Roxana grabbed the amethyst with her hand.
“Where do you belong? Why did you lie to Her Majesty the Empress that you were a maid in the kitchen?”
Roxana thought about disappearing at this point as Bonis continued to question her, but she changed her mind.
Roxana smiled leisurely and looked back at Bonis, who was questioning her fiercely.
“Do you know how to make lemon tea?”
“W-what?!”
“If you know, make some for me. I have to take it to Her Majesty the Empress.”
“...No, what the hell!”
Bonis remembered that Misha, Rogie’s maid, had been attacked by someone yesterday.
She had a fleeting suspicion that she might have something to do with that incident, but since the person who attacked Misha was a healthy man, it couldn’t have been the servant in front of her.
Bonis thought about Zelda’s words that she had met in front of the Magic Tower Lord’s room.
Did she change into the servant’s clothes to enjoy a secret meeting with the Magic Tower Lord?
Looking at Roxana’s appearance, she wondered if she was a VIP.
Judging by her confident attitude and speech, it was a reasonable guess.
Bonis’s thoughts were going in various directions.
“Do you know how to make lemon tea?”
Roxana asked again.
“You, you know who I am and give such orders, right?”
“Logan Epin. Logan is your father, right?”
Roxana raised one corner of her mouth and said.
“Who are you! Who do you know my father?!”
“You look alike. Your father is very worried about you.”
Two cups of lemon tea made by Bonis’s hands were placed on the tray.
“Logan will be safe if he makes the potion I want. I promise you that.”
Roxana looked down at the finished lemon tea and said to Bonis.
“If you have anything to say to Logan, tell me. I’ll tell him. I’m planning to visit him tomorrow.”
Bonis opened her mouth at Roxana’s words, but the words didn’t come out right away.
There were so many things she wanted to say to her father. No, there were even more things she wanted to ask.
However, she put all those words aside. All she wanted was to hope that she would be safe until they met again.
“Tell him to take care of his health...Please tell him to stay healthy. Told him to stay healthy until we meet again...”
She tried not to cry, but the time of longing had been too long, so tears flowed down uncontrollably.
Roxana stared blankly at Bonis and nodded.
She felt strangely at the love for her father that she didn’t have.
“I’ll tell him that.”
“I can’t betray Her Majesty the Empress.”
Bonis blurted out.
“I didn’t ask you to do anything. What are you talking about? Should I take that to mean that your loyalty to the Empress is more important than your father’s life?”
“That’s not what I said!”
“Or just shut up.”
Bonis flinched at Roxana’s emotionless words.
“I told you to keep quiet about my existence. I didn’t tell you to kill the Empress, so why are you already acting like this?”
Roxana said with an unpleasant expression.
Already?
Bonis felt ominous in those words.
However, she immediately lowered her gaze, judging that it would be bad for her father to provoke Roxana’s feelings.
Realizing that her father’s life depended on her, Bonis began to fear Roxana’s presence.
“I’ll take this upstairs.”
Roxana said, holding a tray of lemon tea.
She left the kitchen first.
Bonis sat down on a chair in the kitchen and continued to stare blankly at the kitchen door.
‘Come to your senses.’
Bonis shook her head and got up, drank a glass of water, and calmed herself down.
“The important thing is that my father is alive...”
If he were alive, why didn’t he come see me all this time?
The questions that started from there continued until they even stirred up the resentment toward her father that she had kept hidden.
But in the end, just knowing that her father was alive filled her heart.
‘If he had lived with the Lord of the Tower, his life wouldn’t have been so hard.’
It was fortunate. Even that was something to be thankful for.
But was it really okay not to tell Zelda about Roxana’s existence?
“If I tell, my father will be in danger.”
All she had to do was pretend not to know about Roxana’s existence.
So it wasn’t a betrayal.
Bonis convinced herself like that.
“I just didn’t hear anything.”
But even at that moment of decision, her heart was not at ease.
Bonis didn’t know why Roxana had come here using teleportation, so her anxiety was even greater.
And what kind of potion had she requested that her father had refused?
Was it perhaps related to Her Majesty the Empress?
Bonis thought she should go up to the second floor and meet Zelda.
She opened the kitchen door and went out.
As she walked toward the stairs, Prince Tesla staggered toward her from the hallway on the other side. He seemed to be coming up to his room after drinking a tonic with the guests in the reception room.
