Lucia looked at Helena.
“So? He’s your godfather. Isn’t it enough that you’re safe and sound?”
Helena looked at her daughter and smiled.
“At that time… I didn’t do anything. The one from the Church did nothing and came out safe, and I even stepped in to stop Bulaien and… provided information about her. Because I hoped he would find his way back.”
“Didn’t he want to die?”
Helena nodded, her silver eyelashes trembling slightly.
“Yes, but I didn’t know that then. Perhaps Bulaien’s life… was too heavy for him. He had taken care of me and helped me ever since I joined the Church. He was truly a good person. Maybe because he suffered too much in his youth, he became exceptionally good at understanding others’ hearts, yet he couldn’t understand his own.”
“Yeah…”
Lucia shifted her position, and the white high heel dangling from her toes stopped swaying.
“In the fairy tale between you and the Emperor, he played an important role, didn’t he? That kind old man, the one who held your hand and handed you over to the Emperor.”
“The fact that you can see these stories means Ian didn’t deliberately erase them. After all, we all had beautiful memories once.”
Helena’s gaze grew distant.
“At that grand wedding between Ian and me, he also smiled and blessed us. I still remember that his smile was not fake at that moment. He genuinely hoped I would be happy. But… even in that happy scene, he was tormented, wasn’t he?”
After listening to so much, Lucia finally pieced together the whole picture.
“Is it because of bloodline? Because he was the son of the King of a fallen kingdom, with an irreconcilable enmity with the Empire.”
Helena’s bare feet, which had been rubbing against each other for warmth, slowly parted.
She straightened her instep slightly and twisted it.
Then her toes slipped into the shoe opening, and the extremely thin stockings rubbed against the smooth leather lining inside.
The high heels were back on her feet.
Then Helena closed her legs, knees pressed together, once again becoming that dignified and noble Empress Amber.
“Yes, at that time, the Holy Kingdom and the Empire had a very poor relationship… The high-ranking officials of the Church chose him as Archbishop precisely because they knew his background and wanted to use his hatred. In fact, those people learned about his background even earlier than Bulaien did… But…” Helena raised her head, her eyes becoming clear again, filled with sorrow, helplessness, and pain.
“In the end, Godfather… for peace, for my happiness, chose to yield. He ignored his own bloodline and chose to stand by my side, by the Empire’s side… Is bloodline really that important? He had never enjoyed any benefits from his bloodline since birth.”
Helena bit her lip, the lower lip turning slightly white, as if she was holding something back.
Her eyes, always filled with mist, seemed about to cry, but the corners were dry, no tears falling.
“Nothing is more heartbreaking than a dead heart.” Perhaps that was it.
“On the night before his execution, I talked with him alone for a long time. He said… if I hadn’t fallen in love with Ian, he would never have helped the Empire in the end, even if the Great Labyrinth Eruption also caused damage to the Holy Kingdom. Because he had no children of his own, he had always regarded me as his daughter…”
“That… is indeed great.”
Lucia nodded thoughtfully.
From a moral high ground, this was indeed a good thing. The crisis of the Great Labyrinth was resolved, the Holy Kingdom willingly submitted and became a vassal, the Saintess married the Emperor, a powerful alliance ushered in the Golden Age of the Empire. What a perfect happy ending.
But what would Bulaien, carrying the blood of the King of the Duchy, have thought?
The only daughter in his heart married the son of the enemy who had destroyed his country and killed his family.
And for the sake of this daughter’s happiness, he had to swallow all the blood and tears, personally cut off the sword of revenge, and even smile and offer blessings.
No matter how beautiful the fairy tale, it is built on bloody sacrifices.
There are always people rotting silently behind the scenes, turning into fertilizer to nourish the flowers.
“But…” Helena’s voice trembled slightly.
“Over the years, he kept questioning whether he could find happiness. How could he just let go of the enmity of destroying his country and killing his family with the Emperor?”
“Bulaien said… In the days after my wedding, whenever night was quiet and deep, he felt that the countless undead of the Duchy were behind him, questioning him—Why don’t you take revenge? Why are you a traitor?”
Helena picked up the teacup and wanted to drink some hot tea to suppress the chill in her heart, but perhaps her hand was trembling, or maybe the tea was too hot.
She choked. “Cough… cough cough!”
Helena quickly set down the teacup, covering her mouth with her silk-gloved hand, coughing slightly.
She steadied her breath, her eyes reddening.
“The undead Bulaien mentioned don’t exist. He just couldn’t reconcile with himself. He was too gentle, too conflicted.”
She smiled bitterly and looked at Lucia.
“I suppose so. Only children like you, Lucia—tough, decisive, self-centered—are liked by everyone. Nowadays, even if someone has a slightly weak personality, they get scolded.”
“Hmph, don’t flatter me.” Lucia crossed her arms and snorted.
Helena quietly watched her daughter, who was covered in rose-like thorns.
Lucia was now propping her chin with one hand, her legs wrapped in white lace stockings casually stretched under the table.
The taut lines of the girl’s calves revealed a kind of untamed wild beauty, completely different from Helena’s polished elegance.
“Although… it’s all my fault,” Helena smiled bitterly. “I failed to raise you into a gentle and elegant lady. But… seeing you now, I might think that this also has its advantages. If I had always stayed by your side, binding you with my old-fashioned rules, I might have only harmed you, hurt you.”
“Who knows.”
Lucia hummed nonchalantly, no ripples in her eyes.
“Even now, there is no ‘if.’ What happened happened.”
“True… Who knows, even now there is no ‘if.'” Helena’s fingers gently stroked the warm wall of the teacup. “But honestly, the ability to love and hate is also a virtue. Even back then, if Bulaien had directly spoken out his hatred and background, and directly said he wouldn’t help! During that tense period, the Empire couldn’t have done anything to him directly.”
“At worst… at worst, I wouldn’t have been able to travel freely to the Empire, and Ian would have had to separate from me for the throne, causing him to lose out in the Succession Competition.”
These dirty secrets behind the polished beautiful fairy tale—even Lucia, a member of the Royal Family, was hearing them for the first time.