Amara was looking gloomy all the time as she watched the nobles dance in twos. She watched the Crown Prince dance with Lady Tanzania. And she watched Esteban happily talk to the Empress. She found herself silently walking out the banquet hall and went to a dark and empty hallway. And without any knowledge where her feet took her to, she found herself looking at portraits of Esteban with Empress Kathika.
That hallway was where all the royals’ portraits were displayed but she never saw her face, her own portrait, as she could only see a lot of Empress Kathika’s portraits. She stopped in front of a portrait of three people. There was Emperor Esteban, Empress Kathika, and Crown Prince Lorenzo, looking happy together, like a real family.
Empress Kathika had beautiful curly black hair and her eyes were golden. His features were pretty clear that she is not an adopted daughter of Count Morata but was really his daughter. It is now making sense… Everything is now making sense as to why there is a Crown Prince. It was because… Crown Prince Lorenzo was really Esteban’s son. He was really his son with Empress Kathika.
Those yearly expeditions… and a month after leaving the Imperial palace, he was really with a woman… and that woman was Empress Kathika… who had given birth to their son, Lorenzo, before they even got married.
“I suggest you better go back, my lady.”
Her tears wanted to come out in a second but then after hearing the deep voice behind her, she became lifelessly hurt, secretly. She was silenced a bit, trying to stay sane.
“Say, what would you do if your life had been taken and suddenly came back to life?” She found herself asking the man who talked. She was looking down as she did not want to see the portrait in front of her anymore.
“What would you do if you suddenly lived another life but found your lover happily living with someone else after your death?” She asked more.
Silence engulfed the space as she did not hear a reply. “I must have gone deprived of my own sentiment.” She smiled painfully and did not bother looking where the voice was coming from as she just walked straight back to the banquet hall.
When she arrived, she was never noticed as she silently just stood in the corner. She does not want to mingle and talk to anyone else. When she looked at Esteban again, she just made another hole in her heart as she watched him dance with the Empress. How happy they are to be with each other. They look perfect together. She looked over Crown Prince Lorenzo and then to Empress Kathika and then to Esteban.
Crown Prince Lorenzo’s appearance was such a perfect combination coming from two beauties. He got his father’s eyes that were like the sky. He also got his mother’s beautiful black hair and the beautiful features of her face. It was a very good plan to not get caught that Esteban actually had an affair even before their marriage.
Viscount Morata… Duke Garrett… they knew it all along as they played their cards with backups. It was a perfect plan to ruin her well-being as the Emperor.
After some time, the Emperor suddenly stood up and left the banquet hall after an informant came to him. He asked permission from the Empress before leaving. Amara who saw him, followed the Emperor as Crown Prince Lorenzo also saw her walking out the banquet hall again.
Crown Prince Lorenzo stopped dancing with Lady Tanzania and followed Lady Amara because he felt like something did not seem right. Lady Amara usually does not like to be alone at a banquet. She would always invite him to dance but why didn’t she do it this time? When he came out of the banquet hall, he could not see where she went.
On the other hand, Lady Amara waited for the Emperor to finish talking to a foreign man on the balcony. When they were finished and the foreign man left, the Emperor was alone and there she walked towards him.
“Oh, it’s you,” Emperor Esteban recognized her as Count Sebastian’s daughter. “Do you also want to get some fresh air?” Esteban smiled but Amara does not want to raise her head as she thinks that she might not be able to control her feelings.
So then, she ended up not speaking.
“Are you perhaps feeling unwell? Were you tired?”
Hearing him with his gentle voice, she missed it so badly that she wanted to cry. She misses him so badly that she wants to spread her arms and cry so loud in his arms. But… she couldn’t…
“Have you ever…” She clenched her fist, trying to stop the painful feeling she had on her chest.
“Have you ever felt remorse upon her death?”
Emperor Esteban does not know who she is talking about but hearing her accent and by the way she speaks, there is only one person she could think of. His hands started trembling with just the thought of Emperor Darya.
“How come… you were this happy…after she…” Amara sniffed as she raised her head to look into his blue eyes, “She… she treated you well…” she cupped her chest after feeling its heaviness. “She… loved you—
“I have no idea what you’re talking about—
“You have caused her death!” She desperately exclaimed, making Esteban’s whole body tremble as he felt coldness all over his body.
Again, this would always happen when he hears anything about Emperor Darya. After her death, he could not have a good sleep and all he could remember in the palace was her and her existence in it. Whenever he gets reminded of her, he would lose her rationality and become unintentionally aggressive as he could not help but feel weak all of a sudden.
