Chapter 96. Watching a Departing Love2024.01.04.With the fervent support of Empress Marilyn, Tasha left the Empress’s Palace.

The Count Kimfri family, fully aware of the Empress’s intentions despite her weak natal family, told Tasha she could refuse the role of a maid under the pretext of health, but Tasha did not.

“What a troublesome affair to get caught up in.”

“Don’t worry about it. Brother, you should focus on not worrying Father and do your job well.”

“For me to hear you worrying about me? What a world to live long enough to see.”

Tasha glared at her brother, Eugene Kimfri, who had been waiting at the main palace entrance, following her like a ghost since she entered the palace.

He didn’t hide his displeasure, as if he, too, had come reluctantly under their father’s orders.

“He’s the kind of guy who deliberately emptied his palace. If he wanted to meet you, he could’ve done so anytime. Why cling to useless attachments? If you want to get married, why not find another suitor?”

“Who said anything about wanting to get married? And why do you keep exchanging letters with someone you don’t want to meet? Exchanging letters like everything’s fine but never showing your face—that’s what really ticks me off!”

“You’d need to tame that temper of yours before he’d even show you an eyebrow. There’s surely a reason he’s avoiding you.”

“A month or two, I could understand. But avoiding me for over a year on purpose? I deserve an explanation.”

“……”

“Brother, you know where Noel is, don’t you? Even the Empress just laughs and won’t tell me where he is, and it’s driving me crazy. I can’t wait until the title conferment ceremony!”

Tasha took off her elaborately adorned hat and tied her hair back tightly. Her slender, deer-like neck was revealed clearly.

“It’s certain that inquiries keep coming to the Empress’s Palace. Someone heard her say to another that the relationship between the Second Prince and the Deposed Empress is quite good.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know why Noel’s acting like this either, so if you meet him, sort it out yourself.”

“You’re really not going to tell me?”

The siblings’ steps had already reached the main palace entrance.

Eugene Kimfri didn’t answer his sister’s irritated question and left with the two adjutants standing in front of him.

Watching her brother’s retreating figure, Tasha clenched her fists tightly.

It had been well over a year since she last properly contacted Noel.

Since childhood, they had been playmates along with her brother, Eugene Kimfri, spending more time together than apart, as the closest of friends.

Playmates of different genders typically grow apart during puberty, becoming conscious of each other, but they were different.

Tasha admired Noel, who seemed delicate but was resolute, while Noel appreciated Tasha’s straightforward personality and active demeanor, which others criticized as unladylike.

Tasha had no reason to refuse the position as the Empress’s maid.

It was the perfect opportunity to meet and talk with Noel, whom she hadn’t seen for over a year.

Tasha left the main palace, intending to head to the Empress’s Palace entrance where the carriage was, but turned her steps toward the annex where the Deposed Empress might be staying.

Having become the Empress’s maid, it wouldn’t be improper to pay a courtesy visit to a guest in the annex.

The Empress said they would meet often in the future, so getting acquainted beforehand wouldn’t hurt.

If she were still the Empress, Tasha wouldn’t have dared to visit first, but as the “Deposed” Empress, it likely wouldn’t violate protocol too much.

And now, they would be working as maids together, after all.

What kind of person is the Deposed Empress?‘That child was selfish and only cared about themselves. They’d easily abandon family for their own purposes.’If Regina Pelliese’s words were true, it wasn’t pleasant to think such a person was close to Noel, whom even Tasha struggled to meet. She needed to confirm if they were someone suitable to be around Noel.

‘…Noel and I are the best of friends.’

Tasha Kimfri passed the familiar maids of the Empress’s Palace and entered the annex entrance. There was no need to go inside the building.

In a well-kept garden, a man and a woman were conversing across a dainty tea table.

Dressed as extravagantly as Bollonico, a slender, black-haired beauty with a delicate frame, the complete opposite of the tall and imposing Tasha.

Across from her, she saw Noel, speaking animatedly with a flushed face.

“…Noel?”

Though she was far enough that her voice was barely audible, the quiet space caused a silence to fall between the conversing pair.

Noel, stiff as a board, showed his face to Tasha for the first time in nearly a year.

“Noel!”

It was only after the picturesque Deposed Empress followed him into the annex that Tasha realized her friend, whom she hadn’t seen in a year, had avoided her and hurriedly entered the annex of the Deposed Empress with a bad reputation.

Left alone in an instant, Tasha Kimfri realized how unfamiliar this scene felt.

Had she ever seen Noel speaking so passionately to another woman?

With such a flushed face?

“Noel…?”

The affectionate expression Noel directed at the Deposed Empress still lingered in her mind, refusing to fade.

