The Former Empress Roughly Hides Her Abilities - Chapter 135

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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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【Chapter 135】

The next day.

Rianel received a summons from the Empress Dowager and arrived at her palace.

In the center of a space that was not flashy but contained majestic dignity, the Empress Dowager sat.

“Sit down.”

A maid carefully poured tea and withdrew, and the Empress Dowager waited until the sound of footsteps faded before speaking.

“I heard the Princess stopped by the Special Tax Bureau yesterday?”

The Empress Dowager lifted her teacup with a gentle smile.

“She must have been working, so there was no interference with her duties?”

“The period Her Highness stayed was extremely brief, and she withdrew immediately after seeking someone’s opinion.”

“Yes, it certainly didn’t seem like a judgment that child could make on her own.”

The Princess is now thirteen.

It wouldn’t be strange for her to be consumed by anger or a sense of justice, burning with revenge toward the Saint at that age.

The Princess, who regained her reason just by entering and leaving the Special Tax Bureau, immediately headed to the Empress Dowager’s Palace.

“The Princess said this. That she needs a teacher.”

The Empress Dowager slowly raised her eyes.

“You must have given that child advice?”

“Her Highness is so intelligent that she realized what she needed on her own.”

“Is that so?”

The Empress Dowager didn’t press further, but she didn’t believe Rianel’s words either.

The Princess was not a child who could make cold judgments in the face of someone’s death.

‘You must have changed that child.’

At the same time, she could guess Rianel’s identity.

Not just her way of speaking, but even the angle at which she held and set down her teacup, and her habit of placing the teacup handle in a consistent position.

Small details she had unconsciously overlooked before now reminded her of someone.

‘So you were that child.’

The realization stirred something deep in her chest with a gentle warmth.

At the same time, the reason her son was obsessed with her became clear.

‘He must have sensed something from this child.’

He had been exceptionally perceptive since childhood.

‘I must be careful.’

To protect Rianel from her son and give strength to the Princess, she had to move shrewdly.

But that was something the Empress Dowager had to do personally.

What she had to say in this place was different.

“Actually, I called you here because I have something to say.”

Rianel sensed that important words would be exchanged and stiffened her shoulders.

“I was particularly harsh to those I cherished.”

It was a confession she had kept buried for a long time, but once she decided, it wasn’t difficult to voice.

She had been that way with her son. She had also been a harsh mother-in-law to Ensilen.

Even knowing she was having a difficult time in the Imperial Palace, she only watched, believing she needed to overcome such trials to endure in the future.

‘What was so difficult about holding her hand just once?’

Just a word, just one comfort would have been a great solace to her.

You closed your eyes with loneliness, feeling that no one would help you.

“For that… I am truly sorry.”

The brief apology contained regret and self-reproach from countless sleepless nights.

If I could meet you again, I wanted to tell you.

That I always regretted and missed you.

And.

That I never once actually disliked you.

Rianel remained silent for a long time.

It wasn’t intentional silence, but closer to swallowing her words because she didn’t know how to react.

The words she finally spoke after a while were tinged with bewilderment.

“I find it difficult to understand Your Majesty’s intention in saying such things.”

Asil had been a student who respected her from the beginning, so it wasn’t strange for him to miss her.

However, the fact that someone like the Empress Dowager, who had viewed her unfavorably, had actually kept her in mind all along stirred strange emotions.

It felt awkward and frustrating, yet one side of her chest tingled.

Rianel drew a line as if having an adverse reaction to the unfamiliar emotion, but the Empress Dowager didn’t take issue with Rianel’s rude attitude.

“Looking at you suddenly reminds me.”

Of Empress Ensilen.

Rianel realized that the Empress Dowager was certain of her identity.

But she couldn’t acknowledge it in this place.

‘There are many listening ears in the Empress Dowager’s palace.’

“I have never had an audience with the Former Empress.”

Indeed, Ensilen had never actually seen the real Rianel.

However.

“If it were her, I believe she would have fully understood Your Majesty’s position.”

She could at least say this much.

Because Rianel could now finally accept the Empress Dowager.

“…”

The Empress Dowager was silent.

The tea had completely cooled and no longer steamed.

Only after waiting for the knot that had formed in her chest to dissolve.

“Yes… thank you.”

A gentle smile spread across the Empress Dowager’s lips.

* * *

In the evening, Rianel left the Imperial Palace and visited the Vincenheim Mansion.

“What’s this, so suddenly?”

At his daughter’s unexpected visit, the Duke looked at Rianel with a face mixing joy and bewilderment.

It was because he knew Rianel wasn’t someone who would visit him without business.

When the Duke swallowed nervously.

“I have something to tell you.”

Rianel’s dry words fell heavily like a sentence.

“I have been unable to clearly define the standards of normal family relationships. The forms of families that exist in the Empire are diverse, and the bond of blood does not guarantee intimacy among family members.”

The Duke’s eyebrows twitched as he waited to see what Rianel was saying.

“Therefore, I also do not understand why Your Grace attempts to have fellowship with me simply because we are blood relatives.”

‘What is that?’

Is she giving an academic interpretation of unfilial behavior?

As Rianel continued speaking in a tone drained of emotion, like a scholar reading a research paper, the Duke momentarily had such thoughts.

