Chapter 270. Another Heinley Personality (1)
Translator: Aura / Editor: SaWarren
The chair was light and backless, but the maid swung it with all her might, so Rashta could be seriously injured if she was struck.
Rashta instinctively shielded her belly, and Viscountess Verdi hastily pushed the maid from the side.
The chair brushed past Rashta’s forehead. Then the maid, who swung the chair with her whole body, lost her balance and fell to the floor along with the chair.
“Argh!”
Rashta covered her belly, curled up, and screamed. When the maids who witnessed this scene became terrified and made a fuss, guards outside the door rushed into the bedroom.
“Your Majesty!”
Seeing the empress in pain, the broken chair on the floor and the maid furious, they rushed to lift Rashta in alarm.
The maid who swung the chair tried to lunge at Rashta again, but the guards hurriedly restrained her and pressed her to the floor.
The maid struggled and her eyes blazed. Her anger was greater than her fear. At this point, she wanted to finish off Rashta at any cost.
However, she was no match for the rough and robust guards.
Rashta touched her forehead as she stared at the maid. She felt dizzy and her belly throbbed, but above all else, her forehead hurt a lot.
Viscountess Verdi put her handkerchief over Rashta’s wound and ordered one of the guards.
“Get the palace doctor!”
When the guard rushed out, Rashta asked, “The palace doctor?” She seemed not to know that she was bleeding from her forehead.
“I think you suffered a cut on your forehead.”
Rashta did not realize that her hand was stained with blood until she heard Viscountess Verdi’s words.
Seeing her red hand, Rashta paled.
About fifteen minutes later, the palace doctor appeared, and another fifteen minutes later Sovieshu appeared.
“Your Majesty…”
Rashta, who was being attended to by the palace doctor, stood up as soon as Sovieshu entered and spoke on the verge of tears,
“It hurts Rashta so much…”
Rashta was relieved to see his face, but at the same time, frightened. The maid should be punished severely for attempting to assassinate a member of the imperial family, but Rashta was worried that she would talk about her father’s execution.
In the Delise incident, Rashta ordered her tongue cut out as soon as it happened to prevent her from speaking.
This time, the guards suddenly entered the bedroom and blood was flowing from her forehead, so she forgot to close the maid’s mouth.
“What happened?”
Seeing Rashta’s forehead, Sovieshu asked in surprise,
“A maid attacked Her Majesty.”
“Is the injury serious?”
“Fortunately not, but…”
As the end of the palace doctor’s words trailed off, Sovieshu approached the bed and brushed the hair away from Rashta’s forehead. The injury could not be seen because of the bandage.
“She has a cut on her forehead.”
“Is the cut deep?”
“I’ll do my best, but… I’m afraid she’ll be left with a scar.”
Rashta looked at the palace doctor in surprise. He hadn’t mentioned this to Rashta, so she had just found out about it too.
“A scar?”
Sovieshu put his hands on the surprised Rashta’s trembling shoulders.
“A scar can fade with time. It’s a relief that it’s just a small scar.”
Rashta was about to yell at him that having a scar on her face was no relief, but Sovieshu was already asking the palace doctor another question.
“And the baby?”
“All right, but I think it’s better to be careful.”
Sovieshu nodded in relief and left the bedroom to enter a small room where the maid was locked in.
The maid was on her knees, with both hands tied tightly behind her back by the guards.
The maid was clever. As soon as Sovieshu entered, she quickly shouted instead of apologizing or complaining.
“Your Majesty, the Empress executed my father!”
Hearing her words, Sovieshu immediately raised his eyebrows.
“What are you talking about?”
“The Empress executed my father as punishment! I made a mistake, but it absolutely wasn’t serious enough for her to kill my father, Your Majesty.”
Sovieshu frowned.
“What are you talking about? No prisoner has been executed recently.”
To execute a person required Sovieshu’s final approval. If someone had been executed, it was impossible for Sovieshu not to know. Even more so if the execution was to be carried out by order of the Empress.
“But Her Majesty said…”
Just then Rashta appeared and hurriedly intervened,
“That maid is scared because she spread a strange rumor about Rashta, Your Majesty. Rashta didn’t kill anyone. Rashta wouldn’t do such a dreadful thing.”
The maid’s face paled at those words.
Sighing, Sovieshu signaled a guard to investigate and prepare a report on what happened.
While he wanted an accurate report on what happened, he knew roughly what was going on.
He understood the maid’s indignation upon hearing of her father’s supposed death, but that doesn’t mean she could attack the empress with a chair, who was pregnant with the next emperor. She even cut her forehead.
This had been a crime serious enough to be punishable by death, even if it was committed by a high-status noble.
“It’s a pity, but a crime is a crime. First imprison that maid.”
After giving that order, Sovieshu took Rashta back to her bedroom and advised her.
“Rashta, you can’t execute a person hastily unless it’s related to the murder of a member of the royal family.”
“Even if it’s the Empress?”
“Even if it is the Empress.”
“But Your Majesty, the maid started the rumor that Rashta is a strange person. She wanted to ruin the Empress’s image…”
“Still, one cannot hastily execute a person.”
“Although Rashta was not the Empress when Viscount Langdel—”
“He stabbed you with a knife and was caught in the act.”
Rashta burst into tears and put her hands on her sore head.
“Your Majesty is too cold. All you do is scold Rashta, you don’t care in the least.”
Sovieshu sighed again and patted the top of Rashta’s head.
“Neither that maid nor her father can be hastily executed.”
“I didn’t order her father executed!”
“Empty words or not, you said it. For those who consider you to have the power to carry it out, it would never sound like empty words.”
“!”
“I figured as much… there’s too much you don’t know to handle this position.”
Rashta was surprised at Sovieshu’s harsh remark.
“Your Majesty?”
Sovieshu shook his head and went out to summon Viscountess Verdi and her guards. Moments later, he came back in and instructed them in front of Rashta.
“From now on, if Rashta decides to harm anyone by relying on her position as ‘Empress’, I must be informed before carrying out her orders. Whoever breaches this, will have to take full responsibility.”
Rashta felt deeply insulted. She couldn’t believe he had brought them here to say this. Now the employees of the Empress’s Palace will assume that the Empress had no power!
‘His Majesty put honor before love.’
Depressed, Rashta was left crying alone in her bedroom.
Did his love fade or had he always been like that? She considered it absurd for Sovieshu to scold and insult her when she was the victim.
‘No. He hadn’t always been like this. Evely? Probably because of that girl named Evely.’
No, Rashta was sure. After falling in love with that girl, Sovieshu had changed.
Rashta sobbed for a while, but due to the throbbing pain in her forehead she quickly recovered. The pain, in turn, allowed her to realize the reality of the situation.
