Chapter 15

“Yes. Instead, you have to go with the maid.”

But today it will be fine that Kaizen goes outside.

There was also a different purpose now.

Astelle wanted to separate Theor from Vellian, who was sitting in the room observing the two.

Astelle played a new role while entrusting Theor to a maid.

“Look around once and make sure to bring the child before it’s time to wash him.”

The medicine to change the color of the eyes had to be taken every morning and before dinner.

It was easy to put medicine in the early morning because she was sleeping with Theor in one bed, but the problem was in the evening.

At that time, the maids were always in the room.

So Astelle washed the child just before that every day.

She said that the child would change his clothes after washing, and took him into the bedroom by herself and put the medicine in his eyes.

“Be sure to come back before that time.”

Astelle received a pledge from the maid and sent the child out.

* * *

Theor took the hand of the maid and looked around.

He also went to the castle’s inner room and library.

Compared to the imperial palace or other large separate palaces, this old-fashioned castle was small in size.

But in the eyes of young Theor, it looked enormously big.

A wall made of gray bricks for each floor crawled endlessly.

The railing of the window was also fixed with beautifully crafted stone columns.

Through the arched window, the central garden of the wet castle was seen.

It was raining slowly.

As he reached near the corridor leading to the castle gate, he saw many people gathering at the end of the corridor.

While watching the people, he found Kaizen going out with the knights.

Theor ran to him before the maid caught him up.

Theor quickly entered the corridor, and the knights who guarded the emperor glanced at him.

However, Kaizen, who is ahead, did not pay attention to Theor and passed by taking a quick step.

Theor greeted while chasing him.

“Hello, Your Majesty.”

The emperor stopped there.

The gaze of the party turned to the young child at once.

Kaizen also slowly turned to Theor.

‘Ah, that’s a kid with Astelle.’

He has never seen this child since dinner.

He had never been particularly interested.

He heard that Astelle really cares about this kid through Vellian.

“Why is the child here?”

The maid replied, bowing her back.

“Lady Astelle told me to show him the castle.”

Theor had dinner together and felt intimacy with Kaizen in his own way.

In fact, Theor lived without meeting many other people, so he was amazed to see all the people who he saw for the first time.

He was also fascinated by the pretty blonde lady he had seen before.

Ah, he has never seen her again since dinner.

Astelle said that His Majesty was a very, very high man, so he was particularly curious.

Theor hesitated for a moment and asked.

“Your Majesty, where are you going?”

“I am going to the forest to hunt.”

Theor was startled by the word ‘forest’.

Theor remembered what Vellian said at the dinner table.

There is a real bear in the forest.

“In the forest… can you see the bear?”

Kaizen, who was frowning, remembered this kid once shouted at the word ‘bear’ at the dinner table.

“Do you want to see a bear?”

“Do you have a real bear?”

“Yes.”

Kaizen replied indifferently.

“It’s in the hunting lodge.”

The forest area around here was so vast that it was hard to guess the end.

After entering the forest for a long time, there was a separate hunting lodge where you can take a rest while hunting.

Successive emperors enjoyed hunting in this forest all day long and then returned to sleep at their villas when the time was late.

Kaizen twinkled his eyes, and he stared at the little child looking up at himself.

According to Vellian, the child lost his father before birth, and when he was a baby, he was even abandoned by his mother.

Kaizen remembered the appearance of Astelle holding this kid.

Astelle took care of this child like her own child.

If it was someone else, he thought that maybe she really was this child’s real mother.

He lost his mother when he was a baby.

‘So are you so pampered?’

Astelle also lost her mother when she was young.

He wasn’t interested in Astelle, but he knew it for sure.

Kaizen suddenly remembered a very long time ago.

That day in his memory was the funeral day of his mother, the Empress.

* * *

The Empress, Kaizen’s mother, was weak from the beginning.

She died after gave birth to her only son and after she had been sick for a long time.

Throughout the funeral, young Kaizen showed no tears, stiff and tense.

