Reboot Sienna

“Do you think he wouldn’t come tonight?”

Bluebell said in a sullen voice. She put a lot of sugar in the tea and stirred it for no reason. A lump of unmelted sugar sank to the floor.

“…”

The nanny shut her mouth with a look of pity. The excuse of ‘I’m sure it’s because he’s busy with his work’ has already been used countless times. Bluebell will no longer be deceived.

“Does Carl not love me anymore? Maybe he doesn’t want to see my face anymore…”

“I don’t think so. You had lunch with Your Majesty yesterday.”

“That’s because I…”

Bluebell wanted to say, ‘Because I went to the Oval Office and shouted in tears. That’s why we had a meal together,’ but she stopped herself.

“It’s all because of her!”

Clang-lang!

Bluebell could not resist the sudden rise of anger and threw out the vase that was decorating the table. A clink of glass splashed everywhere.

In fact, Bluebell knew. Carl’s heart completely left her. No, that his mind had never been directed at her.

She just couldn’t admit it. Because admitting to it seemed like she was denying her whole life.

She thought it strange from the time Carl objected to having her as the second empress. Sienna was a marriage partner who became his wife without his permission when Carl was not at the imperial palace. If the emperor, Carl, insisted on divorce for various reasons, he would have been able to get divorced.

Then even if he had let Bluebell into the only empress position, he wouldn’t have been much criticized. But he was rather reluctant to let Bluebell into the imperial family.

No, even without thinking those, Bluebell could realize the truth just by being around Carl. Where his gaze stays, where his heart is headed…

‘Why to such a filthy girl?!’

Sienna was a dirty woman according to the words of Empress Arya. She was the type of a woman who, even after marrying Carl, dragged another man into the bedroom, and was flirty with men.

‘What am I short of?’

Bluebell pretended to be naive, to know nothing but knew why Carl was avoiding sleeping with her. Because his heart was directed at Sienna. Bluebell couldn’t help feeling miserable.

-I heard the Emperor is only looking for the First Empress. In fact, there is only one empress who goes into the bedroom with the emperor, so I don’t know why the emperor needs two empresses.

One day, Bluebell went to the Empress Palace to meet Arya and heard the maids talking. They clamored that the emperor visited Sienna every night. There was also a sound of mocking Bluebell, saying, “The true empress does not live in the empress’ palace.”

Bluebell wanted to tear the maid who said that to death, but she managed to hold it in because of her pride. If she punished that maid, it seemed that she was admitting what the maid said. Not reacting as if she hadn’t heard was all she could do.

Bluebell’s face, which was always cheerful and bright, was under the shade day by day.

*

“Your Excellency, Count Ferrer, has visited.”

While she was depressed, Bluebell jumped up from her seat when she heard that her father had visited her.

She was the beloved child of Count Ferrer. They had lived face to face every day, but since Bluebell became empress, it has become rare for them to meet in person unless there are banquets. Although visits were not prohibited, no matter how he was the count and how his daughter was the empress, he was not allowed to visit the imperial family like his own.

“Father!”

“I’m pleased to see you, your Majesty.”

“Don’t say hello like that.”

“Because there are a lot of eyes watching us.”

At his words, Bluebell sent everyone out except her nanny. Only then can they talk comfortably.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you.”

“Me too! You should come see me every day. I can’t go out.”

“That’s not as easy as it sounds.”

Bluebell whined, hanging from his father’s neck like a child. Count Ferrer patted her on the back.

“What are you holding in your hand? Why did you bring it yourself? You could have just given it to a servant.”

“I brought it because I wanted to bring it myself.”

Bluebell glittered at what it was. Count Ferrer handed over to the nanny the things he had brought.

“What is it? Why are you giving it to the nanny?”

“It’s a medicine. Try to take it for breakfast and dinner.”

The nanny took the medicine carefully from him.

Bluebell pouted out her tongue at the word “medicine” and put on a look of disgust. She didn’t like bitter things, so she would always spit out cold medicine. It couldn’t have been a nice gift.

“Ugh, I don’t like taking medicine…”

“No matter how bitter it is, you must eat it. Come sit here.”

Count Ferrer sat Bluebell in her seat.

“How’s Carl treating you these days?”

The nanny was surprised that he called the emperor’s name carelessly, but she made no sign of it. She was just glad that they had the other maids out.

“He’s nice to me.”

“I hate to ask you this, but… Is there any sign of conceiving?”

When asked if she was pregnant, Bluebell just blinked.

“Come on, pregnancy already? I heard that if you’re pregnant, your stomach comes out like this. Joanna said that having a baby can ruin your skin and you can’t wear a pretty dress.”

Count Ferrer had a blank look at Bluebell’s immature sound. He always spoiled Bluebell like a baby, but he didn’t know she would be this thoughtless.

“You fool, this is no time for you to hate pregnancy.”

“Why? It’s been less than a year since the coming-of-age ceremony. I don’t like having children already. I don’t want to hear ‘mom’ yet.”

He didn’t know how to explain it to his daughter.

