Chapter 78
Chapter 78. To Take Back, To Reclaim
Eurene, who had alighted from the Valita Trading Company’s carriage, easily slipped away from the crowd of merchants admiring the imperial palace with wonder-filled eyes.
The layout of the Empress’s Palace was familiar to her, so finding her way wasn’t difficult. The medicine she had received from the head of the Valita Trading Company weighed heavily in her cloak pocket, swaying like a stone.
Eurene lowered her tense face and began walking towards the main palace where the Emperor would be.
The quickest route on foot from the Empress’s Palace to the main palace was through the back training grounds and gardens. However, this required using the rear exit within the Empress’s Palace, so Eurene kept a low profile and stepped carefully.
Due to the numerous trading companies summoned to the Empress’s Palace, the servants paid her little attention. Occasionally, a servant would give her directions, thinking she had lost her way, but otherwise, she encountered no significant difficulties.
The door leading to the back was just a little further ahead.
However, upon reaching the door, she found knights guarding it. Unable to avoid their strict surveillance, she was about to take the long way around when suddenly the door swung open, and someone strode in confidently.
The knights hurriedly bowed their heads. Eurene, her back against the wall, also quickly lowered her head to avoid being identified.
The footsteps of whoever was passing in front of her were urgent. Expensive shoes. Who could it be?
As she raised her head, familiar silver-gray hair came into view.
“Brother…?”
Somehow, this situation felt familiar. Not long ago, when she had come to the palace with her mother, she had discovered him in much the same way.
Back then, she had thought it was fate, orchestrated by the gods to bring them together. Now, she knew that wasn’t the case.
Eurene’s green eyes darkened.
Turning away from the door, she began to follow in the direction he had gone. This was her chance, while no knights accompanying the Emperor were present.
Her only opportunity to use the aphr*disiac in her possession, to reclaim the place that should have been hers.
Eurene quickened her pace slightly to pursue him. However, in her caution to avoid drawing attention, she lost sight of him at some point.
“Where on earth…”
Just as she was about to turn the corner of the corridor to the right, with an anxious expression, a black shadow fell over Eurene.
Her wide green eyes met the gaze of the person looking down at her.
Somewhat clouded silver-gray eyes. A chilling gaze that seemed both angry and unhinged.
“B-Brother…”
A trembling voice escaped Eurene’s lips.
She hadn’t expected to encounter him like this. As she fumbled for words, not knowing what to say or how to act, the silver-gray eyes soon looked past her.
Tatar’s back, as he passed by without showing any reaction, left Eurene standing in shock, her eyes following him blankly.
Was his outright rejection during the Empire Foundation Day banquet better than this? Eurene drew in a sharp breath at his complete dismissal.
“Why…?”
Hadn’t their eyes met? Wasn’t this the Empress’s Palace?
She had come in wearing a wig, pursued him in a place she shouldn’t be, and his only reaction was to continue on his way?
Even with the golden wig and hastily drawn freckles as a disguise, it wasn’t enough to be unrecognizable when they came face to face.
Eurene’s blank expression soon crumpled unattractively. Humiliation, anger, and shame consumed her thoughts.
The past, which had been nothing but happy memories, began to mix with filth.
For what purpose, with what hopes had she clung to those memories as if they were precious dreams? In just a few months, the man in her memories had been bewitched by another woman, becoming a complete stranger.
Biting her lower lip hard, Eurene followed in the direction he had gone.
She thought she knew every inch of the Empress’s Palace, but this was a path she had never seen before. She climbed up endless spiral stairs, higher and higher.
Finally reaching the top, there was a small iron door wide open.
As she stepped through the door, unlike the dark stairway, a glass garden filled with bright light spread out before her.
“Baloua flowers?”
Hadn’t that devilish Empress gotten rid of them all?
Eurene was stunned by the peaceful and beautiful scene, making her recent regrets seem foolish.
“It’s exactly the same as in my memories, the Baloua flowers…”
Her fading voice carried an unavoidable longing.
Although she regretted it because of him, who now wouldn’t even treat her as a person, nevertheless, her idea of happiness lay by his side.
Marrying him without the Empress by his side, bearing his children, freely roaming the palace, and being entrusted with a happy future.
Eurene clutched her belly.
Carrying the seed of a man she knew only by face, this was the best future she could hope for.
Bending down to pluck a Baloua flower, Eurene buried her face in the light blue petals and took a deep breath.
The soft, cool fragrance evoked hazy sentiments. His voice, which had opened up her world when the Castallo mansion had been her entire universe.
‘Beautiful, Eurene. Just like you.’