In Tasha Kimfri’s twenty years of life, this was the first time she felt such a shock.

“Oh no… W-what should I do?”

“Why are you hiding? Who is that?”

“H-hiding like this…”

Yuan, chasing after Noel who had suddenly fled in a panic while they were talking, was breathing heavily.

It happened just as she was about to naturally ask about the Grand Duke Drietter of the North, so she had no choice but to follow.

Noel, half-hidden behind the drawing-room curtain like when he first met Yuan, was covering his face with both hands.

“That tall lady who approached us earlier, could she be—?”

His cheeks and ears, visible through the gaps in his hands, were bright red. Noel let out a short groan from within his hands.

“Yuan, y-you’re too perceptive.”

“Hiding like this might cause her to misunderstand. Shouldn’t you go out and clear things up?”

Yuan passed Noel and pressed her forehead against the window.

The spot where they had been sitting was already being cleared by Trin, and no one was around.

“…It seems it’s already too late.”

“T-T-Tasha’s gone?”

“So her name is Tasha.”

Noel leaned against the wall as if his legs had given out, sliding down to sit. His lowered head touched his crouched knees, as if in self-reproach.

Yuan, about to reach out to his trembling shoulders, shook her head and withdrew her hand.

She stared out the empty window for a while before speaking.

“Watching a departing love from afar is a foolish thing to do.”

“……”

“Seize it when you can. If you run now, you might still catch her.”

“D-don’t say it so easily.”

“This moment might be the last time you see Tasha.”

A hollow laugh, like air escaping, burst from Noel’s lips.

His face briefly contorted in pain before he slowly raised his head.

Yuan’s face, offering sentimental advice with an utterly calm expression, came into his sunken eyes.

It was advice that didn’t suit Yuan’s extravagantly adorned appearance, crafted by Bollonico’s skill.

Perhaps because it wasn’t the kind of advice one would expect from a seductress who betrayed her husband for greater power.

Whenever Yuan gave such heartfelt advice, Noel found himself wanting to believe her claims of having her own circumstances.

And he felt an urge to confide his own situation.

Suppressing that urge, he forced a smile.

“W-why wouldn’t I want to hold on?”

With a half-resigned expression, Noel poured out a bit of his true feelings.

He couldn’t believe he had let Tasha, whom he hadn’t seen in so long, leave like this.

But when he heard Tasha had applied to be a maid in the Empress’s Palace, Noel felt both joy and despair.

Tasha deserved to meet a man far better than him.

She was too precious to be forcibly tied to him through the Empress’s greed or the power struggles between families.

“B-B-Bollonico is very ambitious.”

Noel muttered painfully.

“I-if he becomes Crown Prince, h-he’ll never let me stay in the palace or with the Euphris family.”

Noel’s face slowly filled with fear.

No matter how hard he tried to hide his true feelings, he couldn’t conceal the emotions spreading across his face.

“Maybe I’ll have to confine myself to a barren estate or become a border earl as far from the capital as possible.”

Bollonico was more than capable of such a thing.

This was also why Noel had so thoroughly hidden his feelings.

Since he started stuttering, he had completely stopped fantasizing about “what if she chose me despite everything…”

Tasha was the daughter of the most prominent family in the East.

She was far too special for a prince who would lose the throne race and live out his days in a remote borderland.

Yuan patiently listened to Noel’s stuttering sincerity.

She didn’t want to dampen his momentum as he finally began to open up.

At the same time, though she thought it was none of her business, she hoped this young prince, who resembled Clade, wouldn’t live a life full of regrets.

After hesitating, Yuan spoke sincerely for his sake.

“But no one can know Tasha’s heart. You’re not planning to let her go without even conveying your feelings or at least saying a final goodbye, are you?”

“……”

“If she has even the slightest affection for Your Highness, it would be a deep wound.”

Yuan whispered in a sad voice.

“Not knowing it’s the last time and facing the end is terribly sad.”

Noel looked up at Yuan, who spoke as if she had experienced such things intimately.

Her dark eyes briefly flickered with sadness before sparkling again.

The eyes of someone who had made a decision.

It was a dramatic change.

“Let’s practice a little.”

“P-p-practice?”

Startled by Yuan’s sudden shift in demeanor, Noel stepped back slightly and asked. Yuan took a step closer to him.

“I’m a Pelliese. I can diagnose any illness and make any medicine. Tell Miss Tasha clearly that you haven’t been avoiding her because you dislike her.”

“I-is there a medicine?”

Yuan nodded at Noel, who was filled with anticipation.

And she answered firmly.

“Yes. So let’s practice just one sentence together, you and I.”