Chapter 155 - Your Husband’s Wife

Patrizia decided asking Lucio directly was for the best, rather than having to listen to it from Rosemond’s mouth.

“Ask me. Whatever you want.”

“Do you have any flowers that you do not like?”

“…” Lucio’s face stiffened for a moment at the question, then seemed to guess what this was about, and recited accordingly. “You heard this from the Marchioness. Right?”

“… Yes.”

“A flower that I hate, one exists. Almost to the point of despising it.”

Patrizia roughly caught on to what it was, but kept her mouth shut for the time being. He continued in a bitter voice, “It is the salvia flower, better known as sage. It is the flower that the dethroned Empress liked.”

“…”

“In a garden full of those salvia flowers, she secretly abused me. So when I just look at those flowers, it is enough for me to fall into a fit of convulsions.”

He looked at Patrizia with a face that seemed unaffected, but Patrizia was taken aback, not knowing where to turn her eyes. Seeing her act like that, Lucio asked her with wounded eyes, “Why, do I seem like a monster?”

“I never thought about you like that,” Patrizia calmly deflected. “The actual monster is the dethroned Empress who abused Your Majesty. Victims cannot be monsters.”

“Because you could not seem to meet my eyes.”

“How I should respond to your words… I could not get a grasp on how to approach that, there was no other reason beyond that. Please do not interpret my auctions incorrectly.”

“I know. At least you are not someone like that.” Lucio laughed weakly; Patrizia felt strangely uncomfortable.

She muttered in a voice that was a little stronger than before, “But why was that story brought up…”

Patrizia made a face expression as if she had been hit with something hard, and began to tremble. Surely… surely not? No, that could not be…

Patrizia continued to tremble; Lucio was flustered at the sight of her, and asked her urgently, “Patrizia? What is wrong? Where are you going now?”

“Your Majesty, right this instant…!”

As she stood up and tried to run off to somewhere, someone blocked her path. It was Mirya. Patrizia had flustered eyes as she asked Mirya, “Mirya? What is the matter?”

“Ah, fortunately you were here, Your Majesty.” Mirya smiled as if this was a relief. “It is time for you to present the birthday bouquet of flowers.”

“… You mean it is already time?” Patrizia asked, taken aback,

Mirya asked with a puzzled look in return, “Is there some kind of problem?”

“…”

Patrizia turned to Lucio with a frozen expression on her face. “Damn it all!” came out of her mouth…

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Rothesay was out of his mind as he spent the time looking for Petronilla. She had said she had recovered from her cold and that they could meet at the banquet today, but why was she nowhere to be found? He muttered to himself with a worried expression. Had she perhaps, still not arrived?

Rothesay was worried, as he thought she had too weak of a body. He thought that when he returned to his home, he should order some herbal tonic medicine for her. He too, had been hit by the same rain, and was the one who had actually gotten the most of it, as he had even blocked it for her. Yet, he was just fine, and Petronilla had caught a cold.

He continued to search for Petronilla with eyes full of worry. By chance, Rothesay then saw a woman who seemed to resemble Petronilla, and smiled brightly. “Petronil…”

But Rothesay’s voice ended there. It was because she was running somewhere with a very urgent look on her face. It seemed like something was going on, so Rothesay lowered his arm that had been raised high towards her, and scratched the back of his head. He thought that he should ask her about it later…

<hr />

Patrizia entered the banquet hall with Lucio, and took hold of Lucio’s hand first.

Surprised by the sudden, forward form of physical intimacy, Lucio stared at her, and Patrizia looked at him with an expression as if she was about to cry. Lucio felt something unusual was going on, and asked her.

“What is it, Empress? You seem like someone who has something serious going on.”

She was not her usual self. At those words, Patrizia tightened her hold on his hand, without realizing she had done so.

“… Your Majesty.” Patrizia called out to him with a trembling voice. “There is something I want to tell you.”

“Whatever it is, tell me.”

“No matter what happens in the future… do not be surprised.”

“… What?”

“Could you promise me this? Pretend it is nothing, can you do that for me?”

“What do those words mean…”

Lucio was about to dig further into what this was about, but just nodded his head as he saw Patrizia’s expression, which seemed so desperate. What in the world was this about, that she would ask for this promise with such a look on her face? Lucio put a serious expression on his face.