“Who is this? Aren’t you my mistress?”
Prince Tesla’s lips curled up, and he approached Bonis to pick a fight.
Knock knock-.
Roxana knocked on the door where the Emperor and Empress of the Lapion Empire were staying.
After a while, the door opened.
Roxana’s sight of his chest muscles, half-opened under his robe, came into view.
“What’s going on?”
It was Emperor Linel.
Roxana hadn’t expected him to open the door himself.
“Ah... Her Majesty the Empress...”
When she actually saw his face, she was speechless.
Linel’s face, seen up close, was much brighter than when she had seen it through the crystal ball.
Even though the gaze was not affectionate, it felt like all the nerves in her body had stopped functioning when she saw his blue eyes looking down at her.
Roxana looked up at him, her lips quivering like an idiot.
“Did the Empress ask you to bring it?”
Linel asked, looking down at the lemon tea Roxana had brought.
“Yes... Your Majesty.”
“Give it to me.”
He tried to receive the tray himself.
Linel's fingertips brushed against Roxana's hand holding the tray.
'Cold.'
Just like last time, she felt coldness from Emperor Linel this time.
It wasn't even winter, but could there be someone whose hands were this cold even in the middle of summer?
Roxana remembered reading rumors about Emperor Linel in a gossip magazine.
The nobles of the Principality of Aklatto basically admire the royal families and nobles of the continent.
Due to this influence, magazines that reported news from each country on the continent were popular, and one day, there was an article about the Emperor of the Lapion Empire in that magazine.
He was handsome, but he avoided women and had a very cold personality. People who actually met him described him as an ice man, saying that Emperor Linel was really cold.
At the time, she thought it was just joking, but now that she looks back, it was a very credible article.
If I hand him the tray like this, the door will close, right?
Roxana unconsciously tightened her grip on the tray and said.
“I’ll... bring it, Your Majesty,”
Roxana said to him, glancing at the table.
“No need to do that.”
Linel firmly refused and tried to take the tray, but Zelda’s urgent voice rang out from somewhere.
“Your Majesty, Your Majesty!”
Linel and Roxana, who had been standing facing Zelda’s scream, simultaneously turned their heads toward the direction from which the voice had come.
Her voice seemed to be coming from inside the bathroom.
“Zelda, what’s wrong!”
Linel took his hand off the tray and ran to the bathroom.
“I slipped! Oh my, my back...”
From the groaning sound, it was clear that Zelda was still lying on the bathroom floor, unable to get up.
“Ha, this is...!”
Emperor Linel let out a worried sigh.
Roxana entered the room and placed lemon tea on the table.
Then she headed to the bathroom as well and found the magic potion bottle she had seen in Bellos’ room on the vanity.
It was a bottle Zelda had not yet drunk.
From what she overheard in Bellos’ room, the herbs for the magic potion were said to be in the Tebello Empire on the southern continent.
Roxana glanced toward the bathroom.
It seemed clear that there wasn’t enough potion.
That must be why she said there was no time.
If that was the case, if one of those magic potion bottles disappeared...
‘What would happen to Empress Zelda?’
Roxana quickly put the magic potion bottle into her dress pocket.
“Where do you belong? Why did you lie to Her Majesty the Empress that you were a maid in the kitchen?”
Roxana thought about disappearing at this point as Bonis continued to question her, but she changed her mind.
Roxana smiled leisurely and looked back at Bonis, who was questioning her fiercely.
“Do you know how to make lemon tea?”
“W-what?!”
“If you know, make some for me. I have to take it to Her Majesty the Empress.”
“...No, what the hell!”
Bonis remembered that Misha, Rogie’s maid, had been attacked by someone yesterday.
She had a fleeting suspicion that she might have something to do with that incident, but since the person who attacked Misha was a healthy man, it couldn’t have been the servant in front of her.
Bonis thought about Zelda’s words that she had met in front of the Magic Tower Lord’s room.
Did she change into the servant’s clothes to enjoy a secret meeting with the Magic Tower Lord?
Looking at Roxana’s appearance, she wondered if she was a VIP.
Judging by her confident attitude and speech, it was a reasonable guess.
Bonis’s thoughts were going in various directions.
“Do you know how to make lemon tea?”
Roxana asked again.
“You, you know who I am and give such orders, right?”
“Logan Epin. Logan is your father, right?”
Roxana raised one corner of her mouth and said.
