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

The emperor led the situation vaguely, put everyone in the mud, and stood alone on the sunny ground to look down. Besides, even if he had decided, he wouldn’t have let Jaylene know.

“You’d better not come to the 2nd Consort’s Palace next time. It is no good to cause unnecessary disturbances when His Majesty’s intentions are not determined.”

As Elisha spoke coldly, Jaylene raised her eyelashes that had been lowered. The exposed purple eyes were darkened.

“Why are you so proud in front of me?”

Elisha was rather surprised by Jaylene’s question. What’s the reason for not being proud?

Even if Elisha had done something wrong, Jaylene was the one who had sent the pearl earrings to threaten her first!

Seeing the 2nd Consort with a look as if accusing her of something, Jaylene nodded.

“I knew 2nd Consort would respond like that.”

Elisha’s brows furrowed as she made up a backstory to explain this situation inside her mind. Then, soon after, she recalled that there was only one thing that could make Jaylene want to kill her openly.

Following the trip to the West, she had received a lot of help from Rohan even after she had gone missing, no wonder Jaylene’s eyes almost turned upside down.

“You know that Sir Rohan is a good man. There was no misunderstanding, Countess.”

Elisha had never thought that anyone could like her as a woman. She had never been a child, never been a woman, never been a human being, before becoming a mother.

The only love she had ever received was from the child she had given birth to. It was the first time she had ever had one, so she didn’t know how to let go.

She hadn’t known she had to teach them to walk alone. She had failed once and returned, but there were still a lot of things she didn’t understand. She was still learning to act as a mother.

How could she understand the love between a man and a woman? She regarded magic and mana that had saved her from hell as something truer than love, and the only person she had ever loved as a woman had thrown her away.

Her cool but innocent eyes turned to Jaylene, but Jaylene did not believe her. They were both very careful people, how would Jaylene know if she was the only one who didn’t know? What if they had already exchanged their feelings without her knowing?

It was true that Rohan was a good person. But he was a strict adherent of the good he had set. Look at what Rohan had been doing lately. Everyone was slowly stepping onto the line.

He might’ve done it because he was selfless, but it would never have happened if it wasn’t for the 2nd Consort and her child!

Jaylene, who had shot Elisha a look, stood up from the sofa as if she had no more to share.

“Today I dropped by because I wanted to see the 2nd Consort. I’ll prepare properly next time, so see you then.”

Jaylene bowed her head slightly, tugged gracefully at the hem of her skirt, and stepped out. As she was trying to get out of the 2nd Consort’s Palace, she found a maid holding a black cat on the other side and stopped her.

Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t a black cat. It was the one that had made the capital noisy for a while. Jaylene, who approached with trembling fingers, stood in front of the maid.

“I see Princess!”

Excusing Dorian from the courtesy, Jaylened reached out. Cotton Ball, who had been still as it had gotten used to being loved, suddenly raised its fur and snarled after being touched at the nape of its neck.

“It’s shy of strangers.”

Dorian wanted to refute Jaylene’s words, but quickly shut up. Cotton Ball was not shy of strangers. At first, it had a hard time adapting, but it quickly started running around the 2nd Consort’s Palace as if it were its home.

It hated the 2nd Consort because… she was a very difficult person to deal with, and Dorian had never seen it act like this except when it was facing the 2nd Consort. Jaylene stared down at the Cotton Ball and turned back and left the 2nd Consort’s Palace.

That night, Cotton Ball had a fever.

After a few days of severe illness, it barely survived.

Even if it was a baby, it was a Barcado. It should be able to detoxify any poison on its own, but the fever had been caused by severe poisoning, to the extent that the person treating it had wondered what was wrong with it.

Someone’s face immediately flashed into Elisha’s mind, but there was no evidence.

“I told you to go quietly.”

She would definitely pay it back, but unfortunately, the time was not now.

***

Rumble! Rumble!

The running carriage shook violently. The road itself wasn’t too rough, but broken branches and muddy soil caused by the rain and wind last night were scattered here and there like natural traps.

The body of the woman riding in the carriage was bruised blue as it crashed into various parts of the interior. It must have hurt to the point where one would make a loud noise, but the woman rolled her lips inward and held it in with a bite.

After meeting her husband, she should’ve begun to live the life of a lady, but in reality, it was not a very comfortable life. She had learned to work at a shabby clothing store that even people of the middle class or merchant class, who called themselves gentry, would not look at.

She had been overworked under a cranky and greedy hostess. She had often felt like she was going to die this way. If it weren’t because of her love of making clothes, she would never have endured it.

But it didn’t seem like anything compared to what it was now. She had thought she was going to die then, but now she really was going to die if she went a little further.

The woman, Vera, held Benjamin in her arms even tighter. There was a willingness to protect the child even if her body was broken.

How long has it been?

Rumble!

The carriage leaned to one side with the sound of something breaking.

“Are you all right?”

The door of the carriage opened after the urgent question. Vera, who had lost her balance and was stuck on the tilted side, managed to get out of the carriage by holding the outstretched hand. When she came out, she saw that the left wheel of the carriage had fallen into a pit and was broken.

