Chapter 43 of the side story. A baby angel is here
2023.01.10.
Esteban attended Gardenia Mansion without missing a day.
At first, people did not question the emperor’s progress. It was thought that he was visiting to have a private meeting with the great aristocrat, the Marquis of Gardenia, and have political discussions.
However, after a day or two passed, and after going in and out of the mansion for over a week, I had no choice but to realize that something was strange.
And around that time, reports began to appear one after another that they had seen the only daughter of the Marquis of Gardenia and the Emperor together in the past.
“Isn’t it a very lovely person with light pink hair? I have definitely seen it.”
“I thought it was strange to be with a man who looked like His Majesty, but I thought he was really His Majesty…”
Esteban went on a date in an isolated place, afraid that his identity might be discovered, but there was no secret in the world.
Reporters who smelled the scoop rushed in and received information. It took an instant for the sightings of the emperor and the marquis’s daughter to change.
Furthermore, isn’t it time to draw public attention to the divorce from the former empress?
Such explosive interest was short-lived, but the unsavory rumors quickly disappeared.
Of course, someone was behind the rumors.
Gustaf briefly reported to Esteban as he closed the paper listing the newspaper companies.
“your majesty. I did as you commanded.”
“Good work Gustav.”
Esteban congratulated the aide and prepared to go out. Gustav asked politely.
“Are you going today?”
“I have to go. today.”
Esteban, with a tired face, brushed my face.
Gustav considered the Emperor’s footsteps meaningless as he made time to stop by the Gardenia Mansion despite his heavy workload.
“The Marquis of Gardenia’s momentum is unusual. I don’t think they’ll ever allow you to get married, but I’d rather have a royal family-”
Gustav offered a more realistic alternative, but Esteban tilted his head slightly and called his name.
“Gustav?”
“yes?”
“Who do you think the existence in front of you is?”
“The Emperor is Your Majesty…?”
“okay. And Jim’s stubbornness is not easy.”
Having said that, Esteban walked past Gustav to the door.
Gustav followed suit and stared blankly at the back of Esteban’s head.
‘As expected, he’s incredibly confident.’
Even if it wasn’t for the emperor’s name, he felt the will to win this war against the Marquis of Gardenia without fail.
Esteban’s steps toward the Gardenia mansion were relatively light.
I couldn’t see Siana’s face because of the Marquis’ interference, but I felt better just being in the same building.
‘It’s an effort to keep my life by my side, but I can’t afford to give up.’
my life. Siana.
For the sake of a future with Sianna, Esteban set out to make a courtship that would almost certainly be rejected today.
***
While the world was buzzing about the emperor’s new scandal, Ciana tried to convince her stubborn father.
“Please let me see Your Majesty at least once.”
“Can not be done. Never come out of your bedroom.”
“Why?”
“Are you asking because you don’t know? Absolutely no emperor.”
“father…!”
The Marquis of Gardenia strictly watched so that Esteban and Cyana never met. Esteban had come and gone several times already, but Siana had never been able to meet him.
“Your father is not someone who judges people based on rumors.”
“So you didn’t just look at the facts and judge? You are well aware that His Majesty the Emperor dismissed His Majesty the former Empress.”
“That’s…”
It would be difficult to reveal the contract between Esteban and Pacifica. When Cyana shut her mouth, the Marquis of Gardenia, who accepted the reaction as an agreement, closed her lips even more stubbornly.
After a moment of silence, the Marquis opened his mouth again.
“Siana. I don’t know which aspect of the Emperor you fell for, but this father has seen the Emperor longer than that.”
“What do you want to say?”
“When I was young, I was arrogant, and when I was young, I couldn’t control my raging blood, so the emperor sent me to the battlefield. He is the one who raised Nagi as the unique next emperor.”
The Marquis of Gardenia also thought that she was of the same family as the emperor, so she couldn’t allow Siana’s heart all the more.
There are no parents who will keep their eyes open to watch their children jump into a pit of misfortune.
“Even if my father saw His Majesty like that, that would be from the past.”
“People don’t change easily.”