“I’m also unsure whether the affection Your Grace mentions has any direct connection to me. It’s difficult to distinguish whether the affection Your Grace mentions is directed toward my body or toward my soul and memories. Perhaps the emotions Your Grace harbors toward me are the result of compensatory psychology projected onto the child your wife searched for over a long period.”

The Duke was flustered but listened for now.

“Perhaps the familial affection Your Grace feels toward me could be the transformed result of guilt toward me.”

Because he noticed that Rianel was honestly revealing her inner thoughts, not to attack the Duke.

“But there is one clear fact.”

“What is that?”

“That I was lonely.”

The sentence that fell like ripples pierced the Duke’s chest, leaving a gentle resonance.

“The Emperor mentioned my research paper, saying that my knowledge could be efficiently utilized for the Empire.”

The reason she readily agreed to those words was because she was happy to receive recognition from someone outside of academia, not a scholar.

However, it was a feeling she hadn’t accurately recognized when she was Ensilen.

Only after one death and recognizing that there were people in the Imperial Palace who cared for her did she learn what she had truly yearned for.

Though she couldn’t precisely define the name of this emotion that made her chest feel heavy.

“You must have felt the same way.”

Having lost his wife and endured long years alone, longing for a daughter whose life or death remained unknown.

Among emotions accumulated over the years, it would be impossible to cleanly separate longing, guilt, and affection like cutting radish, or to gauge how much of it was directed toward ‘me.’

Because emotions are such difficult and complex things to understand.

“Ensilen….”

When the Duke recited the name of his long-held longing with a trembling voice.

“Just because I understand you doesn’t mean our relationship will change immediately.”

‘What?’

What’s with this emotional sleight of hand?

The Duke’s eyebrows twitched slightly.

“So I will visit on the coming holiday.”

Rianel said.

“And on the holiday after that too.”

She would come every week.

“As time accumulates and experiences build up, we’ll be able to understand each other.”

There was no intense emotion, no tearful reunion.

What remained was only slow and quiet exchange, like a candle burning down slowly.

But just as snow accumulated through winter eventually melts and seeps into the ground to become fertilizer, our past time would flow that way too.

“Yes.”

This must be your way of accepting us.

“I’ll wait.”

The Duke nodded and smiled.

* * *

On the coming holiday.

Rianel stopped by the Duke’s mansion as promised.

“Have you been waiting long?”

“No. Ah, you came too?”

“Yes, father-in-law.”

Asil was with her.

The Duke frowned briefly at the sly tone, but soon hid that expression.

“You came just in time for dinner. This way.”

The Duke guided the two to the dining room.

It was fine that they sat facing each other across the table, but what came next was the problem.

‘What should I talk about now?’

The Duke had never been a master of conversation to begin with, and thinking that he was sitting with the daughter he hadn’t been able to find for so long made his tongue stiffen, leaving him at a loss.

‘It needs to be a natural and comfortable gathering for her to come next week too.’

He pondered, but unable to think of anything to say, the Duke stared at his son.

‘Don’t you have anything to say to your sister?’

‘How would I be any different?’

Through a brief exchange of glances, the Duke truly understood the saying “like father, like son.”

After much deliberation, he found an appropriate topic to fill the silence.

“I heard you uncovered a counterfeit gold operation in Nolton Forest?”

Lacking information about Rianel, all he could talk about were her achievements.

“Yes. A report was received and we swiftly confirmed the site, confiscating all the counterfeit gold.”

The Duke felt uncomfortable with the tone that seemed more suited for an administrative council.

‘Is this appropriate conversation for a family dinner?’

Even reading a prepared script would probably sound more natural than this.

“Was there anything noteworthy about that forest?”

Or at least something she wanted to say.

The Duke forced out words somehow to fill the silence.

Rianel continued cutting her meat without stopping and said calmly.

“I encountered a demon at the site.”

There was a brief silence.

“Wh-what?”

The Duke shot up from his seat.

“There was such a thing in the forest?”

The presence of a demon at the site was information that had only been secretly conveyed to the Empress Dowager.

Since the Empress Dowager had kept this quiet to prevent chaos in the Empire, it was the first time both the Duke, who was the State Minister, and Rupert were hearing about it.

“A-are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?”

The Duke frantically examined Rianel, and Rupert also stared at her with wide eyes.

“Do you believe that supernatural beings actually exist, Duke?”

The Duke hesitated.

“Co-could it have been a lie? To see my reaction?”

“Well, logically there’s no way demons could exist—”

“No. It really existed.”

The Duke’s body creaked, and Rupert’s mouth closed.

Asil, who had been watching from the side, silently shook his head.

These three people definitely needed to have a conversation.

A moment later.

The Duke set up his fallen chair again and sat down, clearing his throat awkwardly.

He was embarrassed by the unseemly behavior he’d shown in front of a guest like Asil.

“Did you discover any additional facts at that site?”

“There was nothing worth reporting.”

“Still, please tell us, sister.”

Isn’t family conversation originally made up of meaningless and trivial stories rather than important information?

Rianel thought for a moment, then spoke.

“I learned that this world is inside a novel.”

Pfft!

The Duke and Rupert experienced the rare phenomenon of wine flowing back up through their noses.

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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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