Chapter 27
The reason only the Emperor and Helen remained in the conservatory garden was simple: Lucas had sent Count Platini and Roji back first. The Count felt uneasy leaving Helen behind, but he could not disobey an imperial command.
Roji hadn't wanted to leave Helen behind, either. Despite the lengthy conversation, Helen hadn't so much as touched her teacup. Knowing her mind must be in turmoil, he worried about what Lucas might say once they were gone—reproaching her for rejecting his proposal, for example.
Before completely leaving the conservatory garden, Roji turned around. The sight of Helen sitting straight in her chair looked lonely.
Helen herself was composed. Now that Count Platini and Roji—family in name only—had left, she was alone in the conservatory garden with Lucas, yet she was not afraid of him.
She was only slightly uneasy because it happened to be the conservatory garden. If this place was a trap designed by Lucas, she had already fallen into it. Even if she ran, she would only end up in the palm of his hand.
While waiting for his scheme to reveal itself, a maid took away the cooled tea and brought out fresh, steaming tea. Helen didn't touch that cup, either.
Lucas, who had been watching her closely, asked.
"Shouldn't you be thirsty by now?"
"Thank you for your concern, but I am not particularly thirsty."
"Are you afraid I might have poisoned it?"
Poison. He wasn't someone who would willingly take the risk of being named a culprit in the imperial palace, of all places, and in a setting where only the two of them remained. While Lucas was emotional, he judged matters rationally.
At least, the Lucas she had known while living as Violet had been that way.
"I believe Your Majesty has nothing to gain by poisoning me."
"Nothing to gain? Ha! How bold. Then and now."
Lucas leaned back against his chair and crossed his legs. His conspicuously red hair suited the plants in the conservatory garden very well. Lucas thought that if a smile were to spread across Helen's lips, she would suit this place even more.
But contrary to his wish, Helen did not smile.
That day—the day of the party celebrating the success of Duke Everett's expedition to subjugate demon beasts. Even when they had faced each other in front of Violet's swing on that snowless day, she had not smiled.
Lucas had been unable to forget the audacious words she had dared to speak to the Emperor that day.
"Then why don't Your Majesty hold a state wedding as well? Bear children who take after Your Majesty. If possible, I would like siblings who get along well."
"Then why don't you get married too, Brother? You should have children who resemble you as well. I would like siblings who get along as well as you and I."
He couldn't forget, even if he wanted to. Because it was chillingly similar to what his beloved younger sister had said. Who would dare discuss marriage with the Emperor? They were words she never would have uttered if she knew what reaction the Emperor would show.
"I'm not interested in a state wedding. I mean that it doesn't matter who becomes Empress."
Whether it was Helen Platini or Roji Platini. Or even someone from another house, it made no difference to him. The family that produced an empress would gain considerable power accordingly, but they would never be able to challenge the Emperor's authority.
"I am glad to hear Your Majesty say so."
"Why does it sound as though you are worried about me?"
Or perhaps what he truly wanted was for her to worry about him.
Lucas watched Helen hesitate in her reply and lifted his teacup. When he sipped the warm tea, a faint floral fragrance filled his mouth. He couldn't tell if the scent came from the tea or from the flowers in the conservatory garden.
"You haven't given the flowers so much as a glance. They must be things you cannot easily lay your eyes upon. Rare treasures that an ordinary young lady would stare at with wide eyes."
"I have no interest in flowers."
"Is that so? It seems not that you have no interest in flowers, but that you are unable to take an interest in them."
"What do you mean?"
Helen faced Lucas with a puzzled gaze. Unable to take an interest?
Not all young ladies took an interest in flowers. Some people abhorred them. Lucas was not unaware of that fact.
Lucas certainly knew it. Because there had been a time when he, too, had abhorred flowers and kept his distance. It wasn't because he had a pollen allergy.
There had been a time when everyone in the imperial palace was an enemy to the extent that even the potted plants in his bedroom had to be regarded with caution. It was the era when he had competed for the primary right of succession to the throne. Who would have known that poison powder would be smeared on modest flowers placed in a vase?
In those miserable times, he had met Violet, and splendid flowers had entered his dark life. Selfishly, he had made flowers bloom in the imperial palace where his family's blood had been spilled.
For only one person. For Violet.
"Because it is your garden."
Deep green eyes trembled. It felt as if the world had turned upside down, and her breath caught in her throat. They were all reactions drawn out by a single word from Lucas.
The other reaction that soon appeared was drawn out by Lucas's next words.
"Isn't that right, Violet."
It was shock.
Helen couldn't close her mouth. Simply because closing it would be the very answer Lucas wanted.
So she stretched the corners of her mouth to either side. She had to pull so forcefully that a spasm nearly occurred, so she clenched both hands hidden beneath the table. Her clenched fists trembled in place of her lips.
"What do you mean?"
"What do I mean..."
Lucas paused, then soon smirked.
