Joseph died, just like now. Ines went to the library early in the morning, following her husband on his way to work.
Although her father had strongly opposed her marriage, he had eventually given her excessive support for a commoner son-in-law.
But she couldn’t keep all the expensive books like before, and it was a bit embarrassing to order the two maids her father had sent her to borrow books.
The house wasn’t big, but the two maids were always busy taking care of the household. So whenever she had time, she would go to the library run by the estate and spend time there.
Her husband was so busy that she always had to go out alone. It wasn’t easy to go out alone without a servant or a carriage, but she wasn’t dissatisfied.
Except for the hardship of not seeing Joseph often, she considered herself happy.
Although it was early morning, there were still people in the library. After exchanging glances with a familiar woman who had just finished cleaning and passing by, Ines sat down in her usual seat.
It was a corner seat, but she liked it because the sunlight came in well. She read books until lunchtime, but that day she felt a little bloated, so she sat down at her desk for a while and dozed off, thinking that she had to go home, so she chose the books to borrow.
Ines vividly remembered the titles of the books she was going to borrow, such as ‘Lenin’s Song That Wakes Up the Dawn’ and ‘Your and My Shining Day.’
But no matter how long she waited, the librarian who would lend her the book never returned to her seat.
Ines waited for the librarian, gave up on borrowing the book, and went outside. Then, as she was leaving the main entrance of the library, she saw the librarian walking inside at a hurried pace. She thought about following her back in, but the rain kept falling, so she hurried her steps to go home.
And every day, Ines regretted the decision she had made at that moment.
If she had followed the librarian back into the library that day and left evidence that she had borrowed the book, Ines would not have gone to Romfield.
When she returned home, the security guards had already surrounded the area. And as if they had been waiting for her to approach with a puzzled expression, they arrested her.
“Miss, it’s time to go to dinner.”
Ines, who was deep in thought, was pulled out of her thoughts by Susan’s knock on the door.
“Yes.”
Normally, Ines would eat breakfast alone in her room. But today was her birthday, and on her birthday, the whole family would gather together and have breakfast together.
When she finished preparing and came down to the restaurant, her father and mother were already sitting at the table, chatting away.
Not long ago, she had remodeled one of the sunny living rooms into a space where the family could eat. The image of her father sitting looking out the large window and her mother standing next to him was etched into her mind.
Seeing the back of her father, Andrew Swenden, always made Ines' throat tighten.
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