In This Life, I Will Raise You Well, Your Majesty!

Where Water Flows II (3)

Translated by Wook
Edited by Wook

Thompson knew that the 2nd Empress in front of him wasn’t as cold-hearted as she seemed.

He stuttered but tried his best to talk.

“I-It was too late to buy anything! B-But the money was shared equally…”

“So what about today? What are you going to buy today?”

He wondered if she was really curious about that, but Thompson didn’t delay.

“S-Some bread. Not hard multi-grain bread, but white, soft wheat bread… My wife and m-my child love it so much.”

“It must be a light step on the way back to buying bread. I’m sure you’ll have fun.”

Thompson thought that the 2nd Empress who said that was smiling for a brief moment.

As he wondered, her expression went back to normal.

So, even though he was shaking, he was able to have courage.

“That was the way I came here! I-I didn’t get to greet Your Majesty even though you saved me twice yesterday, so I wanted to thank you! It’s really, really nice to be able to say this.”

Everyone gathered here must have the same mindset.

After being silent for a moment, Elisha opened her mouth.

“As you can see, I am fine, so you can go away. If you feel comfortable going home and you are not afraid to wake up tomorrow morning, that means you are less likely to live. In addition to that, if there is hope that tomorrow will be better than today, wouldn’t it make you happier? You can dream. His Highness the Crown Prince is kind and even clever. Everyone can look forward to tomorrow. I will too.”

[T/N: I guess Elisha is trying to convey that when you lose vigilance towards life, you will be more likely to die.]

Elisha’s voice echoed far away.

It was thanks to Rohan who loaded the mana just in time.

The words of the 2nd Empress did not contain a friendly sign or a firm promise…

Oddly enough, the people enjoyed the rather indifferent tone of voice and the story of everyday life that unraveled so calmly.

They became willing and trusted.

But…

“What are you doing? It’s all over, why don’t you get up.”

What you are afraid of is what you are afraid of.

Thompson felt goosebumps all over his body as her sky-blue eyes fell down.

It wasn’t only Thompson. Everyone who heard her voice lifted their buttocks.

“But if you guys don’t go, I can’t go either.”

Until they heard the late words of the 2nd Empress.

“Go? Does Your Majesty want to go somewhere?”

“Should I live here if I don’t? This is the Verdin Duchy. If I, the 2nd Empress, want to live here, don’t I have to change its name?”

Second Barossa, the second capital of the Empire.

It was such a big deal and those who heard it were terrified, but Elisha, who uttered those words, said nothing further.

Then a woman, who was with Thompson last night, said cautiously.

“But there is no need to go in such a hurry… Perhaps… A-Are we bothering Your Majesty too much?”

The woman was already half crying.

She remembered the first words Elisha had said when she first got down in front of the city gate.

“Haa.”

When Elisha sighed, the woman gasped and shut her mouth.

She realized that her behavior was too frivolous.

“Y-Your Majesty, I have sinned to death!”

Elisha frowned as the woman, who started rubbing her face on the dirt floor, shouted.

Elisha approached the woman and grabbed her by the shoulder.

She supported the woman’s upper body and wiped the woman’s face that was a mess with tears and dirt with the back of her hand.

Elisha eventually decided to admit it.

“Look. Don’t bother with this.”

“M-My apologies.”

“No need to apologize. If I didn’t like it, I wouldn’t have done it in the first place.”

“… Eh?”

“I meant it when I said it’s difficult and bothersome, but it’s not that I don’t like it. What’s annoying is that you keep worrying about me. You’re so weak that I’m afraid if you go somewhere you will get hurt easily, and you will cry in fright because you don’t have anything.”

Although she was an older woman than her, Elisha treated her like a child.

The woman also took it for granted.

The owner of Barossa is the parent of all peoples.

And it is the proper principle of the world for the sun to form a pair with the moon.

Everyone here knew that the 2nd Empress with silver hair was the moon.

No, they hoped.

May the one who looks down upon them arrogantly like a goddess and embraces them mercifully like a goddess be their moon.

The one and only Empress!

“It’s done.”

Elisha lightly patted the cleaned woman’s cheek with her index finger and the outside of her middle finger before letting go.

“I’m really going now, so you guys should go back too. Go with the other people who keep gathering, and don’t forget that the Verdin Duchy is not the only one suffering from drought.”

In fact, the event in the Verdin Duchy was not originally planned.

“Bless the other places too! As much as we saw, so they could also know.”

Realizing that they could no longer keep her here, the people shouted.

Thousands of voices were united in one voice and the words poured down like rain and wet Elisha’s heart.

Elisha turned her back from them and faced the gates of the city.

She had to hurry.

She wanted to be with Leon before he woke up.

Guuung! Guuung!

With the sound of metal, the floor was scratched deeply, and the two gates that had been closed open wide.

Inside, Duke Verdin and the Western nobles were lined up rigidly.

“The greetings are over, and everyone has decided to go home, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

Elisha spoke up first.

The Duke raised his eyebrows and looked over Elisha’s shoulder.

Those who had been kneeling behind her back stood up eagerly and passed on the words they had heard from the front to the back, and they were moving quietly.

