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| ← Ch.037 | Ch.039 → |
"Are you sure you can go alone? If you take the wrong path, you'll be in trouble..."
The little boy, who looked about ten years old, looked like Kevin's age. Sienna spoke while patting the boy on the head.
"Don't worry, I've been here before. You should be busy, so you can go."
"Goodbye then."
The servant greeted Sienna to see if she had any business, and then went away with hurried steps. Sienna moved slowly out of the splendid hall and then out of the palace of the Empress. While walking to a carriage, she stopped at one place.
There was a fence tangled with vines. It was a place that didn't fit in with the palace and was neat enough to not have a single leaf anywhere.
"Is there a place like this in the palace?"'
While looking at the fence, she found a small door. There were weed lying under the door where the paint had been peeling off. It had traces of someone coming in and out. She opened the door, unable to resist her curiosity.
It was a garden that no one cared for or had ever been groomed. Nevertheless, unknown wildflowers were settling down, exuding simple beauty. Sienna walked carefully along the traces of someone who had passed by here so as not to step on the flowers as much as possible.
As she walked carefully, her feet began to tingle—she found Carl lying in front of her. He was always under threat of assassination. It wasn't long ago that she had helped him when he had fallen down due to someone's attack.
'No way! Azrael hasn't done anything yet, has he?'
Thinking about it a little rationally, Arya would not use her own hands and feet in the palace, but thinking about it made her heart pound to the ground.
'Arya's not that crazy. She wouldn't attack Carl in the palace. If Carl gets hurt, she'll be the recipient of the most suspicion... '
She tried to comfort herself in her heart that he wouldn't be hurt, but it wasn't easy. Her hands were numbed with apprehension.
She sat next to him and examined Carl's condition. He had his eyes closed with a serene face. She brought her ears to his chest to make sure he was alive. His heartbeat was a little faster, but it was in the normal range. She stared at him with her eyes in a strange way. There was no sign of struggle from his body.
'As suspected, he didn't get hurt. So why are you sleeping in a place like this?'
"Uh!"
A short while later, Carl pulled her wrist. Suddenly, his posture reversed and Sienna laid on her back as Carl looked down at her from above.
Carl left his room in frustration. Normally, he would have talked to Azrael about military operations or would have had a drink with him, but he hadn't felt like doing so lately. Because Sienna's words to watch out for Azrael kept hovering in his head.
He listened to her through one ear and had to let it out of the other, but it kept going on continuously in his head. As a result, he couldn't look at Azrael as usual. This was a good way if Sienna was actually one of Arya's people, so as to drive a wedge between himself and Azrael.
He had recently begun to pay attention to Azrael's every move. He had begun to see things that he had never doubted before. He wondered why Azrael's clothes emitted cold air when he had never been outside, and why he looked at himself with a complicated face.
At the same time, it was alarming that he did not reveal his worries to himself.
He went out for a walk because he felt uncomfortable in the same room with Azrael. At the moment, his two most unwilling people to bump into with were Azrael and Sienna.
As winter passed, the trees in the garden began to sprout. The diligent flowers had not looked stark in bloom. During the winter, the fallen leaves rolled in the wind, uncluttered. Regardless of the season, it was unbelievable that it was one of the gardens of the imperial palace where flowers did not bloom even in the middle of winter.
It was a garden cherished by his birth mother, Empress Isabelle, who sometimes visited Carl when he was upset. When she was healthy, this place was full of four seasons of flowers, and the chirping of small birds who came to see the flowers never stopped. With its owner gone, it became a place that no one could look after.
Carl laid down on the untidy grass. Lying in the grass like this and closing his eyes reminded him of the past.
On a sunny day, Empress Isabel liked to spend time laying blankets in her beloved garden. Little Carl would lie down on her knee and take a nap on her. He enjoyed her warm hand sweeping away on his forehead.
All of a sudden, he heard footsteps.
'Who is it? Has the new maid lost her way?'
Carl didn't open his eyes. A properly disciplined woman could not interfere with the prince's time. He believed that the maid would take a quiet turn after checking his face. But contrary to the idea, she increased her pace as she approached him.
'No, no trained assassins can't run like this. Moreover, this is the palace. No matter how confident an assassin is, he can't easily launch an attack at the palace... '
Carl was very embarrassed by his opponent, who put her head on his chest in no time. She quietly examined her heartbeat. He would not have been so surprised if she had taken out a dagger.
He quickly snatched the person's arm and switched their positions, going on top of her. His face hardened when he saw the person's face. The person was now Sienna, one of the people Carl didn't want to meet the most.
"What is this?"
When asked by Carl, Sienna didn't answer properly and only gave a mouthful. He looked very surprised. She soon came to her senses and said with an impression, "Please move out of the way."
He stared at her with a crinkled impression and then raised himself off of her. She lay on the floor like that for a while, even though he had already made way for her. Carl asked to her, "How long are you going to stay like that?"
She glared at Carl with a face that said, 'Who's this cute guy?!'
Carl burst into laughter as he looked at Sienna's face and reached his hand out to her.
"Oh, my goodness!"
Sienna looked at his hand with a worried look.
"Hold onto me, unless you're going to keep lying down there like that."
She still had a discontented expression and pondered before taking his hand and standing up to shake the dust off her dress.
"Sienna Waters, I didn't expect you to have a taste for men."
Carl's words raised her voice with sincerity.
"What a shock. I was just trying to make sure you were safe."
"Safety?"
"I was just trying to make sure if you're dead or alive since you were lying there like you had passed out."
"I didn't pass out, I was simply lying down. More than that, how the hell did you get in here?"
"There was a door open. I didn't know there was a place like this in the castle. Is this the garden of the previous Empress? Her Majesty Isabelle loved to take care of... Oh, I'm sorry."
He tilted his head at her apology.
"You are quite a weird woman. What you just said along with your reaction shows you're pretty used to the imperial family."
"There's no possible way. It's the first time a country bumpkin like myself has ever seen the royal palace at an adult ceremony. I'm not familiar with the capital, let alone the imperial palace."
Carl didn't believe that remark. Sienna knew so much that she didn't seem to have come from the periphery. That's why he couldn't get rid of his doubts about her. Even so, he couldn't understand himself for why he couldn't push her away.
"Why did you come to the palace? Unless you're here to wander around the garden."
"I've been invited by Queen Arya."
"Is the work under way to really make you my bride?"
| ← Ch. 037 | Ch. 039 → |