CH 145

“Good…”

At the moment when I tossed and turned from exhaustion, my eyes widened. It was because I remembered that I was not alone in the bedroom.

The room was filled with sunlight as if the sun had already risen a long time ago.

However, Raymond, who was supposed to be lying on the sofa, was not in the room.

“…Returned?”

‘Without waking me up?’

I waved the bell, and Helen came to the ring.

“Did you call? Your Majesty.”

“Helen, where is the Emperor?”

“Yeah. He had breakfast with his Highness and returned to the Sun Palace.”

“You say he had breakfast with Carlisle? What time is it now?”

“It’s already past noon,” Helan’s words made my eyes widen.

I can’t believe I’ve been sleeping until noon.

As an Empress, I have never slept.

Plus Raymond was with me yesterday.

I somehow slept too well, being in such a company. And Raymond must have seen it all.

Helen said after reading the embarrassment on my face.

“His Majesty said that Your Majesty was pretty tired of the party, and ordered not to burden you.”

“…That’s why you didn’t wake me up?”

“I’m sorry.”

It was a little embarrassing that Raymond left me to bed and went to breakfast with Carlisle.

But it’s too late.

After removing my hair, I washed and dressed.

Now my gaze rested on a black diamond placed in a jewelry box.

“Would you like to wear a black diamond?” the maid asked who had misinterpreted my view. I shook my head and said:

“No. It’s precious, so keep it in the jewelry box.”

It was worn for show in front of the nobles, and it was enclosed in that special meaning, so now there was no need for it.

I put on a simple diamond necklace and earrings.

Then the time was already well past noon.

“Helen, have Carlisle’s lessons started?”

“Yeah. Just now.”

“Then tell the maid to give him snacks after class. I think I should visit my father.”

I was thinking about seeing my dad today and find a teacher for Carlisle myself.

Until now, he had only attended etiquette classes, but the days had passed since Carlisle became Crown Prince, so I had to find a suitable tutor.

After all, there were a lot of things that he need to learn, like diplomacy or the supreme power of a monarch.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Suddenly a servant rushed in and announced the visitor to me.

“Your Majesty the Empress. Duke Drua requested a meeting.”

“Duke Drua?”

‘Why did Jeremy suddenly…?’

It was so sudden, but Jeremy couldn’t ask for a visit for no reason.

“Take him to the living room.”

Dismissing a servant wearing a walking cloak, I went to the living room.

* * *

“Greetings to Her Majesty the Empress, the Moon of the Empire.”

“Get up, “I smiled and offered Jeremy a seat. “Come here and sit down.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Jeremy sat down opposite and looked around. It seemed strange that the room was empty.

“I sent the maids ahead of time because I thought it wouldn’t be a minor problem if you came suddenly.”

“Thanks for your consideration,” Jeremy didn’t really deny it.

A smile lingered on his lips, but his eyes were cruel.

I had a feeling that his coming words were not good for me.

Instead of beating around the bush, I brought up the subject.

“Why did you come to me so suddenly?”

“I have something to say about His Highness the First Prince.”

“The First Prince?”

“…”

Who would have known that his story would lead us to Edmund. Jeremy was pressing his lips together with a straight face.

“The First Prince… What do you mean? Is Lisa trying to plot something?”

Now that Carlisle is Crown Prince, Lady Sios will grit her teeth.

But there was little she could do with me now.

Even if she is even a thousand times angry, she will not rush to a new conspiracy, knowing that we are on guard against the latter.

After all, she wasn’t such a stupid woman.

‘What the hell is going on?’

I was waiting for an answer. However, Jeremy couldn’t speak easily with a difficult look.

“Duke?”

Jeremy spoke up with a sigh.

“Your Majesty the Empress. The origin of His Highness the First Prince is not clear.”

“What does it mean if everything has been checked?”

“It looks like His Highness is not His Majesty’s blood.”

‘What did you say?’ I didn’t get it properly for a moment.

Feeling foolish, it took me a few seconds to understand what he said… I can’t believe the First Prince isn’t Raymond’s son.

