"YOUR WIFE is strong– don't worry too much," Nikolai said while patting Glenn's shoulder. "But I know how you feel, so I already asked the Fletcher Twins to delay their return. They'll guard Queen Brigitte discreetly."
Glenn turned to him with tears in his eyes. "Thank you, Your Majesty. It's not like I don't trust our kingdom's army to keep Brigitte and our children safe. But our people are Non-Mana users, so if the crows attack our kingdom with Darkness and Impure Mana…"
His old friend didn't have to finish his sentence for Nikolai to understand what Glenn was worried about the most.
Glenn had to send his pregnant wife and three-year-old son back to the Hazelden Kingdom while he and his other two kids were left in the empire.
[The queen has to return to her kingdom since she has duties to fulfill. On the other hand…]
Glenn had to stay in the empire to talk to his father, while Skylus and Monik were busy fulfilling their duties as the saint and future saintess.
"I'm grateful that you asked the Fletcher Twins to guard my family until I return, Your Majesty."
"That's why you should hurry and meet up with your family," Nikolai said, shaking his head. "Talk to your father. I know you hate returning to your estate, but you have to do it for your wife and child."
Glenn nodded politely. "You're right, Your Majesty," he said, then he smiled shyly at him. "Please look after Monik and Skylus while I'm away."
***
"IT'S Neoma noona's daddy! What should we call him, Monik noona?"
"Since he's the emperor, we should call His Majesty 'Uncle Emperor!'"
Nikolai felt awkward.
He was bad at dealing with kids, especially when one of the children was the reincarnation of his ex-wife.
[Juliet… you've become childish.]
This was the first time he saw Juliet act like a proper child. After all, his ex-wife was raised a mature (and slightly emotionless) noble lady since childhood.
[Well, I should stop thinking that Monik and Juliet are the same people.]
Nikolai went to the secret prayer room in his palace to check on Manu and Glenn's children.
The three were in charge of cleansing Juliet's body.
[Whatever it is that controlled Juliet's body is already gone. But traces of Darkness are found in her body. We wanted to give Juliet a proper burial, so I asked Lord Manu to purify her body first.]
Skylus and Monik offered to help.
Nikolai hesitated to accept the children's help at first because he thought Lord Manu was enough. But, for some reason, Skylus and Monik insisted.
[I have no choice but to allow it when Glenn and his wife said it was fine with them.]
"Uncle Emperor, you're tall and handsome!" Skylus, the Hazelden Kingdom's First Prince, said excitedly. The two children greeted him as soon as he entered the secret prayer room. "I want to be tall and handsome, too, when I grow up!"
Nikolai crossed his arms over his chest. "Glenn is tall and decent-looking, so I'm sure your dream will come true later. Just don't expect to grow as handsome as I am because only the de Moonasterios are born with this kind of face."
"Aha!" Monik said, covering her mouth with her hands when she gasped. "Neoma unnie inherited her arrogance from Uncle Emperor!"
Well, that was true.
[It runs in the blood. Even the "nicest" emperors in history are also known to be arrogant. That what happens when you call a certain bloodline "gods among men."]
No wonder the gods in the Upper World hated the de Moonasterios.
"Your Majesty, you're here."
Nikolai was grateful when Manu approached him since he couldn't deal with overly energetic children. He felt his own energy draining fast. "How is it going?"
Manu turned to the marble altar where Juliet's body was resting as if she was just asleep.
The former empress' body was wrapped in a fine white silk robe with the de Moonasterio's family crest.
After all, Juliet still died as a de Moonasterio since she was the former empress.
[Juliet died as my wife, even though it was just a contract marriage, so she has the right to be buried as a de Moonasterio.]
"I've already healed the burn marks that the late Empress Juliet's body received during the trial. Then the children and I removed more than half of the Darkness imbued in her body. We'll work on removing the remaining stains later. The children have to take a break, after all," Manu explained while Skylus and Monik clung to the Moon Priest's legs. "Those darn crows…"
"Darn crows!" Skylus and Monik said in unison, obviously copying what Manu said.
Manu, who probably felt guilty for cursing in front of the children, turned pale. "Children, cursing is bad…"
Nikolai almost laughed. "Glenn will probably cry if he heard his children curse."
"But Neoma noona curses all the time!" Skylus said with sparkling eyes. "And Neoma noona looks cool whenever she does that!"
Nikolai almost choked after hearing what the young prince said.
[Neoma, you're a bad influence to these children…]
"I heard Neoma unnie has been cursing since she was three years old," Monik said, then she looked up at Nikolai with shining eyes. "Uncle Emperor, is it true that Neoma unnie used to call you a scu–"
Fortunately, Manu immediately covered Monik's mouth with his hand. "Princess Monik, you can't say that. It's a very bad word. Your mother will kill me if she heard you curse."
