WTPB - Chapter 28




At Erdene's words, Arkan made a very serious expression as if he was thinking about something. Then, he suddenly shook his shoulders and shivered as if he had seen something he shouldn't have.

"I'll pretend I didn't hear it."

Just then, Sophia came with tea.

Erdene unconsciously looked at Arkan, but he didn't seem to know whether the person putting down the teacup next to him was Sophia or a calf passing by.

'Wait a minute, why am I caring about this?'

Erdene lifted her teacup to hide her expression, imagining herself being slapped on the back of her mind.

"Anyway, Your Majesty...”

Arkan, who had just taken a sip of tea, glanced at Erdene with only his eyes wide open.

“What are you doing here?”

A small gurgling sound came from his throat. Arkan set down the cup with the most indifferent expression possible and straightened his shoulders.

“To drink tea.”

Erdene, who was holding the teacup and only moved her eyes, pursed her lips and swallowed the tea behind her tongue.

“You’re not saying that you came all the way here because there was no one to make you a cup of tea, are you?”

“Of course,”

Arkan said, raising one eyebrow.

“There are more than enough people to make me tea, but I think this is also a husband’s duty.”

Erdene made an expression as if she had seen a frog dancing strangely on two legs. “What are you talking about?”

She said.

“What are you talking about?”

Arkan looked at her blankly as if he found Erdene’s reaction even more strange.

“Spending time with my wife. It’s a husband’s important duty, isn’t it?”

“Who told you that?”

“I learned that when I was young.”

Arkan stopped drinking his tea and opened his eyes wide.

“You didn’t learn that?”

Erdene laughed.

“Are you talking about priest training? How could I have time for that?”

Arkan tried to nod and agree with her... but ultimately failed.

He put down his cup as if he couldn’t believe it and stared at Erdene.

“You really didn’t learn anything other than martial arts when you were young?”

“Pretty much. Because Father had high expectations for me. Of course, I learned other things to succeed to the throne. Theology, military science, diplomacy, geography… I think I learned everything Your Majesty learned.”

Then Erdene added with a teasing expression,

“Except priest training.”

Arkan no longer fell for such trivial provocations. Instead, he looked as if he was thinking deeply about something.

What could he be thinking about? Erdene slowly studied Arkan’s face, which seemed to be lost in thought. She tried to recall his face, which had been blazing with the light of the first night of their marriage when they had only argued, but it was not easy.

Now, the soft sunlight spread evenly across his hair, cheeks, the tip of his nose, and the corners of his eyes like a fine, sparkling powder, and it felt as if she could touch it with her hand.

‘Yes, your face is acceptable. Your face.’

When Erdene nodded to herself, Arkan asked.

“You said you trained mainly in martial arts, but what did you learn?”

“What do you mean... I learned everything I could do. Sword, spear, horseback riding, bow, and even melee combat.”

Arkan made an expression as if he had heard someone say, ‘I let a sick rat loose under your bed yesterday.’

“Melee combat... What?”

“Very useful in times of need.”

“Did your brother learn it too?”

Erdene snorted.

It was so sharp and loud that Arkan thought the teacup would fall down and lifted it up with its saucer.

“That weakling couldn’t even swing a sword properly. That’s why Father gave up on him early on.”

Arkan said.

“He didn’t seem to be bad-headed.”

Erdene’s eyes glared at him for a moment. But they weren’t directed at Arkan.

“Have you met him?”

“No, I haven’t met him myself. But the diplomats who went as ambassadors generally gave him that assessment. More specifically, they said, ‘He didn’t seem dull.’”

“If your physical strength is not up to par, then you will naturally become more cunning.”

Erdene sneered contemptuously and gulped down her tea.

“Don’t even mention that brat. It makes me want to smash something.”

“Even if it’s not about Emperor Tenek, you like to smash things. No, I get it. You’d shoot arrows with your eyes.”

That wasn’t a cute joke. Erdene pouted her lips.

Arkan said.

“I fully understand your hostility toward Emperor Tenek... But I thought you might be interested since it’s a family story.”