How could such a large number of people voluntarily gather and disband in such a short time without causing any problems?

Ironically, the 2nd Empress who greeted them outside the city seemed more like the owner of the land. Elisha passed by as if there was no more conversation with Duke Verdin.

But as Marquis Rwanda got close, she slowed down for a moment.

“Is Marquis ready? Or should we leave first? When I see the people of the Duchy, I want to move as quickly as possible because I’m concerned about the people who will be waiting.”

When she said that, what else could he say?

“I will hurry as much as possible, Your Majesty.”

Marquis Rwanda frowned, but tried hard to answer.

***

Elisha didn’t really need to say goodbye to anyone.

When the arrangement was finished, only a little formal talk came and went, and then unlike those who decided to accompany only from the capital to the duchy, Elisha, the 1st Knights, and Marquis Rwanda, who was in charge of guiding the entire western tour, set out from the duchy.

What was surprising was the unexpected increase in the number of people.

Even if Jonathan, a member of the duke family, joined them for the same reason as meeting the group before their arrival at the duchy, it was not difficult to think of the reason why his wife, Vera, and Benjamin came along.

Because everything would not have been possible without the Duke’s instructions.

Apparently, Duke Verdin was so angry with his eldest son that he could no longer consider the face of his first daughter-in-law, who came from a powerful count family, who had a strong relationship with the duke.

He sped up the succession structure so that the second daughter-in-law, who was not even treated as a person, could firmly support his grandson Benjamin.

Of course, the second daughter-in-law, who had no greed in the eyes of the Duke, and was so skittish and could only tremble, was attached to the 2nd Empress in hope to make her aware that striving to have influence was one of her duties as the Duke’s daughter-in law.

“Look, Your Majesty. This color suits you really well.”

Vera said while looking at the cloth she had been holding in her hand all the time even in the carriage and had not put it down.

Then, without giving Elisha a chance to reply, she was busy working on the fabric again.

Benjamin was listening to Leon with his expressionless, child-like face, clinging to Leon.

He was so unresponsive that nobody knew if he was hearing it or not.

But Leon continued the story without hesitation, making eye contact with Benjamin once in the middle and brushing his hair.

Whenever that happened, Benjamin’s small hands holding Leon’s clothes became sweaty.

Duke Verdin naturally thought that when he ordered, the mother and son would turn their backs on the 2nd Empress at any time for the benefit of the Duchy, but nobody knew if it would really happen.

***

“…. After that, it is said that the 2nd Empress and the party from the Verdin Duchy arrived at the Rwanda March.”

The conference hall had a concave structure.

The seat of the emperor was located in the deepest part, encircled by the nobles in a semicircle.

It is said that the closer one’s table is to the emperor, the higher their status, and the farther away it is, the lower the status is.

Ascencio occupied a seat in the center of the first floor, facing the emperor.

Ascencio’s voice resounded clearly in the conference hall, the Eastern and Central nobles were listening to him and applauding him.

“So it is like that!”

“Great!”

There were praises, but none of it was sincere.

However, as much as they wear a mask, Ascencio looks around with a well-maintained expression.

As if asking, “Do you have any more questions?”

Don’t act like you have nothing to add to the performance of the 2nd Empress that exceeded everyone’s expectations…

“But, didn’t Her Majesty lose her strength before the full-scale plan even started?”

“That is true. The results were good, but we need to see the big picture. What should be done if the future schedule is changed because Her Majesty became overwhelmed in the Vecchia Plain?”

“Her Majesty grew up in the Western Tower and came to Barossa right away, so perhaps she doesn’t know the world very well yet. The Western nobles should have been a good assistant, but they couldn’t. Therefore, how about sending new personnel to help?”

Since the emperor fully supported the 2nd Empress’s Western journey, the majority of the Central nobles, who belonged to the Imperial faction, and the Central nobles who did not belong to any of them refrained from speaking.

Most of the people who were pretending, trembling and trying to catch the fault of the 2nd Empress at the moment were the Eastern nobles.

They saw this as an opportunity to intervene in the steps of the 2nd Empress.

Of course, Ascencio had no intention of letting them do so.

“It is said that Her Majesty was more concerned as it was the first event to show the grace of His Majesty, the sun of Barossa. She couldn’t control it well this time, but she firmly promised that there would be no such mistake in the future. So everyone does not have to worry.”

The boy, who arranged the situation in a soft but determined tone, showed a gentle smile at the gaze of the nobles toward him.

It was indeed the appearance of a perfect prince.

In the minds of those who saw such Ascencio, calculations according to their respective positions were constantly made.

“That is all about the report, so let’s talk about the next agenda.”

Until the voice of Emperor Kaiden was heard.

After the Crown Prince has finished speaking, the Emperor presides over a political meeting, and the atmosphere in the conference hall is stretched differently than before.

Rather than giving and receiving one by one, it is the beginning of plundering by taking away what others have.

The fact that the emperor with the best qualities of all time and the aristocratic forcers with the greatest power in history live in the same era. Was it really a blessing? Or was it a curse?

It was still too early to know the answer.