Chapter 305. Viscountess Verdi’s Decision (2)
Translator: Aura / Editor: SaWarren
As her small body flailed in her arms, Rashta felt an emotion rise up her chest.
She had given birth twice, but this was the first time she had held a baby in her arms like this.
Maybe that’s why she felt so strange, though she liked it.
“The baby is wiggling.”
When Rashta murmured, the baby blinked with tear-filled eyes as she looked at Rashta.
In that instant, Rashta realized. She could never blame this girl.
She already loved her daughter.
As soon as she was aware of this fact, the emptiness and weakness she felt before disappeared. She was determined to protect her daughter.
‘Yes. I have to be strong.’
This was no time to stand idly by. If she was thrown out of the empress position, her daughter would be raised by another woman.
A smart and astute young lady from a good family would become the Empress.
No matter that the new empress was as good as an angel, their children would still be compared, the family of that empress’ mother, and even the people around her, would reject the first princess.
Even if the nobles looked down on her, she was determined to maintain her position as empress. Only in this way could she protect her daughter.
At this point, the princess’s crying stopped. Perhaps because the baby was in her mother’s arms or because she was in a more comfortable position.
In any case, the intense vitality that could be felt throughout the princess’ body diminished drastically when she calmed down. She seemed inert.
Rashta stared in horror at the princess with her head bowed. Suddenly feeling the same sensation of the past when she held the dead baby in her arms.
At the grisly horror that swept over her from head to foot, Rashta gasped and threw the baby away,
“Out! Out of my sight!”
After throwing the baby, Rashta trembled as she clutched her head with both hands. She felt as if there was a sickening corpse smell on her arms, so she hastily swiped them across her knees and the sheets to get it off.
“Princess!”
The baby, who had been thrown to the floor, was crying inconsolably. Only then did Rashta calm down a little and asked with a blank stare.
“Is she, is she alive?”
Viscountess Verdi remembered Delise for a moment, whose tongue Rashta had cut out and imprisoned after she saw something ‘she wasn’t supposed to see’, and the maid whose father was nearly executed for talking too much.
At the thought of what Rashta had just done, Viscountess Verdi swallowed hard.
“Is she alive?”
Rashta asked again in a rough voice.
Viscountess Verdi knew what was coming. She had witnessed a scene ‘she wasn’t supposed to have seen’, so Rashta would try to kill her. Rashta was now stunned, but would no doubt do so once she came to her senses.
The Viscountess stepped back, holding the baby tightly.
“Viscountess? Do you not hear me? Is the baby alive?”
Rashta asked in bewilderment.
Viscountess Verdi barely managed to open her mouth to say a few words.
“The baby… looks shocked. Please wait a moment. I’ll go examine her.”
She spoke quietly, so as not to irritate Rashta, took another step back, and hurried out of the bedroom.
Then she left the drawing room and ran down the corridor.
She feared that the knights and maids under Rashta’s command would come after her at any moment, so the Viscountess desperately ran to the East Palace with the baby in her arms.
When Rashta finally came out of the shock caused by the dead baby, she realized that Viscountess Verdi had gone somewhere with the princess. She also realized that Viscountess Verdi had seen her throw the baby to the floor.
“Oh no!”
Rashta hurried out into the corridor and asked one of the knights stationed at the door.
“And the Viscountess Verdi? Where has the Viscountess gone with my baby?”
The knight responded with a puzzled look.
“She ran off in that direction with the baby in her arms.”
Rashta turned pale and ordered,
“Catch that bitch! Right now! That bitch has kidnapped my daughter!”
The knights were startled for a moment and looked at each other.
They considered it far-fetched that the Empress’s only lady-in-waiting kidnapped the Princess in the Imperial Palace.
But from her red eyes and pale face, it seemed it was no joke.
The knights went after the Viscountess in haste. However, Viscountess Verdi had already arrived at the East Palace.
The Knights of the Imperial Guard came to her aid as they saw her running scared.
“What’s going on?”
“His, His Majesty, I need to see His Majesty.”
Viscountess Verdi pleaded desperately.
She wore a terrified expression, so the Knights of the Imperial Guard immediately informed Sovieshu.
Hearing that Viscountess Verdi was coming with the princess in her arms, Sovieshu let her into the drawing room.
As soon as Viscountess Verdi saw Sovieshu, she fell to her knees and cried out through tears,
“Your Majesty, the Empress threw the princess to the floor! Please protect the princess!”
***
The palace doctor was slow to open his mouth, but then spoke quickly.
“Pregnant! You’re pregnant!”
He repeated these words several times, unable to suppress his astonishment.
Then he jumped to his feet and stared at me with his eyes wide open.
“Empress! Oh, my! Oh, my! Oh, my!”
I looked at the palace doctor quizzically.
I couldn’t think of anything, it was as if my mind was blank.
Looking at him puzzled, the palace doctor coughed and smiled awkwardly,
“Congratulations, the Empress is pregnant!”
Heinley clenched one hand into a fist and covered his mouth with the other.
I could see how his fist trembled slightly.
Heinley, who had remained as if absent, suddenly looked back at me with tear-filled eyes.
When he removed his hand from his mouth, I saw him bite his lip.
“My Queen.”
Heinley called to me in a shaky voice, stretched out his arms and hugged me tightly.
“Are you sure? Isn’t there a high probability of misdiagnosis in the early weeks of pregnancy?”
However, as soon as I asked the palace doctor firmly, Heinley’s arms went limp.
The palace doctor quickly responded to my question,
“Of course, it is common to misdiagnose at this time. But Your Majesty, I have never been wrong on this.”
When I was in the Eastern Empire I witnessed several misdiagnoses ‘on this’, so I preferred not to take it for granted yet,
“When can we know for sure?”
“In two weeks it could be known for sure.”
“Okay, check me again then.”
I asked the palace doctor not to tell anyone about this, and the doctor in his excitement, said he reluctantly understood.
“But until then, you must reduce your workload and take more time to rest, Your Majesty.”
After the palace doctor left, I ask Heinley as well,
“Heinley, don’t tell anyone about this. There are people who would make fun of us for revealing that I am pregnant without first confirming it.”
It was weird. Although I spoke calmly as usual, the voice that came out seemed shaky.
Why?
It was the same even after I coughed a couple of times before speaking again. As I bit my lip in confusion, I suddenly felt a strange tingling all over my body.
Later I could understand what I was really feeling. I was afraid and anxious.
What if the doctor says it was a misdiagnosis? When that thought came to mind, my whole body shuddered.
I rubbed my hands together nervously and wrapped my arms around my body, but the feeling didn’t go away.
Then Heinley wrapped me in his arms.