Chapter 267 - Chapter 267 (1/2)

I was puzzled. It was clear that I was supposed to stay at the Imperial Palace to prepare the three-day banquet more smoothly. My father, who smiled faintly looking at me, said, “Don’t worry about it because the emperor already approved it. He told me I could take you home today because it must have been pretty difficult for you today.”

“… Really?”

“Yes, that’s right. What’s wrong with you? Did you have anything bad today?”

“Not really. In fact, I heard very good news today, Daddy…”

When I told him what I heard from the royal doctor, he repeatedly asked me with a subdued voice if it was true. Then, he hugged me silently and brushed my hair for a long time.

I smiled bitterly, burying my face in his tight embrace.

How strange it is! Why am I not happy? Normally, I should be happy because my pent-up wish to have a baby came true. But why do I feel so jammed up inside?

Why do I feel like crying instead?

I don’t remember how I got home. Only when I returned to the room and flung myself onto the bed did I come to my senses. As I came back home for the first time in two days, I should feel comfortable, but I could not go to sleep at all.

I tossed and turned inside the blanket for a long time before getting up. I felt I couldn’t go to sleep.

When I looked around my room blankly, I suddenly noticed a blue box glowing under the dim moonlight. I slowly stretched out my arm, picked it up, opened the lid and looked at the doll in it for a while. Precisely speaking, it was a jeweled tiara on the head of the silver-haired doll.

I wound up the spring.

I heard him whispering ‘I love you’ through the melodies echoing into my room. I recalled him earnestly asking me to look at him as a man, not as the emperor.

I wound up the spring again.

With the blue moonlight beaming through my room, I recalled the lake where I walked with him one day, the garden where I walked with him sharing the umbrella with him, and the silvery flower tree under which we fell asleep under the stars.

I wound up the spring again.

I recalled the warmth of his chest through the texture of the cold metal, his cold touch when he caressed my cheek when I was poisoned, and his deep kiss. Read more chapters at Listnovel.com

Tears dropped on the white blanket. My heart ached so much, and my tearful eyes trembled.

I kept winding up the spring again and again until the blue moonlight faded and the bright sunlight was filling the room the next day.

***

The sun was pushing out the darkness little by little. In the early dawn when the darkness just faded, I headed to the Imperial Palace to stand on duty. As I couldn’t sleep well for a few days, I felt heavy, but I had to take care of all the work backed up during the three days of banquet.

“Good morning, Sir Monique.”

“Are you kidding? The sun has not even risen yet. Don’t you see that?”

“Yeah, good morning at dawn sounds funny.”

I broke into a smile when the two knights had a light quarrel in the morning. I heard that the two were bosom friends who knew each other since childhood.

“Hello, Sir Lian and Sir Dilon. It’s been a long time! I’m sorry I can’t give you a good reply.”

“Pardon? Did something bad happen to you? ”

“Oh my goodness, are you pretending to not know?” said Sir Dilon who put his hand over his chest in a rather exaggerated motion.

“Well, as you were transferred to the 2nd Knights Division, I was reassigned as the captain’s aide. Thanks to that, I was really having a hard time these days. I’m losing my hair. How are you going to take responsibility for this, Lady Monique?”

“Huh, how could you dare put blame on her now? I know you have had thin hair from the beginning.”

“How ridiculous of you! I lost lots of hair because I had a hard time under the captain, man. I didn’t have thinning hair before.”

At that moment, I unwittingly turned my eyes at Sir Dilon. Although he was young and handsome, he had really thinning hair. Compared with Sir Ryan’s hair, he looked old for his age.

I hurriedly closed my mouth with both hands, but it’s too late. He already heard my laughing coming out my palms.