12
Right now, the place where Candice lives is the White
Palace. Maxence is in the Red Palace, and Luca is in
the Blue Palace. The places where the children live are separated along
with color-coded names. Candice rarely ever leaves her palace, and
because everyone lives in different places, even if they happen to see each
other, they never speak. And the Emperor, Valentin, lives in the Violet
Palace. The Violet Palace is the largest, and the White, Red,
and Blue palaces are essentially the size of the Violet Palace
divided into three. Candice does not know much about it, but it seems Arthur
was living at the very edge of the palaces where Candice and the others
lived. Having no backing whatsoever, he had no place to belong in the palace.
Later on, Valentin issued instructions to build a new Yellow Palace
for Arthur and Louise. Of course, Candice did not like
that, and she had tried to threaten Arthur and Louise to stop the
construction of the Yellow Palace, however.
（To begin with, because Otou-sama
said things to make his children compete in the succession dispute, I
misunderstood, and it led to that tragedy! If Otou-sama had just loved me……,
that would have been enough!）
Candice bit her
lip. However, strangely enough, she can understand now that she was just
blaming it on others. Candice does not want to become the Empress.
She merely wanted to be acknowledged and loved by her father.
(I absolutely refuse to participate in the succession
dispute ever again. Let's push it all onto Maxence-oniisama……! As an Imperial
Princess, I intend to survive this time without marrying that man…… But
there is someone close by who won't allow that, isn't there.)
This time, Candice has no intention of participating
in the succession dispute, but the one who won't let her do so is Candice's
grandfather, Duke Radziwill. It seems he had always been dissatisfied
with the fact that he couldn't provide a satisfactory education for his own
daughter, namely Candice's mother, Lisa, because of her weak
constitution. Fortunately, he was able to marry Lisa off to Valentin,
and by being blessed with Candice, Lisa's role was finished; to
protect Lisa from various threats, Duke Radziwill had her live in
a separate villa under the guise of medical recuperation. Duke Radziwill
was disappointed that Candice was not a boy, but he schemed to solidify
his own position by raising Candice into a perfect lady and having her
gain Valentin's favor. Because Valentin stated when Candice
was ten years old that the stronger ones would survive in the succession
dispute, Candice ended up having the rapier drilled into her. And she
came to know that by preparing a fiancé under his influence and having her
succeed the throne of the Emperor, Duke Radziwill held an
ambition to make it a country where the imperial nobles could shine. He was
also trying to outwit the military that supported Maxence and the Pope
who supported Luca, but to Candice, it didn't matter at all.
Why had Candice obediently followed Duke Radziwill?
It was because of Duke Radziwill's words, 『I will let you meet your mother.』 Starved for affection, Candice bit at those words.
（To meet Okaa-sama…… I had no choice
but to do so.）
However, even if Candice became a perfect lady, and even if she polished her rapier skills to the point of spitting blood, Duke Radziwill would extort her for 『more』, dodge the issue, and in the end, she was never allowed to meet her mother even once. And so, when Candice was twelve, her mother died without them ever having met. When she was finally able to meet her mother, she was already cold, lying in a coffin surrounded by flowers.
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