Chapter 10 – Part 13

“Thanks to our Josie, I’m all better now.”

She hugged and kissed him, and Laura rushed over with the medicine.

“Here you go. You still need to apply the medicine.”

“Thank you.”

Laura smeared the ointment on the wound and glanced up.

“What did His Majesty…… say?”

“Just… he told me not to worry too much about it, and he said he doesn’t have any thoughts about having a second child.”

“Why? You two seem to get along well!”

She said, narrowing her eyes at the woman who, not long ago, had taken the Emperor’s seat next to me.

When Tenere smiled at her, Laura coughed lightly, as if caught off guard.

“He said he didn’t want to put me through ……childbirth again, he was afraid it would be too much for my body.”

“Oh, it was just a lover’s quarrel. I worried for nothing.”

Laura patted her chest in relief.

A lover’s quarrel..

It wasn’t really a fight, but it was a fight nonetheless.

She knew the reasons for her own resentment.

Firstly, the fact that he was hiding something from her, and secondly, the way he treated Alaina Salvatore with such care.

She’d put up a good front with Laura Hale as her son’s nanny, but whenever the subject of Alaina came up, her attention was drawn to her.

‘…After all this time.’

No, she had always been like this.

She constantly compared herself to Alaina Salvatore, thinking about what she would have done in such situations, if she had said such things, if she had acted like that, if she would have… like her.

Isn’t that why she was so anxious when she heard that Leonard refused an audience with her and met with Alaina?

She was afraid he would elevate Alaina to the position of Empress and discard her, leaving her without her child.

It was an ugly jealousy, an inferiority complex, and though she had vowed time and time again not to believe in his love, she had come to expect it.

He was hoping that even if she didn’t trust him, he would continue to hold onto her, proving his love to her without a doubt.

“I suppose it’s in his blood.”

It was Laura’s voice that broke his reverie. Tenere looked at her as if to ask what she meant.

“The royal family has always been precious, even those who favor concubines. Perhaps the ancestors deliberately refrained from having more princes? out of concern for the Empress’s well-being..”

Of course, Beatrice and Heinrich did not have a close relationship, but the mention of the ancestors was surely meant to be a rumor.

She was grateful for Laura’s attempt to comfort her in any way she could.

“Thank you, Laura.”

“You’re welcome.”

It didn’t solve anything, but it was comforting to know that someone was on her side.

Tenere put away her embroidery frame and needle.

“Oh, my, Your Highness, have you been hiding again? You’ve suddenly disappeared.”

Tenere looked up quickly at Laura’s voice. A raucous laugh came from beneath the tea table.

Tenere looked up with a small laugh at the sight of feet and b*ttocks poking out from under the table.

“Josie, where are you?”

The child’s head snapped up at her mother’s call.

“Mommy!” he yelled, and then ducked her head again.

Teneur approached him and poked his bottom.

“Kyaa.”

Joshua giggled and peeked his head out.

When his eyes met his mother’s, he ran towards the bed this time. The child was small enough to fit under the bed.

Laura rushed to her side.

“No, Your Highness! There’s so much dust under there…”

Even though the servants cleaned every day, moving the bed fixed to the pillar and wiping the floor was an impossible task.

But Joshua didn’t seem to hear the nanny’s words and stuck his head under the bed.

It’s a good thing he didn’t crawl all the way in.

“Josh, come on out.”

“Jiji, Jiji.”

Tenere and the nanny quickly grabbed him, and Joshua obediently lifted his head.

He looked back at Tenere with wide eyes.

“Mommy!”

“What?”

“This.”

A fern-like hand pointed under the bed.

“This, this.”

“What’s in there?”

Tenere sat down on her knees and bent her upper body down. Laura followed her and looked under the bed.

She could see something shimmering in a dark crevice where no light came in.

“What’s in there?”

Laura reached under the bed. Her fingertips touched something solid.

Tenere stopped her, holding the child tightly.

“I’ll have someone get a stick, but don’t hold it with your hand, just in case…….”

“It’s okay, Empress, it’s just a box.”

Laura reached under the bed as if it were no big deal.

What she pulled out was a large, handle-less box.

It was old and dusty, as if it had been left unattended for a long time.

“What is this?”

“Moji?”

Joshua said, following Tenere’s lead.

Laura quickly dampened a handkerchief with water and wiped the dust off the box.

