"Your Highness, please wait here for a moment."
After leaving the ladies' room, Medea did not return to the banquet hall, but walked to the corridor on the other side.
"Neril, ask Cesare to see me at the entrance."
Now that all of today's goals have been achieved, it's time to return to the Palace.
"Yes, Your Highness. Shall we take Sir Sissair with you?"
"I don't think it's a good idea right now. Send him to a safe place in the capital, and take him to the villa in a few days."
To naturally conclude the play that took place in front of Perdiccas Il today, it was better to pretend to keep an uncomfortable distance from Sissair now.
"Yes, I will bring His Highness the First Prince."
It was time for Medea, who had sent Neril, to leave the long corridor with Saya.
"...Marquis of Eratosthene."
Medea encountered an old man in a gray priest suit and immediately recognized him.
"Your Highness, the 1st Princess."
"I hope you will go home carefully today."
Medea greeted him first.
This was still the imperial palace, and based on the old man's disposition that he had heard and observed in the world, there would be no long conversation.
It was when she was about to turn around.
"How can a foolish person not see?"
The old man's low, deep voice stopped Medea's steps.
"What are you talking about..."
"Even if you bring down the Western Empress and move the country to put him on the throne, are you sure that Your Highness's sacrifice will be rewarded?"
Medea raised her head and stared at Eratosthene.
Leaning back in his chair, his shaking body barely leaned back. Eratosthene continue.
"Is it because you don't know how heartless these imperial blood flowers are, or do you know but turn away? This old man... I hope it's not the latter."
"Sir, I am always grateful for the favor you have shown me. However, I think the words are a bit excessive."
Discomfort flashed across her fair face, but her eyes were determined.
It was an eye full of unbreakable confidence and elegant dignity.
'Eleanor.'
In the old man's eyes, he saw his daughter's Image superimposed on the majestic Princess in front of him.
"Father, don't worry. He loves me. We won't change. So please believe in me and my choice."
A faint but painful smile leaked from Eratosthene's wrinkled mouth.
He had watched as the Princess of Valdina silently opened the gap in the Katzen imperial family, as he had expected.
But today, after seeing her with Cesare, he felt that he should warn her.
"No matter how brilliant your strategy is, you can never win against him with that naivety that believes that the alliance will be rewarded."
So that this clever woman would not be deceived by the imperial family's clever and sweet poison.
"The moment he takes the throne, your sacrifice will be forgotten, and your existence will be deceived. How far will you mortgage your life for the sake of a future that will only be betrayed?"
Maybe it was because those words sounded like vitriol thrown at her in her past life.
Medea paused.
"Marquis, you are a good person, but I probably know as much as you know about the transience of the coalition."
She did not feel the need to explain why she chose Chesare instead of Jason.
However, this old man spent many years with his daughter raising an Illegitimate child and enduring humiliation.
And in the end, he lost his daughter forever.
She could understand the anger, so Medea just tried to pass by.
"It's my choice. I have my own calculations, so just wait and see."
"Why don't you know? What is under that spirit?"
However, that appearance was enough to remind Eratosthene of a stubborn daughter who chose a powerless Prince in the middle of the day in the past.
"Cesare, he can do anything to survive. As the person who has been watching him for the longest time... I can guarantee you."
Only his eyes were shining with hatred on his face, like a dry tree branch.
Like a candle that barely extinguishes the last ember.
"Katzen's blood is inherently heartless and greedy. He won't be satisfied even if he swallows both Your Highness and Valdina. His Majesty... Just like he was."
"..."
"Je will swallow everyone around you. You can't hide it with any kind of big guy, cough..."
At that moment, Eratosthenes coughed violently
His body staggered and hit the chair.
Something rolled out of his arms and rolled on the floor and stopped at Medea's feet.
It was a piece of wood that was half soggy.
The moment she discovered it, Medea's eyes lit up.
"Don't be fooled by the giant."
She looked at the old man head-on.
"How can a person who is respected by the world not see the simplest truth, or turn a blind eye to it?"
Her voice was subdued, but there was a clear spark at the end of every word.
"Was there anything he wanted to choose from birth, status, and the nature that the Marquis criticized?"
Medea thought of the Empress's ring, which still remained in Cesare's room, and this wooden toy, which had now fallen to the floor.
A heartless man who can't shake off a moment of affection that he can't shake off.
Medea thinks she understands the feeling that even after all relationships have gone badly, you can never let go of those fleeting memories.
Why is it invisible to this old man and to the world?
"If it's a reward for the coalition, I don't believe it either. What I believe in is a contract that pays back as much as you give. And he has never betrayed my faith in the exchange of gifts."
A fever rose in her head unexpectedly.
Unlike her chest, which seemed to be a spark, her voice was surprisingly cold.
"At least, the Marquis knows better than I do whether he is a man who ignores and gulps what he has received."
"..."
"If you want to deny even that, then the Marquis and I must have different ideas. But we both know one thing, don't we?"
Medea's gaze pierced the old man sharply.
"The starting point of all these tragedies, and the one the Marquis really wants to blame, is not Cesare."
She was unfamiliar with defending someone so passionately.
Still, she wanted to.
No one, no one who shared blood, no one who had been with him for many years, no one gave him such favors.
"Excuse me. Have a good night."
Medea felt no more sympathy for the pale old man and left as it was.
So she didn't notice.
Quiet welcome behind thin doors.
***
Medea left.
"..."
Cesare then staggered until he was completely out of the corridor.
The smooth fingers that were wrapping around the handle fell into the air.
It would be a lie if his maternal grandfather, who identifies his nature with his biological father's, did not leave a scar.
However, it was not unexpected at all.
No matter how he reciprocated, he had long known that his own birth would not be able to completely make up for the loss left by the Empress and Eratosthene.
Still, there was something else that Cesare was worried about.
Perhaps the accusation will not shake Medea's heart.
So she wouldn't even want to leave him.
Because of that, the moment he saw the two of them facing each other, he didn't know that they were chasing him like this.
"Was there anything he wanted to choose from birth, status, and the nature that the Marquis criticized?"
However, Medea's voice, which resolutely surrounded him in the face of Eratosthenes, stopped him.
It seeped into his chest like rain falling in a drought.
He felt a mixture of loy and misery, a contradictory feeling.
Medea found out that no one could standby his side and left.
Still, the fact that she recognized the loneliness that he was unaware of, or rather, tried to ignore.
"Medea."
The one who lifted him from the edge of death and fully understood him.
At the same time as the fullness of his heart tightened, Cesare was aware that he would be afraid of this feeling forever.
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