“Who are you! Who do you know my father?!”
“You look alike. Your father is very worried about you.”
“What nonsense! My father died a long time ago...”
Bonis thought that her missing father was already dead.
“Young Lady will soon find out, but I’ll tell you in advance that your father’s life is in my hands.”
That meant that he was still alive. Looking at Bonis’s wide-eyed face, Roxana added,
“If you don’t believe me, go ask Bellos later.”
“To the Lord of the Tower?”
“Yes, he has been living as a butler in his tower ever since he escaped from the Shattonil royal family.”
Bonis stared at Roxana.
“I am Roxana. I am the Princess of the Principality of Aklatto. Have you heard my name?”
“Ah.”
Even if she was not the Princess of the Principality of Aklatto, Bonis knew her existence. Why is the Princess of that island nation here? How is she? And she is wearing a dress all the time? She didn’t fall from the sky, did she?
Bonis couldn’t believe Roxana’s words, but she couldn’t ignore her because she mentioned her father, Logan. Furthermore, Roxana’s face was arrogant, but it didn’t seem false.
My father is alive...!
Bonis put his hand on my pounding heart.
“I asked Logan to make a deal. But he was so stubborn that he insisted on seeing blood that he didn’t need to see, your father.”
“You, what did you do to my father?”
Bonis’s heart thumped as he thanked God for being alive.
“I politely asked Logan to make me something, but he turned me down. Oh, it’s not life-threatening. It’s just that he’s a bit uncomfortable moving around for a while? He’s a wizard, so he’ll heal himself.”
Roxana answered calmly, looking around the kitchen. Then, she casually explained to Bonis how she came to this villa from Aklatto Island. And a brief update on Logan. Bonis realized that Roxana’s words weren’t nonsense as she listened to her father’s story.
Her eyes turned red as she thought of her father, whom she had buried deep in her heart. Her mind was in disarray at the sudden news of her father.
“I think you shouldn’t tell the Empress about me. I believe Miss Bonis is wiser than your father. And you’ll have to meet him soon, right?”
It was an obvious threat, but the words didn’t feel so cruel because of the anticipation of meeting her father, who she thought was missing, or rather, already dead.
“What do you... want from me?”
Bonis, who had been absent-minded for a while, asked Roxana.
“First, lemon tea.”
No matter how much Roxana looked around the kitchen, she had no idea where the lemons were. Bonis took a deep breath and let it out to calm her mind, and started looking for lemons. After searching here and there in the kitchen, Bonis found lemons and honey without difficulty. Since she had seen Sharon make lemon tea before, she thought she could do a good job.
Two cups of lemon tea made by Bonis’s hands were placed on the tray.
“Logan will be safe if he makes the potion I want. I promise you that.”
Roxana looked down at the finished lemon tea and said to Bonis.
“If you have anything to say to Logan, tell me. I’ll tell him. I’m planning to visit him tomorrow.”
Bonis opened her mouth at Roxana’s words, but the words didn’t come out right away.
There were so many things she wanted to say to her father. No, there were even more things she wanted to ask.
However, she put all those words aside. All she wanted was to hope that she would be safe until they met again.
“Tell him to take care of his health...Please tell him to stay healthy. Told him to stay healthy until we meet again...”
She tried not to cry, but the time of longing had been too long, so tears flowed down uncontrollably.
Roxana stared blankly at Bonis and nodded.
She felt strangely at the love for her father that she didn’t have.
“I’ll tell him that.”
“I can’t betray Her Majesty the Empress.”
Bonis blurted out.
“I didn’t ask you to do anything. What are you talking about? Should I take that to mean that your loyalty to the Empress is more important than your father’s life?”
“That’s not what I said!”
“Or just shut up.”
Bonis flinched at Roxana’s emotionless words.
“I told you to keep quiet about my existence. I didn’t tell you to kill the Empress, so why are you already acting like this?”
Roxana said with an unpleasant expression.
Already?
Bonis felt ominous in those words.
However, she immediately lowered her gaze, judging that it would be bad for her father to provoke Roxana’s feelings.
Realizing that her father’s life depended on her, Bonis began to fear Roxana’s presence.
“I’ll take this upstairs.”
Roxana said, holding a tray of lemon tea.
She left the kitchen first.
Bonis sat down on a chair in the kitchen and continued to stare blankly at the kitchen door.
‘Come to your senses.’
