Reboot Sienna

“What’s wrong with my face?”

“This may be rude, but it reminds me of ‘a pig being dragged to a slaughterhouse’.”

Even though she likened himself to a pig, Carl did not feel bad. Rather, he burst into laughter.

“You are so greedless and fearless.”

“Was that expression too rude?”

Sienna said so, but she looked totally unconcerned. Carl didn’t hate her boldness.

Carl was already dressed in perfect condition, but Sienna approached him and organized his robes for no reason.

“Isn’t it a good day? You should have a bright face.”

Sienna, who said so, was smiling with a sad face. It was a smile that showed she gave up everything.

Carl wanted to ask ‘Why do you make that face?’ but Sienna said first before Carl spoke.

“Today’s main character is not you, but Lady Ferrer. She’s the bride who should be the main character of the world today. So you have to show her a nice smile. Being a bride is the happiest thing in the world.”

“…were you happy too?”

“Are you asking me if I was happy when I had a wedding?”

“Yes.”

Sienna laughed. At the first wedding, she had to enter the ceremony alone without knowing anything, and in the second, she had to go through the wedding alone. Still, was I happy?

“I was happy.”

Sienna opened her mouth with difficulty.

“I was scared and lonely to enter the ceremony alone, but on the other hand, I was so happy. Just the fact that I can be your companion. You’re a good man.”

Sienna’s words sounded like a desperate confession to Carl.

“I was also happy to have such a wild bride like you. Of course, I didn’t enter the wedding hall myself, but I don’t regret marrying you.”

Sienna and Carl faced each other and smiled. Even if Carl married Bluebell, Sienna would still remain his wife—but somehow, the two faced each other with a sad smile like lovers who were about to make an eternal farewell.

Carl grabbed Sienna’s hand. It occurred to him that if he let go of that hand, it would mean eternal separation.

*

The wedding with Bluebell was a grand affair. It was incomparable to Sienna’s wedding a few years ago. The envoys from many countries took their places, and they spent a lot of money filling the hall with real money.

Bluebell’s parade from the house of her family to the castle was very colorful. Even though it went on during the day, the sky was bursting with colorful fireworks, and the streets were overflowing with pollen. In addition, 300 performers played music before and after the parade.

The carriage carrying Bluebell and her father, Kenyon Ferrer, was led by sixteen colorful horses. It was a wedding of the scale that would be talked about for long.

While it was said that more money was spent on the wedding than the coronation ceremony of the emperors of the past, it was clear that it was more colorful than Carl’s coronation ceremony.

It was because Bluebell had been clamoring to hold the wedding in such a grand way that it could erase Sienna’s wedding, but even if she hadn’t, Count Ferrer planned to hold it splendidly anyways.

This was because he tried to show off his power to other nobles and prove through the wedding that Bluebell has more legitimacy as the empress. Although Carl did not approve the wedding because it was not suitable considering current state coffers shortly after the drought and flood, Count Ferrer made the wedding extravagant with his family’s money.

Angered by his attitude of treating the imperial event like a family event despite the emperor’s refusal to allow it, Carl looked angry throughout the wedding. He only suppressed his anger, taking into account that Count Ferrer did not use the national treasury.

By the time the wedding was over, it was already late in the evening that the sun had set.

Bluebell was very excited. She entered the bedroom in a large dress that would cover the whole room according to tradition. On the first night of the wedding—it was up to the groom to take off the new bride’s dress.

“Everyone is saying that today’s wedding was great. It’s the best wedding ever!”

Bluebell’s nanny shouted in an excited voice. Tears stood around her eyes.

She had been raising Bluebell since she was a baby. When Bluebell was six years old, she watched her become Carl’s fiancée and like him, because she didn’t know anything, groan that she couldn’t show her pimple face when visited by Carl and had a cramp in her arm while meeting Carl, and how she broke down upon learning that her engagement to Carl was off. Therefore, the nanny was very moved to see Bluebell’s wedding ceremony with Carl, which was held splendidly.

“What, nanny. I should shine more than a wedding. How was I? Was I pretty? Was it so beautiful that it would be remembered in history?”

Bluebell puffed the nanny like a child.

“Yes, you were beautiful. You were so bright that this old lady couldn’t dare look at it.”

