Chapter 6

Chapter 6

***

“Dad!”

When Leo screamed, Adele’s smile disappeared from her face. When she turned her stiff head, the emperor stood there.

“Your Majesty, the Emperor.”

When Adele saw Julia and the ladies bow down, she quickly greeted him.

“I see you, Your Majesty.”

“Raise your head.”

Adele waited for the emperor to sit at the tea table. The maid approached and poured hot tea into the teacup. The round tea table was surrounded by Adele, Leo and the Emperor.

“Leopold, did you sleep well?”

When Leo answered “Yes, dad”, Adele was startled. Fortunately, the emperor didn’t seem to be offended.

“Leo, use honorifics.”

When Adele spoke, Leo blinked. Leo said ‘yo’ to Adele when he couldn’t understand what he missed while answering.

“What about Daddy?”

“I slept well, too.”

“Daddy, why are you late?”

“I have a busy job to do.”

“What does Daddy do for a living? Is it easy? Is it difficult?”

Leo spoke informally as he did to Adele. Adele had a headache.

“Well, it can be easy or difficult.”

“I want to see you work.”

Leo patted his bottom with a rose-like face.

‘Oh, my God. It would be nice to have a father like that.’

Adele had mixed feelings in her heart when she saw Leo.

‘How can you call me dad so naturally when you’ve never seen him before?’

Adele pressed down her sadness on her little son’s eagerness.

“Yeah, I’ll take you to the office next time.”

The emperor was too nonchalant.

Leo, who recklessly called such an emperor his father, also felt comfortable. Adele seemed to be the only one who was uncomfortable and awkward in this situation. Adele was at a loss for words as her anxiety wouldn’t subside.

“Leo, you can go play.”

Leo rushed to the ladies at the Emperor’s words.

“Adele.”

Adele looked at the emperor. Facing his expressionless face, Adele’s face hardened.

“What happened yesterday is a misunderstanding.”

“What do you mean?”

“I didn’t ask them to put you in prison.”

Adele fixed her eyes on the teapot at the table to avoid making eye contact with the emperor.

“It was a mistake.”

“It’s alright. I’m not misunderstanding, Your Majesty.”

Even if she was mistaken, Adele had nothing else to say.

What could she say anyway?

He was an emperor.

“Thank you for your kindness.”

Even so, nothing would change in her case anyway. She was just staying in a much cleaner room than the prison cell.

It was the room that changed, nothing else.

Adele felt that her situation was like she was thrown on a single boat in the stormy sea. It was none other than the emperor who pushed herself into such a rough sea.

‘Thank you for giving birth, how have you been? Leaving without a word.’

Adele felt angry at the emperor and resented him. But she couldn’t say anything like that, considering he was a notorious emperor. She built a wall and kept a distance from him, who put his power at the fore, and just said thank you. Adele was just one of the grassroots imperial people under his feet. She wasn’t in a position to go against him.

“I intend to take Leopold to the next noble meeting.”

Adele looked up and her eyes shook.

“Your Majesty, that means…”

The emperor stared at her and informed her.

“Leopold is my son, so I can’t have him in the commoner’s family register.”

“Your Majesty! I…”

“I don’t need your opinion on this.”

Adele was dumbfounded and laughed unconsciously. The emperor, who saw the expression, asked wonderfully.

“Why are you laughing?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing.”

She was nothing to the emperor. The emperor stopped looking at Adele and drank tea.

‘I’m afraid I’m going to choke.’

It felt like that the kind of behavior was different to her on a scale of one to ten.

‘I’m really nothing to you.’

Alfred’s  system of status consisted of imperial, aristocratic, commoners, and slaves. It was not a sin for the royal family or noblemen to kill commoners or slaves. Murder can be put on trial for being guilty only when the victim was of the same or higher status as him. Even an unjust death cannot be brought to trial except for a few items specified in the law.

A nobleman can marry a commoner or slave who has a lower status than himself if he wants to. On the other hand, only the same royal family or aristocrats could marry.

Adele had never been married, so she was still Miss Ernst. Her family register included Leo, who was born out of wedlock by Adele, regardless of marriage. The emperor was also single. But now he was saying he would put Leo on his royal family register. Adele, the commoner and Emperor from the royal family. They didn’t have the same status. So it was impossible for them to marry and put Leo underneath. Leo’s status was an out-of-wedlock commoner. Adele was furious.

“Your Majesty, then will Leo not be my son?”