“We have to leave this carriage and get a new one after we cross the mountain.”

While one of the knights was talking, the other one brought over a horse that could still move and kill the other one who had its leg broken when it had fallen together with the tilted carriage.

“If you find it hard to ride a horse, how about sharing a ride with me?”

When the knight asked, Vera shook her head.

She was worried whether the knight’s horse would be able to run properly if the weight of herself and her child were added to the horse, which had already run for a long time, on this mountain road.

“I’ve learned to ride from my husband even though I wasn’t good at it.”

Actually, she had asked him to teach her because of the 2nd Consort. She wanted to copy that person.

“No one in the duke’s family doesn’t know that young master’s riding skills are excellent.”

The knight had a look as though he was worried she wouldn’t be able to do even the basics. But Vera only nodded because it was difficult to confess to the knights who were suffering because of her.

We’ll make it, somehow. The knight handed his horse to Vera and rode the other horse that had been pulling the carriage. It was easier to ride a properly trained horse.

Vera made her son hug her neck tightly, then climbed onto the horse. Then her son Benjamin squeezed her neck.

Surprised by what had happened, Vera moved. Pain turned into sorrow, and sorrow into coldness.

She hated her young son, who still did not understand a thing, and her husband, who was not by her side at such a time. She hated them all, and tears seemed to well up in her eyes. However.

Shhh!

The sound of something cutting through the wind was heard. The problem was that it was too close. Vera was able to clearly see a dagger passing through the place where her head had been before it hit the ground after missing its target.

“Hiiiy!”

Tears welled up, and Vera’s body stiffened while holding her breath.

“They’re after us. We need to get out of here!”

“We must protect the little master. Come on, move!”

The knights shouted. Now, two of the five or six remaining knights blocked the back, and the rest went forward with Vera. Meanwhile, the enemies that came closer launched an attack.

Shwa-shwa-shwak!

Arrows were pouring down, Chaeng! Chaeng!

The two knights who were left behind could not stop the attacking enemies, but they did their best to hold them back even for a second or two.

But will alone did not stop the sword. The two knights were soon cut down, spilling everything they had on the ground.

The horses the enemy rode trampled over them.

Mud and tangled blood clung to the horses’ hooves, making dots everywhere.

“We have split up!”

It was fortunate that there was a crossroads in front to deceive the enemies’ eyes, but it was sad that the remaining knights had to be sacrificed as bait again.

“We’re going to lure the enemies here, so you two get off your horse and go off the road with Ash.”

“But—”

The older knight shook his head as the young knight named Ash tried to refute.

“We don’t have time. Aren’t you the most skilled in swordsmanship among us? Duke Jonathan was the only one who took care of us who were bullied among the duke’s knights. Do what you’re supposed to do for him.”

Ash gritted his teeth and looked down. Then he led Vera and Benjamin.

After confirming that the two were moving away from the road and hiding in themselves in the topographical features, the knight erased the traces of their movements and looked back at his colleagues.

Now there were only three of them, including himself. He heard the sound of horseshoes hitting the ground from behind.

He slapped Vera and Ash’s horses in the rump, causing them to run to one of two forks in the road, and prepared themselves.

When they were narrowly captured in the sight of the pursuers.

“Let’s go!”

The man who had designated Ash as the escort of the little master and the madam sent a signal.

The remaining three exchanged glances and then split again into two and one and ran at the two crossroads.

No one knew how effective this would be, but the knights speeded up their horses in the hopes that the little master and the second daughter-in-law of the duke’s family would reach their destination safely.

“Huh, huh!”

Vera felt like she was out of breath, but she didn’t stop walking. If she walked one step further, she would be one step further from death.

She didn’t mind Ash carrying Benjamin on his back. If it wasn’t for him, she would have already fallen for sure.

“Can we get a little rest? I don’t think anyone’s following us.”

“No. It’s not that they’re not following, they’re just a little late.”

Ash must be right.

“Did you say that the place you want to go is the Heron group in Bauer territory?”

Ash checked to see if the destination had changed.

Vera actually had ties with the most famous group in the empire, where all sorts of rumors came from. And it didn’t stop there, their relationship was deep enough to get them involved in the internal affairs of Duke Verdin, the head of the West.

She said she was going to ask for help, and it was like the last straw, but what made him puzzled was that there was no doubt on Vera’s face.

Unlike Ash’s complicated mind, Vera replied simply.

“Yes.”

It was said that the status of the Heron group was almost at the same height as a duchy.

“I see. I will do my best to take you to the Bauer territory.”

“Thank you.”

She didn’t know if it sounded too small, but she didn’t repeat it. Instead, Vera thought of the person she should find where she was headed.

The favor that the 2nd Consort bestowed upon her, Rosie at Heron group.

At the moment, when she did not know where the enemy might come from, that person was Vera’s only answer.

… and who knows? I don’t know if this will help.

Vera touched the white envelope in her arms with her fingertips.