Chapter 16: Chapter 15

Evelina seemed to be dreaming. Strangely, her mind was dim, but her ears were as sensitive as chasing sounds.

“Didn’t you say the Empress is back?”

“Ha, but I thought she’d be back soon…!”

“Juk, no… drag him to the dungeon and behead him.”

“Your Majesty! Help me! Your Majesty!”

Evelina wanted to wake up from the terrible dream, but her body wouldn’t move. It was clear that she was paralyzed by sleep paralysis. It must be a dream.

She saw Kaiden’s strange expression through her weakly open eyelids. He looked like he was about to cry. He couldn’t have made that face. It must have been a dream.

“Ah…”

She was completely knocked out like that.

~~~~

“Your Majesty, I’ll do it.”

“Who said you could say whatever you want first?”

Evelina seemed to have another nightmare. Mixed with Kaiden’s overbearing voice, it was the voice of Countess Elbain.

“Get out.”

“… Yes.”

Perhaps the Countess went out, because the sound of her shoes was getting farther and farther. Evelina tried to move her body, but she couldn’t. She tried to reach out for her not to go, but she couldn’t move her nightmare body due to sleep paralysis.

“Ha…”

Evelina became frustrated in her dream because of Kaiden, who sighed deeply. Even if she was dreaming, she wondered why she was dreaming like this.

She wanted to see her father or mother, if she fainted and was dreaming. That’s why she waited in front of the audience room.

She thought the problem was the new prescription drug. She wondered if she was going to die in a month because she changed her medicine, but she didn’t think it was the case because she originally had a heart problem.

“I almost forgot that Lina was weak.”

He spoke to himself and soon wiped her forehead with a warm cloth.

It was such a strange dream. From his look to his actions, he wasn’t the kind of person who could do this, and she couldn’t understand why she was dreaming like this. What he showed her was a person she would never have thought of being capable of doing such a thing.

A warm and damp cloth wiped her eyes and soon wet her cheeks. Then it fell, and there was a strange comfort in the warmth that reached and fell.

Then there was a sound of water dripping. Evelina somehow wondered if he was bringing the cloth after wetting it himself.

He wiped her lips with a hot cloth again.

“Evelina.”

She couldn’t answer and was like that.

“I’m sorry about yesterday.”

It’s definitely a dream.

She fell asleep shortly after that.

~~~~

“Why can’t he come today?”

Countess Elbain looked at Evelina as if she was in trouble. Then she answered, wiggling her hand.

“Actually…”

“What is it?”

Evelina felt uncomfortable, even though she thought it was natural for her maid, the Countess of Elbain, to have trouble with her. Especially when this was the case. She looked troubled, as if she was going to say something she shouldn’t, causing a tension of not knowing what was going to come out of her mouth.

“Tell me quickly.”

When Evelina spoke indignantly, the Countess of Elbain said with a sigh,

“The Marquis of Logias went last night to help with the floods of Buro Delmas.”

“What?”

“Did you hear about the Delmas flood?”

“Yes, I heard. But why is my father going for it?”

Evelina asked, perplexed. Normally the lord who ruled the region was supposed to go. The Delmas area was far from the Marquis of Logias. No, not far, the Marquis of Logias had a granary in the south, but the Delmas area was at the forefront of the west.

“What about Count Delmas?”

“His Majesty has commanded that.”

Evelina was about to ask her ‘why’, but she stopped.

It was common sense for my father to go as far away as Delmas. She and her father only managed to save their lives, and from the Emperor’s point of view, it might be like a game of torment.

What if the act of saving her in the first place was not for mercy but for revenge? So maybe the strong men were also sent to the place where they were supposed to die?

“His Majesty, where is His Majesty?”

Delmas was such a place. It is a place where the security was not good and even strong men who go there get sick and die. It was also the place where Baron Decarion, who went to calm the floods last year, was burned at the stake as an example by an angry mob after a riot broke out.

“His Majesty is in the office.”

“I will go there.”

Evelina wished he would be angry with her instead. Perhaps because of her refusal to ditch her father, he would send her father to the far west, Delmas, which was famous for its barren and frequent floods. In fact, it is also an area of contact with Tesnia, who they were not on good terms with.

“Your Majesty!”

Evelina was unable to maintain the coolness she would normally have, because of resignation and anxiety for the first month of her life.

“Ugh… !”

