How to Hide the Emperor's Child - Chapter 10

Astelle thought it was because he was tired of hunting.

She laughed happily and wore the flower crown on her head to mend the embarrassing atmosphere.

As a happy queen of autumn, she endured the pain and tiredness and kept her place until the end, and at night she hosted the ball alone.

The next day, Kaizen said that he was too tired yesterday, and he asked Astelle for her forgiveness.

Astelle gladly forgave him.

She was rather deeply regretted that he felt her sadness, although she was for a while.

Now it was the memories that couldn’t be dustier.

Astelle muttered carelessly, “I was bored and struggling to sit all day and wait for the contest to end. It was so long ago that I can’t remember anything else.”

In response to Astelle’s grim response, Kaizen bit his lip firmly again.

There was a heavy silence over the table.

In a short silence, Marianne said a blunt voice, “I can’t remember anything at that time.”

Astell said casually, “Of course, because Lady Marianne was still an 11-year-old girl back then.”

It wasn’t really dismissive, but Marianne bit her lips with her face full of contempt.

The atmosphere was quickly ruined.

Kaizen, sitting in the upper seat, was also unpleasant, and Marianne stared at Astelle with her resentful glances.

Vellian turned the topic to rectify the disastrous atmosphere.

“Come to think of it, there were a lot of bears around here. If you go into the forest further, there is a hunting lodge. Sometimes Your Majesty—”

“Bear?”

Theor, who only listened to the adults talking, shouted unknowingly.

“Yes, it’s pretty much around here.”

“I want to see them.”

“Theor.”

Astelle quietly grabbed the child’s shoulder.

“It would be nice if you could see it, but it’s too dangerous for you to see it in person.”

At that time, one of the servants came to the dinner table and whispered something to Kaizen.

Kaizen listened to the words of the servant and he stood up from the seat.

“Excuse me first.”

Is there an urgent matter?

She wished to go back to the bedroom after eating, but as soon as the emperor disappeared, Marianne aimed an arrow at Astelle.

“The children are so cute but they can’t learn proper manners. It’s unavoidable to do that. Originally, if parents don’t strictly discipline them, all children grow up spoiled. There are limits to what relatives can do.”

At Marianne’s thorny words, Vellian hurriedly sipped a sip of water and interrupted.

“Did you learn very well at that age level? According to my nanny’s testimony, I just grabbed the food with my hand at that age……”

“These children don’t have both parents, so I can’t help it. If they don’t have parents, the children will act as they please.”

Marianne continued her ridicule by cutting off Vellian words.

She was attacking Astelle, not Theor.

Astelle lost her mother as soon as she was born and grew up under her single father.

Astelle wasn’t angry.

She rather gave a soft smile satisfactorily.

“Lady Marianne’s parents must have been very generous people. I am envious of having such kind parents.”

-cough! cough!

Vellian, who was drinking water across from Astelle’s, hurriedly covered his mouth and pretend to be coughed.

Astelle said bluntly that the parents who didn’t punish their children meant their children were spoiled.

Vellian covered his mouth and held back his laughter.

Marianne’s white cheeks burned red when she realized she had been ridiculed.

“Are you saying I’m spoiled now?”

“No way, I praised how the Marquis raised his children.”

It was still very polite speech, but it contained a certain thorn no matter who heard it.

Astelle said with a gentle smile, picking up a glass of wine.

“And did you forget? His Majesty also lost his mother when he was a child.”

Kaizen also lost his mother when he was a child.

The former empress, Kaizen’s mother has been lying in the sick for several years before she dies.

This little girl seems to have forgotten about it for a while.

Like Kaizen, young Astelle, who grew up without a mother, felt sorry for him.

She sympathized with his sadness.

Marianne stuttered her words with a pale face.

“Ah…… I, I’m not like that……”

Vellian intervened and corrected the situation.

“His Majesty seems to be late, but should I just ask you to eat dessert? How about the little master? Do you want to eat dessert?”

