The Readymade Queen - Chapter 5

Abigail bowed her head, feeling somehow stunned by her name, which the Empress sang softly. When she looked blankly at the hem of the dress turning around, took an example and looked up again, the Empress was already not in the room. Abigail mumbled the last thing she said to her.

“Abigail.”

It felt like this was the last time her name was called. She didn’t know why she felt this way. Maybe it was really the last time.

‘Now, who in the world can call me by my name?’

Abigail sat there for some time in a daze. She thought of her mother, she thought of her nanny, and she thought of her sick and tired younger siblings.

‘Can I see my mother again before I die? Probably not. If I had thought that it was the last time, I would only say prettier words. I should’ve seen you longer. I should’ve hugged you. Said I love you….’ Abigail smiled in vain, dropping tears blankly. She felt like she couldn’t figure it out. She didn’t even know why tears were flowing again. Whether it’s because of the Empress, the Princess, her family, or everyone. ‘Since when did my life get twisted like this? If the entrance was a little faster, or a little later, I might not have met the Princess. If my mother weren’t sick, I wouldn’t have entered the court. No, my mother wouldn’t have gotten sick if she hadn’t come to the capital and suffered.’

In fact, Abigail said she didn’t regret it, but she sometimes regretted it. ‘I’m just going to marry Count Schuppet in my hometown.’ Every time she saw her mother’s rough hands, every time her mother was sick, and every time her brothers looked for something delicious, Abigail regretted a few times, no, actually dozens of times. ‘What is a marriage, what is my body, and what has made my whole family like this? In the end, I didn’t even know that I was the only one who thought about it.’ Abigail laughed mockingly. ‘It was neither my fault that my family became like this nor my father who committed suicide by leaving them alone. However, because of me, the fact that I have abandoned the opportunity for my family to live a little better has not changed. I couldn’t sell my body even if it was unfair. For some reason, I left my hometown, but at least I had to be proud of my younger siblings who were struggling. That’s why I’ve been living like that, but I’ve been working so hard. My father died, and I lived only for my family, but now my family…’

The sound of shoes got closer as if cutting endless thoughts. Luxurious shoes, stylish black suit pants, black vest, round black krabat necktie, and dull black hair on a mean head… It was all gloomy. It would be hard to look so biologically handsome and unlucky.

While Abigail blankly looked up at the man’s face and thought about it, the man looked at her with a suspicious look.

“What the hell did you do?”

“Why?” Unknowingly, the answer spoke out bluntly. Abigail was vaguely silent because she said so and was surprised by herself. But Rakiel continued as if he didn’t care at all.

“How did you manage to do something that you didn’t expect at all?” As expected, human adaptability was scary. After being cheeky, the man didn’t know she was cheeky for most of it.

“What are you talking about?”

“The Empress didn’t know anything.”

Then something crossed her mind. ‘I will pretend that I know nothing to Rakiel.’ Abigail grinned. “That’s it…”

“Did you act as an idiot while sucking your finger?”

“Her Highness the Princess didn’t do anything like sucking her finger.”

“Well, you wouldn’t need it anyway.”

“What?”

“Acting. Originally, there was a lot of lack of it…….”

‘You’re a fool, so you don’t even need to act?’ His sarcastic, crooked mouth was very disgusting. But Abigail said without being swept away, raising her chin up. “Yes. It was thanks to the perfect acting.”

“Acting like an idiot?”

“No, acting like a real daughter!”

“No. I said the Princess was normal.”

Abigail tilted her head. Rakiel looked down at her and said, “I told the empress that she was normal, but there is no way that you, who woke up, looked normal.”

“…no, is this it?”

“Think carefully.”

“I don’t know!”

Rakiel kept looking down at her with a suspicious look, saying that no matter how hard he thought about it, it couldn’t be.

‘I’m done. I’m offended. I’m not doing it. I’m not playing with you.’

“How could you be fooled? I couldn’t have done that.”

“…..then yes.”

Rakiel frowned as if he recognized that she had been playing with him for a short time.

Abigail didn’t miss this opportunity and raised one mouth with the same expression as Rakiel did. Then she saw a scary straight face and went down quickly. “The Empress seems like a good person.”

“Yes, she’s not bad. Is it easy to understand that she’s good?”

“Well… I can’t really say that. You can’t tell when the mind of a person gets corrupted, can you?”

“If the Princess doesn’t do her best, maybe the same will become of you?”

“I shouldn’t talk. They recognized instantly that it wasn’t me.”

Rakiel somehow nodded with a slightly bitter face. It didn’t really suit him, but was he worried about his aunt? Abigail stared at Rakiel with strange eyes.

“You look like you expected it.”

“It doesn’t really matter anyway.”

“It was important. To her, to you.”

