Chapter 10

“What do you…”

Chesney looked up at him with troubled eyes. At that time, she could sense a figure in the corner of her eye. Blanched in fear, she didn’t dare to look anywhere else.

“Cobalt. What do you think you’re doing here?” Cerulian untied the string that secured his dagger at his side before pulling it out and waving it like a whip. With an intimidating look on his face, he charged at the two people in front of him.

“Oh, it’s you, Cerulian the family traitor.” The man said with mirth laced in his voice.

“You’ve been expelled from Keskus. Leave this instant!”

“I didn’t know that you could attack without Bobbi Winsol by your side.” The sarcastic remark contained something brutal. Chesney’s instincts told her that this man named Cobalt was much stronger than Cerulian, who was still waving his sword around.

“I am willing to go at you, for the safety of Primera’s mate. And Bobbi is also nearby.”

“Were you happy to banish all the members of your family out of Nest and remain here alone?”

“I… I…”

Cobalt cracked a mocking smile before leaving the forest.

***

As soon Cobalt left them, Cerulian plopped down onto the ground and quietly wept.

“Are you alright?” When his shoulders steadied from shaking, Chesney pulled out a towel with elves and wolves printed on it and handed it to him.

“Yes, I’m fine. I am a bit ashamed to be crying here, of all places.”

Receiving the towel, he wiped the tears from his face, then pulled himself back up. When his body became fully erect, a white cloth pouch fell from his breast pocket onto the ground.

“Hey, you dropped something.”

Chesney, who had reached out to pick it up, retracted her hand upon discovering the pieces of a lelang wing that had fallen out of the pouch. And she held her breath

“Ah, darn it.” After hurriedly sweeping up the pieces of the wing with his hands, placing them back into the pouch, and tying it up, Cerulian stared blankly at Chesney. “Are you alright? You didn’t inhale the powder, right?”

“No, I didn’t, but why do you…”

“About this. Somehow one of them died while I was chasing it out. And it’d be a waste to throw it away.”

Chesney’s eyebrows narrowed at his excuse. It wasn’t something to interfere with because she didn’t know as much about lelangs as the people of Belcansus, but it seemed certain that Cerulian would be terribly scolded by Bobbi if she were to find out.

“Can you keep this a secret from Bobbi?”

“Okay.”

“Whew, you saved me. Thank you, Your Majesty.”

Picking up the book she’d dropped, Chesney turned to head back to the palace. And Cerulian, who walked ahead of her, sneakily looked back. An act of attracting someone’s attention by making eye contact with a smile. She could tell just by looking at him that he wanted something from her. Thanks to this, Cerulian was embarrassed as he started sweating bullets.

“In return, Cerulian, can you also keep this a secret? Me being here in this place.”

“…all right. I will.”

A secret. The accidental encounter with an unfamiliar man was never so problematic as to keep it a secret.

Because it was dangerous enough that Chesney had been threatened by a man dressed in a clean suit, and it was a shame that he had left, because she was curious about what the word mate meant. If White were to find out that his wife, who couldn’t satisfy him sexually, had been with another man, he might throw her out immediately, so, feeling like she had to, she decided to keep her run-in with Cobalt a secret.

***

Chesney asked the same question every time a servant walked in and out of the bedroom.

“Do you know what exactly the word mate means?”

“Uh, that…”

If there was a long silence like that, it didn’t mean that they were clueless, but that they were unsure if it was okay to say it.

“Or if it has another meaning… Can’t you let me know if it has a special meaning or something? Anything?”

“My apologies, Your Majesty,” replied every servant as they scurried away from Chesney.

Actually, this had happened more than once since her return to Belcansus Palace. Wouldn’t it be normal for servants to know the circumstances of where they worked? Still, aside from knowing basic things like where the bathroom and dining room were and how much water to put in the pot, they avoided everything else, claiming they didn’t know.

“I see. That’s fine.”

But she wasn’t fine at all. Her mood subsided heavily as it occurred to her that she was being bullied the same way she’d been treated in the House of Atelian. She felt like a puppet; a puppet named Empress, trapped in a display case labeled Belcansus Imperial Palace. On top of that, her husband still hadn’t returned. Even though Chesney, who had spent her time during dinner nibbling at the food, had come to bed early, she couldn’t fall asleep as the night deepened.

‘Can’t I come to meet my mate?’

The words of the man named Cobalt circled in her head all night. A former emperor who had been kicked off the throne.

Why did he say “my mate”? Chesney couldn’t suppress her curiosity. She had to meet him again, because if no one taught her the word mate, there was only one way to hear it: Directly from the person who had brought it up.