Chapter 149: The Foolish Prince’s Mother Weeps (Part 1)
(What has my life truly been…?)
“Haah…”
Inside the swaying carriage, a woman on the verge of her forties let out a short sigh. Dressed in a black gown, she was the only occupant of the carriage, yet she concealed her face behind a veil.
Her name was Emerald Aiwood. Or perhaps, given her recent divorce, she should now be called Emerald Geisel?
(Or maybe Emerald Schlark? How ridiculous it is to not even know who I am anymore.)
Emerald scoffed at herself, a faint smile tugging at the corners of her lips beneath the veil.
Emerald had come to the Aiwood Kingdom as a bride, a princess of the Geisel Empire. However, she was not a true-born princess; she was originally the daughter of a lower noble, merely possessing royal blood. Twenty years ago, following the death of the previous king of Aiwood, known as the Tyrant, and the ensuing international turmoil, she had married into the kingdom after being adopted by the emperor.
Though her background was complicated, it boiled down to a political marriage.
As a concubine, Emerald had given birth to a son. However, she now had to refer to him in the past tense, as her son had recently met his end by drinking from the Poisoned Chalice. His name was Rodel Aiwood, the Third Prince of the Aiwood Kingdom, and he was labeled as the mastermind behind the recent rebellion. Rodel had been condemned for his treason, while Emerald, having come from a neighboring nation, was merely divorced without any further repercussions, thanks to her homeland’s considerations.
Yet, she was still not permitted to remain in the Aiwood Kingdom and was being sent back to her homeland, the Geisel Empire.
(I married into the kingdom for the sake of the empire, bore a son… and yet, I was never allowed to truly connect with my child. Now, I am exiled due to my son’s sins… What meaning did my twenty years hold?)
Emerald had come to the kingdom as a princess of the empire, intending to foster friendly relations between the two nations. It was a clear political marriage. Perhaps it had yielded some results; after all, for the past twenty years since the death of the Tyrant King, stability had been maintained between the two realms.
However… that peaceful era was on the brink of collapse. The death of Rodel, the prince who was supposed to be the bridge between the two nations, had triggered this upheaval. Signs of unrest had been apparent for several years, with factions within the empire advocating for the invasion of the kingdom gaining momentum. Though the war hawks had existed even before Emerald’s marriage, the aging emperor’s waning vitality had allowed their influence to swell.
(I could not become the bridge between the two nations. And… I failed as a mother.)
Emerald had given birth to Rodel, yet she had never been involved in his upbringing. He had been taken from her immediately after birth and raised by the Queen Dowager. It wasn’t that she lacked affection for her child; rather, she had neither the power nor the courage to oppose the will of the Queen Dowager, the most powerful figure at the time. She had never participated in Rodel’s upbringing or education, never having acted as a mother to him.
(And yet… to think I would actually cry…)
Before departing from the royal palace, Emerald had been granted a brief moment to meet Rodel. Despite their lack of mother-son bonding, seeing her son’s face after such a long time—knowing it would be the last—had brought tears to her eyes. She was astonished to discover that some maternal feelings still resided within her.
(If only I had been involved in his education… would things have turned out differently?)
As she pondered this while swaying in the carriage, she realized it was an impossible assumption. At the time of Rodel’s birth, the Queen Dowager’s power was absolute, surpassing even that of the king. As a foreign princess with little support in this kingdom, Emerald could never have defied the Queen Dowager. In fact, had she interfered even slightly, she might have found herself condemned as a co-conspirator in the rebellion, facing death.
(This outcome was surely unavoidable… But what am I supposed to do now that I’m returning to my homeland? There’s no place for me there…)
Even if she returned to the empire, Emerald would not be welcomed. To the moderates who desired peace between the two nations, she would be seen as a failure who could not fulfill her mission. To the hawks who sought war with the kingdom, she would be of no interest. At her age, she could no longer serve as a pawn in a political marriage. If she returned to her family, she would likely be treated as a burden.
“What has my life truly been…?”
Emerald muttered to herself, but just then, the carriage jolted violently, and she heard shouts and the sounds of a struggle from outside.