“It changes, obviously.”
She was a witness to the change.
The somewhat arrogant man shed tears while begging to win a piece of someone else’s heart.
As a man who abandoned the face of being an emperor and only longed for love.
“You are tired. This father needs to rest now.”
However, the Marquis of Gardenia regarded Sianna’s words as the arrogance of a daughter in love.
The feud continued for days and days. While the confrontation with her father grew longer, Siana thought about the past.
“nurse. When will your father come?”
“Master, um… he will come after a hundred nights sleep.”
“One hundred nights?”
The nanny probably didn’t know. The biggest number for Siana, who was still young, was one hundred.
Because Shiana forbade her from going out of the castle, the child waited only for her father to come from the world inside the castle.
without hesitation. Counting a hundred nights, not knowing when they would end…
The Marquis of Gardenia stayed mainly in the capital, and the days when Siana could meet her father were very short.
Even in that short time, the Marquis of Gardenia always tried to control Siana according to her will under the pretext of loving her daughter.
When I was young, I labeled it as love, but now I know it shouldn’t be like that.
Siana was exhausted from the long feud. also decided
Early in the morning, Siana, who visited the Marquis of Gardenia, declared.
“I will leave this mansion.”
I will fly away from this cage in the name of protection.
Naturally, the Marquis of Gardenia could not accept her daughter’s words. Thinking that it was blinding love, the road went wild.
“Calm down, Siana Gardenia!”
“I am very sane, Father.”
“You don’t know how much your father is worried about your safety?!”
“Did my father ever try to know my heart? Not even once!”
“…what?”
The unexpected cry of Shiana made the Marquis of Gardenia momentarily dazed.
“It always has been. It was my situation that I couldn’t even go out for a short trip without my father’s permission.”
“I was worried that you might get hurt, so I did it!”
“I am not a fragile glasswork.”
“…Siana!”
Siana stared at her father quietly. He confessed his true feelings that he had been hiding so far, but he still couldn’t hide his anger.
She resigned herself and made her way to the door.
With reddened eyes, the Marquis of Gardenia wheezed and warned.
“If you leave like this, this father will never see you again.”
“…my father is still self-righteous.”
Siana did not stop walking. Raising her hand on the doorknob, she left with a final goodbye.
“Always be healthy.”
…Dear Father.
***
“Lady lady!”
“The master will be worried!”
After defeating the servants who tried to dissuade her, Shiana escaped the mansion. The only thing I brought was a simple luggage bag.
‘I should go to the hotel first.’
As she was walking down the street, making plans with courage, a carriage stopped beside her.
Before long, someone with a surprised face hurriedly got out of the carriage.
“Siana?!”
It was Esteban who was on his way to the Gardenia mansion.
Why?
It was fine. I had no desire to cry. Tears flowed down Esteban’s face like a broken dam.
“what’s the matter. Why are you alone?”
“Evan…”
Esteban ran his thumb over Sianna’s eyes.
It was absurd to meet a lover who had barely reunited after a few weeks on the street, but he didn’t know what to do when he even burst into tears as soon as he met him.
‘I must have comforted a crying person.’
Esteban was mainly the ringer.
Siana put her face in his hand and raised her gaze.
“I left the house.”
Our eyes met. For an instant, Esteban caught a glimpse of a young determined emotion in his amber eyes.
‘okay. Did you… abandon your father?’
I didn’t think that the Marquis of Gardenia would have let go of her daughter easily.
You probably regret it by now.
Seeing Sianna, who loved her father more than anyone else but broke down that wall and came out, made her heart ache.
Unfortunately for Sianna, Esteban wasn’t a nice person.
If I could have her by my side, I could dig through the weak spots.
Esteban gently cupped Cyana’s cheek with his large hand.
“Siana.”
“yes.”
“…Jim will always take care of you.”
cherish more than anything else in the world.
“Siana, so that you will never be lonely.”
At Esteban’s words, Sianna remembered her lonely past.
I once told Esteban. Her mother, who passed away a long time ago, and her father, who always stayed in the capital and did not visit the manor often.
