The Empire’s biggest festival was about to begin.
The noise outside the window crashed against the heavy floor-to-ceiling windows like ocean waves. The clamor of vendors and crowds could faintly be heard. From afar came the sound of cart wheels, commands, and goods colliding as people prepared for the festival.
Countless young people were hugging and laughing on the brightly lit streets at this moment, but the external liveliness had nothing to do with the dead silence indoors.
Helena took a deep breath, as if to replace all the air in her lungs.
Her long legs, wrapped in white silk pantyhose, shimmered with a hazy, fragile halo at the intersection of moonlight and indoor candlelight.
Because she had been standing for a long time, Helena shifted her weight slightly, the heel of her left high heel softly rubbing against the carpet. Her taut calf tightened with the movement, and through the transparent white silk, the slight trembling of her muscles could be seen.
Helena’s fingers unconsciously scratched the cold glass.
Finally, Helena slowly turned around.
She didn’t immediately look at Lucia. Instead, she lowered her eyes, her gaze falling on the white high heels with gold trim at her toes. The pure white of the shoe tips shimmered in the light, like her heart that, though covered in dust, still beat.
She closed the huge floor-to-ceiling windows and drew the massive heavy curtains, shutting out the lively, passionate world.
Helena maintained her back-turned posture, not moving for a long time.
Helena lifted her head. In her gray eyes, there was no longer the majesty of an empress, nor the compassion of a saintess. It was as if at this moment, she was just a pure woman.
“Yes… I love Ian. I will only love him for my entire life. This is our promise.”
Lucia raised an eyebrow. This was unexpected. She had originally thought she would hear some clichés and then naturally skip the topic.
Of course, Lucia wouldn’t delve deeper.
Lucia sat on the chair and adjusted her sitting posture again, gradually becoming more relaxed as the topic and atmosphere progressed.
Her long legs, wrapped in pure white stockings, crossed, with her right leg propped up high. With this movement, the lace trim at the top of her thighs rubbed violently against the skirt lining, producing a rustling sound that made one’s heart race.
The white stiletto heels dangling precariously from her toes began to sway up and down rhythmically with her mood. With each sway, even the arch of her foot wrapped in white silk tensed and relaxed.
Lucia leaned forward, crossed her hands under her chin, and her gaze sharpened.
“Since you love him, why have you been in a cold war for so many years? Even if you don’t come to see me, do you know how uncomfortable me and my two brothers feel being caught in the middle of your atmosphere?”
Lucia’s voice did not hide her confusion.
“Since you love each other, why do you torment each other? Why the cold war? This time it seems quite long too, right? It’s been almost half a year since you returned to the Capital.”
Lucia curled the corner of her mouth. The raised foot swayed leisurely, the heel tapping the air.
Helena opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end, those words were stuck in her throat.
She slowly walked back to her seat. Her long legs, wrapped in transparent white silk pantyhose, moved alternately with a light and graceful stride.
The white high heels with gold trim on her feet stepped on the floor, making a dull, rhythmic sound. It sounded a bit like a bass piano key playing alone in the deep night, carrying an indescribable loneliness.
After sitting down again, she folded her hands on her knees, and her gaze became somewhat hazy.
“Yes… I love Ian very much. I love him so much. He was my first love. He was the boy who made me taste the flavor of romance when I was still an ignorant young girl.”
As she spoke, a girlish blush appeared on Helena’s face, and her eyes became moist and happy.
“Women are like this… even if they know the other person is flattering, when their appearance and fashion sense are praised, they still feel happy. Being sought after, even by strangers, still gives a sense of being affirmed.”
Lucia listened with some impatience. The frequency of the white high heel dangling on her toes increased, as if urging.
“What does this have to do with the Emperor?”
“Of course it does.”
Helena propped her chin on her hand, a smile on her lips.
“When he pursued me back then… well… it couldn’t really be called pursuit. It’s just that when he was still a little boy back then, his thoughts were really easy to read. In my eyes, he’s still that clumsy little boy.”
Lucia frowned and interrupted her.
“Alright, alright. I know the Emperor is one year younger than you. After all, it’s a relationship between an older woman and a younger man.”
It wasn’t that Lucia didn’t know. When she was little, she saw the pure love story of the couple that spread throughout the Empire every day. But after learning that their relationship had turned sour, the beautiful dream became a nightmare.
Helena didn’t mind her daughter’s bad attitude. She was immersed in memories, her fingers lightly circling on the dining table.
“Watching Ian shyly do those silly things for me, my heart still feels warm. Thinking about it, I was easy to fool back then. It was just that when it rained, he would bring me an umbrella even though his own shoulders got wet. Even though he was a prince, he clumsily brought a bento he made himself and insisted that he made an extra portion and gave it to me as an afterthought.”
At this point, the light in Helena’s eyes gradually dimmed, like a candle flame flickering in the wind.
“Yes… he could also cook. Because when he was neglected back then, during the worst period, Ian’s palace even had only himself. Because he wasn’t born in the Imperial Palace and had no wet nurse.”
Lucia looked at the woman before her. These words touched her anger again.
Her voice turned cold. Under the table, her feet wrapped in white socks pressed together tightly, the soft flesh of her inner thighs squeezing against each other.
“Don’t I not have a wet nurse either? And that was one of your people, the first personal maid. When she left, she didn’t say a single word. I only noticed after not seeing her for several days and asked the people around me, then found out she had resigned and followed you.”
Did Lucia like her?
Not really. Although that person did take care of her very attentively and she could feel her gentleness, but…
What bothered Lucia the most was that feeling of loneliness when the people around her left one by one without a sound, without even a goodbye, leaving her all alone.
That feeling…
It was as if she was like a piece of fruit forgotten in the corner of a storeroom, uncared for, only able to gradually rot and stink alone in the darkness as time passed, finally turning into a puddle of mud.
No one needed her.
Moreover, that person abandoned Lucia in order to follow Helena.