CYSWTF - Chapter 131

Episode 131. The First Courage Since Birth


In Ryuel's silence, Locard said.

"I will show no tolerance for the neighboring kingdoms of the Empire; I will demonstrate my power before talking to them, and Smilean's trade will surely suffer."

"..."

"Does King Smailean really want that? Even so, you are provoking him instead of helping him."

Ryuel's voice in response became lower and rougher.

"Under Emperor Orl, the Prince will have more to worry about than divorce. There is no need for Lady Kydel to get caught up in that. Send her to me. With a new name and new identity, I will use her much more preciously than Prince Grayon."

Locard raised the corners of his mouth crookedly.

"Shut up."

Ryuel's eyes twisted at the unexpected response.

Locard thought further conversation was unnecessary. His last greeting was a notice.

"My wife and I will make His Highness Grayon the Emperor together. I will rejoice later, thinking of your pitiful face across the sea. Lord Ryuel."

***

Deep into the night. Miliora tossed and turned, blaming Lorisha.

'Why don't we sleep another night!'

And as she recalled Ryuel's rough voice, her thoughts kept drifting back to the tailor shop incident.

If it were her old self, she wouldn't have cared whether her maid was insulted or not. If she had just eavesdropped on the fight, and if her maid had been humiliated, she would have punished her more harshly for humiliating her. Even if she had won, she would have punished her for causing trouble.

However, when she saw how Kalin treated Lorisha that day, she became angrier than before. It was natural to be angry about the insult to her, and she also thought that Lorisha was being treated unfairly.

She didn’t know what else to do.

Kalin had already been making fun of the royal family by insulting the royal maids, so she could easily trample on the authority of a mere Princess.

So Miliora did whatever came to mind. She had grown up seeing the way the chief maid treated those powerful young ladies all her life.

The palm of her hand that had slapped her cheek was hot, but as time passed, she didn’t feel bad.

In the Princess’s palace, after punishing the maids, she felt good at the moment, but her mood would get worse for a few days, but strangely, it was different then.

‘I was so touched that you protected me earlier... Your Highness, you were a brave person from the beginning.’

Miliora knew that her insignificant Lorisha had been secretly looking at her with pride.

She realized that day. Doing something for others makes you feel good. It might hurt at the moment when you muster up the courage, but the memory of it makes you feel good for a long time.

The gaze of someone who looked at her with affection was so precious to her. But if she went to Smilean, she would never meet Lorisha or Rond.

As the daughter of the Emperor, she had known all her life that she would be married for political reasons. However, after learning the feeling of liking someone for the first time in her life, she could not go back to the way she was before.

But in a distant land where even the language was different, and alone again.

Just thinking about it made her teeth chatter.

She regretted neglecting her foreign language studies because she thought nothing of her future.

Miliora tossed and turned and finally got up.

She told herself,

“Miliora, if you don’t have courage now, your courage will never be used again.”

She muttered that and got dressed. Then she headed to the 3mpress’s palace with only Eria in tow.

***

The Empress was just about to go to bed after reading a book. She had allowed Miliora to visit because she was so shocked.

There was a limit to how much she could hate her, coming here on such a late night, to see if she had lost her mind.

Miliora fell face down on the floor as soon as she entered the Empress’s bedroom.

“Your Majesty!”

“...”

“I’ve talked a lot with the Smilean messenger and the Prince. But, but...”

The Empress once again felt sorry for Milliora, who couldn’t even finish what she wanted to say properly. At least she wasn’t angry since the Princess was finally useful for the first time.

“Go back now. I should go to sleep.”

“No!”

The Empress opened her eyes wide. She was so shocked that she wanted to hear what it was talking about.

“Prince Smilean enjoys hunting and drinking, and says that if his wife serves him well and has many children, he will cherish and love her for the rest of his life.”

Milliora’s voice trembled.

“But I can’t sleep because the mere thought of a man skinning an animal is so horrible, and my mind goes blank when I think of a man with a loud voice talking even louder when he’s drunk.”

“...Ha.”

“They say that if I give him many children, he’ll love me, but I want my husband to love me because I’m pretty, not because I gave him children and served him well. In fact, I’m scared of having children!”

