Sister I am the Queen in This Life [Novel] Chapter 141

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 141
Chapter Title: The Second Proposal of This Life (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Leo III, having stormed Alfonso's palace like a tempest, came up empty-handed. He was informed that the prince had not yet returned after the ball.

Unless Alfonso had lost his mind after his first kill and fled the palace, there was only one place he could have gone. The Queen's Palace.

For that reason, Leo III went to see Queen Marguerite. Now alone with her in her drawing room, he approached her menacingly and growled.

"Your precious son is here, isn't he? Where did you hide him? Bring him out now!"

"Your Majesty. What is the meaning of this!"

Queen Marguerite did not yield an inch.

"To barge into my chambers in the middle of the night! Tell me why you treat your queen with such disrespect."

"Ha, haha! Hahahahaha!"

Leo III roared with laughter, his head thrown back.

"Have I come somewhere I'm not welcome? Everything you stand on is mine. Where in my own palace could I possibly be forbidden to enter!"

He slammed his fist against the wall.

"Fine, if you want a reason, I'll give you one. Your cunning little son has caused a massive incident."

A cold sweat trickled down Queen Marguerite's spine. Her husband had at least a vague outline of the truth.

But she decided to feign ignorance once more.

"I don't understand what you mean..."

"Duke Mireille of Gallico is dead. And it seems that brat Alfonso killed him."

Leo III said grimly.

"Some mad jester saw it. Said, 'A prince crazy for a woman killed the duke.'"

Leo III, anticipating the queen's rebuttal, cut her off beforehand.

"Of course, he's a madman, so his word isn't credible. But Duke Mireille's corpse was found in a shed attached to the prince's palace! A passing gardener also saw the prince's knight pulling a handcart and putting something into the very shed where the body was abandoned."

Facing a speechless Queen Marguerite, Leo III leaned in close and snarled.

"Tell me, why is the prince's knight in your chambers at this hour? Did he stop by to report on the cleanup?"

"...Sir Elko is assisting with the training of the Queen's Guard. He is here on that business."

"Ha! At this hour?"

Leo III glared at Queen Marguerite with burning eyes.

"If I were just a bit more imaginative, I'd accuse you of having an affair."

He chuckled and muttered, "So audacious, so audacious." The king spun around in the center of the drawing room and pointed an accusing finger at the queen.

"You definitely know something. While your husband works day and night for the good of the country, his son causes trouble and his wife schemes behind his back! There's no cooperation, none at all!"

He glared at Queen Marguerite, bursting with indignation.

"Don't even think of pulling any of your cute little tricks behind my back, Queen."

"I do not involve myself in politics."

"Ha!"

Leo III snorted loudly.

"Have you forgotten the incident with the Archbishop of Montpellier?"

He pounded his fist against the wall.

"All hell broke loose because you wrote a letter to the Archbishop of Montpellier questioning whether Crown Prince Philippe had the makings of a king to inherit the throne! Relations between our kingdom and Gallico have been frosty ever since, and you say what? That you don't meddle in politics?"

"..."

It was meant to be a personal confession of faith, a letter sent without any thought of it being leaked to the public. But it was true that its release had caused the Kingdom of Etruscan great trouble. Queen Marguerite bit her lip and lowered her head.

"Don't you ever do something so stupid and presumptuous again. Has anything ever gone right when you've tried to take matters into your own hands?"

Leo III raised his voice.

"Bring me Alfonso right now! I'm going to teach him a lesson he'll never forget! What was going through his mind to kill Duke Mireille!"

The king could not hide his fury.

"After I break that bastard's legs! I'll have to ask for the Kingdom of Gallico's understanding."

"!"

Queen Marguerite gritted her teeth and raised her head. It was one thing for her to not make excuses for her own mistakes, but it was another matter entirely for her husband to declare he would publicly broadcast their son's flaws to the Kingdom of Gallico.

"You intend to admit to the Kingdom of Gallico that this was Alfonso's doing and then offer an explanation?"

"A perfectly healthy envoy came here and died! Don't I have to explain why he died to keep the marriage negotiations from falling through?"

"You still intend to continue with the marriage negotiations, even in this situation!"

"Of course!"

A blue light flashed in Leo III's eyes. It was close to madness.

"The formula for gunpowder! With that alone! I can escape all these damned problems! The irritating nobles who won't listen! The cursed borders! It will all be over in one fell swoop!"

"Gunpowder is a strategic weapon, not magic!"

"What do you know!"

*Crash!*

Unable to contain his rage, Leo III swept a pot of daffodils from the center of the queen's drawing room and threw it to the floor.

"That's for me to decide!"

Still not appeased, he kicked a chair in the drawing room.

"You! Always acting so high and mighty, criticizing people with that know-it-all look in your eyes! And you have the nerve, after ruining something as important as diplomatic relations with your own foolish letter!"

While the letter Queen Marguerite sent to the Archbishop of Montpellier may have caused Philippe IV to hold a personal grudge against her, strictly speaking, it had not significantly impacted relations between the two nations.

The diplomatic ties between neighboring countries were not so simple that they could be twisted just because someone disliked their aunt who had married into the other family. But Leo III would never let go of that pretext.

"Your insufferable arrogance!"

Queen Marguerite was about to say that all of this had happened because Grand Duchess Lariesa had arranged for Ariadne to be harmed, and that she could never accept such a person as her daughter-in-law, but she bit her tongue.

She knew herself well. Queen Marguerite was cautious, but she was not quick-witted. She made her best decisions only after returning to her room and deliberating carefully.

If she told her husband what Grand Duchess Lariesa had done now, it was as clear as day that he would demand to know how she found out. Queen Marguerite was not confident she could provide a coherent answer on the spot.

