32
===
The words I heard far exceeded my expectations, and my soul flew away. Aileen, in a daze, frantically made excuses.
"No. Absolutely not. I have never even dared to think such a thing. I, as an Imperial citizen, have always only wished for the glory of Traon..."
"So, it's not true?"
Leone, who had been watching Aileen's rambling, frowned. He rubbed his chin with his finger. He stared at Aileen for a moment, then smiled.
"Well, the Lady Elrod I know wouldn't do that."
Then why did you ask...?
Swallowing the words she couldn't dare say to His Imperial Majesty, Aileen looked at Leone with a tearful face. Leone's words swirled in her head.
Disaffection for the Empire. Massacre of Imperial citizens. A request to Cesare.
Combining these tremendous contents, it seemed that Cesare had told Leone something strange. Aileen barely managed to turn her head, and Leone offered her tea.
Aileen drank the tea again with a creak. She didn't know if the tea was going into her nose or her mouth. She was so nervous that she forgot to put milk or sugar in her tea and drank the bitter tea as it was.
Leone, who had subdued Aileen with a powerful preemptive strike, leisurely added sugar and asked.
"You've grown a lot. Come to think of it, is this the first time I've seen you in five years, no, four years?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. It's been four years."
Aileen answered quickly, and Leone smiled as if something was funny again. He spoke sharp words in a gentle voice.
"You must have resented me a lot during that time."
"...No, I didn't."
She denied it, but her answer was a little late. It was because she had resented him a lot. Leone smiled with a face that said he knew everything, and Aileen was embarrassed.
The reason Aileen resented Leone was because of Cesare. Leone himself became the Emperor of a country, but he sent his younger brother, who had made the greatest contribution to the battle for the throne, to the battlefield.
Three years ago, when Cesare's expedition was decided. Aileen learned the news from the newspaper.
As soon as she saw the article that the Grand Duke's expedition had been decided, she wanted to meet Cesare. But there was no way. She desperately waited for Cesare to call her or come to see her.
As the cruel time passed, she became more and more anxious. She looked at the calendar dozens of times a day, and when night came, she couldn't sleep for a long time, hoping that she could see him tomorrow.
And the day before the expedition.
As soon as she saw a military vehicle stopping in the garden in front of her house, Aileen threw everything away and ran out. But the person who got out of the military vehicle was not Cesare, but Rohan.
"Grand Duke Cesare..."
"I'm sorry. He is too busy preparing for the expedition to make time."
As soon as she heard that he had come to greet her instead, her heart collapsed. Aileen clung to Rohan, crying. She begged him to let her meet him just once, that once would be enough.
Rohan was embarrassed, but eventually granted Aileen's request. He took Aileen to where Cesare was.
It was not the Imperial Palace or the Grand Duke's Residence, but an unfamiliar house. Aileen didn't even know where it was. She just cried and knocked on the door of the house where Cesare was.
"Grand Duke! It's Aileen. Please open the door."
But Cesare did not open the door. No matter how much Aileen sobbed and pleaded, he didn't even let her hear his voice.
She couldn't let him go like this.
All the newspapers were talking about it. How dangerous and unfavorable this war was, and how strong the Calpen Kingdom's army was.
The Imperial Army had deteriorated to a terrible level due to the civil war, and they could not expect the glory of the past. They could only hope for a miracle.
The tabloids mocked that the arrogant Grand Duke would experience a painful defeat this time, and even said that they should prepare for the funeral of the Imperial family in advance.
Everyone talked about his death.
"No... Don't go..."
Aileen cried, knocking on the door until her hands were cut and bruised, and then fainted. Rohan took the fallen Aileen back to her house. And then it was the expedition.
Even though he had cherished her so much, Cesare left Aileen without even showing his face. Only Aileen, who was left behind, lived in hell every day, thinking of Cesare, who had left for the battlefield.
When she opened her eyes in the morning, she looked for the newspaper first. She checked Cesare's news and read everything about how the war was going.
On days when good news came, she was excited all day long, and on days when even a little bad news came, she was depressed and couldn't concentrate on her work.
One day, she had a nightmare in which she saw an article in the newspaper that Cesare had been killed in action. On those days, she cried and wrote letters to Cesare. She threw away several sheets of paper because the ink was smudged with tears, and finally completed it.
She hoped that she would receive a reply, even if it was just once. But as when he had left her coldly, Cesare did not send a reply.
At that time, Aileen wanted to give up her unrequited love. It was so painful that she wanted to cut open her chest, take out her heart, and throw it away somewhere far away.
But her heart had already taken root in Aileen's heart and grown all over her body. He was Aileen's source and foundation. To pull out her unrequited love, she had to cut off Aileen's life as well. The depth of her affection, which had grown steadily since she was ten years old, was so deep.
In a situation where nothing went her way, Aileen's only choice was to escape. First of all, she stopped writing letters that were never answered.
She only read the newspaper once a week. She only thought about Cesare before going to bed at night. She set lines one by one and somehow lived on. Waiting for Cesare to return to the capital someday.
Instead of reducing her thoughts of Cesare, she began to study painkillers. She wanted to be a useful person to Cesare, someone who could receive a reply from him. The desire to be recognized made Aileen even touch opium.
When the news of the victory was delivered, she cried with joy. She thought she could finally meet him, but she heard that Cesare did not return to the capital and was living in a camp near the plains.
Still, wouldn't he come to see me this time? Or wouldn't he even give me a letter? She vaguely expected that, but Cesare did not give her any contact.
Then, he suddenly came to Aileen's laboratory and they reunited.
"I tried to stop the Grand Duke."
Aileen, who was recalling the past, came to her senses at the voice she heard. How dare she think of other things in front of His Imperial Majesty. Aileen scolded herself inwardly.
Leone pushed a plate of cookies towards Aileen and continued.
"As a brother, I had to stop him from going to a place where he would die. Don't you think so? But despite my dissuasion, he insisted on going on the expedition."
As an Emperor, it was also a risky gamble. He had barely ended the civil war, but Cesare, the mainstay of the Imperial family, led the Imperial Army on an expedition.
It was a war that had to be won by a great victory, not just an ordinary victory. If they could not completely crush and absorb Calpen, the wealth and troops consumed in the war could cause a backlash. The nobles of the Empire were always looking for an opportunity to devour the Imperial family.
And Cesare returned to the Empire with an unprecedented victory.
"Cesare must have wanted to protect Traon. The Traon where Aileen is."
Aileen wanted to dare to refute His Imperial Majesty. There was no way he would go to his death for just me.
"Congratulations on your marriage, Lady Elrod."
But what could she say to him, who was congratulating her so readily? She just expressed her gratitude in a small voice. Aileen drank the bitter tea again.
"You may be feeling it too."
Blue eyes quietly examined Aileen. They were the opposite color of Cesare's, but the clear eyes were similar to his brother's.
"My brother seems to have changed a little lately... I called you because I wondered if you knew something."
Aileen also knew that Cesare had changed from before. But there was nothing she could say to Leone.
He wouldn't have called her just to hear that he seemed to have become a little more impulsive.
Or, he used to see me as just a child, but now...
It was when Aileen was struggling not to blush as she recalled the memories of the night again.
Click.
The door to the audience chamber opened without any knocking. Only after opening it wide, the man lightly knocked on the door.
"Aileen."
Cesare threw the words out with a twisted smile.
"Why are you wandering around alone? Making your husband lonely."
