Chapter 6

It was still an impression that looked calm and quiet..

The appearance was strangely irritating to his nerves.

Why?

It wasn’t that she hated to see.

It was miserable enough to look shabby, but Astelle itself did not hate to see it.

Even now, it was a face without a make-up, but the delicate light green eyes and light pink lips were beautiful and had a natural dignity.

‘It was like that.’

She was a fiancée from a very young age and even married with him.

He seemed to have never seen Astelle properly.

Astelle slowly smiled as she was telling Lyndon something.

As she looked up at Lyndon, the light of the sun lit her eyes with a gentle laughter.

As her pale red lips drew slightly curved, a pale smile blossomed on her elegant face.

Kaizen looking at it quickly walked over there.

“Your Majesty… !”

Suddenly, when the emperor approached, Lyndon was surprised and hurriedly polite.

Astelle, who was sitting also stood up.

“I have something to talk about for a moment, so take the child.”

Upon hearing the emperor’s orders, Lyndon carefully hugged the child.

Her soothing appearance was very good.

How long have you been raising that child?

If the commoners have money, they hire the nanny to take care of the child, but a woman named a princess is raising a child like that.

Neither is it her real nephew, nor the child her cousin has left.

Astelle apparently had lived as a maid and nanny under her poor grandfather under an exploitation.

* * *

Astelle was very surprised when Kaizen suddenly approached.

She had something to hide, so when she suddenly faced him like this, her heart was full.

Until she gets to the capital, she doesn’t want to mix up as much as possible…

She concealed that mind, and she forcibly asked, pretending to be calm.

“What’s going on?”

“Why didn’t you marry again?”

Astelle looked up at Kaizen without a word for a moment.

She couldn’t understand why this man suddenly asked her something like this.

“Wouldn’t it be better to remarry than to live so hard?”

“……”

Are you really curious about that?

Astelle knew he was insensitive, but she was a little surprised.

He asked why she didn’t remarry?

Of course, the first reason she didn’t consider remarriage was because of Theor.

But Astelle came up with a more honest answer.

“It was enough to go through such a thing once.”

Kaizen’s red eyes sank dark at the word ‘such a thing’.

It seemed unpleasant for Astelle to be honest.

Astelle returned the same question.

“Why didn’t Your Majesty remarry?”

“I didn’t need a wife to bother me while acting as my father’s spy.”

It seemed to be a sarcastic sound to Astelle.

Astelle looked down and answered calmly.

“Now you don’t have to worry because all of the costs that might threaten Your Majesty are gone. You can choose the new empress with confidence.”

Astelle said in a calm voice, but the content was a bit of a skepticism about whether he couldn’t invite the empress because he was scared of it.

Astelle has never scratched in this way.

It was outrageous than being angry.

Kaizen laughed coldly, staring through Astelle.

“You have changed a lot.”

“Maybe so.”

It has changed. When Astelle see this man, she doesn’t feel any more feelings.

Astelle asked Kaizen for patience because she did not want to continue the conversation.

“If it’s okay, can I go back to the carriage?”

“… Okay.”

Astelle quietly bowed her head to him and headed for the carriage.

Kaizen looked at Astelle’s back for a while and then walked to the place where she was.

The woman he met again in six years was so strange that it was really annoying.

* * *

The entourage arrived at Maern Castle only in the afternoon.

Maern was a castle built in the eastern forest area and was owned by the royal family.

Compared to other castles owned by the emperor near the capital, it was very small, but unlike the small and antique appearance, the interior was very colorful and stylishly decorated.

Kaizen said he was going to take a break from here for a day or two and leave to the capital.

There were knights and attendants waiting in the castle to greet the emperor.

As soon as Kaizen got off the horse, a red-haired young man approached and greet him.

As Astelle got off her wagon, he quickly approached her.

“Nice to meet you Lady Astelle. This is Vellian, Count Claude, His Majesty’s secretary.”

The man who introduced himself as Vellian was gentle-looking appearance, with soft red curly hair and green eyes with slightly drooping ends.

