I Don’t Need Them Anymore — Abandoning the Family That Never Loved Me, I Find Happiness in a Neighboring Kingdom - Chapter 18

My bad feeling proved correct, I got seasick. Lady Edith, who had heard from Nana that I had no ladies-in-waiting, had brought along one woman scheduled to become my lady-in-waiting and three maids. The four of them desperately nursed me, for which I was truly grateful.

Lady Edith came to my room several times out of concern, but I didn’t want her to see me with a pale face and vomiting. Sensing this, the ladies-in-waiting said things like, “She’s sleeping now,” “She’s finally calmed down,” and “If you speak to her now, her condition might worsen again,” and didn’t let her enter the room.

When I lay down and felt a bit better, I asked the ladies-in-waiting about Lady Edith.

They replied that they too had been surprised when they first saw her face after being assigned to become my ladies-in-waiting and maids.

It seems only a very few people know Lady Edith’s true face. By the way, the second prince, Prince Fandar, who will soon be five years old, hasn’t made any public appearances, but apparently everyone working in the castle knows what he looks like.

The ladies-in-waiting all described Prince Fandar as mischievous but very adorable. They said he’s quite friendly, and I’m looking forward to meeting him.

Calculating back, the queen of the Rofeus Kingdom gave birth to Lady Edith when she was the same age as I am now. Thinking about it, that’s amazing.

…No, I suppose I need to get my act together more.

After all, even my brother was involved in national politics while attending school when he was fifteen.

After he dropped out due to busy work, nobles with teaching qualifications came to teach him, but they said it was unnecessary.

Incidentally, I was bullied as an illegitimate child when I was young and didn’t attend school—instead, I had private tutors.

The parents of the children who bullied me weren’t particularly punished. Partly because they were just children, but also because to my father, I was my mother’s illegitimate child, so he probably judged that what they said wasn’t wrong.

When you’re a child, you really don’t think about anything. If I had been as concerned about others’ reactions back then as I am now, living might have been so painful that I might have drunk the poison I got from Loin.

…Speaking of which, that poison-like substance was taken by Nana, but I wonder what happened to it. I need to ask Lady Edith… Ugh. I feel sick.

Perhaps because I was thinking about various things, I started feeling unwell again. While awake, I had them set up a simple bed for me on the breezy deck and lay down there. When I felt better, I returned to my room and fell asleep.

By the time we reached the port, it was morning, and I felt much better than the day before.

The weather was beautiful, with a clear blue sky without a single cloud. The ladies-in-waiting smiled, probably thinking the sky was welcoming me.

“Are you okay?”

As I disembarked from the ship, Lady Edith came running over. Since there were many people at the port, she was wearing a deeply hooded cloak now.

“I’m fine. Um, I’m very sorry for causing you trouble!”

“I don’t remember you causing me any trouble.”

“If you say so…”

My desire not to be disliked still surfaced, and I found myself trying to gauge her expression.

This won’t do.

Perhaps because I looked down, Lady Edith peered at my face.

“You still don’t look well, and a long carriage ride might be tough. Let’s rest slowly today, and we can head to the royal castle tomorrow, or even later if needed once Dahlia feels better.”

“Not at all! Please don’t worry about me.”

“We’re engaged to each other, it would be strange if I didn’t worry.”

“I don’t want to cause trouble for Lady Edith and the others.”

“I told you it’s not trouble. There’s something I want to discuss with you. It’s a bit far to walk—would you mind if we use a carriage for a short while?”

“Of course not.”

Then, after less than an hour of riding in the carriage, Lady Edith took me to the royal family’s villa near the port.

It was a white, two-story Western-style mansion in the forest, with servants’ quarters and a gazebo visible nearby.

Next to the mansion was a carrier pigeon coop with many white pigeons.

When I mentioned being curious about the carrier pigeons, Lady Edith invited me to go see them.

“They’re adorable.”

As I, who loves animals, delighted in watching the carrier pigeons, Lady Edith smiled while stroking a pigeon’s head.

“These little ones are very accustomed to humans, so you can touch them. Also, this one is the messenger between Nana and us.”

The carrier pigeon with a black leg ring paid no attention to us and greedily ate its feed.

That was cute too.

“These are the ones we used to communicate with Nana. Prince Rix knows about them too, and another one handles exchanges with him.”

“So, leaving Nana behind was…”

“I actually intended to bring Nana back with us, but it seemed she hadn’t sorted out her feelings yet, and there were various things I wanted to confirm, so I thought I’d have her continue as our messenger a bit longer.”

“I see.”

I had thought I was just giving Nana a push. I’m still too naive.

“Prince Rix told me the analysis results of the powder you received from your former fiancé.

Want to hear?”

“Please.”

“Of course, we didn’t actually test it, but according to the pharmacist, it was indeed a poison. However, it wasn’t a lethal dose.”

“Not a lethal dose… So, he just wanted to make me suffer?”

When I asked, Lady Edith furrowed her brows and replied.

“Nana and Prince Rix said they’d question him before handing him over to the knights, so we should know the details soon.”

What does that mean?

Did Loin hate me so much that he wanted to make me suffer?

“This is just my speculation, and if it’s true, I can only think it was a shallow plan, but…”

“Do you have any ideas?”

“He might have been trying to frame Princess Ramula.”

“…What do you mean?”

Not understanding, I asked Lady Edith to explain.