A young day when I wished I wasn’t alone, not protection in name only.
Esteban’s words were a consolation to the lonely young Siana.
“Evan.”
“okay.”
“…Please hug me.”
does she know It was the first time Sianna had ever asked him for anything.
Esteban silently held Sianna in his arms. Siana buried her face in her chest, smelling her lover’s body.
‘I’m not really lonely.’
It felt like being around this person would be really good.
***
Soon after, the emperor announced a national marriage throughout the empire.
Indeed, the news of the marriage of the Marquess of Gardenia and the emperor shocked the empire, but the aftermath did not reach even Sianna, who had started living in an unfamiliar imperial castle.
Contrary to the tumultuous external situation, Siana was currently in a state of tension.
“What if I cry?”
As she hesitated outside the bedroom, Esteban wrapped his arms around Sianna’s shoulders, encouraging her.
“Because you’re a good kid, you’ll be fine.”
“Are you really going to be okay?”
Shiana, who was hesitant and worried, mustered up the courage to step into the bedroom.
not dark inside. As I approached the cradle, I saw the baby’s face.
“Oscar…”
The child of Esteban and Pacifica.
The reason Cyana pushed Esteban away was Pacifica, and the reason she accepted him was also Pacifica.
She felt an indelible guilt for Pacifica.
So, I made up my mind to pay off the debt by taking care of her child.
“Kyaa!”
The moment Oscar wiggled his tiny hands and smiled, those miscellaneous thoughts flew away in an instant.
Rather than guilt or debt, the baby who looked up at her and smiled was lovely.
Esteban laughed softly.
“Oscar likes you.”
The baby smiled and stretched out his short, plump arms at her.
“Uh uh-.”
When Cyana panicked, Esteban picked up the child and put it in her arms.
“You ask for a hug.”
“Hold that baby for the first time…”
“It’s okay. I’m not a picky kid.”
Regardless of whether or not Ciana clumsily agreed, Oscar squeezed the hem of Ciana’s clothes with a bright laugh, wondering what he liked so much.
Cyana, who was staring at Pacifica’s green eyes, smiled lightly.
“Good luck, Oscar.”
“Kyaa!”
Oscar covered the back of Sianna’s hand with a small hand.
It seemed as if it meant ‘I’m asking you to take good care of me too,’ so Shiana stopped laughing.
***
Peaceful and happy days followed. Oscar grew up and ran around the imperial castle without the common trifles.
He played hide-and-seek with Enrique Javier of the Javier family and hid too tightly, causing a commotion in which the imperial castle was turned upside down.
Occasionally, local warfare took place on the northern border with the Devlin Empire, but it did not affect the capital.
As Esteban had promised, Siana was not alone at all. He was always friendly and valued Sianna more than any other treasure in the world.
He slipped away from work and went to see Sianna.
“Evan. Aren’t you busy?”
“I have plenty of time to meet you.”
Gustaf stomped his feet behind Esteban, who was sighing happily as he hugged Cyana.
“Oh dear. What if he storms out during the meeting!”
Between Gustav’s legs, a silver head fluttered. Gustaf freaked out and jumped up.
“Your Highness the Prince. Why are you passing between my legs!”
“Nori legs!” (Bridge play!)
“What is bridge play…”
Gustav muttered, touching his forehead, and Oscar clung to Esteban’s leg and snitched.
“dad! Gusudapu is loud!” (Dad! Gustav is noisy!)
“Gustav. My son is noisy.”
“What have I done…”
Gustav, who was feeling unfair, spat out the voice of shame with a sullen face.
“You’d better go back now, Your Majesty. Gustav is in trouble.”
“Your Majesty the Empress…!”
The only one who could comfort such an aide was Siana, the empress. Esteban was dissatisfied, but he had no choice but to go to the conference room because of Siana’s insistence.
It was a normal day like no other.
.
.
.
Then one day.
Something unexpected happened.
“Congratulations, Your Majesty. You have conceived!”
“…gestation?”
A baby angel came to Siana.
