The carriage carrying the former Empress and the Emperor covered the two-day journey in half a day.

The court physician who hurriedly received the arriving patient made a grim diagnosis.

“The poison has already spread throughout her body. In fact, it’s astonishing she’s still alive.”

At words that were virtually a death sentence, Raul closed his mouth as if he hadn’t heard, then ordered them to keep her alive by any means.

“……I’ll do my utmost.”

Though he said he would try, there wasn’t much that could be done for the patient’s current condition. It was estimated she had ingested the poison over two days ago. Even if she woke up, it was questionable whether the organs remaining in her body would function properly, and there was one more piece of bad news.

To the court physician who lingered without leaving his side, Raul finally spoke first.

“Do you have more to say?”

The court physician, sighing deeply, confessed the patient’s other condition as if making a confession.

“I apologize, Your Majesty. Upon examination, there was a child in her womb.”

“‘Was.’ So you mean……”

“When she arrived at the palace, the heart had already stopped.”

Toward the Emperor who didn’t know what to say, the court physician bowed his head once more in apology. But Raul knew well that the court physician wasn’t the one who should be apologizing.

Kareina’s old friend had knelt before him.

The short-haired woman who had fainted once after seeing Wynter’s portrait pleaded for him to please find Her Highness. She would pay any price for helping her escape, so please just find her.

Just in case. Really just in case, when he cautiously broached the subject, she turned pale but staunchly defended Kareina.

—It’s true she was carrying an imperial grandchild. But she didn’t intend disloyalty to Your Majesty the Emperor. She simply couldn’t raise the child to be as unhappy as herself, so she wanted to keep the father secret until death and raise the child as an ordinary one.

It seemed all too clear who had given her that unhappiness.

And finally, Raul, looking down at Kareina who had been dragged back to the center of the unhappiness she had so desperately wanted to escape, slowly left his seat.

The palace was overall gloomy but simultaneously bustling with people moving busily. It was because of the court physicians going back and forth to the Empress’s palace and the soldiers tracking Wynter’s whereabouts.

And eventually, news about Wynter Tirant came to the Emperor who had been pacing in front of the Empress’s bedroom. It was news from the checkpoint at the northern border.

Wynter Tirant had fled to Simon.

“He crossed the border before news of the search for Her Majesty the former Empress was transmitted. They realized he was fleeing only afterward, but he had already entered Simon.”

“Request his extradition from Simon. Notify them that he’s a traitor who murdered an imperial grandchild and harmed the former Empress, so harboring him is tantamount to declaring war on the Empire.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Wynter had ultimately discovered the truth about Charlotte’s death. At least he must have discovered that her final traces were marked not in a dark forest but in a cold underground prison.

And now what remained was informing Simon of this fact. The disappeared guard would help with testimony, and Simon would probably demand Kareina. If the demand wasn’t met, they would even go to war.

But even if he went back, Raul knew he would make the same choice. If Kareina had become the murderer who killed the Simon princess, he probably wouldn’t have been able to protect Kareina.

At the time, he had deceived even himself that it was for relations with Simon, but the truth was different. Hiding Charlotte Simon’s corpse that died in the prison in the forest and disguising it as a robbery was clearly to save Kareina.

But. In the end, did he save her?

When he reached the fundamental question, disgust toward himself soon rose up.

Looking down at Kareina who still hadn’t moved, Raul raised his eyes at the knock that broke his reverie.

The attendant who opened the door and entered bowed his head.

“Mrs. Crown has come. She says she wishes to see Her Majesty the Empress.”

“……Let her in.”

As soon as permission was granted, Donnis entered the room with quick steps.

“Oh. What should I do. This is all because of me. Your Highness asked me for help, but if I had just looked into it a bit more carefully……”

As soon as she saw the figure lying in bed, she covered her mouth and tears like chicken droppings fell from her eyes. Donnis, spouting words of self-reproach while kneading Kareina’s bloodless hand, only opened her mouth toward Raul much later.

“What about the child?”

Perhaps convinced by the answer that didn’t return, her next statement was full of resentment toward Raul.

“I stayed here for over two years. The nobles and even the palace servants openly insulting Her Highness, imprisoning and punishing her for the most trivial reasons, deliberately taking the mistress’s side to humiliate her in front of others…… I watched it all from the side. So I know well why Her Highness tried to flee while carrying a child.”

Catching her breath briefly, Donnis continued in a trembling voice.

“She must have felt hopeless about passing on a life like her own. I can’t even imagine what state of mind someone who lived their whole life as royalty was in when they returned to their homeland abandoning status, position, and wealth. Yet she was still strong. Even though the child in her belly was the child of the one who had cast her into the abyss, she loved it to the end and tried to protect it.”

“……”

“But now even that is gone. So now……”

Unable to finish her words, Donnis turned her head with reddened eyes.

“Are you satisfied now? Trampling one person like this, taking away everything they had, are you satisfied you could even take their life?”

At her increasingly insolent attitude, the palace servants guarding the surroundings flinched. But Raul slowly shook his head. The old friend’s words were clear and accurate.

He was the one who had cast Kareina into the abyss, the one who had taken everything away. So he couldn’t blame the one Kareina had trusted and loved at the end. All her misfortune actually originated from him.

The shadow of death that hung darkly over her also originated from Raul.

However, even though Kareina had lost everything, she was still clinging to a thread-like life.

And on the fourth day after returning to the palace, she miraculously opened her eyes. It was brief, but enough time to say a few words to Raul, who hadn’t left her side for even a moment.

Kareina, blinking her thinly opened eyes, seemed to have discerned who the figure in her vision was.

“Your Majesty.”

From her haggard lips flowed a whisper indistinguishable as breath or speech. While the court physician busily checked her pulse, Kareina’s face, which had closed her eyes again, still had no vitality whatsoever. Nevertheless, as if hearing the voice calling her name desperately, Kareina soon blinked her silver eyelashes and cast her gaze.

Trembling, Raul brought his ear close to her faintly moving lips. A small, faint voice flowed along his ear and into his eardrum.

“The child. Is the child alright?”

It was a sentence that felt like stabbing his heart with a knife the moment he heard it. While he couldn’t give any answer, Kareina repeated the same words, perhaps judging her voice hadn’t been heard.

“The child in my belly. The child is alright, isn’t it?”

While the silence repeated, Kareina repeated the same sentence again. Raul could tell her faint voice was completely captivated by vain hope.

The small but straight voice, the trembling hand gripping his fingers, and even the calm eyes without a trace of resentment despite knowing the culprit who made her this way was the very man before her eyes.

And Raul realized he couldn’t break that thread-like hope.

“……The child is healthy and well.”

“Thank goodness.”

A faint smile immediately bloomed on her haggard face. Then, slowly closing her eyes, she began swimming in the deep world of unconsciousness again.

The court physician wiped the sweat from his forehead and straightened his back.

“Her breathing is gradually stabilizing. Her pulse too. It’s not comparable to a healthy adult, but still, tomorrow she should be able to stay awake for a longer time. The next day a bit more, and the day after that even longer.”

“……Right. That’s fortunate.”

Raul, staring blankly at Kareina’s quiet face, left the bedroom with staggering steps. And soon he called the chief chamberlain.

“If Kareina wakes up again,”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Never let her hear that the child died.”

“……Pardon?”

Toward the chief chamberlain who frowned as if not understanding for a moment, Raul ordered again calmly.

“If Kareina ever learns of the child’s death, I’ll cut out the tongues of not only those who come and go from her quarters but everyone who passed through that corridor in front.”

The corridor froze coldly for a moment. Raul, willingly accepting the heavy silence, opened the bedroom door again.