BXBX NOVEL Chapter 308 Her Tale (1)
Back in the Imperial Palace, Emperor Valentin, Kazimir, and Antoine were forced to stay in one complex because a large part of the facilities was damaged during the battle.
And so the women of the family, First Queen Lucia, Second Queen Tehila, as well as Princess Consorts Arielle and Evelyn were tasked to take care of the trio until they recovered.
As the hype of the emotions died down, the awkwardness between the four women increased as admittedly this was the first time they interacted almost all day with each other.
Ironically the members of the imperial family were not really close to each other. Due to reasons too many to count, they slowly drifted apart from each other and never saw the need to build a harmonious relationship until today, when their respective husbands need their care the most.
For instance, Princess Consort Evelyn was a noble daughter of a vassal under the Astaze family, but even so, she was still forced to distance herself from her mother-in-law because of Antoine's feelings toward his mother. Second Queen Tehila and Princess Consort Arielle because of the innate enmity amongst the three princes.
But now they were in one small complex of the Imperial Palace, forced to interact with each other because they needed each other's support.
Princess Arielle has been standing outside the assigned quarters for Prince Antoine. She was with her servants bringing a set of freshly dried towels for them and a new supply of medicinal potions.
"Princess Evelyn was probably in the room," She thought as her hand froze in the air. Upon realizing that the reason why Antoine was in this state was still that he sacrificed his life for Kazimir, fortunately, the Second Prince survived miraculously.
However, Princess Arielle was still worried that Princess Evelyn would be hostile towards them because of this.
"Princess Consort Arielle, what brings you here?" Suddenly, a delicate voice sounded behind her, with a hint of surprise in her tone.
Princess Arielle turned and was startled upon seeing the owner of the voice. In panic, she immediately curtsied and greeted her according to the Imperial etiquette, "Greeting! Your Highness, First Queen… I am here to deliver fresh towels and a batch of medicinal potions that was delivered by the temple for His Highness, Second Prince."
"En… I see why won't you come? Let's go together." First Queen Lucia gave her a calm smile as she went ahead to enter the room after her servant announced her presence.
As Princess Arielle walked inside, she immediately caught a whiff of a strong herbal scent inside the room. Her eyes roamed around the modest bed chamber and saw two figures on the bed.
One was Prince Antoine sitting on the bed, with his head resting with the support of the pillows, while the other one was the trembling Princess Evelyn.
It was evident that Princess Evelyn had just cried, with the redness under her eyes.
"Greetings Queen Mother…" The couple replied.
"I'm glad you are finally awake…" First Queen Tehila looked at her son, there were no tears in her eyes but there was an obvious sigh of relief.
Antoine stared at his mother and examined her expression, the words he wanted to say were stuck in his throat as he saw another figure beside her, seemingly in trouble with how she would be putting herself in the situation.
"Greetings, First Princess Consort…" He looked at her and gave him a polite nod. Only then did Evelyn notice Arielle's presence, she shortly greeted her after.
"Thank heavens that you have finally gained consciousness… I… I am here to deliver the necessities distributed by the temple for your recovery…" Arielle greeted the couple back and signaled the servants to place the items inside.
After that, an awkward silence rang into the bed chamber as the four royalties looked at each other, not knowing what to say…
"Ah… since I have already delivered the items, I will now go back. I am really glad that you have awakened… I pray for your complete recovery…" Arielle curtsied and turned to exit the room.
But before the door opened for her, she heard Antoine's faint reply, "Please… send my regards to Kazimir too, when he wakes up…"
"I will Your Highness…" Princess Arielle replied back, with a gentle smile and a glimmer of tears that were threatening to fall at any moment. She quietly dismissed herself, as she knew that the three would have to talk for a while because of what happened.
Everyone thought that Prince Antoine was already dead; however, he suddenly appeared to help in the battle. Princess Arielle could just imagine how heavy the emotions of the three would be dealing with right now.
As for her, she still had to worry about Kazimir's state because he was gravely injured by his very own mother during the battle. Also, she also didn't know how she would help Kazimir deal with the pain of his maternal family betraying the empire.
She was afraid, with Kazimir's recent personality, that he would never ever be able to lift his head up high again in the Empire. At the thought of this, her heart seemed to have been painfully crushed for her husband.
Inside Antoine's room, Evelyn looked at the mother and son pair and couldn't help but sigh in her heart.
"I'll brew tea for Queen Mother, just a second…" She tried to break the silence by announcing her retreat to such a suffocating atmosphere.
Day and night, she has always been praying that the relationship between the two would one day be reconciled, however, it didn't come even after the news of her husband dying came.
Because even after the news of her husband's death, Queen Lucia just looked at her with absolute certainty and declared, "He is not dead, don't waste your tears… He is alive and will come back soon…"
At that moment, no matter how Evelyn wanted to be polite and respectful to Queen Lucia, she still wanted to blurt out, "You must be crazy…"
But even so, looking at Queen Lucia's steadfast gaze and unfathomable demeanor, she still shut her mouth and kept her emotions in check. That also meant that the Lily place did not even mourn the alleged death of the Second Prince.
But who would have thought… that Queen Lucia's words were true?
The moment she heard about this when they came back to the capital after being transported in a mountain range, Antoine's words flooded her mind like a storm.
'My mother… she is not normal…'
'I cannot understand her not even one bit…'
'Sometimes she would say things like this and that, preventing me from doing something and pushing me to do another…'
'Without giving me a reason… I cannot really understand what she was thinking…'
'I probably won't until I die…'
Antoine's words finally resonated in her as she looked at her unperturbed mother-in-law. But now… seeing that one of her words was right… she couldn't help but make a scary guess…
Could it be that her mother in law… possesses a gift of foresight?
Princess Evelyn's entire body shivered upon thinking about this, because if that was the case, then First Queen Lucia might have to be taken to the Temple.
She looked at them worriedly as she stood to go with her servants to get the tea ready.
But Queen Lucia shook her head and replied, "No… leave it to the servants for you must hear what I have to say… you are part of the family."
Antoine and Evelyn looked at her with shock on their faces… their Queen Mother, was finally willing to explain everything?
First Queen Lucia took a deep breath and looked at the couple, and with a helpless smile, she started her explanation.
"Let's probably start with the easiest story…"
"Your so-called death… I never saw it happen. That is why I have peace in my heart, even if all the news around says that you have no chance to be saved, I still believed the fact that you wouldn't die."
"Why?" Antoine clenched his fists, he did not understand a single word that his mother was saying… He thought that once he listened to his mother's words, he would finally understand even a bit of her.
"Because I saw your future that was different from this…"
"The reason I told you to do and not to do many things in the past…"
"Including your relationship with Third Prince Leon…"
"It is all because of this vision that I saw… and in that vision, your future is not something as dark as death."
"But I cannot tell you further than that… Because it comes with a cost…" At this point, the ever-stoic Queen Lucia finally should have intense emotions on her face.
Fear, anxiety, worry, and longing… it was all on her face, and the couple, especially Antoine, saw it all.
"I can only tell you this because a part of my vision had actually happened. That is why it is only me until today to explain this…" her tears were already falling uncontrollably as she explained her case.
Antoine looked at her mother, with complicated emotions in his heart.
After some time, the turmoil in his heart still did not subside, and so his mouth opened, "The cost you are pertaining to… is it something just like how you were forced… to bear me as a consequence of an incident?"