Bonis shook her head and got up, drank a glass of water, and calmed herself down.
“The important thing is that my father is alive...”
If he were alive, why didn’t he come see me all this time?
The questions that started from there continued until they even stirred up the resentment toward her father that she had kept hidden.
But in the end, just knowing that her father was alive filled her heart.
‘If he had lived with the Lord of the Tower, his life wouldn’t have been so hard.’
It was fortunate. Even that was something to be thankful for.
But was it really okay not to tell Zelda about Roxana’s existence?
“If I tell, my father will be in danger.”
All she had to do was pretend not to know about Roxana’s existence.
So it wasn’t a betrayal.
Bonis convinced herself like that.
“I just didn’t hear anything.”
But even at that moment of decision, her heart was not at ease.
Bonis didn’t know why Roxana had come here using teleportation, so her anxiety was even greater.
And what kind of potion had she requested that her father had refused?
Was it perhaps related to Her Majesty the Empress?
Bonis thought she should go up to the second floor and meet Zelda.
She opened the kitchen door and went out.
As she walked toward the stairs, Prince Tesla staggered toward her from the hallway on the other side. He seemed to be coming up to his room after drinking a tonic with the guests in the reception room.
“Who is this? Aren’t you my mistress?”
Prince Tesla’s lips curled up, and he approached Bonis to pick a fight.
***
Knock knock-.
Roxana knocked on the door where the Emperor and Empress of the Lapion Empire were staying.
After a while, the door opened.
Roxana’s sight of his chest muscles, half-opened under his robe, came into view.
“What’s going on?”
It was Emperor Linel.
Roxana hadn’t expected him to open the door himself.
“Ah... Her Majesty the Empress...”
When she actually saw his face, she was speechless.
Linel’s face, seen up close, was much brighter than when she had seen it through the crystal ball.
Even though the gaze was not affectionate, it felt like all the nerves in her body had stopped functioning when she saw his blue eyes looking down at her.
Roxana looked up at him, her lips quivering like an idiot.
“Did the Empress ask you to bring it?”
Linel asked, looking down at the lemon tea Roxana had brought.
“Yes... Your Majesty.”
“Give it to me.”
He tried to receive the tray himself.
Linel's fingertips brushed against Roxana's hand holding the tray.
'Cold.'
Just like last time, she felt coldness from Emperor Linel this time.
It wasn't even winter, but could there be someone whose hands were this cold even in the middle of summer?
Roxana remembered reading rumors about Emperor Linel in a gossip magazine.
The nobles of the Principality of Aklatto basically admire the royal families and nobles of the continent.
Due to this influence, magazines that reported news from each country on the continent were popular, and one day, there was an article about the Emperor of the Lapion Empire in that magazine.
He was handsome, but he avoided women and had a very cold personality. People who actually met him described him as an ice man, saying that Emperor Linel was really cold.
At the time, she thought it was just joking, but now that she looks back, it was a very credible article.
If I hand him the tray like this, the door will close, right?
Roxana unconsciously tightened her grip on the tray and said.
“I’ll... bring it, Your Majesty,”
Roxana said to him, glancing at the table.
“No need to do that.”
Linel firmly refused and tried to take the tray, but Zelda’s urgent voice rang out from somewhere.
“Your Majesty, Your Majesty!”
Linel and Roxana, who had been standing facing Zelda’s scream, simultaneously turned their heads toward the direction from which the voice had come.
Her voice seemed to be coming from inside the bathroom.
“Zelda, what’s wrong!”
Linel took his hand off the tray and ran to the bathroom.
“I slipped! Oh my, my back...”
From the groaning sound, it was clear that Zelda was still lying on the bathroom floor, unable to get up.
“Ha, this is...!”
Emperor Linel let out a worried sigh.
Roxana entered the room and placed lemon tea on the table.
Then she headed to the bathroom as well and found the magic potion bottle she had seen in Bellos’ room on the vanity.
It was a bottle Zelda had not yet drunk.
From what she overheard in Bellos’ room, the herbs for the magic potion were said to be in the Tebello Empire on the southern continent.
Roxana glanced toward the bathroom.
It seemed clear that there wasn’t enough potion.
That must be why she said there was no time.
If that was the case, if one of those magic potion bottles disappeared...
‘What would happen to Empress Zelda?’
Roxana quickly put the magic potion bottle into her dress pocket.
Support Novellate!
Comments
Post a Comment