Page 453 of Remarried Empress

It seems that when some leave, others come.

Two days after Heinley left for an urgent mission abroad, Viscount Langdel received a message from his subordinate that Rivetti had been brought to the capital.

As soon as I heard the news, I went out into the garden with my ladies-in-waiting. We wanted to welcome Rivetti in person.

At the moment when I started to wonder how long we had been waiting, we finally saw a carriage coming in through the main gate.

My ladies-in-waiting, who were yawning bored mere seconds earlier, clapped their hands in joy at the sight of the carriage.

As soon as the carriage came to a stop, the door burst open and Rivetti jumped out.

“Oh! Your Majesty! Your Majesty!”

Rivetti ran to me.

Viscount Langdel flinched at Rivetti’s lack of decorum. He seemed about to take a step forward to stop her, but before he could do so, I stepped forward myself with my arms open, and hugged Rivetti.

“Rivetti.”

While Viscount Langdel tactfully stepped back, Rivetti burst into tears as soon as she was in my arms.

“Your Majesty, I’ve missed you. I’ve missed you a lot.”

As I held Rivetti, I noticed that she had lost weight. I felt sad thinking about the terrible heartache she must have experienced. Her words were drowned out by sobs, so I patted her back, waiting for her to unburden herself. When she calmed down a bit, I kept an arm around Rivetti’s shoulders and led her inside the palace.

“Let’s go inside, Rivetti.”

***

Once inside, tears continued to fall down Rivetti’s face.

“Miss Rose, please bring the tea.”

Rose soon returned and poured out a cup. I took it from her and handed it to Rivetti.

After a few sips, Rivetti finally calmed down.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to cry. On the way here I told myself repeatedly that I wouldn’t cry…”

“It’s alright.”

I barely spoke words of reassurance but her face twisted as if she was about to start crying again. However, she held back the tears.

Afraid to broach the subject of how she had been recently, I just sat next to her and patted her arm.

But only a moment later, I blurted out a thought that had been on my mind.

“Rivetti, would you like to stay in the Western Empire?”

Rivetti’s eyes widened at my offer. Even her sniffling ceased.

“Pardon?”

“You can live here if you like.”

It was a sincere offer. I took Rivetti’s hand and squeezed it. Rivetti’s eyes filled with tears again.

“Your Majesty…”

“What do you think?”

After a pause, Rivetti replied awkwardly.

“I really appreciate the offer, Your Majesty, but… I can’t stay. I came here because I wanted to see Your Majesty, but I cannot stay long.”

Laura, who had been listening, intervened.

“Why not? You can stay here with us! Forget your sadness. Here, you can start over.”

Rivetti shook her head with regret.

“I’d love to stay… but I inherited my father’s estate. It may be a small estate, but my father asked me to look after it. Besides… my mother is still there…”

It was difficult to make a case against such reasons, so Laura dropped the subject.

I didn’t try to persuade Rivetti either, and drank my tea in silence.

From the information gathered by Viscount Langdel’s men, Rivetti had not been in her estate, but rather in a town nearby. It was evident that she had something else on her mind, but that didn’t matter now.

“You must do what you think is best, Rivetti.”

With her hands tightly wrapped around the warm cup, Rivetti answered in a whisper.

“Yes.”

After we chatted some more, Laura led Rivetti to the room that had been prepared for her.

The other ladies-in-waiting left one by one, until only Countess Jubel and I were left. I heard the Countess click her tongue.

“It’s sad that such a cheerful young girl already looks so grim. Still, her resilience after all that has happened is admirable.”

After Countess Jubel left, I sat in an armchair and hummed a lullaby for my baby. While I hummed, I thought about Rivetti’s strength and courage.

I had been through my own share of suffering and painful events, but it couldn’t compare to Rivetti’s suffering. Very suddenly, she lost her father and her brother. She was truly resilient.

‘Suddenly…’

Rivetti’s situation made me think of Sovieshu’s. His loss of memories made it possible for him to approach me brazenly, which angered me greatly. But now that I think of it, his situation was similar to Rivetti’s. Sovieshu woke up overnight without his father, without his mother, and with his wife married to another man…

Comparing their situations made me uncomfortable, so I focused on my lullaby.

***

The next morning, I woke up and walked to the window. As I stared up at the sky, I wondered whether Heinley had hurt himself, whether he achieved his objective, whether he was sad again…

Just then, I spotted a familiar golden bird flying towards me. When I opened the window in surprise, the lovely golden bird flew in and circled around the room.

“Queen!”

It was Heinley. As soon as I yelled his name, Heinley quickly returned to his human form and embraced me.

“How have you been?”

Before I could answer that I was fine, a set of questions came out of my mouth.

“What about your mission? Did it go well?”

“Yes, I retrieved another one. There are still many more.”

“Was it dangerous…?”

Before we could talk about it, there was a knock at the door.

“Your Majesty. Miss Rivetti is here.”

Since he had no clothes, Heinley hurried into the matrimonial bedroom, while I went out into the drawing room.

Yesterday, Rivetti couldn’t even speak properly and cried the whole time, but she seemed to have found her composure overnight and she stood in my drawing room with a resolute expression.

“Your Majesty… may I ask you a favor? Rather, two favors.”

“Tell me.”

We had just taken a seat when Rivetti blurted out.

“Your Majesty! I want to learn how to govern my estate.”

“It’s a lot of responsibility…”

“Yes. I was never taught anything about it.”

“I understand. I’ll help you as much as I can.”

“Thank you!”

Rivetti stood up and curtseyed. When I gestured for her to sit down again, she did so quickly. I noticed that tears had welled up in her eyes.

“Didn’t you have another favor to ask me?”

Only then did Rivetti reply.

“Yes.”

“What is it?”

In fact, I had anticipated that Rivetti would ask about managing her estate. However, it was hard to guess what other favor she would ask of me.

Rivetti hesitated for a moment as she watched my expression. Then she asked carefully.

“Could you help me… find Ahn?”

“Ahn?”

” Yes. My brother’s son…”