“Go away now.”

“I’m scared of him just hearing him. I’d be so sad if I thought that my home empire was across the sea and I couldn’t walk back. Your Majesty, even if I didn’t marry and form an alliance, the empire would still be smiling at least...”

“Shut up.”

The Empress couldn’t hold it in any longer.

The firmness in her voice filled the room with only one candle lit, and it was hard enough to crush Milliora’s heart.

Milliora opened her lips without realizing it and gasped. The strength in her arms, which were lying face down, kept draining, so she tightened her entire body.

“Don’t disturb my mind, which has just become comfortable after reading a good book. Go back. I think I’ll have nightmares because of you.”

“Your Majesty, the Empress!”

It was the first time in her life that she rebelled. Miliora trembled and said,

“I won’t marry Smilean! I’ll go and tell His Majesty myself.”

The Empress got up from her chair and walked slowly toward her. Miliora lay down and watched her mother’s bare feet approach her.

The Empress knelt in front of Miliora, grabbed Miliora’s hair, and pinned her to the shiny floor.

“Ugh!”

“What would happen if I waved my hand wildly, Miliora?”

The Empress’s arms gradually gained more strength. Miliora desperately held on, putting strength into her arms. The Empress’s arms also trembled.

If the Empress continued to wave her hair, Miliora would definitely have a large scar on her forehead.

“Your Majesty the Empress, please...!”

“What else can I use you for but that face? But if that face is ruined, where will I put you, useless as you are? I'm worried too. You’re just a bundle of worries for me.”

“It hurts, it hurts!”

“You have to go to Smilean. I’ll take you there myself. I’ll say it again. You’ll definitely go to Smilean, Milliora. If you say something else, I’ll ruin your face right now. You won’t go anywhere, not to Smilean! Do you understand?”

“Sob!”

Milliora burst into tears. Tears flowed down, slightly reducing the friction on her forehead.

“Do you understand?”

“Yes! Yes, Your Majesty!”

The Empress roughly let go of Milliora’s head and said.

“Go away.”

Milliora staggered to her feet.

Before she could leave, the candles in the Empress’s chamber went out, and she came out into the hallway in the darkness. Her heavy breathing mixed with tears flowed into the empty hallway.

Milliora returned to her bedroom and thought. No, she didn’t think.

The reason she had been able to endure until now was the hope that she would one day be able to leave this stinking imperial family.

A vague hope that someone would come along who would value Tagar’s silver hair more than she did now, rather than being sold off as cargo to bear children.

But tonight, Miliora confirmed that it was a delusion.

If the Empress was that stubborn, the Emperor wouldn’t object. In the first place, it was a marriage that no one in Tagar had reason to object to.

Miliora drank the medicine.

It wasn’t anything special. The imperial family all hid the poison in their own places. It was so that Tagar could die with dignity in case of an emergency.

***

I walked, glancing toward the Second Prince’s Palace several times. I felt like someone was pulling the hair on the back of my head, anxious that Prince Kydel might say something rude to Ryuel.

On the other hand, I was angry and seething inside. I felt so pathetic that I had been tormented and troubled all night by the words of a foreigner I had never met before.

And it felt refreshing. Because it was a conclusion.

'Let's not run away, Lorisha.'

Why did I like those words so much?

It was good to have a brave person by my side. Isn't it because Locard Kydel was called a lion cub that he never ran away from his share of trials?

There's nothing more I could have done if I had courage than now, but it wasn't bad for me to feel proud of myself.

Lighthearted, courageous Lorisha without any debt in her heart.

'It's not bad to hear that.'

I arrived at Her Highness's reception room feeling cheerful for the first time in a long time. However, there was no one in the anteroom.

For a moment, goosebumps rose from the top of my head.

I tried to calm down, wondering why I was like this, but my heart started pounding wildly on its own.

When I ran to Her Highness Milliora’s bedroom, Aria and the maids were gathered in front of the door, standing helplessly.

“Aria?”

“Lady Kydel! This is strange. Her Highness isn’t waking up. The door is locked from the inside.”

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