Side Story 1

Soft sunlight streamed through translucent lace curtains.

The baby in the cradle blinked as she watched the curtains. Her tiny hand reached clumsily toward the fluttering edge, but the hand that still couldn’t even clench and unclench properly only flailed in the air, nowhere near the curtain by the window.

‘I want to touch that.’

Frustration welled up. She reached again, and again, but couldn’t reach it. Anger followed. Tears slowly gathered in the baby’s Ja’an eyes.

Just as her mouth puckered into a little triangle and she was about to burst into tears, gentle arms wrapped around her.

“Do you like that?”

The child’s anger melted away. Soft arms, a comforting scent, a kind voice… She’d been born less than a hundred days ago, so her life experience was short. Still, she was sure.

The person holding her now was the one who made her happiest in the world.

‘Mommy.’

The baby recognized her and smiled.

“You want to touch the curtain?”

Holding her young daughter, Nerys chuckled and walked to the window. She stopped where the new lace curtain was within reach. Bathed in the warm yellow sunlight of early summer, the baby’s round hand wriggled.

After a brief struggle, she managed to grab the curtain. She didn’t know how to use her strength yet, so she soon let go, but her face was full of smug triumph at having achieved her goal. Her jet-black hair stuck up all over, swaying softly.

‘So cute.’

Nerys hugged the baby’s warm body and smiled. Was there any being in the world as lovely as this? Now she understood why Joyce still called Diane “baby.”

“My love, my life. Before long, you’ll be able to walk here on your own. Then I’ll need your permission to hug you.”

She loved this child. She loved her more with every passing day. What would happen in the distant future if these days kept piling up? She was so pretty now that Nerys felt like she could cry just looking at her—would she end up crying just thinking about her later?

Since the parents in this world didn’t spend all day weeping over their children, it probably wouldn’t happen… but she couldn’t help doubting it. How could something this cute be born?

When her mother hugged her tight, the baby was so happy she opened her mouth wide and smiled again. People said that although she resembled her father overall, she looked like her mother when she smiled like this. Nerys kissed her daughter’s forehead.

Someone knocked lightly on the nursery door, a room filled with soft colors and cushions. Nerys turned and answered.

“Come in.”

The nursery door was always maintained so it would never creak, so it wouldn’t disturb the baby’s sleep. Diane carefully opened the precious door, met Nerys’s eyes, and smiled brightly.

“It’s time, Riz. Let’s go get ready.”

“Okay.”

The nanny, peeking out from behind Diane, approached Nerys with a relieved expression and carefully took the baby into her arms.

“Princess Arbyone, you’re in a good mood today. What a good girl you are.”

Unlike aristocratic custom, Nerys breastfed Arbyone herself, but her milk was nowhere near enough for the child’s appetite. And with how busy she was, she couldn’t care for the baby directly all day, so she hired two healthy nannies to work in shifts.

Arbyone didn’t like the nanny as much as she liked her mother. Even so, she didn’t cry. She let herself be held, blinking quietly.

“How cute. I wonder if our Yoni will develop Ja’an when she grows up?”

Though she had come for a reason, Diane immediately clung to the baby, unable to help herself the moment she made eye contact with Arbyone. Nerys chuckled and kept a careful hold on Diane’s flamboyant dress so it wouldn’t get wrinkled.

“She will. They’re the exact same color as my eyes.”

“Then she’ll be so pretty. Ah, she’s pretty now—what if she gets even prettier? Huh? Huh? If our pretty Yoni gets prettier than she already is, what will Auntie do with all this worry? She’s so angelic—what if someone gobbles her up?”

Diane deliberately lisped and babied her words as she played with Arbyone. The nanny looked flustered.

“Um, Lady Diane. Time is…”

“Ah, right.”

With a sigh, Diane finally pulled away from Arbyone and took Nerys’s hand.

“Let’s go. Everything else is ready. All we have to do is dress up today’s protagonist.”

Outside, celebratory firecrackers—set off early by impatient people—popped in rapid bursts. Smiling, Nerys left the nursery with Diane.

It felt impossible to leave that lovely little thing behind, but she had no choice.

Because today was the coronation day of the new Emperor and Empress—the day everyone had been waiting for.

❖ ❖ ❖

“How could you be so late!”

Ellen was usually prepared to argue that everything Nerys did was right, but today she was furious.

Nerys, who had been reading documents until the morning of the coronation and then went to see the baby, climbed into the bath Ellen had prepared without protest. Then she was massaged from head to toe—hair, fingertips, lips, and even her toes.

It had been repeated every day for about a week, so today’s bath didn’t create any dramatic change. Still, Ellen’s hands—and the hands of the maids she had personally selected and trained—were meticulous. They applied rose oil again and again until Nerys’s skin, hair, and lips shimmered like sunlit waves.

When the massage ended, a dress with a train so long it filled the dressing room was brought in. Dyed a deep, rich purple, it had a sheen so even and beautiful it seemed unreal. The front was made of the same Tyrian Purple, subtly embroidered with silk thread that had been dyed once or twice more to deepen the tone. The long train in back was magnificently decorated with gold thread, making anyone who saw it flush with delight.

“It’s made so beautifully.”