“I’ve been letting it go, and now you’re talking pretty cocky.” The man said hard as if didn’t want to cross the subject.

Abigail quietly shut her mouth. ‘I don’t like even the slightest bit of my mind getting caught.’

“When she left Elderdium, she said she would do what her nephew wanted. Anyway, it must have ended well with you in the first place. That’s enough.”

In any case, it had become what he wanted, so he was not interested in anything else. Abigail was a little bit upset for nothing.

“She asked me to be her daughter. She said that she couldn’t stand Her Highness Violetta’s name disappearing from this world.”

“I see.”

“She died before her name was known to the world, it’s not that I don’t understand how she feels. But to the predecessor of Edelgard, His Highness the Prince… No matter how many misfortunes overlap at once, it’s quite an extreme alternative to being a substitution in the role of a princess. No, very much.”

‘Yes, because a person like you…’ Abigail thought that she had secretly cursed Rakiel, so she poked her mouth out of pride.

Rachiel asked, expressionless. “So?”

“Why did even the Empress become so extreme?”

“The difference between the people you’re talking about doesn’t matter. At least for now.”

“…what do you mean?”

“Of course, it’s far different from me, who you just cursed implicitly, and from the empress, whom you said was a good person.”

‘This ghostly person.’

“At least there’s a difference as you might think. I don’t do anything if necessary, but the Empress is different.”

“…”

“But now, the problem of what people do is over. The problem about what kind of person I am and what kind of person the Empress is, that problem is over.”

“Then.”

“It’s the situation.” With a brief answer, Rakiel slowly approached the table across the bed and picked up the kettle on it. Only the sound of water dripping into a tea cup with a gold band briefly echoed in the room and disappeared. Soon, Rakiel sat on the sofa, leaned comfortably, and took the teacup gracefully to his mouth.

When the eyes that followed all the movements were exhausted and fell back to her knees, the man opened his mouth again. “Remember the day the Crown Prince and the former Duke of Edelgard died?” Rakiel asked indifferently as if they were people who had nothing to do with him.

“Of course, since it hasn’t been long… the whole capital was in chaos. I heard that the entire city was under control for nearly a week, with capital guards and imperial guards everywhere.”

“Oh, I see.” Rakiel answered briefly as if he had asked something he really didn’t know.

Abigail looked puzzled at Rakiel’s face. They were the father and cousin of that man. ‘Why does a person who is like the person involved in the accident ask my answer, which is all I know is that the capital is in chaos.’

She had been confined with the Princess for the last three months. It was also impossible to contact the maids who entered the palace, and only a few letters passed through the censorship of the Imperial Family Administration which were the passageway through which Abigail was connected to the outside. She knew only that much through the letter, and Rakiel squinted his eyes as if he recalled for a moment with his head tilted. “Actually, I can’t remember that day.”

The narrowed gaze suddenly stared at him. Abigail sat on the bed, a little stiff, and looked at him.

“I don’t know exactly what the world was like back then.”

It was a calm voice, but it sounded as if it were stuck in her ear. Abigail shut her slightly open mouth like a fool.

Rakiel took the teacup to his mouth in the same motion as before. The man was as graceful as a line. “My father cared about the Prince more than his son. In fact, they seemed like father and son. Mikhail resembled my father. I don’t know if it’s a matter of course because my father taught him everything as he raised him, and they’re nice, yeah. They were good people. In the first place, I didn’t resemble my father very much except for my appearance.” Rakiel just recalled the good things. It was just a moment, but he even laughed a little.

Abigail knew for the first time. That man could laugh sincerely like that. For the first time, that man looked like a human being like herself. Abigail finally knew a little bit about how important and special the Duke and the Crown Prince were to him. In fact, it was a natural story that didn’t have to be thought of. Because it’s a family.

“That was the day my father and Mikhail went hunting. They both loved hunting. I hated unproductive activities, so they always went hunting together. The hunting ground outside the capital, located in the small duke’s territory, was built by my father. It was for Mikhail who was frustrated by the fact that he was trapped in the capital. There were 30 people planted in mountainous areas, and there were not enough guardians, so the guardian had been placed more than the official residence of the capital so that the Crown Prince could be safe while hunting. But on their way back from the little piece of land, the carriage crashed.”

Abigail had also visited a hunting ground in the estate with her father several times when she was young. There were several mountains, and it was a small estate, but the hunting ground was quite large among nearby territories. However, there were only two people living in the mountains. It was normal. Of course, the density of the mountainous areas there would be high, but the standard of being small was not met. Anyway, so far, she already knew the general story.

“…it wasn’t just an accident?”

“There are no such high cliffs, and it’s just like rolling on a little high hill. Then only with that, both of them can’t die. There were even guardians everywhere because of the mountain range. They can’t die, but it was possible because someone was determined to kill them.””

“…who the hell? How the hell?”

