I’m Sorry I’m Not Qualified to Be Empress - Chapter 42

Chapter 42

“It’s because of me. You almost died because of me. Wuaaahh!”

Natalie sobbed as she took Rose’s hand while she lay on the bed. Rose slowly turned her head to Natalie with a tired look.

“Natalie. It’s so noisy that I feel like I’m going to die. Please stop crying.”

When Hans entered the room, Rose greeted him as if he had become a hero. Hans smiled kindly and approached his younger sister when he saw her.

“Are you okay?”

“No, I’m going crazy.”

Rose looked resentfully at Natalie, who was still sniffling while leaving the room.

“It’s been like that all day. I can’t sleep.”

Hans and Rose looked at each other and chuckled.

“I guess I’ll have to go back soon.”

“Already?”

“I’ve made sure you’re doing well, so that’s good.”

Rose looked at Hans with eyes full of regret. He stroked her hair slowly and said in a serious voice.

“I’ll find out if there is a way for the family’s business to expand to Helevant, of course, but I’ll have to discuss it with father.”

“Really?”

Her eyes, which had been grieving when saying goodbye to him until just now, brightened.

“Even if it’s impossible, I want to make it possible.”

“Brother!”

Rose hugged Hans tightly.

“It’s not because I like Maxim. I think it’s a sort of insurance. There’s a saying that you shouldn’t put all your eggs into one basket.”

Rose nodded her head as if it were natural.

“But does he know? Aren’t you just fooling around on your own?”

“Don’t worry about that, I’ll take care of it!”

Rose was full of confidence, telling him to just leave it to her.

“By the way, what happened to what you said in the letter?”

“What are you talking about?”

“The Mundo family.”

“Nothing to worry about yet, because the Emperor doesn’t act recklessly towards our family to check if our loyalty remains.”

Rose was lost in thought and anxiously bit her nails.

“The Emperor will die soon. When Cassiax becomes Emperor, he will put an end to our family.”

“What?”

Hans looked at Rose with puzzled eyes when Rose said that the Emperor would soon die as if she were making a prediction.

“A healthy Emperor will die soon. Are you a prophet now?”

Rose kept biting her nails without answering Hans.

“Rose?”

“Huh? It’s nothing.”

“You’re worried about us. You should worry about yourself.”

As Hans looked at her worriedly, Rose nodded her head. When she coughed, Hans felt a cold gust of wind coming through the gap in the windows and walked towards them.

Even in broad daylight, it was a gloomy day, where the sky was overcast with dark clouds.

‘Uh?’

In Hans’ eyes, a person wearing a robe was walking towards a prepared wagon, and servants carrying a large suitcase seemed to be going somewhere far away.

It was Ayla.

‘…Are you really leaving?’

Hans recalled the conversation between Maxim and Ayla that he overheard.

As Ayla got into her carriage, Lady Katrina, who had come to see her off, lifted her head and looked up to the window of Rose’s room. Hans’s and Madame Katrina’s eyes met.

The two exchanged cold glances for a while without avoiding each other’s eyes.

“What’s the matter? What’s out there?”

At Rose’s words, Hans closed the curtain with both hands.

“No. Nothing.”

Hans was reluctant to leave Rose alone in the castle again.

* * * 

“I didn’t expect Miss Ayla to leave so quietly.”

“…”

Jansen pretended to organize the paperwork and secretly brought up the story of Ayla.

“What the hell did you say to her for her to leave the Castle? I didn’t expect that even Madam. Katrina would agree and remain silent.”

“She must have missed her family.”

Maxim cut off any further questions and cleared the situation.

Knock, knock. Freddie came in.

“The Queen’s brother, Sir Hans, has arrived.”

“What? Who?”

Maxim raised one eyebrow and asked.

* * * 

While stroking Max’s hair, Rose looked out the window with anxious eyes. On the terrace, Maxim and Hans were standing, looking towards the arena, talking about something.

The atmosphere between the two of them seemed serious, so Rose’s heart was pounding.

“What the hell are you two talking about?”