As the prince, he vowed not to cry like the other child in front of the nobles.

However, after the funeral ended and he returned to the royal palace with a tired body, unbearable sadness came as he faced an empty garden.

He was sorrowful that his memories of his mother remained in every corner.

Kaizen cried alone sitting on a bench in the corner of the garden.

Above his head was a lilac tree growing high in the sky, hanging purple flowers like a roof.

It was at that moment when he heard a rustling sound in a corner of the garden.

“What?”

He shouted in surprise, and a little girl came out of the grass.

It was Astelle with a pale white blonde.

“…Sorry. Majesty.”

When he think about it, it was a while since he was engaged.

Today, Astelle wore mourning clothes, but they were luxurious and had many embroidery decorations.

Only the color was different, but it was the same as the colorful and heavy dresses that she usually wear and look stuffy.

Kaizen quickly wiped away his tears.

Most likely, he was pissed off that he was caught by this kid.

“Don’t talk to other people.”

Astelle bites her lips and lifts her head.

“I won’t tell anyone. I never say it.”

Astelle hesitated for a moment and then approached the bench on which Kaizen was sitting.

And she carefully sat down next to him.

Before Kaizen could say anything, Astelle placed her hand on Kaizen’s hand carefully.

“It’s okay, Majesty, I’ll never tell anyone.”

He was annoyed why she suddenly put her hand, but he couldn’t throw his fiancee’s hand, so he let it go.

He turned around inadvertently, and he looked straight into Astelle’s light green eyes.

The light green eyes like sprouts were wet with tears.

Kaizen of those days did not understand why Astelle was crying.

But Astelle’s little hand was warm.

His grief subsided at the feeble warmth of her little hand.

He slowly stopped weeping.

Young Kaizen, holding Astelle’s little fragile hand.

He doesn’t hate Astelle at this moment.

* * *

Kaizen, who recalled the memories of that time, looked down on the child and asked unintentionally.

“Shall I show you the bear?”

“Really?”

Theor was very happy to think that he could see a real bear. Then he paused.

“Uh… I have to tell Aunt Astel…”

He liked her so much that he almost inadvertently said she was his mother, but Theor said that she was ‘Aunt Astel’.

Right. It was still playing.

The maid, standing behind the child, bowed her head in embarrassment.

“Lady Astelle told me to bring the master before dinner time.”

Kaizen turned his gaze.

The gray sky has not yet gotten dark.

“You can come before that.”

He turned to the attendants and ordered.

“Prepare a carriage for the child.”

The maid could not help it, because it was ordered by the emperor.

She took the hand of Theor and followed the emperor.

* * *

“Why aren’t you coming?”

Astelle wandered around the room anxiously.

She drove out Vellian and fixed the doll, but Theor didn’t come back.

The sun was already falling outside the window.

Astelle was nervously rethinking the time when the medicine would not work.

‘I still have some time, but…’

Still, she had to take plenty of time to put the medicine.

Astelle thinks of the medicine she always carries in her arms, and she goes outside.

Astelle ran down the hallway, forcing to calm her chest, trembling with the anxiety.

As she went downstairs, the maid left in the room was sent to the upstairs.

“Go to the other side and find the child.”

She went downstairs and searched here and there, but there were neither child nor maids.

As the emperor went hunting, the castle was quiet because many knights were also vacated.

As she went out into the castle’s corridor, Astelle met a middle-aged servant who had previously brought her a dress.

“Lady Astelle, where are you going in a hurry?”

“Haven’t you seen Theor?”

At Astelle’s question, the servant nodded, insisting not to worry.

“Ah… it was ordered by His Majesty. I was just about to tell Lady.”

“Pardon?”

She was surprised when an unexpected person appeared in this situation.

Why did the emperor give such an order…?

What had to do with Theor? The middle-aged servant said with a smile, not noticing Astelle’s feelings.

“His Majesty took Young Master to the hunting lodge.”

She felt like she stopped breathing for an instant.