Please Answer Me - Chapter 121

Her mother smiled warmly and nodded. “It seems you truly enjoyed your journey. Well, you did spend too much time cooped up in the palace. Once you’re married, you should travel often with Iselle. He would love to do anything as long as it’s with you.”

With those words, Rosetta felt a renewed sense of frustration. Neither Arman nor her mother seemed to care about her doing anything on her own. They only wished for her to marry Iselle and be dependent on him.

“Mother, was my marriage to Iselle decided a long time ago?”

Her mother looked a bit surprised by the sudden question. “Did Iselle say that to you?”

“Yes.”

“…I see. I didn’t expect him to say that.”

Her mother smiled at her again. “Iselle liked you a lot since you were little. You might not remember it well… It was one of those common promises made when children grow up to be fine ladies and gentlemen. It doesn’t hold any real meaning.”

Her mother’s words were completely different from what Iselle had said. Iselle mentioned that if it weren’t him, her parents wouldn’t have married her to anyone.

Whose words were true? It didn’t take long for Rosetta to figure it out.

Her mother was visibly uneasy. Her blinking was faster, and her hands were tense.

“I see. I was just curious.”

In any case, the person Rosetta ultimately needed to question wasn’t her mother. So, instead of troubling her further, she smiled brightly.

***

After the long meeting ended, the first person to leave the room was Tanit.

Walking down the corridor with her guard, Tanit soon came to a halt. She had spotted Rosetta standing at the end of the hallway.

“Rosetta?”

Rosetta smiled as she looked at her. “Sister.”

Tanit approached her younger sister, who had just returned from a long journey, with a bright smile. “I heard you were returning today. My goodness, Rosetta, you’ve grown even more beautiful!”

Tanit caressed Rosetta’s cheek and kissed her. Tanit always showered Rosetta with affectionate gestures she wouldn’t even give their parents.

“Sister, could you spare some time right now?”

Tanit noticed that Rosetta was without her nanny or Allen. Understanding that Rosetta wanted to have a private conversation, Tanit smiled. “Of course, I have some time now.”

They headed to Tanit’s palace. It wasn’t often that Rosetta visited Tanit’s quarters. Usually, they would meet in the main palace, or sometimes Tanit would visit Rosetta instead.

Rosetta looked around Tanit’s palace, which she hadn’t seen in a while, with a somewhat unfamiliar gaze.

The place where the Crown Princess resided was second only to the King and Queen’s palace in grandeur. The sheer size and the dazzling golden decorations set it apart from the palaces of ordinary princes and princesses.

One particular pride of the palace was the small fountain inside, with a glass ceiling above it that allowed pure white sunlight to flood in. Being invited to enjoy tea there by Tanit was considered a great honor among the nobles.

“This place is still as beautiful as ever.”

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Since you were last here.”

“Yes. I think the last time was last year.”

“My goodness, it has been a long time.”

As the maids poured tea into the cups on the table, Tanit smiled at the sight of the golden tea filling the cups.

“When you were little, you wanted the same thing for your palace after seeing this place.”

“Did I?”

“Yes, and when I suggested we just swap palaces, you said it wouldn’t be right to take mine. How adorable of you.”

Once the maids finished pouring the tea, Tanit gestured lightly. Everyone quickly disappeared, and all the doors surrounding them were firmly shut. Now, only the two of them remained.

“So, Rosetta, what is it you wanted to talk about?” Tanit began. “Ordinarily, I’d start by asking about your trip, but it seems you have something you want to tell me.”

Rosetta held the teacup with both hands and spoke softly, “I actually have something to ask you, Sister.”

“What is it?”

“Sister, who am I?”

Tanit paused in the middle of drinking her tea and looked up at Rosetta. Tanit’s eyes were the same green as Rosetta’s. However, her eyes were a much deeper olive shade.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Arman knows nothing, Iselle lies to me, and our parents try to hide everything. In the end, I thought you were the only one I could turn to.”

“Rosetta, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Tanit’s expression seemed genuinely confused, but there was also a hint that she might know something yet wasn’t revealing it. Tanit was as skilled as Rashid or Iselle at masking her emotions.

Though it was a sudden question for her, Rosetta had pondered deeply before finally asking it.

Rosetta’s family all loved her. That had been an unquestionable truth for Rosetta until now. However, Iselle’s love, which she believed was just as solid, was somewhat twisted. Arman agreed with Iselle’s version of love. Her parents had given Rosetta the most love, but they were also the ones who had confined her the most.

Then what about Tanit?

As she waited for Tanit, she couldn’t figure it out. Tanit had always been busy since they were young, so Rosetta didn’t have much time to spend with her. Thinking back, she realized she knew very little about Tanit—what she liked, what she had been concerned about recently.

And she also realized that she had hardly ever been alone with Tanit. When she was with Tanit, it was usually with Iselle or the family present.

“I didn’t go to a resort. I went west to see the sea. I’m returning from there now.”

“The west? Did you go to Arden?”

“Yes.”

Despite this, Rosetta asked Tanit such questions because as the Crown Princess, Tanit was the one who would have accurate information and could share it.

“Being there brought back memories of my childhood.”

For a moment, Tanit’s gaze darkened. It was not the usual gaze of an older sister doting on her younger sibling. She looked at Rosetta with the same look she gave the seasoned nobles during meetings.

“I realized I have no memories between the ages of six and ten. I only just found that out.”

Her memories were still incomplete. It was as if she had forcibly pieced together fragments of shattered recollections. But even with those scattered memories, one thing was clear—she had been confined in the underground of the temple for quite a long time.

“Grandfather locked me up in the temple’s underground. And on the day I was released from there, Grandfather died. Isn’t that right?”

When she had barely survived after being hit by an arrow and finally opened her eyes, her grandfather had already passed away. Her father, who had been the Crown Prince, became King, and Rosetta was returned to her original palace. Looking back now, it was no mere coincidence.

Rosetta looked at Tanit’s now-stern face and spoke, “You knew, didn’t you? That I was locked up there, and that Grandfather didn’t die from falling off his horse as was said.”

“……”

“There’s no way the heir to everything our father has wouldn’t know.”

Tanit set the teacup aside completely. She no longer seemed interested in drinking tea.

“Who else knows about this?”

“So far, just Iselle and you. Just the two of you.”

“And what else do you remember?”

“If you mean Masha, I remember her clearly. Even if the rest is hazy, that much is vivid.”

Not everyone has perfect memories of their childhood. Most people only remember the few special moments among the myriad of memories.

But the memories with Masha stood out starkly. It was as if in a black-and-white world, only he had brilliant colors.

“I want to know who I am. And why I had to be locked up in such a place for so long. Why did Grandfather do such a thing to me?”

Rosetta hadn’t merely been confined there. She had been regularly dragged out of her room and tortured. Before she had the scar on her back from the arrow, her body had always borne fresh wounds from having pieces of flesh torn away. Then the priests would heal her wounds, only to wound her again.

“…This is quite a difficult matter.” Tanit looked at Rosetta carefully with her olive eyes. “I never imagined you would ask me about this. I thought it was all over. Let me ask you just one thing first. I heard in the meeting that strange rumors are spreading in Arden. A large fire broke out, but they say it was extinguished by the descent of a divine miracle. Was that your doing?”

At the mention of a divine miracle, Rosetta tensed up. She knew how much the Lysa king and his heir had been obsessed with proving that they could use divine power. They had spared no effort in obtaining magic stones to prove it.

In this situation, the idea that a mere princess, not even the heir, had used divine power could disrupt the current order. More than anything, the question now made her the most anxious.