The Kidnapped Prince is Mine Now - Chapter 59

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 59
“Your Majesty. It is merely a trivial anecdote among young girls, but….”
Clara seemed reluctant to stir up unnecessary trouble. Hilda, however, was different.
“No, Miss Clara! Your Majesty must know the true nature of that wicked soul. The fact that Frederike has long dreamed of becoming Lord Rotar’s woman!”
“Sigh….”
At Hilda’s cry, her face fierce enough to draw a sword at any moment, Clara squeezed her eyes shut.
“Oh, is that so?”
I lifted the corners of my mouth and listened intently to Hilda’s words.
This was a scandal I had never heard of, even in my previous life.
‘In the past, Rotar crossed into the afterlife early, after all.’
Now that I thought about it, I remembered the reaction Rotar showed when I first dined with the Staufen Margrave and his wife at Graupels.
‘Frederike was carrying Maximilian’s child.’
‘Frederike, you mean his child?’
Yes, the Staufen Margrave and Rotar had definitely had that conversation.
At the time, I thought the two of them had a more intimate relationship than expected. But I had forgotten about it amid the cascade of incidents that followed.
“Yes, Hilda. I’m already not seeing her, but don’t hold back—continue. You mean Frederike harbored an unrequited love for Lord Rotar?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Moreover, any young ladies who developed feelings for Lord Rotar were mercilessly eliminated. My second sister was one of Frederike’s victims, I’m told. Ah, but she is now a wonderful mother of three children, so please do not worry!”
“Yes, that’s a relief.”
As I listened to Hilda’s testimony, which I could not doubt, I conjured the face of Frederike from my memories.
‘Did you want to live so badly?’
A beauty with a magnificent appearance like a blooming rose. I remembered how even in her full pregnancy, she refused to abandon heavy makeup and voluminous dresses.
At some point in the past, Frederike had stormed into the Emperor’s Bedchamber, supporting her swollen belly like a mountain.
No one dared stop the Empress carrying the Emperor’s child. And at that time, I….
‘…Does it look that way to your eyes?’
I lay sprawled on the floor, my entire body bound in chains.
Unable to even use the lavatory, soiled with my own filth, I endured shame and rage under deliberate, calculated neglect.
Frederike looked down at me with a peculiar gaze and spoke.
‘If you wish to die, tell me anytime. I shall help you myself.’
How could I describe that gaze?
It seemed tinged with pity, like watching a dog struck by a carriage, dying. Yet that was not all.
An unfortunate woman. A troublesome thing to be disposed of.
Something that simultaneously evoked compassion, contempt, and guilt.
One thing was certain: Frederike had wanted me dead.
Looking back now, it was highly probable that she was also the one who poisoned me in my first life.
‘Thanks to her, I ended that hellish existence, so it’s awkward even to resent her.’
If the emotions Frederike harbored toward me were complex, mine were somewhat different.
To be honest, that woman did not occupy a significant place in my life.
A wife carrying the child of the demon I wished to kill. Yet a woman who neither loved that demon nor received his love.
An Empress who occupied the seat beside the throne, yet wielded not even a fingernail’s worth of influence over Maximilian’s tyranny.
Did that woman, carrying Maximilian’s seed, ever appear happy?
‘I don’t remember beyond that point.’
As I sifted through my memories, I felt a gaze upon me and turned my head.
Clara, who had maintained her silence throughout, was watching me intently.
“Clara, do you have something to say?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Since we’ve already begun discussing the past, I thought it best to speak plainly.”
“About what?”
“Rotar Eisenrit has never once accepted Frederike’s feelings.”
How unexpected.
I blinked at this unforeseen revelation, then understanding dawned.
Clara was concerned about how any scandal between Rotar Eisenrit and Frederike might affect our marriage.
‘Is that usually what people worry about first?’
Now that I thought about it, an ordinary young lady would likely have been consumed by anxiety.
Frederike was a striking beauty. If Rotar Eisenrit had eyes, he wouldn’t deny that fact.
The fact that he called her by the familiar nickname “Frederike” suggested they had cultivated considerable intimacy over the years.
‘He’s known her far longer than I have.’
As the scion of an ancient vassal house and the sister of a trusted subordinate, Frederike was an excellent candidate for a wife. She must have been given many opportunities to become Rotar Eisenrit’s woman.
Opportunities could have been arranged through Tobias’s intervention—feigning drunkenness to rest her head on Rotar Eisenrit’s shoulder, or other such schemes.
And here arose the natural question.
Had Rotar Eisenrit truly never wavered at Frederike’s seductions?
‘…Now that I think about it, that’s true.’
I knew it myself. According to the expensive intelligence I’d purchased, Rotar Eisenrit had no history with women. When I first spent the night with him, I’d even doubted whether the information was accurate.
Yet the more I contemplated it, the more something twisted deep within my chest.
I tilted my head slightly and asked Clara.
“How can you be so certain? Rotar Eisenrit’s bedchamber affairs aren’t exactly shared with everyone, are they?”
This wasn’t jealousy. It was reasonable suspicion.
Consider it—there’s a saying that if you strike a tree ten times, it will eventually fall.
Even if Rotar Eisenrit had resisted Frederike’s seductions for years, there could come a day when he made a capricious choice.
Yet Clara answered without a trace of anxiety. As if there were no room for doubt whatsoever.
“Rotar Eisenrit spoke of it himself at the victory banquet last year. He said the women of Graupels were like sisters to him, and he would never marry any of them.”
“…What?”
A declaration that he would not marry the women of Graupels.
In other words, he was drawing a line—he wouldn’t even enter into politically motivated marriages with the houses of Graupels.
‘Why?’
Because marriage with vassal houses wouldn’t significantly expand his influence within the Empire?
It was a reasonable judgment, but hardly the sort of thing one would announce publicly. Puzzled, I was about to ask when Clara continued.
“And he warned them. He said that if any sister dared to creep into his bedchamber after hearing this, the price for such transgression would be paid not by the individual, but by her entire house.”
“…!”
“Everyone who heard those words understood. That Frederike had sneaked into Rotar Eisenrit’s bedchamber the very next night.”
“How could they know? It was a warning directed at all the women of Graupels.”
“Because everyone in Graupels knew Frederike was vying for the position of Second Consort. All the young ladies who, knowing this, still competed were met with misfortune.”
“Hah.”
So Frederike had actually wielded her blade to that extent. I couldn’t entirely fault Rotar for stepping in directly to end the situation himself.
Of course, it could also be seen as Rotar’s way of settling a score. It meant she had been the target of a woman she never cared for, from childhood until last year.
He had issued a warning in the most decisive manner possible: ‘Do not cross this line again.’
And after that….
“If it was the victory banquet from last year, that would be around autumn?”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Immediately after the banquet, Miss Frederike departed for the Imperial Capital with her elder relatives. She was to make her debutante appearance in time for the autumn social season.”
The transition from autumn into winter.
It coincided with the time Frederike had conceived Maximilian’s child.

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