Chapter 24
“I know better than anyone that Your Majesty is considering breaking off your engagement with Princess April…”
Though the sentence wasn’t fully finished, he instinctively understood what would naturally follow.
Knowing that speaking up wouldn’t sway him, Lervian lowered his head and continued.
“Must you really break off the engagement with the princess?”
“Sir Lervian.”
“If there is someone else in your heart, you could make her your second consort later. If Your Majesty chooses to do so, there would be no nobles to oppose it.”
Surely, the nobles would think it better than having a government led by a male like the former emperor.
“Right now, I think it’s more important to borrow the power of the duke’s house to keep Rosian in check.”
He couldn’t, under the current circumstances, place the one he loved on the throne as empress.
“Your Majesty.”
Seeing the look in his eyes, as if asking him to relent, Perfone bit the inside of his cheek.
“If you tell me what you’re thinking, I will help you, Your Majesty.”
Would he, though?
“I understand Sir Lervian’s intentions and feelings. But…”
This was something Lervian could not help with, and, in fact, something he couldn’t even speak the truth about.
If he were to say it… would Lervian believe him?
What would he think if he said that the April currently in the duke’s house doesn’t seem to be the real princess?
What if he insisted that she had been switched?
If he could find the real April, perhaps it could happen as Lervian wished.
The April who had changed over the past three years was, no matter how he looked at it, not the April Hill Rize he knew.
“Could you at least tell me who the person in your heart is?”
It was an exasperated question.
Lervian knew nothing about the person of interest. He had no idea of her social standing, her age, her name, or her family background—information that would have allowed him to prepare in advance as the emperor’s hand.
“Don’t rush me. I’ll tell you when I find her.”
He let out a short sigh at Perfone’s calm composure, so unlike his own impatience.
Watching April practice walking, Allen frowned.
Outwardly, she seemed fine, but he had already seen the wounds she carried.
“Ugh!”
When April, practicing walking without crutches, wavered and collapsed to the side, Allen quickly rushed to her.
Despite having seen her injuries firsthand, Allen didn’t want to stay near her.
Every time he saw someone else’s wounds, it reminded him painfully of his own past suffering.
Yet there was only one reason he stayed by April’s side.
“I want you to get along with her.”
Because Irina had wished it.
“Are you okay?”
Allen picked up the fallen crutch and extended his hand to her.
“Take my hand and stand up.”
Grasping his hand firmly, she wobbled to her feet.
Allen often found her unabashed demeanor astonishing.
Nobles would consider it an insult if a servant dared to touch them, yet April was different. Perhaps it was because he had seen her being cared for by Bernice’s staff.
“Is the pain okay?”
“…It still hurts.”
“You must have taken all your medicine. I’ll make more painkillers tomorrow.”
“When will she come?”
“Bernice?”
“Yes, Bernice.”
“….”
“You’re the only one who seems to be in contact with her, so ask quickly when she’ll come here again.”
“….”
“And how long you have to continue practicing walking.”
Allen nodded briefly at her prompting.
It seemed she thought she was directly in contact, but Allen could only communicate with Bernice through Alicia.
“Understood. I’ll try to contact her, so keep practicing.”
April snatched the crutch he handed her and pushed it aside irritably.
Human desires are fickle: at first, she only wanted her twisted bones to realign, but now that they had, she wanted to walk on her own two legs.
Unlike in the past, her legs wouldn’t obey her fully. She roughly tousled her hair and lifted her head sharply.
“Can’t it really be fixed with spiritual energy?”
Her voice was urgent, and her grayish-blue eyes welled with tears.
Worries and doubts about when her painful legs would heal wouldn’t easily fade.
Of course, a month had already passed without treatment, which must have been frustrating.
Moreover, being the cherished daughter of the Rize dukedom, rumors about her in the capital were already rampant.
“Bernice explained that to you, didn’t she?”
“No, how…!”
Why couldn’t spiritual energy fix it?!
Her frustrated voice rang sharply across the empty garden of the villa.
Besides the minimal staff attending to her, no one was around.
And Allen was the only outsider in the villa.
“They said there’s nothing spiritual energy can’t fix.”
That was right.
It was commonly known. The temple had proclaimed that “spiritual energy can heal anything,” after all.
The problem was that the temple priests were frauds.
“The scope of what it can heal depends on the amount of spiritual energy.”
Although the priests claimed even small amounts of energy could heal everything, in reality, it depended on the energy’s magnitude.
“Spiritual energy can’t solve everything.”
Even with energy, it couldn’t bring back the dead.
Thanks to temple propaganda, the people of the empire believed spiritual energy could even resurrect the dead.
“So annoying…”
Allen shrugged at her muttered frustration—there was nothing he could do about it.
“Bernice…”
“Yes.”
Although not fully healed, Allen was still grateful to Bernice.
Without her, April’s bones would still be twisted.
“But who is she really?”
And aside from gratitude, he was curious.
“What kind of person has spiritual energy?”
It seemed strange to him that someone not affiliated with the temple possessed it.
The temple priests had said only men could have spiritual energy, after all.
Allen could not answer this, as he didn’t know much about Bernice.
Having watched over her for nearly two years, he now painfully realized how little he actually knew.
“You were under her for a long time, right?”
“Long is relative. It hasn’t even been two years.”
“Really?”
April, walking with the crutch, answered as if curious.
Still, because most of her pain had lessened, she seemed calmer than when he first saw her.
Seated at a tea table in the villa’s garden, leaning comfortably against the chair, she exhaled deeply.
Being summer, the sound of insects chirping created a natural background soundtrack.
“How did you find out?”
April asked, unusually curious.
Caught off guard, Allen stiffened slightly, and she tilted her head carefully, gauging his reaction.
During her time at the villa, Allen had been the only companion aside from her older brother. The servants had no reason to keep her company, making Allen’s presence a perfect distraction from her boredom.
“Can’t I ask?”
The princess of the dukedom frowned slightly at his silence.
The man in front of her, with gray hair and reddish eyes, was more boring than his handsome appearance suggested.
Did he like that woman? April quietly thought of Bernice.
Her sunset-colored eyes, bright even in darkness, resembled her second older brother, Barak, yet objectively, she wasn’t extraordinarily beautiful.
If the temple knew about a woman with spiritual energy and a man assisting her, they wouldn’t leave it be.
Though it hadn’t even been two years, Allen staying by her side was both surprising and perplexing to April.
Seeing Allen, she even thought he was a bit wasted on the situation.