The Duke who led the most distinguished family in the Empire and the Crown Prince of the empress resuscitation set in that family. Who dared to kill two people who are at the peak of power? Abigail didn’t find it easy to understand. This was why rumors didn’t follow the accident in the capital. It was unimaginable for the empire that something other than ‘accident’ could kill them.

“The one who died near the scene of the accident in a horseman suit was a different person from the face I remember. There was no trace of the horseman who was originally pulling the carriage nearby, and entering a place other than the road itself was deliberately prepared to commit suicide. The horseman was replaced while he was running.”

“…ha.”

“I had a few eyes to watch, and it wasn’t discovered until six hours after the accident. Why? One mountain keeper and two guardians who were supposed to be in that area had all evaporated. Without a trace like the horseman. My father and Mikhail were already dead when the two guardians patrolling the entire Duchy arrived. It takes 7 hours for patrols to circulate throughout the country. The accident happened as if all were planned in advance, as if they knew the patrol time in advance, the location of the accident, the time of the accident. As far as possible, but as natural as possible, at the point where the Guardian would arrive at the latest. The prince’s abdomen and the duke’s chest were studded with debris that had broken parts of the carriage, and the cause of death was excessive bleeding in the affected area.”

Her mouth is dry. Her throat had slowly become stuffy, but Rakiel’s voice was just calm.

“It wasn’t a carriage that would break even a little bit as much as the impact of a fall from there. It’s like a carriage fell off a cliff, but it was just a high hill, and it was an imperial carriage.”

The imperial carriage of the royal family was made by the Dwarfs in the Far West and was made of special bulletproof materials. The Dwarfs were not the real dwarfs who would only appear in old stories, but they were the best people to the point of being called so. It was a carriage that they wouldn’t make unless they were the imperial family. Most accidents couldn’t have caused any shock. If so, “…something other artificial force was applied?”

“Yeah, some of the broken parts of the carriage weren’t natural. It was a trace of trying to look natural. No matter who looked, the bodies were obviously post-accidental. They didn’t die in an accident, but someone killed them after the accident. The accident was nothing but a big and small bruise at best. Unless their head hurt.”

“It’s not like the impact was from their head…”

The Duke and the Crown Prince, whose carriage carvings were embedded. Abigail bit her mouth. “It’s… it’s like they pretended to hide it in case they got caught, but they killed it like they could see it inside. There were so many strange things, how could it be so quiet? The Crown Prince and the Duke were dead, the highest men in the Empire. How did you and Edelgard stay still?”

“Because someone higher than us wanted to cover everything.”

“……if it’s higher.”

“It’s the emperor.” Rakiel spoke in an insignificant way.

Abigail nodded insignificantly. “So, His Majesty, oh, yes……what? The emperor? Oh, my God.” Abigail was far away, but she barely opened her mouth while looking at Rakiel. “That’s, that’s ridiculous. How come? His son, how…”

“Don’t think of him as an ordinary father. Didn’t you see the dead Princess?”

“That’s an old custom of the imperial family!”

“An imperfect royal family like the Princess was born at any time, but not all emperors did.”

“So, the Emperor killed the Crown Prince after his decision?”

“To be precise, he didn’t kill him. He just watched.”

“No, that’s what it is.”

“Yes, that’s what it is.” Rakiel smirked and agreed with her words. “The Emperor doesn’t want the truth anyway.”

“I can’t believe he doesn’t want…”

“So now I have no choice but to bury it.” Rakiel spoke and put the teacup down on the table.

He was the Crown Prince of the empire. Even though the Crown Prince died like that and the world was loudly sad about his death, it was strangely calm and quiet in the matter behind his death. In the end, everything was possible because someone higher than him wanted to cover up. Even the Crown Prince is like that, then the dead Princess…

“…if I had died with her, or if she had just died alone without me…”

“It was just the unfortunate death of the poor Princess. No one knew about the existence of the assassins.”

Even if she didn’t have a role as herself, even if her death was known to the world, she would have disappeared from the world without any presence, without any facts. Didn’t the Prince, whom the imperialists loved, disappear like that without any truth being revealed?

In the first place, It was for her and her family, not for Violetta, but she hated this. The fact that she disappeared like someone who didn’t exist from the beginning. “…then who’s the real one behind this?”

“The first Empress, Empress Cardilinger.”

Abigail sighed in vain.

“It’s not surprising. If you think about who will get the most opportunity from the crown prince’s death.”

Of course it wasn’t surprising. She was the most externally reputable empress among the empresses, there was no way that her son couldn’t be greedy for a possible succession. She gave birth to the eldest son of the emperor. Even before the death of the Crown Prince, her son used to be publicly talked about as second in line of succession.

However, she remembered all the good words she was talking about her. Abigail asked again bitterly about the matter.