“Painters from all over the continent came to record today’s ceremony, so isn’t it fortunate? Our Empress is always beautiful, but she doesn’t often dress so lavishly. It would be a waste not to preserve this image forever.”

The maids Ellen had trained were all remarkably sociable—so much so that Dora, their senior who had now been promoted to manager of the Empress’s palace, sometimes couldn’t handle them and fled.

Diane, already dressed and waiting in a corner of the room, chimed in whenever she pleased.

“That’s right. It’d be a shame not to preserve this image. Someone should find out who the best painter is. Tell them to paint five more copies for preservation, exhibition, appreciation, and gifts.”

Paint was expensive, and special colors like Tyrian Purple and gold were even more costly because they required grinding jewels into pigment. What Diane was proposing was practically the price of a castle just to duplicate one painting.

But for the precious daughter of House MacKinnon—steadily approaching the title of richest person on the continent—that wasn’t impossible. Nerys smiled wryly.

“If you’re doing all that with four, why do you need five?”

“I need two for exhibition. One for my house, and one for Lily Palace!”

“Lily Palace in the Papal States? Why would you hang our coronation portrait there?”

“If it’s in Lily Palace, people from all over the continent will see it as they come and go. If you send it, His Holiness will hang it up, right?”

‘He probably would.’

Nerys quietly resolved to warn Ren ahead of time so something that ridiculous wouldn’t happen.

Standing before the huge mirror in the center of the dressing room, Nerys was adorned in countless beautiful things. Tiny shoes studded with diamonds, layered petticoats of muslin so thin they were nearly translucent, lace stockings and garters woven by artisans to fit her legs perfectly…

When she slipped into the purple dress—exactly the same color as her eyes—and twisted her hair up with elegant precision, the jewels prepared for her were brought out. A tiara, earrings, and other ornaments, all carefully stored in velvet-lined boxes.

She already wore her wedding ring and had no intention of changing it. But for the coronation and wedding of the new Emperor and Empress, she still had to consider what other jewels suited the occasion.

Fortunately, what Nerys had wanted from the beginning was perfectly suited for today.

Diane stared at Nerys once she was fully prepared, pure admiration on her face.

“So pretty!”

Diane was right. Everyone in the room thought so.

Even Nerys, looking at herself in the mirror.

Her features, neat against cream-smooth skin, shone with the lightest touch of makeup. Her slender nose ran straight, as if holding the center of her being together with her slender frame, and her red lips looked like flower petals.

And at the most beautiful point of her well-shaped face were her Ja’an eyes, luminous as if they cast light on their own. Against the color of her gown, their violet hue stood out even more. Above them, platinum-blonde eyebrows—faint as morning sunlight yet unmistakably present—arched in delicate lines.

A bright tiara set with pink conch pearls was secured on her fragrant, fine hair. Diamond earrings, each paired with a large teardrop-shaped pearl, hung from both earlobes.

High-quality pearls carried a sheen like moonlight, giving the wearer a radiance as if a lamp had been lit. The earrings Cledwyn had given her when she first came to this land long ago still did exactly that.

Gazing at the woman in the mirror, Nerys smiled shyly.

“Shall we go, then?”

Diane—today’s maid of honor—took the hand Nerys offered and stood, answering brightly.

“Yeah!”

❖ ❖ ❖

“There’s no problem, Your Majesty.”

“I know. You said that earlier.”

“Then why do you look so anxious?”

At Gilbert’s remark—the former butler of White Swan Castle and now the chamberlain of the Imperial Palace—Cledwyn halted mid-step.

He turned his head so stiffly it almost seemed to squeak and asked,

“Do I look anxious again?”

“Yes.”

This was the official coronation day they had all awaited. Its meaning was immense, but from Cledwyn’s perspective, it wasn’t a day that warranted nerves. How many months had the new Emperor and Empress already been running the empire? Even if something happened and today’s ceremony was canceled—unlikely as it was—no one would stop recognizing them as Emperor and Empress.

So Gilbert couldn’t understand. The man who hadn’t so much as changed expression when he first inherited the title of Grand Duke…

Cledwyn let out a deep sigh. Dressed for the coronation—a black ceremonial robe striped with gold and a short cape woven with half gold thread—he looked beautiful enough to make passersby sigh without realizing it.

“It’s because today means a lot to me.”

So it really was that important? Gilbert wondered if he’d been thinking too narrowly.

But the words Cledwyn spoke next immediately cleared away that doubt.

“Because I’m finally giving her the position my wife should have had.”

Ah. It was the Empress again. Gilbert understood at once. He couldn’t know exactly why Her Majesty “should have had” that position, but His Majesty had always been like this. And if Gilbert questioned it, it would only end in the same kind of wife worship as always—something like, ‘Who else but my perfect wife could hold that seat?’

The Imperial Palace’s grand banquet hall was already packed and roaring with noise. Cledwyn and Gilbert stood in the northwest room at the end of a shortcut from the main palace to the hall. The attendees entered through the south corridor, so from where they stood, they could see people coming and going at a glance.

That was why they recognized Nerys the moment she arrived.

To Cledwyn’s eyes, the dim banquet hall brightened instantly the second she appeared. Without another word to Gilbert, he strode into the hall as if he were running.

He reached her quickly, linked arms with his wife, and smiled with his eyes.

“Shall we go?”