"You seem to care a lot about your maids," Chester comnted.
"Yes, of course. They take good care of after all," Arabella managed to fake a smile.
"I see. No worries, I was rely wondering why she hadn’t greeted us along with the others. Perhaps, she’s new," King Chester managed to smile as well. It was clear he did not want to let Renee’s behavior slide.
"As I have said earlier, my maid is sick. As you can see, her whole body is trembling. She could barely even move. I will punish her myself once she’s feeling better."
[Oh, does she let out her frustrations on her maids? I guess she didn’t beco the Dark Emperor’s Empress for nothing. This maid’s behavior - she seems like soone who had experienced getting beat up. She reminds of Evelyn. She used to brace herself this way before I even hit her.]
"I see. I’ll leave the punishnt to you then," King Chester smirked.
’Bastard! Don’t lump in with the likes of you,’ Arabella barely managed to stop herself from glaring at King Chester. Even when she beca a villainess in her past life, she never abused her maids.
"Please excuse us then," Arabella faked another smile and the King and Queen of Zygos did the sa.
"Carry her," she instructed while looking at Alwin. It was for show.
Likewise, it had to be Alwin so Renee wouldn’t put up a fight. She was clearly too emotional right now to care about anything else. But maybe, being in Alwin’s arms could distract her.
Alwin quickly obeyed and scooped up Renee. He used a spell to immobilize Renee at the sa ti to make Arabella’s claim true that Renee couldn’t move.
Renee was wide-eyed and indeed got distracted from her angry and hateful thoughts when she realized Alwin was carrying her lover’s style.
He made it look so easy too that even Arabella wondered if he had been hiding his strength. She recalled that Ferdinand did train Alwin in fighting and swordsmanship too when he was younger. Alwin was simply focused on honing his magic skills.
Carla and the other maids were envious but were more relieved that things didn’t escalate. Renee could have been punished severely for her behavior after all.
After reaching a blind spot in the garden, Alwin teleported them back to the mansion. Arabella asked Renee to go with her to her study. They needed to speak alone.
[It’s dangerous to leave that woman with her right now. What if she’s able to use her skills? She oozed off such a dark aura earlier. She may be able to activate it unconsciously.] Alwin frowned.
’What abilities is he talking about? Renee has abilities?’ Arabella was puzzled. She wondered if Renee was a magician or sothing.
Alwin pretended to stay on guard outside the door with Rendell. But once Renee went into Arabella’s study, Alwin used a spell to make himself invisible, then teleported inside her study.
’I see. No wonder even though I can hear his thoughts, I cannot find where he was at tis,’ Arabella did her best not to look around the room for signs of Alwin.
"Renee, not greeting royalty is among the highest forms of disrespect. It’s akin to not recognizing their sovereignty. You could have been punished severely. Why did you do that?" Arabella focused on the matter at hand.
"I-I’m sorry, Your Majesty. It’s just, I-"
Renee was still shaken from the realization that her best friend and husband set her up and killed her so they could be together.
[I thought I would do my best to forget everything and live a better life here. I tried forgetting about my previous life even when I get constantly reminded of it. I didn’t even gather news about them. Why did they have to appear in front of like this? I would have been better off not knowing they worked together to eliminate .]
Renee felt so betrayed and hurt since she fully believed Fatima was her friend. She did not expect such betrayal from Fatima.
Arabella could relate. She understood the feeling. She had experienced betrayal before, and Renee’s was the one she did not expect the most.
She forrly thought Renee was rely obsessed with beauty. But it seed there was a deeper reason behind it.
Ferdinand said that Chester had married the most beautiful woman in Zygos just a month after his first wife, Evelyn, died of an accident.
aning, if Renee had been Evelyn in the past, she must have been constantly compared with ladies more beautiful than she was. Chester and the people around her must have compared her to Fatima and others for her to be so obsessed with beauty in this life.
[I know our marriage was rely arranged by my parents, so he didn’t love even for a bit. But he benefitted a lot from marrying . He gained my family’s support, so he was crowned as the king of Zygos instead of his brothers. But he abused and forced to abort my baby saying it was soone else’s. And it was all so he could marry Fatima?! I hate them. I hate them all!] Renee began crying due to her raging emotions.
’What?! He even forced her to abort their child?!’ Arabella was horrified.
It must have felt so terrible. Renee did not even get the chance to hold her child in her arms.
Arabella embraced her. She wouldn’t have been able to do this months ago. She had always been creeped out by Renee’s obsession with beauty. But who would have thought Renee was going through sothing this heavy? And all on her own.
She held Renee tightly and the latter sobbed her heart out.
Renee was a victim of her circumstances. She turned out the way she was because of what happened to her. And she was haunted by her painful past because she could rember it even after she passed on to her next life.
"I’m so sorry, Your Majesty. I just- I just," Renee said between sobs.
[I can’t stop my tears. My chest feels so heavy. It’s so hard to breathe.]
"Shh. It’s alright. You can let it all out first. You can cry as much as you want," Arabella gently stroked Renee’s hair.
. . .
[There she goes hugging her enemies.] Alwin internally grumbled.
’Have so heart,’ Arabella wanted to say. Renee hadn’t betrayed Arabella yet in this life. She hadn’t done anything against her either.
[I guess, this woman doesn’t count as one since she hasn’t done anything yet. But this is where she starts. After learning about her husband and friend’s plot, she sought for revenge. And Her Majesty’s appearance and title were just the perfect things she needed.] Alwin thought and Arabella gulped.
’What does he an?!’
Alwin stopped thinking about it though, so Arabella didn’t get to know what he ant by it. He decided to just watch over things in the anti and see how things would progress so he could decide what to do next.
After a while, Renee finally stopped sobbing.
"My deepest apologies, Your Majesty. I ended up ruining your clothes and wasting your ti," Renee gasped when she realized she just cried as she pleased.
"It’s alright. I can just get changed later. I didn’t have anything important to do anyway. And I did tell you to just let it all out first. More importantly, what’s troubling you this much? Why won’t you tell , so you’ll feel lighter?" Arabella encouraged Renee to talk about it.
"Uhm, it’s sort of unbelievable."
[Why is she always so kind? She will die early at this rate. Does she want to be like ?]
’I don’t. And I’m not being kind. I just want to know what happened to you.’
Arabella did feel bad for Renee and was genuinely curious. After all, they were in sowhat similar situations. She also knew what it was like to not have soone to speak with about one’s darkest secrets.
Renee probably had no one to talk with about this either.
It was better for Arabella to be that person than to let it be soone else who could make Renee feel more hopeless when no one believes her.
"It’s alright. It’s better to open up to soone than carry the burden all by yourself. I can at least listen to what you have to say," Arabella encouraged.
[Right. Even if I tell her, she probably won’t believe . No one will. I once told people about it and they thought I was making up things or going crazy. But I did indeed feel better when I was able to tell other people about it even if they didn’t believe .] Renee was sure Arabella wouldn’t believe it.
’I will though, because I, myself was reborn.’
And Arabella already heard about so of it from their thoughts. Though if she wasn’t reborn and couldn’t read minds, she probably would not believe it as well.
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