I Won’t Accept Your Regrets

“Mom!”

Edmund, who had just left his etiquette lesson at that time, now rushed to Lizena.

With a bright smile on his lips, he held out his hand as if asking for a hug, but she rejected it.

“Edmund. Didn’t your tutor teach you that you shouldn’t run like that at breakneck speed?”

“…Yes.”

“Then let’s try again.”

Edmund looked at Lizena’s frozen face and dropped his outstretched hand.

And he said, keeping his head straight:

“Mother, greetings.”

“Madam Bertie, didn’t you teach him well?”

Lizena turned her attention to the teacher.

Mrs. Bertie smiled at Lizena’s penetrating gaze.

“The gentleman is still young… And after all, no one taught him manners before me. Nevertheless, at such a young age, he is already making great strides…”

“I am not satisfied with just ‘great strides’. I want him to be perfect. Edmund will soon be a prince. How can a prince of our country do such nonsense?” said Lizena coldly, interrupting Mrs. Bertie.

“Yes, I will try…”

“Not necessary. This was your last lesson.”

“Yes?”

Mrs. Bertie’s face was colored with embarrassment.

“I no longer need your services. I’ll find another person. Someone who is more suitable for working with the prince.”

The gray-haired maid, who was standing behind Lizena, came up.

“Madam, I will accompany you.”

The maid grabbed her hand.

She couldn’t resist, because the hand of the maid was so strong.

As difficult as the life of a servant was, such power was in her hands, it was strange.

In addition, Mrs. Bertie’s gray eyes gave goosebumps down her spine.

The tutor looked at Lizena.

Has she always been like this?

Lizena’s attitude was fundamentally different from word of mouth, or from what Bertie had seen up to this point.

“Madam, you’d better go.”

Bertie felt instinctively.

If I say something more stupid, then no one will find me.

“…Oh sure.”

The door closed. Lizena lowered herself in front of Edmund and looked her child in the eyes.

“Edmund. Look at your mother.”

Edmund, bowing his head, looked up.

“Edmund, you will soon be a prince. And in the future the Emperor himself. You shouldn’t do anything stupid anymore. I want you to be like your father.”

“Yes…”

“His Majesty is the strongest and most beautiful in the whole world. Therefore, in the future, Edmund will have to try not to dishonor his father.”

Lizena looked at Edmund with a determined look in her eyes.

She knew that the boy in front of her didn’t understand everything she meant.

But if you talk to him like that persistently, then at least he will not forget her words.

“Yes mom.”

“Very good.”

Lizena got up and stroked Edmund’s head.

At that time, Lily entered, the gray-haired maid, her faithful shadow.

Lily was not an ordinary servant, but a killer that Lizena had recruited in the Western Kingdom.

“Lily. Did you escort Mrs. Bertie out?”

“Yes. I gave that money and warned her not to gossip.”

“Good job.”

“On the way back, I received word that your brother had escaped. He went out quietly early in the morning. The butler noticed this only now.”

“…Well, then.”

Lizena’s hand on Edmund’s head froze.

“I just don’t want my sister to do something irreparable. I hope everything goes smoothly for you.”

Leon’s last words rang in her ears.

“And he left you a letter.”

Lizena turned.

The letter folded in half contained only one sentence.

[I will not be back. It’s too late to say that, but I’m sorry you had to carry everything by yourself.

—Leon Nasios.]

Her younger brother was a good guy, and therefore he didn’t fit for the Nasios family.

He left because he was very afraid to get his hands dirty.

Lizena went to a small candle on the table. She burned the letter left by her younger brother with an impenetrable smile, either from relief or from longing.

When she glanced at the letter for the last time, which is now a handful of ashes, a guest came.

“An official letter from the imperial family.”

This was her father, Marquis Nasios.

“What letter?”

Lizena turned to the marquis.

“Appointment of Edmund as a prince!”

Marquis was very angry.

“Why are you so angry, as if our aspirations were different?”

Unlike the Marquis, Lizena was calm.

“You have no brain? Other nobles have united against us! They will put pressure on the Emperor!”

The Marquis raised his voice.

Lizena glanced at Lily to take Edmund and leave.

After Edmund, surprised by the Marquis’s anger, took Lily’s hand and left, Lizena sat down in a chair.

“I said that it will be so.”

She guessed that Raymond was in no hurry to call her the new Empress.

Rather, Edmund was forced to take this step, but he would always draw a line between them.

He probably never forgot about Ellie.

“And you talk about it so easily?! If you don’t be the Empress, all our work is down the drain!”

“If I can’t become an Empress, that’s okay. If Edmund becomes the crown prince, that will be half the battle.”

“Ha, half? What if the Emperor took the Empress from another family and made a new prince with her?” shouted Marquis Nasios loudly.

Lizena was annoyed by his loud voice and frowned.

Whatever she said, he didn’t think he would hear it now, so she waited for the Marquis’s excitement to subside.

Marquis muttered to himself as he moved back and forth.

“I suspected something was wrong from the start when that Croft left so easily. If she approaches the Emperor again…”

“It’s true that Ellie Croft turned down the role of Empress. She dropped everything and left.”

“What do you want to say?”

The Marquis’s ferocity has cooled.

“That Croft left the Empire. She kept a secret where she was going. Didn’t even say when she would be back… That is, she may not return at all.”

Marquis took Lizena by the shoulder and said:

“Lizena. You must reach the imperial heart by all means. You must become an Empress.”

His eyes flashed.

It was a greedy look, completely different from the one who would wish her happiness.

Lizena has seen him many times already, but today she decided that she’d had enough.

Disgusting.

Lizena rose from her seat, coldly throwing away the marquis’s hand.

“I will take care of His Majesty, so Father should focus on getting the other nobles to support Edmund on the throne.”

Marquis Nasios’s face contorted greatly, as if he thought he was being ignored. But Lizena left the room without worrying about anything.

* * *

The echo of music was heard. His hazy vision gradually cleared up.

As if he was back in time, he was in the Imperial Palace, illuminated by a thousand lights.

Raymond instinctively sensed that this moment was a dream.

A terrible nightmare, or rather.

Many people gathered under a huge chandelier in the center of the hall to celebrate the Prince’s birthday.

“My brother, I congratulate you on your 27th birthday.”

“This is the guarantor of the bright future of our Empire. It is fortunate that our crown prince is full of strength.”

“If the prince becomes Emperor, our Agrita Empire will be the most powerful on the continent.”

Ha. The faces of these flatterers turned green with greed.

The prince smiled with satisfaction and walked on.

His steps stopped in front of a woman in an old dress.

“Did they send an invitation to your name? Or don’t you even know how to read? This is really hilarious.”

At the party, the prince’s mocking voice rang out.

The nobles looked at the woman in the old dress.

“You are useless even as a concubine. Why the hell did you show up here? Have you swallowed your tongue?”

The prince pushed the woman on the shoulder.

First, second, third time.

Raymond couldn’t stand it.