“I thank Your Majesty for looking after even my maid.”
Elisia bowed politely, thanking the Empress.
Sarah, kneeling beside her, also bowed deeply.
The Empress smiled sweetly at the Second Crown Princess and her maid.
“I told you before—we are family.
There’s no need for all this formality.
And if you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
Elisia slowly raised her head, frowning slightly as if something weighed on her mind, then hesitated before speaking.
“Actually… the First Crown Princess recently advised me to study palace etiquette.
I’m worried my shortcomings might bring shame to the royal palace.”
“Didn't I mention this earlier?”
The Empress opened her fan and spoke in a warm tone.
“Your manners are flawless, Second Crown Princess.
You don’t need any instructors.”
“But the First Crown Princess...”
“You mean Glenna?”
As Elisia fell silent, the Empress gently flapped her fan and tilted her head.
“Who knows why she said that?
Perhaps it’s because of Crichton’s upcoming birthday party.
She’s exceptionally detail-oriented, especially regarding Crichton.
She tends to be quite strict.”
“You understand?”
The Empress winked at Elisia cheerfully, and Elisia calmed, returning her smile.
“Now I recall—the first prince’s birthday party approaches.”
Elisia silently calculated the date.
Nerys will appear at next year’s Christmas concert.
So no need to worry this year.
Although Glenna mentioned Nerys’s name at the royal dinner, the time hasn’t arrived yet.
Neris Roshanak hasn’t reached Calibs.
She’ll spend this winter in the Roshanak region and won’t come to Calebs until next spring.
‘This means this will be(false) the first and last ceremony I attend as Franz’s wife.’
Next year, even if Elisia attended the party, she’d be treated as if she didn’t exist.
Franz won’t dance a single dance with her once he sees Nerys.
He’ll leave her to return to the villa alone, without an escort.
From that day on, her true misery begins.
“Decent.”
“It’s not that time yet.”
Elisia smiled deeply, trying to calm her turbulent heart.
She’s lived through all this before.
She knew him well.
Yet it hurt her.
Perhaps because she’d experienced it before, her soul reacted to the memory.
She knew that misery well.
“Second Crown Princess?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Wait a moment—the iced tea will arrive shortly.”
“Yes…”
came Elisia’s hazy reply.
She lifted her gaze to the Empress and pressed her lips together.
While she hesitated, holding the cup of hot tea, the Empress folded her fan and asked: “What were you thinking?
Were you thinking about your family?”
“No, I—”
Elisia began to deny instinctively, then blinked when something suddenly came to mind.
Her eyes lit up.
“Your Majesty the Empress, may I send an invitation to the Prince’s first birthday party?”
“Of course.
Your guests are always welcome.
Who would you like to invite?”
Elisia’s face lit with joy at the Empress’s generous approval.
She set the tea aside and spoke shyly: “I’d like to invite my brother.”
Elisia wrote the invitation to Ambrose, her face beaming with excitement.
The Empress had allowed her to invite Caleb.
She hadn’t expected rejection, but actually receiving permission filled her with joy.
In her previous life, she hadn’t been able to see Caleb even once after her marriage.
Franz had found it annoying.
Because she couldn’t complain to the Empress, she had no choice but to miss Ambrose and Caleb from afar.
Isolated from her family, she grew increasingly lonely.
That loneliness devoured her soul.
She didn’t mind her meals being dry bread or nearly empty soup.
She was the second crown princess.
Franz’s only wife.
That pride helped her endure.
But pride alone isn’t enough to endure misery.
At day’s end, Elisia was merely human.
She wasn’t accustomed to bearing all her pain alone.
She needed someone she could rely on in moments of weakness, someone she could confide in.
Whenever she suffered, she thought of her family, who comforted the weeping Liz.
Her strong older brother, Caleb, filled the void left by their father.
Elisia cried into her pillow, missing Caleb.
The large, empty villa echoed with longing.
But over time, that longing intensified until the spacious villa no longer sufficed for him.
Changing the wet pillowcase was pointless—it would be wet again tomorrow.
Elisia learned to cry silently alone, swallowing her loneliness and sorrow.
This is what she learned during her two years in the palace.
Of course, she wasn’t completely alone.
If she were, her love for Franz would have faded long ago.
Fortunately, she had Sarah.
Sarah was a loyal servant.
That’s why she served Elisia loyally, even when others in the palace abandoned her.
Thanks to Sarah’s efforts, Elisia ate three decent meals a day.
But that’s all it was.
No matter how good Sarah is, she remains merely a servant.
Not family.
Elisia couldn’t cry in her arms or seek advice.
She needed someone to fill the void in her heart.
To the one who’d loved her since childhood.
To someone like Caleb.
“It’s fortunate Caleb was Crichton’s classmate at the academy.”
Elisia smiled gently as she sealed the envelope.
Without Caleb’s connection to Crichton, Glenna would have fiercely opposed his invitation.
Glenna is arrogant enough to ignore the Empress’s orders when they displease her.
As host of the party, the Empress’s words carry less weight on that occasion.
It was indeed fortunate that Caleb maintained his relationships with his academy peers.
“Please handle this invitation, Sarah.”
Elisia handed it to her, and Sarah nodded, smiling.
“I’ll send it as swiftly as a messenger.”
She said this quickly and left the room.
Elisia remained standing in the crimson sunset light, smiling like the sun.
Buzz!
Elisia woke from sleep at a sudden sound.
She sat up in bed and looked around.
Only faint moonlight filled the room, and she couldn’t see clearly.
“What was that?”
She reached for the rope to summon Sarah and check on the matter.
But before she could pull the rope, another, louder crash rang out.
Elisia leapt from bed and lit a candle.
Warm amber light flooded the space.
She looked around anxiously.
Nothing seemed to have changed.
The sound appeared to come from outside the room.
“Could he be an assassin?”
She recalled what had happened in the Second Prince’s Palace, and a shiver ran through her body.
She hurried to the table and grabbed the dagger she’d asked Sarah to bring recently.
She seized the dagger with trembling hands, drew it from its sheath, and leaned against the door.
She prepared to attack whoever entered.
But contrary to her expectations, the door didn’t open.
Instead, the noise continued in the next room.
“No!
Stop!”
“His Highness the Second Prince!”
Franz’s sharp cry and Lucius’s voice calling for help rose.
Elisia approached the door separating the two rooms, confused.
She pressed her ear to the door and heard the chaos filling Franz’s room.
The room was more turbulent than I expected.
People moved about, and Lucius struggled to restrain Franz.
Amidst the noise, Franz screamed like a wounded beast:
“Don’t call her!
Never!”
“But Your Highness!
We must neutralize the mana!
We must summon Her Highness!”
At Lucius’s distressed plea, Elisia gasped.
Franz had seized again.
He must have been destroying everything in his room, unable to bear the pain of mana.
“Don’t…call…Liz…”
Elisia’s face convulsed.
The candle holder trembled in her hand.
I gazed at her trembling shadow in astonishment.
“Why won’t he summon me?”
She heard Lucius trying to return him to bed while she clung to the trembling candle.
“Is it possible…?”
I recalled Crichton and Franz’s conversation days earlier.
Franz had said that Elisia meant nothing to him.
The reason was—
“Is it because my mana-neutralizing ability disappointed his expectations?”
Because her ability to neutralize mana fell short of the desired level.