Tenere held him tightly, not wanting him to touch anything dirty.

As the gray dust was cleared away, what appeared was a splendid jewelry box adorned with gold edges.

Laura let out a small squeal, and the child wiggled her arms as if he wanted to touch it.

“This is…….”

“Could it be something belonging to Her Majesty? It’s locked… Is there a key?”

Laura, about to open the box, looked under the bed again, as if searching for a key.

At that moment, something flashed through Tenere’s mind.

“……Wait a minute.”

She scrambled out of bed and ran to the annex.

There, in a drawer in the study, was the key she’d put away so long ago.

‘Will it fit? ’

She thought briefly, but it didn’t really matter if it didn’t fit.

Perhaps if she told Leonard, he would be able to open it, even if it was by somewhat coercive means.

But as soon as she slipped the key into the keyhole, the gilding peeling off in places, she realized that her worries had been for naught.

It felt a little stiff, but she turned it with force and heard an iron clank.

“It’s open.”

Laura said, sounding a little nervous. Joshua was looking over curiously, too.

Tenere carefully opened the jewelry box.

Inside were several hardcover notebooks, several envelopes of letters, and a small jewelry box.

Tenere opened the notebook, holding it slightly out of the way of her ointmented fingers.

The familiar, time-worn handwriting was there.

“Laura, give me a moment…”

“Oh, yes. I’ll be outside.”

The perceptive nanny scooped Joshua up and scrambled to her feet.

Tenere kissed the child in the nanny’s arms, then picked up the box and sat down on the bed.

Her heart skipped a beat at the thought of finding a trace of her past in this place.

‘This is where she kept my diary…….’

Tenere put down her notebook and picked up an old letter envelope.

There was no name on the envelope. After some hesitation, she carefully opened it.

And inside it was…….

To the owner of my love, the other half of my true soul, Beatrice.

It’s only been three days since I’ve seen you, but I find it hard to contain my longing, as if years had passed.

“……What?

Tenere’s hand froze at the sight of the cursive writing.

Her trembling gaze swept over the text as if she couldn’t believe it.

Why is it that even after confirming your love that day, I still thirst for it more than ever?

Why does He let someone as beautiful and loving as you walk away?

Call me selfish, but I thank Him for not seeing you for who you are.

Because if he hadn’t left you in such terrible loneliness, you wouldn’t have even considered someone like me.

Although she wondered if she had read it wrong, no matter how many times she read it, the contents remained the same. Her heart pounded fiercely.

No way. No way…….

‘It can’t be.’

Tenere denied it. But the letter in front of her clearly called out the Empress’s name.

‘I can’t believe that rumor…….’

It was an assumption she didn’t want to even think about, but if it were true, it was undeniable that the rumors were right.

Before she disappeared, Alaina had been angry with her father.

The disgusting words she’d left behind.

If Leonard was indeed Marquis Salvator’s blood, and the Marquis had used that fact to send him to…….

‘I am the result of my father’s treatment of my mother and grandfather.’

The voice she’d buried in his memory reared its head.

Maybe, just maybe, this is what he meant by those words at the Duke’s house in Travel.

A thought that once emerged doesn’t easily fade away.

It would explain why Leonard’s fiancée, Alaina, had said she had no intention of becoming Empress, why she had grown so close to Leonard without realizing it, why Leonard had hesitated to detain the Marquis, and why he was trying to hide something from her.

‘There is no way she would have done that…….’

Even though it might be true for others, it was inconceivable for the Empress.

When asked if she loved the Emperor, she nodded tearfully.

The one who had visited her husband’s thomb every day left flowers and couldn’t hide how much she missed him.

Tenere put the letter down and picked up the diary again. A glimmer of hope still lingered in her heart.

‘Maybe it’s just the Marquis’s unilateral affection. Delusion or something. Even if he really did become an Empress’s consort, whether it happened before or after you gave birth is unknown.’

Perhaps there was a small clue here that would deny the Marquis’s claims.

Tenere quickly opened the notebook, and the first page was written in large, jagged cursive, as if she had been keeping a diary since she was quite young.

Tenere quickly flipped through the pages, noting the year.

‘The year she ascended to the throne as Empress… … .’

Tenere flipped through several journals for a while, finally stopping at a sentence.

‘So this is what love at first sight feels like.’