6. Owner of the Jewel

“Ow, my head hurts.”

Vivian clutched her pounding head and tossed and turned on the bed all night before suddenly opening her eyes at some point.

“Huh……? When did I…… come home?”

It was definitely her room. The familiar smell came from the soft, rustling white bedding, and the ceiling reflecting the dawn light was what she’d always seen.

However, she couldn’t remember at all how she’d gotten home from yesterday’s banquet. No, thinking carefully, she had no memory at all from the middle of the banquet onward.

‘……So then after briefly talking with Prince Cain, I entered the banquet hall……right? Right, I entered the banquet hall and…… ah! Champagne!’

After racking her throbbing head for a while and digging through hazy memories, she remembered continuously picking up and drinking champagne at the banquet hall. But no matter how much more she dug into her memory, nothing after that came to mind.

‘Surely…… Father didn’t carry me home on his back……?’

If so, the morning sun rising wouldn’t be welcome at all. Because she’d definitely be severely scolded by her mother as soon as she woke up.

Whether from the hangover or worry about being scolded, cold sweat seemed to rise on her forehead. Even if she’d be scolded, she couldn’t show herself unable to come to her senses from a hangover. If she did that, she’d obviously be scolded even more severely.

Vivian hurriedly gulped down the cold water placed at her bedside. Drinking water seemed to clear her head a bit more. Seeing the grayish-white beyond the curtains, it was a time when the maids had already all woken and were moving busily. Vivian stealthily slipped out of her room and called her maid Mia to ask her to draw bath water.

“Haah…… I feel a bit better now……”

Vivian, who’d secretly requested hangover relief herbal tea from Mia and was sipping it in the bathtub, let out a sigh as she felt the headache gradually subside. Drinking too much and getting drunk was completely unlike her.

Moreover, having her memory cut off was tremendous terror. Anxiety flowed down her spine thinking ‘What if I made a fool of myself to someone, what if I staggered.’

After finishing her tea, Vivian leaned her head back in the middle of the bathtub and loosened her abundant brown hair in the water.

Vivian kept her eyes gently closed while feeling her hair rippling like seaweed on her back and shoulders, then suddenly opened her eyes as an image of someone fondling her hair lovingly came to mind.

‘……What was that?’

It was strange. Such a thing couldn’t have happened. No matter how much she tried to continue the thought, it was only a blurry image that had momentarily surfaced, so Vivian soon forgot it thinking it must be nothing.

However, when she finished bathing and meticulously dried her body before standing in front of the mirror, she felt a strange sense of déjà vu from her lips that seemed slightly more swollen than usual. As she kept looking at her lips, a somehow strange feeling began to arise, but she couldn’t tell why.

‘……Did I have a dirty dream or something?’

Vivian tilted her head while fiddling with her lips. But it was also ridiculous to try remembering a dirty dream she couldn’t even recall now, so she soon shook her head to chase away idle thoughts.

‘Seeing how swollen my lips are, I must have eaten a lot of salty things yesterday?’

It was the most plausible guess.

Whether yesterday’s banquet had ended late, the time when Ezburn and Selena came out of the couple’s bedroom was already close to noon.

“Oh my, Vivian! When did you wake up? You should rest more.”

“Ah, did you sleep well?”

Vivian inwardly braced herself for a reprimand while straightening her back.

However, Ezburn and Selena headed calmly to the dining room without noticing Vivian’s tension at all.

“Vivian. Did you eat?”

“No. Not yet……”

“Don’t tell me you waited until we woke up? I told you there’s no need to do that.”

“I ate so much at yesterday’s banquet that I wasn’t hungry this morning.”

“Huhuh. Well, I overate a bit yesterday too. The atmosphere was so good that I think I drank a bit too much alcohol too.”

“Y-You too, Mother?”

“Yes. But I didn’t drink as much as your father.”

Selena glanced at Ezburn primly.

“Hehehe. Like you said, the atmosphere was so good yesterday. Overlook it occasionally.”

When Ezburn laughed heartily to hide his embarrassment, Selena also chuckled and let it pass. However, they didn’t particularly scold Vivian about her drinking.

“U-um, what time did we…… come home yesterday?”

“We probably got home around…… midnight yesterday.”

“Actually, I must have been so tired that I don’t remember well how I got home either.”

“Right, you looked tired. You’ve rarely stayed at parties until that time, so being tired is natural. Even until leaving the banquet hall yesterday, you seemed to barely be standing, but you fell fast asleep as soon as you got in the carriage. You didn’t overdo it, did you?”