No matter how much she thought about it, it seemed that the two had no common interests.

As Rose looked nervous, Natalie, who was embroidering, said.

“Don’t worry. Please take good care of my little sister. Don’t worry, brother-in-law.”

“Nonsense.”

Rose could risk her life to swear that such strange words would never come out of the mouths of Hans and Maxim.

“But I think Master Hans is very relieved to see His Majesty Maxim in person. He will return to Solstern feeling relieved.”

“What do you mean? It can’t be.”

Natalie put her embroidery on her lap and looked at Rose seriously.

“You still haven’t noticed? Since the day you fell into the lake, Master Hans’s eyes toward His Majesty Maxim have softened.”

“What? Softened? Why?”

“Why? It’s because Master Hans saw with his own eyes how much His Majesty Maxim cares for the young lady!”

“Much?”

Rose looked at Natalie with a look of disbelief.

“Ah! Come to think of it, you were unconscious and couldn’t see those scenes.”

“…Scenes?”

Rose hurriedly urged Natalie, curious as to what had happened while she was unconscious.

“How desperate His Majesty Maxim was to save the young Lady. It was to the extent that no one approached the two of you recklessly at that time.”

“…”

“His Majesty rushed to the lake to save the young Lady. Even though our Majesty Maxim may look cold, I can see how much he cares about the young Lady.”

Natalie, who had been stuttering in front of him a few days ago, now called him ‘our Majesty Maxim.’ Rose, who had been quietly listening to Natalie’s words, vaguely remembered.

The first thing she saw when she woke up on the shore of the lake was Maxim’s desperate golden eyes. The image of him stepping back, exhaling in the field after confirming that she had opened her eyes.

‘Why did you look at me like that? Were you really surprised that I might have died?’

Her hand that was stroking Max’s hair slowed.

“Ah! And you know what? Well, a lady named Ayla has left.”

Natalie said as if she had remembered it just now.

“What? Why?”

That was new. Ayla suddenly left the castle. What the hell was happening during the days she was lying down?

“I heard it when I went to the kitchen earlier. Well, I heard that she packed up her belongings and went back to her old home yesterday.”

Rose turned to Hannah this time to see if it was real.

“Hanna. Is that really true? Haven’t you heard anything?”

Hannah, who was quietly cleaning the desk, shook her head. She didn’t answer, but there was a slight smile on her lips.

For some reason, her face, which had been dark for a while, was in full bloom like a sunflower.

“Even so, what was she doing without saying goodbye to the Lady and leaving as if she was running away?”

Natalie grumbled, displeased.

“…It must have been because I was lying down.”

Rose said that, but she still had a look on her face as she couldn’t grasp the situation.

“Oh?”

While talking to Natalie, Maxim and Hans disappeared. Rose sighed and recalled the last scene where Ayla hugged Maxim on the shore of the lake.

‘Then that’s… What was it about?’

* * * 

Hans, who had stayed in the castle for a while, prepared to leave. More people came out to see him off than when Ayla left. In particular, the maids were very sorry.

Rose couldn’t understand why even the kitchen maids, whom she didn’t usually meet, were so sad when he left.

“Please take good care of my sister.”

Hans greeted Maxim briefly and politely. For a moment, the eyes of the two men met.

Rose glanced at him. Was it true that Hans’s eyes looking at Maxim have softened? While thinking like that, Hans stood in front of Rose.

“Goodbye.”

“Yeah. Take care of yourself too, and Cassiax…”

“Rose.”

Hans cut Rose off as she started to worry. Rose stopped her speech and looked at her brother.

He whispered into her ears as if trying to say something secret.

“Next time, let me hold my cute nephew.”

His words were clearly audible to Maxim, who was standing next to them. It seemed like Hans was telling those words for him to listen on purpose.

When Maxim laughed, Rose froze in embarrassment.

“Hu-hurry up and go before it gets dark!”

Seeing Hans leave, Rose was heartbroken at the unpromising farewell where she didn’t know if she would ever meet him again.