I couldn’t handle my expression and said, looking at him with a cold, rigid face.

“Duke Drua. Do you realize how many dangerous words you just said?”

‘I’ve never been so cold with Jeremy.’

But his words now were so shocking that her neck could fly off just by putting them in her mouth.

Jeremy said without hesitation.

“Yeah. I know. But what I know for sure is that there is some mystery here.”

“And why are you so sure?”

“I found a portrait of the first prince in my late father’s secret safe. And on the back of the portrait was the name of the murdered prince.”

“Just that…” I blurred the end of the sentence.

It was ridiculous to concoct such a story out of the blue. But it turned out that it came from the secret safe of the dead Freud Drua.

A paranoid wouldn’t write the name of the deceased prince on Edmund’s portrait for no reason.

But he could write that, because it was a mortal vulnerability for the first prince.

There could only be one connection between the already killed prince and the new first prince.

‘A Birth Secret.’

I squeezed my hand in tension.

“Did you bring that portrait?”

“I have already delivered it to His Majesty.”

“What?!”

At that moment, I was so surprised that I screamed. Jeremy flinched, but it didn’t matter.

“Does His Majesty know about this?”

“Yes, it was such a big problem that I couldn’t tell the Empress first.”

I can’t believe Raymond knows this.

It was in itself horrible that Edmund wasn’t his child. But his father was a former crown prince, and not someone else.

I couldn’t even imagine what feelings Raymond experienced when he found out about this.

“What did the Emperor say?”

“He said he would find out for himself and ordered me to keep quiet.”

If Raymond knows what Jeremy told me… He’ll kill Jeremy, and I can’t stop it.

“…But why did you tell me? If his Majesty finds out about this, you’re dead.”

“I know. But… I couldn’t stay calm because I know what is waiting for him at the end of this.”

“…”

“If all this becomes true, not only Lisa Sios, but also His Highness the First Prince… won’t be able to survive.”

‘I couldn’t refute this.’

If the first prince is the son of a deceased prince… you won’t get any favor from Raymond.

His hatred for the deceased prince was as deep as a wound that would never heal.

The Emperor will simply have no need to spare the blood and flesh of his murdered half-brother.

‘But what did the First Prince do wrong?’

And if this nightmare comes true, then the first prince will be shocked no less than Raymond.

The man he considered to be his father is not his father, and the prince who fell in the civil war turns out to be his true father, so the first prince loses everything.

I can’t even imagine such despair.

“Ugh…”

My head is about to explode from the sudden and so big news.

‘What did the dead Prince mean in your life in the first place?’

‘Lisa, did you really do something so reckless?’

“Duke Drua. Thanks for letting me know. But you’d better go home.”

I was so confused that it was difficult for me to continue talking to Jeremy.

“Then I’ll go, Your Majesty.”

Jeremy quietly left the living room.

Lisa and the dead prince.

I searched through the memories from the past.

Lisa Sios, she was so popular with men that she was called the flower of high society.

I narrowed my forehead to the blurry memories of the past.

The dead Crown Prince once fought with Lisa to provoke Raymond, but perhaps something different happened between the two…

As I walked around the room, I stopped pacing when a memory came to mind.

“Did you hear that the Crown Prince beat up the young heir of the Sios family in a bar?”

“I heard that the young successor of the Sios family had a fight with the Crown Prince first without fear.”

“His Highness touched young lady Sios this time?”

It was a story that I heard a long time ago. This was before Raymond and Lisa got confused.

At the time, the late prince was so stupid and wasted a life that it was considered just another incident.

But if in fact there was something between them that other people didn’t know about.

After this incident, Lisa’s younger brother disappeared from the eyes of the aristocrats.

He quarreled with the prince and disappeared, and this prince soon died…

Maybe Leon Sios knows a thing or two about the relationship between Lisa and the late prince?

I have to find him.

‘Lisa’s younger brother and the place and date where she gave birth to Edmond.’

I will find out the truth only when I find the answer to those two clues.

Having concluded, I hurried out of the room.