Page 287 of Remarried Empress

I felt twice as guilty. The words, ‘Are you acting again?’ came to the tip of my tongue, but the desire to want to pull at his cute lips along with how lovely he looked kept me from speaking.

Heinley, probably thinking my ‘anger’ persisted, lifted my right hand with his two hands and gently rubbed his cheek against my palm.

“Don’t be angry. Yes?”

How could I be angry looking at his lovely face? Finally, I made up my mind.

“I’m not angry.”

“Are you serious?”

“It’s just that…”

After hesitating, I confessed truthfully,

“I think what you said at the time might be true.”

I had just thought about this. I was struggling not to love Heinley, but I couldn’t help but find him lovely. In a sense, didn’t I really just love his body? But then, because I felt this weight in my heart…

Smiling slightly, Heinley moved his lips a few times. Then, just as he was finally going to say something, a shout came out of nowhere. “Young Master, you can’t go that way!”

Soon after I looked in the direction of the voice with curiosity, a little boy appeared from the bushes.

Who is he?

I stared puzzled at the little boy I’d never seen before, and Heinley said, ‘Ah,’ frowning.

“Do you know him?”

When I asked him quizzically, Heinley replied with a cocked head, “Yes. I’ve seen him before…”. Although he looked familiar, he didn’t remember him well.

On the contrary, the child recognized Heinley instantly and shouted,

“Dad!”

… Dad?

Looking at Heinley in bewilderment, he shook his head hastily and exclaimed as if he had remembered,

“Ah. This is McKenna’s nephew!”

“Then you…”

“No, this child has nothing to do with me.”

Despite his harsh words, Heinley smiled and promptly carried the child as he came running up, saying, “Dad!”

“How have you been, Sally?”

“My name is not Sally.”

But it looked like he didn’t even remember his name.

“So, your name is Sen?”

Just then a voice came from behind, “It’s Sebastian, Your Majesty.”

When I turned my head, McKenna appeared with his hands on his waist, as if he was annoyed.

The child also shouted to McKenna, “Dad!”

“I’m sorry, Your Majesty the Empress. He’s my nephew, he has nothing to do with the Emperor. He wanted to see the imperial palace, so I allowed him to go to certain areas. I don’t know how he got here.”

Calling McKenna dad, the child ran to him. McKenna carried him and tried to calm the restless child in his arms while saying that the little boy liked to stop other people from marrying. His words were not nice, but it was obvious he loved his nephew.

As I smiled thinking it was a cute scene, this time the little boy called to me, “Dad!”

Heinley whispered, “Dad,” laughing as if he found it funny.

After glancing coldly at Heinley, I walked over to the child in McKenna’s arms and stroked his head, then the child whimpered for McKenna to put him down, and this time he came to me. He was a very nice child.

“Baby, how old are you?”

“Twelve years old…”

“Why do you lie even with that? Your Majesty, he is three years old.”

“Twelve years old!”

“You’re three years old!”

As I watched McKenna argue with his nephew, a woman I had never seen before was being forcibly taken away by knights.

She repeatedly claimed, “I’m really not a suspicious person!” But when she saw McKenna, she shouted with a face that looked like she was going to cry, “Grand Master!”

“How did you get arrested again?”

“I was arrested for making a fuss in the imperial palace while going after the young master, Grand Master, please let these knights know that I am not a suspicious person!”

All members of the McKenna Family are loud.

I couldn’t help but laugh as McKenna revealed the identity of the child and the woman to the knights.

After a while, McKenna apologized to us, taking the child and the woman elsewhere. As I watched them walk away, my eyes suddenly fell on Heinley.

Sovieshu was impatient to have a child. What about Heinley? From the way he carried the child whose name he couldn’t even remember well, was it possible that Heinley wanted it too?

When I had been worried about whether I could have a baby, Heinley told me about the secrets of the manna bed and his words made me think that, even if I really was infertile, this time I could have a baby. However, despite making love so often, there was still no sign of being pregnant.

Without realizing it, I put my hand on my belly. It’s flat… flat.

I shuddered as I remembered Sovieshu’s words. Just because the mana bed restores the body could I really get pregnant? Heinley’s brother and Christa could never have a baby, right?

If we can’t have a child either…

***

A baby…

Sitting in a rocking chair, I put my hand on my belly and tried to think about what it felt like to be a mother.

I couldn’t imagine it. Would it have been different if I’d had a younger sibling? I didn’t spend much time with young children either.

Suddenly, I remembered how happy Heinley looked as he held the little boy, whose name I didn’t even know. Although he didn’t say anything, did Heinley deep down inside want a child as much as Sovieshu? With a successor, his throne would be even more solid, right?

“Your Majesty, the Emperor is here.”

“Now?”

It’s a good time, but… why did he come all of a sudden?

We had just had a meeting about Whitemond. It wasn’t even time to have dinner together.

It was fine if he came to try to end the awkward atmosphere, but… I couldn’t help but feel a little nervous. Just as Grand Duke Kapmen had suddenly come with bad news about the team sent to Whitemond, Heinley probably had something urgent to tell me, right?

My guess was correct.

“My Queen, there is something unpleasant I must tell you.”

Heinley sat across from me and opened his mouth with difficulty.

“It’s about that woman.”

It was Rashta whom Heinley referred to as ‘that woman’. And Heinley didn’t usually talk about Rashta or Sovieshu in front of me unless it was important.

Straightening my posture, I stifled the growing anxiety.

“What happened?”

“That woman hired a mercenary for an assassination.”

The fact that Heinley told me this…

“Is she targeting me?”

I asked, feeling confused and speechless. But Heinley shook his head.

“She goes after father and mother.”

“You mean my father and mother?”

Surprised, my voice naturally rose.

It would have been absurd for Rashta to want to murder me, but it seemed even more absurd for her to want to murder my parents.

“Why?”

“That I don’t know. They’re not even the kind of people who would confront that woman openly.”

Heinley was right. My parents are the kind of people who would stay in their mansion if they didn’t want to see Rashta and Sovieshu. That’s why it seemed stranger to me. Why my parents? And why now?

The days when Rashta was the concubine and I was the empress were a thing of the past. Me, I was already in the Western Empire, and she had taken the position of the Empress of the Eastern Empire. Why did she have to attack my parents now….. Ah.

“She thinks that my family will stand in the way of her child.”

“I think that’s the problem, too.”

“Is the mercenary very skilled?”

I asked hurriedly, very concerned. But then, Heinley said with a slight smile, as if to put me at ease,

“Don’t worry, My Queen. My informant exchanged the mercenary hired by that woman for a subordinate of his.”

“An informant?”

“Yes. Thanks to him I was able to know that.”

“Ahh.”

I pressed my hand against my heart. Hearing Heinley’s words calmed my racing heart a little.

“The deadline is also long enough so you can rest easy for now.”

Heinley’s voice reassured me, but he still had a serious look.

“But that woman may have hired more than one mercenary, so it doesn’t hurt to take precautions.”

“I have to tell my parents. it is necessary to reinforce their security.”

I replied as calmly as possible, but a flame ignited within me.

When I was in the Eastern Empire I had overlooked Rashta’s actions because the same were under Sovieshu’s responsibility.

Sovieshu had much more power than Rashta, and it was he who made her his concubine, so Sovieshu had to take responsibility for Rashta’s actions and words.

Besides, if I had used all my power to suppress Rashta, I would have ended up being seen as an evil empress. In the end, people sympathize with the weak.

However, Rashta was now in a position to take responsibility for her actions. But what she does as soon as she has power is try to assassinate my parents?

“I can’t just stand idly by.”