The Sand Bride - Side Story 2.7

With a reluctant face, Karzhen would only answer Esther’s questions like that. Esther was discouraged by the news that she hadn’t just left the royal palace but had left Gharyam entirely. Still, she was happy that she was alive, and above all, the fact that she had returned to her homeland was a bit of a comfort.

Esther had become unable to go, but Bianca would be able to return to her homeland and see the Sarasa flowers.

‘Is she drinking Sarasa flower tea right now?’

While Esther imagined what Bianca would be doing with a faint smile, Karzhen signaled to the servants.

As if timed to this, they bowed their heads and withdrew, which meant they were following the command he had given. Because he had personally and thoroughly silenced them like this, Esther wouldn’t know, but many things had already changed in her homeland.

“You’ve gone mad, Brother!”

As a result of Karzhen shifting the issue of the dispute with the Kingdom of Donova from a war of conquest to giving them compensation and various interests, Greta went on a rampage.

She had very strong pride and despised the Kingdom of Donova for personal reasons. To Greta, the cessation of a war she had intended since before he became king was no different from having her pride thoroughly crushed.

For a month, everyone in the palace lived as if holding their breath. Their gazes were filled with anxiety whenever they looked at the two—the King, who had shut herself away in her palace in a towering rage, and Sayar, whose coldness knew no equal.

And when Greta’s confinement passed a month, Karzhen, in the dark of night, had Aldana priests bring Bianca into Greta’s palace without anyone knowing.

Time passed again. When a week had passed, Greta ended her confinement, came out of her palace again, and began to fulfill her duties. She still had a face full of dissatisfaction, but for some reason, she yielded to Karzhen’s decision.

In fact, the compensation and interests taken weren’t small, and the internal affairs of the Kingdom of Donova were already in chaos itself, even more than expected. In short, it meant it was in a perfect state for an external power to make a puppet king or replace the royal family and make them like puppets.

“Farewell.”

Greta, who had finished her confinement, murmured as she blankly imagined a carriage that would be leaving the capital over there. And after finishing that final farewell, she completely closed the window. For a perfect parting, she also burned the letter in the glass bottle. Now, all her roles had come to an end.

And a few months later, news came that a new king had ascended the throne in the Kingdom of Donova. Because the royal family itself had changed, there was a bloody purge, and news also came that a large number of the former royal family’s close associates, even the servants who had worked in the royal palace, had been beheaded.

The descendant of the Marquess who ascended to the new royal family was a king as white as snow and as blue as glass; the people feared her because she had ascended the throne by staining herself with the blood of countless formerly noble people and bringing in Gharyam.

There were rumors that she was an unacknowledged child of the Gharyam royal family, but anyway, rumors were only treated as rumors.

It was a victory like the snowy mountains for the new king. A victory that was infinitely dazzling but cold and lonely.

Karzhen only told Esther, who wanted to meet Bianca, that she had done what she had to do, was living the future she wanted, and said she didn’t want to meet her.

And when Esther asked if Bianca was living happily then, he only answered that she was living in the form she herself desired. It sounded like the same thing she wished for, so Esther tilted her head, but Karzhen didn’t answer any further, so there was nothing she could do.

The words that she didn’t want to meet her were disappointing, but anyway, since Bianca had gotten what she wanted, Esther prayed for her happiness wherever she might be. She was truly a good friend. A friend who had been a source of strength when it was hardest, who had told her it would be okay…….

So she had wanted to be able to repay her in the same way.

Letting out a sigh, Esther got up from her spot and began to diligently pack something this time.

She even brought out a basket and packed it with pouches containing mushrooms or medicinal powders, dried fruits in small containers, and even candies made by rolling layers of thin sugar—a very rare snack in Gharyam.

The servants shrunk back slightly as they watched Esther, because Karzhen was staring at her back with a face full of anger.

Everything Esther was packing right now were originally things Karzhen had given her.

As her belly, carrying a child, began to bulge little by little, Esther suffered from morning sickness for a while, and Karzhen gathered rare medicinal herbs, ingredients, and food from all over and sent them to the inner palace for her.

“Look, Lady Esther. These are things the Sayar has specially bestowed upon you.”

“He has given you all of these precious things.”