I Raised Snow White!

“The princess’s birthday is approaching, yet His Majesty won’t even leave his room, nor has he given her a name. I can’t fathom what His Majesty, my own son, intends to do.”

The veins on the back of the Queen Dowager’s pale hand became visible as she gripped her wine glass tightly. It was as if she was trying to calm the storm brewing inside her by drinking; the Queen Dowager gulped down her drink without pause.

“If you continue drinking like that, you’ll harm your health.”

“I don’t recall you being so concerned for my health before.”

“But Your Majesty, don’t you want to stay in good health a bit longer? After all, you’ll want to see the Princess grow into a lovely lady. I’m sure the Princess also wishes for you to live long and in good health.”

“…Tsk. Do you think mentioning the Princess would persuade me to listen to you?”

Clack-

Despite her words, the Queen Dowager pushed the wine glass aside. I chuckled at this and poured some cold water into an empty glass, placing it before her.

The Queen Dowager downed the cold water I had set out for her, as if merely wetting her throat. She sighed briefly in weariness before giving me a sideways glare.

“Why don’t you go ahead and name the Princess yourself?”

“…Your Majesty jests too much. You know as well as I do that I am no different from the Princess.”

“…Yes, I suppose my jest was in poor taste.”

The Queen Dowager let out a long sigh, chewing a grape in irritation. It was impossible for me to name the Princess, just as it had been impossible for Vivian to receive the surname “Snow White.”

Likewise, the Queen Dowager could not name the Princess either. If she named the Princess in disregard of the reclusive King, the Council of Elder members would likely think this:

Her Majesty the Queen Dowager intends to put the Princess on the throne and take on the regency.

Her Majesty the Queen Dowager has, in the end, abandoned His Majesty, who isolates himself in his room.

Her Majesty the Queen Dowager now considers His Majesty as good as dead.

No doubt, they would say such things unanimously.

Perhaps the Queen Dowager withheld naming the Princess with such future repercussions in mind. She likely thought that a young Princess ascending the throne would have no real chance of maturing properly.

…In fact, I was tempted to barge into the King’s secluded quarters this instant, drag him out by his hair, and demand explanations. How could all our problems be because of the King?

The Queen Dowager seemed to share my sentiments, sighing wearily. In the three months we had left, the most ideal plan would be to bring the King out of his quarters…

“You must have your own grievances as well. It has already been two years since you married His Majesty, yet you still haven’t even spent the ‘wedding night’ with him. Why does the law still exist, that a ‘wedding night’ must be spent before the bride may take the family name?”

“Mmff, cough! Cough!”

Caught off guard by the Queen Dowager’s brazen comment, I choked on the water I had been drinking.

Ah, thank goodness the Princess was not present. Though I was aware that Vivian had yet to spend her ‘wedding night,’ it was certainly not something to be said in front of the young Princess.

“*Cough*, there’s no need to concern, *cough*! Yours truly is past caring about that, *cough*!”

“Is that so? Then is that why you’re acting like a different person? Has the emotional wound from not spending the ‘wedding night’ with His Majesty healed, after all?”

“I’ll leave that to your imagination, Your Majesty.”

I dabbed at my mouth with a handkerchief and turned my head, avoiding the Queen Dowager’s teasing gaze. She chuckled, as if my discomfort amused her, and continued speaking.

“Yes, clinging to a man stuck in the past would only bring you pain. I’m glad you have finally let go.”

“……”

“A man bound by the past.” This was how the Queen Dowager referred to her own son. The image of that room I had seen earlier suddenly flashed in my mind—the room that seemed like a preserved fragment of the First Queen’s time.

…The more I learned about this place, the more I felt lost regarding whether the First Queen was truly dead or still somehow alive. The answer to this mystery likely lay in the ‘room’ where the King remained in seclusion…

Yet as time passed, that room felt increasingly like “Pandora’s box,” one that I might regret opening. That if I did open it, it would bring about something I could not bear…

But I couldn’t simply leave the King as he was. He was the only one who could give the Princess a name, and there were only three months left until the ‘Main Event of Spring.’

I had to meet the reclusive King within these three months.

For the Princess’s sake, and for everyone else.

To do so, first…

“Your Majesty, I have something I am curious about.”

The Queen Dowager tilted her head at my words, looking at me as if to say, go on.

…From the beginning, the Queen Dowager was the only one who could tell me about this. Ainsel was unable to speak of the First Queen, and the Queen Dowager was likely the only one who knew this ‘truth’ and could tell it to me.

“Why did the First Queen make that kind of ‘choice’… Could you tell me?”

Tap, tap, tap.

Following my question, a heavy silence settled over the banquet hall. The Queen Dowager tapped her fingers on the table as if deliberating whether to answer or not.

“…You know the rumors about the Marchioness of Lorenzo, don’t you?”

