Chapter 64
Chapter 64
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 64
Chapter Title: What Wind Blows
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“What wind blows you here?”
Raphaelle muttered to herself as she inspected her reflection in the mirror. She was hastily getting dressed up after receiving the emperor’s sudden summons.
It had already been days on end where nothing pleased her, and now she had to face the emperor first thing in the morning.
“What pointless nonsense is he going to spout this time?”
The emperor rarely called his half-siblings to meals. The last time had been that stormy dinner when Dever announced he would step down as army commander. After that, the emperor hadn’t even exchanged polite greetings with Raphaelle.
All she’d heard through Bell was that the emperor and Arthur occasionally dined together.
“He must find Arthur useful, at least.”
What an idiot. Raphaelle wiped the corner of her crimson lips with her fingernail and rose from her seat.
Before she knew it, spring had fully bloomed in Nexus. Everyone welcomed the snow-like petals that arrived at the tail end of the harsh winter.
But the nobles had their own reasons for celebrating spring. It meant the social season in Nexus was approaching. Everyone would find a partner there and marry before winter returned.
“Get that off.”
The maid who had tried to brush a petal from the princess’s shoulder hurriedly stepped back.
Raphaelle irritably shook it off her shoulder. Annoyance flickered across her pale face.
Why had the emperor summoned her, whom he despised so much?
Right—maybe that was it. He might be calling to bring that up.
No, it had to be. That was the only thing he expected from her.
“Raphaelle, you’ve come.”
Unlike usual, Emperor Hoyden was dressed in comfortable loungewear. Arthur, seated beside him, wore a gentleman’s sport shirt instead of a formal suit. The yellow morning sunlight streaming through the windows made it look like nothing more than a peaceful family breakfast.
It almost feels like we’re actually having a meal as a family. Raphaelle swallowed a bitter smile.
“Of course I came when Your Majesty summoned me.”
“It’s just a family breakfast. Sit down.”
“Yes.”
Hoyden often sprinkled affection on his half-siblings like alms to a stray dog on the street. Perhaps he’d learned it from their father, the previous emperor. Just as the late emperor had left many women thirsting to death with his meager charity, his son was driving his siblings to their demise, Raphaelle thought.
“It’s been a while.”
Raphaelle murmured softly while toying with her knife.
Arthur’s hand paused abruptly at her words, then resumed moving slowly.
Arthur cleared her wine glass and filled an empty one with juice.
“Wine first thing in the morning?”
Hoyden’s hand, which had been lifting wine to his lips, froze this time. Arthur’s eyes stayed fixed on the glass he was filling.
After silently pouring the juice, Arthur returned his gaze to his own plate. Hoyden, who had been glancing sideways at him, finally spoke.
“We’ll have a proper social season for once in a long time. Everyone’s preparing to find a match, I assume?”
He looked at Raphaelle, feigning casualness.
“Any progress with Dever, Raphaelle?”
As expected.
Raphaelle sighed and sliced into her meat, though there was no need to cut it further.
“He says he’s busy these days with the military supply trade agreement with Britain.”
“A man, no matter how busy, can’t keep his hands off the woman who’s his. There’s no easier, more useless excuse than work.”
“...You’re right. Father was the same.”
“Raphaelle.”
Arthur cut her off.
Silence descended over the overly large table, meant for far more than three people.
Arthur glanced at his brother. He had blond hair and blue eyes like Arthur’s own, but he was a man far from Nexus’s standards of beauty. And Hoyden couldn’t stand that sense of otherness, different from his half-siblings. He was someone who had everything yet pretended to have nothing.
“I hear Dever has a woman. Did you know?”
Hoyden’s blue eyes gleamed as he posed the question. It was the gleam of someone who’d spotted a weakness.
“I read about it in the gazette too.”
“I didn’t think Your Majesty put stock in such yellow journalism.”
“I hear you’re quite fond of that gazette yourself. I must have misheard.”
Raphaelle bit her lip. She pressed her small teeth into her blood-red lips until they paled white. If she could, she’d rip off Hoyden’s ear right then.
“I didn’t know Your Majesty had eyes in my residence too.”
“Just eyes?”
Hoyden sneered.
“Eyes, ears, mouths, legs—all of it. As you know, I’ve been frail since childhood. I can’t sweep the battlefield like Arthur, nor enchant the masses with beauty like you.”
Hoyden raised his bony hand to point at his oversized ear.
“Listening well and acting swiftly is the only way I survive. This Nexus is my Nexus, my palace.”
Arthur’s and Raphaelle’s faces hardened simultaneously.
I’m watching, so don’t try anything foolish.
They couldn’t miss the blatant message.
“Having you two, who look so eerily alike, by Dever’s side reassures me, yet worries me at the same time.”
Hoyden furrowed his brow. A look of distaste, as if seeing something unpleasant, flashed briefly but vanished.