He had a handsome face in his own way, but he felt cute rather than handsome.

It was Astelle’s first time seeing him.

It seemed that he was a new bureaucrat who had been selected by Kaizen and entered the court.

“Hello, Count, nice to meet you.”

At that moment, she heard a clear and soft woman’s voice from the inside of the castle.

“Your Majesty! You have finally arrived.”

An embarrassing expression passed on Vellian’s face who was trying to tell Astelle something.

A Lady, a blonde nobleman, was coming out of the castle.

The Lady’s gaze looking at Kaizen turned to Astelle with Vellian.

“Oh my, who is that?”

* * *

The woman who stepped forward looked very young.

Is she at most about twenty-two years old?

She was a childish face, but she was a gorgeous and beauty.

It was clear that she was still an unmarried lady from seeing that the fine grained honey blond was fixed simply and the rest was loosened long.

The blonde lady asked, looking at Astelle with slightly alert eyes.

“Who is this person?”

Astelle made an eye contact with her.

She belatedly remembered who this lady was.

“Lady Marianne, it’s been a long time.”

Apparently this lady was the eldest daughter of the Marquis of Croychen.

When Astelle was in the social world, she was a cute adolescent girl who was only about 14 and 15 years old.

It was already 6 years ago…

“Do you know me?”

As Marianne was confused, Vellian, who was next to her, quickly interrupted.

“Lady Marianne, this is the former empress.”

“Your Majesty the Empress?”

At the words of the former empress, Marianne observed Astelle with a soft expression.

Her slightly vigilant eyes passed by Astelle’s casually loosened white blonde and a drab dress without a single pattern.

A ridicule stood at Marianne’s mouth.

“Oh, God… you was kicked out after that day…”

“La, Lady…!”

A disrespectful remarks by Marianne made Vellian bewildered and tried to stop her.

But Astelle didn’t care at all and laughed.

“Yes, I am the empress who was kicked out after a day. I guess you remember now.”

Perhaps this little girl was one of the emperor’s lovers.

The Croychen family is an emerging family, and it used to be insignificant, but she had heard at first glance that now that the great nobles fell, ofcourse the new noble family receiving the trust of Kaizen.

Marianne bit her mouth with her fat face when Astelle scratched her inside, but her opponent didn’t get angry and laughed.

Then she found the little boy behind Astelle, and she stopped.

“Who is this child?”

“He is the child of my deceased cousin brother. I brought him because I am caring for him now.”

Marianne quickly lost interest in Theor as well, when she said he was her cousin’s child.

On the other hand, Theor couldn’t take his eyes off her Marianne.

He seemed to be curious because he had never seen such a gorgeous woman.

As he looked up at Marianne, the child bowed and said hello.

“Hello… Lady.”

Her maternal grandfather, who had lived as an old nobleman, used to sometimes teach Theor how to treat the ladies.

Well, he didn’t teach bad things, so she left it…

Marianne was still looking to him, but Vellian admired as he looked at the child.

“Wow, the little master is polite.”

Looking at it, Vellian didn’t wonder who he was even when he saw the child dropping off earlier.

Before the entourage arrived here, they seemed to have heard of the former empress and the child she had brought.

“If it’s okay, I’ll show you where to stay.”

Vellian guided Astelle with a very kind and polite attitude.

Marianne left behind her, she wondered why the former empress came with the emperor and she looked shabby.

Astelle took the child and walked the corridor along with Vellian.

As soon as she turned around the corner, Vellian apologized to Astelle.

“Forgive me. Marianne doesn’t know the situation yet. I’ll talk slowly later.”

“Never mind. I’m okay. I’m rather sorry that I seem to have offended the person who is favored by His Majesty.”

Vellian pauses and stares at Astelle blankly.

“Pardon? No. He’s not like that…”

Vellian tried to say something, but he just shut his mouth.

It was taboo for him, the secretary, to say this or that about the emperor’s private life.