“Whaaaat?! You didn’t see me because you were in the castle…”

Knowing that the nanny was unable to attend the wedding because she was cleaning up the empress’ palace where Bluebell would stay, she said with her mouth pouting. Still, her face was full of flushing, as if she liked the praise.

“I haven’t seen the parade myself, but I have ears. The maids in the castle were talking about how beautiful you were. You’ve always been so beautiful, and I can’t imagine how pretty you must have been under the bright sun and under the colorful chandeliers.”

“Really? Would Carl have liked it, too? I was so nervous earlier that I don’t even remember what kind of facial expression Carl had.”

“I’m sure His Highness had no idea what to do with the beauty of my lady Bluebell. So stay calm. If you struggle like that, the wrinkles in your dress won’t look pretty.”

“Okay. But this is really stuffy. I shouldn’t have asked to make it this tight.”

Bluebell made one size smaller than the tailor recommended to emphasize her slender waist. Even now, there was pain as if whale bones were digging into the flesh.

She hadn’t had a sip of water for three days to wear this dress. As she was walking down the aisle, it was hard to tell whether it was because she was blinded by his dazzling appearance or because she was unconscious of hunger that her sight was blurry.

“So why didn’t you listen to me? You’re beautiful and thin enough.”

“But I couldn’t wear a dress bigger than Johanna. It hurts my pride.”

Joanna was Bluebell’s relative who recently married Count Mayron. They had frequent interaction because they were of similar age, but that did not mean that there was a friendship between the two. As we were of the same age, they were jealous of each other.

Joanna, in particular, laughed openly in front of her when Bluebell’s engagement was broken up by Carl. In other words, she played a big role in making Bluebell fast because she was so discouraged.

Bluebell invited Joanna to her mansion on the day her marriage was pushed again and she tailored her dress. It was out of the thought that Bluebell wanted to show off a more expensive and colorful dress than what Joanna wore at her wedding. Looking at Joanna’s face full of jealousy, Bluebell couldn’t hide her laughter and eventually burst into laughter.

Joanna, whose pride was hurt, pointed out the waist size of Bluebell, who was an inch taller than her.

Joanna was very small in height. Considering the height difference, the waist size of Bluebell was not that big.

– Wouldn’t Carl hate it if you were so fat? If your back is so thick, Carl won’t even like to hug you. Like the First Empress, aren’t you going to be ditched on your first night?

-What are you talking about? I don’t have a thick waist. It’s just that I ate a lot of breakfast this morning. It’s funny you don’t notice your chest is a cliff.

-A cliff?

Joanna made an excuse while showing anger at the words “cliff” of Bluebell.

-My husband said my chest was cute. And he said because I have a slim waist, I look like a fairy when he holds me in his arms.

In front of Joanna, who boasted of her husband, Bluebell couldn’t follow the tailor’s measurements and she yelled at him for a long time, asking him to measure properly. Then she eventually asked the tailor to make it one size smaller, saying, “I’m swollen right now.” The nanny next to her stopped her, but there was no way to win over Bluebell’s stubbornness.

Bluebell tried to fit herself into a dress until the day before the wedding, so she didn’t even eat. That’s why she looks so haggard today even though she usually shows off her resilient and glossy skin. Fortunately, the paleness caused by dehydration made her appear innocent.

“I’d like Carl to come and take off this dress. When will Carl come?”

“He would have to change his robes, so if he comes here right away…it’s about time he’s here.”

“Really? Then get out of here. I should be the only one in the room when Carl opens that door. Do you think an old nanny should ruin the scene?”

At the words of Bluebell, the nanny grinned and said she would leave. Perhaps sorry to call her nanny old, Bluebell added, “But you look the prettiest at that age.”

The nanny believed that while Bluebell was tactless and often thoughtless, she clearly had a good personality. So she laughed off the harsh words.

“Then the prettiest old lady of this age will be waiting outside. If you need anything, please call me.”

“Yes, I will. But do I really look okay right now? Should I at least powder my face again?”

“You are perfectly beautiful now.”

“Okay!”

Satisfied with the praise, Bluebell nodded violently. The heavily decorated head reeled. Bluebell wondered if the head shape was damaged by her head gesture. The nanny told her it was all right and left the room.

The nanny was right about how Carl was going to arrive soon.