Lady to Queen

Why did this man let himself get hit with an arrow instead of me? It was a question that arose when the urgent situation had passed. People say that when your back is warm and your stomach filled, you will start to have useless thoughts. She was thinking this because she was feeling the situation had improved a bit. She thought that she was being a bit pathetic, but the thought came to her as she was really curious. Why did he get hit by an arrow on her behalf?     

Lucio didn't love her. Patrizia also didn't love him. This was a truth that both Patrizia and Lucio knew. There was no denying this fact. But then why? If not for love, what was the reason for partaking in such self-sacrifice?     

Was he perhaps feeling really sorry towards her? Did he feel sorry for not loving her? Or was he feeling guilty towards her about Rosemond's actions during the last meeting with the wives of the envoys? There were so many hypotheses, and none of them were for certain.     

Patrizia soon decided to quit thinking like this.     

Anyways, no matter how much she reasoned with herself like this, she wouldn't have an answer. So in one word, it was useless. It was also meaningless. If this place was comfortable and safe like the Imperial Palace then maybe, but in this situation, such a meaningless act was nothing but shaving off her life.     

She stood up to do something more meaningful. Perhaps it was because she drank some of the sculler juice before, but her symptoms had gotten better. Her dizziness had improved a lot, and the nausea she had experienced had eased up more than before. Patrizia slowly walked out of the cave to find something to eat.     

Anyways, to transfer him to the Imperial Palace, she had to support her stamina as his guardian. Patrizia took the empty quiver, wishing that she would find something to eat.     

At that point, Rosemond was sipping tea elegantly in her quarters in the Vain Palace. It was her favorite rosemary tea. Afterwards, instead of continuing to drink the tea, she slowly turned and looked out the window. The sky was cloudy, and it was probably going to rain soon.     

If it rained, the evidence would be easier to erase. With a satisfied look, she asked Glara for another cup of tea. At her command, Glara brought her an additional teapot and asked Rosemond with a smile, "You look pleased, my Lady."     

"I can only look pleased, Glara. You do not look like it though."     

"That cannot be my Lady. If my Lady is happy, I am happy as well."     

Her master had a happy expression after a long time. Like her words, she could only feel very good right now. Not long ago, her master had secretly commissioned a murder with the city's most powerful group of assassins.     

She would provide as much money as they wanted, so they would get rid of the Empress during the hunting competition. They were very talented assassins, so her master's plan probably worked. Always, the amount paid brought the respective results, and her master was overflowing with money.     

Even Rafaella, as an escort knight, would not be able to deal with all thirty or so assassins unless she was death itself. And Rafaella was not that skilled yet. Glara told Rosemond in a relaxed voice.     

"Now the Imperial Palace will be up in chaos. His Majesty will replace my Lady as the new Empress."     

"Of course he will, Glara. If I become the Empress, you also become the Chief Maid of the Empress Palace. How about it, aren't you happy?"     

"I'm very happy, my Lady. Didn't I tell you this? My joy is my Lady's joy, and my Lady's joy is my joy."     

"How quaint. You sure speak with pretty words."     

In a rare moment, her tone was softer than usual, as if she was in a great mood. Glara, who always thought about how good it would be if she was always like today, spoke in a serious tone later.     

"The Empress will die unless something specific happens, and the weather will soon rain. It will be easy to destroy evidence."     

"I think the same as you. In fact, even if it doesn't rain, it will be difficult to catch them. As always, you get your money's worth."     

Rosemond laughed with giggles, shook the teacup with an amused expression. If she knew it was going to be this easy, she would have put in a request for murder sooner. Rosemond felt so great that everything was running smoothly.     

In the future, her path ahead will have to be like this. It was to be a soft and beautiful flower-filled path, not a rough path full of thorns. Even if all the flowers were soaked in blood and gruesome in color. Even if the scent blowing in the wind was not the fragrant scent of flowers, but a scent full of blood.     

Contrary to Patrizia's expectations, Lucio's recovery did not happen very quickly. Patrizia, barely opened the fruits she had found in the surrounding grass, had since not moved an inch and observed the condition of Lucio while paying attention to the surroundings. At first, he seemed to get a little better, and his fever gradually began to rise, but the temperature was too high to dismiss it as a healing process.     

Patrizia was not a professional and was bound to be flustered because the book's content hadn't said anything about this. She knew she should feed the sculler to him from her knowledge, that it certainly worked, and did so with her mouth.     

But if he was not waking up like this... Could it be too late?     

Patrizia, who had a bad notion, quickly shook her head.     

It was too early to think about such unfortunate thoughts. He was not dead yet, he was still alive, and there might be more methods. Patrizia was worried about how to cool down his fever, and so she collected the straws that covered him. She judged that the heat preservation from the straws in his heated state would not be suitable.     

-RUMBLE BOOM BOOM