Oh! My Empress

Chris got startled and cowered in fear, hiding behind Emmeline. The most he was afraid of in this castle was this lady, Anna.

"I-I would not poison my own sister!" he protested in his feeble voice.

Kim Su Won understood her maid's intention. After all, Emmeline was one of the crown princess candidates, although only by force. Her eldest sister, Cecilia Whittemore, at eighteen, was just too old for the crown prince, who was younger than her by whole five years. There were other sisters of hers who were of similar age to hers and crown prince but she was the only one who was the daughter of Duke and Duchess, more qualified for the role.

Which was also one of the reasons she was allowed to live. Otherwise, her mother would have banished her to some countryside castle as well. Anyway, in the end, in the novel she had started accumulating wealth at sixteen years old and the third prince, who was also sixteen, had fallen in love with her bold personality and passion with which she came up with new ideas. Emmeline had become quite free spirited too. Before her coming-of-age ceremony happened at eighteen, she had amassed so much wealth that even the king of the empire could note refute her request to cancel her engagement with the crown prince. And then she lived free before being wooed by the third prince.

Anyway, just being a legitimate crown princess candidate made her a target of assassination attempts. And she had just gone through a week long ordeal after falling in the lake under the influence of alcohol apparently. Anna was not wrong in assuming the worst but still, Chris was just a child, without his mother too. Why would he want to harm her, the only source of his protection?

"Anna! That was out of line," Kim Su Won could not help but chide her maid. It was one thing to warn her, but snatching the candy so ruthlessly in front of that child was too cruel. This age was the time of development for kids, such finger pointing was going to break the kid's confidence like this. She was all too familiar with such scenario.

In her original life, whenever she played in a group of kids and anything went wrong, she had to take the blame for it and apologize even if she was not in the wrong. Her mother had to always be the polite one to keep up appearances. But she never ever thought how sad and heartbreaking it would be for a kid to take the blame of something she did not do. And it was always the case, not just once or twice.

Anna looked at her miss suspiciously. She sure had taken this kid under her wing out of gratitude towards his deceased mother, but she never took his side like this. It was more like she was treating him like her real brother.

"I-I mean, he is just a kid. The candy might look filthy but he would not have bad intentions," Kim Su Won gave a sheepish look in return, she did not want her maid to think that she had changed too much. Although she had managed to convince her that she was amnesic.

Anna accepted the softened stance of her miss. Her miss still knew to keep her in the heart. Although her miss had been very willful in the past, she, as her miss's only maid, still enjoyed privileges. It was just that her miss's temper was not too good and she got angry easily. However, it seemed like with her memories, she had forgotten her rage too, which was good for her.

"I understand miss. I am not accusing young master Chris. I am just saying that young master would not know where the candy was sourced from. What if it was poisoned before it was handed to him. Young master Chris, you know what a cruel place this estate is, right?" Anna tried to teach the kid gently lest she attracted ire of her miss.

Christopher Whittemore, although was just a nine year old kid, he had much more understanding than any other kid in the house. He was actually quite intelligent, and had talents to surpass the first young master in the family.

However, Emmeline's mother was just so cruel that she had ordered to kill Chris's mother when he was just two years old and then gotten the kid killed by sending him in war at the tender age of fourteen. Unfortunately, the transmigrated businesswoman did not have any affection for the kid and he had been isolated from everyone due to strict training, the seventeen year old Emmeline only heard the news later.

It was supposed to be a heart wrenching scene, for he was the only sibling that cared for his sister from the shadows, but it was mentioned by the author just in passing. Emmeline sighed, the author of the novel did not have any sense at all, did they? What had Chris ever done to the author?

Chris nodded once he understood the implication of his actions. "I am sorry sister, I was careless. I did not mean to put you in danger," he apologized sincerely. He looked as cute as a puppy who was whining to ask for forgiveness from her. she could not help but squish the chubby cheeks of the cute kid.

Kim Su Won's stomach grumbled once again when Anna immediately put forward her meal. Her food was simple chicken soup for her to have something light and warm. She had woken up about after a week after all.

After the meal, Kim Su Won finally felt alive.. She played with her brother a bit when a few more visitors arrived at her small castle.