Looking desperate, Amara speaks even more. “You made her drink poison when she was carrying your child!”
Esteban petrified and his face paled as his body lost all its strength. His eyes went wide after remembering what Emperor Darya once said with a smile on her face, ‘When you come back home, I will tell you something.’ Could it be…
“She waits for you every day whenever you leave! She convinced herself to understand you even if you have changed! She loved you but you killed her to become the Emperor—
“Amara!”
She did not finish her words as her upper arm was pulled by the Crown Prince, aggressively. She looked up to his threatening eyes while feeling his painful grip on her arm.
“How dare you speak ill towards the Emperor! Do you know that it is punishable to speak ill towards the Emperor?!” Crown Prince Lorenzo started shaking her aggressively, making her even lose her mind.
“Why? Please tell me if it is not punishable by Imperial law to have the former Emperor be killed by the current Emperor?!”
Upon hearing her statement, Crown Prince Lorenzo froze.
“Your father literally killed the previous Emperor because of his greed. Because he wants you to become the next Emperor! He married the clueless Emperor Darya because he wants you and your mother to ascend to the throne! Tell me if I have said words wrong! Tell me I have told such lies!”
That night, with his pride hurt, the Crown Prince could only stop Lady Amara from speaking after knocking her down. After catching the unconscious lady, he looked at his trembling father whom he knew was still guilty of what he did before.
“How did she know about that?” He asked his father about how Lady Amara knows everything about what happened to the former Emperor.
Judging by how the Emperor could not speak, he could only sigh. “I will take care of this woman. I will make sure that no one would know, father.”
Crown Prince Lorenzo carried Lady Amara’s body and announced about her ‘accident’. They took her to the infirmary while she was being watched by Count Sebastian and Silla. Because they were so worried about her, they took her back to the Count’s estate and minimized their activities for a while.
After two days of being unconscious, Amara finally opened her eyes as she was immediately examined by the doctors.
“Can you hear me, Lady Amara?” A doctor asked to examine her senses.
There was a few seconds of silence before she slowly opened her mouth, lifelessly. “He… killed…”
“Lady Amara?”
“He… killed me…”
Upon hearing that, Silla gasped, immediately realizing the truth. She might have known that Emperor Darya got transmigrated to the body of Lady Amara but she never knew that she was actually killed by Emperor Esteban.
With the current mental condition of Lady Amara, the Imperial family intently asked the doctors to tell Count Sebastian that it would be best for Lady Amara to be sent to the monastery. Thinking that it was the best choice, Count Sebastian made a foolish decision.
Lady Amara was sent to the monastery and Silla extremely despised the Crown Prince’s plan after hearing that. It is because Silla knows that it was never a good idea to send a sane woman there. However, along her way to take Lady Amara out of the monastery, she was killed by an assassin without even stepping foot to the said place. Later, Lady Amara was announced to have fallen in the staircase, causing her life in despair.
“Wake up, you brat!” A man splashed water on a young girl’s face to wake her up. Startled, the young girl opened her eyes feeling so cold with the water all over her clothes. She was confused. “Go fetch water and put the luggage in the carriage! We are going to leave!” The fat man kicked her legs making her groan in pain. She was about to speak for herself but ended up hearing a crack on her voice like something just pulled her tongue. She covered her mouth only to realize that she could not speak well. She immediately stood up to look for a mirror but she stopped upon seeing the place where she was sleeping a while ago.
