Chapter 7.3

A Bolt from the Blue (3)

Gosh…What was this? Everyone had their eyes on us while they whispered amongst themselves. Cermiane’s face was now turning a blackish blue. I walked while trying to support him. I encouraged him in my head: “You can do it, Cermiane, just a little bit more.” That’s right. Even at this time, I hadn’t understood the gravity of the situation, and was treating it as if it had nothing to do with me. That was why I was able to walk to the foot of the steps without feeling an ounce of nervousness. Near the steps was where the high-ranking nobles were. There, my eldest brother, who had inherited the Caliente marquisate during all this time, stood there with his wife. Behind them were Mother and Father, who had become the retired heads of the Caliente household. A little while ago, when I was called to the Caliente residence to hear about my eldest brother’s title succession, they had said that they were planning to live back in the territory, but I guess they were still here in the Capital. Eldest brother, Mother, and Father all had their eyes and mouths wide open. They were the epitome of being astonished. Hiding their true thoughts under a smile was supposed to be second nature to nobles, but their expressions were clearly not doing that. I wonder what happened.

While we were waiting at the foot of the steps, an attendant announced the arrival of His Majesty and Her Majesty, and everyone, including us, lowered our heads. I had wondered if we needed to kneel as well, but it seemed that wasn’t necessary. When they commanded us to raise our heads, I raised mine slowly. I finally learned.

I couldn’t see His Majesty and Her Majesty’s face all that clearly, but I could tell that they were not in a very good mood. Or rather, they looked gloomy. Her Majesty in particular looked like she wasn’t able to sit straight and her head was downcast. His Majesty was also furrowing his eyebrows. Cermiane, too, had his eyebrows furrowed and his lips were pursed. What happened? Were they going to announce some sort of punishment upon him? At that time, I finally realized that possibility. Cermiane might have made some sort of significant mistake. Will his nobility be rescinded? Or will he be put in jail? Wait, would he go to the guillotine? Ignoring me, who was letting my imagination run wild and growing increasingly nervous, His Majesty the Emperor announced in his dignified voice:

“I hereby declare to the nobles of the Empire who are here in attendance. Today, from this moment on, Cermiane Emilian is a member of the imperial family.”

The audience stirred. Huh…? Everyone except me, who was completely lost. But, it seemed that I wasn’t the only one who was confused, and there were voices calling for His Majesty to explain. He nodded and continued:

“Cermiane is my hidden child. He is the son of my royal mistress, Felianne. Most of you already know about Felianne. In order to avoid conflicts over succession, I had been hiding that Cermiane is my child until now. …However, our crown prince Kainbrie has fallen seriously ill. As such, I acknowledge Cermiane as an official member of the imperial family, and in the case that something happens to Kainbrie, Cermiane will become the crown prince.”

…What?

I felt like I had heard something entirely outrageous. … Huh? Cermiane was the hidden child of the Emperor? Excuse me, but this is the first time I’ve heard of this? …But, huh? I thought I heard him say that he was going to make Cermiane the crown prince?

“This noblewoman is Cermiane’s wife, Ralphene. She is a sister of Marquis Caliente.”

At once, all the attention was noisily focused on me. Eek! M-me?

“There is no problem with her status, so I will accept her into the imperial family as well. I would be grateful if the Caliente family supports my decision.”

“T-that, of course…”

Eldest brother was shaking as he weakly responded. Hey, wait a second. Just now, I think I heard that I would also become a part of the imperial family? Excuse me, what is this? What is the meaning of this? At this moment, I finally realized that I was in the middle of an extremely troublesome situation, and my entire body broke out in a sweat. I felt my hands and feet grow cold.

“Cermiane. Ralphene. Come up here.”

Commanded by His Majesty the Emperor, this time, Cermiane was the one pulling me up the stairs. After kneeling in front of Their Majesties, we stood up and turned around. Below my eyes were an agitated crowd of around a couple hundred nobles. Cermiane took off his right glove and raised his hand. On his middle finger was an unfamiliar black ring. Huh? Last time I saw his ring, he should have been wearing a silver one.

“That is the ring that I had given when Cermiane was born that proves he is of imperial descent.”

I heard later on that proof of imperial statu was a black ring. Cermiane was given a silver ring when he reached adulthood at thirteen years old, and he usually wore that one, apparently. What the heck? Isn’t that unfair? That’s no longer proof of your identity. But anyway, since he had this black ring, he was no doubt the son of His Majesty the Emperor.

Kind of like an “Oh yeah” moment, I remembered how we were called to the imperial palace after we got married. Now that I think of it, if you said that His Majesty’s behavior at that time was his way of showing affection towards his son, I would kind of agree. Even the mansion. If it was His Majesty’s beloved mistress’s residence, it all made sense.