I Married the Terminally Ill Emperor - Chapter 36

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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I Married a Terminally Ill Emperor

Chapter 36

“Princess?”

Dahlia called out carefully so as not to startle the Imperial Princess.

The small child with her back to the moonlight slowly turned around. The Imperial Princess looked very tired and filled with sorrow.

Dahlia wrapped her shawl around the small shoulders of the Imperial Princess, who immediately threw herself into her arms and cried upon seeing her.

Annie, who had been watching this scene, wrapped her own shawl around Dahlia.

Dahlia sent a grateful look and then gently comforted the Imperial Princess.

* * *

“Your Highness, it’s cocoa. It will warm your body.”

Annie entered the room and offered the warmly heated cocoa.

“Thank you.”

However, when Viviana just held the cup she had received, Dahlia gently encouraged her again.

“Please try a sip.”

Only then did Viviana take a sip.

Dahlia, who had been watching this, casually spoke to Annie.

“Where’s mine?”

“I prepared one knowing you’d ask.”

When Annie brought out the cocoa cup she had hidden behind her, Dahlia smiled brightly and accepted it.

“What about Annie?”

“Herb tea is fine for me.”

“That’s ridiculous! How delicious cocoa is when you drink it this late at night, and you don’t even know that.”

When Dahlia looked at Annie’s teacup with eyes full of dissatisfaction, Annie pretended not to hear anything and elegantly drank her herb tea.

“Mm, herb tea drunk late at night is so delicious.”

“That can’t be true.”

Dahlia shook her head disapprovingly.

“Mm, I can’t hear you.”

“If you can’t hear me, how are you answering?”

Viviana burst into laughter at the two people’s childish argument, then covered her mouth.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

Dahlia and Annie took advantage of the moment when Viviana lowered her head to exchange glances and grin at each other as if their plan had succeeded.

“Does Princess prefer cocoa or herb tea?”

Dahlia brought the Imperial Princess into their childish fight.

Viviana thought for a moment, then bowed her head toward Annie.

“I’m sorry, Lady Hudran.”

And she pulled her cocoa closer.

“Wow! I won!”

“Mm, I can’t hear you.”

Annie acted unfazed and drank her tea in an elegant pose again.

“You can hear everything!”

“Hahaha. I’m sorry. Hahaha.”

As the two people’s childish behavior continued, Viviana burst into laughter again.

Dahlia and Annie hid their raised lips behind their cups and waited until Viviana’s clear laughter subsided.

“You two are so funny.”

“Thank you for the compliment. We’ve grown up together since childhood, so we get along well.”

Dahlia kindly explained as she set her cocoa cup down on the table.

“I see.”

A dark shadow crossed Viviana’s face again as she nodded.

“Shall I give you some cookies too? I have some hidden away from Annie.”

“Oh my, I can hear this very well.”

At Annie’s calm response, Viviana smiled faintly and quietly declined.

“No, it’s okay. I’m so grateful to both of you for bringing me here and giving me this warm cocoa.”

Viviana bowed her head slightly.

“Not at all. Since it’s very late at night, I’ll escort you back.”

Suddenly, Viviana’s black eyes behind her glasses trembled finely as if she had been frightened.

“…Why don’t you two ask me anything?”

“If Your Highness had wanted to tell us, you would have.”

Dahlia said affectionately with a slight smile.

Viviana’s lips moved and closed repeatedly.

“Dahlia, I’m an Imperial Princess. An Imperial Princess is the most noble existence in the Imperial Palace after Emperor Gray.”

“Of course.”

When Dahlia nodded and agreed, Viviana lowered her head with a sad face.

“Then why did something like this happen to me?”

“Your Highness, I know a princess. That princess couldn’t sleep after going through a very difficult ordeal. No, she didn’t want to sleep.”

Viviana quietly listened to her words.

“She even refused meals for fear she might get sleepy. The princess was in so much pain, but she thought she had to endure it alone because she was a princess.”

“How did she overcome it?”

Dahlia glanced at Annie beside her. Annie’s lips curved up slightly when their eyes met.

“A friend helped her. When the princess was crying because she never wanted to fall asleep again, her friend helped her sleep.”

“But I don’t have any friends…”

Viviana lowered her head with a gloomy face.

“May I become Princess’s friend?”

The Imperial Princess’s head shot up. Tears welled up in the child’s black eyes.

“My… friend? Will Lady Hudran really become my friend?”

“Of course, Your Highness. Actually, my nickname is Dahlia. Would you call me by my nickname?”

“Yes. Dahlia. I’m Bibi. Please call me Bibi.”

“Yes. Bibi.”

Dahlia’s warm gaze and Viviana’s shy gaze met each other.

“I sincerely congratulate you both on becoming friends.”

Annie, who had been quietly listening to the conversation, clapped her hands.

Both of you? Viviana wondered why Annie was using honorifics with her relative.

“Bibi. Do you have something to tell your friend?”

But her curiosity soon evaporated at Dahlia’s voice calling her warmly.

“Monet, please save Monet…”

Tears streamed down from Viviana’s eyes.

* * *

After hearing the entire story, Dahlia took Viviana to bed and gently stroked the child’s forehead.

Viviana’s eyes without her glasses were red and swollen from crying. The child looked so exhausted as if she would collapse at any moment.

The child’s eyes wavered anxiously.

“I can’t sleep now… I have to save Monet.”

“Bibi. Monet is probably sleeping now too. No one will torment that child more this late at night. So let’s go save her early tomorrow morning.”

“Will you come with me?”

The child looked up at her with earnest eyes.

“Of course.”

Dahlia gently pulled the blanket up to Viviana’s neck with tender hands.

As the cozy blanket covered her, drowsiness filled the black eyes of Viviana, whose body and mind were exhausted.

“Bibi, close your eyes.”

The child obediently closed her eyes as she was told.

Dahlia gently placed the cold towel Annie had given her over Viviana’s eyes and held the child’s hand.

“Sleep well, Bibi.”

As she gently patted Viviana, the child’s chest soon began rising and falling rhythmically.

Dahlia blew out the candle in the room and moved to Annie’s room, her face hardened in silence.

Annie followed quietly behind, glancing worriedly at the Princess.

The Princess entered the room and sat silently at the window table.

The Princess’s face was pale. For the Princess who cherished children, the idea of a ‘beaten child’ was something she could never have imagined.

“My goodness, how could…”

Dahlia’s pink lips slowly parted.

When she was with the Imperial Princess, she had forcibly suppressed her rising anger out of consideration for the child. She didn’t want to show her fury in front of a child who was already suffering.

A gentle hand touched her trembling hands that shook with anger. Meeting Annie’s concerned gaze, Dahlia poured out her troubled heart.

“To think that Monet was a beaten child, and I didn’t even know…”

“How could you have known, Ria? Don’t blame yourself.”

Dahlia slowly shook her head. She should have looked more closely.

Annie looked at the Princess with pity and then voiced her question.

“But why didn’t Princess go straight to Emperor Gray and instead stay outside? No matter how bad their relationship is…”

“Because she’s an Imperial Princess.”

Dahlia whispered with a sigh, understanding the Imperial Princess’s heart.

Seeing Annie’s puzzled look, Dahlia smiled sadly.

“She wouldn’t want to show her Elder Brother her pitiful state. She’s still young, so she must have been confused about what choice to make.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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