Nikolai cleared his throat, feeling guilty that the children learned how to curse early because of Neoma's bad influence. "Manu, why don't you and the children take a break first? I asked the servants to bring some snacks and refreshments to the tearoom."
"Good idea, Your Majesty," Manu said, carrying Skylus and Monik in each of his arms as if he was carrying a sack of potatoes. "We'll be back later."
He just nodded, then the Moon Priest bolted out of the prayer room with the giggling children in his arms.
[Glenn, I'm sorry. My daughter taught your children that cursing is cool…]
Nikolai put that at the back of his mind first as he approached the marble altar where Juliet's body was resting.
He felt his chest tighten at the sight of the pale and lifeless former empress.
"I'm sorry it took me this long to find your body, Juliet," Nikolai whispered, holding Juliet's cold hand. "This time, I promise to give you a proper resting place."
***
"YOU PREPARED a lot, Lady Hanna."
Hanna smiled and nodded at what Duke Jasper Hawthorne said. "I need to do this much if I want Neoma to win the public over."
Right now, she was in the private lounge of the café she owned in the Grandiose Avenue– the richest area in the Royal Capital. Only the elite would go there. Hence, all the shops that she owned in that place were a huge source of income for her.
[This is where our soon-to-open shopping mall is located, too.]
Anyway, she was with Duke Jasper Hawthorne right now because they had a meeting with the reporters later.
"These are all the documents that would prove Neoma was the one who built the Sword Lily Foundation," Hanna said, pointing at the papers on the table. "Neoma founded it while she was pretending as Prince Nero."
"Sword Lily Foundation is the biggest and the most famous foundation in the empire at the moment," Duke Hawthorne said, obviously surprised and amazed. "The foundation has produced the brightest scholars at the moment. Moreover, the Sword Lily Foundation paved way for commoners to get a chance to get into an academy. I didn't know that it was founded by Princess Neoma. And she did when she was only a child."
"Neoma asked her former teacher, Lady Belmont, to act as the foundation's benefactor," she explained to the duke. "Lady Belmont forgot about Neoma's existence when the crows' curse took effect. Fortunately, Trevor managed to bring back Lady Belmont's memories. Hence, I was able to get Lady Belmont's testimony."
"That's impressive, Lady Hanna."
"It's because Neoma has a lot of achievements to brag about," she said, smiling. "I will also credit Neoma as one of the forces behind the building of Eranthis Academy. It was Emperor Nikolai who actually invested in building the school that allows commoners to enroll. But it was Noema's idea. In fact, most of the scholars produced by the Sword Lily Foundation are currently studying in Eranthis Academy."
"You're right, Lady Hanna. Princess Neoma really has an impressive achievements under her belt," Duke Hawthorne said while nodding approvingly. "Princess Neoma also destroyed the Death Camp and freed the slaves there. After that, she took good care of the survivors."
"Once the people find out about all the good things that Neoma has done for the people– especially the commoners and peasants– I'm sure they'll forgive her for deceiving the empire before."
Aside from the accomplishments that they already mentioned, Neoma also saved the Astello Temple and the Holy Knights before.
[The Holy Knights haven't returned to normal yet, but the captain is capable of giving a statement.]
"Neoma gave the people the option to reject her as the royal princess since she's too kind, but I'm not as softhearted as Neoma," Hanna said firmly. "I'll give Neoma her rightful place and make the people of the empire PROPERLY acknowledge her as the royal princess. I won't resort to violence, but I can be pushy when I have to."
Duke Hawthorne looked at her as if he was observing her, then he suddenly burst out laughing.
"What's funny, Your Grace?"
"You're scary, Lady Hanna," Duke Hawthorne said when he finally calmed down from laughing. "You're scary because you're the Quinzel Princess. That means you have all the power and resources to move the politics in the empire. If you decide to discard Prince Nero and choose Princess Neoma to sit on the throne, I'm sure we'll finally get the first empress regnant in history." He pointed a finger at her, but it wasn't in a rude way, so she didn't mind. "Lady Hanna, you're the new queenmaker of the empire."
Hanna smiled unconsciously. "I like the sound of it, Your Grace."
***
TOMORROW IS MY BIRTHDAY~~~ Please go to my k/o-fi page (ko-fi. com/sola_cola) and donate/buy a coffee if you can. If I reach my target amount of donations, I get to win the May Challenge. I'm still so far away from the target since only one person has donated so far. Please help~ T_T Only if you can, of course. Hehe~
***
Please ADD my story to your LIBRARY to be notified when an update is posted. Thank you! :>
This chapt𝙚r is updated by fr(e)ew𝒆bnov(e)l.com