"She is here," Zaroth muttered under his breath as he shifted his focus from the chat he was having with Roran, Zack, and Lily, who had joined them along the way.
His gaze fell upon a woman seated far in the back of the podium, almost as if she was trying to hide from the eyes of the masses. It was as though the emperor himself was ashad of her presence and sought to conceal her to the best of his ability.
"What a fool," Zaroth thought aloud.
Wasn't the emperor supposed to be this great figure? A leader ant to unite the people and guide them to victory along the righteous path?
Yet he tried to hide one of his wives? Just because she was suffering from so curse?
For a mont, Zaroth grimaced, rembering how people had started to treat his mother once she got infected with the sa curse.
But Zaroth tried not to let bad thoughts ruin his mood as he savored every second that he could stare at the queen. He was much farther in the back than the last ti, so naturally, the queen was much farther as well. But he didn't let that stop him from staring at her.
'I see…' he finally admitted to himself why he desired her so much.
Her condition reminded him of his deceased mother, the person he cherished and loved most—the one he had failed to save.
If he managed to save the queen, would he be able to atone for his failure?
Probably not. But even so, he wanted her, simply because she reminded him of his past.
Who knew? Maybe, with ti, he would co to cherish her as much as he had his mother.
The only thing Zaroth regretted was that, sitting in the back, surrounded by thousands of students, there was no way for the queen to sense his gaze on her like she had last ti.
But not everything could be perfect, after all.
The emperor began his speech, but Zaroth didn't listen to a word of it. He already knew the important parts of the announcent. Everything else was just formality—or, in other words, a waste of ti.
"What is he staring at so intently?" Lily whispered to Roran.
"Ah, he gets like that whenever he sees the queen," Roran replied casually.
"The queen? Don't tell he has a one-sided crush or sothing," Lily remarked, raising an eyebrow.
She didn't know much about Zaroth's habit of going after the impossible, but she honestly couldn't bla him.
Shifting her gaze, she began scanning the queens. Each and every one of them could easily be considered the most beautiful person in the world.
"Which one?" she asked.
"The one in the back," Roran answered.
"The back?" Lily muttered, searching for the woman.
A mont later, she gasped. "Wait, isn't she the one rumored to be gravely ill?"
"Yes, that's the one."
He could have focused on any of the queens, but he chose the one who was hidden? The one whose illness had supposedly ruined her appearance?
Suddenly, Lily saw Zaroth in a different light—a person who didn't care about soone's appearance but cared more for their heart.
"You could learn a lot from him," Lily whispered, nudging Roran lightly with her elbow.
Roran, not understanding what she was trying to convey, could only raise an eyebrow in confusion.
*****
'What's the point?' Althea's thoughts were grim, but she didn't let it show as she sat quietly in her chair at the back of the podium, uninterested and waiting for the announcent to end.
'What is the point of continuing to live on?'
Typically, soone afflicted with the muscle rot curse wouldn't survive more than a few years. Yet sohow, she had endured nearly two decades of its tornt.
But rather than being a cause for happiness, her survival had only brought her husband's disgust.
She still rembered it vividly—before the marriage, her family had assured her that the emperor knew about her condition. Later, on their wedding night, she learned the truth, he hadn't.
It was the sa with everyone around her—whether her family, her husband, his other wives, or their children. All of them looked at her with the sa eyes.
Part of it was because of her appearance, but another part was from superstition. Many believed that rely touching her might spread the curse.
As such, she wore multiple layers of clothing and bandages on her arms, hoping it would stop people from instinctively distancing themselves from her… not that it worked anyway.
'When was the last ti soone looked at like I was a human being?' she wondered.
The only mories that ca to mind were from her childhood, before she was infected.
At least, that was what she thought—until a recent mory surfaced.
The previous ti her husband had gathered the students, hadn't there been soone who stared at her? At her alone—not at the other beautiful queens around her.
There had been three brave souls sitting in the front seats that day. Among them, the shortest one with white hair had looked at her.
She wasn't sure how to react. It had been so long since anyone had looked at her with sothing other than hostility. So all she could do was stare back.
Considering the distance between them, the man had probably never even noticed.
"Is… he here, perhaps?" Althea muttered under her breath.
Her gaze drifted to the front of the arena, where a few of the academy's teachers sat. But there was no sign of him.
'Has he not co today?' she wondered. 'Or maybe he's sitting sowhere in the back?'
With nothing better to occupy her thoughts, she began scanning the massive crowd.
Then, her eyes stopped.
A certain pair of green, cat-like eyes t hers.
Unconsciously, Althea smiled faintly—a gesture so unfamiliar that she couldn't even rember the last ti she had done such a thing.
With a quiet sigh of relief, she whispered, "He is here."
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