“Yes! I want dessert!”

Soon came the melon sorbet prepared as a dessert.

Astelle watched Theor scoop up the sorbet and lift a spoon lightly.

After tasting it several times to see if it wasn’t her favorite dessert, Astelle put the spoon down and drank a little jerry juice.

Vellian, sitting on the other side of her, looked at Astelle with admiration.

From Astelle’s posture to every gesture, there was a calm and elegant elegance.

Her clothes weren’t even fancy, but she was like an empress enough even in such a plain dress.

Was it thanks to the Duke’s education?

Vellian heard that she had been educated very strictly, but it seemed that it wasn’t just because of it.

Astelle had some natural dignity.

In Vellian’s eyes, the emperor cared about the former empress a lot.

He thought that things were going strangely.

Even at this very moment, it was even more curious given that her father was plotting the rebellion, and the emperor was trying to kill him.

“Now, it’s better to stop and go back to the room. I don’t think His Majesty will return.”

When the emperor did not return after waiting a long time, Vellian finished the dinner and sent the two back.

Marianne went away without saying goodbye, and Astelle took Theor, who began to doze off, and she returned to the bedroom.

With his eyes half-closed, Theor, who was held by Astelle, hurriedly grabbed the hem of her clothes.

“Oh…… I left Levin.”

“Oh my god.”

She forgot to bring it.

Astelle put Theor on the bed and returned to the dinner table.

She took the doll from the servant who was arranging the seats and went out into the hallway.

The hallway of the castle, which lamp had been turned off, exudes a strange atmosphere.

Gold ornaments and statues shining brilliantly during the day were immersed in the dark.

A glass window that occupied one wall sprinkled a mysterious silver light in the corridor.

Astelle walked toward the bedroom, stepping on the stone statue’s shadow.

As she turned around the corner, a servant with a candlestick appeared from the other side.

Astelle found the man behind him and stopped.

It was Kaizen.

“Are you going back to your room?”

“Yes, the child left his teddy bear and I came back to bring it.”

The emperor seen in the night was different from what she saw in the daytime.

He had the same face and the same clothes, but the atmosphere of the whole body was completely different.

If the emperor she met in the daytime was a dignified monarch, in the middle of the night he was like a beast who hid in the shade.

He was somewhat confident, overbearing, and dangerous.

Kaizen was looking at Astelle’s uncharacteristic green dress.

Even in the dark, it was clearly seen that wrinkles were formed for a while in his forehead.

He asked bluntly, “Are you really not willing to receive the gift I gave you?”

Astelle sighed.

“I ate the food that Your Majesty gave me just before.”

“I’m not talking for playing with words.”

In the deep darkness, the red eyes continued to stare at him without blinking.

He seemed to piss off but unexpectedly, he said, “Yeah, you must be pissed.”

After divorce, for one or two years, there was such a feeling.

A heart that hated this man.

But as time went by, that kind of feeling faded.

It just felt like her feelings for this man had dried up.

Now love or hate all withered and turned into dust.

Astelle said, “No, I don’t blame Your Majesty anymore, and now I have no feelings about Your Majesty, so you don’t need to pay attention to me either.”

Now she is no longer pissed with this man

She just didn’t want to get entangled any closer to him.

She didn’t need anything from him.

After finishing this sudden matter, she wanted to get out of this man’s sight as soon as possible.

“Thank you for the gift, but I don’t need such fancy clothes anymore. All I asked for was to return my grandfather’s pension and to send us back after this matter is finished.”

Astelle bowed her head in elegance.

“It’s getting late, so I’m going back.”

Kaizen stood looking at Astelle’s back walking without hesitation.

After a while, Vellian came to the hallway to find the emperor and approached him.

“Your Majesty? Why did you do that?”

“Nothing.”

Kaizen sent the servant away with a hand gesture and said to Vellian, “Duke Reston has met Count Siete. I know from the Count himself.”

“Oh, as expected.”