“Family story?”

Arkan didn’t know what thoughts crossed Erdene’s mind at that moment.

She thought of about ten pieces of news in an instant... The biggest one was, ‘I heard that Tenek died suddenly last night.’

However, her wish did not come true easily.

“I heard that the Hirschsten Empire will soon have a new successor.”

Erdene opened her lips blankly for a moment.

She blinked as if she was speaking a foreign language that Arkan could not understand at all, and then... she suddenly came to her senses.

“The Empress is pregnant?”

Arkan nodded, observing her expression.

“That’s what they said. According to the news we received.”

Erdene stretched her body like a person who had lost her mind, recalling the last time she had seen Empress Roelica. Her face, which seemed emotionless as if made of plaster, and the woman who had made such a confused and complicated expression while contemplating whether or not she should kill Tenek.

If Erdene had lost her temper and cut down Tenek at that time, what would have happened to Roelica?

Whether she knew or not, she could not know, and she did not care, but when Erdene returned after the war with Vinothin, she would have been pregnant.

‘She might have hung herself because of that personality. There’s no way she left feeling relieved, and if she was single, then it would be understandable, but since she already had Tenek’s child... If I had usurped the throne, Roelica would have chosen death.’ 

She might have been happy to some extent. Erdene muttered bitter words to herself and sneered.

“Are you disappointed?”

She turned to Arkhan and asked again.

“Disappointed, me? What?”

Arkhan moved his lips for a moment as if he was thinking about what to say.

“You never know. If your brother had died suddenly, you would have been the only direct descendant of the empire. Then of course you would have returned to the empire. I’m not wrong, am I?”

Erdene laughed with a bitter expression.

“You know very well, Your Majesty. Yes. I am disappointed. But on the other hand, I am also looking forward to it.”

“Looking forward to it?”

“Even if that squirming brat acts like a man, how great a child will he be? Isn’t that the thought of it promising?”

“Isn’t your nephew innocent? Maybe he takes after his mother. I don’t know what kind of person the Empress is.”

Arkan expected a fierce rebuke—or an insult—to fly right in, but Erdene unexpectedly kept her mouth shut with a deep expression. She clenched and unclenched her hands in deep thought, and then knocked on the table as she spoke.

“She is a pity for Tenek. She is too weak to be the consort of the Emperor, but she is not foolish. She has become pitiful because not one, but two foolish and greedy men have interfered in her life.”

“What do you mean?”

Erdene’s eyes wandered off into the distance. She looked like an old man lost in old memories. 

When she was still young and carefree, Roelica often visited the palace with her parents. Erdene’s mother, unlike her tomboyish and wild daughter, had joked that she wanted to have the docile and gentle Roelica as her “youngest daughter.”

“There’s no way Roelica would have wanted Tenek. I heard she had someone they liked... Teneck coveted her. Roelica’s foolish father thought it would be better for the family to have his daughter enter the royal family rather than make her the wife of a mere military officer. Roelica stubbornly resisted and dragged it out for a long time...”

What’s going to happen will happen, Erdene thought.

She didn’t particularly like or hate Roelica.

However, on the day she became the Crown Princess, she felt a little pity for her expressionless face that seemed to have thrown away all emotions.

Erdene, who had been silent for a moment, let out a sharp remark.

“But I wonder if that old pig’s belly has burst from the dream that he would never have dreamed that his own daughter would dare to sit on the throne of the Empress.”

Roelica did not look happy at all.

Every time the Empress’s crown on her head sparkled brightly, she suddenly remembered the look of contempt she had on her face as if she were being ridiculed by the world.

Arkan, who had been quietly listening to Erdene’s story, tilted his head as if to peek at her.

“Were you by any chance... close friends with the Empress of the empire?”

As soon as Arkan said that, Erdene’s eyes, which had seemed unfocused, regained their vitality—the vitality of a beast ready to attack at any time.

“Me? With Empress Roelica? No, not at all. We’ve never even had a proper conversation. Why are you suddenly asking that?”


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