“Lizzy, do you remember? The day the Crown Prince became a cripple, you said, ‘We can just make up a story.'”
A large hand suddenly gripped her shoulder tightly.
“I let it go back then because I was angry, but thinking about it again, it makes sense. The foolish masses only believe what they see, so we just have to make up a story that they can believe. Don’t you think?”
“…Yes, Father. You’re right.”
“As you know, neither the other nobles nor the Emperor know that the Crown Prince has been castrated. It’s thanks to my efforts that they can believe that. But Lizzy, they will eventually become suspicious.”
The Duke of Bedford gripped her shoulder and bent down to roughly match her eye level.
As their eyes met, Lizzy flinched and clenched her fists.
Even though his face had been higher up before, it was even more intimidating now that it was close but clearly above her.
“It’s strange that they still don’t have a child. Is there something wrong with one of them? Or was the Crown Prince really not cut off back then…? In two or three years, people will definitely start saying things like that.”
A rough, grating voice echoed in her ear.
Lizzy bit her lower lip hard and averted her gaze from him. But that didn’t mean she could end the conversation.
“There’s only one way to eliminate such suspicions.”
She wasn’t happy that her mind was so sharp at this moment.
She didn’t want to anticipate what would be said next, but she couldn’t help but anticipate it.
“You have to have a child.”
Yes, that was exactly what she was expecting.
From the moment she learned that Aaron had become impotent until just before she learned that she was also infertile, she had been worried.
What had been only a possibility back then had finally become a reality.
“I’ll put someone in your room about a month before the wedding. Someone who looks as much like the Crown Prince as possible, and who doesn’t have any other flaws. If you want to discuss your preferences, I’ll try to accommodate them as much as possible.”
What a touching consideration.
A soft laugh escaped her lips without her realizing it. Fortunately, the duke didn’t seem to notice.
Or perhaps he had noticed but was too busy saying what he wanted to say to care.
“So get pregnant, Lizzy.”
I swear, this was the most disgusting thing Lizzy had ever heard the Duke of Bedford say. But perhaps because she had expected it at some point, the shock wasn’t that great.
No, it wasn’t that the shock wasn’t that great…
It was a familiar submission, a familiar humiliation. Thanks to that, Lizzy was able to feel angry and miserable without regretting everything she had done.
I can endure this much.
That’s what she thought. Until the next words were spoken.
“We need two.”
“…Pardon?”
“I mean you need to have two children.”
Even Lizzy, with her sharp mind, hadn’t anticipated this.
“After giving birth to the first child, who will be the heir to the Imperial Family, get pregnant again as soon as possible. The second child doesn’t necessarily have to look like the Crown Prince, so it would be better to have a child with black hair. There were a few guys with black hair in the distant relatives, so I’ll put them with you.”
She couldn’t understand the words she was hearing.
To have two children, to mix her body with men she didn’t know to produce the necessary children, twice. And if possible, black hair would be better.
Was this even reasonable?
Moreover, the ‘children’ he was talking about were only male children.
This meant that if she gave birth to a daughter, she would have to keep getting pregnant until she produced the two heirs he wanted.
“Father, I’m sorry, but isn’t it unnecessary to borrow my womb to produce Bedford’s heirs? It will take a long time and it’s too inefficient, so wouldn’t it be better to bring in a powerless relative and make them the heir…?”
Lizzy mentioned words like ‘inefficient’ in relation to her pregnancy and childbirth. And she smiled. She put on the beautiful, flower-like smile that her father liked.
She was unspeakably miserable, but tragically, it was the only way the Bedford princess could persuade her father.
But perhaps her misery wasn’t enough.
The first time isn’t really anything special.
Everyone has a first time, and not all those countless “firsts” can hold meaning.
Some may disagree, but Ariella was skeptical about the specialness of “firsts.”
She especially hated the idea of assigning significance to first loves, first kisses, first times. For the same reason, Aaron, who demanded her first, came to mind.
But Ariella now understood.
She, too, was one of those ordinary people who gave meaning to “firsts.”
“You are the first I’ve ever held in my heart.”
His low voice had echoed in her head for days. She felt pathetic for giving meaning to something as trivial as a first, but she couldn’t stop thinking about it.
To be the first love of such a good man, to know he had cherished her for so long.
Whenever she thought about it, her heart would race, which annoyed her to no end.
Ariella slowly recalled her own firsts.
The first person to hold her was Kaia, the first friend to share food with her was Theo, a boy from the orphanage, the first person she gave her heart to after leaving the orphanage was Lizzy, and the first person she kissed against her will was Aaron.
Besides them, many others had been her firsts. Some, like Kaia and Lizzy, still held great significance in her life, while she couldn’t even remember the faces of others.
In the end, as she had originally thought, not all “firsts” were meaningful.
‘How will I be remembered by Nobert?’
Could she remain in his memory as someone meaningful, someone truly special?
Ariella stared blankly out the window, pondering a question she couldn’t answer.
“We’ve arrived, Miss!”
Only when the coachman Henrik announced their arrival could she shake off her reverie.
Regaining her senses, she saw a familiar sight. The magnificent and splendid symbol of Binghame, Hayden Palace.
Lost in thought, the carriage had quickly reached the imperial palace, and only then did Ariella forget her dreamlike worries and face reality.
The faint blush on her face quickly faded. Her lilac eyes, sparkling with anticipation, lost their luster in the face of the imperial palace’s grandeur.
‘Right, that’s not what’s important to me.’
How Nobert would remember her, how their relationship would develop in the future…
Such expectations and worries, detached from reality, were not what she needed right now.
Ariella needed the will and focus to keep her feet firmly planted in reality, so she could complete her revenge without a hitch.
She must have been too excited lately. She objectively assessed her condition and reflected on it.
When excited, it’s easy to ruin even things that should go well. Moreover, the person she was about to face was far more vicious and clever than David. She had to be even more cold-blooded.
Ariella resolved to do so as she walked along the familiar paths within the imperial palace.
Her destination was the Crown Prince’s palace, where a pitiful patient resided, his vital parts repeatedly mutilated by a cruel mistress.
“Please wait here for a moment.”
Following the servant’s guidance, Ariella took a seat in the drawing room and slowly looked around.
The Crown Prince’s drawing room. She had been here often, but it felt strangely unfamiliar. Not just because it had been a while, but because the interior decorations had changed quite a bit.
Feeling that something was off, she turned her head this way and that, and soon realized the source of the strangeness. Large porcelain vases, decorative mirrors, and frames – easily breakable objects were almost nowhere to be found in this drawing room.
‘He must have been throwing quite a tantrum.’
Ariella quickly grasped the situation and scoffed.