Evelina was somehow strange. She used to have a weak heart, so running was too much for her, but now she can only walk so fast that her chest hurt. It felt like someone was squeezing her heart, and the pain was so unfamiliar to her.

A strong electric current flowed from her heart and seemed to cover her entire body. Maybe that’s why her eyes were dizzy and she almost fell to the floor, but her face went dark.

“Your Majesty. Are you okay?”

Evelina gasped for her breath, and she soon returned to blurred vision. She was floating on her floor, and it was Usher Fronen who held her by my side so she didn’t fall.

“Sir Usher…”

“Your Majesty.”

She gradually regained her composure, and she quickly stood upright, stealing a cold sweat from her temple.

“I was dizzy for a while.”

“You better rethink the palace.”

“It’s okay. It’s not like that.”

Evelina caught her breath for a moment, and then she began to head back to the office of the Emperor’s Palace.

Her heart was beating too fast. It was beating wildly, as if her arrhythmia was severe, and it was as if a drum were beating loudly in her ears..

“Ah…”

When Evelina reached the imperial palace, the knights noticed, and immediately blocked her way.

“What are you doing?”

“Your Majesty is not allowed to enter the Imperial Palace now.”

“Why?”

“His Majesty’s orders.”

Evelina couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t let her in.

As expected, what happened at that time was a dream. If he were worried about her falling down, he wouldn’t have stopped her like this. Maybe she weakened after coming to the palace. Unlike when she was a Lady at Logias.

“Tell him I’ll wait.”

“You can’t do that. Go back.”

“I’ll be waiting.”

“There was an order to force you to return.”

Evelina felt so ashamed of the dream she had. She really felt like she lost herself because she was separated from her family. If it’s because she had to become conscious of the Imperial Palace, unlike in the past.

“Get out of the way.”

“Your Majesty!”

And if he really brought her in to get back at her, rather than to save her.

“Your Majesty!”

She couldn’t just die like this. Then he could do the most wretched thing he wished for. If so, he could do what he wanted to do something even more terrible.

She had more to fear than death. It was the death of her parents who cherished her like a jewel that she was worried about rather than herself. Those who saved her from her miserable fate, who may have died after living in poverty. She thought it was the root of this life.

“Your Majesty! Please wait! Your Majesty!”

Everyone was too surprised to avoid Evelina as she pushed in and couldn’t stop her. They were warning her, saying she shouldn’t come in, but when she pushed forward anyways, they were helpless and avoided her.

Evelina felt a sense of humiliation because she wondered what the hell Kaiden ordered, that the knight didn’t even want to touch her. At the same time, she strode in, ignored the palpitations of her heart, and went straight to the office.

Then, she shouted at the guard who blocked the door, not letting her enter.

“Kaiden! Kaiden! Are you inside?”

When Evelina called out, there was a loud, dull sound inside. She wondered if Kaiden might have broken the chair inside out of anger.

Then a little fear came. Nevertheless, she didn’t want to back down. Although she wasn’t the real Evelina Logias, she was the one they loved more than anyone until now.

No matter what anyone said, she was the only child in the Logias family and the daughter of the Marquis of Logias.

“Lina!”

Soon, with a snapping sound, Kaiden’s voice was heard again.

“Lina? What’s going on? And how did you get in?”

Kaiden seemingly had rushed out, as one of his well-tousled hairs popped out and drew attention.

“Get out of my way.”

As Kaiden beckoned, the guards blocking Evelina quickly stepped aside.

“What’s the matter, Lina?”

When he asked again, Evelina’s heart seemed to crumble.

It’s a month anyway. In her remaining one month of time, what was shame and what was regret? Thinking so, she grabbed Kaiden’s sleeve.

“It’s my fault.”

“What do you mean?”

“Yesterday.”

“What?”

Evelina blushed as she apologized for her actions for refusing to see him. Her face, heated by her shame and contempt, rose to her ears and made her bow her head.

“The Empress did nothing wrong to me. What the hell are you talking about?”

Evelina noticed that he was not willing to forgive me easily.

Yeah, if what he wanted was to crush her pride and have her, if it could save her parents, then her body, which was going to die anyway, was nothing.

With that determination, she wrapped her arm around Kaiden’s neck. Even though she was wearing heels, there was a big difference in height so that she had to get up on her tiptoes to put her arms around his neck.

She hugged him as if to drag him down and kissed him.