Chapter 24

This was the shallow scheme of the Dowager Empress. All three of the ships had hung hooks on the ropes from the mast. When the hook reached the center of the lake, it was released by the wind, hung the clothes of the person sitting on the left chair of the ship, and soon dropped them into the lake.

It was a perfect ploy that had already been practiced several times and no mistakes would be made.

The only reason the Dowager Empress did such a thing was so that when Evelina fell into the lake, her able knights would save her and make her owe her her life. If one didn’t know, Lake Heliben seemed blue and beautiful on the surface, but not so much within the water. It was contaminated enough that you could get pneumonia when drinking lake water. It was an artificially created lake in the first place, and it was stagnant water.

The Dowager Empress planned to make Evelina completely hers after she fell into the lake and even took care of her for a few days. Therefore, it was so thorough that they even prepared drugs to treat pneumonia  that were difficult to get in advance.

But there was one thing she didn’t expect. She made sure that the hooked line on the ship didn’t come loose because Kaiden was on it. Kaiden and Evelina’s boat was being watched by the commander of the guards, so she couldn’t get rid of it completely. Eventually, when the wind blew, it was released and Evelina was tricked into it.

“Lina!”

“Oh my god!”

When Evelina fell into the lake like that.

“Lina!”

– Splash!

Kaiden jumped into the water without even a second of hesitation.

“Your Majesty!”

“Older brother!”

The Princess Elsius and Dowager Empress Isabella, who were watching from afar, screamed and shouted at their knights to jump in immediately.

Rather than being unable to breathe because of drowning, Evelina suffered from the cold water that came into her eyes, ears, nose and mouth. The terrible pain of the water entering her body made her struggle and soon lost her strength.

While struggling helplessly in pain, she saw a large black figure approaching her.

That’s how she lost consciousness.

~~~~

Evelina was dreaming.

She remembered that she had fallen into the water, but she didn’t know how she got out. Moreover, now she had very small hands, as if she had returned to a much younger age, not her original age.

“I hate syringes.”

“But you have to do it.”

Evelina sighed as she looked at the little bruise on her arm. Then she held out her arm. She thought she was about fifteen at this time. The 15-year-old girl dyed her hair white with a mysterious dye brought by the Marquis of Logias.

The bleached hair was cut two months after her fifteenth birthday. So the memory she was seeing was probably within two weeks of her 15th birthday.

“It hurts.”

“I’m sorry, my daughter.”

A large needle stabbed Evelina in the back of her hand. She had to endure it, pouting her lips. The touch of the needle penetrating the flesh was incredibly clear.

She was strangely stuck in a stalemate where this memory felt familiar, but wasn’t. It’s definitely her first time seeing it. Nevertheless, it was clear that she had experienced it.

Her dark red blood, which filled the syringe, soon fell to the ground with a drop of wetting the back of her hand as the needle was pulled out.

“Well done, Lina.”

“It hurts.”

“Yeah, you must have been sick.”

When she saw the Marquis’ face smiling benevolently, Evelina held the alcohol cotton on the back of her hand as if holding it back. The temperature of the cool alcohol wetted the back of the hand, gradually stopping the bleeding.

The alcohol cotton, which was pulled out and put on a needle, was colored with blood in a round shape. However, after drawing a circle a little larger than the size of the needle, it soon became as colored as a baby’s fingernail.

“Let’s take the medicine now.”

“Yes.”

The blood stopped when the hemostasis ended and the cotton was removed. When Evelina threw away the piece of cotton, the Marquis of Logias brought her heart medicine and handed it to her.

Evelina grabbed the round red pill and ate it. Then, she received a glass of water pushed next to her and drank from it.

~~~~

“Uh…”

When Evelina opened her eyes, she saw a familiar pattern of the imperial family, even though she didn’t want to get used to it. The canopy in her bedroom was the pale pink of peonies. However, she could see the gold thread embroidered on the dark red canopy cloth and the pattern of the imperial family.

“Lina!”

This was Kaiden’s room.

“Lina, are you okay?”

She was confused why Kaiden’s voice which was asking if she was all right was so loud. It was like a large bell was being hit right next to her head.

“What happened to me?”

“There was an accident. So you fell into the water…”

“Kaiden, why are you so wet?”

“I jumped in too.”

Even though she was wet, she was surprised that he was wet as well. His hair was wet enough that she could believe he had just come out of the water, and it was clinging to his cheeky and forehead.

“Is Kaiden okay?”

