Those eyes.
That look.
Just remembering it caused him to shivers with rage.
“That girl… looks like that woman.” More than me.
When Blair was born, she had been more than satisfied.
A beautiful daughter who was her spitting image.
A son who looked like his father, and then a daughter who looked like her.
She thought it would be perfect to complete the family.
Furthermore, being as beautiful as her, she would surely succeed in high society and in a marriage of convenience.
She also liked that the Emperor adored a daughter who looked like her, as it seemed like proof of his love for her.
That Esmeralda pampered Blair also made her happy, because she felt that she had what that woman had not been able to have.
Katrina's life was unbeatably perfect.
Until she realized that, day by day, Blair was becoming more like Esmeralda.
At first she despaired.
"You are my daughter, why?" She felt as if the girl who had been born from her womb had suddenly been stolen from her.
So he tried by all means to fit that girl into his own mold.
But even if Esmeralda died, and even though Blair grew more and more like her own face, her true nature could not be hidden.
The moment she saw Blair, with her same face but with the same look as that woman, it was horrible.
It was as if the dead woman's ghost had come back to life.
At some point, Blair had stopped being a trophy to be proud of and had become a rival to defeat.
How pitiful, how pathetic...
and how pleasant was the image of that girl longing for a bit of his affection that she was not receiving.
But everything went wrong when Blair got married and went to Delmark.
Following Ivan's advice to absorb Delmark's power through a marriage of convenience was her undoing.
—...What happened that day must not come to light.
Katrina said in an urgent voice, almost in a whisper.
If the truth of that day were revealed, everything she had built throughout her life would crumble.
It was something that could not be allowed under any circumstances.
Gerard, who was watching Katrina tremble with anxiety with calm eyes, opened his mouth.
“If you are so worried, let's do the following.
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"Then have sweet dreams, ma'am." "You rest too." Melly, who had helped Blair into her nightgown and brushed her hair, quietly left the room.
Blair watched the door for a moment, which did not open again, and got up from the dressing table.
It was true that he had not visited her bedroom in the last few days, but just in case, it was better that he go to bed early.
Just when, having finished the preparations, Blair was going to get under the covers to lie down, she unconsciously noticed the trembling of her hands and clasped them together.
It was the lingering effect of the hypnosis performed that same day with Inés.
Blair let out a sigh as he see her body react independently of her will.
The hypnosis, which had begun with good spirits, ended in failure.
Although she tried for a long time with Inés, the little Blair of her subconscious could not get out of the closet in which she was locked.
Maybe she wasn't locked in, but had locked herself in to completely protect herself.
Blair saw, in her subconscious, through the crack in the closet, a maid's dress.
The face of the maid who, they said, had died in that place that day.
But this already revealed fact did not have much significance in clarifying the truth of the incident.
"If tomorrow the lady does not suffer any consequences, then we will consider it again."
Thus ended that day's consultation.
Blair, lying on the bed, clasped her still slightly trembling hands and prayed fervently.
That he would be fine in the morning.
As she calmed herself down for a while, her eyelids slowly closed.
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Waking up, Blair blinked heavily, her eyelids feeling heavy, and suddenly regained consciousness.
"Where...
am I?" Not only had the place where she slept changed from the bed to a couch, but this wasn't the landscape of the bedroom where she had fallen asleep to begin with.
But it looked familiar.
It was a landscape that even awakened a vague nostalgia in her.
Above all, the fragrance that subtly filled the room gave him peace of mind.
Blair sat up slowly.
Then her hand moved without her meaning and she rubbed her still sleepy eyes.
That hand was small.
Upon realizing this, a voice, also foreign to her will, emerged from her lips.
"Her Majesty the Empress?" When she raised her head, she saw someone doing something on the floor, at the foot of the bed.
"Oh, are you awake yet, Blair?" A longing voice.
A longing face.
But there was Esmeralda, already transformed into a trauma.
The moment she saw her, Blair sensed it.
"...It's a dream." And at the same time, she knew that it was not a simple dream, but a memory of some forgotten moment along with the accident.
Little Blair craned her neck from where she was sitting and looked towards where Esmeralda was.
A moment ago, he had seen her open the ground and bury something there.
"What has she hidden in the ground?" "Have you already seen everything?" Something similar.
It's something very important to me.—What is it?—It's a secret.
Because it's very important.
Esmeralda put her index finger to her lips in a gesture of silence.
"And speaking of that, could you keep what you just saw a secret?" "Secretly?" "Yes." Don't tell mom, dad, or brother.
And of course, neither to anyone else.
Neither to my ladies-in-waiting nor to the maids.—So, it's a secret that only I know?—Exactly, Blair, it's a secret that only you know.
Not even that boy, Herdin, knows it.
Blair's eyes shone at Esmeralda's words.
Sharing a secret meant becoming closer to that person.
It meant that she became someone special to Esmeralda.—Will you be able to keep the promise?—Of course!
I keep secrets very well.
I haven't told anyone about Anna's or Karen's secret.
Esmeralda, who was watching Blair flaunt with confidence as if she found it adorable, extended her hand.
Blair, understanding her meaning, hooked his little finger with hers.
“Promise!” “Yes, promise.” When Blair sealed the pact and separated, Esmeralda smiled slightly and gently caressed Blair's head.
That caress was infinitely tender.
As she received that caress in silence, her heavy eyelids began to slowly close, without Blair being able to control it.
Those eyes that looked at her with such affection while she fell asleep faded behind her eyelids as they closed, until they completely disappeared into the darkness.
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—Ah…!Blair woke up with labored breathing.
Outside, it was an ambiguous hour, barely dawn, with darkness still reigning.
Blair felt her hands with trembling eyes.
Esmeralda's caress, the look she gave him, the touch...
everything was vivid.
"How could I forget this?" It wasn't even the memory of the accident, and yet he had completely forgotten it.
The sudden return of a memory forgotten for years was probably due to hypnosis.
There was no other reason.
Whatever the cause, the recovered memory meant one thing.
"There is something in the Empress's Palace that Her Majesty left behind." Of course, it could be an item that was truly precious to her or an emergency fund.
But she had a strange feeling.
The feeling that there, on the floor of the Empress's Palace, there was something decisive related to the fire that day.
I had no proof.
It was just an instinctive hunch.
“I have to find him.
What Her Majesty the Empress left behind." The Empress Palace that Esmeralda had used had remained abandoned since the fire.
Katrina, who succeeded her as Empress, refused to use the building on the grounds that it was a bad omen, and since the palace had no owner, there was no need to repair it immediately.
So, if I went there, I could find what Esmeralda had left.
"But if I go in broad daylight, my mother will Blair looked at the window, still completely dark, and rose determinedly from the bed.
The dawn, before dawn, when even Katrina would be sleeping.
The opportunity was only now.
…To be continued