"It's a joke."
A joke. That single short word struck as sharply as if it would make her heart plummet.
At his words, which could not possibly be a joke, Helen exhaled a breath that was anything but light. She had to inhale as much as she had exhaled, but the moment she saw Lucas's lips open, the surrounding air itself seemed to freeze.
"I don't think it strange at all to look for that child in Violet's garden. Well, others may think differently."
"Why speak of it now, of all times?"
Lucas shrugged his shoulders. He continued to weigh down Helen's heart with his smirking lips.
"As expected of the Platini family. The way you take my jokes seriously is exactly like the Count."
Lucas lifted his teacup and savored the aroma. The faint floral scent seemed to have grown a little weaker. Perhaps because it was inside the conservatory garden, where flowers bloomed even in the dead of winter unlike the cold outside, the tea had not cooled.
"I'm the type who can't stand being curious. The first day we met at the palace last time, I wondered about that. Why there, of all places? A place no one visited after Violet died. No, a place no one could find."
It had been a place where laughter never ceased when the beloved Imperial Princess was alive. After Violet, who used to sit on the swing and smile brightly at the sky, died, the small garden meant for her was closed off.
Without the Emperor's command, no one could set foot inside, and no one dared show their face near the forbidden space.
And yet, a red-haired woman had sat brazenly on the swing in the closed garden.
The distinctive sound of a cup being placed echoed through the emptiness. Helen tried not to listen to Lucas's words. But it did not go as she wished.
Helen recalled the place from that day. The place she had fled to in order to escape Liandor's truth happened to be where Violet's swing was. The swing made for the Imperial Princess, who could not go outside the palace due to poor health, had been one of Violet's few sanctuaries.
Having left the world, Violet—who had been loved even by the Emperor—made that place one of the forbidden locations in the imperial palace.
"So I decided to look into it."
Lucas's voice, lowered by a degree, settled by Helen's ear. As if bracing for what Lucas would say next, Helen wrapped both hands around her teacup.
She had thought the trembling in her hands had subsided considerably, but in truth, her composure was on the verge of shattering at the slightest touch.
"About Helen Platini, who had to leave for a long recuperation due to illness."
The teacup, which had floated about a hand's breadth into the air, plummeted downward. The overturned cup on the table spilled all its tea. Fortunately, it had fallen away from Helen's body.
"About me?"
"It was fascinating. I couldn't tell if the Count's love for his child ran deep, or if there had been none at all. To send a seven-year-old child off to Heksilov."
Lucas's gaze shifted to the water droplets falling at regular intervals from the edge of the table. At his gesture, a waiting maid came in and cleaned up the spilled tea.
Silence flowed through the conservatory garden while the maid served fresh tea. Only after the maid left his side did Lucas continue.
"What surprised me more than that was the fact that you, who had been unconscious for a year, woke up on the very day Violet died."
"How..."
How could he claim it was a joke while only choosing things that weren't jokes to talk about? The man she had been unable to hate became ever so slightly hateful to her.
He seemed to have no idea that he was being hated, peacefully savoring his tea.
"There are many excellent mages in the palace. I merely made use of them."
"Surely you didn't send them to Heksilov?"
Liandor was there! Anxiety crept up from the floor and coiled around Helen's ankles.
From the capital to Heksilov was roughly a week's journey by carriage. But if one used magic, one could arrive in the blink of an eye.
Liandor was the only escape route through which Helen could break free from her suffocating life now. Liandor was also the only one who could erase the memories that were nothing but misery, save for a handful.
If the palace mages had ransacked Heksilov...!
She wasn't well-versed in magic, but she knew Liandor's skills were considerable. It was something even someone who didn't know the first thing about magic would know.
But no matter how skilled a mage, there was nothing they could do against overwhelming numbers. Even Liandor.
"Don't misunderstand. I harmed no one in Heksilov. Rather, it was my side that suffered losses."
"The palace mages suffered losses? That's absurd."
"I don't mean they died. According to them, there was a magic barrier around Heksilov, so it wasn't easy to get inside."
At Lucas's words—meaning they had only suffered a loss of time—Helen thought of Liandor. Liandor was the only mage in Heksilov, so there was no one else who could have erected a magic barrier.
Helen brushed aside her unease in relief. Since he had said no one in Heksilov was harmed, Liandor was safe as well. Because he was safe, the only escape route out of a life full of darkness was also safe.
Lucas watched with interest as a smile of relief spread across Helen's lips. He found it intriguing that she could smile like that, and yet he wished she would smile a little brighter.
"I heard she was a renowned figure in Heksilov."
"That's because I was the only young lady there."
"So there was no one who didn't know the Platini young lady?"
Just how many people had he asked about Helen Platini! The smile of relief that had briefly lingered on Helen's lips was cleanly erased.
"Do you believe everything they said? It could be lies."
"You underestimate me too much. Why do you think I went all the way to the Platini mansion to propose to you?"