He asked because he was okay as the water flowed through his hair down his chin.

“How about Lina? Are you okay? Your waist…”

“What? Ah…”

Evelina realized for a moment that she was naked. However, she was not completely naked and had a bandage around her waist.

“I’m hurt a lot.”

Perhaps because of the large amount of painkillers, Evelina did not feel sick, although her mind felt fuzzy. For a moment, she looked around, wondering who was in this room. There were only female doctors and maids lined up behind Kaiden.

“How badly did I get hurt?”

“You have three stitches in your waist.”

“Ah…”

She was under the illusion that he was crying, perhaps because of the injury. This was not a man that would do that. He had witnessed countless deaths on the day of revolution, so there was no way he would cry for this wound.

“What should I do if it hurts? I am the Empress… .”

“What do you mean?”

“I think Kaiden is going to hate this scar.”

“How can that be? More importantly, I won’t forgive those who caused these scars.”

At those words, she thought he was serious. He was looking at her eyes.

She was confused whether his acting was more intense or because she didn’t see anything because of the drops of water falling over his eyes. Above all, it would be nice if it didn’t look like tears.

She thought that because the monster in front of her looked like a human weeping in front of her eyes.

“Did you save me?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you. You saved my life.”

Evelina folded her hands over his, which she held tightly so that he could not run away. Then he flinched and stayed still.

“Oh, I…”

“What’s wrong, Lina?”

“Well, I think the necklace is missing.”

She said so, recalling the astronomical price of the necklace. It was an heirloom of the imperial family. used only by the Empress. She couldn’t believe she lost the {Tears of a Mermaid}.

No matter how Evelina thought about it, it bothered her. Most of all, this could lead to a mistake that was blamed on the Marquis of Logias.

“It’s just a necklace. I’ll give you 100 or 200.”

“Have you ever fallen into the lake?”

“Yes.”

When he opened his eyes angrily, Evelina shrank unconsciously. It actually seemed he was angry.

“Ha.”

Evelina slowly patted Kaiden’s shoulder, leaning her head on his wet shoulder.

She had turned into a dazed and rational strange state, perhaps because of the increasing energy of the medicine. She wanted to do as much as she could, but she constantly thought about ways for the Marquis of Logias to be safe.

“What about the others?”

Kaiden held her hand tightly and refused to answer Evelina’s question.

She waited as if she wanted an answer, knowing what his silence meant. But he did not answer.

So she had to spend the night in his room again.

Kaiden went somewhere at night, alone.

~~~~

“Congratulations, sister-in-law.”

Evelina grinned at Princess Elsius, who brought documents in full to her office.

“Now my sister decided to prepare for the founding festival instead of me.”

“Really?”

“Yes, my brother told me.”

Evelina replied with a smile, pretending not to know, realizing that Elsius was actually in a very angry state even though she was smiling.

“I’m glad. This will make me a suitable replacement for Your Highness.”

“Oh, my. To be a suitable replacement, you shouldn’t have scratches on your body.”

“What do you mean?”

Evelina said, looking at Princess Elsius attitude as if she didn’t know. Then Elsius looked at her with a forced benevolent expression, hiding her unique sneer, and said.

“I guess my sister-in-law doesn’t know.”

Elsius looked at Evelina as if she was sorry. However, Evelina knew that she was like this because she was resentful that she had been deprived of the founding festival she wanted to take over.

“Originally, the Emperor’s women were exiled from the palace if they ended up with a scar on their bodies.”

Evelina knew that there was such a law, but she was also well aware that it had never actually been enforced.

“Really?”

“Yes. But I heard that my sister-in-law also had a big back injury from this incident. If this happens, it will only take a moment for my brother to get sick of it…”

Evelina lowered her gaze at Elsius’ expression of concern.

“You need to get pregnant quickly, sister-in-law. If you want to survive well even if you are abandoned.”

Evelina figured that the Dowager Empress was the only one who was punished, seeing Princess Elsius strangely excited. Otherwise, she couldn’t have said such words so proudly.

“Make sure you have a son, sister-in-law. You’re really close now. Make sure to use the medicine I gave you last time.”

Evelina looked up and said, still feeling sorry for her rude remarks.

“I see. Then it’s a big deal for Princess Elsius, too. Ian told me that the Princess had serious burns in the past.”

“No, that’s…”

“Was it your back?”

Evelina went on with a look of real ignorance.

“Then, the Princess will have to leave the palace soon. What a pity.”