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Chapter 118: The Queen's true feelings

“It’s been a long time, Your Royal Highness.”

When Lockwood sees the queen, he hurriedly bends his back and bows his head.

She was dressed in a navy blue dress, her purplish hair braided behind her head in a simple manner. In her hand she held a fan decorated with bird’s feathers, the white feather ornaments floating in the dim light of the corridor.

“Why……why in the world is the queen here…..?”

Bowing deeply, Lockwood ponders the purpose of the queen’s visit.

Shanoar is a young woman who married Granard five years ago from a neighbouring country.

She arrived in the capital at the same time as Raidorl, and her country of origin was the Kingdom of Aterna. It was a small country to the west of the Kingdom of Zain.

The two countries are separated by a steep mountain range and the two countries have long been distant neighbours, with little more than the occasional curious traveller or merchant crossing the mountains. However, recent advances in navigational technology have opened up the Northern Passage, and the start of trade by sea has brought the two countries closer together.

As a sign of this friendship, the niece of the current King Aeterna, Shanoar, married into the Kingdom of Zain.

As a distant bride, Shanoar’s position in the royal court is not a high one.

Some of the nobles want to marry their daughters to King Granard and make her their queen. Life in the Royal Palace, with few allies, must have been like a needle in a haystack.

Shanoar tended to stay in the depths of the palace and avoided public appearances except for the bare minimum of official duties such as ceremonies.

The Queen herself had come to ask for Lockwood, the Prime Minister. It didn’t seem like an unusual situation.

“Yes, it has been a long time, Prime Minister Marcell. May I come into your room?”

“Yes, of course. I’m sorry for the mess in the room, but please come in.”

In a calm tone of voice, Shanoar asked for permission to enter. Of course, Lockwood nodded immediately.

“You may close the door if you like. It’s going to be cold tonight.”

“……ha, my queen.”

With a twitch of his eyebrows at the queen’s words, the queen instructs the soldiers standing guard in front of the room to close the door.

In the past, it was customary for the queen to leave the door open when she visited a man’s room to avoid suspicion of infidelity. If she dares to break this rule, it is because she has something to say to him that she cannot tell anyone.

Lockwood, with an unsettled feeling in his heart, suggested that Shanoar take a chair.

“…. So, what can I do for you today?”

As soon as Shanoar sat down in her chair, Lockwood asked her point-blank.

It would have been polite to make some small talk before getting down to business, but Lockwood was more interested in the Queen’s purpose. He had been so busy with his many official duties that he had felt compelled to rush the conversation.

In the face of the Prime Minister’s attitude, which could be perceived as rude. Shanoar covers her mouth with a fan and begins her story.

“There’s a great deal of excitement in the palace these days, isn’t there? A war with the Empire. And the rebellion of my husband’s…… royal brother.”

“………….”

“My husband, Granard, never neglected me. But he did not protect his wife, who was scorned and shadowed as a foreigner by the nobility of this country. Naturally, if he put me first and neglected the nobility of this country, he would have fewer supporters. He wanted to please the fox, who might betray him, rather than his wife, from whom he could not escape in any case.”

“…… What do you mean, my queen?”

The Queen looked back at the Prime Minister with a cold stare, folded up her fan and clapped her palm with a pat on the back.

“I don’t think I have the heart to commit myself to this country. I don’t mean that I have no love for my husband. But I am not going to sink with him.”

“That’s not………..”

“Yes, as you can imagine.”

Lockwood’s eyes widen slightly, and Shanoar smiles bewitchingly. Her red lips lifted in a crescent shape.

“I’m going to be leaving the country soon. I’m going back home to my family.”