In fact, Bluebell wasn’t stupid. Rather, she knew what attitude she had to show to others. She usually tried to cover up problems with her cute charms to Count Ferrer and Carl.

Count Ferrer knew such a mind of Bluebell well, but left her alone, thinking it was better for her to be clever than to be foolishly blind. But today he couldn’t afford to take her grumpy words.

“Bluebell, do you know why you married Carl?”

“Yes, he and I were originally engaged, so it’s natural that we should get married. Marriage is with someone you love.”

Bluebell spoke like an innocent girl with a flower garden in her head. As Count Ferrer frowned, Bluebell stiffened her expression and shrugged.

“Even though Carl already had an empress, he married you because…”

As soon as Sienna’s name came out, Bluebell pouted her lips and put on a heartbroken face.

“I know it was because Queen Sienna didn’t have a baby. But…”

Count Ferrer got angry when she made an uncomfortable face.

“The one who knows the story has been saying such a stupid thing!”

Count Ferrer shook his head and said, “You know that. You were able to marry Carl because he needed someone to have a baby.”

She already knew. How she was able to become the Empress of Carl. Why she had to get pregnant quickly. She didn’t say stupid things because she really didn’t know anything. But when she was told the truth through her father’s words, who spoke in a desperate voice, she wanted to turn a blind eye to the fact.

“So if I don’t have children, I won’t be recognized as the empress.”

“That’s right. If you don’t have children, you’re going to be criticized for not doing your job properly as the empress. The Empress Sienna has already been attacked for such a problem.”

It was Count Ferrer and Arya who attacked using it as a pretext. Because of that, the emperor’s side was sure to take the same issue if Bluebell did not get pregnant.

“You said you really wanted to be Carl’s empress, didn’t you?”

Bluebell nodded her head with a desperate look at Count Ferrer’s words.

“In the past, there was only one time when there were two empresses. It was possible then because the first empress had not had children for 10 years after marrying the emperor. But this time is different. Sienna’s case is only two years. Moreover, she is young. There’s a good chance she’ll get pregnant anytime.”

Bluebell gulped down her saliva.

“You’ve ascended to the Empress, but not everyone welcomes the Second Empress. Moreover, Empress Sienna is being admired by the people and the people of the capital for her relief work. If Empress Sienna, not you, is to produce the Crown Prince first, then you will be the empress by name only. You’ll just be treated like a concubine, not an empress. No, everyone might come forward and discuss your abdication.”

Being treated as a concubine! Abolition! It sounded like a bolt from the blue.

She was the one who spent her entire life thinking that she should be the Empress of Carl. It was simply unacceptable.

“How could that…”

“So you have to produce the Crown Prince before the Empress Sienna. First, the one who gives birth to a boy will be recognized as the true empress. You have to be the mother of the next emperor.”

He stressed over and over again that Bluebell should have a boy first.

“Empress Sienna is the woman who got the job before you. She can be recognized even if she doesn’t have children first, or even if she doesn’t have children at all. But for you, that’s not the case. You have no choice but to give birth to a son.”

Count Ferrer emphasized again, holding Bluebell’s hands tightly together.

“For the sake of your family, have a son as soon as possible! Otherwise…”

His eyes suddenly turned cold. Count Ferrer’s face was saying that she was of no value if she did not give birth to a child. Bluebell had chills.

‘If I can’t have a baby, if I become one who’s not needed by my father…my neck will be cut off with a single stroke like my uncle.’

It’s already been a long-time memory, but Bluebell remembered the day vividly as if she had just seen it.

While Count Ferrer settled in the political arena of the capital, the family territory was managed by his brother Gaith with the help of Bluebell’s grandfather. In the meantime, when her grandfather became mentally ill and failed to use his strength properly, Gaith struck out the elders who supported Count Ferrer in the territory and sat down in the seat of the head of the family.

Count Ferrer stopped all work in the capital and hurried down to the territory. That’s why he could not stop Sienna from rising to the empress instead of Bluebell.

It was a shock to Bluebell that his uncle, who took good care of her as a child, suddenly sought her father’s place. Because of that, she couldn’t even take the position of the empress, so she had a lot of resentment toward him.

Within the family, the rebellion that Gaith created ended after a year of perpetuation. Bluebell was also there when Gaith’s life ended.

Gaith, who looks tough, asked for forgiveness. Unlike his reliable appearance, which always showed the appearance of a knight, he looked tired from long-suffering thoughts.

Gaith begged his brother to forgive his children, though he could take away his own life as the culprit behind the incident. Count Ferrer promised to do so and cut his brother’s throat.

Bluebell thought his father would keep his promise with his brother. But it was confirmed in less than an hour that the idea was mistaken.

Count Ferrer has vowed to forgive Gaith’s remaining family members within the territory. And together, all families gathered together to hold Gaith’s funeral. Then he cut off the throats of Gaith’s family members on the spot. It was a terrible scene.

Among those who fell before the edge of Count Ferrer’s knife was Bluebell’s nephew, who was only five years old. The memory of that time still gave Bluebell goosebumps of horror.