“I am not foolish enough, Your Majesty, to believe that the First Queen would make such a choice solely based on the Marchioness’s teachings.”

“I wish you had been that foolish.”

Letting out a heavy sigh, the Queen Dowager gulped down some cold water to soothe herself. Glancing briefly at me, she then sighed again and slowly opened her mouth to speak.

“As you may know, having once loved His Majesty yourself, love is both blindness and poison.”

“…Pardon?”

“His Majesty, the sole child of the late king and the only heir, inevitably bore the full weight of expectations, beginning when he was merely five years old.”

The Queen Dowager reminisced as she slowly continued her story.

“I had no time to give His Majesty the love he needed. Even before I married the late king, the former Queen Dowager had already passed away.”

“……”

“So, I never truly showed His Majesty any kind of love during his childhood. Nonetheless, he grew up under the guidance of fine tutors and became a king worthy of ruling this nation.”

The Queen Dowager wore a bitter smile, gently swirling the water in her glass as she stared at it. She never set down the glass, as though to soothe her throat with each word.

…Some of this I already knew. Since the Queen Dowager had never shown love to her own son, it made sense that she couldn’t show such affection toward her granddaughter, the Princess.

“So, to His Majesty, the First Queen must have appeared exceptionally sweet. Here was a woman who loved him freely, unlike before when he had to shed blood and effort to earn love.”

“The First Queen, Your Majesty?”

“Yes, the First Queen was such a woman. She taught His Majesty love, made that love blind, and in the end, turned that love into poison.”

“Poison…”

“…If only that blindness had not been mutual, it would have been better. Tsk.”

Mutual?

Did this mean that the First Queen also loved the King blindly? The Queen Dowager chuckled dryly, as though still baffled by the thought, and wore a bitter smile.

“Even after the Princess was born, their love did not cool. Many were hopeful that a new little sun would soon rise over this kingdom. But the outcome was tragic.”

The little sun likely referred to a ‘Prince.’ Since there was no ‘Prince’ between the King and the First Queen, Vivian was able to marry him. Yet, listening to the Queen Dowager’s story, I found it difficult to understand.

If they loved each other so much, why had they not named the Princess? How could they neglect to name their own child, a symbol of their love?

“…Are you wondering why, despite their love, they never named the Princess?”

“…Can you tell that from my expression?”

“When you reach my age, you can tell a lot from a person’s face.”

The Queen Dowager chuckled, then returned to a calm expression.

“…I may not have given His Majesty love, so I hesitate to say this… but ‘maternal love’ and ‘affection’ seem to be different things.”

“…Pardon? What do you mean?”

“His Majesty and the First Queen only loved each other, and thus paid no heed to the Princess, the product of that love. Isn’t this what it means when I say ‘maternal love’ and ‘affection’ are different?”

…?

For a moment, a whirlwind of emotions filled my mind. It felt like my understanding was being shattered, and I could only continue listening to the Queen Dowager’s story in silence.

“…To continue, they loved each other too much. When His Majesty so much as glanced at another woman during a ball, shouting would be heard from the First Queen’s chambers.”

“……”

“‘Only look at me, only love me, don’t direct your gaze at anyone else,’ the First Queen pleaded with His Majesty. And His Majesty, in turn, obliged her wishes.”

“So that is why you say love is both blindness and poison…”

…Even without hearing further, I felt I knew why the First Queen had taken her own life. Their love was so obsessive, so blinding, that it ultimately turned into poison, leading the First Queen to end her life.

A morbid thought filled my mind.

And as if to confirm my grim imagination, the Queen Dowager continued.

“…You asked why the First Queen chose to take her life.”

I gave a small nod.

“If I said it was because His Majesty exchanged greetings with a foreign female envoy, would you believe it?”

…How disturbing.

The First Queen’s relentless obsession made me involuntarily frown.

“The official story is that the First Queen was simply weary and took her own life. I drafted that for her. But in her actual note, her handwriting was so erratic it was barely legible.”

“……”

“The few discernible words on that note, bloodstained and ink-smeared, were ‘His Majesty,’ ‘love,’ and ‘always by your side.'”

As the Queen Dowager continued, her expression grew sour. As if wishing to forget, she shook her head and let out a heavy sigh, looking at me.

“…During His Majesty’s unstable state, the Council of Elders made the unilateral decision to fill the Queen’s empty seat, which is how you came to be the Second Queen.”

“……”

“And as you remember, shortly after the wedding, His Majesty confined himself to his chambers.”

Clearing her throat as if it were dry, the Queen Dowager gulped down some more cold water, her gaze steady on me. Faced with her intense stare, I didn’t know how to respond, what expression to show, and simply looked down at the plate of food in front of me.

“…Has your curiosity been satisfied? Second Queen.”

*