How to Hide the Emperor's Child - Chapter 6

She still had an impression that looked calm and quiet.

Her appearance was strangely irritating to his nerves.

Why?

It wasn’t that he hated her appearance.

Her appearance was miserable enough to look shabby, but Astelle herself did not hate to see it.

Even now, her face was without make-up, but her delicate light green eyes and light pink lips were beautiful and had a natural dignity.

‘You were like that.’

She was a fiancee from a very young age and even married him.

But, he has never seen Astelle properly.

Astelle slowly smiled as she was telling Lyndon something.

As she looked up at Lyndon, the light of the sun lit her eyes.

As her pale red lips drew slightly curved, a pale smile blossomed on her elegant face.

Kaizen quickly walked over there.

“Your Majesty……!”

Suddenly, when the emperor approached, Lyndon was surprised and hurriedly stood up.

Astelle, who was sitting also stood up.

“I have something to talk about for a moment, so take the child.”

Upon hearing the emperor’s orders, Lyndon carefully takes the child.

How long have you been raising that child?

If the commoners had money, they hired a nanny to take care of the child, but a woman who used to be a princess raised the child herself.

Astelle apparently had lived as a maid and nanny with her poor grandfather.

***

Astelle was very surprised when Kaizen suddenly approached her.

She had something to hide, so when she suddenly faced him like this, she was nervous.

Until she arrived in the capital, she didn’t want to get along as much as possible……

She concealed that mind, and forcibly asked, pretending to be calm.

“What’s going on?”

“Why didn’t you remarry?”

Astelle looked up at Kaizen without a word for a moment.

She couldn’t understand why this man suddenly asked her something like this.

“Wouldn’t it be better to remarry than to live so hard?”

“……”

Are you really curious about that?

Astelle knew he was insensitive, but she was a little surprised.

He asked why she didn’t remarry?

Of course, the first reason she didn’t consider remarriage was because of Theor.

But Astelle came up with a more honest answer, “It was enough to go through such a thing once.”

Kaizen’s red eyes sank at the word ‘such a thing’.

Astelle asked the same question, “Then why didn’t Your Majesty remarry?”

“I didn’t need a wife to bother me and act as a spy.”

It was a sarcastic answer to Astelle.

Astelle looked down and answered calmly, “Now you don’t have to worry because all of the nobles that might threaten Your Majesty are gone. You can choose the new empress with confidence.”

Astelle said in a calm tone but contained a bit of skepticism that he couldn’t choose a new empress because he was still worried about another rebellion.

Kaizen laughed coldly, staring through Astelle.

“You have changed a lot.”

“Maybe so.”

I have changed.

When Astelle sees this man, she doesn’t feel any more feelings.

“If it’s okay, can I go back to the carriage?”

“……sure.”

Astelle bowed her head to him and headed for the carriage.

Kaizen looked at Astelle’s back for a while.

The woman he met again in six years was so strange that it was really annoying.

***

The party arrived at Maern Castle only in the afternoon.

Maern was a castle built in the eastern forest area and was owned by the imperial family.

Compared to other castles owned by the emperor near the capital, it was very small, but unlike its small and antique appearance, the interior was very colorful and stylishly decorated.

Kaizen said he was going to take a break in here for a day or two before heading for the capital.

There were knights and servants waiting in the castle to greet the emperor.

As soon as Kaizen got off the horse, a red-haired young man approached and greet him.

As Astelle got off the carriage, he quickly approached her.

“Nice to meet you Lady Astelle. This is Vellian, Count of Claude, His Majesty’s secretary.”

The man who introduced himself as Vellian has a gentle-looking appearance, with soft red curly hair and green eyes with slightly drooping ends.

He had a handsome face, but he looked cute rather than handsome.

It was Astelle’s first time seeing him.

It seemed that he was a new bureaucrat who had been selected by Kaizen and entered the imperial palace.

“Hello, Count, nice to meet you.”

At that moment, she heard a clear and soft woman’s voice from the inside of the castle.

“Your Majesty! You have finally arrived.”

An embarrassing expression passed on Vellian’s face who was trying to tell Astelle something.

A Lady, a blonde noble lady, was coming out of the castle.

The Lady’s gaze looking at Kaizen turned to Astelle and Vellian.

“Oh my, who is this?”

***

The woman who stepped forward looked very young.

Is she at most about twenty-two years old?

She had a childish face, but she was gorgeous and beautiful.

It was clear that she was still an unmarried lady judging by her fine-grained honey blond was set simply and the rest was loosened.

The blonde lady asked, looking at Astelle with slightly alert eyes, “Who is this person?”

Astelle made eye contact with her.

She belatedly remembered who this lady was.

“Lady Marianne, it’s been a long time.”

Apparently, this lady was the eldest daughter of the Marquis of Croychen.

When Astelle was in the social world, she was a cute adolescent girl who was only about 14 or 15 years old.

It was already 6 years ago……

“Do you know me?”

As Marianne was confused, Vellian, who was next to her, quickly interrupted.

“Lady Marianne, this is the former empress, Lady Astelle.”

“Your Majesty the Empress?”

At the words of the former empress, Marianne observed Astelle with a soft expression.

Her slightly vigilant eyes passed by Astelle’s casually loosened white blonde and a shabby dress without a pattern.

A sneer came from Marianne’s mouth.

“Oh, God…… you were kicked out after that day……”

“La, Lady……!”

Disrespectful remarks by Marianne made Vellian bewildered and tried to stop her.

But Astelle didn’t care at all and laughed instead.

“Yes, I am the empress who was kicked out after a day. I guess you remember me now.”

Perhaps this little girl was one of the emperor’s lovers.

The Croychen was a newly recognized family. Now that the great nobles had fallen, of course, the new noble families accepted Kaizen’s trust. One of them is the Croychen family.

Marianne bit her lip knowing that Astelle wasn’t angry and laughed even though she was mocking her.

Then she found a little boy behind Astelle, and she asked, “Who else is this kid?”

“He is the child of my deceased cousin. I brought him because I am his guardian now.”

Marianne quickly lost interest in Theor, when Astelle said he was her cousin’s child.

On the other hand, Theor couldn’t take his eyes off Marianne.

He seemed to be curious because he had never seen such a beautiful woman.

As he looked up at Marianne, he bowed and said hello.

“Hello…… Lady.”

The Marquis, Astelle’s maternal grandfather, who had lived as an old nobleman, used to sometimes teach Theor how to treat the ladies.

Well, he didn’t teach bad things, so Astelle let it……

Marianne was still looking at him, but Vellian admired him as he looked at the child.

“Wow, the little master is very polite.”

Come to think of it, Vellian didn’t wonder who he was even when he saw the child earlier.

Before the party arrived here, he seemed to have heard of the former empress and the child she brought with her.

“If it’s okay, I’ll show you where you stay.”

Vellian guided Astelle with a very kind and polite attitude, leaving Marianne.

Marianne wondered why the former empress came with the emperor and why she looked shabby.

Astelle took the child and walked the corridor along with Vellian.

As soon as she turned around the corner, Vellian apologized to Astelle.

“Forgive me. Lady Marianne doesn’t know the situation yet. I’ll talk slowly to her later.”

“Forget it. It is precisely my regret that I seem to have offended the person favored by His Majesty.”

Vellian paused and stared at Astelle blankly.

“Pardon? No. He’s not like that……”

Vellian tried to say something, but he just closed his mouth.

It was taboo for him, the secretary, to say this or that about the emperor’s private life.