When Leo became the son of the emperor, he was not legally Adele’s son. As a mother, no rights can be exercised against her son.

“Isn’t he going to be my son?”

Adele was in vain.

‘Would it have been better to die?’

She had Leo in her womb for almost 10 months. After that, she raised him alone for three years. But she couldn’t even refuse to let the Emperor take the child with him. He didn’t even ask for her opinion. And now he was letting her know that he was taking Leo away.

‘I lived like a fool to see this kind of thing.’

Her life had become meaningless.

Neither the scenery of Lake Vinele, which was considered peaceful until a while ago, nor the tea table decorated with sweet and cute things, caught her eye anymore.

***

For a few days, he was busy with a backlog of work. He brought Leo to the Office today. Leo’s gleamed and looked around the emperor’s office.

He had also called Adele, but she didn’t come with Leo, saying she wasn’t feeling well.

‘Is it really bad here?’

There was no reason to turn down Leo’s invitation. Leo was fascinated by all sorts of things in the Office and quickly lost interest, sitting on the floor and doing origami.

Van smiled pleased at the sight.

“Leopold.”

“Yes, Daddy?”

Leo, who focused on what he was making, responded half-heartedly without paying attention to his father.

“You’re the only one who can treat me like that.”

Actually, one more person.

Leo diligently moved his little fingers as if he didn’t understand.

‘Isn’t he too small?’

Van felt sorry for not seeing Leo grow up.

The former emperor loved a woman very much and wasted all his money from the national treasury. However, contrary to public sentiment, the state of the poorly supported border was a mess.

Van had lived on the battlefield for nearly three years in the last four years. The remaining year was spent grinding rotten upper and stagnant water. Seeing Adele and Leo was a brief moment when he returned from a war. Every time he saw Leo after months, he was so moved and disappointed at the same time.

It was nice to see the treasure-like child sitting on the floor of his office and littering paper.

“Dad, this is a gift.”

Leo, who had been wriggling for a long time, presented him with something like a broken donut with a hole in the middle.

“What’s this?”

“A Crown!”

At that word, Van took off the crown that he was wearing on his head. Leo clapped his hands happily with paper clasped like a donut on Van’s head. Van fell in love with his little son’s tricks. When he saw Leo’s smiling face, he remembered Adele crying.

“Sigh..”

As Van sighed. Leo looked at him with his eyes wide open.

“Leo, it’s time to go to lunch.”

“Yes, bye dad!”

Leo waved his hands and went with the servant.

“See you again, Dad!”

Leo only added the word “yo” to what he wanted and what he wanted to ask. How smart.

Leo’s “See you again” made Van alive again.

“What about Adele?”

“Miss Ernst is not coming out of the room.”

Van put down the pen he was holding in his hand. When he asked about Adele’s physical condition, who didn’t come with Leo, the servant said,

“She didn’t tell me she wasn’t feeling well.”

“Yes, and that… she collapsed in the morning because she hasn’t eaten for three days.”

“What? Why are you telling me this now?”

Van approached the servant.

Knowing the fiery nature of the emperor, the servant trembled in fear.

“Get out, you’re fired.”

The servant quickly ran out of his office, caressing the area around his neck. Van saw another servant standing near the entrance of the Office.

“What’s your name?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. My name is Dawson.”

“How many years have you worked in the palace?”

“’Three, four years.”

“Good.”

He was the one who came in after changing the water in the vessels.

“Do you see what the servant just did wrong?”

Dawson nodded violently.

“You are the replacement of the person who just got kicked out. Don’t make the same mistake.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Dawson was promoted to the Emperor’s chief of staff at that moment.

Van headed straight to Adele’s room.

He couldn’t believe Adele fainted.

Adele had been looking down for a few days. Van attributed it to being held in a cold prison. There was a scuffle in Adele’s room when he arrived.

“Miss Ernst. We’re going to be in trouble.”

“You’re dizzy because you didn’t eat. You have to eat. It’s not something that’s going to be treated with medicine.”

She was originally small and slim.

Adele, who had been starving for three days, had thin cheeks.

“Get out.”

Everyone disappeared out of the room at the word of the Emperor.

“Do you intend to starve to death?”

Adele didn’t answer, so Van grew anxious.

The eyes filled with sadness were blurry.

“What’s the reason for this?”

Adele wasn’t looking at him and was staring in the air somewhere in front of her.

“Please let me and Leo out of the palace.”

***