Queen Marguerite decided to say less and simply endure for now.

"I do not know where Alfonso is right now. Tomorrow morning, he will be in the prince's palace. Let us speak after everything has settled down."

She spoke calmly. The Leo III she knew was incredibly hot-tempered. He was capable of doing things in a fit of rage that he wouldn't do with a clear head. She could never, ever present her son to her husband in such a state.

"Isn't the only thing connecting the prince to this incident the testimony of a madman?"

Queen Marguerite flatly rejected her husband's demand.

"If you run wild when nothing has been clearly revealed, you'll only make things worse."

At this, Leo III's body trembled. "Run wild"—the word had truly pushed his buttons.

"You're all talk!"

*Crash!*

Another vase shattered. This time, he had picked up one from a side table and thrown it.

The vase struck Queen Marguerite's shoulder, bounced off, and shattered on the marble floor.

"Aah!"

Queen Marguerite's scream echoed through the Queen's Drawing Room. At the sound of her scream, Leo III seemed to lose all reason. He raised his fist.

"Ah!"

After that, the sounds of things being thrown, things toppling over, dull thuds, and incomprehensible, mumbled shouts filled the drawing room.

*Crash!*

*Smash!*

"Aah!"

***

Trapped inside a wardrobe in the inner chamber connected to the drawing room, Alfonso had been listening to his parents' conversation with bated breath. He flinched when the first vase shattered. When the second one broke, he couldn't stand it any longer and opened the wardrobe door. Or rather, he tried to.

*Clank! Clank clank!*

But the oak wardrobe door was firmly locked.

*"Aah!"*

Queen Marguerite's scream faintly reached him from afar, piercing through two sets of doors.

*Clank! Clank clank!*

The prince shook the wardrobe door furiously, but the sturdy oak furniture didn't budge.

"Open! I said, open!"

*Thud!*

Alfonso punched the wardrobe. The furniture wasn't even scratched, but blood trickled from the prince's knuckles.

*Thud! Thud thud!*

But Alfonso didn't give up. Every time the sound of something breaking echoed from the distance, he frantically tried to open the door. The sound of his pounding mixed with the others, creating an irregular, clamorous thumping from all directions.

"Dammit...!"

Alfonso's fist was already drenched in blood.

*Smash!*

*Thud!*

At the distant sounds of mayhem, Alfonso punched the wardrobe door again.

*Bam!*

But the door remained solid.

"Dammit..."

Alfonso let out an animalistic groan and pressed his forehead against the wardrobe door. His deathly pale face was pressed against the blood-smeared wood.

Ariadne, who had been huddled with her ears covered, as still as a mouse, wrapped her arms around Alfonso's back. She patted it repeatedly.

"It's okay... It's okay... Everything will be okay..."

Nothing was okay, but those were the only words she could offer. She mechanically stroked Alfonso's back, repeating the same words over and over.

Ariadne, too, was in a state of panic.

*Why on earth isn't Her Majesty Queen Marguerite mentioning Grand Duchess Lariesa's letter?*

The king already knows that Prince Alfonso is involved.

If she were Queen Marguerite, she would have played the card of Grand Duchess Lariesa's letter right here.

*My name is in it, so I'd be in huge trouble if it were revealed... but since this happened due to Grand Duchess Lariesa's fault, Alfonso would be able to save face before his father. It would give them leverage over Gallico, so His Majesty Leo III would be satisfied, and of course, Queen Marguerite wouldn't have to suffer like this.*

But Queen Marguerite was enduring Leo III's violence with her entire being, without uttering a single word about it.

*Why...? Could it be... for someone like me...?*

Ariadne had always lived in a world where the strong preyed on the weak. Favors could be exchanged, but only when she was in a position to repay them. When she was weak and helpless, there was no one to protect or care for her.

*Even the fact that Alfonso killed Duke Mireille... it was all for me...*

If Prince Alfonso hadn't come to save Ariadne when she was in danger, if he hadn't lost his senses at the sight of her plight and immediately plunged a knife into Duke Mireille's neck, none of this—none of the suffering Queen Marguerite and Prince Alfonso were now enduring—would have happened.

A sudden, belated realization washed over her.

*Someone like me... for someone like me...?*

Uncontrollable tears welled up in Ariadne's eyes.

At first, it was surprise, then it was being moved, and finally, it was guilt.

*My God...*

Ariadne herself had never even considered saving Queen Marguerite from her assassination.

Even with all her knowledge of the future, she had complacently dismissed it as none of her business. It was because she had nothing to gain from Queen Marguerite.

*How utterly ungrateful...*

Tears streamed down Ariadne's cheeks on their own.

From the very beginning, Queen Marguerite had cared for Ariadne with kindness. And now, like a true adult, she was steadfastly protecting her and Alfonso. With her own sacrifice.

*'The deeds you commit, you pay the price for. The good you bestow, you receive in return. That is the Golden Rule.'*

The voice of the Golden Rule echoed in her ears. Ariadne had made a promise to that unknown voice and returned to this world. She would make people receive what they deserved for their actions.

Queen Marguerite deserved to be rewarded.

*Clink!*

With the final sound of something like a picture frame falling, no more loud noises came from the Queen's Drawing Room. Alfonso, who was staring at the floor with his bleeding fist clenched, spoke quietly.

"Ari."

"...Yes?"

"When I become king."

Alfonso took a breath.

"When I make you my queen."

The prince murmured, his lips set in a firm, determined line.

"I will never let something like this happen again."

He used hypothetical words, but in essence, it was a proposal. The second proposal she had received in this life. The first proposal from Prince Alfonso.

He turned his head to look at Ariadne. Wiping his eyes with his hand, his face a mess of tears and blood, Alfonso de Carlo opened his mouth to speak.