“Remember this: we’re blood of the imperial family, no matter what. He’s just an outsider. He could turn his blade on us anytime. Though that bastard would probably shove a gun in our faces instead.”
Once the reins were off, Hoyden’s words flowed without restraint.
“Daring to talk about becoming or quitting army commander? In his dreams. He won’t die until he’s gnawed the Cliff family down to the bone.”
Hoyden, who had reluctantly approved Dever’s resignation to secure the Cliff family’s military supplies, couldn’t contain his rage.
His hand trembled faintly around the empty wine glass.
“The moment the next war breaks out, I’ll put that bastard at the vanguard, even if I have to invoke imperial prerogative. So, Raphaelle! You need to become Mrs. Cliff before he dies. Understand?!”
Raphaelle released her cutlery entirely and folded her hands over her skirt. The spark of ambition in her eyes seemed somehow deadened.
“...I know.”
“I’ve known from the start you’re an ambitious girl. You want to be the highest woman in Nexus, don’t you?”
Raphaelle let out a scoff at Hoyden’s direct probe into her heart.
“Of course.”
“It’s the only path where we can all achieve our goals. Put in some effort.”
Arthur’s eyebrow twitched at the scolding plea to “put in effort.”
“In the end, Dever’s decision decides everything.”
Arthur, who had been silent until now, poured wine into Hoyden’s glass—far more than half-full, the liquid sloshing.
“That Your Majesty’s and the princess’s goals both hang on the duke’s whim. How unfortunate.”
“You...!”
At that moment, the emperor’s secretary, who had been standing at a distance, approached. After whispering something in the emperor’s ear, Hoyden’s face hardened instantly.
“They’re already here?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Breakfast has run longer than expected.”
“Hmph.”
Hoyden rose abruptly with a displeased expression. The napkin he tossed onto the table landed on a half-eaten plate, staining it.
The emperor’s entourage hurried noisily out of the dining hall.
Arthur and Raphaelle remained seated until the emperor’s group had fully departed. Only when the two of them were left alone did Raphaelle speak.
“Defending me for once? Afraid of falling out of the emperor’s favor?”
“I didn’t defend you.”
“Then you’re defending Dever? What, are you really best friends?”
“Dever and I have been friends since we were fifteen.”
“Don’t make me laugh.”
Raphaelle laughed derisively and lifted her wine glass.
Arthur didn’t stop her this time.
“You drink often?”
“Every other day or so.”
“...Be careful.”
“If alcohol were only comfort, I could drink it every hour.”
Arthur felt a tightness in his chest and undid a few buttons on his shirt collar.
“Reconsider marriage to Dever. Don’t gamble on slim odds and let it eat you away.”
“Didn’t you hear the emperor? My ambitions are tied to Dever.”
“Becoming his wife isn’t the path to being the highest woman.”
“Then tell me another way, Arthur.”
Raphaelle propped her chin on the table, golden hair cascading over her slender jaw. Like a beautiful woman from a painting, she barely moved her lips.
“Make me empress or something.”
“What?!”
“Then I wouldn’t care if Dever Cliff went off chasing Beth into the mountains or lost his mind.”
Arthur was speechless. He couldn’t even ask if she meant empress of Nexus.
Beth’s name—forgotten, he’d thought—coming from her lips. Arthur sighed.
Raphaelle leaned back, shrugging her shoulders at Arthur.
“What’s with the shock? Even a child knows the highest woman is the empress. I just stated the fact.”
“Even considering you my sister has its limits!”
Raphaelle smoothed her disheveled hair and stood.
Her eyes, turned toward her only half-brother who truly understood her, deepened darkly.
“Are you sure we’re blood siblings? That we really look alike? Who knows. If you think so, I’m grateful.”
She placed her neatly folded napkin on the table.
“Keep cherishing me as your little sister. And please don’t block my path.”
Raphaelle straightened her attire and walked toward the door. Her heels clicked to a stop, and she turned back.
“That suits you better than a uniform. Nice day out—go find a social season partner. No woman as beautiful as me, of course.”
Raphaelle smiled brightly. A smile just for Arthur—sincere, without mockery or ulterior motives.
She backed away a few steps, still watching him, then turned. Her flowing golden hair whipped in the spring breeze.
Arthur watched her shrinking figure for a long time.
Raphaelle had smiled like she did in their ignorant childhood. He couldn’t recall how long it had been since he’d seen that smile.
“Open all the windows.”
At his gesture, the attendants swiftly opened every window in the spacious dining hall. As the tall windows flung wide, swaying flower branches came into sharp view.
Pink petals scattered on the warm breeze drifted into the lonely hall. Feeling the balmy wind, Arthur closed his eyes. It was hard to believe it was the same wind as the biting gales of the battlefield.
“Spring, huh.”
Winter had passed.
But perhaps this was no spring—merely a delusion that a fiercer winter hadn’t arrived.
Alone now, Arthur finally whispered the question he’d always dreaded.
“Spring has come after all.”
A spring where everything was slightly askew had begun.