Selena examined Vivian’s complexion. Vivian was grateful to her past self from the previous night. Though she’d been drunk enough for her memory to cut off, she seemed to have pretended to be as normal as possible in front of her parents. Selena and Ezburn might not have noticed due to their own rising intoxication either.

“I had a bit of a headache this morning, but I’m fine now.”

Relieved, Vivian smiled brightly and spread a napkin on her lap.

⁕⁕⁕

“Haah. It’s been so long since I felt refreshed inside. Don’t you think so?”

“I’m also happy that you’re at peace, Mother.”

The day after Kartran’s delegation left, Eldris was drinking tea with Isabella with a much more gentle face than usual.

It was extremely rare for her mother to be in such a good mood, so Isabella felt like shrinking instead, but she just fiddled with her glass cup across from Eldris with her usual elegant posture.

“Huhuh. Honestly, I doubted whether His Majesty the Emperor would really send Elizabeth to Kartran, but even that great love is nothing before national interest.”

The Empress smiled broadly while drinking cold peach tea with an extremely refreshed expression. Just looking at that appearance, she didn’t seem the age of having two grown children.

“Finally…… finally I’ve corrected what was wrong. I couldn’t leave that lowborn thing’s traces in this noble imperial palace. For commoner blood to mix into the imperial family of the great Caliburn Empire—does that even make sense? His Majesty the Emperor made a mistake blinded by l*st for women, but I as Empress corrected that mistake, so it seems I’ve somehow prevented this generation’s imperial family from being written shamefully in history books.”

Watching her stepmother self-evaluate that she’d ‘corrected a mistake’ while throwing her stepdaughter as a bride to a frontier tribe, Isabella just kept nodding with only a smile, not knowing what to answer.

However, Eldris hadn’t called her to hear her opinion anyway, so she didn’t even notice her daughter’s lukewarm reaction.

“At times like this, I should look at that and celebrate the joy of victory. Rosalie. Bring that.”

Eldris had her closest maid bring something and cleared the table. And the maid called Rosalie carefully brought a square box, placed it on the table, then stepped back without even making a sound. And except for Rosalie, the remaining maids all left the room at Rosalie’s gesture.

“Wh-what is this, Mother?”

A square box surrounded by velvet. The contents were definitely jewels. However, it was strange to suddenly bring out jewels at this point. Moreover, ‘celebrating the joy of victory while looking at that’—it couldn’t help but be a suspicious jewelry box.

“Would you like to open it?”

“Me?”

“Yes. I’m in a good mood today, so I’ll allow that much.”

Eldris’s eyes curved happily, but Isabella couldn’t shake the feeling that her mother’s smile was somehow creepy. However, since she couldn’t refuse what her mother commanded, Isabella carefully opened the lid of that green velvet box.

“……Huh? Th-this is……!”

“Do you recognize it?”

“S-surely…… no, right? Mother. This…… surely it’s not La, Lashardian……is it?”

“It is. You saw correctly. It’s exactly that Lashardian.”

At Eldris’s confirmation, Isabella’s complexion paled.

‘Lashardian’ was a splendid necklace made of tremendous amounts of emeralds and diamonds. It was a famous jewel whose value was hard to even estimate, but it was also a necklace no one could wear around their neck. Because it was something the Emperor had specially made only for Marchioness Lasha Buffon.

Even the necklace’s name meant ‘eternally Lasha’s.’ Though she’d been young, Isabella clearly remembered the day Marchioness Buffon had worn this necklace and received everyone’s attention.

“Why is this here?”

“Did you think I’d just watch this precious thing pass to that lowborn thing’s daughter? It was something that didn’t suit them anyway, so this necklace will be happier being with me.”

Cold sweat seemed to break out on Isabella’s back. She couldn’t tell if Eldris was joking or truly thought that way, but why this necklace was here was a very, very important problem.

After Marchioness Buffon died in an accident, this necklace had disappeared without a trace, and to find this necklace that could be called her keepsake, the Emperor and Elizabeth had searched practically the entire imperial palace.

Ultimately, the Emperor, who couldn’t find the necklace, had threatened all the Empire’s jewelers that ‘jewelers who trade Lashardian will absolutely not be safe,’ and that edict was still maintained.

The Emperor’s commoner lover who’d died suddenly in an unfortunate and suspicious accident, and the disappearance of the necklace made for her—it was a tremendous incident that had made the Empire buzz.