The young girl was just holding a small pouch where she put the small white ball in. As the carriage started their journey, she was only riding at the back where the luggage and foods were located. Since this morning, she only had an apple and bread but maybe because the body she was in was used to being starved that she does not feel bothered being hungry. It was already dark when they left the Empire. They already crossed the river connecting the two continents and were on their way to the Hapra Forest. However, they did not arrive at the Hapra forest but stopped at the entrance of the forest. Then she was asked to carry some stuff as they decided to rest there. As the errand girl, she was asked to do things here and there. Until then, three carriages arrived coming from another direction. A group of people in commoner clothes came to them as they greeted each other. A mature man with golden hair seemed to be their leader. He was tall and by the way he talked, he
When she woke up from the body of an old woman who lives alone in an empty house nowhere in the Empire, she decided to end her life as she knows that she cannot make anything with that body. Again, when she opened her eyes from another body, she got insane upon realizing that she had transmigrated to a beggar’s body. She would tell anyone who passed by that Emperor Darya was killed by her husband. She would announce that the Emperor Lorenzo was a child of Emperor Esteban from his secret mistress who had become the Empress when Emperor Darya was dead. However, no one would believe a lowly beggar as they regarded her as an insane lowly being who curses the Emperor for her own misery. She was also abused because of this until then she was executed for blasphemy. In her next life, she woke up from a three-year old child’s body of a high ranking commoner. Her family was living in the outskirts of the upper lands of a faraway kingdom where they study alchemy, illegally. Feeling
The meeting has finally come to an end. Darya yawned in boredom because the meeting was all about the markets that will be built in every estate. However, it made her even bored that most of the nobles were only thinking about the profit and their benefits from it. She wanted to scold them so badly and tell them straight to the point about their greed but she thought that her grandfather would surely find a solution for it. She got tired of listening, maybe because she was dissatisfied and her body was still of a young girl. She left the meeting as soon as it ended after getting permission from her grandfather. With only Ejila and Alluka, her personal knight, she walked around to see the things she could not remember in her first life. It was pretty convenient that she can remember all her past life and she can now compare what had changed and what needed to be changed. She looked at the uniforms of Ejila and Alluka. Ejila had a bright blue uniform and Alluka had a
The sword of the knight fell to the ground as it made an ear-catching sound, making everyone look towards the Princess’ direction. Their eyes turned wide as they saw the Princess still standing perfectly while holding her sword flawlessly good. She doesn't even look like she got tired of sword practicing. And she doesn't even look that challenged with the sword fight. Princess Darya had a long sigh after she defeated one of the Imperial knights. Dissatisfied, she looked at the other knights who had their jaws dropped. She then aggressively pierced her sword to the ground, making them all stand up straight and in perfect lines. “This is a disappointment.” She announced, with her eyes going around each one of them, making them all nervous. Everyone could only either bite their tongue or sweat in intimidation. It does not make sense that a ten-year old girl could defeat a knight that had undergone five years of training. However, Princess Darya is special among
The painful slap echoed all over the Duke’s office as his aid could only look down, sympathising with the young master Esteban. Duke Garrett was so mad about the news he just got and called her son from the academy to go home as soon as possible. “This is how I raised you, Esteban?!” The Duke exclaimed to his son while gritting his teeth in anger. “You are meant to become the next Emperor! You are going to marry the First Princess yet you—you did such an unacceptable thing that will disgrace the Dukedom and your name?!” The Duke was so mad about knowing the news that his son, Esteban, had touched a woman and what is more unacceptable is that, that woman had a child in her womb. “And of all the women, why was it the daughter of Viscount Morata?!” It would be alright if it was a commoner or a low-ranking woman from a noble family so they could easily get rid of it. However, it was even the daughter of Viscount Morata who had the same ambition as him. Viscount M
“I am extremely happy to have heard of such endeavour from my dear granddaughter.” Those were the reply of Emperor Oswald to Princess Darya. It is a good thing that the Emperor favours her, however, not only her uncle is a threat to the throne but also Esteban’s father, Duke Garrett, or Esteban himself. In her first life, her uncle, Prince Harrique, did all means to harm her as the First Princess. As a young child, it was a torture to have drunken poison almost every day without her knowledge. She had suffered so much in the hands of her uncle. In the end, Prince Harrique died after committing suicide because of losing his ability to get to the throne. As of now, she must focus on her ultimate enemies, which is the anti-imperial faction. And in order for her to beat them without wasting her time with spying, she needs more achievements to make the people on her side again. She just needs to do what she did in her first life and add more foundation to secure the t
“Please show your identity.” The knight requested while looking at Sir Theobarlt who had his uniform on. So then, Alluka took off his hood to show his identity and upon seeing him, the knight immediately stood straight to show respect to someone that had a higher position than him. Alluka got off his horse as he walked close to the knight. “I was sent by her highness, the First Princess, to have the gates closed within two hours.” Hearing his report, the knight got troubled. “A-Are you sure, Sir Alluka?” “Do I look like I am not sure?” The knight flinched as he could only scratch the back of his head. “T-The Captain is currently having a break and I could not just tell my co-knights to close the gate. I still need permission to Captain Warron— “Are you mocking the authority of the First Princess?” Alluka cut the knight, making him sweat. “P-Please show me a formal letter coming from the First Princess with the seal of the Imperial Pala