The Baloua flower crumpled in Eurene’s hand. As it fell to the ground, its form was unrecognizable.
After looking around for a moment, Eurene slowly began to walk.
Now she remembered. When she had asked the late Empress what would happen to the Baloua garden if the empire suffered a drought or flood, the reason she had been told not to worry must have been because of this place.
When the late Empress had mentioned a secret place in the Empress’s Palace, Eurene had begged to be taken there, but in the end, she couldn’t come.
The voice of the late Empress, smiling with a troubled expression as she tucked a Baloua flower behind Eurene’s ear, scattered in her mind.
‘Someday, when you truly become a m*mber of the imperial family, I’ll let you see it once.’
A m*mber of the imperial family. By Tatar’s side.
The late Empress’s voice, which she used to repeat habitually, came to mind. Though she knew she shouldn’t, unavoidable resentment welled up.
In this place where no one was on her side, why had the one person who might have truly been on her side left so early? If she had known, she could have arranged something, even if it was just an engagement with him before she passed.
She felt ashamed of her despicable thoughts, but still, she couldn’t stop the resentment.
As she reached deeper into the garden, she sensed someone’s presence.
Was it voices, or movement? It sounded like rustling clothes, or perhaps skin against skin. With occasional voices mixed in, it was difficult to guess exactly what was happening.
Eurene, who had been walking with her gaze fixed on the ground and a gloomy expression, raised her head.
Olive trees taller than her height surrounded the innermost part of the glass garden like a fence. Long tapestries made of white lace were tied between the olive trees, but they were so thin that it wasn’t difficult to see through them.
Eurene’s wide eyes fell upon the silhouettes of two people lying on a bed of blooming Baloua flowers.
Two n*ked figures were intertwined on a large blanket spread over the Baloua flowers.
‘Brother and… the Empress?’
The confession she had desperately longed for was directed not at her, but at another woman. At the woman who had taken everything from her, the Empress who was no different from a devil.
“—Look at me. Look at how I’ve completely submitted to you. Look at how I’ve come to realize love.”
Eurene stumbled backward.
Ah, ah… The scream she couldn’t utter tore through her throat and pierced her heart.
The two bodies entangled messily. The beautiful female form embraced the sculpted male body.
Eurene squeezed her eyes shut and turned away.
“Ah! Ahng, Your Majesty… Ah!”
“Vinea, ha, you should, call my name. Hm?”
But she couldn’t block out their voices echoing throughout the glass garden.
Eurene covered both ears with her hands.
Love? He truly loves that woman?
Eurene’s face was tinged with despair as she finally confirmed his feelings right before her eyes.
Along with anger, an unbearable jealousy towards the Empress whispered in Eurene’s ear.
[See? You felt it too, didn’t you? You spent such a dreamlike time in the arms of a man you’d never met before, how much happier would you be with Brother? Take it back, reclaim it. That place, his heart.]
Eurene pulled out the medicine from her pocket with trembling hands.
What little guilt remained completely vanished. All that was left was desire and the courage to realize it.
Leaving the two’s moans behind, Eurene left the glass garden. There was no hesitation in her steps as she descended the stairs.
After leaving the Empress’s Palace, Eurene returned to where the trading company was and sought out Balak.
Opening the door of the carriage they had arrived in, she saw Balak Utar sitting with his head bowed.
Eurene intuitively realized that some problem had arisen between Balak and the Empress. And that his plan to kill her had failed.
Balak’s head turned slowly at Eurene’s appearance. Despair was evident on his closed lips and clouded face. Somehow, his appearance overlapped with her own after witnessing the two in the glass garden, causing Eurene to avoid his gaze.
“…What happened?”
His extremely cracked voice was tinged with the verge of tears.
However, whatever had transpired between the two was not important to Eurene. Only one thing mattered – spending just one night with him.
“I need clothes worn by imperial maids. Can you get them for me?”
Balak turned his head for a moment before calling in an employee. Soon, the employee who received his orders brought a simple black and white maid’s uniform.
Balak handed it to Eurene.
“This is a new imperial maid uniform being prepared by another trading company. Although it looks similar at a glance, the design is different, so you should avoid directly encountering the servants.”
“Thank you.”
Eurene took it and turned her head. After hesitating, she opened her mouth towards Balak.
“Although it seems to have failed, I can still tell you where Sefitiana is.”
Balak looked at Eurene. His sunken dark red eyes held terrible despair.
“You don’t need to tell me.”
“But…”
“Even a miracle from the gods cannot save me, My Lady. Sometimes, like fate, there are things that cannot be changed no matter what we do.”
Balak closed the carriage door. Eurene watched him through the carriage window for a moment before turning away.
