Sister I am the Queen in This Life [Novel] Chapter 146

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Translator: Harry Potta
Chapter: 146
Chapter Title: Grand Duchess Lariesa's Despair
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Grand Duchess Lariesa reached the prince's palace in a single dash, only to be firmly stopped by the attendant in charge of the entrance.

“Your Highness, the Prince is not receiving any outside visitors at this time.”

“Tell him it’s Grand Duchess Lariesa…”

“Your Highness, please do not make things difficult. The Prince is not currently in his palace, so I cannot even deliver a message.”

“What… what do you mean? I must see the Prince!”

Just as the attendant was growing weary of dealing with the Grand Duchess, who was stammering her arguments in Etruscan heavily accented with Gallican, the prince’s aide, Sir Bernardino, appeared to rescue him.

“Your Highness. The Prince is currently recuperating in the queen’s palace. I can deliver a message if you wish, but I would advise against waiting for a reply.”

Someone who made sense! Lariesa clung to him with a desperate expression.

“Just for a moment…!”

But speaking the same language did not mean he would grant her wish. Sir Bernardino was resolute.

“His Highness is spending time with his mother and is not accepting any outside visitors. Please respect their time together.”

“There is something I absolutely must ask him!”

Despite Lariesa’s desperate cry, Bernardino answered matter-of-factly.

“I’m afraid that will be difficult, Your Highness.”

As Lariesa tried to plead further, Sir Bernardino turned his back on her coldly.

“Have a good evening.”

“!”

It was a chillingly cold reception. Lariesa had never been treated this way since her arrival in San Carlo. She gasped for air, feeling as if she were about to hyperventilate.

But the thought that she could not let things end with Prince Alfonso holding such a terrible misunderstanding of her kept her going.

She could not break down here. If she did, she would forever remain a horrible woman in Prince Alfonso’s memory. Being thought of poorly by the person she liked was the thing Lariesa feared most in the world.

‘He’s in the queen’s palace…?’

Lady Carla, who had always supported Grand Duchess Lariesa, was in the queen’s palace. She would do something.

Grand Duchess Lariesa lifted the hem of her dress and practically ran toward the queen’s palace.

‘If I can just meet Lady Carla, she’ll arrange a meeting with the Prince…!’

By tomorrow morning, she would be leaving this place. She had to meet him quickly.

The bright marble arch that marked the entrance to the queen’s palace came into view. Vines heralding the spring were climbing up the arch. Upon arriving, Grand Duchess Lariesa was in luck. She ran into one of Queen Marguerite’s maids, whose face was familiar.

“Bring me Lady Carla!”

Startled by Grand Duchess Lariesa’s abrupt command, the queen’s maid curtsied before scurrying inside to fetch Lady Carla.

Seeing someone she considered an ally, Grand Duchess Lariesa’s face, pale as dough, crumpled with relief and reassurance.

“Lady Carla…! I was told Prince Alfonso is here.”

Lariesa cried out urgently.

“I must see the Prince. You’ll let me see him, won’t you?”

But something was wrong. The kind affirmation that usually came so readily was absent. Consumed by anxiety, Lariesa studied Lady Carla’s expression. The face of the woman who had always been so gentle, like a neighbor or an aunt, had changed in a way that was difficult to describe.

‘Rejection…?’

“His Highness… is currently not seeing any outside visitors.”

*Thump.*

Grand Duchess Lariesa’s heart sank. The ‘expression’ she had first sensed was just a premonition, but Lady Carla’s words were a definite refusal.

Lady Carla had always referred to Lariesa as ‘the one who will soon be part of our family,’ never as an outsider.

Forgetting her pride, Lariesa clung to her abjectly. She was normally insufferably arrogant toward her inferiors, but the realization that she had lost the goodwill she once had made her utterly miserable.

“Please, please just deliver a message. That Grand Duchess Lariesa must, for the last… no, not the last time. That I must see Prince Alfonso.”

Looking troubled, Lady Carla could not refuse outright. She gently removed her dress sleeve from Grand Duchess Lariesa’s grasp and spoke reluctantly.

“...I will try to send word to His Highness, but…”

“That’s enough.”

Lariesa believed Alfonso would meet her. There was no logical reason, just a strange, fervent hope.

Lady Carla disappeared into the queen’s palace to deliver the message, and Grand Duchess Lariesa, left alone, waited endlessly, pacing in circles in the palace corridor without a shred of dignity. Some twenty minutes passed, and tired of waiting, she looked out from the open, arched corridor.

In the distance, she could see the wing where Queen Marguerite's private chambers were located, and the spire rising above it.

‘!’

At the very top of that spire, a young man with fair skin and hair the color of molten gold stood leaning against a window. With his chin in his hand, he was surveying all of San Carlo as if gazing at a distant mountain.

It was Prince Alfonso.

Without thinking, Lariesa waved both arms with all her might. But the golden-haired young man didn’t even glance her way.

Growing frantic, Lariesa couldn’t hold back and shouted.

“Your Highness—!”

A gentle breeze blew, sending the man’s hair fluttering in the air. Ah, why did that wind reach only him and not me? Growing more anxious, Lariesa shouted once more.

“Prince Alfonso—!!”

Whether he heard her voice or just happened to look this way while brushing his hair back, Prince Alfonso turned his upper body precisely toward the open corridor where Grand Duchess Lariesa stood.

Overjoyed, Lariesa waved her right hand with every ounce of strength she had. A huge smile blossomed on her simple, doughy face.

‘He definitely saw me. We made eye contact.’

It was not Lariesa’s delusion. Prince Alfonso had certainly seen Grand Duchess Lariesa.

