Chapter 163 – The Night Before The Divorce (2)
The past few days had been unbearable for Marquis Farang. No matter how long he waited, he hadn’t seen King Heinley in the Western Kingdom for days. He had delivered Navier’s letter, and he intended to remain until Heinley wrote back. While using a messenger bird was faster, some aspects of communication were inevitably lost—such as the receiver’s reaction when they received the message.
When Marquis Farang had first delivered Navier’s letter to Heinley, the king smiled and accepted the letter joyfully. The king and empress unexpectedly seemed to be on good terms. When Marquis Farang saw his reaction, he decided to deliver Heinley’s return letter personally.
For the first few days, King Heinley said he was too busy to write a reply, and Marquis Farang didn’t think much about it. Heinley was a newly crowned monarch after all, and it wasn’t surprising that he was up to his neck in work. Marquis Farang wanted to meet with Koshar anyway, so he decided he could wait.
However, time stretched by, there was still no reply from King Heinley.
“Is he so busy that he doesn’t have any time?”
Marquis Farang’s patience started to thin, and he turned to McKenna, the King’s closest aide. The explanation McKenna gave surprised him.
The king had left. Marquis Farang hadn’t heard about that. His mouth opened in bewilderment, but the answer remained unchanged.
“But why all of a sudden…”
“It was an emergency.”
McKenna offered Marquis Farang a sympathetic look.
“Please wait in the palace. He won’t be too long.”
It was a small note of consolation, but to Marquis Farang it was unacceptable. Empress Navier had sent her closest aide to tell Marquis Farang to deliver the letter, and he carried out his task post-haste. It wasn’t as if Navier was simply asking Heinley how he was doing. Marquis Farang didn’t know the contents of the letter, but he knew the urgency of the delivery signaled how important it was.
But to wait here for King Heinley to finish his work? Marquis Farang couldn’t do that.
“I’ll come back later.”
In the end, Marquis Farang decided to leave the Western Kingdom, and he rushed to his room and packed his clothes.
***
After the day I visited Heinley, I couldn’t leave the empress’ palace. The same was true for my ladies-in-waiting.
150 years ago, an empress had her husband assassinated before their separation officially took place. Since then, it was decreed that an empress pending divorce would remain confined in the palace until the first court meeting took place.
I was trapped. Perhaps because I was waiting for something big, time passed by quickly and slowly at the same time. Time crawled while I busied myself in the day, but when night came, time came and went like a blink of an eye.
‘Now that Heinley is here and I’ve spoken to him properly, at least I can tell my parents about my remarriage.’
While I intended to remarry after my divorce, it didn’t mean I was joyfully counting down towards it.
As the days passed, my heart became heavy and my mind reeled in turmoil. For the first two days, the ladies-in-waiting cried every time they saw me. After a while though, they tried to speak to me with forced cheer.
The day before the divorce court, Sovieshu entered my room. My body was tense with stress, and when I saw him, my mind went blank.
I remembered the day of our wedding. We were too young to be nervous, and because we were used to being around each other, we laughed and talked the day before our wedding. On the day of our coronation, however, I remembered being so nervous that I couldn’t even drink water. The fact that no one would correct my mistakes for me terrified me. It was a completely different experience. Why did I remember that day?
My stomach turned in anxiety and I grimaced. Meanwhile, Sovieshu leaned wordlessly against the threshold, eyes glazed as if he were also lost in thought. Finally he blinked and approached me, and Countess Eliza quietly closed the door behind him.
With the divorce just around the corner, Sovieshu looked surprisingly normal. He still was handsome, and he appeared healthy.
“Are you here to say goodbye? ”
I didn’t want him to see that I was crushed, so I held myself casually. Last night I wanted to tear my hair out because of him. Now, however, I felt like an emptied vessel.
“…We will go our separate ways soon.”
Sovieshu spoke in a low murmur as he avoided my question. Or was this his way of saying goodbye? At any rate, his words were almost comical. It won’t be long until we part. A smile twisted across my lips.
“From now on, we will have more days apart than days together.”
I spoke with a tone of finality, knowing that the divorce would be our end. His answer, though, seemed to indicate he didn’t understand that at all.
“I want you to stay with me after the divorce.”
I almost snorted. What caused him to make such a bizarre suggestion? Was it out of compassion? A show of courtesy for a friend he’s known for a long time?
It wasn’t that there weren’t empresses who stood with their husbands even after divorce. It was an unpleasant arrangement, but it wasn’t an unprecedented one.
“When we are divorced, we will become strangers. So it cannot happen.”
“Stay.”
“No.”
“A divorce won’t make us strangers.”
Those were unusual words for Sovieshu, but not untrue. Divorce wouldn’t make us strangers, even if we couldn’t get along. We would still have feelings for each other—even love and hatred—and no matter how much we would try to forget each other, we couldn’t cut out our entire past.
My heart became heavy as I looked at him, and I thought that perhaps he felt guilt too. But wasn’t that presumptuous for the person who initiated the divorce in the first place?
I opened my mouth to tell him that, but Sovieshu carefully took my hand.
I summoned my strength and pulled my hand away from him.
***
Sovieshu’s last visit allowed me to clear away the feelings of emptiness inside me. Although anger replaced it, it gave me the drive to push towards a better future.
After I partook my last meal as empress, Countess Eliza spoke to me with a bleak look in her eyes.
“What would you like to wear, Your Majesty?”
The ladies-in-waiting, who had been calm for a few days, dissolved into tears again. I cleared my throat a few times to prevent my voice from cracking.
“I’d like the same clothes as usual, please.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
The room was completely silent as I was dressed, save for the unusually loud rustling of the clothes. After I finished dressing, I paused to look at myself in the mirror. Behind me, I could see the ladies-in-waiting weeping. Laura was crying most of all…
I let out a heavy sigh. Nothing seemed like it would change a month ago, and before I realized it, everything seemed to have changed completely. It would have been hopeless had I not promised to remarry Heinley, but I still felt grieved by my situation.
I didn’t even have a moment to compose myself, as Sovieshu’s knights came into my room, saying it was time. I supposed they were going to take me to court now. Did Sovieshu arrange this so I wouldn’t run away?
The knights stood in silence around me, before one spoke in a somber voice.
“Are you ready?”
“Yes. Let’s go.”
I answered calmly to hide my sorrow, and took a step forward. However, the knights glanced at each other, and they all bowed down and knelt before me.
The weeping of the ladies-in-waiting grew louder.