But with an expression so cold it was cruelly harsh, one she could never have imagined him making, he spun away. The young man’s silhouette vanished from the spire window.

“Ah…”

Though she was too far to see his expression clearly, Grand Duchess Lariesa instinctively felt a sense of ‘loathing’ from him that went beyond mere ‘contempt.’

‘No, it can’t be.’

Lariesa barely managed to support her trembling body, on the verge of collapsing.

“Ahem. Your Highness.”

Just then, she heard Lady Carla’s voice as she emerged from deeper within the corridor. It seemed she had arrived a moment ago but had refrained from announcing herself while Grand Duchess Lariesa was shouting. Lariesa’s face turned crimson.

“Lady Carla…”

Lariesa frantically composed herself. *Did Lady Carla see me shouting?*

Lady Carla stated curtly, in a single sentence.

“His Highness has refused the meeting.”

Her legs giving way, Lariesa crumpled to the floor right where she stood.

Normally, Lady Carla would have surely helped her up. She would have fussed over her, helped her to her feet, gently asked what was wrong, and tried to lift her spirits.

But this time, Lady Carla went back inside without so much as a word of concern. Instead, a group of regular maids swarmed out. They all tried to lift Lariesa to her feet.

Not for Lariesa’s sake, but to get the Grand Duchess composed and send her back to her quarters.

“Get away! Don’t touch me!”

The maids did not understand Gallican, but that didn’t seem to matter to them. They had no intention of obeying the Grand Duchess’s orders anyway.

The maids, though they couldn’t forcibly drag Grand Duchess Lariesa away, formed a circle around her to shield the disgraceful scene from view.

Unable to push them away, her commands unheeded, Lariesa remained sitting on the floor, sobbing until she had no tears left. No matter how she struggled, the human wall held firm, refusing to let her out. She would never see Prince Alfonso again. Her world had ended.

***

The next day, Grand Duchess Lariesa de Valois, her face pale, was put into a carriage as if imprisoned and fled San Carlo.

“Let go of me!! I said let go!! No!”

“Give the Grand Duchess the sedative prescribed by the court physician.”

The only reason she departed sitting quietly in the carriage, albeit with a pallid complexion and without causing a scene, was entirely due to the herbs prescribed by the doctor.

Palazzo Carlo afforded the departing Gallican delegation every courtesy, but all official farewell ceremonies from the King or Queen were omitted.

Furthermore, Palazzo Carlo treated the escorted Sir Elko as if he didn’t exist. He was treated neither as a prisoner nor as one of their own knights leaving for another country.

In every respect, it was an ambiguous transfer, seemingly a courtesy but not quite.

“...”

Ariadne stood beside Queen Marguerite, looking down from the highest tower of the queen’s residence at the departing Gallican delegation.

It was the very same spire where Prince Alfonso had stood the previous evening. But Alfonso was not here now. It was just Queen Marguerite, her shadow-like companion Lady Carla, and Ariadne.

“Ariadne de Mare.”

Queen Marguerite called to Ariadne in a calm voice.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Your greatest objective has been achieved.”

The queen said this as she watched the Gallican Grand Duchess depart. Ariadne hid a slight pang of heartache and answered calmly.

“My greatest objective is the well-being of His Highness the Prince and Your Majesty the Queen.”

The queen did not respond one way or the other to Ariadne’s words, instead speaking in a placid tone.

“Child.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I would prefer if you did not see my son for the time being.”

Ariadne drew a shallow breath. She had come to fully understand the queen’s intentions during her ten-day stay in the queen’s palace.

She had been treated well deep within the queen’s residence, but she had never, not even by accident, crossed paths with Prince Alfonso, who was also staying there. She, too, had been tactful enough not to ask to see him. There was no need to anger the master of the house in which she was a guest.

Besides, Ariadne needed to stay in close contact with Queen Marguerite for the next month.

Ariadne replied calmly.

“I understand Your Majesty’s words.”

“It won’t be for very long.”

Lady Carla interjected, as if making an excuse. Her tone was apologetic, as if she felt sorry for excluding Ariadne after all she had accomplished.

“Two or three months? Just until this incident settles down.”

Ariadne smiled faintly and nodded.

“I fully understand how you must feel. If I were in Your Majesty’s position, I would have done the same.”

In truth, there was no need to wait two or three months. In a month at most, Ariadne would be the girl who saved the queen’s life. If even that achievement didn't grant her permission to contact the prince, then she might as well consider this life a lost cause.

“In return, will you summon me to the palace often?”

Lady Carla shot Ariadne a look that said, *Look at this one*. *Give her an inch, and she takes a mile.*

But Ariadne was not the least bit intimidated.

“I wish to prove to Your Majesty, by your side, that I am a person who can be of help to His Highness the Prince.”

She looked up at Queen Marguerite and smiled sweetly.

“Please think of it as an advance on the reward for when this plan succeeds.”

Queen Marguerite gazed at Ariadne. With a neutral expression, she looked down for a long moment at the dark-haired girl who was about half a hand shorter than her.

Just as even the strong-willed Ariadne began to feel a little nervous, Queen Marguerite smiled warmly and replied.

“Very well.”

She tapped Ariadne’s forehead with her fingertip.

“I knew you were audacious from the moment I met you, but you truly don’t know how to hide it!”

Ariadne smiled brightly in return.

“Frankness is my strong suit.”

“You absurd girl.”

The atmosphere in the spire instantly became cheerful and warm.

“I will summon you often in the future. I promise.”

Ariadne smiled faintly. It was not a bad start.